Luke got up and freshened himself up. This time around he didn't worry his brother Alex. He spent his day packing up, but mentally he was thinking about the consequences of his 'predicament'.
"As long as I do not die within this time loop, I can constantly cycle through the loop, potentially as many times as I want. Hmm, am I certain about that? Nevertheless, I need to be careful. I'm not sure why I am stuck in a loop, but Red Hood clearly seems to understands this." He considered carefully.
The next day, he was sitting in the train to the academy. He had taken out the black stick and was performing the first control exercise as Melinda came in with her five year old daughter. Seeing Luke practicing control formulas she became enthusiastic.
The little girl was also interested. She seemed to have seen her mother do this trick at home and wanted to grab the stick from Luke's hand and try it.
Melinda saw her daughter struggling and laughed while patting her head. She turned to Luke with a genial smile. "Are you a freshman? Your control is not bad, you seem deep into the novice proficiency."
Luke nodded respectfully. "Yes ma'am. I'm a freshman. My control talent has always been poor and I've put some effort practicing these exercises."
"Don't need to be so formal. My name is Melinda Brambles. I will actually be teaching you control exercises this semester." She said.
Luke acted surprised, before showing signs of excitement. He asked her if she was taking in any apprentices. Melinda nodded. "I am planning to take in an apprentice, but I am a choosy one. You seem to be able to hold the exercise for thirty minutes. If before the guide selection in a couple of days, you improve to forty five minutes, I'll take you as my apprentice."
Luke thoughtfully nodded, but inwardly sneered. "This Melinda never wanted to take me as a student at all. She suddenly changed her tune when the celestial equinox approached. Looks like she found out something during this period."
At this moment the second year student had entered the cabin. The student looked extremely serious and silent. There was an air of superiority and arrogance in his demeanor. He looked at Melinda and nodded, and then proceeded to completely ignore Luke.
However, Luke wasn't surprised. This part seemed to be similar to how this man behaved in the initial timeline. "Did it change because I went to the doctor? Is the doctor somehow related to this senior?" Luke calculated. "I need to do a few more tests in future loops to verify this."
As expected, the arrival of this senior caused an awkward atmosphere and the cabin turned quiet. Luke quietly continued practicing the control exercise and saw that the senior actually had disdain on his face. The senior was a star student named Norman.In the second year, he had already formed a rank 3 base spell, turning into a Grade 3 mage. This was comparable to many of the associate professors at the academy. Thus it wasn't a surprise that Norman seemed to deem Melinda as an equal while sneering at his Novice competency in the first control exercise.
After reaching the academy, the people parted ways and Luke made his way to the initiation ceremony. "The feeling of deja vu is intense when I come across identical scenarios." Luke thought to himself.
This time, he didn't isolate himself completely like before. Instead, he quietly looked at all the communities who were looking to rope in freshmen like him. Seniors had been crowding the Academy Hall, creating makeshift stalls to display their community's specialities.
Luke wasn't too interested in communities, but now things had changed. An apocalypse was impending and he was stuck in a time loop just before the end of the world. He had to improve his network to find clues, not just to grow stronger, but to thwart the incoming disaster in the future.
As Luke was deep in thought, he didn't realize where he was walking and ended up in front of a stall. The stall only had one student manning it and a paper pinned on the desk which said 'Challenge Group'. Luke came to his senses and saw the name of the community and frowned.
In the initial timeline, during his time at the academy, Luke had heard about this community, which was a gathering of eccentric individuals. They almost never stayed at the Academy. Even his brother, Alex had told him to stay away from this community, lest he be poisoned by their delinquent behavior. However, all of the group's members were said to be incredible mages.
The singular girl who was manning the stall was busy practicing a control exercise Luke had never seen before. It looked extremely complicated, yet graceful. The girl had green hair and clear green eyes to go along with them. She wore a pair of thin rimmed spectacles that gave her the atmosphere of a bookworm, however her expression seemed to be aloof. As if she were looking down at an ant.
She calmly eyed Luke as she began speaking. "What are you doing here? We accept new members only by invitation."
"I just bumped into this stall. Why do you have a stall if you aren't recruiting new members?" Luke asked calmly, but politely.
"None of your business." The green haired woman plainly replied and proceeded to ignore the young freshman.
Luke nodded and walked away from the stall, but he felt like a piercing glare was looking at his back. His caution alerted, Luke quietly continued looking into another community that was formed by students to practice control exercises. Such a community was not surprising, since there were a few people like Luke who were from ordinary background and had mostly relied on scarce guidance and self learning to make it this far.
Meanwhile, a red haired heroic looking senior walked to the stall of the Challenge Group and looked at the green haired second year student. He turned his sight towards the receding back of Luke as his deep red eyes glowed scarlet for a moment.
"Is he a potential candidate?" The red haired senior student asked.
"No. He was in a daze when he entered the hall and accidentally stumbled towards this stall. I shooed him off." The green haired woman said.
The red haired man calmed down. "Alright."