Chapter 426: Breaking the Loop

I would've loved to say we put our heads together and, through some combined grit and determination, we conquered this first stage, but that didn't happen. In fact, we went through several failed attempts, none of which seemed to advance the trial any further than before.

That's not to say we didn't "survive" for longer, as several of our attempts did, but that didn't seem to matter, and it appeared that success wasn't determined by time. No, we were clearly missing something and going about this the wrong way.

I even had the bright idea of locking the citizens up in a fortress of my own creation, but the wendigos could just spawn directly inside, proving the point that there was nowhere within the confines of this snow globe that they couldn't manifest. Honestly, it was frustrating, and while it did allow me to defeat them quickly since they were effectively "inside" me, all they needed to do was scratch a citizen to turn them to their side.

Thanks to our repeated attempts, it had grown extremely late, and we were now running on fumes. Because of that, mistakes were inevitable, and we decided to give up for now and rest. So, after one more cleaning up of the remaining monsters, we saw the town slowly repopulate.

"It really feels like rewinding time or something…" Vee murmured. "Look, the stone fortress you built is gone. Even that building I accidentally disintegrated has been rebuilt."

"I'm not saying you're wrong, but it doesn't feel like [Time Magic] to me. Remember, I asked Llewel to cast several spells on me in hopes of secretly gaining a resistance."

"Resistance? Why are you trying to hide the fact that you wanted to become a time slime?"

I coughed a little awkwardly and averted my eyes. That had been my actual goal, hoping to somehow influence my evolution through conditioning, but it had obviously failed. Not that I was too disappointed, as my Prismatic Slime evolution had exceeded my wildest expectations, and it felt like there were still many more secrets to discover about my new body.

Vee must have been tired beyond belief as she dropped the matter and instead moved on to finding a place to spend the night. It wasn't too hard to find an inn, and when we entered, the innkeeper immediately offered us a room for free.

"That's surprising…"

"You're surprised at being offered a free room? Did you expect the master of this place to want to try earning some cash on the side?" Vee asked with a hint of amusement.

"No, not that. That's the first person who could say more than 'hello' or 'sorry' to us."

"Damn, I must be tired… That totally slipped my mind. Maybe we need to find the right person before the invasion?"

"Who knows. Either that or we will be attacked during the night."

"I bloody hope not… If they do, you can deal with them. I'll be sleeping."

I chuckled at Vee's determination to get the sleep she wanted, no matter what, and agreed to handle any issues that might arise. I already had [Sub-Cores] on duty, and thanks to [Slime Puppetry], they could actually patrol and keep our perimeter safe, although that suddenly brought up a question in my mind.

"Does Sylbera or the others ever sleep?"

"Oh, I actually asked her about that before," Vee began replying, before breaking her sentence with a yawn. "She said she doesn't need to, but feels better if she does. She tends to do what you do and ask the 'dumb' cores to keep watch."

"Interesting… I wonder what brought that about? It could be a bit of an unexpected downside to a higher level of [Split Personality], if they are forced to behave more alive…"

"Or maybe she just enjoys a good sleep," Vee countered. "Speaking of which, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Goodnight…"

"Goodnight…"

***

Despite being on guard and in a town that had fallen to repeated monster attacks, nothing occurred during the night. As usual, I was the first to wake up, and Vee followed shortly after. We ate breakfast together, fresh from the dimensional storage, and then discussed our next plan of action.

"I think we should try ignoring them at least once," Vee suggested. "It's the obvious thing we didn't try, even if it feels a bit like giving up."

"We definitely need to move on. Despite killing even more monsters, we seem to have barely gained any experience."

That had been a rather unfortunate discovery after our repeated failures. For whatever reason, with each repetition, the experience we gained was less. Vee had previously gained three levels in two rounds, but now had only gained two in far more.

I would've said the quality of the monsters was dropping with each iteration, but since they still fought at the same strength and consistently caused our eventual loss, that didn't seem to be the case. Maybe the system was discouraging us from trying to farm the monsters for cheap experience, and Vee had even joked about the labyrinth having to make budget cutbacks.

Before heading straight to the castle, we did briefly look around, but neither of us noticed any change in the town or the people. If Vee was right about us needing to find the right person to progress, then it would require much more than just a casual sweep of the place.

Just like all the times before, as we approached the castle, that sense of looming dread began to solidify itself, and soon the desperate cries for help were echoing. Yet we both ignored it and continued to the castle. It wasn't that we'd suddenly become heartless, but after going through the same thing over and over, it was basically impossible not to become a little jaded.

I had expected more monsters to spawn to hinder us, but from the looks of things, nothing was happening. Maybe some of the cries from the town got worse, as if begging us to turn around, but that might have just been me trying to notice something. We had reached the gate to the castle's courtyard, which was unlocked and open, and even then, it was only a metal palisade, so we probably could have bypassed it.

"I was really expecting some—"

Vee was midsentence as we walked through the gate, and the world around us twisted. It was as if we'd walked through a portal, except neither of us had sensed anything, and considering Vee had [Spatial Sense] always running, that seemed impossible.

"—thing…" Vee partially finished.

With one step, we had gone from the courtyard of the castle to the entrance of the town. The town was hauntingly quiet, except for the sound of shambling monsters wandering the streets. It was just as before, when we first arrived, meaning we were immediately back to square one.

"You've got to be kidding me… We aren't even allowed to leave?"

