Restarting eternity.
Will rushed to the thief mirror. At the end of his previous loop, he had had a long discussion with Alex regarding the limitations of the thief class. Mainly, Will was curious whether he could use mirror copies to level up faster. Sadly, the goofball claimed that to be impossible. A mirror copy was great at mimicking a person in appearance, but when it came to anything else, it was useless. Even using them in combat was a clear exploit of the skill. Individually, even sneaking copies were little to no threat at all. When turned into an army, on the other hand, things changed drastically.
“Where are you rushing off, weirdo?” Jess shouted in laughter as she watched the boy flee, as it were. “Bathroom’s the wrong way.”
The joke made Will chuckle, though not for the reason the girl intended. Right now, there was a very strict sequence of events that had to be followed in the precise order.
You have discovered THE THIEF (number 3).
Use additional mirrors to find out more. Good luck!
The golden message appeared in the pole mirror. From there, Will instantly used his sprinting ability to dash back into school unseen, and claim the rogue, knight, and crafter class in that specific order.
Not a single person noticed him as he passed by. The coach remained in a foul mood as Will passed by him in the corridor, but this time, the cause was someone else. Even the nurse didn’t notice him enter the room, tap the mirror and leave. Given how tight her office was, this was an impressive feat and further proof of how good the thief’s starting skills were.
With all four classes, Will rushed to the nearest open window and leaped out. The rogue’s precision and knight’s endurance ensured that he didn’t suffer any pain or injury. Rolling along the ground, Will quickly hopped up, sprinting again to the outside parking lot where he’d gotten the thief’s class. Only this time, his goal was to gather as many car mirrors as possible.
The crafter skill came useful in that, letting him pull off the car parts as if they were clipped on. Not a single car alarm was set off, and everything other than the mirrors themselves was quickly tossed to the ground.
From that point, the boy rushed to a very specific coffee shop, where he sneaked into the bathroom, though not before tossing a few mirror traps.
Being in a corner room, the mirrors reacted as they were supposed to, causing a massive wolf to appear. The beast had barely time to step out when it got stuck on the ground by a trap and swiftly killed by a strike in the neck. If anything, it was a greater problem to pull the wolf away before the next creature appeared.
It was curious how Alex had managed to stash them away. Through his knight’s strength and rogue’s reflexes, Will managed to kill off the entire pack and keep things quiet. His friend wasn’t supposed to have any of those skills but had managed, nonetheless.
Will waited patiently for the wolves to fade out, looking at his phone’s clock the entire time. Four minutes remained till the standard end of the loop, which meant he had to be back at school in less than one if he were to extend it.
“Come on,” he whispered, then tapped the mirror in the room twice.
The first level up went to the rogue, granting him the skills to leap, throw, and evade. The next was dedicated to the crafter.
By then, the wolf corpses had become semi-transparent. From what Alex had told him, no one ever went to the bathroom, so it was safe to just leave. Having only one loop to fulfill his goal, Will decided to make sure.
His pulse had doubled to the point that he could hear it in his right ear.
WOLF PACK REWARD (random)
WOUND TOLERANCE: One wound you receive doesn’t count.
The reward was exceptionally good, but right now, Will would have preferred a one-hour extension. Gritting his teeth, he sprinted out of the coffee shop, running towards school.
With three minutes left, the only thing he could do to urgently boost his loop was to get into a fight with Jace. Normally, that would attract too much attention for the loop to be efficient. Thankfully, there was a way around it.
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Will took out his phone and dialed Jace’s number.
The jock didn’t pick up on the first two rings. On the third, the much-awaited click sounded.
“What?” he asked with the grace of a rhino.
“Meet me in the basement!” Will shouted. “Quickly.”
“Why? I gave you my class.”
“I need to extend my loop!”
The end of the call suggested that Jace had picked up on the urgency of the situation. Despite their differences in the past, he had become a team player. Also, he had become just as aware as everyone else that favors among looped were precious.
By the time Will got to the school basement floor, Jace was already there.
“You never make things easy, Stoner,” he said, taking off his football jacket. “How long do you need it?” The jock’s fist split the air, flying right for Will’s face.
As things stood, such a hit would only have resulted in the jock breaking his hand. He was fragile, not to mention that Will had just got the reward to ignore one hit. The point wasn’t to fight, though. Every successful evasion increased the length of the rogue’s loop, so the more that took place—the better.
The minutes wound down. The two boys kept “fighting” until they heard the school bell sound throughout the corridors.
“Should be enough,” Jace said, taking a step back. Both of them were breathing heavily. “We can go again after art, to be sure.”
“Nah, I’m good.” Will brushed the sweat off his forehead. “Thanks.”
“No prob.” The jock slapped him on the side of the arm. “That’s one more you owe me.”
