The Over-Break System

“Tsk, bully!” Stomping her foot, Selene spun on her heels and left the bedroom after adjusting her clothes enough to be presentable.

Hearing the door close, Cynrik shook his head a couple of times before standing up and observing the hatching process from a distance.

“No wonder these things are so expensive; to be able to change the particle’s state of being from micro-gaseous into this liquidized state meant for absorption is as complex as it gets.” Cynrik mused aloud as he held up his hand and condensed some Fire particles into a perfect golf-ball-sized blue fireball.

“Master rank Is pretty nuts,” flicking his opposite wrist, a ball of purplish-black smoke formed beside the blue flame, and Cynrik’s eyes flicked between the two manifested Mana creations with interest.

‘Having my Codex at Tier-3 Stage 6, as well as Fire and Dark at Tier-3 Master, my control is like night and day.’ Cynrik thought while merging the two manifested Mana creations into one by closing his hands together; the result was a purple and black flame that burned silently on his palm.

‘It’s seamless now…merging the two elements is so natural; why is that? Is it because I am in Master grade now, or is it because of something else?’ For the next few minutes, Cynrik went about merging and separating the Fire and Dark Mana particles, but when the idea of attempting to connect Dark and Lightning popped in his head, he was forced to stop.

At first, he thought it was due to a high level of resistance between the two elements. However, the more he thought about it, the more he realized there was another factor to be considered, his Mantra.

Having obtained his Lightning Affinity, Cynrik hadn’t had time to script his new Mantra to aid him in fusing the Affinities. No matter how badly he wanted to, he thought of creating yet another particle storm as he had with Brance when they adjusted their Mantras the last time. And so, he decided against it, not wanting to put his hatching eggs at risk.

Heaving a sigh and releasing control over the Mana particles, Cynrik sat on the floor with his back propped against the bed and his left knee raised with his left forearm resting on his knee and watched the slow process of the two eggs absorbing Mana.

His eyes drifted to the hologram display on the hatching tube, indicating the time remaining until the eggs finally became chicks. He sighed again, his impatience getting the better of him.

“39:57, this is like watching paint dry.”

—

Selene joined the rest of the group in the living room and conversed about everyone’s new gains before getting the information about Benny’s new Affinities.

She was intrigued to find out that he had used the Fire Affinity gem, and when the topic of variant particles came up, she fell deep into thought about the possibilities.

For one, it proved a thought she had from when she first met Cynrik and discovered that he was a Dark Affinity user. What originally was written off as her just getting lucky and ending up with a different skill set than Cynrik became the blossoming idea that they had different variants of Dark Mana control.

When she brought this up to Brance, he nodded and explained his thoughts.

“It would make a lot of sense, honestly. If we look at the skills the two of you have, it’s as if you aren’t using the same Elemental Affinity. Where you can change the state of mass and blot out all light in a way creating a pitch black realm, he seems to lean more toward shadows utilizing the already present Darkness to his advantage.”

“It’s almost like you use the truest sense of Darkness, whereas he can only manipulate the already present form, so it would almost be better to call his Affinity Shadow instead of Dark, even if he is essentially controlling; similar Dark Mana particles.”

Putting that thought into the world, Gabby nodded in acceptance while Selene’s face scrunched up.

“While what you say makes sense, it is under the assumption that these Variant particles exist right now. Everything we’ve discussed is simply conjecturing, based on observations you and Cyn have made with your Mana Sight.”

“We will need to talk to Umbr…I mean Professor Morningdale.” Selene stumbled and nearly called Morningdale Umbridge but quickly corrected herself, drawing a strange look from Gabby, who soon dismissed the occurrence.

“Professor Morningdale should be able to shed some light…no pun intended, on our theories.”

“Agreed; when we return to class, we can bring the topic up to her, but it needs to be appropriately worded. The Academy still doesn’t know about my [Mana Sight], so we will have to bring the topic up by asking why Big Brother and Benny’s fire seem different before talking about how we’ve noticed a difference between you and his Dark Affinities.” Brance mulled over Selene’s statement before adding his opinion and a solution.

As they finished their conversation, however, the temperature plunged, and everyone could see their breath when they exhaled before the temperature spiked, making the room swelteringly hot like a summer’s day.

In response to the rapid fall and rise of the room’s temperature, everyone snapped their heads in Benny’s direction, and soon they were stunned to notice that his hair had almost completely changed color. Before, Benny’s head was a tuft of messy chestnut-colored hair with only a few blue and red streaks, but now, it had vastly changed.

