For the last two hours straight, Cinyah had been screaming at her reckless children, who, even though they made it home in one piece, were in an absolutely abysmal state. Their clothes were in tatters, and they were covered from head to toe in blood, cuts, and bruises, not to mention that both Cynrik and Brance currently had their Codexes and Mana Circuits crippled.
Cinyah would waver between fits for screaming and sobs as if she was Bipolar. All the while, the two boys were kneeling on the ground with their heads hung in shame, taking the full brunt of hurricane Cinyah. Eventually, this process went on for so long that she had shouted away her voice, and now all she could muster were hoarse yells.
“How…how could you two just leave like that. What’s more, what the hell were you thinking? Do you even realize what could have and did happen to you two. I half expect this kind of behavior from Cyn, but Brancie…you are the honest one. How could you let your older brother coerce you into this fallacy?” Cinyah was on the floor with the boys, each of her hands was on one of her children’s heads as she whipped her head back and forth while speaking.
“You two could have been KILLED!”
“No, Mom, we wouldn’t have been. You saw it yourself. We beat so many adults and even saved all the other kids. So instead of being in trouble, shouldn’t you be telling us what a good job we did.” Seemingly having enough of being yelled at, Cynrik stupidly raised his head and rebutted Cinyah’s claims.
“The two of us together single-handedly ripped apart that whole organization and…..”
SMACK!
The sound of skin-on-skin contact echoed in the living room. Cynirk, absolutely stunned that his mother had just smacked him in the face for the first time, blanked out. Absentmindedly his hand reached up, and he touched his stinging cheek. Up till this point, Cinyah had never struck either of her children as punishment; she would only ever scold them, and never once had she spanked either Cynrik or Brance. Even Cinyah herself was stunned by what she had just done to Cynrik.
While the smack had been open palm and she didn’t use any real force, it was enough to both shut up and stupify Cynrik to the point where he unconsciously stopped breathing and just stared at Cinyah.
Kneeling beside his older brother, Brance cringed when he heard his brother get smacked and was half expecting it to happen to him as well.
Not far away, Rikard was sitting on the couch watching everything as it played out quietly, but when he saw his wife strike their oldest son, he decided it was time to step in.
“Cynrik, I’m not going to say your actions were wrong, but they were beyond reckless. You and your brother are six and seven years old, for crying out loud. In getting yourself and your brother kidnapped, you effectively put yourselves in harm’s way and waltzed into enemy territory without so much as calling either of us. Not only that but the amount of disrespect you showed your Grandfather was beyond insanity. My father is a Tier-5 being and the patriarch of the Jetlensr family. The amount of power he has in a single finger is enough to kill not only me but this whole family.”
Hearing his father’s words, Cynrik looked from his mother, who had collapsed into a heap of sobs in front of him, to Rikard.
“If Consul Garn hadn’t shown up when he did, you do realize this conversation wouldn’t be happening. It is clear your mother and I have been too lax in raising you both. From the beginning, you two showed a level of intelligence and curiosity far beyond what a regular child of that age should be capable of. And we both overlooked this fact and treated you as any other young child. This was our mistake. The result is that you both have been crippled for life. Our poor judgment has ruined your futures.”
Rikard’s eyes glistened as he fought back the tears that threatened to spill over while he spoke.
“You’re wrong, Dad.” Then, in a small voice, Brance spoke up. Seeing the man who was always such a tough person start to tear up broke him far more than the emotional Cinyah.
“No, in the process of fighting for your lives, you have both severely damaged your Codexes and Mana Circuits; this isn’t something we can fix.” Rikard’s face contorted in pain, hearing his youngest son talkback for the first time.
“No, it’s only temporary. Our systems have told us that the damage will be repaired in five years.” Cynrik aided Brance in explaining the situation further.
“During the last battle with a man at Tier-2, we unlocked a particular skill, unique to us, that allowed us to surpass our limits for a short amount of time. But it caused a backlash that will affect our bodies for the next five years. Although the cost of using it was all of our Affinity Proficiency and basically shutting down our ability to use Mana, we are technically OK.” Cynrik looked back at his mother before requesting something of Tobs.
