The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop

Chapter 4: Chipping Away At Mount Castarian I

There was a popular folk tale about a poor miner who while wandering the mountains found a motherlode of precious star-metal. Unfortunately, his Mining skill was too low to ever harvest it.

Determined to raise his skill to the point that he could, he started mining the very mountains themselves. One after another, he chipped away day in and day out at the foot of the massive mountains that made up the range.

And as entire mountains started to fall due to his growing talents, he one day turned around and realized that he had found many more lodes of precious metals over the course of his journey.

Orodan felt as though he was the man in that story.

He knew there was no way he could beat the challenges before him at Eversong Plaza at this point in time. He could fight evenly against a single powerful Adept with an active combat skill, but Eversong Plaza had dozens of them. They also had Elite level fighters, and who knew what else was inside. It would be futile death after futile death.

In fact, he could now if he so chose decide to immediately flee to the Capital, display his prodigious talent and be accepted into the Capital Guard for mentorship and being groomed into a military asset of the Republic.

He didn’t think the war machine’s reach was capable of going all the way to the Capital, so fleeing the day he had relived hundreds of times was a real possibility for him now.

But would Orodan be Orodan if he did that?

His heart, his blood, it called to him to batter through even the biggest mountain in his immediate path with nothing more than his head. Either the mountain would break, or his head would.

But Orodan had the advantage of having his head returned to how it was every time it shattered.

His usual daily routine was entirely forgone for once, something that left him feeling slightly dissatisfied, but something that was necessary.

A person might think someone in his situation would coordinate with the loyalists coming to attack at Eversong.

Orodan would say that person didn’t know him very well.

His sword split the first woman in front of him, an Adept enforcer, in half. A combination of Surprise Attack and Power Strike reaping her life in an instant. Most people didn’t have defensive skills or the ability to train them like Orodan did. So singular, powerful blows could slay the average Adept in one strike.

What he learned the hard way however, was that this wasn’t the warehouse in Loviaston. And the level of vigilance and combat power concentrated here was an altogether different thing.

Before he could begin massacring the non-Adept guards, Two enforcers, one wielding a spear and one a great axe, immediately engaged him with active combat skills of their own, and it took everything Orodan had to defend against them, even with Impregnable Bladewall.

Mages at lower levels were usually sequestered away in magic academies if talented, or doing non-combat magical trades and jobs.

But a powerful lightning bolt sailing towards his face after two seconds of the melee marked Orodan’s first ever battle against one of the mana-focused.

Four seconds passed, and despite his valiant efforts Orodan began taking some serious wounds.

The great axe buried itself hard in his ribs and the spear impaled his shoulder, all the while the lightning ran throughout his entire body and virtually locked it up, preventing him from using much of his body at all. Even with all his defensive and vitality skills were working overtime to keep him in the fight, he was approaching death.

He was strong enough to resist and not instantly die against the onslaught, but was still overwhelmed. This was probably some of the most intense combat he had ever experienced.

[Combat Mastery 41 → Combat Mastery 42]

[Impregnable Bladewall 3 → Impregnable Bladewall 5]

Six seconds passed as the moon’s pale light illuminated the plaza and five more Adept enforcers rushed out of the tavern’s doors. Orodan also saw a javelin speeding towards his head through the air alongside a second mage about to cast a powerful fire spell.

And as the combined assortment of elemental destruction and weaponry reached him, he knew his loop was over.

[Quest Failed → Battle of Ogdenborough - You have died]

A keening wail ringing in the night sky awoke him.

Orodan sat up in bed, brushed away the Quest messages and immediately got to his feet and Sprinted for Eversong Plaza again.

This was his new bout of insanity.

To charge and attempt a rampage at Eversong Plaza in the middle of the night right after beginning the loop. No coordinating with the loyalist attackers at noon. No enlisting allies.

He could only kill one Adept in a surprise attack, and that too the one farthest out from the Tavern, before a level of calamitous response fell upon him.

With his first try he only had six to eight seconds of life. His vitality and defensive skills not doing enough at their current levels to delay death against the total bodily destruction that came with being hit with multiple Adept level mage spells.

All in all, the entire loop, from waking up and Sprinting to the Plaza in a minute, till his death… probably took less than two minutes.

