Die. Respawn. Repeat.
Chapter 84: Book 2: Stressful Choices

There's a certain amount of existential horror that comes with having your allies picked off right in front of you, with little you can do about it. In that sense, Ahkelios is right — being able to shrug things off is an important skill for someone looping through time.

My thoughts flicker back to the moment every so often, but I'm doing a pretty decent job of not focusing on it, I think. Best to think about the next loop. Best to think about how to counter them.

More likely than not, that involves spending my Firmament credits.

We're wandering around the area just near the designated spawn point for the moment, Ahkelios so he can search for his moss and me so I have time to look over my status and think about how to spend my credits.

[ Status:

Name: Ethan

Strength Skills: Crystallized Strength (Rank C), Concentrated Power (Rank B), Amplification Gauntlet (Rank A)

Durability Skills: Tough Body (Rank E), Barrier (Rank D), Crystallized Barrier (Rank C), Hexfold Shield (Rank C), Second Wind (Rank B), Verdant Armor (Rank A)

Reflex Skills: Quicken Mind (Rank B), Inspect (Rank B), Compounded Mind (Rank B), Iron Mind (Rank A)

Speed Skills: Triplestep (Rank E), Accelerate (Rank C), Firestep (Rank C), Flashstep (Rank B), Intrinsic Lightning (Rank A), Lightning Rod (Rank A), Warpstep (Rank A)

Firmament Skills: Firmament Manipulation (Rank D), Temporal Fragment (Rank D), Color Drain (Rank C), Tetrachromacy (Rank C)

Inspirations:

The Mirror Twice Shattered (Firmament, Unique)

The All-Seeing Eye (Reflex, Rank A)

The Void (Strength, Rank Unknown)

The Accelerator (Speed, Rank A)

Open Dungeons:

The Empty City (Rank S)

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Strength: 268 (179 banked)

Durability: 487 (84 banked)

Reflex: 103 (360 banked)

Speed: 178 (273 banked)

Firmament: 120 (256 banked) ]

I grimace a little at how close Firmament is to the five hundred credit mark I've been hoping for. Thirteen points away. If I'd taken a few more hits, let myself be smacked around a few more times...

...Or maybe I shouldn't let the time loop turn me into a masochist.

Right now, the obvious thing to bank is Firmament. I don't have any other way to handle the Time Flies — or any of the other dangers the deeper Fracture holds, if those flies are any indication. Firmament has always rewarded me with a skill based on what I've recently been through, so now's the best time to bank the credits. Wait too long, and I might get a skill in moss-picking instead.

[ Are you sure you wish to bank 120 Firmament credits? ]

[ 120 Firmament credits banked! Rolling for results... ]

[ CRITICAL ROLL. ]

My breath catches. It's been a while since I've seen this. And it's happening for the Firmament category in paticular.

[ Critical Bonus! All existing Firmament skills will be improved. ]

[ Firmament Manipulation (Rank D) has evolved to Firmament Control (Rank C)! ]

[ Temporal Fragment (Rank C) has evolved to Temporal Link (Rank B)! ]

[ Color Drain (Rank C) has evolved to Hueshift (Rank B)! ]

[ Tetrachromacy (Rank C) has evolved to Firmament Sight (Rank B)! ]

[ Select between:

CRIT: Time Punch (Rank B) —> Timestrike (Rank A) ]

CRIT: Temporal Sense (Rank B) —> Temporal Sight (Rank A) ]

CRIT: Whispered Promise (Rank B) —> Whispering Seal (Rank A) ]

CRIT: Sealsight (Rank B) —> Sealsink (Rank A) ]

I'm glad I got the crit. I really am. But I'm also at least a little annoyed, because... all of these skills are useful. There's no easy choice here.

Well, there is one easy choice — I have no interest in Whispering Seal. Inspect tells me it's similar to whatever skill Whisper uses to impose her Whispers onto her city; it's a skill that takes a whispered command and turns it into a seal of Firmament that punishes those who disobey. There are far, far more limitations on it than on the version Whisper has. For one thing, Whispering Seal can only be used on one person at a time, and it only lasts for a few hours before the command dissipates.

I'd consider taking it on the grounds that I might learn more about her skill and defenses against it, but I have better options, and I do have a defense against it in Sealsink.

I get the impression that Sealsink is an option only because Ahkelios caught sight of the device Miktik was using to absorb the consequences of her defiance of Whisper. It's a Firmament sink of some kind — whatever punishment Whisper tried to inflict on her was diverted to it instead. Sealsink acts in much the same way; it allows me to create a Firmament construct that will absorb the consequences of me breaking any seals that are placed on me.

With commensurate consequences if the construct breaks, of course.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Timestrike is amusingly simple in comparison. It's a direct counter to the Time Flies, presumably offered because I encountered and had to fight them. A Temporal Strike allows me to basically punch into the future.

It's an incredible skill for many reasons other than just fighting the Time Flies. It allows me to completely blindside someone with a hit, for one thing, as long as I can maneuver them into the right direction. Like a few of my other skills, though, it's a skill that requires setup and planning. Or really good maneuvering.

Temporal Sight is the weirdest of the four. The skill's name gave me the impression that it might allow me to look into the past or the future, which is so stunningly powerful that if that was actually its function I would choose it without a second thought — but that's not what Inspect tells me.

Inspect says that Temporal Sight will allow me to "see areas of high temporal stress".

I don't know what this means, and the Interface refuses to elaborate. The idea that high temporal stress is a possibility at all is... deeply concerning to me, and I can't help but think that if they exist, then I should have the ability to see them. Especially if there's a chance they might interfere with my loop.

