Chapter 204
FWOOOSH FWOOSHHH SHOOOOOMM
With Brance as the epicenter, several blasts of triple Element Mana burst forward, nearly sending Cynrik tumbling backward and forcing him to dig his heels into the padded flooring with his left arm shielding his face.
“Fuck!” Cynrik yelled, using his own Wind Affinity to cut through the densely packed waves of Mana.
Tossing a quick glance over his shoulder at Gabby, Selene, and Benny, Cynrik put himself in the path of destruction and went to work, stopping the Mana Bursts from reaching his party.
As Cynrik swiftly swung his left arm as a Mana Sword covered in Wind, he broke apart any incoming attacks and made it so only a slight gust would connect with the others. In this way, Cynrik passed the remaining 30 minutes of Brance’s evolution until, finally, the attacks ceased.
Just as quickly as the attacks began, they ended, only instead of petering off to nothing in silence, there was a loud crash, which caused Cynrik to zero in on its source.
The noise was caused by the falling body of the training droid, who, unknown to Cynrik, had actually taken the brunt of the Mana Bursts, doing its job to assure the room wasn’t destroyed at the cost of its own body.
Unfortunately for it, Cynrik felt no sympathy and only shook his head and thought about the cost of repairing the damaged droid. But his attention was stolen only a few seconds later by Brance opening his eyes and exhaling shakily.
“Fuck, that sucked; what happened to you guys?” Brance said as he looked around at the damage to the room.
“Oh, nothing too bad; you just exploded with all three Affinities in these whooshy attacks that carried almost no substance,” Cynrik smirked while finally relaxing.
“I see, well, gimmie a couple of minutes, I reek and need a shower, plus I feel all sticky all over; I will fill you in afterward; there is a lot to unpack there.” Standing up and stretching his Body, Brance was about to head to the bathroom when his foot smashed through the plush padding of the training room floor, hitting the floorboards beneath.
“Oops, ok, so maybe no shower right away.” Brance chuckled and scratched his head, removing his foot from the padding and standing like a statue, afraid to break anything else.
“Shit, look here, you Adonis (Greek god of Beauty and desire) looking mother fucker, just because you’re all perfectly sculpted now and look like some kind of Greek god, that doesn’t give you free rein to break the floor, tsk, figure yourself out asshole.” Not pleased by Brance’s actions, Cynrik quickly scolded him to the surprise of everyone behind him.
But unlike Cynrik, who didn’t bother giving Brance an extra glance, Gabby and Selene’s eyes were sparkling brightly since they CLEARLY liked his new look.
Gone was the previous preteen boy who was slightly better built than other boys, and in its place were rippling abs, well-defined muscles, and a robust and handsome jawline. Standing at over 5 foot 10 inches, Brance looked nowhere near his age and instead appeared to be around 16 or 17 years old.
What peeved Cynrik more than anything was he was once again shorter than Brance. Then, before he could scold the girls, he felt a rush of Wind and was horrified to see Gabby and Selene feeling up Brance’s arms and abdomen as he stood there awkwardly.
“OH MY GOSH, BRANCIE, YOU GOT SO HANDSOME. WHAT THE HECK!” Momentarily forgetting to call Brance by his nickname, Gabby was the first to speak up, with hearts fluttering in her eyes.
Smiling, Brance tucked a lock of Aqua and White streaked jet-black hair behind his ear and showed off his pearly white teeth at the two girls.
“Meh meh meh Brancie, you so handsome meh.” Standing off to the side, Cynrik mocked Gabby but was subsequently shut up by two sets of death glares, one from Gabby herself and the other from Selene.
“Now, now, Big Brother is just sad that he isn’t the tallest; give him a moment to collect himself.”
[Cyn, we’ve got an enormous problem. Tier-2 changes everything, and it’s not just our stats.]
Using a combination of mind link and vocal speech, Brance pacified the girls while alerting Cynrik to the changes.
[What? Give me the cliff notes and send over your new profile so I can see it.] Ignoring the two fluttery girls, Cynrik went into full-on analysis mode as he listened to the changes that he could expect in Tier-2, starting with Brance’s new profile.
: Status :
: Brance Athalos Jetlensr (Björn Ironside Ragnarsson):
: Title – Perfect Foundation, Perfect Clear Expert, Reforged Body :
: Demi-Human Male (90% Human, 10% Lightbringer):
: Age-11:
: Tier-2 :
: Primary Class – (Empty) :
:Former: Tier-1 Warrior : (+2 To STR,VIT Distribution)
: Sub-Class – (Empty) :
:Former: Tier-1 Miner : (+2 To STR Distribution)
: Level: 0/35 :
: Essence Pool(XP): 69,970:
: P-Class (Empty): 0 – XP :
: S-Class (Empty): 0 – XP :
: Distribution: 2 Per All : (STR 6, VIT 4)
: Mana Codex & Circuits Tier-2 :
: Stage 3 :
: Body – Tier-2, 6.5g Resistance :
: Credits: 1,500,000 :
: STATS :
: HP 8000/8000 :
: Mana 4180/4180 :
: Stamina 4000/4000 :
: Stat Points- 262 :
: Skill Points- 322 :
: Strength- 470 :
: Dexterity- 470 :
: Agility- 470 :
: Intelligence- 470 :
: Vitality- 470 :
: Mind- 470 :
: Killing Intent- 295 – 4.25g :
: Affinity- :
:(SAG)Light-Tier-2 (Beginner): :Expand:
:(BG) Earth-Tier-2 (Adept): :Expand:
:(BG) Wind-Tier-2 (Beginner): :Expand:
Cynrik’s jaw nearly hit the floor when he saw how massive the stat boosts were, but his eyes quickly shifted to the new words attached to his brother’s Affinity.