But, he would eventually improve.

Each loop was less than two minutes long.

And Orodan began attempting and experimenting training in skills which nobody in their right mind would try training the way he was.

Shield Mastery and Combat Mastery had both risen to Adept level, which would be incredible for one at his age outside of a time loop context, but progress was very slow after someone reached level 50 in a skill, at least without fighting against stronger opponents.

A lot of his skills had increased across the board, and pretty much all of his defensive and vitality skills had crossed the Apprentice threshold at 30. Something which lead to the interesting problem of death taking even longer each time, so he spent the remaining minutes of life being electrocuted, burnt and hacked apart focusing on developing a resistance skill.

What were resistance skills?

They were powerful, very highly valued, but just not deemed safe or practical to train. Some argued that developing a resistance skill essentially involved torturing one’s self. Others clamored that it involved understanding something about the nature of the attack one was resisting.

Most resistance skills were the product of Bloodlines or ritual enhancement to alter one’s self innately.

But what madman could sit there and forcibly endure lightning bolts till he died? And how many times would this process have to repeat until one received one of the vaunted resistance skills?

The answer for Orodan was three-hundred and forty-nine loops.

[New Skill (Exquisite) → Lightning Resistance 1]

Orodan experimented with multiple kinds of techniques to obtain the first level of the skill.

At first he thought simply letting himself be drowned in lightning countless times would do the trick. But he quickly thought focused experimenting would be superior.

So he tried flexing his muscles in different patterns when lightning hit, instinctually trying to give mental commands with his full willpower to the lightning coursing through his veins even though it wasn’t his mana, and he wasn’t a mage with access to his mana pool.

He also tried getting a better feel for moving while under the effects of fatal levels of lightning coursing through his body.

In the end, it ended up being a combination of the two methods, training the techniques for moving while paralyzed by lightning, and mentally trying to guide the lightning itself, that yielded results.

He had yet to get a Fire Resistance skill, but he figured some focused training in unveiling its secrets would help with that.

The three-hundred and fiftieth loop onward his Lightning Resistance skill immediately began to show how powerful it was. While it didn’t let him ignore the element altogether, even at level 1 it let him mostly move normally even while being assaulted by furious torrents of lightning from a now flummoxed House Argon lightning mage-Adept.

Outside of the loops, level 1 of Lightning Resistance wasn’t enough to prevent severe injuries requiring extensive recovery afterwards. But within the context of this fight where he could retry infinitely? He might as well have been immune to the mage’s lightning given it had no stopping power against him.

Seeing his face twist and grimace in confusion as his lightning was massively reduced in effectiveness was incredibly satisfying for Orodan. The man must have been an arrogant asshole about his lightning.

Furthermore, the incredibly intense melee against two Adepts, each with their own active combat skills of Power Strike and Multi-Attack had levelled Impregnable Bladewall to 17, and the difference it made at level 17 instead of its previous level 5… was massive.

Active combat skills were a multiplier, but even then the Power Strikes and Multi-Attacks of the two Adepts combined, weren’t capable of getting past his Exquisite rarity skill. It was an Exquisite skill for a reason, and alongside Lightning Resistance he could now survive the first six seconds of the engagement in relatively good condition.

That was when he ran into his new wall head-first however. The second mage… was an Elite-level fire specialist.

And now he knew why the loops almost instantly ended once the man’s concentrated fire beam reached him.

[Quest Failed → Battle of Ogdenborough - You have died]

A keening wail ringing in the night sky awoke him and Orodan nearly slapped the Quest messages out of the way and rushed for the Plaza once more.

His new objective, to find a way to develop Fire Resistance.

Burning to death was supposed to be painful.

But Orodan wasn’t sure if it was his ludicrously high Pain Resistance or the fact that the Elite fire mage’s flames killed him almost instantly; but he barely felt much before he woke up to the sounds of the harpies again.

It was frustratingly difficult to train something you had such little exposure time to.

Unlike the lightning mage who was an Adept and whose spell power wasn’t enough to kill him immediately; this Elite’s fire spells left him with almost no time to analyze what was happening to his own body and appropriately test out counter measures and experiment with trying to grasp the first level of Fire Resistance.

He began trying every single experiment and theory he could think of to counteract the temperature and increase his own body’s resistance to fire.

