I came to consciousness in the all-too-familiar black void of Time Loop. The first thing I realized was that I had died. Gods damn it. The second thing I noticed was that I had many, many more choices being presented to me than last time. Sixty choices, to be exact. After a moment’s confusion, I remembered that Time Loop could now take me up to a full hour back in time, instead of the ten-or-so minutes that I used to be able to go back.
I could already feel myself fading – it took me a good moment to get my bearings after the surprise death and the overwhelming feeling of having six times as many timelines to choose from. So, I selected the furthest-back option of sixty minutes – why not have more time, after all – and felt my consciousness be pulled from the space, and–
**********
And then I was back, walking through the forest toward the Faerie village alongside Erani and the Nymph. I stumbled, unready to return to such an uncomfortable and pain-riddled body.
“You alright?” Erani asked. “Need help walking?”
“No, no, I’m fine,” I said. “Time Loop.”
“Oh?”
I explained what happened in the previous timeline.
“So he just stabbed you in the back? No warning?”
“Well, there was kind of a warning. She said something like ‘the test starts now’ and then Aankin stabbed me. So I guess that was my warning. But before she would even begin to negotiate, she was pretty insistent that I somehow ‘prove my strength.’ No clue what all that entails, but whatever it is, it somehow involves a knife going inside of my body.”“Maybe you were supposed to, like, anticipate it and dodge, or something? And that would prove you’re aware enough to avoid attackers?”
“Maybe I was supposed to just tank the damage, to show I’m survivable.”
“Well I’d hope that isn’t the case. You aren’t really in a state to do that.”
“Think you can take it for me? Angelic Shield should protect you.”
“Yeah, it could, but I’d rather we come up with a plan that involves none of us getting stabbed. Besides, we don't even know if that's the whole test.”
“Hmm. Maybe they just wanted us to fight? And if we won, we’d prove ourselves?”
Erani sighed. “We can speculate about what might happen all we want, but it probably won’t be very productive. We need to make a plan.”
“Okay, what’s the plan?”
“I don’t know, I thought you’d have one.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not very helpful.”
“Fine, fine,” she laughed. Despite the circumstances, I still felt a little smitten whenever I saw her smile. She sighed, obviously thinking hard on a solution to our problem. “Well, they let us open the gate together, right? Called that our ‘test of strength?’ Think they’d let us all fight that Aankin guy together?”
“...That could work.”
She looked over at the Nymph. “Think the Nymph’ll realize that we aren’t attacking the entire village? That Queene sounds like she could just step on us and we’d die, not to mention whatever other nasties they have tucked away in their village. If the Nymph just starts fighting random people, we’d definitely get in trouble.”
“Not sure. After that incident with those soldiers from before…”
“Yeah. I’m beginning to recognize the downsides of having something that can’t communicate with us on our side. If it misunderstands our goals, we could end up down to one last try at this.”
“We’ll just have to keep an eye on it and step in if things get out of hand,” I shrugged. I didn’t like the solution, but communicating complex ideas with absolutely no shared language, no shared culture, and not really any basic knowledge on what the Nymph could or couldn’t understand was out of my depth.
“Glad to have the extra firepower, though,” Erani said.
I nodded. The Nymph may be difficult to understand, but it was also a beast in combat – both of those were proven in that encounter with the soldiers.
The poison in my veins reached my heart and pinged me for another point of damage, making me flinch. I still hadn’t gotten used to it. The extra hour I went back was certainly useful for planning, but it made for a hell of an uncomfortable time, walking all the way back to the village.
I sighed, swearing to myself that I better not have to go through this a third time.
By the time we got back to the Faerie Village, I was tired and covered in sweat. Again.
“Hold. You are approaching Nugyuk Village, a guarded Faerie settlement that is closed to outsiders. Turn and leave.” Aankin said his spiel again when we approached.
“Uh, hi,” I said, trying to remember what I’d said before. What had worked and what hadn’t? Acting all humble seemed to be a bad look to the Faeries, so I tried to be more casual this time. “We’re just travelers. Not looking for trouble, just to trade. It’s a bit urgent, otherwise we would’ve sent notice ahead of time.”
Aankin looked us over, once again taking note of the Nymph’s whip. This time, though, I realized that he probably wasn’t doing so because he was afraid of an attack. He was assessing our strength, like the tests they’d done before.
