The Over-Break System

“This is your stop, Ivar; Professor Morningdale is already waiting inside and has been briefed on your situation. She has signed a Soul Binding Contract and will be unable to speak about any of the information she learns during your Evolution process, even to me. Everything will stay confidential between you and her, so you shouldn’t need to worry.”

A loud scraping sound was heard as the concrete door opened after Headmaster Rivia pressed several buttons on the digital panel to its right.

“Oh, one more thing, due to the nature of the materials the room is built out of, no Mana or Electronic Signals can pass through, so you will have zero contact with anyone outside the room until you have finished your evolution.”

[[Good luck, you two; see you in a few hours. Brancie, double-check the contract the Head Dean signed, and if everything is squared away, you have my permission to ask for his help when you begin your Turning Point Quest. I won’t be there, so you are on your own this time, but Rimsfel should be able to back you up; be careful how much you divulge; I trust your judgment.]]

[[Selene, you should be fine, good luck, and try to get as much free shit out of Geralt as possible, kuekue.]] Flashing Selene a smile and wink, Cynrik nodded at Brance and stepped into the room.

Rummmble Thunk

With a deep rumble and a soft thunk, the stone door shut, sealing Cynrik in the room, leaving Headmaster Rivia, Selene, and Brance alone in the hallway.

“Now then, let’s hurry along and get you to your room, Student Björn.” Once finished double-checking that the room was sealed and no one could enter or exit, Headmaster Rivia turned and examined the expressions of Brance and Selene, only to find that neither of them seemed nervous or hesitant.

[Hey fuckface, don’t break anything, we may have a few bucks now, but I guarantee that room is expensive.] Although he knew that every form of communication was supposed to be blocked by the material the room was made of, Brance still tried sending over a message through the mind link, only for it to go unanswered, confirming that even its transmission was blocked.

“Come along then; your room is a few away from here.” Taking the lead, Headmaster Rivia briskly walked off, with Selene falling in line behind him, followed by Brance.

[[Connection is cut between Big Brother and us. So that means we will be on our own.]] Brance said as he pulled up his inventory and double-checked everything was in order.

[[Yeah, I already tried talking to him and got no response, whatever these walls are made of must be some pretty impressive stuff to block even your mind link communication.]] Bringing her hand up to her chin and wearing a curious expression under her hood, Selene responded without drawing attention to herself.

[[I’ve seen it before, the dorms have a little bit of the material mixed in, and back before we met you, we encountered a similar situation during our first Egress dive. The most concerning thing about the stone is how brightly it shines when I use my [Mana Sight]. It’s like looking into the sun; unless Big Brother and I dull our sight, it is blinding to examine.]]

“Here we are, room C-01; this is your stop, Student Björn; Head Dean Rimsfel is already waiting inside….” Pausing and falling into contemplation, Headmaster Rivia formulated his following sentence carefully.

“Try not to anger him or taunt him. Dean Rimsfel is very temperamental, and even though he isn’t that bad of a guy once you get to know him, he tends to have an aggressive outlook on everything and is a bit stiff, if you get what I mean.” Showing concern, Headmaster Rivia entered a twelve-digit code, and with a compressed blast of pressurized air, the stone door slid open.

“Yes, sir, thank you for guiding me here.” Turning to face Selene, Brance nodded and spoke in the mind link to her.

[[Be careful and triple-check the contract; if anything is amiss, don’t say any confidential information.]] With those words, Brance stepped into the room, and with a soft rumble and thunk, the door sealed him off from the rest of the underground bunker that is floor B-22.

Pausing at the entrance of the Cave-like room, Brance made a quick observation of his surroundings. Unbeknownst to him, the room layout was exactly the same as the one Cynrik had entered. Bare stone walls with carved runic inscriptions, a single reclining chair, Aether Capsule, and a sizeable intricate formation circle in the center of the floor.

Lastly, his eyes fell on the middle age man of Asian descent sitting on the recliner with a straight back, and his right leg crossed over his left.

“Headmaster Rivia is quite punctual. He told me it would take seven minutes for you to arrive, and here you are, seven minutes after my arrival on the dot. Take a seat in the center of the circle, and I will explain what is expected of you.” Without giving Brance an extra second to adjust to his surroundings, Head Dean Rimsfel spoke in an authoritative tone while pointing at the circle between him and Brance.

“Yes, sir.” Unbeknownst to Brance, he had fallen into parade rest when he entered the room. Upon receiving an order, he complied without hesitation, briskly making his way to the center of the room and assuming the lotus position in the center of the formation.

