The Over-Break System

From the instant the contents of Phase Two became public knowledge, Cynrik had basically written off any dangers presented. In his mind and even Brances, Green Alpha Egresses posed zero to no challenge and effectively were only a time sink. At the end of the day, the two brothers had already outgrown Green Egresses as a whole, simply by nature of how quickly they grew. If it were before the events of Haylons Shadow, then maybe they would have been concerned, but now that they had Evolved to Tier-1, they would have no trouble steamrolling through the creatures contained in the dungeon.

Sure, they could gain a bit of XP and some Stats, but they only had two concerns at the end of the day. The first is resources. Egresses, in general, were considered the primary source of income for over 90% of the country’s population, and as such, the brothers had gone out of their way to figure out which items would earn them the most money. Inside the Egress, creatures killed could be harvested, then those parts exchanged for credits, and even though they had both been sitting on a million credits for years and had made a pretty penny off the mobs in the hotel, it never hurt to have too much money.

Money aside, while Cynrik and Brance would have some Stat gain, the kill rewards would be astronomically helpful for Gabby and Benny. Unlike the Jetlensr Brothers, the Sanford Siblings didn’t have Tobs, who was constantly throwing XP snacks their way, and as such, Gabby and Benny had struggled even remotely to catch up to Cynrik and Brance.

Thus, when Brance had given his brother a copy of the Sanfords Stat profiles, he had nearly stumbled and gotten eaten by a Packhound. Luckily, he had already eradicated the other canines and only had the one left, but the slight disruption had almost backfired.

[Fucking hell Brance, next time, give me a damn heads up before info-dumping like that, I was in the middle of a fight and almost got a chunk bitten out of my arm.]

Patting his chest and swiping his sword at a downward angle to fling off the excess blood, Cynrik scolded his younger brother. But, to be honest, he couldn’t blame Brance. Unlike earlier, Cynrik had neglected to inform his younger brother that he was entering combat; as such, the fault really lay with Cynrik in this instance.

[My bad, figured you had wrapped up the Packhounds already. Anyway, yeah, take a look when you get a chance.]

[Will do, once I finish my harvest, the next stop is the treasure rooms, and then I’ll jet over to you guys. I’ll give you a heads up when I’m en route.]

With that said, Cynrik set about skinning the intact corpses scattered around the cavern. Being the third and final batch, Cynrik had, for the most part, figured out an effective killing method that left the Packhound pelts in one piece. After experimenting with different kill shots, he still found a single stab to the back of the neck was the most effective. It was especially effective since it could trigger his Thief Class Skill [Backstab], allowing for added damage.

The tactic he had settled on involved using his [Shadow Veil] and zipping around the room, placing well-timed attacks to insta-kill his targets, then retreating before setting up the next attack. Basically…he was just running around assassinating them. But unlike his initial attack on the first group of hounds, Cynrik chose to target them one at a time and slowly pick them off instead of rushing the whole group. Although it would take more time to wipe out the pack, it was more cost-efficient on MP and Stamina.

‘Alright, Tobs, send all the notifications through.’ As Cynrik had done with the Fanged Rats, he requested that she hold off pushing any notifications until he asked so he could focus on one thing at a time.

-Quest Updated-

-Kill 25 Tier-1 Packhounds- (31/25) (Complete)

-You have killed 19 Black Packhounds.-

-You have killed 2 Black Alpha Packhounds.-

-You have received 239,100 XP.-

-You have received 12 AGI and 9 VIT.-

-You have located and extracted 17 Affinitiless Codexes.-

-You have located and extracted 4 Wind Affinity Codexes.-

-You have located and extracted Sliver of Skill (6).-

Cynrik pressed his fists against each other and applied a little pressure causing all his knuckles to pop loudly before scrolling through his inventory and arranging it neatly. Thankfully, Tobs had added a collection feature that gave him the tools necessary to condense similar items into batches of 99.

‘Damn, I really scored a shit ton of Codexes, 81 Affinitiless, three Earth, and five Wind, all of which are Tier-1.’

Cynrik sat on the ground with Blackflames crackling around him, destroying the remains of his hunt, and admired his newly acquired resources. ‘Honestly, I have half a mind to keep some of this stuff for my Engineering experiments, but oh well, MONEY!’ Then, wearing a lewd expression thanks to his thoughts of being wealthy, Cynrik jumped back up to his feet and dusted off his butt before pulling up the dungeon map.

‘Let’s see here, from the looks of it; I have to backtrack a few caverns to reach the first room. It just so happens to be the closest of the three; TSK seriously Brance passed these damn rooms by too.’

