With the Turning point quest cleared, Cynrik and the rest of the party spent the remainder of the time before school relatively idle. The most significant thing to happen during that week was the group shipping off their equipment to be resized and customized on top of ordering Selene’s matching gear.
However, as the group was packing up their armor and weapons, an exciting topic was brought to Cynrik’s attention. A slight oversight on his part.
Everyone was in the process of packing their armor into boxes when Gabby spoke up.
“Uh, Big Bro Ivar, something has been bugging me for a bit, and now that we are sending off our stuff to the Pinhursts to be refitted, I gotta ask.” She said while extending a piece of packing tape to cover the box.
“What’s up?” Cynrik replied, setting down his neatly sealed box of armor.
“If we need our armor and weapons resized because of the growth spurt from Evolution, what do we do about our Academy Uniforms?”
Her question caused everyone to pause what they were doing and look at Cynrik curiously.
The funniest was Selene, who had her t-shirt rolled up and was in the process of taking her own measurements.
“Uhh, ok, that…how the fuck did that slip my mind, shit.” Bouncing up from the couch, Cynrik sprinted to his room and pulled one of his freshly pressed and wrapped in plastic uniforms from the closet, and brought it into the living room.
He wore a frown, tore open the plastic wrap, and took the black blazer trimmed in blue runic patterns off the hanger before holding it to his chest.
The size difference was instantly apparent, as it was clearly meant for someone several sizes smaller than Cynrik. So much so that it made Selene and Gabby giggle.
“I mean, *snicker*, it’s not that bad; look at it this way, you can finally be the guy with the tightest shirt at the party *snicker*.” Brance was desperately fighting to contain his laughter as he watched Cynrik struggle to fit into the several sizes too small blazer.
“It looks bad…don’t do it, Big Bro Ivar; we can go get new ones.” Then, feeling bad for Cynrik, Benny walked over and helped the now trapped Cynrik out of the blazer while giving some words of encouragement.
“GLAD TO KNOW BENNY IS THE ONLY ONE OF YOU ASSHOLES WITH A HEART!” Cynrik angrily snorted after accepting the younger boy’s assistance.
“This can’t be right, though. In a school where students are constantly growing due to Tier Advancements, there has to be some kind of adjustment mechanism in this damn thing. JUST LOOK HERE!” Stopping his rant for a second, Cynrik aggressively pointed at all the royal blue runes covering the black blazer like trim.
“Its got RUNES, MAGIC RUNES! That definitely isn’t just for visual appeal; they have to have some kind of function.” So he said and started trying to decipher them with his [Language Proficiency].
But after a couple of minutes of trying to see through the blurry text and getting a headache, Cynrik gave up and collapsed onto the couch in defeat after tossing the blazer onto the coffee table.
Brance, who had disappeared midway through Cynrik attempting to decipher the runes, returned wearing a perfectly fitting uniform, much to the displeasure of Cynrik, who nearly attacked at the sight of his younger brother’s triumphant strut.
“Well, you weren’t wrong…for once. All you have to do is channel a bit of Mana into the runes, and it makes the clothing turn stretchy; then, it’s just a matter of putting it all on and taking back the Mana into your Codex.” Shrugging his shoulders and performing a small twirl for the girls who were treating it like a fashion show, Brance explained.
The uniform was a standard black pair of trousers and a blazer jacket with a long double-pointed coattail. On the coat, running from just below the hipline to under the collarbone, was an intricately woven piece with five large silver buttons in the shape of wolf heads. The embroidery covering the shoulders, breast, and cuffs was the mysterious runes that, when Brance demonstrated the stretchiness, would glow softly as they absorbed Mana.
(https://gofile.io/d/ZvEUki) **That’s the jacket Just picture blue trim made of strange, indecipherable letters instead of embroidery.**
Like the blazer, the trousers had a similar runic pattern running along the outside of the leg down to the cuffed ankles. Overall, it was a very medieval fashion, which nicely fit the school’s aesthetic.
Under the blazer, Brance was wearing an adequately ironed button-up collared silver long-sleeved shirt. The only thing missing was a tie, but they weren’t necessary for male or female students, every one realized after looking at the Academy’s dress code.
“As it turns out, the jackets are color-coded according to the year. So first-year students wear black jackets, the second-year students wear royal blue jackets, the third-year students wear forest green ones, the fourth-year students’ blazers are golden, and fifth-year students wear red, but they have gold runes. Finally, the sixth-year students wear black, but they also have gold runes and are in a slightly different style. So everyone, keep that in mind when talking to our peers; maybe you can get upper-level students to let valuable information slip in casual conversation.” With Brance showing him how to resize his uniform, Cynrik quickly set about getting dressed, leaving only his gym shorts on as he did so.
