Right away, I open the status menu, select the three skill combination token, and use it.

Congratulations, you have successfully combined [Ley Line], [Perception], and [Mana Manipulation]! A new skill has been created.

You have acquired [Mana Relay]

[Mana Relay - Level 0 Mana Relay - Level 19]

After reading the new skill name, I move my mana to activate it, and another notification pops up.

Congratulations, you have acquired a new skill!

[Mana Manipulation]

[Mana Manipulation - Level 0 Mana Manipulation - Level 61]

At this point, I should say it isn't even funny how inseparable the two of us are, but even now, I'm still laughing. Screw you, system.

It also seems that I’ve been discovered. I really can’t bring myself to believe the attempt on my life was a coincidence. I should probably be worried about whoever did it, but why? The bastard didn’t manage to kill me. I don’t mind going through that pain and trouble again, even if it ends with me imprisoned in that room again.

Ha, is that the best they can do? Must suck to suck so much.

Anyway, I missed my lesson with Ari, so instead, I will meet her on the fourth day of this loop. Until then, I’ll keep up my schedule while doing some wild stuff in my free time.

As I exit that starting room, Professor Elian is there again with his usual "greeting." He summons the servants to carry my stuff into the office and then leaves, radiating disappointment.

----------------------------------------

I spend the first day training my newest skill, which, out of all the skills I’ve gained so far, seems to be the weakest. I guess the combination didn’t quite sync as well as I had hoped. [Mana Relay] doesn’t sound like much of an improvement.

I have a suspicion it will make it possible, at least at higher levels, to share my mana. Of course, I’ll still take the opportunity to learn from it as much as possible, but it’s not really the way I wanted to go. Especially after using a three active skill combination token, which seems to be very difficult to get one’s hands on, if not damn near impossible. I reserved all of my event rewards to get it, and for the points I sacrificed, I could have probably gotten a lot of shards. 500 thousand? Closer to one million?

It clearly shows how good the reward is, and I think, with the exception of [Ur Line], I haven’t been using it "correctly." Other than that first time, it seems like the skills I am getting would have been possible to create with a two active skills combination token.

The system wasn’t joking when it said it would be more difficult to find the right combination.

Please do not let this be the last loop.

And isn’t that unnerving to think about? Why can I not get any information on the total number of the loops? Knowing there are ten or so would be better than just guessing.

Am I asking too much from the system, hoping it would allow me to abuse it just a little bit more?

As before, I try to use the Beyond Stay Token and get the same notification again. It seems the inability to enter is really being caused by this Floor. Maybe it’s some sort of "nerf" that balances how much this mechanic can be abused. Maybe it’s just the system being an asshole.

Or maybe it would be too annoying to deal with attendees getting stronger in Beyond and then not knowing whether to reset their stats to the start of the 8th floor or keep their Beyond stats. But in that case, you could probably advance to the furthest day of the loop, gain stats, skills, and equipment, enter Beyond, add to it more, and then return to the loop after a day and keep it all. Then abuse the loop again.

Hmm. I think if I had designed it, I would’ve said screw it and blocked Beyond entirely. That is what the tutorial gets for trying to come up with these fancy mechanics.

I also think about what Ruler's Floor this could be. If I am right, the Candidate or possible Candidates are going to be from the same subclass as the Ruler who created this setting for the 8th floor. That would make this the second floor to give us confirmation about who the Ruler is.

With these thoughts in mind, I enter the Sweatbox and quickly register for all the Challenges. The first one I try is the Target Gauntlet, and it is definitely not because Tess was ranked first in Tier 4 during the last loop.

It’s a target-destroying challenge. You enter a room, and after the challenge starts, you have one minute to destroy as many targets as possible. They start out at the size of my head, but gradually shrink over time.

This one has much stricter rules than Breakline, where you can just act like a brute and hit barriers with your fists until they break. Here, large-scale attacks and skills like domains are banned.

Of course, that doesn’t mean your attacks have to be as narrow as the targets. You can use a stream of flames or similar attacks, but there is a limit. Honestly, the rulebook describing what exactly is and is not allowed is too long, so I didn’t bother to read it.