[OI, Brance, why the hell didn’t you stop at the two treasure rooms when you were nearby?] Not hiding the hostility in his voice, Cynrik quickly questioned his little brother. But after a few seconds of no response, Cynrik raised his eyebrow.

[HELLLOOOOOOO, you gunna answer me?]

[What, you were serious? Cyn, you LITERALLY told me to leave them to you.] Brance was confused by his older brother’s reaction. When the party had their first briefing, it was Cynrik who said he would handle the treasure chests since there could be traps. Brance had taken this as “I’ll do it.” In actuality, Cynrik was being more literal in his meaning of handling the chests themselves, causing a misunderstanding.

[Ah, come on, man, seriously. So you realize I have to trek all across the fucking dungeon now, right. Couldn’t you have just thrown the chests in your inventory and waited for later, Brance? UGH FINE, IT’S FINE, I AM ONNN MY WAY, DON’T WORRYYY Bout it.] Cynrik finished his dramatic statement by snarkily puffing out a stream of air, moving his hair out of his eyes.

[Quit your whining and go be a pirate;] Brance broke into a wide grin and found a way to instantly bring up his brother’s mood and get the lead out of his ass, [Tobs play “He’s a Pirate.] and in a playful tone decided to give Cynrik a little encouragement.

-Now playing the extended version of “He’s a Pirate” by Klaus Badelt.-

Cynrik’s eyes shot wide open, and his mouth dropped open in shock. Not only was it the first time Brance had used Tobs in this way, but he had even chosen a song that Cynrik couldn’t ignore.

[NOW YE SCALLY WAG, A YE STANDIN DER AN LET OUR BOOTY BE WASTED LIKE SOME LANDLUBBER OR WILL YA GO CLAIM DE CHESTS OF GOLD!] Jumping to his feet and waving his arms while speaking out loud and in the mind link, Brance did his best pirate impression freaking out Gabby and Benny in the process.

Cynrik froze in place with his eyes closed, listening to his brother’s speech with the strings playing an upbeat tune as background music.

[‘OW LONG ‘AV WE BEEN POOR, NOW IS DAH TIME YAH BASTARD, GO, GO FORTH N CLAIM OUR BOUNTY!]

Sniffle

[Brancie…(sniffle) you…I have waited so long…for you to join in my shenanigans.]

SMACK

Cynrik smacked both his cheeks loudly and put on his game face.

[Oi asshole, do ye even realize who ’tis ye’re natterin’ t’! Remember this name goin’ forth, remember this day, ’tis the day Cap’n Cyn pillaged all the loot in sight. Me name shall do down in history.] Using his best Captain Jack impression and speaking in broken shitty pirate lingo, Cynrik kicked the ground and darted off through the tunnels towards the first treasure room with a burst of speed.

As he ran, Cynrik imagined all kinds of traps springing up around him, like massive swinging axes or walls that shot arrows, and was jumping around, diving, and weaving through the empty silent tunnels.

Brance, on the other hand, was wearing a look of disgust as he tried figuring out what the hell his brother even just said.

Gabby and Benny were staring blankly at Brance. Although it was the first time they had seen this side of him, they were smart enough to figure out it had something to do with encouraging Cynrik, so burying their heads in their papers and triple-checking they had written the correct info from their Stat profiles, the Sanford Siblings decided to ignore Brance.

Meanwhile, Cynrik arrived at an empty rocky tunnel with a large and ancient wooden door. While humming along with the song, Cynrik barreled into the door, shattering the wood, and rolled into the room. The instant he crossed the threshold of the door, small torches burst into flames in each of the four corners of the 10×8 stone room.

The reason he was comfortable with such an act was none of the info he had read about A-G 22097 had listed the rooms themselves being boobytrapped. Instead, the comments all talked about how creatures called Mimics tended to hide in the chests, so he had to be careful about them.

Cynrik’s eyes darted around the room, looking for the glorious boxes he had imagined for the last five minutes during his adventurous approach. Eventually, he found two small bronze-colored wooden chests tucked away on the far side of the room.

“Ah, thar ’tis. Thar’s the loot chests I’ve been searchin’ fer.” Standing up slowly and wearing a greedy grin, Cynrik briskly walked over, picked both chests up, and carried them on his shoulders.

“Now then, ’tis time t’ go fer the rest. Ye Egress Core shall be pillaged ’til ye can’t even afford measly sea hardtack(bread).” Spitting a loogy on the ground, Cynrik spun around and carried his treasure chests out of the room before sprinting off towards the next treasure room.

If Brance knew just how deep he had sent his brother down the current rabbit hole, he would have regretted ever even humoring the idea of starting this farce.

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