Loops three hundred and fifty to four hundred were spent trying to mentally command the fire once it hit him and before it killed him.

Loops four hundred to four hundred and fifty were spent trying to forcibly cool his body via powerful breathing and mental commands while trying to command the fire in tandem.

It took all the way till the seven-hundredth loop for him to gain a second of life due to his Unyielding Vitality hitting level 44 due to the sheer number of times he died and his dogged concentration on gaining even an extra split second of life.

And Orodan treasured this extra second as though it was the finest of treasures.

He began even attempting to somehow harness the hostile lightning coursing through him into defending against the near instant-death fire beam. But it was for naught on that front.

Finally, by loop eight-hundred and ninety-eight Orodan’s Unyielding Vitality had progressed to 50 and hit Adept, and for a Rare skill to be at Adept level was unfathomably powerful and it allowed him a full three seconds of life as he now began living long enough to experience the feeling of being charred to a complete crisp as his flesh disintegrated to the bone and the bone turned to ash.

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

While he kept experimenting and grinding, occasionally he’d get slightly bored of the routine and spice it up by talking to his enemies mid-battle.

“Hey, lightning fucker? What’s your name? You must be an embarrassment to your family with those piddly little bolts?” Orodan asked before the man even cast his first spell this loop.

“What the hell did you just say?! I Sagatos Astrapium won’t brook such insults!”

And so a furious torrent of deep blue energy came Orodan’s way.

Which was summarily ignored as Orodan only pronounced one word during his melee against the two Adepts.

“Weak!”

In a surprising turn, the man actually didn’t cast a single further lightning spell that loop! The ugly look of shame and red face he had at Orodan’s insult alongside the shock at his lightning being ineffective actually sidelined him entirely.

Of course, the fire beam came along and ended his loop all the same.

“Hey, who taught you to use that axe? Your movements are inefficient, you should be striking with more conviction, your Power Strike skill must be low huh?” Orodan insulted the man on the next loop while turning away his active combat skill. “What’s your name?”

“I’m the third strongest great axe Adept of House Argon! Say the name Buximus Valadiyadris around town and everyone will know! Who the hell are you?!” the great axe-Adept angrily replied as he attacked with greater fervor.

Which was still easily defended against by Orodan, as by now Impregnable Bladewall had reached 24 and the issue wasn’t defeating the Adepts in melee, but surviving the Elite fire mage who cast his beam of death from atop the balcony.

Filling his seconds of life each loop with some dialogue was one of the things that helped spice up Orodan’s training. For even for one as stubborn and dogged as he, doing the exact same thing over and over could get repetitive.

“I heard this Adept archer with a great bow in Scarmorrow talk about how he’d turn you into a pincushion the other day, who was that?”

“Erestur? That weak fucker doesn’t even have an active combat skill! They sent him there as a demotion for being so weak! I’d shove my axe up-”

The fire beam hit him before Buximus could finish talking and he then focused too much on training against it to ponder more.

But once he woke back up in his bed he made a mental note of the name. So that’s who the cunt archer was? Orodan resolved to spend at least one loop bullying him as recompense when he decided to take some time off far down the line.

“Hey fire mage! Why the fuck are your flames so hot?!” Orodan asked on his next loop.

He received no reply besides a cold and indifferent look as the Elite fire mage killed him with the fire beam all the same.

“Hey, you hit pretty good with that axe of yours, who’s that uppity Elite fire mage on the balcony?” Orodan asked on the next one as he Perfect Parried Buximus’s strike.

“Don’t concern yourself with Lord Aeglos! For daring to interrupt his star-watching you’ll die here for your transgressions!”

The fire beam sent his way by Lord Aeglos ended his loop as usual, albeit with a delay of several seconds that surprised even the usually stoic man.

Orodan’s brute force method was paying off and he was starting to get somewhere. He felt something there in the beam of fire that killed him, something beyond just the fiery temperature and subsequent death.

Elites, particularly those who were Elite-level in a combat skill were some of the most powerful people in society, so for Orodan’s killer to be a member of the nobility was hardly shocking. Virtually all Elites held some kind of powerful position in society.

It was now the nine-hundred and eighty-ninth loop.

