BXBX NOVEL Chapter 360 Volume 5 Prologue
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—
“Target located moving into position.”
The cold voice of a young man came over the headset as a shadow moved through the dense treeline, closing the distance on a clearing half a kilometer away.
In the center of that clearing was a platoon of ugly green and orange humanoid creatures.
“Keep your head on a swivel, and tell that dumb cat not to get distracted this time, got it?” With his left eye closed, the young man locked onto the targeted group of opponents from above. While he flitted through the trees, his right eye was watching the forest ahead of him, and his left was scanning from up above; thanks to a specific skill, the Tier-2 Tamer passive Skill [Shared Sight].
“HEY, MILO, ISNT DUMB! He’s still a baby!” As soon as the words left the young man’s mouth, a sweet-sounding melodious young girl’s voice replied hastily.
“Clear coms, we are approaching the target; get your heads in the game, you two.” A second young man’s voice cut in, stopping the impending argument from spreading further.
“Yessir, bossy Björn. Darling~ how long till contact with the target?” Adding her voice to the conversation, a second, more mature girl joined the communication channel.
“Sel, knock it off with the darling while we are on a mission and half a klick (1 klick = 1 kilometer, 0.6214 miles, 1000 meters, or 3280.84 feet).
‘Vii, when you reach the encampment, increase altitude by 30 percent and continue circling.’ The young man, Cynrik, said through his unique link with one of his two pet Nátt Hrafn, Viisaus.
‘Cawchiip,’ the young male raven replied as it began to climb higher as fast as its wings could carry.
‘Sie, break away from my shadow and scout the surrounding area for any stragglers. If you find anyone, you have permission to eliminate them.’
‘Cheepcaw.’ A softer sound came from Sieleu, the young female Nátt Hrafn, as it appeared seemingly from nowhere and shot off to the left of Cynrik while hugging the ground as it picked up speed.
“N1 and N2 are on the move.” Smiling like a proud father as both of his birds, who had grown swiftly over the last six weeks, followed his commands, Cynrik shook his head a few times before opening his left eye.
Per his instructions, Vii and Sie would alert him once they were in position, so using his [Shared Sight] would only be wasting Resource stats and mental strength if he used it.
Thinking back to the intense and rigorous training he had forced his party into caused the corner of Cynrik’s lips to curl up in a smirk.
Everything had gone according to his plans for once, without any hindrances. With only a few days left until the first of many preliminary regional tournaments, he was pleased that everyone was on track to reach Tier-3 before the first tournament began.
After nearly a dozen Egress dives and who knows how many sleepless nights of training, all the members of MyrkLys had grown drastically.
“Ivar, my channeling is ready.” The voice of a third teenage girl pulled Cynrik out of his thoughts as a strange glint flashed in his eyes.
“Copy that, Melody; wait for Benny’s signal. Stick to the plan, and we will get home in time for dinner with ease.”
Melody Garland, the daughter of Professor Claire and Benny’s girlfriend, had officially joined as a member of MyrkLys and was now part of the Competition team.
During the training, Cynrik had given her a “Special” amount of care, encroaching on torture both physically and mentally, all in an attempt to bring her up to speed so that she wouldn’t become dead weight.
Melody was transformed from a weak child to a competent member of MyrkLys’ squad after being forced to fight hand-to-hand in a gauntlet with each member of MyrkLys for five five-minute rounds, on top of numerous Killing Intent Sessions.
“Roger, activating my movement skill to catch up, ETA 2 minutes.” Clenching her fingers around the wooden staff in her right hand, Melody chanted a spell and soon started teleporting 5-meters at a time, skipping through the woods using her spell [Blink].
[Keep an eye on her, Brance; even if she has stuck with us for several weeks, I still don’t trust her.] Looking over his shoulder with [Mana Sight] and locating the dainty girl skipping through the terrain, Cynrik narrowed his eyes while speaking in the mind link.
[Oh, for crying out loud, Cyn, stop being so damn paranoid all the time. Melody is a sweet girl; most of all, she’s captivated by Benny. Why can’t you accept her like the rest of us and move on?]
[You already thoroughly investigated her background, and everything checked out, she wasn’t the cause of the spies infiltrating our Dorm, so knock it off already.] Brance’s frustration was evident by his speaking tone.
Since the incident where Melody lost control of her summon and created an opening for a group of spies to attack them, Cynrik had been adamant that things were too obvious and that there was no such thing as a coincidence in life.
However, after thoroughly investigating the entire situation alongside Headmaster Rivia, neither could root out any moles or proof of these claims. After hearing Cynrik’s suspicions, Headmaster Rivia had even caved into Cynrik’s demands and allowed for a full investigation of Professor Claire and her husband, which usually would have been impossible since she was a Tier-4 being.
Without any proof or leads, Cynrik was forced to admit defeat and, per his agreement with Brance, allowed Melody to join MyrkLys.
With his overly suspicious and paranoid nature, even if the girl showed no signs of being involved in the incident, that did not mean that Cynrik trusted the girl. If anything, he had become overly reserved and careful about his every action and word when Melody was around, and only Selene and Brance were aware of this.
Still, at the end of the day, they needed two extra bodies for their competition team. Melody, who could be considered a diamond in the rough, was the perfect person to undergo intensive training under the watchful eye of Cynrik.
This was a proven fact since she no longer lagged behind the other members of MyrkLys and had integrated seamlessly into the group.