[For starters, my Bloodline increased to 10%, which alone is massive, I still haven’t read through everything from Tobs on that front so that we can sideline it for now. Next, all my previous classes have moved from active to a new bracket labeled former, but I kept all the boosts obtained by my previous Warrior and Miner classes.]
[After that is the Primary level, which has basically reset to zero, and the cap is now 35, so don’t panic when you see yourself at level 0 again.] Brance was basically reading off all the notifications aloud as he scrolled through, without giving Cynrik any time to recover.
[Distribution increased from 1.5 to 2 per all, which is neither here nor there, but the fact that I get 20 Stat points per level is a bit scary, oh and Skill points are 2 per level now. You’ll notice a few things merged; Body Temp and Grav Resist are now under a single line. My Circuits also basically became one with my Codex; the reasoning Tobs gave was that every fiber of my Being can now complete the job of my Circuits, rendering them ineffective. I don’t know if that is part of my Bloodline or not yet, but it’s something to note.]
[When it comes to stats, there are some massive changes, so the initial boost for the Tier-up was 25% which came out to 75 points, but then the benefit of Prestige kicked in, and I was awarded another 25.33% after for 95, which brings everything up to 470, thus…the floor.] When Brance got to the topic of Stats, he subconsciously flexed his pectoral muscles, much to the delight of Gabby and Selene.
[HP got a double increase to 40 points per stat point, and MP and STAM are up to 20 from 10. I also have a notification about the new Stat cap for Tier-2…, and I don’t know how to feel about it.] Brance bit his lip and looked at Cynrik for a second before sending him over the notification and stupefying his older brother.
– By completing your Tier-2 Evolution and achieving your Prestige Cap, you have significantly increased your Stat cap due to the combination of the two. The current Tier-2 Stat cap is set to 1750.-
This singular line of text nearly shattered Cynrik’s mind as he had to wipe the pooling drool threatening to spill over with the back of his hand.
[1750…One thousand seven hundred and fifty…mother fucker, Brance, that better not be exclusive to Lightbringers; I swear to the Allfather, if I don’t get a massive increase in my stat cap ima lose my shit.] Unable to control his left eye from twitching, Cynrik pushed aside Gabby and Selene, who complained loudly and poked Brance in the chest with an angry finger several times.
[Relax, I haven’t even gotten to the most concerning part. Did you look at my Affinities? They’ve undergone a cataclysmic change.] Fighting back laughter because his older brother now looked like the younger brother, Brance steered the conversation back on track and brought up the new words attached to his Affinities.
‘Tobs, can you do me a favor and explain the changes how you did for me to Big Brother?’ Brance asked politely.
-Of Course, now that one of you has achieved Tier-2, the information isn’t nearly as restrictive.-
-Aside from the physical strength difference between Tier-1 and Tier-2, Mana as a whole undergoes a complete qualitative change, starting with how it is both condensed and stored.-
-Previously, the Hosts could only manipulate individual Mana particles, molding them into clusters and absorbing them into the body by way of Circuits before they finally reached one’s Codex.-
-However, this is no longer the case, as starting at Tier-2, the Being’s Body becomes a large organ capable of absorbing Ambient Mana; in doing this, the Mana particles partake in a cleansing process that further purifies them. Once this occurs, the Codex condenses Mana from the Particle state to a Gaseous state, increasing its actual purity further.-
-To categorize this change, seven stages have come to be known. These stages signify three things, the size of one’s Mana pool, the level of impurities the Mana carries, and the Being’s effectiveness when utilizing Mana.-
-On top of this, Affinity proficiency has been recategorized to reflect this quality change and give a title to the beings effectiveness; these new proficiency categories are, Entry, Beginner, Adept, Expert, Master, and Perfected. These categories not only represent your expertise with the Element itself but also are reflected in your Affinity Skills.-
[I…I need to sit down.] Feeling like his brain was about to explode, Cynrik shakily found his way over to one of the workout benches and lay down on his back.
[Tobs, repeat everything three more times to me; I need to be sure I’ve got it all.] After steadying his thoughts, Cynrik had Tobs recite the same speech three separate times, and by the time the third was complete, he had a decent grasp of the new information.
[So right now, you have Beginner level Light and Wind, while your Earth is at the third level, Adept. I guess it’s pretty easy to tell which Element you use excessively. To think I had it all wrong, I just kind of figured proficiency was only a means to increase the power of your Affinities, but now…now it looks like it all banks on the purity and how effectively you utilize your Mana.]
[That is pretty much the conclusion I came to as well when I expanded on light, I saw that aside from the new skills I got from increasing my Tier, everything has a similar rank to the Affinity itself. From what I gather, there is some formula for figuring out your Affinity Proficiency grade, but the bulk of my Earth skills is all at Adept. Thus, my Affinity shows as Adept.] Ignoring the two girls clinging to his biceps like monkeys in a tree, Brance sat down on the ground beside Cynrik and spoke his thoughts.
[There is more to it, Tobs. I assume this is the proper use for Skill points…increasing the proficiency rank of both Affinity skills and the Element.]
-That is correct, Host Cynrik.-
[Nailed it, sigh; I knew shit was gonna get more intricate, but this is a bit too much; I need a couple of minutes to figure out how to explain it to the kids; if I am this thrown off, won’t it just confuse the shit outta them?] Peaking at Gabby, Benny, and Selene out of the corner of his eye, Cynrik collected his thoughts and began explaining everything to the rest of the party.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg