A Long Annoying Meeting

Well we were all drunk, homeless and tired.

All we had left were the outfits we had been wearing, our suits, and the weapons we had brought. In terms of our inventories the other 4 only had the skill at dirt rank meaning that they only had about 4 slots as opposed to my 64.

We had to stop at a nearby park and sit at a picnic bench.

I phoned the emergency number and the fire engines turned up to put it out whilst we pooled together everything we had in our inventories.

I had the kitchen knife from the hospital, the Golden Thread, the never-ending wine bottle, the Arrow of Mistletoe as well as my left over 10,000 credits from selling the minotaur boss' nose ring.

Karson had some hair gel, his workout clothes, a whetstone and a polishing kit. He was so sad about losing his armour that I basically had to fight him just to stop him from jumping into the blaze.

Clarisse had 3 plates of cookies and her crochet hooks. Her hat was definitely gone but she was way too drunk to realize the gravity of the situation and was currently trying to make a flower chain.

Skinny had stolen a bowlful of the snacks from the green room and had the rest of his armour and his porter bag. So at least he wasn't doing too badly.

Steven had nothing in his inventory but a couple of models and his painting supplies. He had nothing left but that and his dress clothes, I was worried he would sober up any second now and try to kill me.

"What the hell are we going to do Karson?" Asked Skinny.

"I don't know! Why don't you ask the new guy seen as he got us into this mess?!" Karson was full of rage and it was all directed at me.

"Oh yeah! Well who was it who had the bright idea to cheat a debate with a guild way bigger than ours?!" I shouted back at him.

"Woah woah! Cheat? What do you mean cheat?!" Skinny butted in.

"Oh yeah, the tin man here, only signed us up because of my time loop skill!" 

"Time loop skill?" He took a second to think about that while looking at me, before turning to Karson. "You were trying to use him?!"

"I already apologized I jus-." He got cut off by Clarisse handing a flower chain to him.

Clarisse's gift giving gave us a second to all take a breath.

"OK why don't we go check into a hotel and then we can figure this out?" Karson said after a long pause.

"Alright let's go." Skinny said grabbing a hold of Steven and Clarisse.

"Karson I'll text you later. I have to go do something on my own." I said not moving.

"Are you going to do something stupid?" Karson asked not even finding the energy to be mad.

"I'm just going to go pick up our dungeon rights…" Even I could hear I wasn't being convincing.

"If you're going up against Sarah again you can forget coming back." 

"Who's Sarah?" I asked.

"The Templar guild leader!" Karson worked himself up but then just sighed and said, "You know maybe you should have stayed in that fucking coma where you belonged! All you've done is mess up everyone's lives." 

Skinny looked like he was going to defend me but in the end he didn't find the words and just gave up and followed after Karson with the other 2.

I watched their backs slowly disappear down the park path, it could be the last time I saw them.

I used a laundromat to wash the smoke and ash out of my suit and then headed straight for the Templar guild, It was time to make 'Sarah' pay our fee for the debate after all.

I caught my reflection and this time it suited me, that evil smile.

I calmly walked through the lobby and then hopped in the elevator, the secretary outside tried to stop me from going in but after she saw my face she backed down a little.

[Time loop (1 minute and 30 seconds)]

"Hey there Sarah! Just figured I'd drop by and grab those dungeon rights and head back to the guild!" I said cheerily as I opened her doors.

"Oh really I had heard that something happened to your guild?" 

"Yes something did happen! You torched our building you parasite!" I said running at her with my spear at top speed, only to die to something in my peripherals.

[Second Loop]

"Hey there Sarah! Just figured I'd drop by and grab those dungeon rights and head back to the guild!"

"Oh really I had heard that something happened to your guild?"

God she really ticked me off! "Yes something did happen! By the way who's this?" 

I had uncovered the mystery in my peripherals: an orange haired fox-girl sitting in the chair opposite Sarah's desk. I guess that's what I got for storming in guns blazing, worth a try though.

"Ah this is one of our powerful guild members! Vicki why don't you introduce yourself?" 

"Hi I'm Vicki! It's going to be fun working with you!" She was maybe a year or two but had quite a high pitched voice.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Oh so you didn't come here to work for us?" Sarah asked.

"No why would I ever work for you?!"

"Maybe because I can get to you or the rest of your guild no matter where you are? So it would be for the best to join us and share your dungeon destroying skills with a guild that can better utilize them." 

"Hey Vicki. It's a good thing I met you because we'll be seeing a lot of each other from now on."

"I'm glad you saw the best path and decided to jo-." She couldn't finish what she was saying because I had hit her with my spear.

This did also lead to me being killed by Vicki again but who cares, all I had now was time.

[Third Loop]

"Hey Sarah! Hand me the dungeon rights now! That is unless you want a spear going through little Vicki here?" 

Vicki engulfed me in flames burning me to death. In retrospect I could have probably handled that more gently.

[Fourth Loop]

"Hey Vicki! You burned our headquarters down didn't you?"

Vicki got up from her almost hiding position in the chair surprised I had seen her and knew her name.

"Yeah…"

"You realize there was people living in that building right?"

"Yeah, I made sure none of you were in the basement first, duh!"

"What about all the people living above the restaurant how many of them were saved?"

Vicki was startled hearing this clearly taken aback by the revelation that she had just murdered several people.

"You said the entire building was just a front for their basement headquarters!" Vicki turned to Sarah accusing her.

Sarah simply scoffed and then magic extended from her, wringing Vicki's neck causing her to float before killing and dropping her in an instant.

"You know I was going to invite you to join us but as long as you take the rights and leave right now, I won't have to kill you."

