Frowning and swiping away the notification window with the creature known as a Void Mouse’s description out of the way, Cynrik’s pupils constricted as he tried zooming in on it with his [Mana Sight] active.
One thing he had been working on was controlling the focus of his eyes by constricting the blood vessels with Mana, magnifying his telescopic vision to the extent of a high-powered camera lens. However, it only worked in theory. Still, Cynrik had made some headway in his experiments and could increase his distance vision by 2.5 times, but that was as far as he could go before his eyes would turn bloodshot or worse, get foggy and begin bleeding. After Weeks of trial and error and finding the sweet spot without injuring himself so bad that Brance had to heal his eyes, he got the hang of double and a half distance, giving him a good look at the little intruder.
[[Listen up; now that I have a second to talk, the Boys’ Dorm was infiltrated by a tamed beast. It entered the premises when you guys were in the process of moving Melody into the house. At that time, under cover of a mixture of Dark and Space stealth skills, it snuck in and hid until we were entirely preoccupied without Class choices after patching that girl up.]] Cynrik started Briefing Brance and allowed Selene to listen in.
[[Not only has it been watching us all day, but since [Inspect] indicates that it is a tamed beast, we can safely assume its owner is nearby and has been receiving transmissions detailing everything we have said in the privacy of our home. As such, this mother fucker knows everything.]]
[[Moving on, the tamed beast is known as a Void Mouse, approximately seven inches in height and a little less than a foot long from snout to tail. It has six legs and has a Dual Affinity for Dark and Space. Worse yet, it is Tier-2 Level 33, so we are punching above our weight class by quite a bit. Brancie, I currently have eyes on it from within the Shadow Realm, and it is attempting to gather information from each of our bedrooms. At the moment, it is outside of mine, but it has been moving between the other rooms trying to find out everything it can.]]
[[Luckily, it doesn’t seem to be aware we are on to it, even though it knows I saw it earlier. The good news is that thanks to the strange material the building is made of, Space Affinity teleportation skills don’t allow it to get out of the Dorm and only allow it to swiftly move from point A to point B within the confines of the Dorm itself.]]
[[Inform the Headmaster of my findings and alert him that we all are aware of the situation. If my assumption is correct and using my class information as a basis, the Tamer should be higher than his creature, thus, at the very least Early Tier-3. Meaning the rest of his squad should be Peak Tier-2 or higher. We will need his help to handle this. OH, and if he asks how we communicate, use Gabby as a proxy.]]
[[Copy, Operation name?]] Knowing that Cynrik was the only one with a weapon and knowing his brother’s personality entirely, Brance didn’t bother telling him not to attack. If Cynrik judged the creature as within his means of fighting, he would leave it to him. So he did the only thing he could and asked what Cynrik wanted to name this covert Operation. Unfortunately, when he heard the response, Brance wanted to kick Cynrik across the planet.
[[Obviously, it will be called Operation “Gotta Catchem All,” and not a single one leaves. I want each of these mother fuckers dead, and if the Headmaster is determined to imprison them, I will argue against it until my throat and eyes bleed.]] Smirking sadistically, Cynrik flicked his wrists out of habit, unsheathing and resheathing his hidden blades with a loud SHINK.
—
Floating high above, near the ceiling of the Cavern of Dorms on a transparent construct formed of pure Space Mana, Brance relayed the information except for Cynrik’s Operation Codename to the Headmaster, who, after stepping through the Spatial Crack, teleported them high above the ground where they could get a clear view of the entire Core Area.
“Troublesome bastards, they actually sent a Tier-3 tamer after you lot. This changes things significantly. Your brother and I discussed the potential of this occurring only a few hours ago; I never expected that it would come to pass so quickly. And here I was, so sure that our security would be able to stop anyone over Tier-2 from entering the Cavern. It appears I will have to heed Student Ivar’s words more closely.” Wearing a sad expression and beating himself up internally, Headmaster Rivia’s eyes suddenly seemed to light with fire and fury.
“I assume Student Gabriella has created a telepathic network allowing you all to stay in contact by using her Psychic Affinity?” Toning down his anger slightly, Headmaster Rivia spoke his suspicions.
“Un, Gabby has been our party’s silent communication line ever since she reached Tier-1.” Not giving his girlfriend a chance to show her confusion, Brance intercepted the conversation, causing the Headmaster to nod.
“Send word to the others in your party to stay put and not to try anything. I am aware that none of you have your weapons currently, and I don’t want any of my Students getting hurt because of VSFA’s inability to stop these people from invading your privacy. It is good that everyone is on alert and acting as if nothing is wrong or out of the ordinary; this will buy us some time to locate and capture the spies.” Looking below, Headmaster Rivia’s eyes shined in a pale aqua light, and his pupils dilated as he scanned the entirety of the Core Area for intruders. About two minutes later, he picked up a faint response from the ambient Mana particles, indicating at least six adults with a power of Early to Peak Tier-3 were in the vicinity.
