The Over-Break System

POV: Benny

Feeling the soft rumble of the door closing behind him, Benny sighed heavily as he stood by the entrance, wondering where he went wrong with Professor Claire to make her hate him so much.

“Hahaha, boy, you have it rough. Dating Professor Claire’s daughter, you may not know it, but when we were students, Claire went by the moniker MadBit…cough Dog of VSFA. Anytime a guy would come close to her, she would verbally and physically abuse them until they ran off crying for their mothers.” Instructor Garrison was relaxing in his recliner, sipping a glass of what appeared to be a sports drink when he spoke, drawing Benny’s attention.

“Good afternoon, Instructor Garrison,” Benny replied unenthusiastically as he dragged himself over to greet the man.

“Don’t let it get you down, kiddo; if it weren’t for us being Co-workers, Claire would be as…aggressive toward me as I am sure she is to you. Other than that husband of hers and the Headmaster, she hates just about every man in existence.” As Instructor Garrison stood up, walked over to Benny, and patted his shoulder to cheer him up, he had to conceal his deep-rooted fear for Professor Claire.

The memories of getting bullied by her when he was a student at the Academy were still fresh, and if it weren’t for his innate healing ability, he would be covered in the scars she left on him back then.

Benny wasn’t shocked to hear this new information about his girlfriend’s Mom. Anytime he saw her walk by other staff members, especially male ones, he would notice how much distance they put between themselves and her.

“That explains some things, but I am sure it doesn’t help that Melly and I are dating either. She even has a rude nickname for me.” Benny mumbled, but it didn’t escape the sharp ears of Instructor Garrison.

“Put that aside, kiddo; you have an important event to make it through.” After giving the boy a rough pat on the shoulder, Instructor Garrison gave him the same speech that Professor Morningdale and Head Dean Rimsfel gave Cynrik and Brance before pulling out many potion bottles from his inventory and handing them over to Benny.

“Unfortunately, since we don’t share any Affinities, I can’t help you in the way other chaperones are supposed to, so I went out and bought you plenty of Advanced Grade Mana Potions. There are enough that you should be able to not only saturate the room with your Mana but also recover all your losses.”

Once he received the potions, Benny requested to see the Soul Contract as per Cynrik’s orders, read it through carefully, and saw nothing wrong with it. With that out of the way, he took a seat in the center of the spell formation and began expelling Fire, Ice, and Water Mana into the room until he met the quota of 9k MP for each Element.

“Whew, that’s three down; now for the hard part. Instructor, I should probably warn you that my new Affinity is unique, so please don’t startle me when you see it. I will need a lot of concentration if I want to expel the proper amount of Mana Particles into the room.” Drinking down enough of the potions to bring his MP back to full capacity, Benny gave his warning to Instructor Garrison before holding his hands up and apart from each other, with one hand channeling Fire Mana while the other Channeled Ice.

‘My Temperature Affinity is different from my other ones; since it is so low level, I have to physically merge the Ice and Fire Particles to create Temperature Particles. Thankfully I have all the knowledge learned from those skill books, or else I would be completely lost on how to process the particles properly.’ Benny thought to himself as he added equal parts of both Fire and Ice to create a new visible to the naked eye particle.

When this half Orange Half Light Blue particle came into existence, it quickly grew into an orb, and with its appearance, Instructor Garrison had to fight to keep his emotions in check. To say he was stunned silly would be an understatement since he was sitting there with wide eyes and slackjawed with a bit of drool leaking out of his mouth while watching Benny work.

—

POV: Gabby

Professor Claire quickly opened the door for Gabby, gave her a few words of encouragement, and left the girl to walk into the room alone as she dragged Melody off to their room.

Rummmmble thud!

“Welcome, Student Gabriella; I was confused when I learned that you had chosen me as your chaperone for your Tier-3 Advancement and Passing Down Ceremony, considering that the last time I saw you, you had just entered Tier-2. However, even if confused, I was extremely pleased that such a young and thoughtful archer was ready to break free of the constraints of the Mortal Stage.” No sooner did the door to the cave-like room seal itself than Instructor Alistar greeted Gabby.

“HiHi Instructor Alistar,” practically bubbling over with excitement, Gabby skipped into the room and greeted her Instructor.

“You were the only Professor I could think of that I felt comfortable enough to have as a chaperone. As for me being at the Peak of Tier-2, hehe, well, that is because of Big Bro Ivar’s training program. All of us in OOPS, um, Instructor, may I please read through the contract you signed with Headmaster Rivia? There are a bunch of things I wanna say, but I need to be sure the contract is in place before I do.” Stopping herself from blabbing, Gabby luckily remembered Cynrik’s order about the contract before speaking further.

