Chương 50: Chapter 47: Perfect Recollection

As horrible as it was waking up from a four-hour sleep and seeing Enantyum again on the status offices, Nolotl was thankful that their eye-to-eye only lasted a handful of seconds as the master of the loop didn't have anything to comment on. But it couldn't be denied that it got a scare out of the diviner seeing the chronomancer again so sound. He might have not died, but his mind was far from working at optimal efficiency.

Even though he didn't intend to follow the original script, the gnosiamancer found himself retreading his steps as it let him go through the day without thinking. Perfect Recollection was proving more of a curse than a Boon as he constantly saw Beta's lifeless and halved body before his eyes. He could only thank that the bisection hadn't removed any parts of her head, so at least her emaciated visage kept some dignity in his memories.

The worst part, however, that this type of experiences weren't anything new for him. The day continued as usual until noon as he reached the canteen and went to the alcove reserved for empyreans, instantly meeting a change of the script.

"By the Mother! Nolotl, you look horrible!" Clonazepam shouted at him, standing up from her seat and rushing at him, casting restorations and augmentations without his consent.

"Do I really look that bad?" he inquired tiredly.

"And more!" the dryad exclaimed. Whilst not horrified, she was certainly afflicted.

"What has happened?"

"… I have to ask that myself," the terian sighed. Nolotl didn't know what afflicted him more: Enantyum's nonchalant display of absolute power, his actual nonchalance towards the death of his peers, or Beta's death. He had been living with her practically for a whole month, so of course he couldn't avoid forming an attachment. But this death was way worse than the regression of the loop. One could be considered a bitter lapse of memory or a strong case of amnesia, but the other… Seeing someone die never got better.

Especially if that someone wasn't an enemy. They said hate and love were side of the same coin, and the twiceborn was inclined to believe it, because he could only feel the utmost gratifying of hates when disposing of the ambushers, yet Beta's death truly shook him. He raised a hand and softly pressed it against Clonazepam's tall shoulder to push her away, allowing him to put his tray down on the table and sit on the bench.

"Do you… require my assistance?" The Empyrean of Life softly said standing in front of him with her hands clasped in front of her lap, looking a bit ashamed.

"I must admit that the type of damage you seem afflicted with is… not one I'm used to heal, nor experienced enough to treat it. Lord Novum might be better than me to treat it. This… I have the feeling that this is a type of damage that is easier to deal with by someone with more years under their belt." Spiritual healing was said to soothe the mind and the bleak emotions, but gnosiamancer doubted their acquainted necromancer could help him. Nolotl softly smiled at the dryad.

It wasn't one of his usual fake ones, but a veritable smile, no matter how weak it might be.

"Sometimes I forget how young you truly are."

"I apologize for that," she bowed.

"Please don't, I meant it as a… compliment." Though he knew it wasn't quite the term he was searching for.

"If anything, it's refreshing seeing someone young. But yes, you're right. This is a type of damage that's hard to tackle. Anyhow, I do appreciate your interest and the offer of help, but I can deal with it myself."

"Can I at least recommend you seeing our fellow Empyrean of Death?"

"I mean you already did, but I'll ponder about it." Truth be told, Nolotl was hesitant to meet with Alvedon by the sheer virtue of now him being the Empyrean he had interacted the least with. And considering the empyreans had the uncanny skill to disappoint him, he really wanted to keep his curated image of the young undead still untarnished in his mind for a while longer.

"I see…" Clonazepam straightened up and bowed at him again.

"I believe this is my turn to take my leave." The dryad picked up her tray even though she was nowhere finished with her meal at this point of time and dashed away from the alcove.

"How pathetic I must be to worry a four-year old that much?" Nolotl sighed and looked at his food without any appetite.

"No, that's not fair towards Clonazepam. I cannot compare dryads to terians or celestials. She's mature and powerful enough to be an Empyrean, I cannot take away that achievement from her." The twiceborn didn't know what it was, but the food looked far worse than ever before.

