The fourth week at the Academy brought a crisis.
Class F's training was designed to be brutal, meant to weed out the truly hopeless. Master Torren had made that clear from day one.
"Today," he announced, his scarred face showing no mercy, "you face the Reaper."
The class stood in the training yard, exhausted from weeks of relentless drilling. Robin watched as Torren gestured to a large covered shape in the center of the grounds.
"The Training Automaton Mark VII. Enchanted steel frame. Programmed with combat patterns from fifty master swordsmen." He pulled the covering away.
The machine was humanoid but clearly artificial. Polished steel joints. Crystalline eyes that glowed with mana. A practice sword mounted to its right arm.
"It's set to E-rank difficulty. Each of you will face it for two minutes. Survive without serious injury, and you pass this evaluation." Torren's gaze swept the class. "Most of you won't."
Grol went first. The automaton moved with precision, its strikes measured and controlled. Grol defended desperately, his technique crumbling under the relentless assault. At ninety seconds, Torren called stop. Grol stumbled away, bruised but intact.
Three more students faced it. Two were carried off injured. One managed to survive the full two minutes through pure defensive cowardice.
"Stark. You're next."
Robin stepped into the ring. Drew his practice sword. Settled into stance.
The automaton's crystalline eyes focused on him. A soft hum as it activated fully.
"Begin."
The machine attacked immediately. Fast, faster than Grol's opponent had moved. Its strikes were perfect, no wasted motion, no telegraphing.
Robin defended, read the patterns. The automaton was predictable in its perfection, each combination following established forms.
Thirty seconds. Robin gave ground, analyzing. The machine's programming was sophisticated but still artificial. It couldn't adapt mid-strike.
Sixty seconds. Robin started testing counters. Found openings. The automaton adjusted but within predictable parameters.
Ninety seconds. Robin was managing well. Too well. His classmates were watching with surprise.
Then something changed.
The automaton's movements stuttered. A grinding sound from its core. The crystalline eyes flickered, blue to red.
"Malfunction!" someone shouted.
The automaton's sword arm jerked violently. Its speed doubled, tripled. The practice sword became a blur of lethal steel.
Ancient enchantments breaking down. Combat protocols degrading into pure aggression.
The blade came at Robin's throat not a training strike. A killing blow moving faster than thought.
Too fast. Can't dodge. Can't....
Robin's survival instinct exploded. Every nerve screamed. Death was a fraction of a second away.
In that crystallized moment of pure desperation, something deep in his core activated.
[EXTREME DANGER DETECTED]
[HOST SURVIVAL THREATENED: 99.7%]
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ENGAGING]
[INNATE SURVIVAL INSTINCT ACTIVATED]
[ANALYZING AVAILABLE SKILLS....]
[TIME ECHO - UNLOCKED]
The world flashed blue.
Reality jolted. Not forward but backward.
Time didn't just slow. It reversed.
Robin felt himself moving backward through three seconds of existence. Felt the automaton's killing strike un-happen. Felt his position reset.
Then reality snapped forward again.
He stood exactly where he'd been three seconds prior. The automaton's blade was just beginning its berserk lunge, the same lunge he'd already experienced.
But now he knew it was coming.
Robin twisted. Dropped low. The blade screamed through empty air where his neck had been.
"Stop!" Torren was already moving, recognizing the malfunction. "Emergency stop!"
He slammed a runed stone against the automaton's core. The machine seized, froze, then powered down completely. Its crystalline eyes faded to dark.
Robin collapsed to one knee, gasping. His vision swam. His mana.....
[MANA: 0/115]
[SEVERE MANA DEPLETION]
[CONSCIOUSNESS FAILING]
Empty. Completely drained. The cost of Time Echo had consumed everything.
"Stark!" Torren reached him. "Medic!"
Robin fought the blackness creeping at his vision edges. "I'm... fine..."
"You're not fine. That automaton just tried to kill you." Torren supported him. "Ancient enchantments. They degrade. I should've checked it more carefully before training."
The other students crowded around were shocked and frightened.
"Did you see that dodge?" Grol whispered. "That was impossible. The blade was already....."
"Lucky," another student said. "Pure luck."
"Instinct," Torren corrected, his voice carrying authority. "Battle instinct. The kind that separates survivors from corpses."
He looked at Robin with something like respect. "You felt it coming before the machine fully committed. That's the mark of a real warrior."
