Time Loop System

I had apparently found Steven's hidden potential putting my time up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds. 

After a bit of testing we had found that his new form allowed him to completely negate any and all physical attacks that weren't enhanced by skills. But he was still weak to skills and magic in particular. 

His new form had come from his innate skill [Null] becoming level 2. We all decided that bringing him with us to such a big event may be controversial.

"Guys I totally understand don't worry." Steven said fitting inside a t-shirt, shorts and sandals in his slimy form. 

I was worried that we would never be able to see Steven look himself again. He could be a weird slime forever now. 

We were all dressed in the suits that we had worn to the debate and Clarisse stunned once again in her outfit. I was tying my tie whilst explaining the circumstances to Steven.

It turned out that I could take the necktie out of my inventory however, I would need to tie it myself which felt a little unfair.

If we could grease a couple of hands with some nice guilds that didn't have it out for us maybe we could gain a partnership and then we wouldn't be dirt poor in a destroyed hospital that we could barely hang onto. 

But that wasn't the biggest reason why tonight was important; tonight Vicki would be out in the open and I hoped that maybe we would be able to find a way to bring her back with us. We all wanted her back desperately and I knew that she must be unhappy after all her brother seemed super unstable!

"Is everyone ready to go?!" I yelled out into the hallway. Clarisse was getting changed in a women's bathroom whilst Skinny and Karson were getting changed in seperate ends of a bed ward with the curtains shut around them. Protecting their modesty seemed a little counter intuitive as most of their training had them shirtless anyway. But oh well I didn't pretend to understand anyone I just try to listen when they talk and care about what they care about.

Clarisse came out first which I wasn't expecting. Her green hair cascading down the shoulders of her nice purple dress. She decided to forgo the big witches hat so her hair flowed freely and naturally. She looked great. I almost debated checking myself out in a mirror when I saw Karson step out handsome, tall and blonde. But when Skinny emerged in his stained disgusting suit barely doing anything with his hair or face I knew I'd be just fine even if I turned up in my underwear.

"OK we're ready to go." Karson said adjusting his tie and smoothing out his hair. He looked like a freaking celebrity!

"Hear that Steven! We're about to head out so don't wait up!" I called back into our operations room. I just heard a grunt back. Ever since he had discovered how invulnerable he was he seemed glued to his phone.

"How we getting there?" Skinny asked to no responses. Guess we would be taking some buses and a train.

"May I see your digital invite?" The same front desk woman that I had met when I came to the association to get my ID card greeted us. The party was being held in one of the top floors of the Association skyscraper.

"Sure." I said passing my phone over the scanner she held in her hand. When the beep came along with a green light I just began walking to the elevator without even waiting for her to double-check or make any snide remarks.

One thing I had forgotten since the last time we came to this building was the fact that Karson got violently ill on the glass elevator so he was currently running up maybe 50 flights of stairs to join us up there. He could create beams of energy by slicing his sword I was sure he would be fine running up a couple steps.

"Skinny look at you! We have to make a good impression!" Clarisse said fixing his tie and smoothing out the hairs on his head. Then when she finished I could see that she was actually trembling. Her hands were balled into fists whilst her shoulders shivered like she was cold.

"What do you think you're doing?" She asked when I draped the jacket of my suit over her shoulders. 

"You're cold right? So just tell people that." I told her whilst looking over the incredible view of the entire city that we were able to get from the clear elevator going higher than I think I had ever been in my life. I swore if I squinted really hard I could almost see every place we had been so far (minus America of course).

"I haven't seen people from my guild in a long time and I just... I d-dont... I-I..." She began to tremble violently. 

"You're just feeling cold right? So hold onto my jacket and don't worry about it." I said as the elevator doors opened. I stretched out my arm for her to take but she just stood there for a second looking at me, "C'mon even a total brain case like me knows that you're supposed to escort a lady into a party. So take my arm or Skinny's because there's no way I'm letting you wander around alone with the Waterlily guild about." I could feel the blood rush to the corners of my cheeks. She took my arm and I looked over to find her face just as red as I thought mine was.