“Found them; first things first, let’s isolate all of the Core Area, so they cannot escape.” Grinning evilly, Headmaster Rivia stepped off the solid Mana construct, holding the group in the air. He flew forward a few meters with his arms extended and his body perfectly straight.
Making a hard-to-see and blurry movement with his arms, Headmaster Rivia slowly brought his hands together and formed the shape of a cube with his fingers.
“Distortion Skill: [Area Confinement,]”
Brance watched in awe with his [Mana Sight] active as two vastly different Aqua-colored three-dimensional cubes formed in response to the man’s words. One cube was small and fit neatly into the center of the Headmaster’s hands; the other was so huge it covered the entire Core Area, which covered two Chicago city blocks (one Chicago city block is 330 by 600 feet or 100m x 200 meters).
“Headmaster, please wait a moment.” Thinking that Geralt was about to go and capture the enemies, Brance panicked and used a thin jet of Wind Mana to move the Space Construct towards the Headmaster.
“What is it, Student Björn? Don’t tell me you wish to handle this yourself? If that is the case, I forbid it. It’s bad enough that Students Ivar, Selene, and Benjamin are present within my [Area Confinement], but now you want to put yourself and Student Gabriella in danger. I see in total six enemy spies, Three at Early Tier-3, two at Mid, and the last, who I assume is in charge, is Peak of Tier-3 and approaching the 4th Tier.” Not bothering to look back at Brance, Headmaster Rivia waved his hand, and two small Spatial Cracks appeared; seconds later, two men decked out in full combat gear walked through and stepped onto two small platforms formed of Space Mana.
Brance recognized these men to be the very same Instructors he had met some months ago during their evaluations, Garrison and Alistar.
” Six targets, ranging from Early Tier-3 to Peak, your mission is to disarm, cripple and capture all six, leaving them alive for Interrogation.”
The two Instructors saluted and stepped off the platforms, free-falling through a 5-meter hole in the Spatial cube, hundreds of meters toward the ground. Once they passed through, it sealed back up, leaving no access in or out of the confined area.
However, just before they landed, a loud explosion shook the surrounding area, making everyone frown in confusion, including the group in the sky.
Turning around and giving Brance an unhappy glance, the Headmaster waited for an explanation.
“You see, my brother is quite impatient and has already begun what we call an Operation…so…yeah.” Wearing a sheepish grin and scratching the back of his head, Brance said, making the Headmaster’s pupils shrink to pinholds and snap his head back towards the cube, where he saw Cynrik flitting around in the midst of combat with a small rodent.
Going back a few minutes earlier, after Cynrik told Brance to inform the Headmaster of the situation and named the Operation, he got in position and locked onto the creature above and outside of the Shadow Realm.
“It’s just a rat; how bad can it be?” Cynrik asked no one in particular.
-That is an almost Tier-3 “rat”; it can get REALLY bad, REALLY fast. You have only your Assassins tools, no armor, no swords. Please tell me how exactly you can possibly think you come out of this unscathed, Host Cynrik?-
“Bah, the little shit isn’t even a foot tall; I can take it.” Smiling cockily, Cynrik equipt his school uniform, which had an added layer of magic armoring and would offer him at least some protection.
“Alright, Tobs, it’s that time again; gimmie some of that “good good” background music.” Rolling both his shoulders and firing off a couple of kicks before popping his neck, Cynrik requested his usual BGM.
-And what do you want this time? SAO Again, or are you going with some more AoT? Honestly, I need you to find a little more variety…you have literally watched thousands of different anime, yet you stick to similar songs.-
“Oh, quit your belly aching Tobs, uhh, got it, MKaliez!”
-Sigh, fine. Now playing “MKAlieZ” from Aldnoah.Zero by Hiroyuki Sawano.-
“Damn right you are, hehe,” After the short laugh, Cynrik’s face became composed and emotionless. Pulling up his hood and flexing his fingers in time with the music, his eyes drifted to his Resource Stat’s bar. Next, he opened up his Stat panel, glanced at his 194 Stat points, and quickly placed four points into his DEX, making it match his AGI at 537. Exhaling sharply, then steeling his resolve, Cynrik divided the remaining 190 points into each stat, pushing his DEX and AGI up to 630, leaving himself with only four Stat points remaining.
He hated burning points when they were basically free after each level up, but this was just the occasion he and Brance saved them for. The moments when they would need a heavy boost to contend with something stronger than them.
The instant he allocated the points, he felt the familiar pain washing over his body as it adjusted to its new power, and although it only lasted a second, it felt like minutes. Once the adjustment was complete, Cynrik popped his neck again and kicked off the ground while activating his stealth skill, the newly Evolved [Spectre Concealment], formerly known as [Cloak of Shadows].
-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