Now that he had his emotions under control again, Christopher felt rather awkward. Any toughness that he had managed to project when fighting off the Goblins had probably evaporated with his embarrassing breakdown. He considered what could have caused him to lose control.

The horrors he had seen during the attack on Lumen must have taken a larger toll than he had expected. He had seen a lot of dead bodies, some horrific creatures, and also the despair of his fellow soldiers in the last twenty-four hours. His mental barriers must have received quite the battering during all of this. When he then also saw the total indifference and unrecognition in Tamas her gaze it had broken that already weakened defense.

He knew that he had lost a connection that was important to him. He could probably rebuild a connection over time, but would it ever be quite the same? And what was the point, it would all be for naught on the next loop. Christopher let out a sigh in frustration.

He strangely still felt better than he had in a while. Letting out all of his emotions like that, whether he liked it or not, had maybe been necessary. He would still have preferred it to be a private instead of a public affair. Christopher did not like to feel sorry for himself, he was in good health and he should have plenty of things to occupy himself with once they reached Lumen. There were a lot of things that he looked forward to in the next month.

Christopher also felt a sense of accomplishment now that he had saved all of the people in the caravan. He could consider placing his bookmark when they safely reached Lumen, which would allow him to restart in the city next time. He could not get a much better result than this, and it felt wrong to risk these people again just to save a bit of his dignity, and maybe a chance for a few more Soul Points. It would also be nice if he was not forgotten when using [Bookmark] again.

He could rekindle his relationship with Tamas and her family during the journey to Lumen and make at least those moments permanent.

Christopher thought back on the fight, He believed that he had made a discovery about the Soul Points and the system. He for example always sensed it when he received Soul Points for defeating a creature of the Blight. This had made it all the more curious when he received no Soul Points for killing the Goblin with the club.

It seemed as if he would not gain Soul Points for a creature that he had already killed before. This suggested that his Interface was fully capable of monitoring what he did across turns without losing any data. He had a way to confirm his hypothesis. If he was correct, then he should not get the 500 Soul Points for alerting Lumen to the danger of the Blight a second time.

Christopher opened the interface to check on the status of [Bookmark] on a whim. He had now used the skill for the first time and he wanted to confirm that ‘use bookmark’ was now on a cooldown.

He was quite shocked when he noticed that something about the wording had changed since the last time that he had looked at the skill. ‘Use bookmark’ was now on a cooldown of twenty-three hours and thirty-two minutes, which was around what he had expected. What worried him was that ‘place bookmark’ was now on the exact same cooldown of almost twenty-four hours instead of being instant, as it had been before the first use.

This was unexpected, and it caused a cold sweat to break out on Christopher’s body. Why had the cooldown changed, and could more have changed as well? Was the Bookmark still placed at the same location and time as it had been just moments ago? The text said nothing about the placed bookmark being removed on use. How was he supposed to make sure that it was still there? It would be annoying to test it when the cooldown ended, since then he would have to do this all over again. He tried to look deeper within the skill on his interface but no new information presented itself. If the bookmark was no longer placed then Christopher was not happy with what that implicated.

He needed more information, his assumptions about the skill might have been wrong all this time. He decided to try something that might provide him with a bit more information. The skill should fail to activate if he used [Bookmark] right now. “use bookmark” he spoke softly. As he had expected an error popped up on his Retina.

[Failed to use Bookmark. No Bookmark is currently placed. Cooldown is in effect.]

‘oh, hell no, this is really bad’ “Place Bookmark” he spoke after some careful thought.

[Failed to place Bookmark. Cooldown is in effect.]

Christopher felt his heart rate quicken. The skill screen had not properly prepared him for this problem. The new notification text seemed to suggest that the placed bookmark would disappear on use. If he was not able to place his Bookmark now, and if his previously placed bookmark had now disappeared, then did this not mean that his ability to travel back had just been pushed forward by twenty-four hours? Could he now assume that every time that he used his Bookmark, he would be forced to move forward another twenty-four hours permanently?

His thoughts raced. This would put a clear limit on the number of loops that were available to him until he would loop directly to the day of the invasion. He believed that this would allow him a total of twenty-seven loops before he would go immediately to the day of the Blights Invasion. And after every subsequent loop, he would have one less day of preparation. Christopher was very unhappy with that extra amount of pressure, he very much hoped that he was misinterpreting the working of [Bookmark]. He was somewhat pissed that the skill was apparently not properly explained in the interface.

And what would all of this have meant for the last hour? If he had failed in saving the people in the caravan would those deaths have become permanent? He suddenly was extremely grateful that they had managed to fight off the Goblins without any casualties. He did not even want to imagine the kind of despair he might have felt right now if Tamas, the twins, and the others had not made it through.

He thought about the best course of action to confirm this new knowledge without losing one of his now much more precious uses of [Bookmark]. He decided that he would try ‘use bookmark’ again as soon as the cooldown ended. If he was transported back to the clearing again, then he was not on a time limit, which would allow him to breathe a sigh of relief. In that case, he would just have to save the caravan once again.

If the ability did not activate because there really was no longer a bookmark placement, then he would have to place the new bookmark right there and then. Both commands were on the same cooldown so he would not be wasting any time. His return point would then be twenty-four hours from where he had just started, and there would be nothing he could do about that. He was feeling a lot more jittery now.

Christopher realized that he better make the next twenty-three hours count, they would be permanent after all. He was somewhat tired, but he would not waste his time on sleeping before the next placement of [Bookmark]. He would make building connections with the people here his number one priority for now. Luckily his most important objective of defeating the Goblins had already been achieved.

Naan had offered him a spot on one of the wagons so that he could rest his feet, which seemed very appealing since he really was tired. He had been running around at max throttle for a while, and [Bookmark] had apparently not reset his mental fatigue. Riding on the wagon would also allow him to spend some time with Tamas and the others.

He walked up to Naan feeling somewhat like a fool, his face probably still red from the breakdown.

“I am sorry about that, that was quite embarrassing, I am not sure what happened there.”

“Think nothing of it, I have seen plenty of people break down much worse than that. And unlike them, you were able to hold it together when it counted, instead of breaking during the battle. You should make sure to rest for a while, it seems that you went through a lot as well.”

Christopher nodded solemnly. Thankful for the leaders consoling words. “Thank you, it has been some time since I was able to properly rest. How is everyone holding up, are all the wounded going to make it through?”

“It looks like it. Kata made sure to use her Soul Force on those that were most seriously injured. She will likely be able to keep us all alive until the wounded can get a more detailed checkup in Lumen.”

“That’s a relief, now let’s hope that there is no more trouble on the way.”

Naan voiced his agreement before the leader was beset by other people voicing their worries and requests.

Christopher felt nervous entering the leading wagon, seeing the faces of the people so familiar to him. They did not have much of a reaction when he joined the known and unknown faces in this wagon. The caravan soon started moving again with haste.

They rode in silence for a while before Christopher carefully started a conversation with Tinos. He gradually told them all a little about himself and what his plans were for the future, throwing in a self-deprecating joke from time to time.

He was careful not to force the conversation, but it slowly started to flow over time. Soon Tamas threw in some barbs as well. He even managed to get a small bit of life out of the twin girl Nara, by playfully reflecting a light beam seeping in through an opening of the covered wagon. Nora eventually decided that she wanted to replicate this feat and tried to direct the light herself. This appeared to earn him some more goodwill with the rest.

Christopher pushed his worries away. He was thankful for these peaceful moments as the wagon gently rocked back and forth across the dirt road.