When Cynrik arrived at his destination, the first thing he did was call out to Brance.
[Where are you all?] But there was no answer. For the first time since their reincarnation, Cynrik and Brance’s mind-link was severed, and it would be an understatement to say Cynrik panicked.
[Brance… Respond.] Unable to hide his growing anxiety, Cynrik continued to repeat his callout, hoping to hear even so much as a snicker, but all he received was silence.
With no other option, Cynrik tried to calm his racing mind by taking several deep breaths and looking around the room he was in. His sight fell on a cluster of about 20 kids not far away, so taking another deep breath, he approached the group.
The room they were in was about the size of a typical classroom; the only thing missing were desks. His eyes lingered on the far wall, which appeared to be a massive black tv screen. Walking on his toes, Cynrik reached the group and caught a young boy around his age by the shoulders, spinning him around so he could speak with him.
“The heck? What are you doing? Let me go.” Startled the spikey green-haired boy, raised his left arm like he was going to throw a punch, but Cynrik pressed down on his shoulder and leaked a bit of Killing Intent, nearly making the kid crap his pants.
The boy’s screams didn’t go unnoticed, as several older boys stepped up and pulled the green-haired one out of Cynriks grasp, creating a stand-off between the four of them and him.
“No need to get testy, I just wanted to know what’s going on,” holding his hands up and trying to seem harmless, Cynrik quickly stated what he wanted.
“What kind of lame excuse is that? Do you know who you just assaulted? If our Evasden family hears about this, see if you can go on livi…” the older boy, who was significantly more muscular than Cynrik, tried throwing the weight of his family around but was silenced.
Already in a bad mood and not wanting to deal with the boy’s bullshit, Cynrik equipped one of his Creed Mk-1s and appeared directly in the boy’s chest, with the tip of his hidden blade resting against his throat.
“Yeah. Don’t give a flying fuck. Tell me what’s going on, or not only you but all your little goons won’t leave here whole.” Then, speaking low and lacing his words with as much menace as he could muster, Cynrik nicked the boy’s neck, drawing a thin line of blood. The tip of Cynriks hidden blade moved slightly as the boy gulped down his saliva.
“We..we don..t don’t know yet. We are just like you.” Studdering and trying to keep his knees from giving out from fear, the boy barely got out his sentence.
“Tsk, useless,” with a flick of his wrist, the hidden blade retracted, and Cynrik put it back into his inventory before walking off to a corner of the room and standing in it with his back against the wall and his leg raised.
The boy let out a shaky breath as he watched Cynrik go off on his own and turned to the green-haired boy he thought he was saving earlier. He had felt it when Cynrik unleashed a trace of his Killing Intent, and since the boy was his little cousin, he wasn’t about to let him get hurt after passing Phase 1 of the exam.
“Quatre, who the hell was that kid?” The boy asked his green-haired cousin.
“I have no idea Nelson, he suddenly spun me around and was glaring at me. I’ve never seen him before in my life. I don’t even remember seeing him in the testing hall.” Quatre replied, still visibly shaken from his interaction with Cynrik. It was rare for someone their age to come in contact with Killing Intent, and he hadn’t ever felt the fearsome pressure before. Thinking back to that moment, Quatre felt his sphincter clench up and a bead of sweat form on his brow.
Nelson looked back at Cynrik, who was leaning against the wall, several feet away for a second, before turning around and facing his group. “Listen carefully; whatever you do, stay away from that guy. When I tried using our Evasden name, he paid no mind at all to it and even threatened to kill us all. That’s not someone we can deal with.” The boys all nodded in understanding while taking quick peaks at Cynrik.
[BRANCE FUCKING ANSWER ME, DAMN IT! TOBS, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?] His minor scuffle with the Evasden kids only further aggravated him and was like throwing gasoline on an already massive fire. Cynrik didn’t understand what was happening; he was usually clear-headed, but right now, it was like an unfiltered, primal rage was surging in his body, screaming to escape from his control.
-Unable to form a connection to Host Brance Jetlensr with mind-link.-
-Reason Unknown.-
[Fucking bull shit, we both have 100 MIND, unless we are over a hundred miles apart, there should be no issues.] Unconsciously, Cynrik raised his left thumb to his mouth and started nervously biting the skin just below his nail.
