Cynrik sighed heavily as he stared at the system panel floating half a foot in front of his face. It was taking every ounce of willpower he could muster to not dump all his XP into the Main Level and cap himself.
Sitting a few meters away, Brance’s fingers were already typing away as he adjusted his Stats and finalized everything. He wouldn’t fall to the temptation of his XP like Cynrik was fighting against. Brance was capable of understanding the big picture, and although Cynrik’s plan was solid, it wouldn’t be too big of a surprise if he rushed to Level 20 instead of heeding his own advice.
Meanwhile, Gabby and Benny had just about finished up the chore given to them by Cynrik and were slowly making their way back to Brance, with inventories and arms filled with all kinds of miscellaneous items. Even though the Kobolds had thick scales, which made them difficult to break, Benny had devised a tactic on the fly to remove them with relative ease. By using the tip of one of Gabby’s arrows, the Sanford siblings were able to pick off multiple chest scales from not only the Tier-1 corpses but also the Tier-2.
Luckily for them, it was common knowledge taught in middle school that the scales of all reptilian beings focused around the area just above their hearts were the most sturdy and durable of all the scales you could find. This applied from creatures as small as geckos to as large as fully grown Dragons. Furthermore, these scales protected a particular body part, the Reverse Scale, a unique off-colored inverted scale that all beings with any percentage of Draconian Bloodline had.
This scale was always located in the same place, directly over the creature’s heart. Unlike the surrounding scales, which had hardened over time, the Reverse Scale was the weakest. It was thought to be Draconians’ only weakness, aside from their foolish pride. The haul Gabby and Benny had extracted was so bountiful that they had actually gone a bit overboard and were subsequently struggling to carry everything back.
Uncaring about the struggles of the Sanford siblings, Cynrik finally started moving his fingers. Then, after a few momentary pauses for thought, he finished inputting all his Stats and raising his Level. Upon finishing up, Cynrik exhaled shakily, overcome by the euphoric feeling of not one or two but three of his stats breaking through the 200 checkpoint.
In total, he added seven points to STR, five to DEX, 20 to INT, four to VIT, and the most significant chunk of points, 32, went to his MIND stat. But, that wasn’t all; Cynrik’s eyes glittered with happiness and pride as he finally achieved his long-awaited perfect whole numbers once again.
: STATS :
: HP 2800/2800 :
: Mana 1590/1590 :
: Stamina 1400/1400 :
: Stat Points- 3 :
: Skill Points- 99 :
: Strength- 250 :
: Dexterity- 260 :
: Agility- 260 :
: Intelligence- 210 :
: Vitality- 210 :
: Mind- 200 :
: Will Power- 13 :
: Killing Intent- 325 – 4.5G :
“Hehe, hehehe, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” Completely unable to hold back his excitement, Cynrik burst out into laughter, making him fall over and roll around in the dirt like a pig while giggling like a person with a mental health condition.
“I hahahah DID HAHHAHAH IT! HAHAHAHA, YESSS!” Tears streamed down Cynrik’s cheeks, and he continued laughing his ass off, drawing the attention of his party members, who shot him disgusted looks.
Gabby and Benny inched closer to Brance, dropped their loot on the ground at his feet, and continued watching Cynrik lose his mind. The odd thing was, all of them expected this. They figured the reason for Cynrik’s mental breakdown had to be either he had “passed” everyone in stats and Level, or…his numerical OCD had broken his brain.
Brance looked down at the pile of bloodied scales, equipment, and Codexes, then back to his older brother, and shook his head slowly.
“Let’s just leave him be; you two should boost your Level to 18, like we did, and spend all your points. I would say go all the way to 20, but Big Brother advised against it since our HP, MP, and Stamina all recover when we level up. Thus he wants us to have a buffer in case things go south.” Gripping Benny and Gabby’s shoulders lightly and making them turn their back on Cynrik, who was still rolling around on the ground giggling like a fool, Brance prepped the Sanford siblings, as they would be playing an active role in the battle.
“Are…are you sure we should really listen to someone who acts like that…” Gabby looked at Brance with a grossed-out face and pointed at Cynrik with her thumb.
Brance didn’t reply but simply exhaled loudly and massaged his temples. Cynrik was the only person in the world who could trigger his migraines.
“Just ignore that idiot and get ready, please, Gabby.”
Gabby’s eyes twinkled at Brance’s pleading, and she nodded happily.
The whole time this was going on, Benny acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary. When he saw Cynrik collapse in a fit of manic laughter, he ignored the boy as if he didn’t exist.
Brance patted both their shoulders and tossed a final glance at Cynrik, and flicked his wrist at his brother, sending over his updated stats, before redirecting his attention toward Montu, who seemed to be getting even more strange. Brance could see a heat mirage covering the entire residential area from this distance, making his eyes narrow in thought.