“Hm…this…I guess there is no harm in showing it to you since it involves you.” Instructor Alistar thought about her request for a moment, then retrieved the contract to hand it over to Gabby, who read through it in only a few seconds; a testament to her intelligence.

“Okies, thanks, Instructor; like I was about to say, it isn’t just me who is ready to advance to Tier-3; everyone in MyrkLys will come down to begin their Evolutions. My brother and Melody are already in their rooms, and we are just waiting on Big Bro Ivar, Selene, and Björn to finish picking their chaperones, and they will be heading down.” Smiling sweetly, Gabby spoke in a hyperactive tone, all the while using her attitude and the guise of innocence to judge Instructor Alistar’s reaction, something she learned from Cynrik.

Where Cynrik usually kept a poker face up while observing everyone and everything, Gabby had gotten exceptionally good at playing the foolish and innocent little girl. This way, she could lower people’s expectations of her and see their true nature. Adding in her Psychic Affinity and some of her Affinity skills, Gabby was slowly becoming a master manipulator…just like Cynrik.

“I…wha…huh, all six of you are already at the point of Advancing to Tier-3. What the heck kind of hellacious training is that Ivar Ragnarsson putting you five kids through?” His mind was a storm of thoughts, and Instructor Alistar kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish as he stared incredulously at Gabby.

However, remembering he was on the clock and needed to keep acting professional, Alistar recovered before congratulating Gabby, then led into his speech about what was expected of her. But just as he was about to finish, he heard a loud “MEW” coming from Gabby’s chest, making him give her a weird look.

“Shh, Milo, I told you to stay in my blazer until I had time to introduce you.” Pulling up the collar of her blazer and looking down at her chest, Gabby saw her sleepy kitten struggling to pop his head out.

“Student Gabriella, what was that noise? What are you hiding in your uniform?” Narrowing his eyes, Instructor Alistar gave Gabby the benefit of the doubt, thinking it was a piece of technology making the strange Mewing sounds.

“Um…you see, I finally got my Huntress Class a few weeks back and even got my Beast Partner, and well, he kinda refused to stay home.” Reaching into her blazer and extricating Milo, Gabby held him up like a particular baboon holding up a lion cub, showing Milo off in the process.

“MEW!” Releasing an adorable yawn, Milo uninterestingly glanced at Instructor Alistar before turning his little head to look back at Gabby.

“Sigh, since the little cat is your Beast Partner, there isn’t much I can say; unfortunately, since you are already in the formation, it has to stay with you for the duration of this portion of your advancement. Nothing can leave without breaking it until you have completed the first half. Anyway, go ahead and begin what I told you to, and use the potions I gave you when needed.” Massaging his temples, Instructor Alistar shook his head and told Gabby to begin flooding the room with her Mana. Yet to his surprise, the little cat aided her in expelling Chloro Affinity Particles.

—

POV: Melody

After dropping off Gabby, Professor Claire hurriedly dragged Melody to the sealed Room C-03, punched in the 12-digit passcode, opened the door, and ran in with Melody in toe. Seconds later, the door closed, and Professor Claire released her daughter’s wrist before spinning around and facing her.

“Why are you still allowing that boy to act as if you are dating him? We have talked about this numerous times, Melody, you aren’t allowed to mingle with boys until you are 18, yet you are blatantly going against my wishes. Boys at his age only have one thing on their mind, and that is knocking up pretty young girls.” Crossing her arms and tapping her foot, Professor Claire dropped all pretense and began scolding her daughter fiercely.

“MmMom, Benny isn’t like that! He hasn’t even laid a hand on me, no matter how hard I’ve tried to get him to do so. He isn’t anything like you say boys are; why are you lying to me like this? Neither is Björn; that is two of those Males you hate so much, not fitting the stories you’ve told me since I was young.” Standing up against her mother and refusing to back down, Melody retorted with a slight blush as she remembered the few times she and Benny had gotten hot and steamy during their alone time.

SMACK!

A loud smack echoed against the rocky walls of Room C-03 as Professor Claire open palm smacked Melody across her face, rocking her head to the side and causing Melody to see stars from the impact.

“DO NOT EVER TALK BACK TO ME LIKE THAT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?” Professor Claire screamed with fire in her eyes.

Melody silently nodded obediently, holding her hand up to her cheek with tears threatening to spill over.

“Do not forget for a moment why you are with the members of MyrkLys; you may have integrated with them, but you are not and will never be one of them. UNDERSTOOD? The only good thing about you being around those fools is that you exceed all my expectations and rapidly grow in power.” Professor Claire snarled while ignoring the tear rolling down her daughter’s cheek.

“Get your ass in the formation circle and begin your evolution. I explained the process to you ages ago, and I will not be aiding you in any way; you are on your own.” That said, Professor Claire stormed off across the room, harumphed, and gracefully sat in the recliner meant for chaperones.