The Over-Break System

“So…what is the next step?” Brance asked quietly. Now that everything was out in the open, he desperately needed Cynrik’s advice.

“Welp, now you get ready to beat the fuck out of that LM guy, I have my theories about his identity, but you will be on your own.”

“So power up all your skills now, and get ready; we are doing this shit here and now, Brancie, and if my theory is correct, the second you acknowledge its existence, you will be pulled into your SOC for your First Turning Point Quest.”

Brance looked at Cynrik for a second with confused eyes before once again getting hit on the head.

“Don’t look at me like a dumb fish; open your status, pump up your tower and other skills with your Skill points; you must have at least a couple of hundred points just sitting static; use them.”

Rubbing his head and feeling wronged, Brance opened his status and saw he had 467 Skill points, a large sum, and while not as high as Cynrik’s 596, it was still enough to pull something off.

Sitting side by side, Brance began allocating Skill points into what he felt were the best options for the coming battle while Cynrik reminded him of what would happen.

“Alright, every time I’ve been pulled in for a Turning Point Quest, it was because I either lost control of my mental state or taunted the voices in my head.”

“In the case of Ragnar, he had been talking to me for years and waited for the opportune moment to strike when my mental health wasn’t the greatest. Thus Shoom, I got pulled into my SOC.”

“As for Jormie, that stupid lizard caught me off guard when I was in the process of my Tier-2 Evolution, a time where I could also be considered my weakest.”

“However, Brancie, I predict things will be slightly different. If what I read in the book just now aligns with the idiocy you’ve been trying to do alone, then that means you’ve been straight up ignoring the existence of the voice in your head and haven’t spoken to it or acknowledged its words a single time in all the years its been taunting you.”

Brance paused with his index finger hovering above the status window and looked over at Cynrik, who had stopped talking because he was waiting for a response.

“Uh, yeah, that’s pretty much correct.” It was difficult not to respond or even think about what the voice said every time it spoke, and since Brance was worried about being forced into his turning point quest early, his answer was short.

“Noted, alright, that makes my theories a bit easier anyway; moving along, the moment you get pulled into your SOC, you will get a string of notifications indicating that you are “being forcefully dragged” into the damn thing.” Closing his eyes and remembering both his quests, Cynrik tried to find any differences between the process but found none.

It was the same notifications and the same setup each time, spawn, forced quest, fight, with the only difference being when he fought Jormie; he was already present within his SOC.

“We will replicate my second Turning Point, at least to an extent. I want you to enter your SOC ahead of time, get used to the environment, and THEN try triggering your quest.”

“Got it,” Nodding his head and finishing allocating all of his skill points, Brance examined his gains. For starters, Brance raised the Tier of most of his lower Tier Skills, such as all the defensive ones like [Terra Skin] and [Radient Skin].

The following skills he upgraded were [Glint] and [Vanish], bringing both of them up to Tier-2.5. And then there was the primary skill he had dumped most of his points into, [Radient Tower] had been upgraded to Tier-3, which unlocked the 5th floor, allowing Brance to access the Offensive Countermeasures on the fourth.

-Fourth Floor: Offensive Counter Measures. At Tier-2.5, this floor can be equipt with up to one of three preset artillery layouts.-

-Layout A: Four Tier-2 Mana Construct Cannons.-

-Fires, one Terra-Light Shell.-

-Damage: Static 3000 Points of Magic Dmg.-

-Cooldown: 5 minutes.-

-Charge Time: 1 minute.-

-Layout B: Six Tier-2 Mana Construct Ballista.-

-Fires, one Terra-Wind Javelin.-

-Damage: Static 2000 Points of Physical Dmg.-

-Cooldown: 3 minutes.-

-Charge Time: 30 seconds.-

-Layout C: One Tier-2.5 Positron Cannon.-

-Activation Cost: 5000 MP.-

-Fires, One Terra-Light-Wind Beam.-

-Damage: Static 15000 Points of AOE DMG.-

-Cooldown: 30 minutes.-

-Charge Time: 15 minutes.-

-Damage varies depending on the Targets Tier and Defensive abilities.-

Although the fourth floor had been unlocked at Tier-2.5 because of how the Tower worked, unless Brance had the 5th floor opened, even if he made the structure four stories tall, the fourth floor would always be the command center.

Now that he had unlocked the 5th floor, he had full access to all the different weapons, giving his Tower vast offensive abilities, which was necessary if he wanted to square off against a powerful foe.

The only downside was how Cost heavy it would be. The activation cost soared after the 4th floor.

-Cost: The cost of this skill is adjustable depending on how many floors are added during the Towers Construction Phase. The prices of each individual floor are listed below. The cost is PER FLOOR.

