Once again, that same roof. The one that had appeared in front of me so many times now.
When I came back, I felt like I had lost something. It took me a while to understand what. I was too calm. All those emotions from before—the grief, the rage, the exhaustion.
...Gone.
A blank canvas again. Completely emotionless.
What had happened had already happened. I couldn't change it. I let it go, and got up.
That's when I saw it.
The crack was bigger. It ran the full length of the wall now, top to bottom. I stared at it for a moment, then looked away. There was nothing I could do about it.
I headed outside.
Liam was near the gate, talking with another guard. I waited until they finished, then walked over.
He turned when he heard me. I said hello.
He looked at me the way you look at a stranger passing through—still, assessing, nothing behind it. Then he said hello back, turned, and walked away.
That was it.
The Liam from the previous loop...
...was gone.
Days passed. Everything seemed to go as usual. I completed a few commissions while I could and waited for the day of the bandit attack. Normally, leaving the Lin family early meant paying a breach of contract fee—but if the escort failed, I could use the unpaid wages as an excuse to walk away clean.
The day finally came.
Once again, the carts stopped. Once again, the steward tried negotiating with the bandits, and once again, it failed. The bandit leader raised his blade.
This time, Liam didn't step in.
The blow landed before anyone moved. The fight broke out immediately after. This time, the reinforcements took much longer to arrive. I stayed as far from the main fight as possible, keeping my head down and avoiding the stronger bandits. I didn't even try to beat the one attacking me—just deflected, conserving my stamina. Time kept passing. Still no sign of the city guards. Soon, there were only a few of us left.
I was debating whether to trigger a reset or just run into the woods when the reinforcements finally came.
We survived.
Afterward, we returned to the Lin family. I waited for the day my wage was supposed to be given, and when they refused to pay it, I gave my resignation, packed my things, and left.
I was already thinking about silver. Beast hunting was too unpredictable—too many variables, especially near realm peaks. I needed something more stable.
My first thought was pill refining.
The problem was the startup cost. Equipment, materials, recipes—all of it expensive. But if I could learn it, money wouldn't be a problem for a long time. Talent didn't matter beyond a certain point. Enough repetitions and even someone like me should be able to produce consistent results.
The decision was made. But first things first—I still needed silver to begin. Which meant commissions. Which meant beast hunting, at least for now.
After renting a room, I went straight to the guild. Tier 1 beast, standard hunt. Nothing had changed about how I worked except that I was alone this time—but the experience from the previous loop made everything smoother. Afterward, I bought a dagger. Not the same one as before, but decent enough.
Time passed. The rhythm was simple—wake up, take a mission, cultivate. A month of that gave me enough silver to try.
Pill refining techniques for mortal-grade pills were cheap. Almost no one knew how to refine pills anymore—the talent was rare, and the knowledge was scarce. The recipes and equipment cost little. But the pills themselves? The market price was absurd precisely because supply had almost disapeared up.
If I could learn this, I wouldn't have to worry about silver for a long time.
I bought the simplest refining method and pill furnace I could find and got to work.