Zorian stomped into the room and closed the door forcefully. A soul bond that he didn't know before? But it’s still annoying to spend a day in the library and come back empty-handed.
The books all repeated the same warning he'd received in his first year: Soulbinding was a dangerous and little-known branch of magic that, if used recklessly, could have some pretty horrific side effects. Every once in a while, some well-informed couple thinks soul union is the most romantic thing ever,
But months later, when problems arose, it all ended in tears and lawsuits.
The main problem is that one of the participants usually mentally dominates the other, making them more like themselves in mind and soul, not to mention disturbingly submissive and subservient.
It's a good thing when an animal is bound as a familiar, as it's always the animals who are at the mercy of humans, however, sentient beings often have their entire personality and world view turned upside down by someone magically turning them upside down. Until the soul bond ends, turning them into slave clones,
Zorian ran trembling hands through his hair and began wiping his glasses on the hem of his shirt to calm himself. He really hoped he was wrong, that there wasn't a soul tie between him and Zach. Zack has 6 times the mana reserves of Zorian's theoretical maximum, is naturally more outgoing and confident, and - due to being in the time loop for much longer than Zorian - is probably also decades older than him. No need to guess who will be dominant between the two of them!
The worst part is that he can't even ask others for help. He was pretty sure the soul bond, or whatever it was, was the reason he and Zach were looping together.
If he asks someone for help, they insist on severing contact, which will cause him to lose everything he gained in the time loop, including memories, once Zack restarts at the end of the month.
Yes, that's totally screwed.
He took a few deep breaths and put his glasses back on. Perhaps he viewed things too fatalistically. Considering the huge gap between him and Zach, he should have gone through quite a personality change by now, but he won't be submissive to anyone, least of all Zach. Apparently things are not as bad as they seem. He's probably too sensitive.
There was a knock on the door. Who might—oh. correct. Thai.
He sighed heavily. Just what he needed now, he finally opened the door.
"Hi, Roach!"
"Hi, Taivin," Zorian said with a hint of pain. "It's so nice of you to come visit me. Would you like to come in?
Once he let her in, Taivin immediately did what she always did - she jumped on his bed and made herself comfortable. Zorian shrugged and chased after him. Better get it over with quickly.
"You haven't graduated yet?" he asked. "You said you wanted to explore after graduation. What happened?"
She gave him a sour look. "It's not that simple. No adventure takes a beginner with you. I need a mature explorer to take me on as my apprentice. I'm looking for that."
She admitted. "But I'm not really looking for a job at this point. I'm actually trying to build my reputation by going on assignments and get people to notice me. In fact, that's what I came to you about - I hope You can go to work tomorrow with me and a few others.”
"Sounds suspicious," Zorian said. "How can a mere third grader help you?"
"Well, fill in our number?" Taiwen replied. "Only four people can accept this job, and now there is a shortage of three."
"Why do you need four people?" Zorian asked, knowing from previous restarts that this was the quickest way to stop Taiwen's excuse.
"They say it's dangerous," Taivin huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm overreacting. From what he told us, the spider isn't even that big."
"Spider?" Zorian urged.
"Yes," Taiwen said hesitantly, realizing she shouldn't mention that. "Spider." You know, the hairy eight-legged—"
"Tavin," Zorian warned.
"Oh, come on, Roach, I beg you!" Tevin wailed. "I swear it's not as dangerous as it sounds! We've been in the tunnels hundreds of times and it's not dangerous at all! We could protect you easily!"
"Hundreds of times?" Zorian asked doubtfully.
"Well, at least a dozen times," she relented.
He'd probably be unable to do anything productive for at least a week with his soul tie to Zach weighing heavily on his mind. Suffice it to say, a distracting walk in the sewers might be just what the doctor ordered.
"Of course," he said.
"Really!?" she screamed.
"Yes, really," Zorian confirmed. "Before I change my mind, tell me where to meet you tomorrow."
After a few minutes, Taivin left, thanked him profusely and kissed him on the cheek "for being a friend," and ran off to... wherever she was going, he guessed. He didn't ask because he was so shocked by her kiss, even though it was harmless. He was a little angry with himself for being so sensitive to a stupid kiss on the cheek that affected him so much. After all, he had a crush on her.
Having had enough for the day, I drank a bottle of sleeping potion. Hopefully things will become clearer after a good night's rest.
. . . . . two. . . . . .
