The Over-Break System

”Well, that sentence is going to cost me a few months of sleep.” Wallin replaced [LINEAGE] and [BLOODLINE] with a humanoid silhouette threaded by channels resembling Mana Veins, dragging Cynrik back from his questions about the Æsir Bloodline.

”Before we discuss developing a Bloodline, understand that strengthening one and increasing its purity are NOT the same thing.” ”You can practice an inherited ability until your body handles it better than ever, but that doesn’t mean the Bloodline itself has become any purer.”

{{She has a point there}} said Brance as several of the illuminated channels converged near the silhouette’s chest. {{My Nephilim Mode grew stronger when my Bloodline increased, but the control came from practicing afterward.}}

{{Same with Æsir Mode,}} Cynrik replied, making a note before his Brother could turn the conversation into another lecture. {{Though using either of us as a textbook example is pretty fucking stupid. Our existence breaks half the rules she’s teaching.}}

{{And yet you’re taking notes like you’re writing the sequel}}, Selene said with a sly smile on her face. Cynrik tried to brush it off, but she was right; that was annoying.

”There are three approaches you’ll encounter, beginning with Expression Training.” Wallin enlarged one of the channels, displaying the inherited abilities its carrier could already access. ”You already possess the trait. This teaches your body how to use it properly, without foreign materials, waking anything dormant, or raising purity.”

The examples of what each of the three bloodline types did were pretty entertaining, but Wallin was talking about side effects of using the Bloodline Modes, such as headaches, sore muscles, and even more bizarre effects.

{{MELTMAN, WITH THE POWER TO...um...MELT!}}

Ah, the powers sounded great until the side effects of the different Bloodline Modes were listed: headaches, muscle tears, melting into the floor. Selene started laughing through the Mind Link between her and Cynrik.

{{Don’t you start.}}

{{Darling, I said nothing...}}

{{Because I totally can’t read your thoughts...}}

{{Well, I guess that just saves me the trouble.}}

{{Not helping Sel...}}

”Resonance Training is up next,” Wallin added, keeping her eyes forward, unaware of the debate occurring over the Mind Link. ”Instead of practicing what is already active, you stimulate poorly expressed or dormant traits by circulating Mana, exposing yourself to the environment, or using a catalyst with a compatible signature.”

’Compatible catalysts, huh?’ This could be useful if his next experiment didn’t end up getting him killed and leaving him on the Academy’s memorial wall before he could find out whether or not the Bloodlines of himself and his brother could benefit from this method of Bloodline enhancement.

”Say you carry a Fire-aligned Beast Bloodline and somebody offers you material from another Fire-aligned Beast. Same Affinity, so it should be safe?” ”Wrong. Similar Affinity doesn’t guarantee compatible signatures, and Refinement with the wrong material can kill you.”

Cynrik was rolling around the possibility of compatible catalysts to enhance his and Brance’s Bloodlines when a student from several rows up asked, ”Professor, what actually happens if the catalyst isn’t compatible?”

”Best case? Nothing happens.” ”Worst case, your body attacks the foreign signature as an invading Bloodline. Organ failure, damaged Codex, collapsed Mana Veins, permanent mutation, death. There’s no shortage of ways for this to go wrong.”

So finding a compatible Affinity is worthless because the wrong Bloodline can kill you. Cynrik underlined compatible twice in his notes on the three methods of Bloodline enhancement.

{{Don’t even think about it}}

{{Think about what?}}

{{Whatever horribly irresponsible experiment just crawled into your head.}}

{{Wow. You really have no faith in me.}}

{{I’ve got years of evidence.}}

{{He’s got you there, Darling}} said Selene, leaving Cynrik to ponder how the two of them expected him to learn anything when they were so adamantly against any of the experiments that he had not even thought up yet.

{{Why buy one when people walk around carrying samples for free?}}

{{CYNRIK!}}

He almost laughed at Brance’s outrage, and when Wallin’s reptilian eyes scanned their row, he assumed an innocent expression. He’d been joking...mostly.

”Finally, we have the refinement process, the method I suspect most of you came here for.” ”This one CAN increase purity, provided you find a compatible source and survive integrating it. Lose control during the process, and compatibility won’t save you from rejection.”

Whispers began to spread throughout the auditorium. Cynrik figured that most of the students had only caught the first part of what the professor had said and had forgotten the rest.

”Can somebody absorb another person’s Bloodline?”

”Sometimes, if the material’s compatible. The Central System Hub has awarded Bloodlines too, but before your imagination runs off, murdering a carrier and drinking their Bloodline like a potion is not a shortcut. I’ll fail you before natural selection gets a crack at you.”