By now Orodan was slowly coming to understand that the flames from Lord Aeglos and the lightning from Sagatos Astrapium both had something in common. He didn’t understand what it was, but he felt it, he experienced it, and he’d died from it nearly a thousand times.

He didn’t need an academic understanding to realize that there was a common energy source in both attacks, albeit molded differently depending on the nature and talents of the caster.

And as Lord Aeglos’s fire beam hit him, he felt it as usual, brought all his experiences and insights into what he’d been feeling for the hundreds of loops together.

And for the first time in nearly one thousand loops, resisted it.

[New Skill (Legendary) → Mana Resistance 1]

The difference was utterly astonishing. The fire beam from an Elite-fire mage a whole tier above him just… washed over him. As though it was a flashy cantrip cast by a wandering illusionist with no real substance.

Was this… a Legendary rarity skill? The stuff of legends and fairy tales that nobody could confirm as real?

Even Orodan who was suicidally daring and foolhardy, found himself quieting down in the midst of the battle. The seconds stretched on as Lord Aeglos’s face warped in confusion, then in a genuine hint of shock, and even the five reinforcing Adepts who normally rushed out of the tavern and formed a perimeter as the fire beam would usually melt him to death, had disquieted looks upon their faces at the sight.

It was still hot, scaldingly so.

But compared to the previous beam that would turn him to ash within seconds, this was akin to being dipped in a vat of boiling water. And only at level 1 of the skill.

“Who… who are you?” The spell ceased, the plaza went quiet and a voice he hadn’t heard speak before till this loop rang out as Lord Aeglos spoke. “I sense no barrier protecting you, Observe tells me you’re still an Adept, which we both know is blatant title obscurity… but still… even Masters cannot simply shrug off my fire beam.”

Orodan looked around to see nobody was attacking him any longer.

And that didn’t sit well with him.

“Who am I? That’s none of your fucking business. All I’m here for is to slay every single member of House Argon in Eversong Plaza and tear apart that hunk of scrap metal hiding under the mountain!”

With those words Lord Aeglos’s face hardened and the battle resumed.

Five more mages joined Aeglos and the weakling Sagatos, but even the combined magical torrent from them which tore apart the very earth, scorched the grounds of the entire plaza and sent Orodan flying into the nearby streets… still didn’t kill him.

Sagatos and the other five mages that joined in were Adept-level. And now Orodan could genuinely say he had the ability to outright ignore most magic at the Adept level, for they neither made him feel anything, nor did they cause any damage to his body.

Lightning harmlessly coursed through as though it was a natural part of him. Wind blades simply bent and broke on his flesh as though they were gentle breezes, and ice refused to stick and form on his skin whatsoever. He resisted the very mana that made up the hostile spells coming his way.

Finally, Lord Aeglos started letting loose some very powerful spells, probably his active skills. These mighty spells destroyed multiple buildings with the collateral damage from each one, and although the heat of the flames was quite hot and scalded him, what started becoming dangerous was the debris and hard impacts on the ground Orodan suffered as he was shot around like a ball.

Magic was now something he was virtually immune to, particularly as he continued to train this new Legendary skill which was at 4 due to the sheer barrage.

His unfortunately high vitality and defense skills allowed him to survive a long time even amidst this barrage however, and he gained a new skill.

[New Skill → Impact Resistance 1]

But this wasn’t an ideal situation for Orodan, as he was now being bounced around like a child’s plaything, and his impossible survivability still kept him alive.

Mana Resistance and Impact Resistance continued to level, and even Physical Fitness gained a level due to the sheer exertion of keeping his footing, bracing to stand strong against the explosions and impacts, and constantly moving about.

His weapons and clothes had all been utterly disintegrated by this point. And if not for the awe-inspiring power of a Legendary rarity skill keeping him alive, he should’ve been killed a hundred-thousand times over by this level of damage.

This was what made mages incredibly dangerous. In a one-on-one duel a martial combatant held the advantage in terms of speed, durability and combat mastery. But as a group? Mages were capable of terrifying artillery style bombardments which could utterly suppress groups of warriors. And Orodan was but one man facing a mage an entire tier higher who was assisted by six other Adept mages.

The Adept warriors had long since stepped back as they’d be minced by the bombardment.

