In a hotel lobby filled with destruction and blood, two young boys could be seen lying on their backs, staring at a decrepit and cracked mural depicting the scene of a party of warriors facing off against a massive dragon.
From time to time, the muscles in the two boy’s arms and legs would violently spasm, bringing small painfilled whimpers from their mouths.
[Fuck, this sucks.] Cynrik, the eldest boy, said in the mind link the two brothers shared. They had been lying in this same position for over 30 minutes, and still, neither had enough strength even to wiggle their toes, let alone stand up.
[Yeah…how long till Mom and Dad show up?] Brance, the younger brother, asked while trying to move his pinky finger for the hundredth time unsuccessfully.
[No clue. Tobs wanna chime in?] Cynrik said while asking the artificial intelligence of his system.
-Estimated time of Cinyah and Rikard Jetlensr is 15 minutes and 33 seconds.-
The female, monotone voice echoed in both of their heads, causing them both to groan in agony.
[Well, at least we killed all the mobs beforehand. Imagine how bad it would be if we got attacked right now.] Heaving a sigh Cynrik, complained to his brother.
At that moment, a large chunk of the ceiling broke free and crashed into the ground, inches from his head, causing him to yelp loudly.
[HEY, CMON CYN! Seriously, we are basically crippled, and your fucking around trying to jinx us. If you’re gunna bitch, keep that bad luck to yourself, don’t drag me into it.]
[Bah.] Feeling wronged, Cynrik just snorted and tried rolling onto his side, which he pulled off successfully, only to continue moving and end up face down with a soft thump. [Ow…]
Brance stopped moving and just lied there helplessly and observed the scene of devastation they had created not long ago.
The hotel lobby was littered with body parts, gore, and small impact craters. On the ground several feet away from Brance was a large puddle of flesh, intestines, and blood. These were the obliterated remains of their previous opponent Myer Avio. Even though their fight lasted around twenty minutes, it had felt like an eternity. From getting their asses beat to activating their new nuclear option, The Over-Break Mode, they had fought harder than ever before and were now suffering backlash from the said fight.
[Hey, Cyn.] Reminiscing on the achievements they had obtained in a single night, Brance felt a bit of pride.
[Hm?] Still struggling to right himself, Cynrik gave up momentarily, and his eyes drifted across the room to Brance.
[We kicked the ass off a Tier-2 and like a hundred 0 and 1’s.] Brance wanted to laugh, but even that subtle action caused him a great deal of pain, which ended in a fit of coughs.
[Hell yeah, we did.] Then, acting like a masochist, Cynrik started chuckling softly, bringing another bout of pain.
They had slaughtered their way through dozens upon dozens of adults who were significantly stronger than their combined power and overcame adversity repeatedly.
Minus the fact that neither the seven-year-old Cynrik nor the six-year-old Brance could currently move, they were both reveling in the spoils of their victory.
[Hey Tobs, Bring up all the notifications from after the battle again.] Remembering that he had a bunch of system notifications he had been ignoring for half an hour, Cynrik chose to go through them finally.
But first, he had to do something about how he was lying down. So, summoning what little strength he had left, slowly and robotically, Cynrik’s head turned until he could see the wall across the room, and he was resting his left ear on the ground.
[Random thought, Brancie, but we are like Goku after he got rekt by Monkey mode Vegeta, hehe OW!]
[Shut up and read your damn notifications; leave me to what little peace we have left before Mom kicks us to hell and back.] Feeling frustrated by his brother’s ever-constant joking around, Brance brought up the list of notifications he received after they finished off Myer.
Cynrik shivered in fear as the realization that his mother would lock them away until they were adults kicked in.