-Activate Floors 1 and 2: 1000 MP, 1000 STAM.-

-Sustain Cost: 100 MP and 100 STAM per minute.-

-Activate Floors 3 and 4: 3000 MP, 3000 STAM.-

-Sustain Cost: 300 MP and 300 STAM per minute.-

-Activate Floors 5 and 6: 9000 MP, 9000 STAM.-

-Sustain Cost: 900 MP and 900 STAM per minute.-

-Any higher floors are currently Locked due to not having a high enough Tier.-

-Cooldown: 336 Hours (2 weeks)-

Looking at the high cost it would take to summon a five-floor Tower, Brance sighed heavily. Swiping away from his skill list and back over to his Stats, Brance’s eyes fell on his 598 VIT and noticed he was 2440 points short regarding Stamina.

Even if he pumped all 92 of his stat points into VIT, at best, he would net 1840 more STAM, which was just shy of the 9000 necessary to activate the 5th floor of his Tower.

“What?” Seeing the distress his brother was experiencing, Cynrik pushed for answers.

“Well, I burned the bulk of my Skill points into my Tower and was able to raise it to Tier-3, unlocking the 5th floor, which is incredible, but what ISN’T awesome is the 9k stamina requirement.” Massaging his temples, Brance sent over his entire profile to Cynrik, who wordlessly scrolled through for a moment before heaving a heavy sigh himself.

“While you will have unlimited MP during the quest, I can’t say the same for Stamina. The upside is you will have access to your complete inventory, potions included, which solves the recovery issue to an extent; however, you will still need more than 9k STAM if you wish to activate the 5th floor.” Tapping his index finger against his chin for a moment, Cynrik made a decision that pained him slightly.

With a wave of his hand, hundreds of medium to large-sized XP crystals spilled out of Cynrik’s inventory onto the training room floor, stunning Brance so severely that he kicked at the ground frantically crab-walking backward away from the large pile.

“What in the FUCK CYNRIK? How do you still have so many damn crystals left over?” Utterly confused and shocked, Brance was beside himself.

After dealing with his, Gabby, and Benny’s leveling earlier, Brance only had a handful left, yet Cynrik, who had himself and Selene to worry about, still had a massive stock of Xp crystals on hand.

“Eh, well, you see, what had happened was….” Cynrik started but soon gave up and spilled the beans.

“I had a fuck ton of points left over after getting everything Selene, and I needed, and when I saw that XP crystals were relatively cheap, I kind of gobbled up the whole markets stock.”

“It burned most of my points, and I’m basically broke when it comes to OKP now, but think of this as the rainy day fund, and right now, a hurricane is coming, so I may as well give them to you.” Holding his hands in defeat as if he had been caught stealing, Cynrik waved Brance over.

“There should be enough for you to raise your Class to Cap and gain at least ten levels on your Primary, so if you invest your points correctly, you should be good in the STAM department.”

Brance’s eyes darted between Cynrik and the pile as he scratched his head and looked away. This was like when they were children on Earth, and Brance had his piggy bank stolen by some local hooligans. The two of them had gone up to the mall and were going to buy a new video game each, but when Brance’s bank got stolen, Cynrik gave up his so that Brance could get the game he had waited for over two years.

The memory flashed back, and Brance knew that Cynrik had probably gotten all this for himself so that the others in the party would be able to level up in peace without his presence, especially since he was already ahead of everyone in the Stat department.

But the fact that Cynrik so quickly gave up these resources made Brance hesitant.

“This…you already knew, didn’t you?” Brance asked while narrowing his eyes at Cynrik.

“Sigh, I had my suspicions that it was something like this, to be honest. So I wanted to be prepared in case. You’ve been pretty sketchy, and that book confirmed my thoughts, so I was sure to get some extra crystals so that you would be prepared for any situation.” Realizing the jig was up, Cynrik met Brance’s gaze and nodded.

“Now go ahead and absorb them all, raise your class get the extra allocation points, and then increase your Primary Level. So long as you don’t get to Tier-3, your opponent’s power shouldn’t scale by much; I want you to be ready for whatever happens.” Standing up and dusting off his butt, Cynrik walked toward the training room door to give his brother some time to get ready on his own.

“I’m going to make some coffee, we are team no sleep tonight, so I need to be at my best. You were right by my side during the second Turning point, and I will be right here when you are ready for your first.” With that, Cynrik left the training room, and Brance, to his own devices.

Left alone with only the pile of crystals, Brance gathered himself and grabbed a handful before staring at them silently. To say his mind wasn’t in turmoil would be a lie.

Cynrik had already known but never once pressed him for information and, in the background, was gathering resources for the moment Brance came forward and asked for his help. With this thought in his mind, Brance put on a serious expression and began absorbing the crystals in batches of 10.