Seal Scribing is as much an art form as it is a science and a craft. Well known recipes exist for various runic formations which result in popular seals, and yet, the way one does the scribing, the precision and the beauty of their work impacts the effectiveness of the end result.

  An exalt and a novice could scribe the same seal, and yet the difference in effect could be as large as ten-fold, which may seem ridiculous to a layman, since the runes and their distribution are identical. But so many things beyond the simple appearance matter, and one cannot understand them unless they start scribing themselves.

  — Excerpt from The Introduction to Seals

  Day 83, 4:50 PM

  Finally, I placed the one thousand six hundred and twenty-third tome down and got a level up notification. The choice was between Initial Logical Deduction and Advanced Arithmetics. Apparently levels function the same as before, at higher levels sometimes you get to choose between the skills you missed. Sometimes it was a blessing, sometimes a wasted skill slot, but such was life.

  Both skills were useful to an extent, but my choice was simple, and I went with the former for a supernatural bonus to my inference ability.

  For my previous level, back when I defeated Ruby in a debate I picked Initial Time Optimization, a seemingly bland skill I very much started abusing the moment I got it to optimize my schedule and to find the quickest way to advance my levels.

  But the debate itself was very interesting. The case of Airblade Mountainpeak was a strange one. He disobeyed the royal decree to exterminate a village for failing to pay their taxes. Imperial law allowed the royals a large degree of autonomy, including their own laws, and the punishment regarding tax collection was intentionally vague.

  Seven imperial eras ago, the Couatl kingdom was ruled by a bloodthirsty madman, while the one who pardoned Dandelion and his bandits was the madman’s great-great-great-grandson. One slaughtered peasants over meager taxes, the other absolved thieves and murderers because he needed cheap muscle.

  Anarchist to the bone, I defended Airblade Mountainpeak’s decision, and while I failed to convert Ruby to my cause, I was eloquent enough to strike her dumb, and in BSD’s view win the argument. It was a nice memory for a timeline which stuck.

  Abandoning sweet reminiscence, I checked my next level up condition — Be a founding member of a school.

  Well, that one won’t be happening any time soon. Time to wrap up with the scholar class and library within two looped weeks. I invested my points into willpower, pushing it to twenty-five, and the spare went to composure, upping it to twenty-one.

  Twelve years of scheduled, biweekly suicides passed in a blink. In those two weeks, which I had repeated some three hundred times, I avoided Ruby. Not because I cared about the woman, but there was no point driving myself crazy with going through the same conversations over and over again.

  I spent those years well. I took breaks, getting to know each of my henchmen, taking them out for lunch thrice and hearing their life stories and anecdotes about what had happened as Blackfist bandits. Other than that, I visited each shop, inn, and restaurant Hailstown had to offer, and Basil’s place was the best by far, followed closely by Tickle and Giggle, a brothel serving surprisingly decent food.

  And with the library finally cleared, I was presented with two choices - experiment with my realm knight class, or gather skills in other classes before focusing on the realm knight.

  I chose the latter, my reasoning simple - the books taught me core expansion took months or years of effort and a bunch of resources, all of which I lacked. The odds of me getting stuck at a certain class level and then restarting the class later were huge. In fact, I was certain it would happen.

  So, I went to the guards’ training yard, and since I was the town’s lord, I picked up a staff. The weapon was poorly crafted, even if you needed to be a master of it to judge its inferiority at a glance the way I did. Still, I picked it off a rack, and whipped it down. The air screamed and the wood creaked, before the motion came to a sharp, controlled stop.

  [Ability - Advanced Staffmanship acquired]

  Everyone in the training yard turned towards me, guards gaping as the dust rose in a circle around me surging like a wave. Even I was impressed. I never expected BSD would recognize my skill to such an extent from a single swing.

  I kept brandishing the staff for three whole loops, but failed to push the skill to the expert tier. In the fourth loop I settled with the advanced tier, then grabbed initial tier swordsmanship, spearmanship, clubmanship, and slingmanship. On Everrain, entering the weaponmaster class required proficiency with three weapons, in Eternal Light empire, it took five. Finally, by nightfall of my nominally eighty-third day in this life, I replaced my class yet again.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The level up condition was the same as the last time I was a weaponmaster - defeat a combatant with their favored weapon. Combatant was an important word there, I couldn’t just arm a kid and beat them up.

  I looked around, but the training yard was empty, illuminated by flickering torches.

  That’s fine. I went over the racks with weapons. I can gain a few more proficiencies.

  By dawn I had added flails, knives, axes, and maces to my repertoire, and BSD hid my overly long list of skills, prompting me to focus on a separate screen to see them. It was just a minor inconvenience, and I never checked my abilities anyway, I just knew them.