"Ahkelios," I say out loud, and the little mantis snaps to attention from his little moss-hunt. I laugh at the mock-salute he throws me. "Just a quick question, and then you can go back to your hunt. Do you know what temporal stress is?"

The mantis man frowns, some of his cheer bleeding away as he thinks. I feel a bit of a strain on Temporal — Temporal Link now, I guess. The link we share draws a little more Firmament from me as he subconsciously taps into the Interface. Upgraded as the skill is, I can actually feel that process this time.

"I don't... not know what it is," he says slowly. "I think I've encountered it before. An area of high temporal stress is... a place you've made too many changes in too many times.

"As loopers, we cause some amount of temporal stress just by existing. Tarin does, too, now that he remembers. That doesn't pose much of a problem now, and it won't pose much of a problem for the foreseeable future — but across enough loops, if different things happen every loop, you start causing stress in that particular part of space and time."

Seeing my worried expression, Ahkelios hurries to reassure me. "It's not something you have to worry about right now. It takes hundreds of loops to even start seeing the effects of temporal stress, and basically a thousand before it starts being dangerous, unless you're really stressing out the timeline."

"What exactly do you mean by dangerous?" I ask. "What does temporal stress look like? I've got a skill that will let me see it, and I'm not sure if I need to take it."

"I don't think you need to take it right now," Ahkelios says slowly, though he says it with far more hesitation than I would like. "You'll notice the signs of temporal stress once it starts happening. Things will be different that shouldn't be different. People will be missing."

I stare at Ahkelios. "Like the things that are happening right now?"

"No, no," Ahkelios says, and then he pauses. "Well... yes. But different. You'll see temporal... glitches? People rewinding or skipping ahead to their futures. Patches of dirt that are way, way older than everything around them. That kind of thing. The differences you've been experiencing are just because you're a really, really weird Trialgoer."

I groan. "I can't be that weird."

Ahkelios stares at me. "You've had more complications in two loops than I had across three hundred," he says plainly. "My memory isn't perfect, but I remember spending three hundred loops trying to get past one of the monsters guarding the exit. You're really weird, Ethan."

Of course I am. "I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"It is!" Ahkelios says cheerfully. "It means you might actually beat this Trial."

He's... got a point, there.

It doesn't sound like Temporal Sight is going to be useful for me for the foreseeable future. There might come a time where I'll need it to avoid areas of high temporal stress, or something, but from what Ahkelios has said nothing I've done so far should have stressed the loop enough that it's a pressing concern.

That leaves me with Timestrike and Sealsink. Timestrike will give me the ability to actually deal with the Time Flies, eliminating what's arguably one of the biggest dangers in the Fracture and allowing me access to Rotar without risking the entire loop — assuming Rotar's stayed in the same location and hasn't strayed.

As a bonus, Timestrike will remain useful afterward. It's not like the Time Flies are going to be the only threat it'll be useful against.

Sealsink gives me the ability to deal with one of the Hestian Trialgoers. It won't do anything but that, unless I encounter other threats that apply some kind of Firmament seal, and while I don't discount that possibility I can't pick it just because of it.

It's just that Whisper is a big threat. Guard being under her command is just as much of one — his ability to deal with Rank A monsters like they're just chump change is frightening. Tarin's role when they fought together was mostly as a distraction, pulling attention away from Guard with his sheer speed rather than directly contributing to damage.

"Timestrike or Sealsink," I mutter out loud, and Ahkelios, of course, perks up and looks over at me.

"A skill that lets you punch the future or a skill that lets you get past She-Who-Whispers?" he asks. I nod, and he continues, "why not get Timestrike? We have access to something that does what Sealsink does — Miktik made one. We can just ask her for help."

...Well, he's got me there. Timestrike it is.

[ Timestrike (Rank A) obtained! ]

"Hopefully that's the right choice," I mutter. The rest of my skills already feel different — Temporal Link makes my bond with Ahkelios stronger, Firmament Control allows me to manipulate the Firmament around me even more deftly and with greater force, which I hope will help me with imbuement...

I haven't tested Hueshift. But Firmament Sight being an upgrade to Tetrachromacy makes a surprising amount of sense, and while it's not the same as my ability to detect Firmament all around me, it does give me a whole new dimension to explore as far as Firmament goes.

"I'm ready!" Ahkelios announces. He's holding a handful of moss. I stare at him, wondering how he's balancing all of it between his arms — it doesn't exactly look like a coherent pile of moss as much as him just grabbing random handfuls of plant matter and shoveling it into his arms.

"You need help carrying that?" I ask, amused.

His face brightens. "Can you help?"

I shrug. "Let's find out."

I have an idea. With Firmament Control and Temporal Link, I might be able to add a permanent modification to Ahkelios' Firmament form — I just need to integrate whatever I craft out of Firmament into the Link. I call both of skills up in my mind, feeling for the bond between me and Ahkelios and feeling the shape of Firmament within.

And then, using Firmament Control, I begin to weave.

It's remarkably intuitive, presumably because I don't need to worry about actual sewing or stitching. All I need to do is force the Firmament into the shape of a satchel, and then nudge that shape into the link that binds me with Ahkelios.

The process is intuitive, like it's a natural function that I've only just discovered. There's... a lot I could potentially do with this, I think.

Ahkelios, with no access to my thoughts without me pushing them through the new link, just looks delighted, and begins shoveling his moss into the makeshift satchel I've provided him.

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