Time Looped

The goblin lord let out a high-pitched cackle as he tightened his grip. The cluster of lightning bolts solidified even further, obtaining the shape of a blade. It wasn't particularly sharp or elegant, but it didn't have to be; one touch and it was capable of more damage than anything Will could inflict. That wasn't the worst part.

Turning around, the goblin dashed in the direction of the boy. The stone balcony beneath him extended as chunks of the shattered tower stuck to it, forming a road straight to Will.

Will attacked. He knew that the best way to remain on an equal footing was to prevent the goblin from approaching him. If it came to an exchange of blows, the creature had already won.

The strike split the path in two, forcing the goblin to jump to the side. A gap formed in the line of stones, only to recombine immediately later.

Damn it! Will leaped back.

A glass or plastic weapon would have been useful right now, but it was the one type of weapon he didn't have. If the old Alex had been here, things would have been different. The goofball had won a set of mirror knives as a reward for defeating his mirror image.

"Merchant!" Will shouted as he placed his current weapon into the mirror fragment. "How much for a mirror sword?"

The inventory was replaced with the image of the merchant. The prices were exorbitant. Maybe if Will hadn't bought the loop extension skills, he could have pulled t his off. Unfortunately, there was no longer such a possibility. And that was just the cheapest option.

"Can I sell skills?" Will asked in desperation.

With another low bow, the merchant nodded. Before Will could even ask about prices, a message appeared on his mirror fragment.

"Of course it would," Will hissed through gritted teeth.

The guide had left out an obvious loophole: it was perfectly acceptable for him to sell newly acquired skills. It was a valuable piece of information for the future, though not of immediate use.

"How much for the cloth?" Will asked as he kept running.

Behind him, the remaining mirror copies were attempting to win him some time by attacking the goblin lord directly.

The combined attack looked rather impressive, but one parry and all of them shattered into pieces. Assessing the situation, the few that were still engaging the mud golem pulled back, rushing towards the city.

"A cloth that's immune to lightning," Will added. "And electricity."

It was a very roundabout way of saying what he wanted, but he didn't want to risk any chance of the merchant not understanding the concept of electric isolation.

A set of prices emerged all over the rags the merchant was wearing. They contained sizes and colors. If the descriptions were to be believed, all of them were lightning resistant, though only a few were marked as immune. The difference in cost clearly indicated which ones Will wanted and, luckily for him, they were in his price range.

"That one!" The boy reached into the mirror and grabbed one. A faint chime indicated that the price had been paid.

Ignoring that, Will pulled out the cloth just as the goblin lord pierced the air in his direction. A single bolt of lightning shot out, aimed right at him.

Relying on his reflexes, Will stretched out the piece of cloth to block the impact.

A message appeared, followed almost immediately by an angry frown on the goblin's face. Internally, Will let out a sigh of relief. It didn't seem like much, the goblin still held all the cards; yet, Will was just provided with an opportunity, and when it came to life or death, that's all anyone needed.

"Give me another!" He said to the mirror fragment, as he retreated further back towards the city wall.

Without question or hesitation, the merchant did so.

Holding the edge of the first cloth with his teeth, Will reached out and grabbed the second. Then, he took out his sword.

One more stray mirror copy threw its weapon at the goblin lord. The weapon landed spot on, but did no damage due to a wound ignore skill the creature had. Will didn't even pay attention, reaching into his inventory for his weapon. Immediately after, he put the mirror fragment back into his pocket.

I really need to get a watch strap! He thought.

Another series of lightning bolts shot at him, along with an entire house for good measure. The stone golem had stopped bothering with the mirror copies, doing the goblin's bidding, instead.

Cloaking himself in the protective cloth, Will struck the incoming house.

The building exploded into chunks, causing devastation to the surrounding area. Will, of course, remained unharmed, evading them thanks to his rogue skills. This was the point at which he'd turn the tables. Taking advantage of the flying debris, he grabbed the cloth he was holding with his teeth and quickly wrapped it around the sword all the way to the hilt.

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That was it—his biggest gamble so far. If the fabric was strong enough to withstand prolonged contact with the goblin's lightning blade, all would be well. If not, he'd be back to nine thousand loops into the future.

"Let's see what you've got!" He dashed forward, leaping off buildings straight at his opponent.

Even through the layer of cloth, the blade proved strong enough to inflict a wound. In other circumstances the fight would have ended here, but the goblin lord was well prepared. A ring shattered off the creature's hand.

