Continuing with their regular schedule, the boys’ progress took a sharp turn; they had begun making several small breakthroughs with their affinities and, as a result, were breaking through supposed bottleneck after bottleneck, and their Essence points clearly showed this. However, with the addition of multiple random event quests and regular daily quests, they were far from ordinary level 5 humans, let alone that they hadn’t even reached middle school.
Usually, a child between the ages of five and six would at best be level 3 if they came from prestigious families. But this wasn’t the case for Cynrik and Brance; neither of them had a silver spoon shoving resources and information into their mouths. Yet even without this kind of help, they were well into the XP grind for level 5, and if they continued in this manner, it wouldn’t be long before they stepped into level 6, something that isn’t supposed to be achievable until they were at the very least teenagers.
Yet, they were leagues ahead of children in their age bracket due to having a cheat-like system and being reincarnations. These two simple facts were more than enough to give off the appearance of being highly talented geniuses.
However, even with all their cheats, talent, and knowledge, one thing still eluded them, and this thing was that neither of them had been able to manifest their original Affinities.
While Both Cynrik and now, after several weeks Brance, had been able to bring forth both their additional elements, The Dark and Light Affinities were proving to be a tricky problem to solve.
Due to both Affinities’ “Special Advanced” grade and their restricted access to Vinestra’s internet, Cynrik and Brance struggled to gain any ground with their Proficiency. The most information they could obtain was that it was supposedly nearly impossible to awaken and train a SAG Affinity without a minimum of a Tier 5 Codex and Circuits.
Cynrik was entirely at a loss for how to advance his understanding of his Darkness. Ever since he stepped into the world of Magic, he had tirelessly attempted to trigger some reaction from his original Affinity.
That is until one day; he had a sudden epiphany. Sudden enlightenment occurred while he was attempting to merge Wind with his Flames to increase its power. He had been studying the past few nights about the process of elemental fusion. For this to occur, the emotions behind your manifestation must align perfectly; simultaneously, they must stem from a similar origin such as Creation or Destruction; they must also be appropriately laced with certain feelings.
Cynrik was sitting in the center of the bedroom with his legs crossed and his arms loosely held out at his sides, his palms facing up while speaking quietly.
“My Flames bring about Destruction with their blazing heat and searing power.” Finishing the first sentence, his open palms burst into flames that would burn anything except its user.
Realizing his brother was attempting something, Brance’s attention was drawn away from the school workbook he was trying to read and landed on the boy sitting in the center of the room.
“It surges forward swiftly as it’s fueled by the gusts of my Wind, with unstoppable force and blinding accuracy.” A gust of wind kicked up in the room, rapidly flipping the pages of Brance’s book and making his and Cynrik’s hair flutter.
Brance slowly closed and placed his book off to his side, and activated Mana Sight. He wanted to gain as much from the scene presenting itself to adapt it to his Earth and Wind manifestations. He was well aware of what Cynrik was trying to pull off. They had spent many long nights discussing how to move forward and get stronger, and now it looked like his older brother was finally paving the path ahead; how could he miss this opportunity.
Slowly a tangible, visible gust of wind wrapped itself around the fireballs that were hoving inches above Cynrik’s hands, fueling them with oxygen and rapidly increasing the force of each one. “Together, they create a destructive force that can even cause the heavens to quake,” Opening his eye’s Cynrik observed these ever rapidly fluctuating flames with curiosity.
His extended arms drew closer together as Cynrik slightly turned his palms towards each other in an attempt to merge the two fireballs into one.
Much in the way that pouring water into a half-filled cup was seamless, the two balls of fire merged into one.
It was at this moment that he received his sudden enlightenment. It was but a simple thought that made his mind tremble at the possibility of it working. Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, he spoke out his newly formed phrase bringing it to life.
“and it is this Destruction that is born from the Darkness.” The world seemed to go perfectly still.
Brance’s eye’s shot wide open, and his mouth hung open due to what he was witnessing. Around his brother, all the different specs of Mana froze in place as a pitch-black glow seemed to radiate from Cynrik.
The powerful flames dimmed slightly, and suddenly, the roaring life-filled Red-Orange flames changed from their original color to an endlessly deep black color. This wasn’t the only change occurring; the gusts feeding the flames suddenly surged around the fire, turning it into a miniature cyclone.
This sinister new appearance drew a sense of disgust from the depth of his body stunned Brance. One had to remember that he would naturally have a repulsion to the Dark Element as a Light Affinity User. At this very moment, when Cynrik had broken through and unlocked his Darkness Affinity, Brance couldn’t control the shiver from going down his spine.
Tilting his head to the side in a fluid motion, Cynrik stared at the perfect fusion of all three of his Affinities in awe. He moves his hand back and forth slowly, causing the black-fire tornado to float within his control.
Giving mental instructions to the Mana, he willed it to hover just above his left palm and could feel all his Violence, Rage, Hatred, Pain, and fear emanating from this fierce cyclone. It felt like an extension of his being that he had complete control over.
It was at this time that a system notification appeared in his peripheral vision.
-You have Awoken your (SAG) Dark Element Affinity-
For nearly eight years, Cynrik had been experimenting daily to awaken his Darkness Affinity. Finally, four days before his 8th birthday, he had succeeded in summoning it forth. Still, he had also achieved the unthinkable and completed a three-stage Fusion which even many high-ranked Reavers were incapable of.
When it came to Reavers and their Affinities, they could be categorized relatively easily. G-D-Rank Reavers would only have one Affinity. C-A-Rank reavers would have Two affinities, and if they could fuse them, they’d be awarded a higher rank. S-Rank Reavers stood above the rest. To reach this rank, one would have to not only have three or more Affinities, but they would also need to be able to fuse at least two perfectly. Affinities aside, levels played a factor in the rankings as well.
The average level range for G to D-Rank was 15-20, C to A-Rank had a more significant gap, these ranks would have an intermediate level of 21-60. Finally, S-Rank was where the monsters lived; their levels would range from 61-100. Cynrik didn’t know how the ranking system worked after S-rank, and he couldn’t be bothered to think that far ahead.
While Cynrik was severely under-leveled and couldn’t be considered even close to being at the rank of a Reaver, he had at this moment achieved one of the requirements necessary for S-Rank.
Focusing on what was going on in his Codex, Cynrik was met by several revelations about his Darkness Affinity. He watched all three different Mana types swirl around his Codex and Circuits and tried his best to adapt to how it felt to manifest his original Affinity.
The three Elements in his Codex were in the form of 3 small vortexes. Each one had its separate location in the three-dimensional diamond. The topmost point held the small black whirlpool; to the left was a slightly larger reddish-orange one, and the green vortex, while somewhat larger than his dark, was located in the right point of his Codex.
These three vortexes spun separately but moved out the Codex together before merging seamlessly into one flow and moving out into his Circuits.
Cynrik watched as the multicolored stream of Mana coursed through his body before feeding into the black cyclone hovering above his hands in awe.
Unfortunately, before he could gather more information, the cyclone in his palm suddenly blinked out of existence by itself, and a severe headache overcame Cynrik while his vision tunneled and darkened.
“BRANCE PILLO..” before he could finish his statement, he was rendered unconscious due to mana exhaustion. What he didn’t expect was how his little stunt had rendered Brance motionless as he entered a state of enlightenment after witnessing the triple fusion and manifestation of his brother’s original Affinity.
So he didn’t even acknowledge his now unconscious brother’s collapse plea for a pillow. Instead, Brance had tuned out the world around him as he tried to delve deeper into his subconscious and unlock his original Affinity.