After system dropped that informational bomb on me, I was confused and surprised.
'Explanations will be welcome, you know!'
[When returning to past moments your body does not return with you, however your memories do. Because, majority of skills are the representation of your knowledge or experience in a skill, it is hard to reset skills as well. However, your level is still reset and all the experience you gained thanks to raising of those skills are lost forever as well. Abilities are lost as well.]
'From the first glance it sounds good, but if you look deeper, what's the point of having 100 skill if you can't buy abilities that go with it. In the game level of the skill gave some benefits by itself. However, in my case it became a representation of how knowledgeable I am in this skill.'
[Correct. However, there are abilities that give you more or less benefits depending on the skill level.]
'True, but again it is pointless if leveling will come to a crawl and I won't be able to buy those abilities. So not just I return to past, but I am also slowing my progression with every big return, huh?'
[Not exactly. Higher skills give you more experience, but indeed take more time to improve. Leveling up skill from level 50 to level 51 will get you enough experience to jump from level 10 to level 11 directly.]
'Still, I am losing experience I gained in the period that I am reliving after return forever, isn't it right?'
[It is indeed. You get some, you lose some. But benefits overweight demerits.]
'I understand. I just feel bad for losing precious experience I worked so hard to get. After all, this is not a game. It is life. I spend 60% of the day on average to train and improve my skills to get that experience, only to find out, that I am losing it and have to work even harder now.'
[Indeed.]
'By the way, didn't you become smarter and more, how to phrase it, communicative?'
[You are close to level 15. Plus you improved physical conditions of your body, thus improving my conditions.]
'Interesting. Makes sense. Also close to level 15? Is that when you open new functionality?'
[Secret…]
'Such a tease. Whatever.'
I smiled. System feels more alive and that is great.
'By the way. Also, is training skill considered knowledge? I thought it is a skill that represents my body fitness.'
[Yes and no. Training doesn't represent your body fitness. It represents your inner memory about how trained your body should be. It is closely connected to DNA encoding. Because it concerns your DNA "memory" it won't be sent with you. It is one of the skills that will revert to its past situation.]
'Good to know and this is surprisingly scientific…'
[Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.]
'True enough. But then what exactly do you mean by DNA "memory"?'
[Simple. In case of training - when you train correctly and, in the process, improve your fitness, system saves condition of your body and encodes it via special types of artificial proteins, that can interact with DNA and control them.]
'So, if I train myself to bones and reach high level in training skill, I will forever remain fit?'
[Yes and no. Memory of body conditions are saved in body. That is true. But if host will work against that, body will become unfit pretty fast. Your body constantly works to get you into top condition. System just modifies definition of top condition, in this case.]
'Now I get. I think…'
*Same time, but different timeline*
I finished. I relieved the whole month and returned to this moment once more. It was boring, hard and stressing, so if this won't help me with legilimency check… I will cough blood, due to anger and frustration. Twice. Maybe thrice.
I still have one empty save slot, so I will save right before that legilimency check, to make sure I pass it with flying colors.
*6 days later*
'Save progress'
〖Save ⟳〗
'I am ready! I can do this.'
But after returning to this save for 5th time I understood that it is so damn hard to do this.
First time, I accidently thought about my plan and thus legilimens "heard" about it, so I had to return.
Second time, I was able to control my thoughts, and all was good but when he got to the memory itself, I got a little bit anxious and wanted to check if it was a correct memory. Of course, he "heard" it and I had to return again.
Third time, because I was tired of the repeated talk with these people and their introduction for a 4th time I emotionally said:
"Let's get to mind-reading, okay?"
Obviously, that made auror suspicious and they dug my memories even deeper, so once more – return.
Fourth time, he read a memory of the day and it was all clean. I was very happy. But then auror got suspicious of my happiness and asked to read memories of all robbery days.
I was caught on the 3rd robbery.
Honestly, it was my fault for accidently thinking about the original robbery and its details, but in my defense it is hard. It is similar to situation, where somebody asks you not to think about something and that something is the first thing that comes to mind.
I hope that this 5th time will be final.
*After 26th try*
'Well… 5th try wasn't successful. But 26th try will be the lucky one I am sure of it.'
*After 34th try*
'How the heck did I succeed in the 4th try?'
*After 47th try*
I was despairing and then I thought about system.
'System can you help.'
But its answer pushed even further into despair.
[Reach level 45.]
*After… honestly stopped counting…*
Most of the times I was caught by this… auror. He always gets me. Whenever I succeed with initial check, he becomes suspicious of me, so he asks to read my memory deeper, and that's where it gets hard. Plus my mental exhaustion due to relieving this for god-knows-how-often scene, was adversely affecting my thinking capabilities. But I finally succeeded.
Auror was still suspicious, but he couldn't do a thing. They checked all memories at a day of robbery. They even rechecked them for a second time.
I've finally done it! The moment those idiots left I've overwritten one of useless saves I made. Finally, I can rest.
*Next day*
I woke up and helped with breakfast as always. Then I went for a run. After returning, had a shower and went to work.
Day was nice and peaceful. Nothing really happened.
Because I relieved the month, my cooking has grown by 2 more levels. Because, leveling was harder the higher skill goes, my progression towards level 15 was really slow. At the very least my training skill started from scratch, so I did not lose any experience there.
Because I had to match my timing with original timeline. I couldn't just not go to work or slack off at running, because they may check it. Because of that I had no time to learn new skills or go to library. All in all, I feel like I wasted a month of my life.
Hopefully, next months will be calmer.
*POV. 2 weeks later in the ministry.*
"We checked everyone in London who matches the description. We also checked all kids with metamorphamagus talent, in case culprit changed his look. Everyone is clean. So, what do we next?"
"You ask me, who should I ask?"
"We need to report this to the Kevil Joyce. That auror is very scary."
"Yeah. I heard he was participating in the war during "You-Know-Who" came to power."
"Should we just send an owl?"
"Probably? Also, he said he will help us, but he only goes with us on interviews with kids sometimes. Moreover, he just stares at them and doesn't ask any questions. "True! Why he even comes with us, if he doesn't do a thing!"
In that moment, somebody opened the door of the cabinet and strode in.
"Any progress?"
It was the auror.
"Mister Joyce, we checked everyone on the list."
"All checked people have no memories of robbery."
"Okay. As I expected. Close the case."
"Sorry?"
"What?"
"Close the case. Robberies won't repeat."
One of the workers was unconvinced
"Forgive me for being blunt, but on what grounds we are closing it?"
"Do you have other suspects? Plan on finding them? Some leads? You have nothing." Auror said and both office worker had nothing to say.
"But…"
"If you scared you will follow the fate of the previous owners, no need. I made a report and indicated there that you worked good. I will talk with your boss about it. No need to worry."
After saying that, Kevil Joyce left, giving no chance for the others to say a word. Then he reached his cabinet and started making notes, while thinking.
'As I thought. Everyone else is clean. Only that boy was suspicious. There was something fishy about him, but I have no proof for now. At the very least I am sure he won't do a rob a shop in the near future. He is not that stupid, but nonetheless he is a possible danger. I need to keep an eye on him in the future.'
*Progress*
『 Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 24 』
『 Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 』
『 Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 』
『 Magic Chanting 23 ➔ 24 | Magic Gesturing 23 ➔ 24 』
『 Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 』
『 Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 』
『 Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 』
『 Cooking 23 ➔ 25 | Training 22 』