Maybe it was because he had spent nearly a whole month cooking for himself and Beta and therefore perfecting his craft—if his cooking could be called that after only a month—but the food in bulk of the canteen had lost the meager luster it once had.

"Who would've thought that avoiding death would've afflicted me that much…" Whilst Nolotl wasn't suicidal in any shape or form, he really wished death had claimed me. Death hurt. A lot at that. But it brought him a clarity that was hard to deny. Death assimilation progressed by 1%. Life assimilation progressed by 1%.

"Thanks… I guess?" Nolotl acknowledged his Lesser Alignment Assimilation notifications, even if they came out of nowhere.

"No… this doesn't come out of nowhere, there's definitely some logic behind them, but… Yeah, I don't have the brainpower nor the presence of mind to deal with this right now. I think that... some sleep would do me some good." You have resisted Madness.

"Ugh… how can I feel even worse after sleeping?" Nolotl groaned as he came out of bed.

"I should search if some sleepless enchantment exists, but knowing my luck and magic as a whole, it will probably be a Life one." Like any living being, Nolotl Xocoyotzin liked to sleep. But his latest attempts at it had proven to be horrendous and fruitless. He quickly washed himself up and sat down at his desk, ready to formulate a course of action for this coil.

"Resetting my status is too dangerous to do considering Enantyum as a whole, so it's better if I don't do it… But I will at least keep an open mind at the idea," he mumbled whilst drawing the first stages of the Simulacrum's hylomorphism. It was a chore needing to do it every loop, but there were undeniable advantages to it. Having enchanted it once also helped with the drawing process.

"For starters, increasing my Information Alignment is a must. Otherwise… how much have I progressed on my level so far this last loop?" For the first time in a while, Nolotl opened his whole status. Name: Nolotl Xocoyotzin Age: 19 Race: Celestial-Terian Main Resource: Mana Resource Deposit Size: 25. 36 Progression Level: 6 (Information) Accumulated Experience: 9% Top Alignments: - Information ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱ 75. 03542% - Light ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 12. 80427% - Void ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 3.

78237% List of Titles: - Interlooper - Empyrean - Gnosiamancer - High Priest of Nochochenca List of Boons: - Thought Projection - Lesser Alignment Assimilation - Lesser Read Thoughts - Perfect Recollection - Resistance to Cognitive Harm - Cognition Connection List of Blessings: - False Serpent's Touch - Touched by Information - Starguided List of Proficiencies: - Animal Form (Quetzal) - Animal Form (Crow) - Gnosiamancy - Divination - Insights - Spell Assimilation (Simulacrum) List of Enchantments: - Life Slot: Argent Bindings of the Twiceborn - Information Slot: Second Mind Lesser Alignment Assimilation Progress: - Light ▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 22% - Arcane ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 2% - Life ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 11% - Time ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 5% - Information ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰ 100% - Space ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 1% - Death ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 3% - Chaos ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 4% - Void ▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 20% Status readings were long by definition, but the longer time went by, the longer his own got.

Though a certain portion of that extra length was simply due to a single Boon.

"9% level progress for six weeks is pretty darn good," he told himself while keeping his hands drawing.

"Considering it took me a whole decade from level 1 to almost 5, nearly one tenth of in a month and a third is quite decent. Very, at that. Even more so when taking into account that I focused more on Void than Information that last loop. I can at least hope to get to level 7 before the end of Enantyum's deadline, which is outstanding progress, if anything."

His average for level progression before the time loop was way higher than two years per level, yet now that had one to a single one even though levels only got increasingly hard to complete with each subsequent one.

"I'm happy with this progress, so perhaps I should simply dedicate all my efforts to increasing my Alignment and learning new spells… Or mastering those that I have." As much effort as he had put on it last loop, Nolotl had failed to get a complete casting of Ode to Silence. He had been able to make a solid attempt during the partial celestial alignment, but it wasn't a full manifestation of the spell. And if he succeeded… well, it would certainly boost his assimilation rate.