A man wearing a bespoke tailored suit stood just outside of the elevator door, "The Orion guild!" He announced to the rest of the party. I saw it all in front of us a large collection of people staring at us with drinks in hand. Some I recognized from the past couple months and a lot I didn't. 

The floor was a large mingling area with glass walls leading to large office spaces to the left and right and at the very edge of the room I saw a large impressive modern-designed stair case that led upwards and then to either the left or right in a Y shape.

The party would have fallen completely silent if it wasn't for the boring classical music playing in the background. Skinny smoothed out his shirt and immediately stepped out of the elevator, I guessed he was used to this reception at many other events because he didn't seem the least fazed by it.

I would have moved out with him but my arm currently felt like it was caught in a vice; Clarisse was staring at a large group of predominantly well-dressed beautiful young women and men. I shook my arm and she let go for a second and started to rub her other arm in a defensive pose. 

"Don't worry. Stick by me tonight. Nothing will go wrong." I whispered into her ear whilst pushing back some of the hair that was covering it. She continued to rub her arm and grow weaker so I forcefully put her arm into mine and practically had to drag her out of the elevator.

The second we made it out of the elevator a door burst open beside us making me jump but Clarisse seemed too focused on growing paler and weaker to notice. It was Karson he was drenched in sweat and loosening his tie so he could breathe. He panted heavily and then looked around at all the eyes on us and fixed his tie and walked over to me. 

"Game plan coach?" He mumbled to me in passing.

"Fan out. Cover ground." He took in what he said, took a deep breath and smoothed out his now disheveled hair back to being movie star perfect. He took notice of how Skinny was off to the right and headed straight down the middle. 

Leaving me and Clarisse with only the left way to enter. The same area she looked like she wanted to avoid at all costs. 

"Zane please no..." She said with less strength than I had ever heard from her. Which said a lot after how I had nearly made her fall off a building.

"Screw them!" I said walking off to the left. Clarisse's footsteps began to drag more and more until she became like a lifeless zombie when we finally reached the inner part of the circle of conversation. 

"I-..." Clarisse got out but her moved her further.

"Sorry can you move I think I see someone important that we need to speak to?" I said to an old couple who were clearly the leaders of the group. They were so taken aback they had to recover themselves just to do as I asked. 

When we had gotten further through some more people to a relatively quiet part of the party Clarisse just stopped and hugged me.

"Why did you do that?" She said in my ear whilst I was trapped in her embrace.

I managed to loosen myself from her for a second and say, "This is a party I'm here to have a good time!" I said dancing a little bit to whatever concerto was playing. 

"But don't you need to make partnerships with different guilds?"

"No! That's Karson and Skinny's jobs, I'm only here for Vicki."

"What about me? What's my job?!" She began to get outraged that I hadn't told her the plan beforehand.

"You get to enjoy the party and have a good time. We all talked about and we felt you deserved it. You've been through so much since I arrived but this whole time you have only ever tried to keep everyone's spirits up." I flashed her a smile and gave a thumbs up just hoping she had heard me over all the chatter that had erupted in the room.

Her eyes became misty she went to smile but it didn't get far enough past her lips before she had to pull me into a hug again and say "thank you" whilst she stained my nice shirt with her eye make-up.

"Hey come on!" I said after a solid minute of it. "You might be here to have a good time but the rest of us have a job to do."

She tried to wipe her face with her hand and a genuine smile broached her lips. "Right, why did you pick Karson and Skinny to kiss-ass?"

"Wow didn't expect you to talk like that! Well, Karson is like a knight from a fairy tale and Skinny is the legendary Blood Axe, they're both better suited at persuading people than me. Plus I really need to keep my eyes open for Vicki."

"Our lives have really changed since you showed up you know." Clarisse said after a second of comfortable silence.

"Yeah sorry about that but you guys were just too boring before I got here!" I said with my hand on my heart jokingly.

"The Templar Guild!" The announcer called out as the elevator made a ding noise. Out stepped Sarah with a couple of well-dressed lackeys by her side. 

"Now if you'll excuse me I think I need to go and have a nice chat with an old friend..."