However, the only person who reacted to Cynrik pulling off his shirt and getting dressed was Selene, who was practically drooling as he unleashed the well-defined abs she had grown fond of.
Cynrik was fully aware of the peeping tom watching his every movement and had to bite his tongue, stopping him from snapping at her when Selene whimpered sadly as he buttoned up his shirt, hiding his coveted muscles from her.
Once he was fully dressed, Cynrik double-checked the dress code again, and when he saw students were allowed to wear a maximum of two sheathed weapons at all times, he decided on refitting the sleeves with his assassins tools resting underneath.
Once he was sure they were adequately hidden and didn’t hinder his movement, Cynrik unequipped the bracers and stored them in his inventory before stepping into his bedroom and looking at the mirror.
It took him a minute to realize why he felt so uncomfortable, and it wasn’t until his eyes landed on his exposed head that he realized, for the first time in who knows how many years, he wasn’t wearing a hood of some kind.
‘Tsk, unacceptable, there has to be some kind of head covering function; what are we supposed to do in the winter?’ Cynrik pondered as he tugged at the back of his collar.
Thinking on his toes, he plopped down on his bed to scroll through the Academy forum until he found a topic about winter uniforms. As it turned out, there wasn’t actually a winter uniform, but instead, by applying Mana, it was possible to change the thickness of the coat and trousers and add accessories such as gloves and a hood.
Needless to say, this was precisely what Cynrik was looking for, and after some experimentation, his head was once again hidden in shadows, and he felt comfortable. With one uniform properly sized and sporting his trademark AC style hood, Cynrik stripped down and fixed up his other four sets. MyrkLys members were given five uniforms, one for every day of the week, and were required to wear them outside the dorms, except on weekends.
Another thing all five of them had received in the last few days was a small package. In this package were a small metallic badge, a single pair of platinum cufflinks, and a button to be attached in the place of the top button on the blazer. First off, the badge was not only platinum in color, representing their status as members of an S-Rank Faction, but also sported their logo. Furthermore, according to the dress code, it was worn on the left breast in a specific position.
Every student who was part of a faction required this, no matter the rank. The same went for the button, and cufflinks, which also had the MyrkLys logo branded on them.
Although Cynrik wasn’t pleased in the least about being flashy to such an extent and showing off their status, Brance, Gabby, Selene, and even Benny were ecstatic. Especially Selene, who, up until she got the package, only had a couple of Cynrik’s hoodies to show she was part of the group. But now that she had been registered with the Academy and finally had tokens representing her membership, she was practically giddy with excitement.
Once Benny, Brance, and Cynrik had squared away their uniforms, the boys met back up in the living room to show off one last time before packing up all their equipment and sending the girls off to their dorm. Although along the way, Cynrik stopped off at the post office and shipped everything using Credits instead of Merit Points, sending everything to the Pinhursts in Valor City, which according to the clerk, would only take a few hours.
After finishing all the tasks Cynrik had set for them for the day, the boys headed back to the dorm to spar before dinner and do some last-minute studying. This had become the standard evening procedure in their dorm; the main reason was that Cynrik felt it was necessary to put Benny through his paces, allowing the younger boy some much-needed practice getting used to his new body.
One had to remember that although Cynrik and Brance had experienced a whole life on Earth and could quickly adapt to their new heights, it was similar to what they were as adults back then; Benny was only 11. It was an entirely new, albeit awkward, feeling to not be able to move freely because of dozens of pounds of new muscle mass and longer limbs.
By raising Benny and especially Gabby to Tier-2 at such a young age, Cynrik had effectively broken the status quo. The general masses would only reach this stage by the time they were around Selene’s age, which would allow for proper unhindered growth.
This was something Cynrik hadn’t thought to be a big deal. However, the more he interacted with the Sanfords post Evolution, the more he realized how detrimental it indeed was to suddenly go from being an average child to a teenager in a single day.
Thus, he had assigned the task of adapting Gabby to Selene and took it upon himself to bring Benny up to speed. Every evening, he put Benny through what could easily be considered child abuse if it weren’t because the boy was now more prominent and taller than him.
The night before classes officially started, Benny was fully able to keep up and get in a good workout against either one of the brothers. However, although he could keep up to a certain extent, he realized that it was simply because neither Cynrik nor Brance wanted to hurt him, so they let him stay on offense. In contrast, the brother in charge of the training remained on the defensive or counterattacking from time to time.
Like that, the members of MyrkLys passed the days until the first morning of classes arrived.
-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