Simply put, you are expected to mostly use projectiles or similar attacks.

I may not like to admit it, but I might actually get my ass kicked by Tess here, no matter how much I try.

Last time, she seemed to attempt this challenge around the third or fourth day, so I hope she sticks to that schedule. I want to get first place and move into tier 5 before she can compete.

Is that cowardly?

Nah, I would say it’s just smart.

At the halfway point of the challenge, the targets become as small as my fist. In the last ten seconds, they are barely the size of my fingernail and pop up all over the room, sometimes appearing briefly on the opposite side.

When hit with a powerful burst of flames, they tend to resist just long enough to disappear, and you get no points. When hit with a much weaker projectile, about the size of an arrow, they break easily. The whole thing’s been designed to test reaction speed, accuracy, and control.

I would like to talk with the developers and recommend that they use flying ducks instead of targets.

When I finish, my points are at 1200, beating the second-place score but still far from the 1500 Tess scored in the previous loop. What a monster.

I choose to delay showing my points by one hour and select my alias as Emanon before leaving the room.

That's when I stop and go still.

Nearby, Tess is waiting like she's expecting someone. When she sees me, she lights up and waves.

With my mood soured, I take a few steps toward her.

"You should be guarding that little asshole of yours," I say.

"I have a few minutes. It should be enough time to break the record. I knew I would find you here, so what score did you get?"

"Exactly 1700. I think you should give up for the next 24 hours."

"Did you now? Impressive," she says, her lips curling into a playful and challenging smile.

"You are evil."

"Gimme a minute," she says and disappears into the room.

She reappears exactly one minute later. Together, we head off into the crowd and take a seat. Another minute goes by, likely the result of whatever delay she had planned, before the score appears.

1st, 1701 pts - Sset

Damn. That’s even more evil than I expected. Honestly, I have to admire it.

"You’re breaking your schedule," I tell her.

She nods. "I am."

"Why?"

"Shouldn’t that be obvious, Nat? We’re in this together, are we not? I will not allow you to take on all that danger alone just to take attention away from us. Don’t think I didn’t notice you breaking your schedule on purpose."

"What do you mean? I just hate following it, that’s all."

With her chin propped on her folded hands, she stares at me in silence.

“Sure. That’s all,” she says with a faint smile.

"You silly, stubborn, goddamned blonde."

"I have heard worse."

"You smell like cigarettes."

"I haven’t smoked since the first floor."

"You can’t even cook."

"Please, Nat, you can barely prepare instant ramen."

"My disciple loved the pizza we made."

"By the time you two were done with it, you looked like you had eaten charcoal out of the fireplace."

"I remember that time you thought pasta did not need water to boil."

Tess immediately leans closer. "Oh, so we’re doing this now? Do you remember that time you wanted to buy a chicken and get me to take turns slapping it with you until it cooked, just because you saw a particularly funny meme?"

"What can I say? I have a curious mind."

"Or when you once cooked a steak at my place until it turned grey and we couldn't chew it? You said it was 'well-respected.'"

"You did laugh."

"I’ve laughed at weirder things."

"Didn’t try to make a cake for dessert at one point, thinking all the while that baking soda and baking powder were the same thing? That cake could have killed a man, Tess. No, I’m sure if you made it here, it would’ve been classified as an upper rare at least."

Finally, she laughs and leans back.

"Just be careful, okay? Others in our group are starting to reach the point where they might break the schedule just to bring some of that attention back to themselves."

"That would be dumb. I’m taking a calculated risk, and unlike the others, I am sure I will be fine."

"Yup, it is dumb."

"Damn it."

"So?"

"I’ll be careful, okay? And stop smiling, it’s annoying."

"Nope."

At that, I just turn away. Indeed, I remain the most normal person here.

----------------------------------------

As planned, after a few days, I finally get to talk with Ari. With the lesson for her and Kays done, I leave first and wait in one of the side hallways. There, I deploy one of the detection arrays I’ve been working on for the past few days, just to be sure we don’t get surprised or fall victim to eavesdroppers.