“We need a Tribute,” I continued, “from your Queene. We would be willing to pay you back in a fair trade. I understand that guarding the village is a job for an influential person, but it may still be necessary for us to speak directly with her about this matter.”
“And how can I know that you are worthy enough for an audience with her majesty?”
“We are powerful individuals,” I said, remembering the values of this culture. “We will use whatever you afford us responsibly, and will never allow it to unwillingly fall into the hands of others.”
Aankin looked at me for a long moment, to the point where I almost got convinced that I said something wrong. Just before I began backpedaling, though, he nodded. “Fine. Open this gate, and I will show you to her majesty.”
He stepped aside to reveal the same hand-crank that we’d struggled with before.
I walked forward, along with Erani and the still-confused Nymph, which obviously wasn’t in the know of what was going on here. Erani and I gripped the handle and prepared to go through the arduous process of raising the gate. This time, though, I had a plan that might make it easier.
Together, the two of us pushed our weights down on the lever just like last time, beginning its slow rotation. Once our weights were down on it, though, I activated Gravity Well, targeting both of us. My muscles tensed in surprise as my entire body suddenly became forty percent heavier, as did Erani’s. It was harder to hold myself up, to move, and generally to exist.
But that wasn’t the only thing the Spell affected, though. The lever sustaining our weights immediately moved much faster by the sudden and intense increase of force being put upon it. It would’ve been even easier if the Nymph was helping, but the poor thing still had no idea what we were trying to do.
Of course, once the lever reached the bottom of its rotation, we had to pull it back up, which Gravity Well wouldn’t help with at all. I shut it off, feeling a sudden relief at the weight literally being taken off my shoulders, despite the fact that it was only for a couple seconds. It still wouldn’t be as bad as last time, though, since the momentum carried with the lever and helped us along for the first bit of the upward rotation.
Still, it was hard to do, and about halfway through our effort to pull the lever up, the Nymph seemed to understand what it was we were doing, and grabbed on to help. We got it to the top, and I reactivated Gravity Well, starting our cycle again. It was hard to get used to, though – putting my body under such sudden and intense weight, taking it off, then putting it back on again, over and over under such a short period of time. It was awkward and I’d occasionally accidentally turn on or off Gravity Well at the wrong time, ruining our rhythm and slowing the process.
As we worked, though, I was surprised by a System notification.
Threshold reached. Gravity Well XP has reached 45.
Gravity Well Rank has increased to 6.
Due to Gravity Well Rank reaching 6, it has undergone the following changes:
Mana Cost: From 11.5 to 11.8
Gravity Increase: From 41% to 45%
Due to Gravity Well Rank increasing to Rank 6, Gravity Well has reached a Soft Cap.
Spell XP gain for Gravity Well is 50 times slower until your Level increases past the Soft Cap.
Increase your Level to 12 to increase your Soft Cap.
I lurched slightly as the gravity pulling me down suddenly got a bit stronger. At first I was confused – I didn’t have nearly enough Spell XP to be due for a Rank up in any of my Spells soon – but when I read the Soft Cap notification, I was reminded. I’d increased my Soft Cap when I got to Level 10! I’d completely forgotten about it because of the poison, but my Soft Cap was 6 now. That meant Ray of Frost could be Ranked up, too.
I looked around. Not exactly the best time to shoot off deadly beams of energy, with the village guard who’d literally already killed me standing right next to me, so I guessed I’d just have to Rank that one up later.
I felt like I’d forgotten about another of my Leveling benefits, too, but I was too focused on trying to work with Gravity Well to take the time and remember, or even read through my Status. I had to make sure I did everything perfectly in front of Aankin, and distracting myself like that would just mess me up.
Anyway, by the end, once we got the hang of using Gravity Well and started truly making solid progress, we got the heavy log door to the top of the wall, finally creating a passage inside. Even though I’d seen the village already, I still felt a bit amazed at the sight, most likely due to the sheer amount of work I had to go through to open that damned gate. Like my mind was making up reasons just to excuse the exertion it’d gone through to see the place.
