The Over-Break System

Cynrik was training until around 4 am before finally calling it a night and heading to shower and sleep. Picking up his discarded shirt, he eventually left the training room and headed to the nearest bedroom, and upon opening the door, Cynrik’s jaw fell open and then turned into a grin.

Seeing that Brance had already predicted which room he would choose and had even gone so far as to make his bed with the black and red bedding he grew accustomed to in Lawton, Cynrik silently applauded Brance’s forward-thinking.

After a quick shower and changing into his favorite black pajamas, Cynrik hopped under the covers and quickly passed out for the night.

Morning came quickly and by around 10 am, Brance had called the girls over, and after a bit of navigation help, Gabby and Selene had landed their butts onto the lavish couch cushions in the boy’s dorm.

“Wow, this place is way nicer than ours. But I guess that is expected since we ended up in the Central Layer, and you guys are in the Core.” Selene obnoxiously blurted out between sips of coffee and nibbles of some kind of cookie Brance had laid out for everyone on the table.

“Classy of you, Selene, can’t you just be normal and say, “wow, it looks nice you boys did a good job cleaning it up,” as our little Gabby did.” Brance, holding a coffee himself, sat beside Gabby, sipping a cup of apple juice happily.

“Fuck, you guys are noisy early in the morning.” Then, breaking up the potential argument, Cynrik slogged into the living room with a bad case of messy bedhead; with his hair down, he looked a bit like a black mop had called the top of his head home.

“AH, Lookie, everyone, our prodigal leader has arisen from his slumber to grace us with his presence.” Selene pointed out at Cynrik’s arrival, making everyone chuckle.

“Bite me, Selene, where’s the caffeine? I need some if Ima be forced to deal with her crap all morning.”

Brance waved at the kitchen with his free hand, and Cynrik followed before pouring himself a hot cup of coffee and taking small sips.

“So, what’s on the agenda for today? Björn called us over because we were having a meeting but refused to spill what the topic was.” Still being the most verbal and clearly the only morning person, Selene spoke up.

Making his way over to a vacant spot beside Benny, Cynrik ignored the overactive girl and continued nursing his coffee for a couple of minutes before answering, much to Selene’s disappointment.

“Well, four of us are gunna Evolve to Tier-2; Originally, I wanted you, my dearest Selene, to spend some money on XP crystals to power level yourself up to the Tier-1 Prestige Cap. However, when I did some research and looked online, it turned out the ratio is 500 XP points to 1 Merit Point, meaning at best, if everyone pitched in, you could only get an extra 5 P-levels, which wouldn’t be enough.”

“So for now, you get to sit around and watch while we upgrade ourselves, and then we will tackle an Oblisk to grind out XP and items. Once we get enough gubbins, it’ll be your turn.” Massaging his temples, Cynrik finally gave Selene an answer, even if it was one she was clearly unhappy with.

“THAT ISNT COOL, IVAR! What happened to all that party unity BS you were spewing at the Headmaster. This is crap, so I just get to fucking lay here like a lump and watch everyone get stronger without me? BULL SHIT!” And unhappy she was, Selene immediately began spouting off at the mouth, calling Cynrik on his crap in a not-so-nice way, essentially throwing a temper tantrum.

RUMBLE

“SILENCE!” But Cynrik put a stop to her argument just as quick by not only raising his voice but also leaking out some of his Killing Intent, both asserting his dominance as the Party Leader and scaring the shit out of Selene, who, up till now, had never really seen Cynrik be assertive before.

The sudden lashing out of KIN and the raising of Cynrik’s voice caused Benny and Gabby to stiffen and even sit straight up for a second. But, unfortunately, they were all too familiar with Aggro-Cynrik, as he used the same tone he took when disciplining the Sanfords during training.

“Never call my orders into question. Do you understand me, Selene?” Cynrik said while raising his eyes from the coffee to meet Selene’s with an icy glare, causing Selene to gulp down her saliva nervously.

Unfortunately for Cynrik, he unknowingly didn’t get the response he expected. Instead, he mistook Selene’s squirming on the couch as obedience and yielding when instead, it was one of being hot and bothered.

‘Fuck, that’s hot, keep looking at me like that, and not only will I call you Daddy every minute of every day, but I’ll jump your bones if given a chance.’ So Selene thought when she felt Cynrik’s piercing gaze land on her body.

Looking away from the squirming Selene, Cynrik made calm eye contact with the rest of his party and continued.

