Chapter 19 - Gains And Training Opportunity

Making his way to the kitchen absentmindedly, Cynrik stumbled upon the scene of both his parents sitting at the table already with serious expressions. At the same time, Cinyah had her typical serious parent look; Rikard was sporting a nice-sized lump on the left side of his head, which Cynrik presumed was given to him by his Mother.

Seeing the both of them looking so serious, Cynrik stopped in the middle of the hallway, causing the franticly trying to catch up Brance to run directly into his brother's back.

"Hey! Why'd you just stop in the middle of the hall?" Brance chirped with his child-like voice while rubbing his nose in pain.

Using the Sibling Mind link, Cynrik responded quickly; {They know we've obtained awoken our Affinities.}

Peeking around his brother's shoulder, Brance quickly noticed both of their parents giving them serious expressions and drooped his head as if he'd been caught taking a cookie from the jar.

"Why are you just standing there, boys. Come. Would you please take a seat so we can talk about what happened last night? We know you must be confused." Rikard calmly said, using an authoritative tone.

Nodding obediently, the two boys quickly sat in their usual spots, facing the two adults. {Our story is, last night, I felt a warm feeling in my chest and using the Mana Sight skill Dad taught us, we realized some changes were happening next to our hearts. When we inspected these changes, the system made a quest to sit and focus on the feeling and stated that we were Awakening our Elemental Affinity. When you saw what I was doing, you mimicked me, and that's how we came to awaken.} Cynrik quickly tossed together a believable story based on the information he had gathered online about people awakening, to which Brance affirmed his understanding.

"Do you know why we are upset, boys?" Cinyahs hurt voice was like a sharp dagger to Brance's heart. He had come to completely view and love Cinyah as his Mom, while Cynrik, on the other hand, put on the façade that he was sorry that he had done something to be scolded.

"While we are bout super happy that you've awakened your affinities, we are disappointed that you didn't come to us the second you felt something. As your parents, it's our job to protect you both, and yet you both went and did something risky. You should have come and gotten us so that we could make sure you were safe throughout the awakening." She continued while placing her hands on the table.

While Cinyah's tone was one of reprimand, it also held a strong sense of pride that both of her children had awakened without any help and at a very young age. Generally, a child born without their Affinity already awakened will not awaken one until their 12th birthday. Thus she nearly couldn't contain the swelling sense of pride she felt while looking at her babies.

While Cynrik just hung his head and seemed to be thinking about what to say, Brance came right out and tried to appease his Mom. "I'm sorry Mommy, Cyn said that we should try by ourselfs and that you would be super happy if we showed you in the morning." He specifically said certain words incorrectly to keep the appearance of being only five years old.

"Did he now?" Turning to look at her oldest, Cinyah's eyes narrowed. "What do you have to say about that, Cynrik" the edge of anger her words held made Cynrik flinch for a moment. "I…I…when I felt the warm spot in my chest, I followed my System as you taught us, Dad…so I thought Mom would be happy if we did awaken on our own." Cynrik, without remorse, threw his Father directly to the mother wolf that was Cinyah.

Stunned, Rikard's jaw dropped open as he started to look like a fish out of water, nearly making Cynrik burst into laughter.

After gasping for air a couple of times, wheeling from his Oldest son's blatant disregard for his Fathers well being Rikard choked out a single word, "BOY," causing Cynrik to nearly jump out of his chair in fear of his Father's rage.

His rage was short-lived as the second Rikard leaked out that single word, the sharp eyes left Cynrik, and with a creepy head-tilt, Cinyah's gaze landed on Rikard. "We will talk about this later; for now, we have other things to get to" Cinyah's words held such venom that all three of the other people at the table shivered unconsciously.

"Now then, Brancey, which element did you awaken." Her words turned from angry Mama bear to sweat loving Mother talking to her youngest baby.

With a smile, Brance looked at Cinyah and spoke cheerfully. "I got the Wind one just like Daddy." What he didn't expect was the look of despair to draw across his beautiful Mother's face.

