Our Time Loop is Different: The Awesomeness that is "Mother of Learning"

[Leewei]

This thread convinced me to go and take a look.

Eighty chapters later ... whew! A marvelously entertaining read. It could use some editing to clean up spelling and awkwardly repeated writing. (The word "deadpanned" is a bit overused at times.)

I love the world-building and magical theory-crafting. The black rooms have a couple of inherent problems which can be handwaved a bit. These are temperature and oxygen. If isolated from the universe, these chambers would require very effective heat sinks, as well as a way to provide a month's worth of breathable air.

Spoiler: Regarding Red Robes

Show

I expect that the current Person of Interest is a red herring. Red Robes was simply a simulacrum ... of Zach. The reasoning follows:

• Zorian only detects two souls when searching for the mark.
• Zach had previous access to the spell.
• Simulacrums that remain alive beyond a day or so have a distressing tendency to become unstable, often attacking their originals.
• Zach's mind and memory have been modified - by Red Robes, in fact.
• Zach's power growth and shaping are off by a factor of two. He has magnitude 50 mana, but magnitude 25 shaping. A simulacrum might double the growth of mana, meaning Zach was originally a magnitude 25 mage.
• Zach's memory and soul modifications may have prevented him from feeling what magic Red Robes was using.
• Red Robes' attacks may well have been intrinsic Controller abilities which did not consume mana at all.