This was music to my ears I could finally get what I came here for plus the person who had burned our place down was now dead.

I walked over to her about to grab the file but stopped my hand an inch away from it.

What the hell was I doing? All I needed was to just grab the file and I could go back to the others a hero…

I turned my head and saw Vicki's crumpled body and the shiny collar that Sarah had clearly fitted her with.

"Damn it!" I called out before stabbing myself in the chest over and over with the kitchen knife from my inventory. She better be thankful…

[tenth try]

"Hey Vicki can you come here for a second?"

Vicki came from behind her usual place on the chair and walked towards me confused.

"Yes that's it just in the light so I can see you better."

Over the past 6 loops I had tried a few different things to get the file with the rights in it and make sure Vicki got out alive but it wasn't as easy as you'd think.

There were other hurdles I had to jump over in order to complete these two objectives:

1. Sarah could not die, if Sarah died the building would go on lockdown and kill us.

2. Sarah could not be reasoned with, I tried everything but she still wouldn't budge.

3. Vicki could not go against Sarah otherwise she would be killed.

These made the loops quite a bit harder but for this loop I wanted to look into something new. Vicki's collar.

If I could deactivate Vicki's collar I would be able to cross number 3 off the list. Vicki could go against Sarah and not die.

I looked all around Vicki's collar but couldn't see an latch or button or anyway to deactivate it.

"What are you doing over there? You know you could spend all the time you want with Vicki if yo-." Sarah called out still standing behind her desk.

"If I join your guild I know! Look, if you're not going to be useful and tell me about this collar then you can be quiet for a second."

"Oh impressed by the collar are you? I'm actually a be-."

"A beast tamer I know! What did I just say about being useful?"

Sarah already pissed me off from the moment I first met her but after hearing her repeat information I'd already heard she was making me go crazy.

"Sarah, is there hypothetically a way to deactivate this thing?"

"A slave collar, well there are a couple ways but this is my favourite!" She said killing Vicki right in front of me.

I couldn't believe the nerve on this mother…

[Eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth loops]

I simply walked in on my phone not saying a word, ignored both Vicki and Sarah and just concentrated on reading wiki articles and forum posts about dispelling slave collars.

When the loops ended I simply repeated it trying different sources.

I learned that there were 4 ways to dispel a slave collar, Have a craftsman crack the thing off, Get the tamer to dispel it using magic, Kill or cut off the mana flow of the tamer and the last way was to find the contract and destroy it (If there was one).

[Fourteenth loop]

I was starting to get really tired of all this looping over and over. For them mere seconds passed when I opened the door but for me it had been over 20 minutes already.

A horrible realization started to dawn on me that I could be doing this for the rest of my life, I had to get rid of that thought and get my head in the game.

"Hello Vicki and Sarah! Sarah, the powerful beast tamer who wants to recruit me, you see the thing is I will sign one of your employment contracts as long as you show me Vicki's contract."

They were both incredibly stunned by my entrance and all Sarah could do was go into the safe in her desk and rummage around.

Ah the sound of a quiet Sarah! Life truly can be a miracle on occasion!

She pulled out a brown piece of paper with a weird hexagon symbol in the middle, in the middle of the hexagon was a detailed drawing of Vicki's face.

I picked up the contract and licked it.

That may seem weird but I wanted to tell if it was real or fake by seeing if I could taste anything but paper. It was on a guide about slave contracts somewhere on my phone 2 loops ago.

"Wow this is real!" I exclaimed to Sarah before tearing up the contract into a million pieces and then grinding the scraps of paper into her carpet with my foot.

Vicki's collar glowed red and I was worried she was about to die again but the collar simply broke apart and disappeared into dull ashes of magic.

"Why did you just do that?!" Sarah nearly screamed she was so angry.

"Just give me the goddamn rights before I let any more of your 'employees' go."

"Argh fine!" She said grabbing the file from her desk and giving it to me.

"This better what you promised," I said briefly skimming over the documents inside.

"It is! Now would you just leave!"

"OK but I'm taking Vicki with me and I hope you remember that I can get to you or the rest of your guild no matter where you are?" I said borrowing one of Sarah's favourite lines from the loops.

[Time loop deactivated]

I grabbed Vicki by the arm and I could finally walk out of the doors I'd had to open fourteen times now.

"You're weird! You knew my name without meeting me before." Vicki said as we walked down the street.

"Yup."

"You lost me my job."

"Also yes."

"Can you explain anything to me?"

"Yes the good news is that you're being transferred to the Orion Guild, but other than that no."

I was on my phone at the same time trying to get a hold of Karson. But he wasn't picking up.

Well if he didn't want to talk to me I wasn't about to let that stop me. I knew for a fact where he would be right now.

"Why are we at the building I burned down?"

"You might want to keep that quiet right now with the fire inspectors probably still checking out the place."

We were indeed in the back alley to our burned down headquarters. It's because I knew that Karson would be back here as soon as I could and I guessed by the fact I could see Skinny ,sitting on the ground eating the snacks from his inventory, that I had found him.

"Hey Skinny catch!" I said pushing Vicki towards him.

"Hey Zane, What the hell?!" he said most of his snacks rolling around on the dingy alley floor now.

"This is the little firebug who torched our place," I gestured to Vicki and then shook the file in my hand, "And this is the dungeon rights we were promised. No violence needed."

"Zane, listen about what Karson said before, you have to realize he didn't mean any of it he was just angry about losing his home for the past couple of years." Skinny said getting up grabbing me by the shoulder.

"I know Skinny. It's alright it sucked for all of us." I gave him a reassuring smile and met his eyes.

"Anyway what are we supposed to do with the fox?"

"What do you mean? She's one of us."