Chapter 256

With Gabby, Selene, and Cynrik in the kitchen making a mess as they divided the waffles into portions large enough for an entire family each, Benny and Brance sat in silence in the living room, both having different thoughts on their minds.

The two were lost in thought over different topics; for Brance, he was trying to figure out what Subclass he wanted to choose. After picking the Miner class initially, which saw literally zero use. This time, however, he was determined to pick something he wanted instead of something that only helped his stats out.

Benny, on the other hand, was a mess. Aside from blaming himself for Melody’s condition, he was at an impasse on what to do with classes. It was bad enough when he decided a few months back to go with the Estoc and Aspis, but now he had to try and find a branch class of Warrior that would fit his new fighting style. Even still, once he did find one, the next issue would be what kind of Subclass he wanted.

CRASH

“OI DUMB RABBIT, THAT ONE’S MINE. I ALREADY CLAIMED IT”

“Hehe, sucks to suck, Big Bro BLEHHH!”

“Uh, Gabby, just because you lick the food doesn’t mean it will stop him.”

The sounds of Gabby and Cynrik fighting over food snapped Brance and Benny from their disillusions. Looking at each other and sighing in unison, Benny and Brance got up and walked into the kitchen only to find Gabby and Cynrik playing tug-of-war with a plate stacked four waffles tall. Gabby had one of the waffles up to her face and was licking it with a stupid grin on her face. In contrast, Selene was using a fork and knife and proper table manners to eat her own food, ignoring the chaotic interaction of the two sitting across from her.

When she saw Benny and Brance walk in, she scooted her chair over a bit and put a plate down in their usual spots before reaching over and emptying the plate Cynrik and Gabby were fighting over, dividing the four waffles for the new arrivals.

“You two took long enough,” Selene said as she finished up serving the boys and went back to eating gracefully.

Brance shrugged his shoulders and sat next to Gabby while giving her a weird glance, freezing the girl in place with a waffle half hanging out of her petite mouth.

“Knock it off you two; you aren’t children anymore.” Calmly reaching over and snatching the waffle out of Gabby’s mouth before placing it on her already six-stack tall pile, Brance scolded.

“Bah, the dumb rabbit already stole three from me, and now you’re making it four; THIS IS COLLUSION!” Cynrik complained, shooting a glare at Brance and angrily stabbing his fork into his three-stack, lifting the whole thing up and taking a big bite. After chewing a few times, Cynrik’s eyes turned into crescents as he leaned back in his chair and enjoyed the extra sweet chocolatey flavor.

[[Isnt this exactly how you got fat back on Earth for a while?]] Raising an eyebrow at how much Cynrik was enjoying the food, Brance teased.

[[Oh fuck off; I only ate like a glutton when I was bored back then.]] Cynrik spat as if it were a valid reason, not just a lame excuse.

[[Which was like…always, unless you were training or coding back then, you were never “NOT” bored.]] Brance countered.

[[Listeennn, did I not lose over a hundred pounds in like three months right after I gained it all?]] Pausing mid-chew and remembering back to a particularly dark time in his past, Cynrik used his weight loss as a justification.

[[Starving yourself just to lose weight fast was totally one of the most healthy things you could have done. Give it up, Cyn; you don’t have a winning hand here.]] Scooping up the canister of whipped cream and twirling it around his palm, Brance smirked before covering his double stack of waffles in a mountain of cream.

[[Hold up, Cynrik was a fatty at one point?]] Utterly shocked that her beloved, who was chiseled like a Greek statue, was once overweight, Selene looked back and forth between the brothers with wide eyes.

[[Once? No, try like three or four times. Yet somehow, this lunatic always came to the realization that he hated being fat, so he would starve himself and work out like a maniac until it all dropped off. Between that and the excessive amount of energy drinks, it’s impressive he didn’t die of a heart attack before he was 25.]] Just as Brance said the words, he tilted his head to the side and burst out laughing, spitting out small particulates of waffle all over the table

FWOOSH THUNK

He did this because he saw Cynrik chambering his wrist, and not even half a second later, a fork was launched right at his head.

“EWWW GROSS!” Gabby squealed as she dodged the spittle coming from Brance.

Cynrik clicked his tongue in disappointment as he saw that his sneak attack had missed, and the fork had become embedded in the wall across the room.

“HAHA! Your aim may be great, but your speed is still lacking, Big brother.” Brance taunted, but unexpectedly, Cynrik seemed not to care anymore and had retrieved a new fork from his inventory.

The party ate together for the next 10 minutes, with a minor scuffle of banter happening every so often until finally, only three waffles were left. Surprisingly, Cynrik had stopped anyone from touching them, as they were reserved for Melody when she decided to wake up.

Seeing everyone had finished, Brance got up and started collecting the dishes and depositing them into the dishwasher. He sat back down once he was finished and looked around at everyone inquisitively.

“So, do you guys wanna talk classes, or has everyone figured out what they want to do?”

“I mean, my build was decided months ago, Rogue/Tamer. To raise my Nátt Hrafn properly, I must pick up the Tamer class at some point.” Shrugging his shoulders and thinking about his poor Raven eggs, which had been living in suspended animation for months, Cynrik filled the party in on his thoughts.

“What are the boosts on the Tamer Class Darling?” Tilting her head to the side, Selene asked while snaking her arm through Cynrik’s, which were crossed over his chest.

“Tamer is INT and MIND, while Rogue is AGI DEX, so overall, it fits what I had planned for the future. The only annoying thing is I will be neglecting my STR and VIT for a while, especially my VIT, which I stupidly was forced into increasing after the little event our first week here.” Clicking his tongue and feeling regretful over the lost 80 stat points he spent after his fight with Jormie, Cynrik stated.

“Is everyone evolving their initial class, or do any of you plan on cross-training with a different one?” Brance asked as he mulled over his own decision.

“I, for one, have no choice hehe, going from Valk-Warrior to Valk Vanguard is a given. I was hoping to see Valkyrie on my list, but I will have to wait until Tier-3 for that.” Snuggling against Cynrik’s shoulder like a kitten begging for attention, Selene chimed in.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, Selly; at least you have a Unique class, unlike the rest of us.” Wearing a pouty expression and sticking her tongue out at her roommate, Gabby rolled her eyes before continuing.

“I plan on evolving my Archer class into Huntress, which will give me a bump in DEX and AGI. For my Subclass, I don’t know what to do, I was thinking about doubling as a Cleric or Druid, but if I did, I would be stuck in the backline instead of moving around as I want.” Fiddling with her fingers shyly, Gabby posed her concerns to everyone, who fell deep into thought.

In Brance’s mind, her analysis was correct. Doubling as a healer while still playing the role of a ranged attacker seemed slightly counterproductive. If Gabby really wanted to go that route, he was okay with it and would support her, but the issue was she would need to be retrained entirely into a backliner instead of an on-the-move DPS like Cynrik was.

“Um, guys, I kinda have something to tell you all…” mustering up his courage, Benny sat straight and shivered after feeling everyone’s gaze fall on him.

“Recently, I unlocked a class kind of like Selene’s. When I looked it up, there was no information on it at all in the Academy database.” Benny paused and noticed Cynrik and Brance’s eyes narrow at his words, yet he continued speaking.

“It showed up after my fight with Instructor Garrison. My assumption is that by using the Estoc and Aspis, I unlocked a unique variant of the Warrior class. It’s Called Hoplite Vanguard.”

Cynrik nodded knowingly. It made sense that if he used the spartan combat style, he would receive a spartanish class. But Benny’s following words made his brain shut down for a second.

“Uh, that isn’t all either. Its boosts are very different from what a normal warrior would receive; according to the description, I will be getting DEX, AGI, and VIT.”

“HOLD THE PHONE; WHAT?” Cynrik was so startled by the revelation that Benny’s new class gave him a triple stat boost that he pushed back in his chair. He would have fallen over if it wasn’t for Selene instantly catching it to stabilize him.

“Nice, Benny; the added DEX and AGI will help you significantly, and it looks like you won’t have to worry about leaning to either side of the spectrum between tank and DPS. If you add your points wisely, you should have no problem balancing things.” Unlike Cynrik, who was staring at the boy in shock with his jaw practically on the ground, Brance quickly complimented him and told Benny that he should be fine doing what he wanted from now on.

“Hehe, nice job brother!” Gabby smiled brightly and shot Benny a thumbs up.

“COUGH! Thank’s guys.” Looking down at the table and coughing, Benny couldn’t help but feel warm inside.

“Damn, triple stats, that’s not bad Benny Boy; the real question is, what are you thinking about for a Subclass? If you want my opinion, I would go with something with a high STR boost, that way; you won’t be burning all your points endlessly to try and play catchup.” Selene added after being sure Cynrik wouldn’t fall or pass out from the shock.

“Yeah, that’s my next problem to deal with. I was thinking about going after the Miner class like Brancie, but seeing as he didn’t really use it for anything other than the boost, I am hesitant.”

“Eh, it wouldn’t be a bad idea. So the Egresses I picked out all have mineral resources that can be extracted. So having an added person in the party with that Subclass would help a lot, especially if we come across a situation where the rare minerals are stacked with creatures. At that point, Gabby and I would pull their attention, leaving Selene to cover them with her [Void Domain]. In the meantime, you two would gather as much as possible before coming to aid us in battle.” Cynrik stated, finally bringing himself back to reality.

“Hold on…Benny, if you got a Unique Class, why were you worried about what Primary to choose?” Suddenly realizing something was off, Cynrik tilted his head and asked.

“Well, I was thinking of switching entirely to DPS, and if I went with the Hoplite Vanguard, I thought I would have to choose between Blademaster, the Tier-2 sword fighter class, or evolving my Warrior,” Benny said, not noticing Cynrik.

“STUPID, UGHHHH, DON’T BE A MORON AND PICK THE TRIPLE STAT CLASS, YOU DUNCE!” Slamming his forehead on the table with a loud THUD, Cynrik wanted to strangle Benny for his idiocy.

“Seriously? Brance just told you that you could pull off both, so stop overthinking and select the damn HopVan Class before I go over there and force you to.”

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