[Hey, fuckface, knock it off, shits going down with the lizard guy.]
Brance’s words ripped Cynrik from his melancholy instantly. He quickly laid flat on his back and reached up, placing his palms on the ground on either side of his head, and performed a perfect kip-up. In this martial art technique, the user kicks up with their legs and pushes off the ground with their hands launching the body in a slight arc before landing on their feet. After quickly patting the dust off his butt, Cynrik walked over to Brance and opened up the Status data his brother had sent him with a serious expression on his face.
Brance had stuck to his balanced build, putting three points in STR, four in DEX, one in AGI, 11 in INT, seven in VIT, and 16 in MIND. These changes brought three of his stats up to the 200 mark, increasing his power significantly, just like Cynrik had done.
: STATS :
: HP 3520/3520 :
: Mana 1480/1480 :
: Stamina 1760/1760 :
: Stat Points- 0 :
: Skill Points- 155 :
: Strength- 257 :
: Dexterity- 200 :
: Agility- 200 :
: Intelligence- 200 :
: Vitality- 250 :
: Mind- 180 :
: Killing Intent- 270 – 4.25g :
However, there was one glaring issue that made the corner of Brance’s mouth twitch; Cynrik had not only caught up but was back on top as the party’s ace. Brance had gone from having all of his stats surpassing Cynriks to now only his STR and VIT were higher than his older brother. This fact made Brance feel itchy all over since he already could predict that once they left the Egress, Cynrik would hold this over his head for months to come.
“Hm?” Cynrik tilted his head to the side and activated [Mana Sight], casting his gaze towards the hazy mirage.
“Fuck.” Cynrik’s face fell as he had a feeling he knew what was happening and swiftly made a decision.
[Tobs, pull Brance and me into my SOC.]
Two seconds later, Cynrik and Brance were greeted by the hellacious landscape of Cynriks Sea of Consciousness.
“I’ll make this quick, Montu has lost the battle with the Diety Bloodline Spirit, and that being is in the process of taking over his body. Shit just hit the fan, Brance. I hoped it would be a quick fight if we were battling the original Montu since he’s a tad touched in the brain. But now, things are different; the one we are fighting will be a combat veteran. Odds are this being is like Ragnar, a previous Legacy Charge who fought in an LS.”
Cynrik punched the palm of his right hand with his left fist in anger.
“How bad are we talking?”
“Bad…but not impossible. The new boss will be limited in several ways. Be it the fact it’ll be in a new body it’s unfamiliar with or the simple fact that its power will have regressed to Montu’s from its original. If we are lucky, they weren’t a Shaman in their previous life and will have to learn their new skills from scratch, giving us a major advantage.”
“Got it.” Brance crossed his arms over his chest and gave a short nod.
“We need to keep one eye on the kids too, be prepared to run if I give the order. Don’t worry about me; with my AGI pushing 300 thanks to my gear, I will be able to move fast enough to get out of harm’s way. Also, there’s always the nuclear option, where I beat them the same way I did Ragnar. If that occurs, you need to be ready to heal me since my Annarr Form will practically destroy my arms in the process, even with my new VIT.” Cynrik chewed on his bottom lip in thought, leaving a silence hanging in the air.
“We got this, don’t worry, Brance.”
Cynrik and Brance left the SOC and exhaled slowly in sync with those words.
“Gabby, Benny, get over here and show me your stats.” Then, knowing that time was short and a new plan needed to be formed, Cynrik shouted at the Sanford siblings, startling them both.
The two were already in the process of writing down their info for Cynrik as per the usual deal and promptly scurried over to him and handed over their paper.
Cynrik scanned over Gabby’s sheet first, as she forced it into his hands before Benny had even made it over.
: STATS :
: HP 1820/1820 :
: Mana 1035/1035 :
: Stamina 910/910 :
: Stat Points- 0 :
: Skill Points- 96 :
: Strength- 168 :
: Dexterity- 185 :
: Agility- 180 :
: Intelligence- 150 :
: Vitality- 151 :
: Mind- 157 :
: Killing Intent- 179 – 3.75 G :
“I want you to spend your skill points, use them to evolve your [Confusion] as high as possible. It will come in handy for the plan I have in store. When I give you the sign, I want you to burn all of your XP, hit the cap, then dump as much as you can into Prestige. Once you’re done with that, I need you to push your MIND Stat as high as possible the goal is to break through 200. Our opponent shouldn’t be higher than that. Don’t worry about your Stat’s being lop-sided; we will figure that out later.”
Gabby nodded in understanding and sat down before doing as she was told.
“Benny,” Cynrik looked away from the little girl, who was humming a light tune to herself and towards her older brother.
“You need to be prepared; you’ll be playing a crucial part in the plan.”
-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