"HAHAHA, THAT'S MY BOY!" Rikard, however, was ecstatic that his son had the same Affinity as him. In his joy, there was a loud thump followed by Rikards's yelp as Cinyah stomped heavily on his foot under the table.

Cinyah knew that the amount of time she could spend with her adorable youngest son had just been cut in half. But her spirits were quickly uplifted as Cynrik chimed in his results. "It's ok, Mom. I got Fire just like yours."

In a quick 180 degrees turn, Cinyah gave a little cheer and ran to Cynrik to smother him with kisses. " I always knew you loved Mommy the best; now we get to spend more time together, my little Cyn, yes we do SMOOCH SMOOCH" After several agonizing minutes, things settled back down as their parents reigned in their emotions.

Cinyah explained how Rikard and herself would teach the boys how to control their Affinity after school every day. Since the boys were lucky enough to have two experienced Reavers who shared the same element, they would be able to get each of their time-tested techniques that had been passed down from generation to generation.

Cinyahs family wasn't nearly as old as Rikards, so Brance lucked out on getting several generations' worth of teaching passed down to him. At the same time, Cynrik was receiving his Mother's hard-earned knowledge.

Cynrik wasn't too worried since he knew Brance would fill him in on the Wind Element after getting a handle on it.

Once the family meeting had come to a close, the boys ate their massive breakfast and were sent off to school for yet another uneventful agonizing day of learning things they had long known.

In the Hovercar, the two boys sat in the back and examined their upgraded stats. Cynriks little stunt last night had given him massive benefits.

: Status :

: Cynrik Jetlensr:

: Human Male:

: Age-6 years:

: Soul Age-35:

: Level: 5 :

: Essence(XP): 2500/25000:

: Distribution: 1 Per All :

: Mana Codex Tier: 1 (Proficiency= 3.0%) :

: Mana Cycles: 130 (Proficiency= 3.0%) :

: Mana Circuit Tier: 1 (Proficiency= 3.0%) :

: STATS :

: HP 310/310 :

: Mana 135/135 :

: Stamina 155/155 :

: Stat Points- 48 :

: Skill Points- 10 :

: Strength- 10 :

: Dexterity- 15 :

: Agility- 21 :

: Intelligence- 10 :

: Vitality- 31 :

: Mind- 30 :

: Affinity- :

:(SAG)Dark-Tier 0 (Profiency= 0.0%):

:(BG) Fire-Tier 1 (Profiency= 0.0%):

:(BG) Wind-Tier 0 (Profiency= 0.0%):

The most significant changes, of course, were to his Health Points, Codex and Circuits. Ignoring the massive 25k XP needed for level 6, he noted how 30 Mana Cycles seemed to give him 3% Proficiency to his Codex and Circuits.

'It looks like each revolution gives 0.1%, it was 100 to get to tier 1, and then the extra 30 only raised me so much. So that means 100 cycles should make 10%, and 1000 would take me to Tier 2.' A small sigh leaked out of his mouth as he informed Brance of this little fact.

{Tonight, you should choose the third element. It looks like each time we gain a new Affinity, we will get bonus stats, so if you wanna keep up with this Lord, you should make a choice.} Cynrik half bragged half offered his opinion to Brance, who just scoffed and looked out the hovercars window.

When the bell signifying the end of the school day rang out over the school grounds, Cynrik couldn't contain his excitement. Even though he had awakened the Darkness element at birth, he had never been able to utilize it. But now, he would get first-hand training from Cinyah on how to use an Affinity effectively. Then, with this information in hand, he planned to translate it to his Darkness and his newly acquired Fire and Wind Elements.

Bolting out of his 2nd Grade classroom, he made a b-line for his meeting point with Brance so they could run to the parking lot as quickly as possible, where they met up with Rikard, who was standing outside their family's sleek green Hovercar.

After finally arriving at home and going into separate rooms with their corresponding parent, the first day of Affinity training began much to the excitement of both Brance and Cynrik.