But alas, the damage coming his way was mostly magical, and magic was composed of mana.

So, slowly but surely. Without dying, his Impact Resistance and Mana Resistance gained levels. And finally, after nearly a full two minutes of an insane barrage which destroyed much of the town, Orodan was able to stand tall even in the face of it.

And he took a step forward. And another. And soon the distance between him and Lord Aeglos grew shorter.

Until finally he was face to face with the man, and the Adept mages near the Elite also began holding their spellfire lest they hit their Lord himself.

[Agathor, God of War, smiles upon you]

[Received Blessing → Warrior’s Quarry - Once you see your target they cannot flee. Your attacks will land on fleeing or evading foes and destiny will bend to ensure you find your mark]

He was nearing death from the sheer amount of total damage that he had accrued from impacts, shrapnel from explosions and whatnot. But he still had strength left despite undoubtedly looking like a mangled ghoul.

So he reached out with both hands, for the face of the arrogant fire mage.

But suddenly he felt a fist enter his chest and go out the other side.

“Little Eggy…” a haunting voice crooned. “Is this what you caused a mess for? From the sounds of it I thought the Republic gave up their farce and attacked earlier than scheduled.”

The voice didn’t belong to the skeletal monk in front of him with its hand embedded in his chest which appeared faster than his eyes could track.

It belonged to the woman behind the skeleton.

A pale, gaunt face which looked as though she belonged in a coffin rather than standing before him and speaking. Her hair was pure white, her skin perfectly unblemished in a creepy way that would have anyone’s instincts screaming that it was unnatural and abhorrent. And her eyes were glowing a subtle shade of a sickly green color. The classic appearance of a necromancer.

The nearby Adepts all fell to their knees in respect and supplication.

“M-master… I apologize for my failure… this man, he-”

“Hmm! I see it! He should be screaming in pain and torn apart as his bones decay and necrotic spikes erupt throughout his body…” the woman spoke in an eerie tone as though she was examining a dissected rat. “…but it’s as though only the physical attack of my pet had any effect on him. The mana… it can’t find any purchase on him whatsoever.”

Orodan strained and struggled, letting loose his fists against the reanimated skeleton, but it was at least Elite level and his Unarmed Combat Mastery wasn’t even Adept.

Dozens of furious punches and he began to only slightly damage it. Plus, his vision began to darken as whatever source of vitality his body was running on genuinely began to run dry after all the ludicrous damage he took.

“And he’s somehow still alive despite all this damage. Incredible… is it a Bloodline? A Blessing? There’s no way you’re an Adept only of course. Hiding your titles are we? Are you some secret weapon cultivated by the Republic?” her questions came frantically. “Oh! How I’d love to capture and experiment on you… but alas, we’re on a strict schedule today and I can’t afford one of my nicer pets being blemished by your brutish fists. Kill him.”

And suddenly another skeletal hand gripped around his face, and the glowing green flames inside the hollow eye sockets of his bony killer peered into his own.

The skeletal hand squeezed, and his vision went dark.

A keening wail ringing in the night sky awoke him, and Orodan was thankful his survivability had not yet grown enough to allow him to survive his head being crushed like a grape.

He brushed away the Quest messages routinely but sat for a moment.

Another Blessing by Agathor?

The first time he was Blessed was when he fought and killed a few Guzuharan raiders in his first life, followed by rushing that monstrous Ogre barbarian in a hopeless attack. Was it the valor and bravery he displayed that earned Agathor’s approval?

Then, this time he earned his second Blessing from the same God when he stood tall in the face of an impossible barrage of magic. And Agathor was a God who was known for looking down on ‘cowardly’ individuals, which a lot of mages tended to be due to their risk-aversion.

It was a misconception that Agathor disliked mages in general, for if that was the case he’d dislike archers, peltasts and ranged martial fighters as well.

But Lord Aeglos, despite his stoic mask, seemed to be a bit of a coward from the measure Orodan got of him near the end. The type that crumbled if they didn’t have superior power or if they had to fight an equally strong opponent.

What really concerned Orodan however was Lord Aeglos’s ‘master’.

He was almost certain the woman was a Master-level necromancer. An Elite would never refer to anyone as their master otherwise.