He woke up the next morning with a much clearer mind and things seemed less hopeless than they had been the day before. He kept jumping to conclusions and needed more information. He was tempted to skip a day of class and make another trip to the library, but he doubted he had the access to properly address such a restricted subject as soul ties. Besides, there was one person in his class who he absolutely had to talk to - Brian, the guy with the Fire Dragon Familiar. Of course, one already had a soul connection with another animal and could tell him more about those damn things.
"I see you have a fire dragon of your own," he whispered, sitting next to Brianne and ignoring the dragon's menacing hiss. Somehow, in the previous reboots, the grumpy beast wouldn't attack him;
"Is he someone you are familiar with?"
"Yes," Brian confirmed, clearly pleased with this. "I actually just connected with him this summer. It was a little weird at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of it."
"Strange?" Zorian asked. "how so?"
"Well, mostly because the bond is there, you know?" Brian said.
"So the connection can be felt?" Zorian mused, trying not to get excited. He didn't feel anything. "Is this normal? Can everyone with soul connections feel their connection?"
“No, not everyone,” Briam said, laughing. "Only a handful of people can, and no one knows why. But I can. I guess I'm lucky in that way."
"You know," Zorian tried, "I have always had an... academic interest in familiars and soul ties..."
Thankfully, Brianm didn't find anything suspicious about Zorian's interest and was happy to satisfy Zorian's curiosity. What Brian told him was interesting, to say the least. According to him, the soul-binding spell is actually a ritual of sorts that takes at least 10 minutes to cast correctly, and often more. Not something you cast as a regular call. And, when the bond is properly fixed on the participant, they feel something.
A lot of what Zorian has experienced so far in the time loop could be seen as signs of the development of soul ties.
For example, his mana reserves are slightly larger than they were at the start of the time loop, but there's nothing special about the increase. This is most likely the result of his regular practice of combat magic, rather than a result of a soul bond twisting his soul into greater alignment with Zach's. The spell the lich cast on them was definitely not...but then again, it was a lich. Who knows what kind of magic such a creature possesses?
All in all, the connection between him and Zach is very weak, maybe it's just half-formed? According to Briam, this connection requires physical contact and a lot of interaction between participants to mature. That's why he carries his fire dragon with him wherever he goes at this time.
He's only had one interaction with Zack so far, and the boy has spent almost all of his reboots away from the Academy, and from now on he'll avoid contact with the other time traveler until he can figure out what's going on.
Admittedly, this takes a while. He really should make a study plan for himself. So far, the stuff he's learned has been pretty haphazard. Moreover, before breaking through the time loop, he also wanted to grow as a mage because he would never have such an opportunity again. But this disorganized approach is no longer appropriate - he wants to break the soul bond as soon as possible and find a way out of the time loop as soon as possible.
Wait a minute, he has to meet Taiwen and her friends tonight. Why did he agree again? Oh yes, he had a moment of madness. He would at least get some help from her in doing so. Oh, live and learn.
Taiwen chose an extremely remote meeting place, so Zorian had to travel a long distance. Apparently, there was a chess players' hangout in a park in West Oria, and Taiwen was a regular.
A few minutes later, when he stumbled across a small bridge in the park, he realized why it felt familiar. Here he meets the crying little girl whose bike fell into the creek, before the time loop. He looked curiously at the creek under the bridge to see if the bike was still there. Unsurprisingly, this is not the case. Yesterday's heavy rain caused the creek to swell into a raging torrent, and the bicycle was undoubtedly picked up by the current and carried away.
There was a kitten, probably a very small cat, looking lonely at the raging stream. The cat turned to look at him, and when their eyes met, he was attacked by a strong feeling of sadness and loss. A little uneasy, he quickened his pace and hastily left the strange little black cat behind him. . He doesn't want to play with the cat just yet. Maybe later!
Finally, he found the meeting place. It's quite quiet and almost all the people here are old people. Real old man. A group of teenagers from Taiwen stood out, and Zorian decided to approach cautiously.
Taiwen's friends are a pair of rough, muscular boys who are supposed to go to the boxing ring. ha.
One of the old men was frowning at the chessboard in front of him, thinking about the next move, while Taiwen and the other boy were sitting on either side of him. Taiwen was clearly impatient and bored, and at one point he actually tried to grab a statue off the board to kill time, only to be thwarted by the players.
The other boy was more relaxed, lazily observing his surroundings like a watchdog. It was another boy who noticed him and pointed him out to the other two.
"Cockroach!" Taiwen waved his hand. "Thank God, I was starting to worry you'd never show up!"
"I'm not late," Zorian protested.
