Cynrik’s seemed to vibrate as he rapidly flicked through the data on the over 180 different Green Alpha Egresses floating just above his Watcet. Brance, Gabby, and Benny sat on either side of him, nervously and anxiously awaiting the older boys’ choice.
As the Pseudo-Leader of their little party, it was on him to find a suitable location for the Practical Exam, and based on how quickly Cynrik was flicking through each Egress; they were pretty confident it wouldn’t take long.
Gabby looked away from Cynrik and saw that several kids had already formed small parties and were making their way towards the available Egresses. Her lime green eyes drifted towards her own Watcet, where the timer signifying how much time they had left was slowly ticking down.
Her actions didn’t escape Brance, as he gently reached out and placed his palm on her head, ruffling her soft hair and drawing a noise from the little girl in pigtails.
“Bra… Jörnie, you’ll mess up my hair stopppp.” Gabby’s actions, however, betrayed her mouth as she rubbed her head against his warm hand like a puppy.
Gabby’s new nickname for him caused Brance to choke on air, and after a fit of coughs, he removed his hand and went back to concentrating on Cynrik’s Watcet. He was amazed by how fast his brother was going through all the available data. If it weren’t for him knowing about Cynrik’s high MIND Stat and the supposed “High-Level Intelligence” presented by his Bloodline, he would have thought Cynrik was just aimlessly flipping through the list.
They were at a stalemate like this for a total of 15 minutes before Cynrik finally closed the Reaver Hub and stood up.
“Let’s move out. I’ve made our choice and devised an adequate plan of attack.”
Gabby was the first to hop to her feet excitedly. Then, like an energized bunny, she started bouncing around anxiously, all the while chirping at Brance to hurry up.
This didn’t go unnoticed, as seconds later, a loud snort came from a nearby group of boys, one of which began making fun of Gabby for being childish during such a serious event. However, midway through his mockery, a basketball-sized flame crashed against his chest, hurtling him several meters backward, and with a loud bang, he slammed into the ground, skidding several more.
The rest of his group were scared shitless by the sudden assault on their friend, and when they heard a chilling voice enter their ears, they all collapsed onto their butts, breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Be glad there’s a no-kill policy in effect. If you had pulled this shit outside, you would have been headless instead of having a scorched chest.” Unseen by the boys, a kid dressed in all black had suddenly appeared behind them and was standing imposingly with his left foot on the injured boy’s stomach.
Cynrik had moved too quickly for Brance to stop, leaving him slack-jawed at how ruthless his brother was acting. Next to him, Gabby’s eyes were glittering in awe. This was the first time Cynrik had ever done something like this for her, and it was a new experience.
Benny was the only person present who seemed to be unphased by the sudden and violent attack, and he casually placed his hands in his pockets, calmly waiting for Cynrik to finish defending his little sister’s honor. To him, this was perfectly reasonable, and if Cynrik hadn’t acted first, he would have slugged the kid in his jaw. Benny had long treated Cynrik and Brance as his own brothers, and even now, he found no flaw in them acting in the same way he would have.
Not far away, The Evasdeen Party watched in fear as Cynrik mercilessly kicked the injured boy a couple more times before spitting on him and walking off as if nothing happened.
“Ccccmon guys, we should get going.” Nelson tried his best not to stutter his sentence but failed miserably.
Several Observers had witnessed the aggressive attack, but to them, this was normal, and as long as Cynrik didn’t kill the kid, they wouldn’t interfere. They felt this was a valuable lesson for the children around; the world was a violent and unsafe place; it would do some of these children good to learn early on not to mess with someone stronger than them.
Cynrik walked past the beaten kid’s party, ignoring them completely, and gathered alongside his own group.
[Was that really necessary, Cyn?] following behind his brother, Brance questioned Cynrik’s judgment.
[It should have been you who dealt with him, he did, after all, make fun of your girlfriend. Plus, who the fuck do they think they are to make fun of MyrkLys (Murk-lease),] crossing his arms and making his way towards an Egress on the far side of the Compound, Cynrik responded.
[MyrkLys? What the hell is MyrkLys…wait…Myrk as in the Norwegian word dark and Lys as in light. Oh, son of a bitch, Cynrik, did you seriously name our party DarkLight.] Brance scrunched up his face and shook his head in disgust.
[Oh, come on, Mom and Dad literally named their Reaver party AquaViolet; at least I used Norwegian to name ours, so legit, no one would even know. Of course, Icelandic works too; I also could have used DökktLjós, but that one is just NightDay, and it’s kind of a pain for people who don’t speak the language to say. GrimaDagr was on the table too. I think you’d be surprised just how much thought I’ve put into our name.]
