Cynrik barely had enough time to buckle his seatbelt as Cinyah pushed forward the vehicle’s throttle, taking off and forcing his back against the seat.
Noticing the complaints from the back seat, Cinyah pulled back on the steering column, forcing the hovercar up at a steep angle while giggling at her children’s expense; as they were pressed into their seats further. Unfortunately, while the boys had their seatbelts on, Rikard didn’t, and the sudden acceleration and subsequent verticle climb caused him to bounce around in the passenger seat, startling him awake and making him yelp loudly.
“HONEY, SLOW DOWN! AHHH, WE’RE GUNNA DIE!” Rikard screamed, making Cynrik, Cinyah, and Brance burst out laughing at his sudden onset panic. The brothers were prepared for their mother’s crazy driving, but poor Rikard made the horrible decision of falling asleep on takeoff.
Expertly piloting the hovercar, Cinyah sped through the different flight lanes before quickly reaching their traveling altitude of 12000 feet. Unlike driving close to the ground, speed limits didn’t exist once you reached a certain height in the air called the FlightChannel; as such, after adjusting their heading, they were on their way towards the city where the exams would be held, Valor City.
Valor city, also known as the Capitol of their country, Vexus, was the largest city within a thousand miles and the home of six of the largest Academies in the county. Vesemir School for Affinities, Renson Military Academy, Banes College, Finwan Academy, Supremacy University, and Quest Combat Academy, once a year, these six Academies would hold a grand event where children between the ages of 10-14 would come to take the entrance examinations to make it into one of these six prestigious schools. With hundreds of thousands of children applying every year, the competition was extremely fierce, and thus, the grading criteria for the examination were strict.
Although Cynrik and Brance were eligible a couple of years ago, they had decided against joining the exams. With their lack of access to their elemental Affinities and the uncertainty of the exam contents, it made sense to wait. Furthermore, their decision was heavily based on their experiences in the HBTC. The more time they spent training, the better their grasp of the full extent of what they were capable of. As such, after talking it over with Cinyah and Rikard, the family, as a whole, had decided to wait until their temporary crippled state wore off before taking the exams.
-Time Remaining until Crippled Debuff wears off 37:19:00-
Sighing softly and relaxing in the back seat, Cynrik closed the notification window showing how much time was left until he could use his Affinities again, and looked at the rear-view mirror in the front seat, making eye contact with Cinyah.
“What’s wrong, darling?” Seeing his sad expression and hearing the sighs from behind her, Cinyah looked at Cynrik in the rear-view.
“Just thinking. Mom, are you sure what we planned will work? Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any info from my system about it, which has me a bit anxious. The written test will be a breeze, but we don’t know what the other three parts of the exam will be.” After revealing their stat profiles to their parents, Cynrik and Brance became more open to talking to their parents when something was on their minds.
Cynrik, especially, would constantly ask random questions to his mother, who seemed to always have the answers he needed, while Rikard was pretty much more brawn than brains.
“Mhm, the biggest downside from using your unique skill was the loss of all your Affinity Proficiency. If you had more time, you could have just re-earned everything since the knowledge is already embedded in your mind. But, unfortunately, time isn’t a luxury we have, so the only choice is to forcefully raise your Proficiency using Codexes that house the same elements you use. While this won’t help your Darkness or Brance’s Light, you can at least have your Fire, Wind, and Earth elements. Therefore, I can only advise you to spend whatever free time you get in between segments to raise your Origin Affinities as fast as possible. Since your Circuits and Codexes have already gotten used to using your Special Advanced-Grade Mana, you should be able to raise them relatively quick.”
Pondering on her words, Cynrik eventually nodded and looked out the window at the clouds zipping by while resting his chin on his palm.
“Mom, are we gunna have enough time to stop at your friend’s blacksmith shop?” Brance left the planning to Cynrik, who seemed to be deep in thought, while aimlessly staring out the window and posed a question of his own.
“That’s the plan, Brancie; we have to be sure our two handsome young men are geared up and ready to get into a good school. You never know what kind of curveballs the Academy’s will throw when it comes to the exams.” Tossing her youngest son a sweet smile, she looked down at the navigation system, “We should get there in a couple of hours. The first exam doesn’t begin until 3 pm, so there will be plenty of time to shop for some last-minute equipment for you two. So I want you two to spend the rest of the trip taking the practice written exams on your Watcets.