[Tobs, I assume you’ve been shielding out profiles from Mom this whole time since that’s what I subconsciously wanted, but it’s OK you can drop those shields only for her. Also, can you reflect the temporary debuff to our so-called crippled state?]
-Request acknowledged.-
-Allowing access to Host’s modified Stat Profile, designated User, Cinyah Jetlensr.-
Taking a deep breath, Cynrik reached out and grasped Cinyahs hands and looked her in the eyes. “Mom, use your Inspect on both of us. You’ll understand once you see everything, and you’ll know why we were so confident in what we did.” Caught off guard by the sudden gentleness Cynrik was showing their mother, Brance couldn’t help but gasp in the mind link. Cynrik had always kept a certain amount of distance between anyone other than him, but now, Brance watched in awe as Cynrik was actually holding Cinyah’s hands and using a gentle tone to calm her down.
Brance’s reaction didn’t escape Cynrik’s keen eye, [Oh fuck off, will you. She’s our mom; even I will have a certain amount of EQ when it comes to her.] He snapped angrily at Brance but was drawn away by a tight pressure and popping sound in his hands.
While Cinyah’s eyes darted rapidly around the system profile of her son, she was unknowingly crushing Cynrik’s hands, and muttering “How is this possible?”
Snapping her head towards Brance, she activated Inspect on him as well and was shocked by what she was reading. Not only were her children exceptionally talented, but they even had three different affinities. One of which was a Special Advanced Grade, something that was notoriously difficult to level up, to begin with, and yet at Tier-0, both of her children had one each. On top of this, the status showed it above their other two, which meant this was their Origin Affinity.
“Wind, Fire, Earth…Darkness…Light…you two…how is this possible.” Cinyah stumbled through her thoughts out loud, causing her husband to freeze in place. “And your stats, 4th Prestige…wait…even your Distribution is abnormal.”
“Well…where do I even begin. For starters, our system is a bit…special. From as far back as I can remember, it has spoken to me and seems to have artificial intelligence that helps navigate our training. It presents special quests unique to Brance and me, giving us access to things we usually wouldn’t be able to use at our age. For example, Brance and I can both use RWTC; since we leveled up so quickly early on, we could utilize everything way earlier than others. Partner that with our Distribution of 1 per All. So that’s how we got so smart.”
“We didn’t know how you both would react if we told you, so we kept it hidden,” Brance added once Cynrik finished his explanation.
Lost in her children’s Stat profiles, Cinyah continued to mumble softly as her mind races at how horrifying Cynrik and Brance’s stats were for being only Tier-0.
Listening to his wife’s whispers, Rikards eyes widened in shock due to the whiplash he was experiencing. In a matter of seconds, he had gone from believing his lack of strict upbringing with his children had caused their lives to be ruined to finding out he had, in fact, raised little monsters.
Cynrik scratched his head and tossed a side glance towards Brance. [Well, they know now. No more hiding from them. I can’t say it’s a weight off my shoulders, but at least now we don’t have to train only at night.]
[Let’s just hope Cinyah doesn’t pass out. From her reaction alone, we can already see how big of freaks we are.] Letting out a soft sigh, Brance stood up and placed his tiny hand on Cinyah’s head before patting it lightly.
Feeling her youngest’s attempt at comforting her brought a slight smile to her lips. Then, taking a deep breath, she used her sleeve to wipe away the tears that had accumulated on her cheeks and faced both her children with new resolve. “Reckless or not, you two have achieved something unheard of at your age, and even though I’m still furious, I can’t explain how proud of you both I am. You saved nearly a hundred kidnapped kids and killed just as many of their captors. So for this, I shall reward you both with your favorite deserts for a solid week.
Upon hearing this, both boys cheered loudly, and Cynrik even did a backward somersault to get back to his feet and started doing a little happy dance.
“HOWEVER….”
The celebrations instantly stopped, and the brothers felt a chill run down their spines.
Using her icy “Mom” voice as Cynrik had dubbed it, Cinyah continued, “YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR SIX MONTHS…no…A FULL YEAR. NO OUTSIDE PLAYTIME, CYNRIK YOU WILL BE GETTING TRIPLE THE HOMEWORK, BRANCE NO BOOKS.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” Cynrik and Brance howled in despair and dropped to their knees in sorrow.