Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

Loop 39 - Loop 177

Cal woke up to someone’s hands around his throat.

Loop 178

Cal woke up to someone’s hands around his throat. He had been getting closer loop after loop. Punch, Bite, Slam, Bite again. He followed the routine. Soon, Bug had joined him in the room. She leaped through the window right as one of them went to fire. It missed. This gave Cal time to smash his lamp over the head of the other one. It had taken them twenty attempts to get this part down.

Bug clawed her way back through the window, snarling.

“HEY, DID YOU KNOW I CAN TALK?” Bug screamed at them. This bought them more time, enough for Cal to run into the hallway out of his room.

“DAD WAKE UP!” He yelled. So far, Stan hadn’t gotten far enough to join them in the melee, but they had managed to wake him up.

Cal was up to four and a half minutes of fighting back. He was sure they could get out of this now. It may take another thousand loops, but he inched forward with everyone.

Loop 179 - Loop 252

Cal woke up to someone’s hands around his throat.

Loop 253

Cal woke up to someone’s hands around his throat so many times, and now he had done it. He saw his father out of the corner of his eye, about to join them in the fight. They could win this now. Wait, did this mean he now had to do this fight at the start of every loop? He needed to solve the magic issue so he could make this easier.

“Cal, duck!” A voice that was not his father yelled from behind. It sounded like a woman.

A woman’s voice?! That wasn’t his father. Then who was it? Cal had no idea what was happening now as a woman in a mask leaped over him and punched the nearest one in the throat.

“Who are you?!” Cal yelled at the newcomer as he stood back up.

“That isn’t important right now. We need to take these two down.” She raised a finger and pointed it at the one she hadn’t hit. Fire shot from her fingertip into its chest.

“There are too many of them, brother, and the animal has already destroyed the neutralizer,” one of them yelled.

“We will have to try to get the seed another time. We can’t let a backwater planet keep it.” The other responded.

The mysterious woman grabbed the first one she had hit and tossed them at the one she blasted with fire. Before they could collide, they both disappeared in a flash of light.

“Dammit, they got away. You need to find a way to block the radiance of that seed inside you, Cal. Try to stay alive. I won’t always be there to save you.”

“I mean, duh, it’s been a couple hundred loops, and this was the first I saw of you.” She didn’t respond to this. Instead, she disappeared back the way she came.

Cal tried giving chase, but his body ached, and his brain was so very, very tired. It had been a lot of loops.

“Cal, what the fuck is going on?!” Stan finally appeared awake.

“It’s a long story. I’ll explain once we get some sleep safe in the void house.” Cal had no idea what had happened, but he was completely willing to let everyone else figure that out for him.

*

Cal had collected everyone in the situation room in the void house as soon as he woke up. Andy had left a note with his parents that he was running away. He apologized for it but said they’d never find him. He had made sure to be seen several blocks away before covertly making his way into Cal’s house and through the cracks.

“Okay, first up, is there any way I can close the cracks off from the house this loop? With Andy running anyway and the house having a violent break-in last night, I’m worried about the attention we will attract.” He asked the group but didn’t expect an answer from anyone other than Barron or Ralth.

Surprisingly, it was Ethel who spoke up. “What, you haven’t closed them before? I just assumed you liked leaving them open. Just concentrate on shutting them. They don’t go away, but as far as anyone is concerned, it’s just regular air again. Though I’m betting, there is some other magic out there that would detect the closed cracks. It should be plenty good for any police issues.”

“Thanks, Ethel. I didn’t think you’d have the answer, but really thank you.” Cal was embarrassed to admit he had never thought of just trying to close them mentally.

“Hrm, don’t forget I’ve had magic longer than you.” Ethel stared at him. She looked annoyed.

“Fair, for those of you that slept calmly through the night, which, based on what I see, is pretty much all of you.”

Andrew interrupted Cal. “I was aware of the weird loop restarts, as was Barron. There just wasn’t anything we could do. He said something was blocking his ability to communicate with you.”

“There were restarts?” Andy asked.