Robin let them think that. Let them believe he'd somehow sensed the danger through pure combat awareness.
Because explaining the truth was impossible.
Time Echo. The system had unlocked it. Not through leveling. Through pure, desperate need.
┏━━━━━━[ SSS-Rank Ability ]━━━━━━━┓
│ TIME ECHO [UNLOCKED]
│ ├─ Rank: SSS
│ ├─ Effect: Rewind time 3 seconds
│ ├─ Retains all memories and sensory input
│ ├─ Allows perfect counters and evasion
│ ├─ Cost: 50 Mana
│ ├─ Cooldown: 60 seconds
│
│ Current Mana: 00/115
│ Status: INSUFFICIENT MANA
│
│ Note: First activation was instinctive.
│ Required no mana due to survival trigger.
│ Subsequent uses require full mana cost.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Three seconds. Just three. But three seconds was everything in combat. Three seconds was the difference between life and death.
The medic arrived, checking Robin's vitals. "Mana exhaustion. Severe. He needs rest."
"Get him to the infirmary." Torren looked at the automaton, his expression dark. "And decommission that damn machine. Should've been replaced years ago."
Robin was helped to his feet. Supported by two classmates. He walked, but barely. His body felt hollow. Empty.
But his mind was racing.
Time Echo. I have it. Finally have it.
The skill he'd been grinding toward. The ability that would change everything.
Unlocked not through patient leveling, but through desperate survival.
Perfect.
The infirmary was quiet. Robin lay on a cot, recovering. His mana regenerated slowly painfully slowly at 1 per hour.
[MANA: 8/115]
More than a day to full recovery. The price of using Time Echo was steep.
But worth it.
He closed his eyes. Replayed the moment. The feeling of time reversing. Of reality unwinding.
Three seconds. Not much. But enough.
Enough to dodge a killing blow. Enough to counter an attack before it happened. Enough to turn defeat into victory.
The system provided more details:
[TIME ECHO ANALYSIS]
[ACTIVATION: AUTOMATIC UNDER LETHAL THREAT]
[MANUAL ACTIVATION: POSSIBLE AFTER PRACTICE]
[LIMITATIONS: HOST EXPERIENCES FULL 3 SECONDS]
[WARNING: OVERUSE MAY CAUSE TEMPORAL DISSONANCE]
So it could activate automatically if death was imminent. His survival instinct could trigger it without conscious thought.
But he could also learn to use it deliberately. With practice.
Robin smiled slightly.
Three seconds of perfect foresight. That's what this was. The ability to see an enemy's attack, experience it, then rewind and counter before they even committed.
In Justin's previous life, he'd been legendary for his ability to read opponents. To predict strikes before they happened.
Now he had literal precognition. Three seconds at a time.
Master Torren visited that evening. Stood by Robin's cot.
"The automaton's been destroyed. Enchantments were older than I thought, nearly eighty years." He shook his head. "Could've killed you. Should've killed you. That blade was moving at combat speed."
"But it didn't."
"No. It didn't." Torren looked at him. "Your survival instinct is remarkable. I've seen veterans with less.
Whatever you've been through to develop reflexes like that..." He trailed off. "Just know that you've got something special. Don't waste it."
After Torren left, Robin lay in darkness.
The automaton had been old. Malfunctioning. A mechanical failure, nothing more.
But it had given him exactly what he needed.
[MANA: 12/115]
Twelve mana now. Need fifty to use Time Echo manually. But it would activate automatically if needed.
Robin pulled up his status:
```
┏━━━━━━━[ Host Profile ]━━━━━━━┓
│ Name: Robin Stark
│ Level: 7
│ EXP: 55/700
│
│ Core Attributes:
│ STR: 20 AGI: 10
│ END: 19 DEX: 14
│
│ Mana: 12/115
│
│ Skills:
│ Time Echo [UNLOCKED]
│ └─ Cost: 50 Mana
│ └─ Cooldown: 60 seconds
│ └─ Status: AVAILABLE (AUTO)
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
```
The greatest advantage anyone could have is the ability to undo mistakes.
To experience death and rewrite it.
Robin closed his eyes. Let exhaustion pull him toward sleep.
A malfunctioning training automaton had nearly killed him.
Instead, it had unlocked the power that would make him unkillable.
Three seconds at a time.
The cursed child had just gained the power to rewrite fate itself.
And no one would ever know.