Gone was the chestnut brown; instead, two colors had predominantly taken over, half being orangish-red and the other an icy blue. His hair wasn’t split into two tones so much as every other strand was a different color, making a perfect mix of the two equal shades. Even his eyebrows had changed to reflect his new Affinity.

Gabby struggled to comprehend what was happening as she ran her fingers through her shoulder-length hair before peeking to ensure it was still chestnut with just a few hints of color.

“Whew,” exhaling with a vocalized grunt, Benny opened his eyes, and just like his hair, they were both two-toned now, with his Iris being a stunning swirl of orangish-red and icy-blue.

“Uh…what is everyone looking at? Is there something on my face?” Noticing Brance, Gabby, and Selene staring at him as if he was a freak of nature, Benny got self-conscious and squirmed uncomfortably.

“Your hair and eye color changed with your acquisition of the Temperature Affinity. Pull up the camera function on your Watcet and take a look.” Brance broke the moment, causing Benny to nod in confusion before holding up his Watcet and following Brance’s idea.

When his new hair and eye color came into view, Benny was stunned for two minutes as he ran his fingers through the drastically different colored strands than the ones he was accustomed to.

“Woah, this is…crazy,” was all Benny could muster as he examined his new looks with fervor.

“I knew there would be some changes; everyone gets a few highlights depending on their Affinity since it’s a sign that we are closer to the Elemental particles we control, but this is crazy.” Finally, putting down his Watcet and looking at Brance, Benny could feel how strong his connection to Fire and Ice had become.

Inhaling through his nose and exhaling out his mouth, Benny could feel the two conflicting Affinities swirling in his chest. Still, instead of going out of control, something acted like a buffer, keeping the Fire and Ice Particles together yet separate. This was the presence of the merged Temperature particles, which in his mind appeared like a yin/yang fusion of Fire and Ice, coexisting in harmony.

When Brance gazed at Benny’s Codex with [Mana Sight], this was precisely the scene he witnessed. Instead of only three particles, Water, Fire, and Ice, there was now a fourth, in the same color as Benny’s eyes, a perfect combination of orangish-red and icy-blue.

BZZZT

“Paging all scrub lord party members, there are two minutes until my birbs hatch; please direct your attention to the HoloTv, where I will display the current going ons in my bedroom and give you all a perfect view of the hatching process.”

The dorm speakers emitted a crackling sound similar to a walkie-talkie as Cynrik used them for announcements, drawing the attention away from Benny momentarily.

- In response to his words, the HoloTv turned on without anyone pushing any buttons. On-screen was a graphic similar to one Streamers on Earth use for IRL streams, with a black and red animated border and ticker tape of scrolling text highlighting the words “Birb Hatching,” running across the top of the screen.

Still, the primary focus was on the two towering Incubators and Cynrik, who took the place of an MC.

“Welcome to my first Stream here at VSFA!” Appearing between the two Incubators where the matte black eggs were glowing brightly, Cynrik took a bow before pressing a button on his Watcet, triggering an applause track to play.

“Oh, for the love of…seriously, he’s back at this shit again.” Facepalming hard enough to make a loud smack, Brance had to be restrained by Gabby, stopping him from jumping up and rushing into Cynrik’s room to beat some sense into his idiotic showboating head.

“Let it go, Brancie; we can’t go in there lest we accidentally cause the Ravens to imprint on us instead of Cyn.” Selene chirped as she excitedly watched her boyfriend’s pseudo-stream for the first time.

“You never had to deal with that whole phase; a few years back, Big Brother learned that there was a huge market online for streamers and tried to get into it but was quickly banned because he was too young.”

“Since then, it’s been a never-ending argument online when he has free time.” Rolling his eyes and taking Gabby’s hand in his, Brance huffed out his nostrils angrily.

“NOW THEN, allow me to direct your attention toward the top half of these here glass tubes,” Waving his hand like a showgirl, Cynrik motioned to the timers on each Incubator before continuing.

“As you can see, there are now less than two minutes until our beloved future Team Mascots are born, so don’t blink, or you’ll miss this monumental occasion.”

After that line, Cynrik began explaining the complex mechanics of the Incubators in laymen’s terms so that everyone could follow along and learn how the machines worked.

Once he was done, only thirty seconds remained, and an electronic music track began playing in the background as mood music.

“He’s nervous,” Brance stated, causing everyone’s eyes to narrow.

“Yeah, I had to calm him down earlier,” Selene added as her eyes never left the screen.

“How can you guys tell?” Gabby asked in confusion. To her, Cynrik appeared as expected, albeit maybe a little hyper, but still average for him.