“Like I said, Gabby, Benny, Björn, and I will be going through our Tier-2 Evolution. We won’t be doing it all simultaneously, as I would prefer to do it one at a time, just in case something happens. This will allow either Björn or I to jump in and assist when necessary.”

“Björn will be up first, followed by Gabby, next Benny and I will go last. One thing that will differ from this Evolution and the last is we finally have a proper guide manual for what to expect. During our Evolution from Tier-0 into Tier-1, we were left to figure things out with only the guidance of our System, which turned out alright only because it was 0 to 1.”

“Going from Tier-1 to Tier-2 carries a fundamental shift in how our bodies will process raw materials, thus adding several new additional items in the form of Affinity Stone Fragments, Metabolism Boosters, Mental fortification pills, and the Efficiency Boosters.” As Cynrik spoke, he pulled out each of the items as he mentioned them and placed them on the coffee table in the center of the room.

“According to the guide, we must first have a hearty meal before taking, in order, one Efficiency boost, the Mental pill, and two Metabolism boosters. Then we must allow 30 minutes for these items to settle in our bodies. After the initial batch of resources settles, then and only then are we supposed to activate the Evolution process, which a prompt from our systems will trigger.”

“At that time, we will be prompted to hold our Affinity Fragments in one hand and the Evo-Stone Fragment in the hand closest to our Codex; this will trigger the Evolution. Of course, there is a certain level of pain you will experience, just like when we underwent the Awakenings and previous Evolution, but that is why Mental Fortification Pills exist and are recommended during the process.”

“Lastly, as our bodies undergo the process of Evolution, they will burn absurd amounts of calories throughout the entirety of the advancement. Therefore, one of us will have to feed the person whose turn it is the additional Metabolism boosters periodically. As for the Second Efficiency booster, the process of Evolution varies from person to person. If one of our Evolutions persists for more than an hour, the guide advises that we feed that person the second Efficiency Booster.”

When Cynrik finished speaking, he scooped up all the resources laid out on the table and tossed them back into his inventory.

“Does anyone have questions?”

Gabby was the first to sit up straight and raise her hand as if she was in school, to which Cynrik nodded, allowing her to speak.

“So, I know this whole thing will probably suck the big one pain-wise; what happens if it’s too much for us?” She asked with her voice wavering slightly at the mention of intense pain.

“You don’t have to worry, Gabby; if Big Brother or I notice you are struggling too much, we will give you one of our own mental fortification pills since we don’t really need them.” Then, petting the little girl’s head softly and giving her a smile, Brance said reassuringly.

“Björn is correct; with my Will Power stat and the crazy pain resistance the two of us have, those pills are utterly useless when it comes to our turn, so Björn and I will be keeping them in reserve for you and Benny. However, I don’t see either of you requiring extras, but we have it just in case.” Cynrik crossed his arms and tossed a glance at Selene before continuing.

“Plus, worst case, Selene also has the Will Power stat, so we have three potentially unused pills.”

Selene shrunk back slightly and clenched her knees tightly when Cynrik looked at her, and at the last second, she looked away with her face beat red, making him roll his eyes.

DING DONG!

Just as Cynrik was about to call a close to the meeting, the doorbell rang, and Gabby bolted to the door excitedly like a puppy; around 30 seconds later, she reappeared with arms full of take-out food bags and placed them all on the table.

“LOOKIE! Björnie ordered a big meal for everyone; he gots all the best stuff too, and to top it all off, it’s NOT LIMITED TO BREAKFAST THERES, BURGERS AND PIZZA AND FRIES AHHHHH!” Midway through digging into the third bag, Gabby realized it wasn’t only breakfast foods and went into a full-on spazzy excitement meltdown.

[[Good looks, Brancie, you saved me some time, I was gunna whip us up some pasta, but this works too.]] Giving Brance a thumbs up, Cynrik said as he pushed Gabby to the side and grabbed a burger and a few slices of pizza for himself, much to Gabby’s unhappiness.

“Everyone grabs what you want, you too, Selene; when one of us eats, everyone eats; that’s my personal rule.” Brance tossed a paper plate to Selene, who was moping on the couch and instantly brightened her up.

“Remember, guys, eat till you can’t eat anymore; you will need the calories; I don’t want to see anyone with an empty plate.” Brance was already moving about setting the table with plastic eating utensils and paper plates as he spoke.

“Yesss mommmmm, OI DUMB RABBIT! HANDS OFF THE CHEESE FRIES; THOSE ARE MINE!

With the arrival of food, the dorm became lively as everyone stuffed their faces, knowing that soon, it would be a world of agony for those undergoing their Tier-2 Evolutions.

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