"Looks like it. I can't believe it, nobody uses my portal trick against me!" Vee protested.

"I don't think it was a portal… The feeling was a bit off."

"So fake time magic and now fake portal magic? What's next?"

"I'm not sure… But we have to clean up the town of monsters again."

"Wonderful."

We got to work, which was basically routine at this point. Since we didn't need to protect any civilians, the process was smooth, but we were once again shortchanged on our experience reward. As people slowly started returning and the town began to fix itself, both Vee and I were left in a relatively poor mood.

"Should we ask your adventurer acquaintance for help?" Vee asked.

"He won't help. Just like he didn't help me with the demon labyrinth, claiming it would ruin the fun."

"I kind of see his point. Nobody wants the answer given to them outright. Now, having said that… I have to admit I'm pretty close to reaching my breaking point."

I was in complete agreement with Vee, and if we repeated this endless cycle a few more times, I was willing to try some extreme options to try and solve this trial. But we weren't that desperate yet, and we still had some rough ideas to explore.

"I guess we should try to find any suspicious-looking characters. The innkeeper was one, hopefully there's more."

"I don't suppose your slime minions can help us?" Vee asked.

"If it was just on the body count front, they could, but if we need to examine and observe, then I'm limited by the number of cores I have."

"Should we call in the cavalry?"

"Not yet. Let's try a bit on our own, and if we still can't, then we can ask for reinforcements."

"Yeah, it would be weird to need to bring in all twenty-four of them," Vee agreed. "Most adventurer parties aren't bigger than six people, right? If six humans can beat this, then we should be able to."

And so began our task of people-watching, though we weren't going to go about it blindly. We felt like the innkeeper must have been a hint that it would be someone with an important position or role, so we started there.

Since I wasn't activating personas with my [Sub-Cores], they couldn't really try to converse with people, so I had them spread out and look for any suspicious activity. Maybe someone in the town would perform actions out of the ordinary, or cause a scene, or something like that.

Of course, Vee was left with the core I'd asked to protect her, meaning she had [Telepathy] at her disposal, and she could go around trying to talk to the people herself. I should have seen it coming, as when I split up with Vee, she immediately started investigating the various eating establishments.

Well, who knows? Maybe the chef is the culprit.

Since Vee was looking into restaurants, I began investigating the shops, and when those quickly ran out, I moved on to the craftsmen. Whatever Moonscar was, it didn't appear to be much of a trade hub from what I could tell, with there being more crafters than merchants, and those people just selling directly from their workshops. The entire town seemed very self-sufficient, maybe even a little isolated, judging by the high walls that kept it contained.

During my investigation, it quickly became apparent that, while some of the citizens had more to say, they had only a few phrases. When I tried to strike up a conversation with the craftsmen, they would all claim that they were fully booked and to come again next time.

As for the few merchants I ran into, they were a bit different, except that they refused to accept my coin. I tried pressing further, and it seemed they used a bartering economy rather than money, which meant I'd need to trade for things. I thought this meant I'd figured out a solution, but no matter what item I pulled out, they ignored it as if it didn't exist.

I realized this meant that I probably needed to use items from within the town, so I tried stealing something in a desperate effort to start my bartering. However, what happened next was completely unexpected.

"Friend, did you steal this?" the merchant outright asked.

"No, I did not."

Yet despite my statement, the merchant continued staring at me, as if not buying it.

"Mm… Then you won't mind me calling the guards to confirm it, right?"

"Go ahead," I said, hoping to call his bluff.

Unfortunately for me, he wasn't bluffing, and soon I was surrounded by guards, and the person I'd taken the item from was unexpectedly brought in too. From there, things quickly escalated, and I ended up getting arrested.

All of this over a small mirror…

My actions had caused quite a stir in the otherwise picturesque town, and now that I'd been labeled a criminal, I was getting very different treatment from the people. They cursed at me, spat at the ground where I walked. The parents even shielded their children from me, as if my presence could somehow harm them.

"Uhh… Are you okay?" Vee asked telepathically; I could sense her hiding up on a building.

"I got arrested for stealing."

"Well, that's different… I'm surprised you're letting it happen."

"I figured maybe it would lead to something else. What if they take me to the castle prison or something? Would that somehow get around the wendigo event?"

"Wow, that's a pretty good idea."

"Thanks, I literally just came up with it."

Vee giggled, now understanding that I was just going along with the flow of my current misfortune. At the very least, this was something entirely new, bringing a bit of spice to what had become a bland routine. But when I was brought not to the castle, but to a small barracks and thrown into prison, I realized my idea was not so lucky.

I'd never been arrested before, unless my prison with the elves counted, so it was a weird experience. Now that my hopes had been dashed, I was tempted to stage a jailbreak, but all that would really do was further fuel this commotion.

Maybe I'll just wait around a bit? I can control one of my [Sub-Cores] more directly to keep interacting with people.

Whether intentional or not, the people didn't treat my [Sub-Cores] as me, meaning they weren't labeled as criminals and were free to continue wandering about the town. With how weirdly omnipresent the previous situation had been, I'd almost expected them to be thrown in with me.

As for my actual body, I tried conversing with the guards, but they seemed very unresponsive now that I was a prisoner. I kept trying, and maybe they grew fed up with me, as I eventually received a response to await the warden's judgment.

Well, whatever, I've got plenty I can do from my cell. Let's keep exploring and poking the people.