"Arshag!" the creature snarled and swung its own weapon.

Both weapons clashed. The moment was memorable, with Will ready to let go the moment he felt even the slightest zap. Nothing of the sort happened. As far as he was concerned, he was fighting against a goblin with a club. He could almost feel the solidified bolts like a massive pi pe—heavy, dangerous, though not in the least bit sharp. From there, the exchange intensified.

Flurries of strikes filled the space between fighters. Every now and again, Will's evasion skill would kick in, helping him evade a dangerous attack. On the goblin's part, more and more pieces of jewelry would shatter, soaking any lethal blows. Even without its golem minions and its electric sword, the creature was rather skilled. A dozen loops back, Will would have been hard-pressed to defeat it in a one to one, even with all his abilities. Now, he could consider himself equally matched, although not to the point of winning. The victory achieved during the tutorial had been due not only to restrictions, but external assistance as well. There was no doubt, Will had improved a lot since then, but one thing remained: even now, he was too weak to win completely on his own.

Taking several steps back, he threw his sword at the goblin lord.

The weapon struck the creature's shoulder, shattering a necklace in the process, and struck the stone path remaining there like a flagpole. Without a doubt, it was a good attempt, though ultimately unsuccessful.

"Shadow wolf," he whispered.

Black jaws emerged from the sword's shadow. Before the goblin could even react, they sunk their teeth into its neck.

A message emerged.

There was no surprise that no challenge reward was given—Will was a reflection, after all. The fact that participant rewards remained in effect was a welcome bonus. Apparently, as far as eternity was concerned, the original challenge phase he had come from remained ongoing.

Looking at the reward options, it was notable that Will was once again given a choice. Furthermore, the ever-chatty guide had refrained from providing an opinion. That could only mean that both of them were considered equal in value.

The wound ignore skill was the obvious choice. Effectively, that gave Will three additional chances to mess up during a fight and still end up on top. There was no indication that it was a one use only option., so he could effectively use it in every challenge.

The second option was very context-dependent. In many aspects it was no different from a token, which wasn't that difficult to obtain during the challenge phase. If one had come across a rather powerful bonus permanent skill, it could well turn out to be a game changer, not to mention that it would be absurdly broken when used on permaskills. For the moment, Will had a different plan.

"I want to increase my clairvoyant level," he said.

The message disappeared. A moment later, Will was back in the infinite whiteness of the mirror realm.

"That's why you said I wasn't ready," Will uttered more to himself than to eternity.

The ability to predict others' actions and even whole loops without suffering consequences. It was an extremely useful skill. Some might call it the ultimate support skill, but the truth was that it best supported the person who owned it. Having that as a main class was probably a nightmare. The person had no chance of winning against attack classes, but at the same time was valued by them. It wouldn't be a stretch for the clairvoyant to have been made multiple offers they couldn't refuse. For someone with the copycat skill, though, it was perfect.

"What do you say, shadow wolf?" Will asked. "Want to try it out?"

The wolf yawned, not in the least bit interested. From its perspective, every skill was as good as the other. Maybe the creature was slightly disappointed that Will hadn't used the skill boost to increase its own level. Having a shadow wolf level two, whatever that meant, would definitely have been terrifying. On that note, there was no telling what would have happened if Will had boosted his copycat skill. Maybe he was wrong to make the choice he had, but right now, being able to use the clairvoyant's powers more than made up for it; and currently he only had the level one abilities. If there was a way for him to obtain additional class tokens, there was no telling what he could do.

Prediction loop, Will thought.

Suddenly, he felt the space around him shift. As the boy looked around, he saw his own body staying a step behind him, staring forward, as if frozen in time. Apparently, that was the loophole. It wasn't "him" performing the actions he wanted, but an astral projection of his body. The moment the projection was killed, or the loop ended, it would vanish and he would wake up as if he'd had a lucid dream.

"Nice." Will tried to touch his own face, but his hand passed through it, as if his old body was made of air. The action was simultaneously disturbing and satisfying.

Holding his breath, the boy walked through himself to the same effect. To his partial disappointment, he wasn't able to see "inside" himself. Whenever he came into contact with his actual body, his actual body would disappear, allowing him to see through it.

After a few seconds of experimentation, Will's astral projection walked away.

"I challenge the goblin lord," he said.

Just as before a large mirror emerged, this time in front of his astral projection.

"Alright, let's go through this again." Will entered the goblin realm.