"Roach, I want you to meet my two minions, Gulu and Mumble. Gulu, Gulu, this is my good friend Roach."
Zorian rolled his eyes. At least he wasn't the only one getting that stupid nickname.
"Damn it, I told you not to introduce us like that!" one of the boys protested. It's more of a force of habit.
"I'm Zorian," he replied, so why did he tell them his last name? ha.
"Correct!" Taiwen said enthusiastically. "Now that the introductions are over, shall we get started?"
"We'll talk about it after I finish this game." The chess player said calmly.
"I hate that game," Tevin complained. "Find a seat, Roach. This might take a while."
Zorian clicked his tongue in annoyance. He also doesn't like chess very much.
. . . . three. . . .
The dungeon is an extremely dangerous place. Also known as Hell or the Labyrinth, it is a vast network of caves and tunnels that stretches beneath the surface of the world. At first glance, this place seems like every mage's dream come true - the deeper you delve into the endless depths of the dungeon cave system, the higher the surrounding mana levels become, and the tunnels are populated by all manner of monsters, and the further you go The deeper you go, the stronger and stranger they become. Even the Archmage should try not to go too deep when exploring the dungeon, it's a must!
Like many other cities, Keoria took advantage of the dungeons beneath it when building the city. The uppermost part of the dungeon was cleared of anything offensive, and then systematically walled off from the deeper floors. These tunnels were later adapted into shelters, storage rooms, flood control systems... and city sewer systems. Human settlements have long used underground cities as sewers, and humans often transplanted them from one city to another as they built new settlements. Of course, it's never efficient to separate the uppermost levels of a dungeon from the deeper parts - especially since the dungeon's inhabitants are notoriously difficult diggers.
The dungeon borders here have more holes than sponges. It was a young city, and its underground cities were particularly vast. It becomes too big, too fast, and the layers are connected. This is why the invaders were able to sneak an entire army of monsters into the city by having them pour straight out of the tunnels - perhaps the invaders mapped the deep dungeons accurately enough to find a route large enough for their armies. Zorian thought how well prepared the enemy was.
Despite the obvious danger, Zorian isn't too worried about following Taiwen and venturing into the tunnels. The underground of Seoria isn't the safest place in the world, but it's certainly not a death sentence. And he suspected that the invaders were there now, because there was absolutely no way a huge army of monsters living underground in the city could be hidden, no matter how good the invasion organizers were—
Unfortunately, "Is this the fourth member you found?" the old man asked in disbelief. "Has he graduated?"
Zorian looked disdainfully at the old man who waved to him with a frown. Why didn't he hire a professional? Oh, and by the way, he doesn’t want to pay a professional’s salary!
The job is simple - the old man lost a pocket watch in the tunnel while dodging two giant spiders, and now they must get it back. Zorian suspects that the watch was eaten by metal-eating animals in the tunnel, but the old man insists that it is still intact in the spider melon. How he knew this, no one could say. What would a group of spiders do with a watch? Do they like collecting shiny objects?
"No," Zorian said, "I'm already in my third year."
"Third year!" the man screamed. "Do you think you can survive there? Do you even know combat magic?"
"Of course," Zorian confirmed. "Magic missiles, shields and flamethrowers."
"that's all?"
"You get what you pay for," Zorian shrugged.
"Do you have any questions?" Taiwen interrupted. "There are four of us against two large spiders. I can do it by myself!"
"Just because I've only met two doesn't mean there aren't more," the man muttered. "I don't want you to get slaughtered. Those things are fast. And stealthy - they're on me before I even notice them.
"Well, we have four pairs of eyes," Tevin reasoned. "We will look out for each other and wish us good luck"
"That's none of your business," the man retorted. "It's not worth anything, it's nothing, I just want it back for sentimental reasons." He shook his head. "I guess the kid's right. I've gotten what I could, considering the rewards I've been offered. Just... don't be careless. When I finally die, I don't want to have a bunch of kids' lives weighing on my soul .”
A few minutes later, Taiwen finally led everyone towards the entrance of the nearby dungeon. There are guards stationed, but Thai has an entry permit and can take people in, so he can pass freely. This is at least reassuring.
The tunnels weren't that treacherous, with smooth stone walls and nothing more dangerous than roaming rats. The stones in the corridor are very reflective, and four floating lights hover above them, illuminating the tunnel. No sign of the missing watch or giant spider was found.
Taiwen was able to easily track the spider with a simple "locate creature" spell - which came up empty and she was stumped.
