The Over-Break System

With the rest of the party moving around the Dorm calculating the damages done by the battle, Benny and Melody slipped out when no one was looking to avoid further interrogation. It was bad enough that Benny had already told everyone about what had happened between them. Still, Melody couldn’t bear to see the reactions on everyone’s faces, so like a burglar, she pulled the boy along into his bedroom and out the window, escaping to freedom.

Unfortunately, since everyone was still on high alert after the battle, Cynrik, Brance, Selene, and Gabby all noticed their departure; however, no one said anything since it was evident that the girl was highly embarrassed.

The rest of the evening was relatively quiet until around 11 pm, when a knock suddenly appeared on the front doorway. The sudden and abrupt sound caused the party, who all had cleaning utensils out and were scrubbing the walls and ceiling, to look in the direction of the sound. Standing in the doorway uncomfortably was a man in a brown professional uniform and a clipboard in his arms.

“Hello, I have a delivery for a Student, Ivar Ragnarsson.” The man, who couldn’t have been older than 18 or 19, said firmly.

“IVAR! DOOR!” Gabby yelled as she went back to attacking a particularly tough black blemish on the wall with some cleaning chemicals.

Peaking his head out from inside the training room, Cynrik noticed the delivery man and ran over.

“Whatcha got for me, boss?” Cynrik said as he wiped his dirty hands on his pants and took the clipboard, which had a long list of items scheduled for delivery to him.

“Please sign the form at the bottom, and I will hand you the Pocket containing everything you ordered from our service.” The man said with his right eye twitching. It was late at night, and his final delivery, and he just wanted to go home and sleep before having to work early the next morning. He was supposed to be off the clock hours ago, but around three hours ago, right as he was about to leave work, a large order for a bunch of household items came in, and it was handed down to him to collect everything and deliver it. To say he didn’t like Cynrik at that moment was an understatement.

“Yep, door, window, carpets, kitchen stuff, living room stuff, everything looks in order.” Signing the form and handing the clipboard back to the delivery man, Cynrik extended his hand and waited for him to give over the storage device.

“One moment while I validate the form.” The man impatiently stated as he scanned Ivar’s signature with his Watcet. Once he received the notification that everything was in order, he removed a necklace from around his neck and handed it over to Cynrik, who tapped it against his wrist and scanned its contents with his Watcet.

“Thanks, here take this for your troubles,” Catching the guy by the arm, Cynrik quickly tapped his device against the man’s, transferring him 10 Merit points and sending him on his way with a dazed expression. Hardly anyone ever tipped him, so it was quite a shock to receive ten points just like that.

“Thaa, thank you.” The man sheepishly said with a bow before running off in excitement.

Waving him off, Cynrik immediately pulled out the new front door, which was rated to be able to withstand a full-on attack from a Tier-4, and fitted it into place with the aid of his [Shadow Clone]. Once the door was in place, he had everyone move away from the living room and into the kitchen on the tiled floor.

“Uh, why are we all here? Is Big Bro going to do something stupid again?” Gabby asked curiously while looking up at Brance.

“Probably, knowing him, it will be either extremely destructive or flashy.” Brance sighed as he rubbed his temples.

“Ready for some fireworks?” Cynrik asked as he grinned diabolically and snapped his fingers, lighting everything remaining in the living room, including hallways, on fire with his black flames, instantly destroying every spec of rubble and the carpet.

Next, he pulled out several long rolls of fresh new black carpet that had already been premeasured and cut, a batch of small rubber mallets, and some long white tubes filled with adhesive carpet glue.

“Grab a roll and start laying it down. Everyone gets one of these little mallets and a container of adhesive. If you look, the edges of the room have little spikes; you will smack the corners and edge of the carpets with the mallet securing it in place with the little spikes. Then you use the adhesive on the stone foundation like glue on paper to stick the carpet to it. Brance will help you, girls, if you need any; I have to replace Benny’s window; come along, Shade.” Giving everyone instructions, Cynrik looked over to his clone, which he had for some reason named, and walked across the concrete foundation to Benny’s bedroom.

Selene, Brance, and Gabby stared at his back with confused glassy eyes.

“Did he just name…?” Selene started.

“I think so…” Gabby added.

“Why Shade though…?” Brance finished the thought as all three looked at each other, shook the weird actions of Cynrik out of their minds, and grabbed some carpet and tools, going to work and setting the new carpet down in place.