‘Calm down, idiot; there are only two valid explanations here. First, we are a massive distance away from each other, or second, there’s some kind of interference that stops our connection.’ Dropping his hand, Cynrik started chewing on his lip while frantically looking around the room.
-You have received a message from Raven God Odin-
-“Calm yourself, Drengr; the emotions you are experiencing right now arent your own. They are an unfortunate side effect of the Divine Blessings you received. Close your eyes, and focus on the Mindscape you once entered in that hotel. In that instant, you rebuilt the whole hotel and even restored it; use that now. The Mindscape is and has always been one of my most valuable techniques and requires only the use of your INT and MIND stats. This is the only assistance I can lend you”.-
Cynrik read over the message, slightly stunned. Odin had never directly reached out to him and offered any kind of advice, yet here, when he felt like he was having a mental breakdown, Odin offered him a path of escape.
‘Mindscape…’, using his left hand to cover his face, Cynrik massaged his temple and tried to remember what he did back then. At the time, he had unknowingly entered the Mindscape, and according to Brance, he shut down for a couple of minutes. Since then, it hadn’t happened a second time, but now, Odin was telling him it was actually a skill.
Slowing down his breathing and rapidly beating heart, Cynrik slowly scanned the room from left to right and top to bottom.
‘In the Mindscape, I was able to rebuild what I believed that old hotel looked like in its prime.’ Then, narrowing his eyes and casting one last glance at the room, Cynrik closed his eyes and focused on the sound of his inhale and exhale. Not even a second after he closed his eyes, Cynrik felt like he had been surrounded by water, and the sounds of the kids in the room started fading until all he heard was his own breathing.
Cynrik tilted his head up and slowly opened his eyes. The room he was seeing was completely empty, and even the lights were off. He squinted and observed his surroundings before bouncing his back off the wall and standing up straight. The first thing he took note of was the strange ethereal feeling he got from moving his body; he could only compare it to moving through water unhindered. He could move freely, but it felt like he was surrounded by liquid, making him feel slightly light-headed.
Slowly but methodically, Cynrik walked the perimeter of the room while looking for anything that seemed out of place. When his eyes stopped on the lights around the room, he blinked as they suddenly lit up and bathed the formerly darkroom in warm yellow light. Then, raising his right hand to shield his eyes, he moved to the center of the room and stood in place.
‘Something is out of place, but what. There has to be something here.’ Cynrik’s mind spun on all cylinders as his rate of observation increased. His eyes flicked around so quickly that any average person would not only get dizzy but would be unable to see anything except a blur before he suddenly stopped.
Right below the enormous wall-sized tv screen, there was a single floor tile that was different than the others in the room. At first glance, it would be near impossible to spot. The floor was covered with tens of thousands of small 1×1 inch square tiles, but the one he was looking at was two triangles instead of a whole square.
‘Well, hello there,’ grinning creepily, Cynrik chuckled and walked back to the corner he had been initially standing and closed his eyes. For some reason, his instincts told him that if he increased his heart rate and breathing, he would no longer be in the Mindscape when he opened his eyes.
So he did just that.
When he opened his eyes, the sound of idle chatter flooded his ears and caused him to smirk.
-You have learned the Legacy Tier Skill – Mindscape-
-By controlling your heart rate and breathing speed, you can enter a meditative state. In this state, you can completely rebuild your surroundings perfectly after only a casual glimpse. Time in the Mindscape is 20 times slower than the real world. Due to the high mental strain put on the user, it’s advised you use this skill a maximum of once every 168 hours. The amount of time you can spend in the Mindscape directly correlates with your MIND and INT stats.-
Pushing off the wall, Cynrik darted across the room and arrived at the spot he had seen the triangle tiles in the Mindscape.
His sudden movement startled everyone in the room and even caused some girls to yelp in fear and confusion.
Cynrik just ignored their reactions and crouched down on one knee beside the tiles. Then, with a flick of his left wrist, one of his Creed MK-1’s appeared, and he stabbed the hidden blade into the two tiles swiftly, which made a strange popping noise on impact.
A second later, he vanished from the room in a flash of light, leaving the other kids all stunned and confused.