HORIZONTAL SLICE

Perform a horizontal strike of extreme strength.

PERFECT BLOCK

Negate any single attack.

PIERCE

Pierce through any object or armor.

The three skills of the knight’s second level appeared. All of them were good, but two were especially useful for what Will planned to do.

For several seconds, he remained perfectly still, listening intently. There was no indication that his fight had caused any commotion. The janitor was probably elsewhere, and with all the noise coming from the hundreds of children rushing to class, not to mention the honking of cars outside, it was understandable how a few thuds in the basement could have gone unnoticed.

Will checked the time. He had a bit under five minutes left.

Quickly, he made his way to where the hidden mirror had been. While everything else was there, there was no sign of the reflective piece of glass.

“I want to challenge the hidden mirror,” he said loudly.

As he uttered the words, a mirror took shape. In a few ways it resembled the one that Helen had activated several loops ago, only there was one major difference: the whole thing was semi-transparent, as if the object had started appearing, but stopped halfway through.

Tightening the grip round his dagger, Will waited.

Five seconds passed, then ten, then fifteen. The snake remained hidden, refusing to make the first move. Will himself was reluctant to act, but with time winding down, he had no choice. Faced with being attacked or letting the loop restart on its own, he decided to take a risk.

Cautiously, he stepped up to the mirror and reached out to tap onto it. His hand passed through as if it were air. If there was a point that the monster would attack, it would be now. Deciding not to give it the opportunity, Will leaped into the mirror instead.

Endless white floor extended in all directions. There was no fog, no black sky, just a monumentally large snake curled up in the distance. Sensing the boy make a few steps, the snake raised its head, staring at the intruder with large crimson eyes.

VENOM SNAKE - ELITE

A large message hung over it.

“Guess you were right,” Will said, thinking of what Alex had been referring to them as. “How do we fight?” he asked. “Do I challenge you again?”

The snake hissed, showing its large teeth. As it did, the floor turned green.

Will concentrated. He only had one weapon, but he had speed in abundance on his side. Without waiting for the floor to turn red, he sprinted forward.

Squirts of venom shot out of the snake’s fangs, aimed at the boy’s path.

Taking no chances, Will avoided them, then ran harder. The rate at which he was moving made him feel as if he were a racecar driver, but even at that speed, it was going to take a while for him to get anywhere close.

Turning left and right, he kept on avoiding the poison attack. It was an unusual way to fight a giant serpent, but then again, there were lots of unusual things.

The distance between the two halved then halved again. And when it seemed like they were close enough for melee attacks, both reacted. The Snake was first, shooting forward like an unwound spring. Fangs covered in poison aimed at the boy, determined to pierce him through.

Feeling the adrenaline rush, Will leaped as well. His mind instinctively made use of all the skills and the knowledge the classes brought him, causing him to simultaneously evade and block the fang. Steel struck bone, providing the boy with a window of opportunity to counterattack, and he took it.

KNIGHT’s BASH

Damage increased by 500%

Fang shattered

Will spun in the air, striking the same fang with a back kick that broke it in two, sending the tip flying off.

I did it! Will thought. It was so much easier than he had expected. Spinning again, he struck the side of the snake’s head, aiming between the scales with his poison dagger.

The blade bounced off as if it had hit solid diamond.

Huh?

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That wasn’t supposed to happen. Will could see the weaknesses all over the snake’s body. The hit should have gone through, but it didn’t. Instead, the tail itself twisted, striking him in the chest.

A dull sensation of pain passed through him as he was tossed hundreds of feet away. It felt as if a bowling ball had been dropped on his chest and stomach. It was purely thanks to the knight’s endurance that the challenge hadn’t ended here and now.

“Damn it!” Will hissed, maintaining self-control. This was way worse than the wolves, even without the pain.

Landing on the floor, the boy quickly leaped back up and right on time to avoid the new jet of poison shot his way. Knowing that attacking head on wasn’t a good idea, he sprinted to the side, making use of his sneaking to disappear.

According to the description, the skill ensured that he’d remain unnoticed. Deep inside, though, he knew that nothing was absolute. It was all about figuring out the situation and using the perfect skill at the perfect moment. Currently, he had fifteen skills split among three classes—a perfect balance against low-powered enemies. He also had an enemy that had already been enraged by losing a fang.

All his life, Will had followed a certain and stable route. His innate gifts had helped him do better than average without taking many risks. Even the ones he’d done couldn’t be called daring by most views. Alex had been the opposite, doing all sorts of crazy things ever since the two had known each other, long before eternity had snatched him.

“Welcome to eternity,” Will said. There was no point in hesitating anymore. Now, it was time to break loose and experiment as much as possible.

Changing direction, the boy leaped towards the snake again. Yet, instead of proceeding with another knight bash, he threw his only weapon straight at the snake’s left eye.

A transparent eyelid slid over both crimson eyes.

KNIGHT’s BASH

Damage increased by 500%

Eyelid shattered

The blade went through, causing the eye to burst as it drove in.

Feeling the pain of several combined skills, the monster recoiled, twisting with a loud hiss. Poison flew indiscriminately in all directions.

This was the moment Will was waiting for. Rushing forward with sprinting leaps, he evaded the drops of lethal liquid, moving closer and closer to his prey. In his eyes, the movements of the snake slowed down to a crawl. Gritting his teeth, the boy leaped straight for the monster’s head. His right arm slammed into the wounded eye, reaching for his weapon.

Aware of the person on it, the snake twisted in its agony, all in an attempt to throw Will off, but there was no longer any point. The boy had grabbed the hilt of the weapon, then driven it even further into the creature’s head.

The twisting increased for a moment, then abruptly stopped. Still trembling, it dropped to the floor, where it continued to twitch for a few seconds more, before completely freezing up. Only then did Will dare to let go, pulling his arm out. Half of his body was covered with blood and eye matter.

“You weren’t so tough,” he managed to say, as he almost collapsed to the floor.

All the battles so far baled in comparison to what had occurred just now. The boy couldn’t even tell how long the entire thing had lasted, but in his mind the fight had taken half an eternity, every moment of which he had to give his all. As much as he disliked the phrase “give a hundred and ten percent” he had just done so, achieving way more than he believed to be capable of.

A knight’s strength, a rogue’s reflexes, and a thief’s deception. The classes seemed to be made for one another. And this was only at the initial levels. One could only imagine what would happen if all of them could be boosted past level five.

Loot unavailable during tutorial!

Unique hint will be provided instead.

A large message appeared above Will.

UNIQUE HINT

There can only be one leader.

“Huh?” Will blinked. “That’s it?”

The way the message had been presented, it sounded like a big deal, and yet it seemed so basic, as if the boy had just been scammed.

“The hell with you,” he laughed.

There was no room for disappointment. The entire point of this experiment was to test out his permanent skill and the combination of classes. Both had turned out beyond successful. Once the tutorial was over, he could challenge elite monsters of the past and gain more items. He could even do so with the rest of his group.

Bright light flashed, then vanished, blinding the boy for a split second. Once his eyes had adjusted, Will found himself on the floor of the basement room. There was no sign of the hidden mirror or the snake. The dull pain, on the other hand, remained.

Allowing himself a few more seconds of rest, the boy checked his phone. Four minutes remained. At this point, he might as well just stay here until the end of the loop.

“For real, bro?” Alex’s voice came from the entrance. “You were keeping stuff from me.”

Will’s stomach tightened. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have, not before the end of the tutorial at any event.

The goofball walked into the room, arms crossed. He took one long glare at his friend, then grinned.

“You’re learning, bro. So, what did you find out?”

In every friendship, there were situations in which one couldn’t help but laugh. After everything they’d been through—the secrets they’d been keeping from one another, the wall blocks thrown at them by eternity, the constant tit-for-tats, all that Alex could ask was what Will had found out. And, it was done in such a genuine fashion that even a thief’s suspicion couldn’t see anything wrong.

“I have a permanent skill,” Will admitted. “It lets me challenge monsters we’ve already defeated.”

“For real? That’s lit!”

“I don’t get anything from them.” Not yet, in any event. “I guess the keyholder restriction remains.

“Bro! Is that why you wanted to learn the thief?”

“Not only. I want to know more about the classes. A hint told me that I must experiment.”

“Fighting any elite. That’s really big, bro.” Alex ignored the second part of what Will had said.

“Only after the tutorial.”

Already he was thinking whether there was a way for him to try out all four classes. One thing was certain, though—he didn’t have what it took to face the knight or the rogue. The thorn monster remained an option. Once one saw through the initial attack, it didn’t seem terribly difficult. Besides, Will had killed it once before.

“Did you tell Helen?” Alex asked.

Will shook his head.

“Better that way.”

One could argue about that, but now definitely wasn’t the time. More importantly, Will still needed to decide how to proceed from here. Nothing he had done would help against the second floor elite.

“Alex,” the boy began. “If you didn’t play the tutorial, what did you do early on? I know Danny explored stuff.”

“I explored as well, bro. Anything that Danny couldn’t be bothered with.”

“For thousands of loops?”

“We went outside the school. At some point, we just started having fun. The mouse cafe, the shops, everything that’s within our area. We’d talk to random people, do crazy stuff… anything to forget eternity for a bit.”

“And then you stopped.”

The goofball’s expression suddenly changed, as if someone had wiped all the joy off it.

“Danny stopped. He made Helen join, then started spending more time with her. And it wasn’t to score, I can tell you that.”

Hearing that made Danny feel relieved. It did sound like a rogue to use people. Although, what had his real plan for Helen been?

“And he never tried finding a crafter?”

“No, bro. That’s why I started taking the class. Danny never said anything about it. No way of telling whether he knew or not. He used his permaskill to explore outside. At least, that’s what he told Mister June.”

That again. Maybe there was a point in looking into that. After all, there were two paths forward: completing the tutorial and following eternity’s game, or following Danny’s footsteps and moving out of it.

“In that case, we do both,” Will said.

“Say what, bro?” Alex tilted his head.

“We continue with the tutorial, but we also go through Danny’s file in the meantime. Just promise me one thing. If we find anything that relates to his death, you’ll let me tell Helen.”

“Hey, it’s your funeral, bro.” Alex shrugged.

“Thanks,” Will whispered.

Restarting eternity.