“I can’t believe that moron bought black carpet; why couldn’t he just stick with the neutral color we had before?” Heaving a sigh as he lined up the corner of his carpet with the wall spikes, Brance looked at the plush flooring with narrowed eyes.

“Listen, I tried to talk him out of it; I really did. I showed him half a dozen different patterns and colors, but he rejected every single one. His excuse was how good everything looked charred, so he ignored me and bought all black.” Hanging her head and working on one of the hallway carpets, Selene vented her frustration.

“What’s done is done; you don’t have to live here; Benny and I do. I knew this would happen when I left it up to my brother to buy all the new furniture and flooring. I am willing to bet we will have black leather furniture and all-black kitchen utensils too. It’s just how he is.” Standing up and looking back toward Gabby and Selene, who were just finishing up their spots, Brance looked down the hall, where Cynrik and his newly named clone Shade were working to secure the new window in place with little trouble.

“Once you guys wrap it up, let’s go back into the kitchen and clear the rubble before he can burn all that too. Luckily the cabinets are all made of stone, so they just need a good scrubbing, but sweep all the debris into piles so I can pull it into my inventory. The last thing we need is him turning a stone and tile room into a furnace.” Using a hushed tone, Brance hurried along with the two girls into the kitchen as they finished laying the carpet and set about sweeping all the broken rubble into piles before pulling it into his inventory.

By the time Brance cleared the kitchen, Cynrik had finished up installing Benny’s new bedroom window and returned to examine the new living room.

“Looks good ALRIGHT LETS DO THIS!” With a wave of his hand, three brand new black leather sofas, two solid black coffee tables, four matching end tables, a new black tv stand, and most importantly, a plush, expensive-looking recliner appeared in the center of the living room.

“Called it,” Brance said lazily as he inspected all the new black furniture, his words drawing a wonderous gasp from Gabby, who couldn’t help but think Brance was the one with the Psychic Affinity, not her.

Gabby, and Selene, soon joined Brance in inspecting all the new living room furniture and pushing it into its proper spot, leaving Cynrik to wander into the kitchen while chewing the inside of his cheek. He sighed, unloaded the new Maplewood dining set, and scooted it into place before moving on to the cupboards and stowing all the new dishes and silverware. Unlike what Brance had predicted this time, everything was a dark shade of red instead of black.

Once finished, he returned to the living room, set up the new Holo-Tv, and plopped down into his new recliner to relax for the rest of the night. Looking over at the other four members of his group, he couldn’t help but smile; Selene was already out cold and balled up on one of the couches; meanwhile, Brance was leaning back on his couch, with a sleeping Gabby using his lap as a pillow. A soft smile was on her lips as she unconsciously enjoyed Brance petting her head while she slept.

Benny, who had returned home when Cynrik was fixing up the kitchen, was also passed out on the final couch with his arms crossed over his chest, breathing softly.

[They had it rough today, but it will only get more challenging as the days progress.] Brance said, noticing the relaxed smile on Cynrik’s face.

[Yeah, I know. The training we have to put them through is bad enough, but the physical pain from growing that quickly will test their resolve. I’m not worried about Selene since she has the Will Power stat, but Benny and Gabby will struggle.] Looking away from the cute sleeping face of his girlfriend, Cynrik sighed and met his brother’s gaze.

[On the plus side, we knocked out 10 million XP today, so that should shorten things, right?]

[Yes and no. Tier-2 beings give 1k per their Primary level, remember. Those spies were giving roughly 10k per Primary; one of them is like ten lower Tiers. But honestly, we got so much XP because of that modifier. Reaching six times after your passive has already modified the XP further is beyond our normal reach. So unless we consistently come up against Tier-3s, which we won’t, we will be forced to continuously grind our way through mobs to make up that 80 million.] Drumming his fingers on the soft leather armrests, Cynrik continued.

[The XP isn’t even my biggest concern, though. Although everyone showed today that they could fight without using their weapons, they still have a long way to go. Tomorrow we will be heading into the first Obelisk; luckily, everything in there is relatively weak compared to us. But if we had to jump into, say, the 2nd or 3rd, the whole party, would be in a bind since our Affinities haven’t progressed as far as I would have liked them to. Sure, you and I can mitigate the difference with our hand-to-hand experience, but they can’t.] Cynrik said while motioning toward his sleeping party.

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