“Yes, I lost count of how many, but two hundredish. I woke up this loop to someone choking me to death, and I got to experience that over and over until I slowly figured out a chain of events that kept me alive long enough to get Bug’s help. During this chain I learned there were actually two of the beings. They were some sort of alien, I think. They each only had a single eye. Well, together, Bug and I figured out an even longer chain of events that led to a mysterious lady in a mask breaking in and saving us both. Based on what they said and what the lady said, I believe the Mars seed is giving us some sort of energy that can be tracked.”

“Wait, how did you know this lady was coming?” Jen had a stern look on her face to accompany the question.

“I didn’t. We were actually trying to buy time until Dad could help.”

“I had been waking up the last few seconds for several loops, but it wasn’t enough time to fully understand what was happening and jump out of bed. How did the aliens get here so fast?” Stan added.

“They were able to teleport away. So all I can figure right now is I now appear at the start of the loop radiating a huge source of mana that I shouldn’t have, that anyone within a certain range can detect. I’m not happy about it.” Cal’s eyebrows drooped as he said this.

“Cal, do we have to do this every loop now? I don’t like it. It’s scary seeing people try to hurt you.” Bug’s ears were dropped, and she looked unhappy.

“It’s alright, Bug. I’m going to spend most of this loop with Bolt. I want to find a way to strengthen our bond. I could barely feel it on Mars, and now it turns out it can be blocked here on Earth. I have to find a way to stop that and, if possible, shroud the world seed as well.”

“Yeah, I also need to spend this loop in seclusion. It’s time to learn some magic.” Andy added. Unlike Cal, he was smiling.

“Hrm, I guess if this is what we are all doing, I may as well join in. I wanted to try and evolve Frank anyway.” Ethel had moved across the room to Bug and tried to soothe the dog by scratching behind her ears.

“Alright, so relaxation loop sounds good. Jen and I can go check on Many Legs.” Stan said.

“I WANT TO COME!” Bug’s tail had started wagging at the mention of her friends.

“Of course, Bug,” Jen said.

“Please let her know class is canceled this loop, but she is welcome to independent study with Bug and the capybaras. Make it clear I expect her language skills to have improved by the start of next semester.”

“Before we all go our separate ways, I suggest Cal checks the R.I.S. It has been flashing a message about his question on Mars.” Andrew spoke up.

“Really? I’ve gotta see that. Maybe it can help me with this world seed. I’d rather no one else hunt me down for it.” Cal nearly ran out of the room, excited to see his results.

Once at the console, he selected the quest complete option and read over the displayed text.

World Mana Well Safely Transfered.

Cal’s World Seeds 1

“Well, that’s not helpful,” Cal said to the assembled crowd behind him. He selected new quests instead.

World Mana Well Quest System

World Mana Wells Unlocked 1

New Goal

World Mana Wells: 0/10

Rank: Novice

Defense Quest System

New Goal

Hold Dallas Laboratory For Two Hours

Rank: Novice

“Is it trying to get us to better learn to defend the planet?” Andy asked. He had moved next to Cal and was also reading the screen.

“Looks like it. So, our next goals are to try to secure a building for a few hours and find ten more planet cores. I bet the planets are easier. Better get training, Andy, the apprentice.”

“This isn’t going away, is it?” Andy looked at Cal while shaking his head.

“Nope.” Cal moved to the reward for his previous quest completion.

Bestiary Unlocked

Training Room Simulator Unlocked.

“Interesting.” Cal clicked on the bestiary and scrolled through. There were listings for the abyssal beasts he had fought on Mars, the tentacle bears, and even a few different Gryalth classes. Most of the statistics had question marks, though. There was an option next to each monster to populate it into the training room.

“I think we can use this to practice against different monsters,” Cal informed everyone.

“Something to consider for future training, hell I’ll probably try it out this loop while you’re all busy,” Stan said.

“Alright, well, that’s as much as we can do with the console right now, so I vote we all meet in the situation room three days before the invasion and discuss how we want to handle it this loop,” Cal said.

There were murmured agreements from everyone gathered.