Chapter 8 – Lies of Wind and Thunder

Chapter 8 – Lies of Wind and Thunder

Herber confusedly pats Emily’s back in reassurance as she sobs into his chest.

After two minutes Emily has calmed down enough to speak coherently.

“What’s wrong Emi? Are you hurt?” Herber asks with worry.

“I- I’m fine,” she sniffles. “I just fell asleep at my desk and had a nightmare about you dying. When the thunder woke me up, I thought I’d lost you too for a second.”

Herber flinches slightly at her choice of words, releasing a sad sigh as he strokes her hair and holds her tight.

“Don’t worry Emi, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon,” he comforts her.

That’s right, I’m not letting them take you. I won’t lose another family.

Emily’s sadness slowly fades into indignant anger. She separates from Herber after a few more seconds and smiles at him.

“Sorry about that, I’ll be fine now, it’s just a bad dream.”

“No worries kid. Just call me if you need anything, okay? Even if it’s just another hug. Me and your sister will always be there for you, no matter what.”

Emily flinches as a new thought forms in her mind.

Anna. I have to protect her too.

“Haaa,” she sighs and sits down as Herber leaves the room. She pulls over a clean sheet of paper. “Right, how can I actually fix this?”

Amazing plan to save my family!

Step 1: Find out if anything can be brought across time loops.

Step 2: Work out if time loops move my body’s position or not (think so, was sat down again)

Step 3: Test if I can rewind past 7:45

Step 4: Can I kill four mages?

Step 4.5: Finish looking at the system.

Step 5: Can we get out of the city?

Step 6: If all else fails, ask Dad.

Tossing her pen down, Emily gets to work, calling out for the system.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Name:] Emily Coldstone

[Race:] Human

[Age:] 15

[Magic Circle:] First Circle

[Machina Cortex:] First Stage

[Attributes:] Strength 7, Dexterity 15, Agility 12, Vitality 8, Intelligence 22

[Health:] 115/115

[Stamina:] 175/175

[Mana:] 330/330

[Machina:] 330/330

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Talents:

[Intrinsic] Magical Engineer

-Mechanical Genius

-Magical Genius

Skills:

[Intrinsic] Magic Network (passive)

-Parkour (passive)

-Basic Machine Construction (passive)

-Basic Melee Combat (passive)

-Basic Spellweave (active)

-Basic Meditation (active)

Knowledge:

-Basic Clockwork

-Basic Steampower

-Basic Electrical Theory

-Basic Mana Formation

Equipment:

[Intrinsic] Clockwork of Time (Ex)

_____

After reading through the full status page again, Emily takes note of basic meditation carrying over from before the time reset.

I guess that means system skills at least aren’t affected by the time loop. I’ll have to test damage to my body and clothes next time I rewind, let’s test displacement with this loop too.

Checking the time and seeing 7:54, Emily grabs a sharp shard of metal from the scrap box and heads to her room.

Leaving through the window, she runs through the city away from her house.

After thirty minutes of running, she stops, lightly panting.

My body was definitely improved by the awakening, I barely feel tired right now.

She brings the metal shard out of her pocket and cuts the bottom of her shirt into slivers, then makes a few small nicks on her left arm.

With her tests set up and still out of breath, she activates The Clock and returns to the past once again.

***

Thunder and repulsive force return, and Emily finds herself back in her workshop at 7:45 pm.

Checking her body, she finds her clothes back in a messy but whole state, and her arms clean of injury.

My body returns to its old state and location at the time of return, but skills seem to remain through loops. Is it the system itself that’s travelling back? My memories are too so I'm guessing it's my cortex? Right, next on the list is ‘Can I rewind past 7:45’.

-Grants -50% mana and machina usage

-Grants +20% mental resistance

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Parkour (passive)]

User knows how to move efficiently.

-Grants +10% to agility when moving across tough terrain

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Basic Machine Construction (passive)]

Beginner mechanic’s ability to create machines.

-Grants +10% production speed

-Grants +20% machine stats

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Basic Melee Combat (passive)]

User knows how to fight in close quarters.

-Grants +10% strength and agility when fighting at close range

-Grants +10% familiarity with fists and melee weapons

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Basic Spellweave (active)]

[Cost:] 40 Mana/Hr

User can gaze into the truth of runes to form spells.

-Upon activation, user enters a trance-like state to use mana to experiment with runic matrices

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Basic Meditation (active)]

[Cost:] N/A

Through controlled breathing and focus, user can gather mana from the atmosphere around them, and increase their understanding of mana.

-Upon activation, user enters a trance-like state to gather mana

-Increases health, stamina, mana and machina regeneration while in use

_____

Cool, some of these may be useful. Parkour may help if we try to escape, and maybe I can fight the mages hand-to-hand with melee combat. Carlos looked trained, but as long as I take him out with a ranged weapon the other three may be possible to beat.

Emily shivers as she remembers Carlos pulling a knife from his robes and executing Herber with practised ease. She shakes her head clear and refocuses on her system.

I don’t think spellweave or meditation can help me right now. I don’t know how to cast spells and don’t have hours to waste in a trance, I don’t think I’ll ever wake up if those nobles find me catatonic. What does the intrinsic before magic network and clockwork of time mean though?

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Intrinsic]

Marker of the truly unique!

-Traits that are one-of-a-kind and unique to the holder

-Intrinsic races will only remain intrinsic to the original holder when passed on

-Some intrinsic skills can be taught and passed on, some remain user-locked

-Intrinsic equipment is bound to the creator, unable to be separated from, or used by anyone other than, the user.

_____

Okay, I understood about half of that, but it doesn’t seem that important.

Emily stands up and stretches before heading to the drawers of finished projects.

“If I’m gonna fight four mages, I should go in armed right?”

She rubs her hands together excitedly at the idea of getting to put some of her makeshift weapons to good use. Digging through the drawers she pulls out and tosses aside countless unrelated creations until she finds a few weapons buried at the bottom. As she gazes at the weapons, she calls out for her system on a whim and is surprised by the information windows that pop out to greet her.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Clockwork Repeater]

[Rank:] F

[Stats:] +1 Dex

[Description:] A basic handheld crossbow with a six-shot revolving cylinder for quick successive shots.

[Effect:] Fires bolts at a rate of 1 bolt/s

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Single-Shot Hand Cannon]

[Rank:] F

[Stats:] +1 Dex

[Description:] A basic breech-loaded hand cannon, fires a single large bullet packed with a lot of black powder.

[Effect:] Fires a single bullet for massive damage.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Telescoping Bladed Baton]

[Rank:] F

[Stats:] +1 Agil, +1 Str

[Description:] A spring-loaded telescoped 1m baton with a bladed end.

[Effect:] Extends on button press, good for hitting and stabbing.

_____

The system gives a useful breakdown of her self-made weapons. As Emily lifts the crossbow and hand cannon in a hand each, she feels a strange sense of resonance between her and the weapons, a feeling of control spreading through her body.

This must be the stat bonuses.

Smirking, she attaches the baton to her waistband as she hears the doorbell ring throughout the building. Silencing her footsteps like a predator on the hunt, she creeps towards the shopfront.

Time to see what damage I can do.