The bareness of everyday class took over. Helen had ended her loop at that point, leaving her non-loop self to continue. This time, Will didn’t dare bring up the news about Daniel. He did approach her, though—partly to check how she was doing and partly to make sure she didn’t remember any of the things he had said in the previous loop. To his relief, she didn’t seem to.
Alex was also suspiciously quiet. This was one of the few instances in which Will could be relatively certain that his friend was the actual original. More curious, though, the goofball kept on eating muffins to increase his own loop.
Once school was over and most of the people had left, Will decided to spend a few hours of light in the schoolyard. He wasn’t the only one, but since none of the other looped were here, he didn’t mind.
Reaching into his pocket, he took out the mirror fragment.
“I challenge you,” he whispered.
His reflection was instantly replaced by Daniel’s.
“Problems?” the former rogue asked.
“No,” Will replied without thinking.
“Why call me then?”
“What favor do you want?”
“Favors. Plural. And it’s too early for that. You need to get out of the tutorial first.”
“So, you have completed it.” Will knew perfectly well that wasn’t what Daniel was saying, but he decided to push him a bit to, hopefully, find out more.
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve completed it or not, as long as you didn’t start it.”
“Tell me about the wolves,” Will shifted topic. “What exactly are they?”
“You seriously called me to ask—” Daniel abruptly stopped. His eyes widened in surprise for a few moments, then returned to normal, a smile appearing on his face. “Well done.” He clapped within the mirror. “You’re not as stupid as I thought. I’m not sure what will happen. I’ve only heard it being done once before.”
“From the magic user?”
“Magic user?”
“That’s how you described him to June. Able to juggle balls of fire, but not affected by them.”
“You’ve been reading my file.” The smile vanished, replaced by a frown. “Did Alex make you?”
“He showed me your file. I found the patterns.”
“Never trust Alex about anything. Especially when he talks.” Daniel paused. “Don’t worry about the mage. He doesn’t exist anymore. As for the wolves, they are markers. You’ll see when you’re out of the tutorial. Until then.”
The former rogue gave a salute and vanished from the mirror’s surface. Next thing Will knew, he was staring at his own reflection again. The conversation wasn’t at all what he had imagined, but it had told him several bits of important information. For starters, while Danny had the power to disappear at will, it didn’t look like he could appear unchallenged. Second, despite trying to create an impression to the opposite, he didn’t know everything that was going on outside of the mirror realms. Most likely, he had been connected with the school mirrors and nothing more.
With nothing left to do until dark, Will was tempted to challenge Danny again so they could continue their conversation. Giving the matter a bit more thought, he decided not to. It was telling that Daniel had glimpsed his immediate plan, even if he claimed he’d never done it. On that note, maybe it was a good idea to find another wolf mirror. Killing another pack would allow him to gain one more level, which he could use to increase his knight’s level, gaining the horizontal slash skill.
Finding a suitable corner mirror turned out a lot more difficult than one might imagine. For starters, Will couldn’t just go in there, for it would trigger a wolf’s attack. And, while that wouldn’t cause him any difficulties, it risked creating a commotion.
Keeping close to the school, Will scouted a few potential spots. The most common places to have mirrors were bathrooms, and those were obligatory for every food joint. The trick was to find one with a low number of patrons.
The first two that fit the bill ended up not having corner bathrooms. The third was a different matter entirely. Will placed a few mirror traps just outside the door, in case someone tried to enter while he was fighting. Then he sneaked in.
It didn’t take long for the wolves to emerge and almost instantly die. Killing them had become rather trivial, although they continued to be of the smaller variety. The ones he remembered from beyond the school area were as big as buses and a lot more vicious.
The reward earned from this pack granted him night vision. That, too, was rather useful. This way, he wouldn’t need to rely on flashlights or his phone for light. More importantly, it let him boost the level of his knight.
Evening came and went. Now, it was time to go through the school.
The fights were a lot easier there. If nothing else, he didn’t have to be as sneaky and quiet as in the coffee shops. Pack by pack, the wolf mirrors were cleared, providing him relatively useful skills and two level ups which he used to get his crafter to the coveted Combat Crafting skill. With that, everything was ready.
Activating the inventory of his mirror fragment, Will geared up, then took out all his weapons, including the chain. He also got his wolf key fragment. The item looked like a simple old-fashioned key made entirely of silver. It had never been specified if the fragment could be used on any mirror, so Will touched it to his mirror fragment.
The only result was that his hand disappeared within it, returning the item to his inventory. When he attempted the same on a bathroom mirror, a keyhole emerged within the reflective surface.
Holding his breath, Will pushed the key inside and turned it.
WOLF CHALLENGE: enter the mirror and survive nine waves. A defeated wave doesn’t provide any reward, but increases the overall prize you’ll earn. You can end the challenge at any time by leaving the mirror.
A green message appeared. This was it. Now, he’d be able to test his skills. The entire group had managed to clear four waves last time. Soon, he’d see how many he could defeat on his own.