Brance didn’t argue after hearing the rest of the options Cynrik had come up with. But, of all the choices, he had to admit that MyrkLys was probably the only one Vinestrans would be able to pronounce. The others all required some knowledge of how to pronounce the letters correctly, at least with MyrkLys, it could be said as Murk-Lease, which would be fine unless you were Cynrik, who would heavily annunciate the words with a Norse accent.
That was the thing about Norse, Norwegian, and Icelandic. They shared a lot of similarities, and for the most part, a lot of words were the same.
Brance held up his hands in defeat, which caused Gabby to look at him strangely, but he simply smiled and told her the name Cynrik had decided on for their party. The instant the words were spoken aloud, Cynrik, Gabby, Brance, and Benny all received a notification chain.
-You have unlocked the Party System-
-All members of the party will share any XP earned.-
-The Effect of Siblings Gain will be extended to all party members.-
-The Party MyrkLys has been created.-
-You have been invited to join the party. Accept? (Y/N)-
-Cynrik Jetlensr (Ivar “The Boneless” Ragnarsson) Has joined the MyrkLys and been appointed Leader.-
-Brance Jetlensr (Björn “Ironside” Ragnarsson) has joined MyrkLys.-
– Gabriella Sanford (Gabby) has joined MyrkLys.-
– Benjamin Sanford (Benny) has joined MyrkLys.-
“OHHHH!” Gabby, of course, was the first to let out an excited squeal. For years they had talked about forming their own Reaver Party, just like their parents, and now it was finally happening.
Cynrik and Brance weren’t as excited as she was, though.
[Shit, I can’t believe I actually forgot about Siblings Gain. Think we can lie our way out of that one, Brance?]
Siblings Gain was the passive skill Brance had since birth; the skill was the cheat-like ability that allowed the brothers to earn double XP as long as they were within a certain distance from each other, and now, apparently, that cheat was extended to Gabby and Benny.
[To be honest, I don’t think it will be that big a deal. Benny will listen to us either way, and he seems headstrong when it comes to getting stronger. I’m worried about Gabby, though. We both know how big of a mouth she has.]
[HAHA, you really shouldn’t talk about your girlfriend that way, Brrraancccieee.] Cynrik finished his statement by mimicking the way Gabby always said his name. [Either way, nothing we can do about it now. If they have seen it, so be it. If not, it’ll make no difference, I guess. The upside is now we can power level them to Prestige 20 and get them both Perfect Foundations.]
[Wait a second…who are you, and what have you done with Cynrik? He would never be so positive. Especially since one of our secrets was just leaked.]
Brance ran ahead of his brother and stopped him while looking him up and down for any sign he was a fake.
[Oh, fuck off, Brance. It’s like you’re expecting to hear me say we should kill them or something,] shoving his way past his idiotic brother, Cynrik sped up his pace towards his chosen Egress, leaving a stunned Brance in his wake.
Gabby didn’t miss a beat and caught Brance’s arm, dragging him along after Cynrik.
[Tobs, that’s not an imposter Cynrik right?]
-No anomolies detected. Host Cynrik is the real Host Cynrik.-
[WILL YOU CUT IT THE FUCK OUT AND HURRY UP. I WANNA GET THIS SHIT OVER AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE SO THAT WE CAN JUMP INTO MORE ALPHAS.]
Cynrik and Benny had already arrived at one of the many Green Doors and were waiting with crossed arms for Gabby and Brance to show up. When they finally did moments later, Cynrik dove into his briefing.
“Alright, this is A-G-22097; as you can tell by the green glowy shit, it’s a Green Rank Alpha Egress. The dungeon inside is pretty basic and features an underground cave system, with the main monsters found being Longfang Rats and Packhounds. Occasionally there have been small groups of Kobolds, but they are rare, and it shouldn’t be anything we cant deal with.”
Cynrik pointed at Gabby, who was beaming brightly, “Gabriella, you will be back lining; your main task is to target any creatures that appear at a distance and lure them towards us.”
Gabby stood up straight and gave a clumsy salute to Cynrik. “Yessir, Big Bro!”
Rolling his eyes and smiling at her antics, Cynrik moved on to Benny. “Benjamin, you’ll be taking up the role of OT since Brance has already gotten the Warrior Class and has [Taunt]; he will pull the aggro of anything lured by your sister. Your job is to pick off any stragglers and draw them into Brance’s range.”
“Copy.” Benny pulled his hands from his pockets and rested his palm on the hilt of his sheathed sword.
“I’ll be starting off in the backline with Gabriella to start, and if need be, I’ll swap to Close-Combat DPS. Remember, this isn’t a game; we are in the thick of it now.”
Cynrik tossed one last glance at his brother before turning and facing the Egress door and opening it.
“MyrkLys, move out.”