-You have completed the hidden part of Emergency Chain Quest Haylons Shadow: H1- Defeat Mid-boss, Myer Avio-
-You have received 30 Skill points, 100k XP, and 15 Stat Points, and 5 KIN points-
-You have completed the Emergency Chain Quest Haylons Shadow-
-You have received 500k XP-
-Due to the Host already being at the Level Cap for Tier-0, the Prestige mode has been activated.-
-Prestige Mode: Upon reaching the predetermined Level Cap, the Host can not level up until they complete their evolution to the next Tier. However, they can still acquire XP and continue filling their XP bar. Upon filling the bar completely, the Host will receive 1Skill point and 6 Stat Points, on top of the regular level-up build allocation points, for a total of 12 points. This will continue until the Host evolves to Tier-1 or all of their Stats reach the Cap of 100 points. This excludes hidden Stats such as Killing Intent.-
-Your Prestige has increased by 3-
-You have received Evolution Stone Shard (1); once the Host has met the requirements, they can enter a meditative state and absorb this stone for the opportunity to evolve to the First Tier-
-Due to not meeting the requirements and the penalty from using Over-Break Mode, you can not evolve to Tier-1 at this time.-
-Time until the penalty from using Over-Break Mode wears off: 5 years.
-You have received One Million Credits-
-You have killed 14 Tier-1 demi-humans-
-You have obtained 104600 Essence-
-Your Prestige has increased.-
-You have obtained 5 STR, 5 DEX, and 4 AGI points-
-You have obtained 14 KIN points.-
After reading through the notifications twice, Cynrik let out a long sigh. [Welp, it looks like we pretty much got our Stats back, which means we could have used OBM longer, but it’s a significant ass loss that we now have this stupid penalty. 5 FUCKING YEARS BRANCE!!! Hell, that’s like your whole life. At least we’ve got a new goal to cap out all our Stats. This Prestige thing is pretty convenient. ALRIGHTY, enough lazing around, let us burn these Stat points and get back on our feet. It’s our lack of Stamina, shoppingmodeHP, and MP that has us crippled.]
When the Over-Break Mode was deactivated, the brothers were left with 0 points in their Stamina and MP and only 10 HP. It wasn’t until they read their notifications that Tobs dished out the boosts and awards. In fact, if they had done so earlier, they wouldn’t have spent the last half an hour on the ground, unable to move. However, neither were aware of this fact. Only Tobs knew, and that was why it had specifically told both children to read their notifications, only to be ignored by the two stubborn brothers.
Feeling the energy coursing through their bodies from the rewards, Cynrik and Brance both sat up and started assigning their Stat points. The first Stats they both chose to boost was, of course, their INT and VIT; this would get them back up on their feet so they could explore during their last few minutes of freedom.
When Cynrik pulled up his Stat profile, the first thing he realized was a significant difference between Prestige and leveling up. When he or Brance leveled up, their shoppingmodeHP, MP, and Stamina were all refilled, but that no longer occurred when they Prestige. This realization caused Cynrik’s face to scrunch up as if he smelled something foul. But the next instant, his face went completely expressionless, and his left eye started twitching.
Looking at how disheveled and uneven his numbers were, Cynrik tossed the idea of pumping his INT and VIT as high as they could go and set about getting his “Clean” numbers, leaving him with 5 Stat points extra when he was finished.
: STATS :
: HP 150/700 :
: Mana 67/436 :
: Stamina 67/350 :
: Stat Points- 5:
: Skill Points- 109 :
: Strength- 60 : (4)
: Dexterity- 90 : (4)
: Agility- 90 : (5)
: Intelligence- 70 : (9)
: Vitality- 70 : (9)
: Mind- 50 : (4)
: Killing Intent- 112 – 3.25G :
Glancing over his Stats one last time with a giant smile plastered on his face, Cynrik tilted his head to the side while looking at his Killing Intent. [Yo, Brance, it seems like the rate of gravity increase on Killing Intent has a curve to it. Before, it was going up .25 every ten levels, then slowed down at 70; now it’s gone up again once I passed 100.] Nevertheless, his increased VIT and INT gave him some gains in his MP and Stamina, so Cynrik stood up and dusted off his tattered clothes before walking over to where Myer’s remains were and extracting his Tier-2 Mana Codex.
[Yeah… I’m only at 97, and I’m still at 3g.] Brance stood up and walked over to Cynrik while finishing up his Stat allocation.
RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Both boys froze in place as the entire building started shaking as if in the middle of an earthquake.
“OH, CMON, WHAT FUCKING NOW!” Both Cynrik and Brance screamed in unison.