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"Obtaining a simple restoration spell to heal minor wounds would be useful but…" Nolotl parsed his tongue through his lips, only to find that no scar awaited him. He chuckled softly.

"I guess Clonazepam healed those bite marks and I didn't notice." He put a mental note on his mind to thank the dryad in the future, even if it was most likely that he would only be seeing her during the gathering near the end of the loop. But he would be seeing her, and that was what mattered.

"My greatest problem with learning healing spells is that I won't have any proficiency with them, and that's a hard wall to clear." Most healing spells fell onto Light, Life, and Time with some stranglers here and there as they used their elements in tandem with the schools of augmentation or restoration to stimulate some healing, but that wasn't an option for him.

"Gnosiamancy restoration spells will only heal the mind, and I want to heal the body. Though I guess having some mind healing wouldn't be bad… No. Nolotl, focus here," he already felt his brain aiming for one of the side quests that it liked so much.

"Technically speaking, Enantyum would be the best teacher one could ask for, but I highly doubt he will give me a second of his time. But a chronomancy restoration… pulsars, that would be so powerful." Time spells couldn't heal the body to a better state than it was before, yet at the same time, being able to annulate any damage was a powerful skill.

"Considering my Alignments and assimilation, my best choice would be to get a photomancy restoration, but that still doesn't resolve the actual problem of lacking proficiencies," he clicked his tongue.

"Not having proficiencies with a spell is no different from having a negative proficiency that hinders you, so a first-tier spell photomancy restoration would be a second-tier spell at best and a third-tier at worst…" Nolotl had managed to cast Real-Time Status, a third-tier spell, in a quarter of an hour from first reading it for several reasons.

He had a proficiency with gnosiamancy and divination, he worked on the status offices so he knew many of the used spellcircles already, but most importantly, that spell in specific depended a lot in one's Alignment with Information, so to him it was closer to a cantrip than anything else. And it had still taking him fifteen minutes.

Any half decent restoration spell would take him as much time as Simulacrum to cast with a fraction of the expected effects due to his low affinity with anything that wasn't Information.

"I'm starting to begin to hate being a pure gnosiamancer even though I decided myself to trek this path," the diviner sighed.

"And now I don't even have the choice to change…" His hand didn't stop drawing, but his morale was hitting new lows.

"I should first focus on getting Ode to Silence right and then try to aim for that photomancy restoration." Even though his mana reserves continued to drop as he poured pool after pool into the enchantment, Nolotl didn't stop making the spell's hylomorphism. He was serious about not thinking as long as he could. It took the Empyrean of Information half a day, but he managed to get the Simulacrum's hylomorphism done by the time the second day of the loop rolled around.

As strong as his circadian clock, his will to mess up his sleeping schedule was greater. Not that one of his many chores was taken down, Nolotl practiced with Ode to Silence. Sonomancies worked better with public, but the twiceborn wanted to be alone for the time being. He allowed himself to keep his emotion-numbing spell to a minimum, just so he wouldn't be afflicted by the common yet ever-present madness that harassed gnosiamancers, but enough to make him feel miserable.

Any apathy he portrayed was mostly brought by arcane means rather than actual lack of care, no matter how socially awkward he could get at times. Empathy was, unfortunately, a skill he possessed. And Perfect Recollection forced him to make use of it by constantly seeing Beta's corpse. This wasn't the first time that this had happened to him. But the matter was that he had forgotten how he had even coped with it. It had been years since Perfect Recollection had worked that badly against him.

You have resisted Madness. At that point, that notification had become somewhat of a friend. At least an acquaintance. Nolotl had tried to modify Real-Time Status as much as he could, but it just kept appearing every time. So much so that it made him start doubting his sanity. Am I sane because I constantly resist falling to madness, or am insane because I'm constantly edging that precipice? Curiously enough, what did keep him sane was the Ehecatl's presence.