Then, as she reaches me, I give her access, and after a quick examination, she nods, "Nice work for someone who melted half of the tower in the center of the Academy."

"Cooking accident."

"Am I to think Professor Feran ended up in one, too? He nearly died, dragging himself to the Head Healer."

"He must have fallen down the stairs or something. I have questions."

"I'll have mine too, so I expect you to answer mine when I ask you later. Alright?"

"That much is fine. Who are the others?"

"The Candidates and the Examiners."

"How many? Who are Candidates and who are Examiners?"

"You’re no fun, asking so many questions. At least show me some kind of fun reaction," she complains.

I twist my face into a shocked expression before returning it to normal and looking at her with a questioning gaze.

Ari sighs and says, "There were ten Candidates, including me, who’ve been placed in this loop, along with an unknown number of Examiners."

"What Ruler did this, and what do the Examiners do?"

"If you continue to interrupt me, it will take a while, you know, and I have only five minutes or so."

"That’s fine, just answer."

One of her six arms caresses her hair, another two rest in her pockets, and she continues to gesture with the other three.

"We don’t know which Ruler arranged this. None of the Candidates have gotten their subclass yet. As far as I know, this was all made possible by the Ruler, who put a great deal of effort into copying the mechanisms of the tutorial, just on a much smaller scale. They worked in tandem with the Absolute of the planet where the real Academy is located and created something called a 'record.' In exchange for his help, the Absolute asked the Ruler to make some twists and changes. One of these changes were the Examiners, the Absolute’s people who were sent here to hunt us down and kill us. For this, they are rewarded and also able to use the loop to their advantage. But no one knows who the Candidates are or who the Examiners are."

"What a goddamn mess."

"I agree, Assistant Professor Gwyn, but it is a fun mess, is it not?" she smiles brightly.

She’s not even bothering to pretend anymore, instead, she seems to have let her real personality show through. "Three years I’ve been here. Over 100 loops. I’ve improved so much, it’s crazy. In that time, a dozen or so Examiners have died, and to my knowledge, seven out of ten Candidates. And that will continue until I become the Ruler’s disciple and their true heir."

"Why haven’t the Examiners wiped you all out? Aren't they stronger than you?"

"They are, but they have to follow rules the Candidates don’t. If they kill someone who is not a Candidate, they will die themselves. But Assistant Professor, it’s you and people like you that are more interesting," her eyes widen and she leans in closer, poking me with her finger, "You aren’t a Candidate or an Examiner. And you haven’t even asked what you are. Maybe you can’t. Poor little thing."

Looking at me, she fixes my tie and then taps my chest with a smile.

"There are people like you. Bugs. Proof that this place, as much as the Ruler and the Absolute have tried, is imperfect. Once in a while, new people appear out of nowhere. Forgotten Assistants, Professors, or servants that were never loaded in the first loop. They tend to loop for a while before they disappear again. Examiners hate you and try their best to get you killed without breaking the rules. Some Candidates do the same."

"And you?"

"Me?" she asks as if surprised, but she smiles, and it is a dark smile. "I use them, obviously."

"You could easily end up dead," I note.

"Yet I am still here after all these loops." She covers her mouth with both hands and lets out a giggle, high and breathless, like she can’t quite hold it in. The sound is almost childlike, but underneath it, there’s something sharp, something broken. "It’s fun, so much fun."

But then, just as fast, she stops. The smile fades. Her arms fall to her sides, and the glint in her eyes hardens back into something cold and calculating, as if none of it had ever happened.

"I have to go, I will ask my questions later. So be careful until then, Assistant Professor Gwyn," she tells me.

As she is leaving, I call out to her. "How many Candidates have you killed, Ari?"

She halts mid-step and halfway turns to me. For a moment, that bright smile, too wide and too sharp, flashes across her face, carrying a glint of madness and something darker beneath it.

Without a word, she flicks her hand through the air, a lazy, almost playful motion. Mana trails from her fingertips, sparkling and twisting like smoke.

Then she turns away and leaves without looking back.

Hanging in the air, written in shining mana particles, is a single word.

Seven.