Aankin showed us through the village just like last time, dagger still in his hand. If he was at all impressed by our much more efficient opening of the gate, he didn’t show it. Though, I guessed he didn’t see the improvement between both tries – just the final product. That was sure to make any accomplishment feel a bit less substantial. Not that it made me any happier about the fact that he didn’t at least comment on our unnaturally fast speed; I’d hoped it would make trade discussion go a bit faster.
Halfway through our walk across the village, the Nymph had that same scared reaction at one of the monsters in the village, yelping and retreating to hide behind Erani. This time, though, I was watching it, and saw what it was that the Nymph was afraid of. It was a creature that could best be described as a sentient pile of goo, slopping around by tumbling over itself. It had the four Faerie eyes floating around inside its jelly-like form.
I shrugged. Guess there weren’t too many Slimes in the forest area that the Nymph lived before. Wasn’t much I could do about it, anyway, and there weren’t any Slimes in the palace, so it wouldn’t be an issue. We continued on.
By the time we got to the palace, my Mana had regenerated a bit from the casting of Gravity Well, back up to around 300, and my Health had of course fallen down to 18. Aankin opened the doors and revealed the familiar room inside.
Despite having been there just an hour before, I still felt myself a bit taken aback by the imposing sight of the Queene. I prepared myself to try and give off a strong veneer in front of her demanding presence.
“Why do you bring Humans here, Aankin the Stalwart?” She asked.
“They wished for an audience with you, your majesty. They do not seem to be aligned with the other Humans.”
There was that mention of the ‘other Humans’ again. Were they the people from the city we found out about the village from? Erani mentioned the job being to go here and ‘repair trade relations,’ whatever that would entail, so they had somehow damaged their relationship with the Faeries.
“They passed the trial of strength,” Aankin continued and stepped aside, “and so I allowed them passage. They will now speak their request.”
I took a breath, trying to muster my courage. In just a bit, a fight was going to break out. Trying to show strength while also not being rude, I spoke, “We wish to trade with you for a Tribute. If you give a Tribute to our Nymph, we are willing to give you goods or services of equal value.”
The Faerie Queene stared at me for some time with her eyes that were at least as large as my entire head. “You may have passed our basic test of strength, but that, on its own, does not prove to us that you are trustworthy enough to trade with.”
“If it isn’t insulting to ask, why do you require your trade partners go through such a rigorous testing process?” I asked. Part of it was because I wasn’t mentally ready to be stabbed again, and so I just wanted to stall a bit, and the other part was because I genuinely wanted to know. If we did have to do this again, the more information we had, the better it would go. “I understand you need to test their strength, but wouldn’t it be beneficial to have as many trade partners as possible, instead of turning so many away?”
“Hm. Well, for the record, yes, it is insulting to ask. But I’ll answer anyway.” This was the first time I’d seen the Faerie Queene smile, so maybe that was a good thing? “You Humans seem to think that hoarding relationships and connections is the most effective way to become stronger. That is incorrect. Connections are also liabilities, and can cost much more than they gain. To use a Human saying, we follow a ‘quality over quantity’ policy with our trade relations. If someone cannot prove their strength, they are not a high enough quality for us to communicate with. Strength is the most important aspect of a trade partner, more than how much they can ‘stimulate our economy’ or how polite they are. That is why I answered your question. No matter how impolite it may be, curiosity begets strength. I respect that.”
“Well. Thank you for answering my question,” I said. “Is that why you stopped doing trade with the nearby Human city?”
“Meh,” an irritated look flashed across her face. “They refused to treat us with respect. Constantly sending in different ambassadors that we had to test over and over again, asking insulting things of us like to come and live inside their walls. What convinced me to finally cut off contact with them was when they sent in some sniveling weakling that died in a single hit! Simple test, dagger to the back, and he just dropped to the floor.” She shook her head. “He was pathetic to begin with, with his bowing and scraping, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘may I’. Spineless. If you want something, you take it. You don’t ask. You demand and fight and steal and kill for what you need.” She cleared her throat. “I’ve gotten off topic, though. We must test you in order to ensure you are a quality partner. Do you consent to our test?”
“May I know what– er,” I stopped myself, remembering what the Queene had said about ‘may I’s and politeness. “I mean, tell me what the test is.”
She snorted. “You’re learning. Your objective is to survive by any means necessary. Do not hurt non-combatants. Go.”
And a knife flew at my back.