Even the way he had spoken in a clear tone was reminiscent of his time in the military on Earth, and his instant reaction and reply drew an accepting nod from the Head Dean. Once Brance was in position, he began explaining almost word for word what Professor Morningdale had narrated to Cynrik as if it was from a predetermined script, and once he was done, he looked to Brance for any questions.

Brance, like his brother, asked several questions about the material the room was made of and how it absorbed Mana.

However, he did ask a question that Cynrik had found out on his own without needing to be told.

“Sir, the inscriptions on the walls and this one on the floor, what is their purpose?”

“First and foremost, the inscriptions act as a filter. Their main job is to purify any Mana the Cachint absorbs before transferring it to the formation you are sitting inside. The formation’s purpose is to create a clean Mana environment that can be used by your body to nourish your Codex, muscles, mind, skeleton, and internal organs.”

“In simple terms, if you didn’t have the formation, you would experience an 85% drop off in available Mana due to instability, lower purity, and overall waste.” As he spoke, Head Dean Rimsfel got up from his chair and slowly walked around the room, releasing copious amounts of Light and Terra Mana.

“Retrieve all of your resources and organize them into piles so that you will have easy access to them when the time comes. Once complete with that objective, you will begin dispursing 2000 MP of Light and Terra Mana and 9k of your other Affinities.” Not bothering to look at Brance to be sure he was doing as told, Head Dean Rimsfel continued narrating his actions.

“I am currently expelling 7k Light and Terra MP. To fuel the room, you must compensate the difference to reach the required 9k of each Mana type.” After finishing his task, Head Dean Rimsfel returned to his recliner and sat in the same posture as before, watching Brance complete his objectives.

It took only half a minute for Brance to sort out all the materials necessary for his Advancement and begin leaking the appropriate Mana particles into the room. Curious about the process, he activated [Mana Sight]. Still, as usual, he struggled to keep his eyes open while watching the floating multi-colored particles enter the walls, floor, and ceiling to fuel the lightly glowing green inscriptions.

Releasing his Terra, Light, and Wind Mana took little to no time, but when it came time to expel his HolyFire Mana, Brance frowned deeply, something that didn’t escape the sharp hawk-like eyes of the Head Dean.

“What is wrong, Student Björn?” As someone with a high level of Mana awareness, he could feel that Brance had only released three batches of Elemental Particles into the air when he knew that Brance had a secret fourth Affinity thanks to the Headmaster.

“Excuse me, Head Dean, may I see the contract you signed with the Headmaster? I need to read through it before explaining my current situation.” Meeting the man’s eyes, Brance straightened his back and lowered his shoulders while speaking.

“The contract? Why would you need to see it? Although it concerns you, I am not obligated to show it to you.” Narrowing his eyes and observing Brance’s body posture and even the tone Brance used, Head Dean Rimsfel countered without moving a centimeter.

“Sir, as you may already know, my brother and I have several secrets that must stay as such. Because of such information’s confidentiality, I must read through the contract before divulging these secrets to assure everything is in order.” Not backing down, yet staying respectful, Brance responded without hostility as if he was speaking matter of factly.

After several seconds of silence, Dean Rimsfel and Brance entered a stalemate, neither willing to give in. Finally, Rimsfel sighed loudly. Realizing that it was only serving to waste more of his precious time by staying in this stalemate, he took out the stretchy, light blue liquid-like piece of paper from his inventory and flicked it to Brance.

Extending his hand and catching the Contract, Brance was intrigued by the strange stretch yet liquid-like material but paid it no more attention than necessary before reading through the contents of the contract.

It didn’t take but three minutes for him to read it over several times and sent it back over to Head Dean Rimsfel.

‘Damn, I am sure Cynrik will cause all kinds of mischief once he reads that. Knowing him, he is probably thinking about several ways to abuse it and turn our chaperones into slaves or something.’ Shaking his head, disappointed at how predictable his brother could sometimes be, Brance cleared his throat and looked back up at the Head Dean of Year One.

“My fourth Affinity is quite rare, and I am not sure if you will be able to help much, but I still wish to seek your guidance, Head Dean.”

“The Headmaster has informed me of such, but he was quite secretive about why and what Affinity you have obtained.” Wearing a poker face, Head Dean Rimsfel could feel his heart rate accelerate as his mind was a mess of ideas and theories about what this mysterious Affinity could be.

Instead of responding vocally, Brance held up his right hand, palm facing the ceiling, and manifested a beautiful and glorious golden flame with a brilliantly shining white core.

“The Affinity in question is this….”

“H…h…HolyFire!” Before Brance could say the name of his Affinity, Head Dean Rimsfel was already on his feet, gawking at the golden flame floating while radiating an oppressive force.