Sighing internally, Cynrik deactivated [Mana Sight] and paused just outside of the visual range of the clearing right as he heard the chirping of Vii.
“Overwatch in position,” closing his eyes and activating [Shared Sight], Cynrik’s point of view changed drastically as he saw everything through Vii’s eyes from over a hundred meters in the sky.
Unlike his regular eyesight, Vii and Sie saw the world as a hybrid version of his [Mana Sight] and his normal vision, resembling a type of heat-vision, though instead of heat, they saw individual colors that indicated Mana particles.
Although not as strong or precise as his [Mana Sight], the Raven’s Eye was powerful in its own right, and best of all, it has a ridiculous range.
With his eyes flicking back and forth rapidly under his eyelids, Cynrik quickly took a head count of all the enemies within the large clearing resembling a shabby village.
“Goblin-kin settlement located, 203 Tier-1 Low-Grade Goblins, 122 Tier-2 Goblins, and 38 Tier-3 Bugbears. Be advised that to the north of the settlement, there appears to be a stable area with 42 mounts, Tier-2 JeearHorses.”
“The Chief’s hut is located dead center, as anticipated, and the mission objective should be with the Chief, which, based on the readings I am receiving, is a peak Tier-3 Hobgoblin.”
“Remember, this is search, retrieve and destroy, one of the games we signed up for in the competition. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, move on the Chief’s hut until I say otherwise. If we move too early, there is a good chance it will destroy the artifact we are supposed to retrieve.”
“When I give the signal, the Shadow squad will move in under cover of stealth, retrieve the artifact, and then all restraints are off.
—
Meanwhile, in a secure room, Headmaster Rivia and Instructor Garrison stood side by side, watching six floating virtual monitors.
“I can’t believe those kids actually pulled it off, jumping from Initial Tier-2 all the way to Peak in less than three months.” Shaking his head and crossing his arms, Instructor Garrison was beside himself.
“When Student Ivar brought his proposal to me, I laughed at the absurdity of his claims. The sheer amount of XP required to level up both classes and the main level to get ready for the Tier-3 evolution in such a short time is something even the prominent families deem impossible.
“Things would get very complicated if the other Headmasters and Family heads knew of their achievement. Let alone trying to poach them to their academies, the number of bounties would skyrocket.” Wearing a bitter smile, Geralt thought back to that meeting several weeks ago, where the calm and collected Cynrik shot down the thought of competing at Tier-2 and pushed forward negotiations for reaching Tier-3.
“What is even more shocking is they pulled in a sixth member, Professor Claire’s daughter, before raising her up to their standard.”
Looking away from the monitors, Geralt opened another window, showing all six members of MyrkLys lying motionlessly in full-dive capsules.
Inside Cynrik’s, the two Birds were nestled under his arms, and in Gabby’s, Milo was curled up on her stomach.
Since they were currently undergoing training scenarios, all the students and their pets were present inside of the CSH Controlled VR program, which would be used during the competitions.
These full-dive capsules were put into effect years ago due to all the accidental deaths that used to occur frequently in past competitions.
“Headmaster, have you already gathered the necessary resources the six will require to complete their evolutions?” Raising an eyebrow at Geralt’s actions, Garrison turned his attention back to the monitor showing Cynrik and Selene breaking into the Chief’s hut to steal a large piece of rock.
“Sigh, Indeed I have. Unfortunately, our budget for the rest of the year has run dry. If MyrkLys doesn’t produce results, I do not doubt that the investors and Board will be on my ass.” Chuckling dryly, Geralt felt a slight pain in his chest at the memory of having to pay for several resources from his pocket once the money from the budget ran out.
“With the artifact retrieved, Selene and Ivar have fallen back and secured it before giving the go-ahead to begin the subjugation. Garrison, what do you know about their pets?”
“Well…” uncrossing his arms and scratching the back of his head, Garrison tried to find the right words.
“As with most things concerning MyrkLys, Ivar keeps everything overly secretive, never showing the full extent of his capabilities. Whenever I press him for information, he spouts a load of bullshit while leaking subtle information.”
“So really, all I know is the two Ravens are currently at Tier-2, and they have a Dark Affinity. They are just as antisocial as their Tamer, which makes sense since Tamed creatures tend to take after the being they are bonded to. But from what I can tell, the two are way stronger than they obviously should be.”
“And then there is Student Gabriella’s cat. That thing is a freaking monster, no pun intended. Just being around it gives me the heeby jeebies. When I make eye contact with the thing, I get the same feeling as when I came in contact with that Fiercesom Chickoo all those years ago, and as you know, Alistar and I barely came out of that fight alive.”
Hearing the mention of that dreadfully powerful existence, Headmaster Rivia felt a chill.
“Chickoo…what the fuck, how is it possible for a kitten to put out the same level of intimidation as one of those things?” Subconsciously Geralt rubbed his arms to calm down.
Only once had he seen one of those Mythical creatures, and even then, he was too petrified to move lest he draws its attention.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Headmaster. Upon further investigation, I found out they picked the kitten up from one of the local pet stores, but even then, all I could find was it was labeled as a normal Spotted Liollen.”
Sighing in his heart, Garrison fell silent as he watched the six members of MyrkLys unleashing a heavy amount of ranged skills to quickly wipe out the entire Goblin Village, achieving a perfect score on the challenge.