Knowing that there was serpent ever-ready to lunge at his ankle and envenom him did wonder for his mentality, especially his paranoia. It kept him on edge. Sharp. Words constantly left his mouth in a melodious manner, so much so that it threatened his throat to become coarse. His current attitude certainly helped singing a sorrowful song, the divination's xenoglossia requirement.

Not wanting to waste time as this loop would be a waste regardless of what he chose regarding his status, the diviner drafted blueprints on several sheets of paper as music kept coming out of his mouth. Yes, music. The spell wasn't quite complete yet, but as all sonomancies, the magical performances weren't plainly limited to a single voice. Nolotl didn't have enough of a musical ear to recognize the instruments being played through his mana, but they somehow felt familiar.

At least some he could have once heard yet never seen or named, traditional of Tezlan which memories lingered from his childhood. Void assimilation progressed by 1%. But as his throat was on the verge of failure, Nolotl was forced to stop for the day and adequately rest. And eat. Something he had forgotten to do, or that he even needed to do.

Also working on his mastery with Simulacrum once his concentration wasn't taken by Ode to Silence, he summoned his double and sent it to the Archives as he personally ate at the canteen. As this was the first time he was doing it on this loop, his translucent cyan body garnered a lot of gazes and attention, yet no one stopped him as he did some casual research. Mostly on how to take down a legion of warriors.

"Were you so eager to see me again, Nolotl?" Roxina asked with a smug smile once he entered her workshop. Nolotl was left stunned for a moment. He had indeed seen her a handful of days ago, but that was at the gathering of the previous coil and not… When I visited her on the original script, it had been a handful of weeks since I last saw her. But now it's only a handful of days, he remembered thanks to Perfect Recollection, even if he wasn't feeling exactly thankful for the Boon as of late. Time is so… weird.

The usual straightforwardness of time had become a convoluted mess thanks to the time loop, and the diviner didn't appreciate it.

"Hmm, I think I should learn an augmentation to lower my beauty, because it seems I have left you charmed here," the Empyrean of Light jested with a giggle, prancing closer to the terian.

"Don't pat yourself too much on the back, I was just thinking on how to ask you about something," he replied in the most neutral manner possible. Though his recent experience with Beta made it so it came more emotionless than neutral, which there was a great difference between the two.

"Oh, don't be so sour about a bit of flirting." Fortunately, Roxina took it on lightly, surely attributing it to shyness, much to his chagrin.

"Also, are you okay? Your voice is sounding quite coarse."

"I've been doing a bit of folkloric singing, nothing to worry about," he casually dismissed. Roxina raised a frown at that but decided to not ask further about the subject.

"So if it's about help maybe it's related to that ritual you asked about before?" It took only a second to remember what Roxina was talking about because he had basically come out of that ritual not that long ago. And several times at that. Yes, the very divination ritual that he awoke to every loop was something that had been 'recommended' by the Empyrean of Light. The likely reason why she had never talked about it again was because she simply forgot.

By the time Nolotl always came to her workshop a handful of weeks had gone by after all.

"Hmm, not really," he answered casually, though stepping away from her as she had gotten to close.

"The ritual did work," even if the loop has turned it into a periodic torture,"but what I want to talk about is healing spells."

"Nolotl, you do realize that I'm quite literally on the polar opposite spectrum for healing, right?" The photomancer crossed her arms, and ignoring how that gesture emphasized her bountiful cleavage, it did bring out the muscle on her arms. Roxina wasn't a warrior, but her arms still had quite the decent definition. Mm, glassworking does give muscles, huh?

Nolotl himself wasn't sure how that worked as glassworking wasn't blacksmithing and he didn't know what activity could build so much muscle mass—'so much' being relative here—but it still was a pleasant surprise. Of course, it was the type of muscle that stated a lack of fat rather than the type of bulging muscle from strength training that could be seen in Nolotl's own arms. Then Roxina flicked a finger on his forehead.