“Yes, Mom.” The brothers replied simultaneously with two opposite tones; Cynrik’s was full of dread, while Brance was cheerful.
[You know, I specifically remember, you were the one growing up on Earth who was shit when it came to studying. So how the hell did we swap roles?] Cynrik didn’t contain his aggression as he spoke into the mind link.
[You’re just lazier now. Plus, if memory serves, you never did homework or classwork in school back then, while I messed around the whole time. In this life, I’m determined to have a good school experience.]
[Daw, look at Lil Brancie wanting to be the intelligent child.]
[Shut up, Cyn, I would rather be known as intelligent than the stone-faced gloomy kid who makes little kids cry.]
[ONE TIME, ONE FUCKING TIME I MADE A KID CRY, HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HE WOULD SEE ME RELOCATING MY ARM BACK INTO THE SOCKET!] Loosing his cool, Cynrik leaned over and got into Brance’s face while screaming into the mind link.
[WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT YOU DECIDED TO WORK ON PARKOUR ON THE FUCKING ELEMENTRY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND! USE GOD DAMN COMMON SENSE!] Not backing down, Brance got right in Cynrik’s face and yelled back.
[OH, COME ON, JUNGLE GYMS AND MONKEY BARS, BRANCE! IT’S THE PERFECT PLACE TO PRACTICE THAT SHIT; IT’S NOT LIKE I CAN GO DOWNTOWN AND JUMP AROUND THE ROOFTOPS LIKE A SUPERHERO!] Getting a little too excited, Cynrik shoved Brance, who smacked his back on the hovercar door.
Brance’s face flattened, and he glared at Cynrik before he leaned forward and smacked Cynrik in the side of the head.
[Dumbass, ATLEAST DO IT AT NIGHT!]
[OI, The fuck did you smack me for?] Rubbing the spot Brance had hit, Cynrik felt wronged.
“BOYS, KNOCK IT OFF!” Not wanting their scuffle to escalate further, Cinyah put a stop to it by using her “Mom voice,” which made both brothers sit straight up and immediately open up the practice exams on their Watcets obediently.
The trip seemed to drag on for Cynrik and Brance as they answered hundreds of repetitive multiple choice questions on everything from “What is Mana” to “What does X stat do,” The questions weren’t difficult for either of them, but being forced to study by their Mom, wore them out. But after a few hours, they were finally saved from the endless torture of tests by Valor Cities skyline coming into view. A few minutes later, Cinyah landed the hovercar, and once everyone was out, she pushed a button on her Watcet, causing the vehicle to shrink down to the size of a matchbox car, and tossed it into her inventory. Then, with a wave of her arm, Cinyah directed her little family towards a large store called Pinhurst Cold-Steel.
Cinyah smiled as she watched her children’s faces light up in the excitement and followed after the two when they ran into the store.
TING TING
A small bell above the door jingled as Cynrik, and Brance split up, one going to a section of the store labeled “Blades” and the other going to the “Armor” section.
Cynriks eyes darted around the large store, which reminded him of a sporting goods store on Earth; just instead of camping gear and footballs, it was filled with all kinds of weapons and armor.
While the two boys went about searching the store for gear that would suit them, Cinyah walked up to a young, blond-haired, fair-skinned, thin woman who was full of smiles and stood behind the store’s checkout counter.
“Hey Maeve, it’s been a while.” Cinyah greeted her childhood friend Maeve Pinhurst with a cheerful smile.
“Cinyah, It’s been way too long. How dare you only come to see me now.” Then, stepping out from behind the glass counter, Maeve ran up and gave Cinyah a big hug. “My gosh, are those my nephew? They’re going to be lookers when they get older, just like their mother.”
Maeve nudged Cinyah in her ribs as she watched the two boys prancing about the store with vigor, picking up all kinds of different swords and shields.
“Yep, those are my boys, Cynrik is 12 going on 13, and Brance is 11. We figured that since they’re going to be taking the exams, we may as well swing by so I could introduce you to them and pick up that project I asked your Dad to do for me.”