Taiven and her two friends are so good at combat magic that they have no idea how to track a watch or a spider once their basic attempts at divination fail. Just wandering around, hoping to stumble upon a spider's lair, repeating divination to no avail.
After about two hours, Zorian was ready to call it a day. He was about to suggest that they give up and come back tomorrow when he suddenly felt very, very sleepy.
Zorian remained awake and fought against the sleep spell instead of falling to the ground and falling asleep. Before him he saw Taivin and one of her friends staggering on the spot, trying to resist the spell, while the other boy was already sprawled out on the floor.
He struggled under the spell for a second or two, and then the sleep effect... wore off. Before he could do anything, he was forced to his knees by a series of memories and images that drilled directly into his mind.
Puzzled. He remembers staring at a particularly puzzling spell formula problem, tapping his pen on the table in frustration. An image of two floating water spheres connected together by a set of changing water flows from one to the other. A war troll tore through the alien memories of delicate white walls that seemed to be made entirely of spider webs. one question.
[Are you—] the voice rang in his mind, before sinking into another collection of psychedelic images and alien memories. The flood temporarily abated, as if waiting for a response. Then it started again. frustration. [I think—]brotherhood. The web stretches across lightless cracks, and balls of light are trapped within the web. [-Don't know what I mean, do you? ] Sad. Pity. More frustration.
The images in his mind suddenly stopped impacting. Zorian covered his head to relieve the pounding headache in his head and looked around. Taiwen and her two friends were unconscious but appeared uninjured. There was no trace of the attacker anywhere. He tried to wake them up, but they wouldn't budge.
He immediately cast the Floating Disc spell and piled his three unconscious teammates on top, then headed straight for the dungeon entrance.
He just hoped that by tomorrow his mind wouldn't kill him anymore.
. . . . . three. . . . .
And very confused. What was he doing in the hospital and on the other hand he was surprised that he didn't wake up at home and his sister wished him a good morning like he did every time he started over. After a few seconds, his mind cleared and he remembered what had happened yesterday. He didn't start over because he didn't die in the tunnel - he just got confused. This was actually more concerning than death, as any damage to his psyche carried over after the reboot, and he didn't suffer any permanent damage.
He vaguely remembered that when he was brought in yesterday, the doctor pushed him into this room and asked him to have a good sleep.
They were still completely unconscious when he stumbled out of the dungeon entrance, and guards rushed them all to the nearest hospital.
"Woke up at last," Ilsa said from the doorway. "can you speak?"
Zorian asked. "what are you doing here?"
Ilsa said walking to his bedside. "how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine," Zorian shrugged. He doesn't even have headaches anymore. "When you finish asking me, I will go home."
"Question you?" Ilsa asked. "Why should I question you?"
"Uh, uh..." Zorian stammered. "In my experience, the police tend to be tough on witnesses. Just in case they're hiding something."
But she just shook her head and chuckled.
"Well, I'm not a police officer," Ilsa said. "I'm here to ask you what happened though. Your friend doesn't remember anything, having been struck by a sleeping spell at the beginning of the attack."
"Are they okay?" Zorian asked.
"Yes," Ilsa confirmed. "They woke up yesterday with no ill effects. Medically speaking, your injuries were much more serious." She gave him a wry smile. "I think their pride was hurt the most. In the third year, they couldn't resist the spell, and you saved them. The dungeon borders of Westria are notoriously...porous. If it hadn't been for you, they might have had it in the morning Just die."
However, he had never heard of any sentient spider being able to use psychic magic.
"I'm not quite sure what happened," Zorian said at last. "Immediately after the sleep spell failed I was bombarded with a series of images that almost made me black out. It was very painful. When it stopped I tried to orient myself for further attacks but after about a minute and decided to get out of there .I don’t know why the attacker stopped."
"Yeah," Ilsa hummed. "There are a lot of possibilities. Maybe, they just made a move to incapacitate you so they could slip away undetected. Maybe it was a spell trap, and you pulled the trigger. Maybe you resisted two in a row. spell, scared them away. I guess we may never know."
"Oh, where's Zorian?" Ilsa continued. "The tunnels are off limits until further notice. I know you want to help a friend, but it's still a stupid thing to do."
"Uh, yes, Professor," Zorian agreed. "Understood."
Ten minutes after Ilsa left, the nurse came and told him he could go home.
. . . . . Four. . . . .
"This is boring!" Taiwen complained.
Zorian opened one eye so he could glare at her.
"You said you wanted to make it up to me," he reminded me.