"I would be way less offended if you were checking my breasts rather than my arms," she rubbed her upper arm with a hint of shame.

"You're no warrior, but that's definitely a commendable constitution," Nolotl said without showing any pain, though he did rub his forehead.

"Ah, Nolotl…" The glassworker sighed.

"You need to learn a lot about women if you think they like being called out on their muscles."

"But they do?" The diviner blinked several times in confusion and his tone a bit high-pitched from the surprise. Roxina squinted at him, his veritable and visceral reaction also taking her by surprise.

"Hand on the Empyreans' Legacy, you believe that?"

"Yes?" He raised his arms in bewilderment.

"Huh," she mouthed.

"I think I've just personally experienced first-hand how wild cultural differences can be. Tell me, what would be the perfect Tezlan woman?"

"A tall and strong one blessed with strength and maternity in equal manners so she can protect and feed her children," the twiceborn practically recited those words.

"So terian mothers aren't housewives?" The photomancer asked with growing interest.

"I think that depends more on the relationship with their partners and their nature. Some terian ascendancy is better suited for the hearth like bovine one, but I would dare to say that terian women are the warriors and men the most well-studied and indoors type as biomancy does ever-so-slightly favor women," the terian explained, even if in his case his parents had been the opposite.

"Men tend to be leaders, crafters, or physicians, whilst women are more warriors, teachers, or entertainers. Though, as I've said, there's no defined role for any gender. Anyone is capable and allowed to do anything." Unlike here, Nolotl left that part unspoken, but it was basically as if he had uttered it with the implicit harshness of his words.

"Pulsars," Roxina cursed, putting a hand in front of her mouth.

"I really got hit with the nastiest cultural shock ever. I think that you might be more advanced in some societal aspects in Tezlan than here."

"I've been saying that for a while," Nolotl nodded excitedly, glad that no one was calling his culture primitive for once.

"And as much as it pains me to put an ending to such a thrilling conversation, I would like to get back on track."

"I have no issue with that, but I'm really not the best at healing spells, Nolotl," Roxina sighed.

"And I'm also reticent to help you because that might lower my slider." The photomancer had implicitly mentioned before, but due to Light's curious Alignment progression system, she was bound to the path of Materialism, or more commonly referred to as the path of selfishness.

"Okay, I do have a small fix to counter that," Nolotl took his many blueprints from his satchel and showed them to her.

"These are complex enough that are bound to be expensive and bring you to your capstone regardless of how much it gets lowered by helping me." Even though he had seen her reach her capstone Boon several times now, Nolotl couldn't say with absolute certainty that his commission would push her always back to the top of the path of Materialism. He was coming several weeks earlier this time around, so perhaps she was way lower of experience.

Or perhaps she was already capped at max level as her slider had yet to decrease towards the path of Moralism at this point in time.

"Hmm, I cannot promise anything," Roxina said whilst checking the blueprints.

"But your claim rings mostly true. You can compensate any of the experience loss with my tutoring with this, though you would need to pay at the end so we fully capitalize on that experience again."

"You'd be doing me with that if anything," Nolotl chuckled as he had yet to pawn any item or write the letter to Chichihualxo-chitl, which meant that he had almost no money to his name. Only the misery he gained working at the status offices. This turn of events had saved him up some pride by not needing to ask about delaying the payment.

"So, just to check," the photomancer placed the blueprints in the pocket of her leather apron.

"What do you mean with healing spells?"

"To be honest, any photomancy that might heal as it's the only elemental school that I can cast that isn't gnosiamancy."

"What's your Alignment with Light?"

"13%" Nolotl answered. Roxina tapped her own forehead.

"And you call that an element you can cast?"

"It's above 11%" he shrugged.

"I guess it is," she sighed and gestured him to follow her.

"I'm no teacher, but I guess I can dedicate some time to help you whilst the workshop is empty. What do you say about that?"

"I couldn't ask for a better treatment." Compared to his previous deferent treatment with Beta, he wasn't exaggerating much.