  There was a whole list of others I had learned after gathering enough knowledge over the loops, such as Initial Herbalism, Initial Anatomy, Initial Commerce, and a bunch of others. Unfortunately, they all reset when the loop ended, and each would take some practice. The bright side was that none were as important as quickly getting up to speed with a fighting class, which was guaranteed to make me a beast on the battlefield.

  As the guards slowly trickled in to work, it was time to get my future started.

  “Good morning men.” I approached a group of six as they gathered in the other corner of the expansive, sand-covered yard. “Might I interest one of you for a quick spar.”

  They all paled, two of them even backing away subconsciously.

  “We will use training weapons, and I promise not to hit anything save for your weapon.” My assurance didn’t reassure them one bit. “I’ll give ten silver to the brave volunteer.”

  Three volunteered, and I chose the most proficient one. His weapon of choice was the long sword, so I picked one up as well. He licked his lips as he stared not in my eyes, but at my weapon.

  “Feel free to attack, I will defend at first.” He gulped and lunged.

  The clang of steel filled the air as the man really gave his best. He wasn’t even half bad, definitely a combatant, and when he saw I wasn’t aiming to hurt or humiliate him, he attacked with greater zeal.

  “I am attacking,” I warned him after his twentieth attack, and the man steadied himself, his stance lower and wider, better suited for defense.

  Sand scattered as I stepped forth. With a routine sweep, I batted the sword out of his hand and held the dull blade against his neck before he could even blink. The blue screen remained silent.

  No notifications, no nothing.

  “Thank you for the opportunity, my lord.” The guard bowed after I removed the sword from his neck. Why isn’t it working? He’s obviously a skilled swordsman.

  He relaxed, his lips stretching into a grin after I made no move to injure or humiliate him.

  “My kids won’t believe I sparred with a third realm knight.”

  Oh, bloody hell, really? Really? I have to find a third realm knight and beat them in a duel? What kind of nonsense is that? I’m the only third realm knight in town.

  There were a dozen more first and second realm knights scattered about that I had located during red loops, but Hailstown was a non-awakened town. Too small to warrant an adventurers’ guild or wanderers, yet too far away from the Summersweald to serve as a base for those on dinosaur subjugation missions.

  I wasn’t happy. Quite the opposite, I felt the system had played me yet again. Worse, I would have to redo again. Otherwise, I might not be able to enter weaponmaster when I find the opportunity to advance it.

  I sigh, thank the grinning man, and go out into the street to consider which other classes I might advance as. Herbalist was on the table, hunter required me to hunt and sell or trade animals, and wasn’t an option as I was. I have learned about alchemy, artificing, smithing, and seal scribing, all distinguished professions mages and mageknights practiced.

  Another option was learning about beast rearing, but the problem was that the town was too small and lacked the guilds. It even lacked the facilities for alchemy and artificing. But I could go to a smithy and hammer away for thirteen days and see where it got me. The loop was a waste anyway, and the change of pace would be nice.

  I considered the notion and found that I liked it quite a bit. Smithing, seal scribing, and herbalism would form three contrasting professions, one in a dirty, sweltering room, another in a quiet study, and a third wandering the fields outside the town. The combination where I alternated between them as I liked seemed like a mental health retreat for me.

  Yes, I liked that one a lot.

  [Name - Dandelion Blackfist

  Class - weaponmaster level 0

  Health 25/25, Strength - 25, Agility - 25, Physique - 25, Wisdom - 25, Intellect - 25, Willpower - 25, Presence - 21, Charisma - 24, Composure - 21

  Abilities - See Abilities for more information.

  Attribute points remaining - 0

  To level up, defeat a combatant with their favored weapon.

  Statuses - none]

  [Abilities - Initial Appraisal, Initial Forest Ambush, Advanced Looting, Literate, Inferior Heartcore, Initial Mana Gathering, Initial Mana Circulation, Initial Black Fist Arts, Advanced Body Reinforcement, Master Rider, Initial Fast Reader, Initial Reference Checker, Advanced Calligraphy, Initial Arithmetics, Initial Persuasion, Initial Photographic Memory, Initial Time Optimization, Initial Logical Deduction, Advanced Staffmanship, Initial Swordsmanship, Initial Spearmanship, Initial Clubmanship, Initial Slingmanship, Initial Flailmanship, Initial Knifemanship, Initial Axmanship, Initial Macemanship]

  [Anarchist Level 7

  Abilities - Rage, Redo, Blunt, Heavy Handed, Direct, Insightful, Precise, Amicable, Visionary, Godly ??, Gate Sealer ??, Vengeful ?, Grandmaster Rider ?

  To level up, force the authorities to impose justice upon a party they had previously ignored.]