Orodan didn’t know whether she intervened in order to mop up the mess or to prevent even the slightest bit of risk towards her disciple who she seemed to dote on in a creepy manner. Either way, she would be a very real obstacle in his path.

Furthermore, by this point given his new Legendary rarity skill, his enemies were starting to often overestimate his rank. With both Lord Aeglos and his master assuming his title as a Combat Adept was a lie.

He mentally called forth his Status.

[Name: Orodan Wainwright

Age: 17

Title 1: Combat Adept

Title 2: Empty

Available Titles: One Who Has Experienced Death, Sword Adept, Shield Adept, Physical Apprentice, Unarmed Combat Apprentice, Combat Adept, Cleaning Apprentice

Skills: Sword Mastery 58 (Adept), Shield Mastery 55 (Adept), Combat Mastery 53 (Adept), Unyielding Vitality 52 (Adept - Rare), Physical Fitness 47 (Apprentice), Damage Mitigation 39 (Apprentice), Power Strike 37 (Apprentice - Uncommon), Pain Resistance 37 (Apprentice), Perfect Parry 37 (Apprentice - Uncommon), Dying Struggle 34 (Apprentice - Uncommon), Bleeding Control 34 (Apprentice), Unarmed Combat Mastery 32 (Apprentice), Cleaning 31 (Apprentice), Surprise Attack 27 (Initiate), Sprinting 25 (Initiate), Impregnable Bladewall 24 (Initiate - Exquisite), Evasiveness 24 (Initiate - Uncommon), Laboring 22 (Initiate), Impact Resistance 19 (Initiate), Club Mastery 15 (Initiate), Lightning Resistance 12 (Initiate - Exquisite), Shield Throw 12 (Initiate - Uncommon), Parkour 11 (Initiate), Maintenance 8 (Initiate), Mana Resistance 7 (Legendary - Initiate), Repair 7 (Initiate), Thievery 6 (Initiate), Intimidation 6 (Initiate), Deception 4 (Initiate),

Blessings: Warrior’s Heart - Increased talent and learning rate for all warrior related skills as determined by Agathor] [Warrior’s Quarry - Once you see your target they cannot flee. Your attacks will land on fleeing or evading foes and destiny will bend to ensure you find your mark]

There were two massive gains from this series of loops.

The first being his new Legendary rarity resistance skill. Something that would likely have him chased to the ends of the earth for abduction and indoctrination into a nation’s military force if anyone found out.

The second being his second Blessing from Agathor. Which could cause a similar upheaval and outright kidnapping if he approached things the wrong way. Furthermore he’d really have to avoid Temples from now on as any battle-priests or high-levelled faithful of Agathor would be able to detect that he had two Blessings if they met him face-to-face. Which would be a problem because the only kinds of people with more than one Blessing were Favored.

Favored were people who had the eyes of the Gods themselves upon them at all times. Their actions being watched and guided. And depending on what God was watching them, they were destined for great things and nations would furiously scramble to entice them to their side as they were a source of great karma and good fortune.

The most well-known Favored was Lady Lakshiya, the High Oracle of the Cathedral of the Gods in the Capital. Her advice and counsel was favored and sought by not only the Council in the Capital, but also by the leaders of other nations who would visit simply to meet with her and hear her portents.

Which meant that being Favored, was a rather big deal. It would certainly lend credence to his claims of having received a Quest if he ever decided to open up about that.

Orodan wasn’t quite sure what Agathor’s thought process was when deciding to give him another Blessing. After all, even when he revealed that he had his first one, the battle-priest in Scarmorrow had seemed confused as Agathor himself did not know when he blessed Orodan. While the Church liked to spout a lot of dogma about the Gods being all-knowing and omniscient, Orodan suspected that the other, more academic theory proposed by certain ‘heretical madmen’ was true.

That the Gods couldn’t glimpse too much into the affairs of the mortal realm unless it was through their priests. And the only things they could do in terms of interference were bestowing Blessings or possessing Avatars.

Orodan shook his head and got to his feet.

His break had lasted long enough.

With his new Legendary skill and Blessing, it was time to return to the fray and smash his head against the mountain that was Lord Aeglos and the Master-level necromancer who he called his master.

However many thousands of loops it took, Orodan was stubborn. He would persevere, and he would grind.

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