The Over-Break System

When it came time for Cynrik to stop, he commanded the three animals pulling the sled to slow down. He had the Ravens drop their lines and retract them back into his Assassins tools while Milo slowed until there was slack in the line, and Gabby undid the cables from their loops before storing them away.

’Gabby, connect me to everyone,’ Cynrik said as he hopped off the stone sled and began channeling a decent amount of Fire Mana into his feet. Next, he expelled fire in a 30x30 meter radius, causing him to disappear under the snow as he created an open space free of snow and ice, burrowing down around 20 meters.

Feeling the connections increasing in his mind as MyrkLys was added to the psychic link, Cynrik looked up from the bottom of his big hole in the snow and addressed his group.

’Alright, listen up; first things first, everyone get in the hole. We will rest for an hour and a half before continuing to the mountain range. Benny, I need you to use your Ice Affinity and solidify the snow into solid ice. Brance, your task is to increase the width of the sled so that we can use it as a roof, creating a makeshift shelter.’

’Everyone else, you just need to pull out your camping gear and relax, get your Resource stats back to max capacity because we have a big battle ahead of us in the next few hours, and I don’t want any slackers.’

At his order, the members of MyrkLys moved into action, first by jumping down into the hole and getting out of the harsh gale force winds and numbing cold.

Once out of the wind, the girls were the first to thank Cynrik before setting up their tents and burying themselves under blankets to warm up.

Between Brance and Benny’s efforts, the team was soon free from the harsh weather and tucked away in individual tents’ warmth. Everyone but Cynrik and Brance, that is, who sat in the direct center of the hole with the tents circling them.

In between the brothers was a small campfire, and to allow the smoke to exit the shelter, Cynrik had used his Grap-shot to create a makeshift chimney in the ice.

[[Let me guess, you haven’t seen a single trace of our target either.]] Brance asked with his eyes closed and sitting in the lotus position.

[[Yeah…it’s bullshit. Like I knew this map would be massive, but even traveling at full speed, the mountains still looked like a bunch of fingers in the distance. Luckily, we can see through the blizzard, and with both of us on the lookout, we can be sure nothing has been missed.]] Heaving a sigh and leaning back on his outstretched arms, Cynrik gazed through the frozen snow and sled with [Mana Sight], trying to get a glimpse of anything resembling their target.

’Well, now that we aren’t moving, I can give it a shot.’ Blinking a couple of times before closing his eyes and tapping on his eyelids, Cynrik activated his [Dynamic Lens] skill, allowing him to zoom in and out by applying adequate amounts of Mana.

He had tried this earlier, but due to the bumpy ride caused by uneven ground, all it did was make him carsick and almost throw up. However, now that he was stationary, Cynrik figured there was no time like the present to give it a try.

The last time he used the skill was when he was trying to locate the dongles hidden in the Aether Capsules; however, that and this were two opposite things. Instead of magnifying his vision to see more minor things and limiting the amount of information streaming to his brain from his ocular nerves, now he was about to overload said nerves with A LOT of information.

Cynrik took a deep breath as his pupils contracted and glowed faintly in a quadricolor glow. Starting off slow, Cynrik spun up the skill and zoomed in to 1.5x zoom before slowly increasing the number by 0.5x every few seconds. However, the moment Cynrik reached 5x zoom, he felt a headache blooming, but even then, he didn’t stop as he slowly increased the magnification.

That all changed when he reached 10x Zoom. Instantly, his head spun, and a nauseous feeling nearly overcame Cynrik before he could control the burning and aching sensation in his eyes and head.

Knowing he couldn’t keep this up for long, Cynrik scanned from left to right as fast as possible before slamming his eyes shut and covering them with his right hand while deactivating [Mana Sight] and the zoom skill.

[[Fuck…that hurts.]] Cynrik complained as he weakly opened his now bloodshot eyes back up and squinted to look at his brother.

[[What hurts? Sigh, don’t tell me you did some dangerous experiment with your body again…look, Cyn, I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but it really isn’t the time to be messing around; you should rest and recoup your lost resource stats.]]

Lazily opening his eyes and scolding his older brother with a stern tone and worried expression, Brance noticed how Cynrik’s eyes looked as if he had held them open for a whole day under the water in a heavily chlorinated pool.

[[Holy shit, what the hell happened to your eyes? Are you good?]] He asked while leaning forward and handing Cynrik a damp cloth.

[[Yeah, it’s no biggy; I used that zoom-in skill I made before the passing down, called [Dynamic Lens]. I may have pushed my eyes a bit too far, but aside from the minor inconveniences, I am fine…plus…]] Cynrik’s voice trailed off as a smirk crept onto his lips, and he pointed to the left, toward the northwest side of the circular hole.

[[280 clicks 11 o-clock, Nnw, is where we are heading.]] However, a second after Cynrik said that he frowned and started rubbing his chin, drawing a curious look from Brance.

Even though he wanted to ask what was on Cynrik’s mind, Brance recognized his brother’s posture and gestures as his ”deep thought” indicators and knew better than to break Cynrik’s concentration. That is, if he even could, considering when he fell into that ”state,” Cynrik zones out everything and everyone.

And Brance was 100% correct in his assessment of Cynrik’s actions. Right now, he was in a world of his own, trying to digest everything he had seen in those few short seconds. When the usual means of data analysis failed to suffice, Cynrik huffed loudly, closed his eyes, and fell onto his back.

’When in doubt, recreate everything. Sigh, I guess it’s time to bring out all the old plays right now.’ Cynrik thought as he lulled himself into a calm state and activated an ability he hadn’t used in a very,…very long time.

Controlling his breathing and heart rate, Cynrik fell into a meditative state; a few seconds later, he opened his eyes, and nothing had visibly changed in the makeshift shelter…except for the fact that it was now perfectly silent and it seemed as if time had frozen.

Calmly standing up and observing the frozen campfire, Cynrik muttered the skill’s name.

”Legacy Tier Skill: [Mindscape].” Then he closed his eyes again and felt a rush run through his body.

When Cynrik opened them up again, he had traveled 280 Kilometers away from the shelter and stood at the mouth of a cave 80 meters tall and 60 meters wide. Standing not far away from him, inside the cave, were over 50 unmoving hulking humanoid white-furred creatures.

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