"But I meant to teach you some powerful spells, not..." She frowned at the bowl filled with marbles in front of her. "...Throw the marbles over your shoulders. Shouldn't I at least aim a few at your forehead? I bet you'll be more motivated to get things done."
"If you do that, I'll suffocate you in your sleep, ha," Zorian threatened fiercely.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Seconds later, he felt the magic-filled marble pass near his face, but could not determine which shoulder it flew over.
"Left," he tried.
"No, yes," Taiwen. "Now you're just guessing, aren't you? Just take a break today."
"No, I just need a few minutes to calm down," Zorian sighed. Taivin yelped in response, opening his eyes so he could glare at her properly. "Why on earth are you having such a hard time with this? You know I can't ask someone else to do it for me, right? I don't know anyone else who can throw marbles accurately enough.
"Teaching you how to fight, of course!" She smiled.
"I hope this is a magical way," Zorian warned.
"Of course," Zorian said.
"Well, let's see them," Tevin said, waving to the two men on the other side of the room.
She rolled her eyes. "The whole reason I asked you to come to my place was so we could train here. The whole room is guarded, especially the dummies. You can't even scratch them, trust me."
Zorian shrugged and quickly cast a magic missile, shaping it into a piercer, the force traveling across the room and striking the dummy in the forehead. The dummy's faceless wood bent back under the force of the blow in a way that would have broken a real person's neck, but then quickly returned to its default position as if it was nothing.
"Not bad." Taiwen praised. "I like that you can cast the spell without focus - I guess that's the first thing I'm going to teach you."
Her hands blurred in a dizzying display of skill, the chant so soft he could barely hear it. A swarm of literal magic missiles erupted from her hands, flying towards the dummy at a speed far faster than Zorian's Impaler, and struck it with enough force to lift it up and slam it into the wall behind. Although they were just crushers, Zorian knew they were far more dangerous than the punches he had made.
"So, other than letting me know how far away you are from me, what's the purpose of doing this?" Zorian asked. "Firing so many magic missiles, even if they were fired continuously, would deplete my reserves on the spot. I don't think I will be repeating your feat anytime soon."
"Uh, really?" Taiwen asked. "I'm going to assume that your mana reserves are vast, like your brother's. How many magic missiles can you fire at one time?"
"Eleven," Zorian said, deliberately ignoring her first words. “It started with eight, but then I added a few more.”
"Eight!?" Taiwen was speechless. "But...it's actually below average!"
"Does this mean you're admitting defeat and we should get back on track?" he asked with mock glee.
"No!" she screamed. "No, I'm... I'm just surprised, that's all. I taught you how to cast multiple magic missiles at once, but I guess with such a small reserve of mana, it won't do you much good. You should let Make every spell you cast work, not go for quantity.”
She immediately pulled a spell rod from her belt and fired a small purple projectile at the shield. This sudden attack made Zorian's eyes widen, but the attack splashed harmlessly onto the translucent force field and dissipated into a cloud of purple smoke.
"What is this!?" Zorian asked.
"I was just checking the shield," Tevin told him. "The spell is harmless, just a colorful bolt with some power."
Zorian wanted to tell her that his shield was meant to be used against a hostile mage who was actually trying to kill him.
To be honest, combat magic is just a side job at the moment. He began to realize that he could no longer make blind mistakes. Although he really wanted to continue his magical research, he could not ignore the danger posed by the soul binding - the longer he stayed inside, the greater the chance that the soul binding would be fully activated. And swallow up his will and personality. The recent psychic attack he experienced highlights that time loops have their own dangers.
A plan was forming in his mind. He needs to find out everything there is to know about the time loop - how it came to be, how exactly it works, and how he can get out of it. Also, what is the nature of his connection to Zach? What's up with the invasion - the timing seems too coincidental, so what does it have to do with the time loop? Finding the answers to these questions requires skills such as divination, information gathering, and infiltration, so that's his main focus.
Of course, he also wants to learn other things, but these three things are necessary and priority.
He must complete his half-apprenticeship in the library and learn all the tricks he can within the constraints of the time loop. The college library is an incredible resource, and he must use it extensively.
He will go to the library first thing tomorrow morning to apply for a job.
And, although it's too late in this particular reboot, he once again impresses Ilsa and chooses divination to focus on.
Then, as he climbed the stairs inside his apartment building, everything went black and he woke up as Kiri jumped on him and wished him good morning. Apparently Zach died again. This time it has only been restarted for a few days. Hopefully Zach will get the hang of whatever he's trying out soon, because being forced to reboot without warning can get old fast.