MyrkLys turned towards Cynrik as if Wallin had been reading out his criminal record. He tilted his head to the side and looked at his ’friends’ judgmentally.

”What?”

”Big Bro Cyn...” Gabby said, looking at him with a mix of disbelief and amusement. ”You seriously don’t know why we’re looking at you?”

”Oh, piss off. I haven’t murdered anybody for their Bloodline.”

”That’s an awfully specific defense,” Benny said, getting a chuckle from Selene and Melody, leaving Brance alone, and looking up at the ceiling as if waiting for the Gods to give him patience.

”You know what? Fuck all of you.” He grumbled, then went back to reading about Bloodlines similar to Viktor, Lithlen, and others. He had finally found something of interest to read about.

After Wallin had cleared the silhouette of the humanoid Cynrik had been viewing, he saw that the thin silver channels running through the plate on his desk had been activated. ”Now then, see that black glass in your desks? Well, it’s not there for decoration; it measures Bloodline resonance.”

”And before any of you gets the bright idea of holding your results over another student, this isn’t a competition to see who is better, just testing, so use your dominant hand and cycle Mana normally.” ”Also, anyone who activates a Skill, forces Mana, or uses a Bloodline ability, will face strict consequences.”

First to volunteer was Gabby. She placed her palm on the glass, making Cynrik look to see if there would be any change to the surface of the plate. He looked to the Watcet on her desk, but there was only one message displayed on the screen.

[NO RECOGNIZED BLOODLINE RESPONSE]

”Yep. About what I expected,” she said, pulling her hand away while Benny and Melody prepared their own tests, both of which returned the same message and gave Cynrik three identical readings to compare against what came next.

”Three clean readings,” Wallin confirmed, gesturing toward the other workstations after checking their identical screens. ”The plates are working. However, it seems there’s simply no Bloodline signature for them to detect.”

”Then we’re the boring ones,” Benny said.

”Far from boring; so don’t think you three get to avoid grasping the theories I have to teach,” Wallin retorted. ”These diagnostics can save lives, especially considering the company you keep.”

”So...the boring ones,” Benny repeated, making Melody giggle as Cynrik pointed a thumb toward Brance.

”Oi, don’t lump me in with him,” Cynrik said to Brance, who was staring at him with no expression on his face.

”Big Bro Cyn, you’re the reason she said it,” Gabby said to him, her eyes widening in realization. The silence that followed from everyone else in the room was deafening. Cynrik was left scratching his head, wondering where he had gone wrong and lost their loyalty.

As Brance placed his hand on the plate and started to cycle Mana, the white light that had been flowing down the silver channels on the plate suddenly vanished. Cynrik leaned forward to get a better look.

”Uh...is it supposed to do that?” Gabby whispered, looking at the place where Brance’s white light had suddenly vanished mid-circuit.

”No,” Wallin said, leaning over the place where Brance’s white light had suddenly vanished. ”Give it another shot, Mr.Jetlensr, with the same amount of Mana, please.”

He nodded and produced the same white flare of light that suddenly disappeared.

Cynrik looked from the two messages on Brance’s Watcet to the plate again. This had to be more than a weak or uneven pulse of Mana. He was sure of it.

[RESONANCE ERROR]

[UNABLE TO IDENTIFY BLOODLINE SIGNATURE]

When the error message came up, Melody pulled her Watcet out to compare the wording on the report for Brance’s test to the light that had flashed on the plate in front of him. ”Professor, our report says nothing was detected, but his report says it found something it couldn’t identify. Isn’t that just a roundabout way of saying the same thing?”

”Not even close.” Wallin leaned over both screens and took a closer look at the error before answering. ”Their tests completed normally. This plate found a Bloodline signature and couldn’t identify it. Those are very different results.”

”Reckon Selene’s about to break hers too,” Benny said, earning a sharp look from her. The next plate, the one with crimson-black light flowing through its channels, also failed to identify a Bloodline signature and gave the same error, leaving a shrugging Selene looking toward Cyrnik with curious eyes.

’Pfft, called it.’ Different colors, different Bloodlines, same fucking refusal to identify either one. Cynrik watched Wallin as she studied the screens of his two classmates, wondering how much he could learn from the diagnostic machine that couldn’t even identify the Bloodlines of his family members.

That left one Bloodline carrier untested. ’Heh. My turn.’ Rolling out his shoulders, Cynrik eyed the black glass and grinned, earning a defeated sigh from Brance before he’d even raised his hand.