‘Come on, you mother fucker spin faster.’ Finally, after over an hour of effort, Cynrik was starting to get discouraged. He realized he could not make the Mana churn more quickly than its present state for the last ten minutes. The speed at which the Mana was swirling within the Affinity Orb was its terminal velocity. So no matter what he did, it was impossible to increase the filtration speed.

Just as he felt his stamina begin to bottom out, a change occurred within the Orb, causing an almost laser-like beam of concentrated Mana to charge out of the Orb towards Cynriks Codex suddenly.

As if sensing the oncoming wave of pain, he could only say one phrase before the unrestrained purified Fire Mana began to merge with his Codex.

“Ah, Fuck!”

The surge of pure Mana flames struck violently into Cynriks Codex, causing a ripple effect to surge throughout his entire body, from the top of his head to the tip of his toes, causing an excruciating amount of pain.

‘Shit, Shit, SHIT!’ Gritting his teeth and trying his best to tough out the pain silently, his brain went into gear.

The pure Mana quickly filled up his Codex, causing it to pulse rapidly like a sprinter’s heart during competition. This action forced the System to Speak up.

-ASSIMILATION PROCESS BEGINNING-

-WARNING Codex is underdeveloped, continuing to absorb Enhanced Elemental Affinity Orb (Fire) is not advised-

-WARNING Host’s Codex is in danger of exploding due to the flooding of Mana-

‘Think, think,’ trying his best not to panic and sifting through every memory he had of cultivation novels and manga for some solution, he tried the first result he came up with and triggered his Mana Cycling Skill.

-WARNING HOST IS ATTEMPTING TO CYCLE ELEMENTAL MANA THEY DON’T CURRENTLY POSSESS AN AFFINITY FOR-

‘RAAAHHHHHGH JUST SHUT UP TOBS AND DO IT DAMN IT.’ He screamed, completely disregarding Tobs’s attempts at stopping this event from continuing and forcefully moved the Mana away from his Codex and through his Mana Circuits.

The instant the Fire Mana left Cynriks Codex and began to flow through his Circuits, he felt the world around him go silent, and all the colorful lights around him dim out of existence, followed by a loud ringing noise appearing in his ears.

He could feel liquid trickling out of his ears, mouth, and nose, but he ignored it because milliseconds later, a pain that even the initial awakening couldn’t compare to exploded through every cell of his body.

Uncontrollable screams tore out of his lips as he collapsed onto his back and started to shiver.

Brance, who was watching, silently saw the sudden change and quickly threw a pillow towards where he predicted Cynriks head would hit the floor. Knowing this was the only thing he could do now, he watched nervously as blood began oozing out of every hole on Cynrik’s face.

[HANG IN THERE!] Brance shouted words of encouragement, knowing full well that whatever hell his brother was going through, he was wholly incapable of helping in any way whatsoever.

Forcefully activating Mana Cycling was the only option Cynrik had at the moment; if he were unable to filter the purified Mana into his body and disperse it, he would be done for.

Without paying attention to Tobs’s voice that was constantly notifying him of something, he watched as the Mana completed cycle after cycle through his Codex, into his body, back to his Codex.

With each completed cycle, Cynrik took note of the slight changes happening to the appearance and size of his Codex. This was the only thing he could do to take his mind off the excruciating pain he was experiencing.

Time seemed to slowly tick by as Cynrik willed the Mana to cycle through his body time and time again until finally, the pain started to subside, and his Codex flashed with bright light. But, unfortunately, this flash was the last thing he saw before he finally passed out.

Seeing his brother fall unconscious, Brance moved into action, quickly running to the bathroom to grab some towels and splashing them with water making them damp with water from the sink.

Clicking his tongue, he couldn’t help but retort to himself, “Always making trouble for others,” and quickly ran back to his bedroom to clean up the mess that had been created from Cynriks assimilation.

Upon cleaning the blood off the unconscious Cynrik, he helped him change into a fresh pair of pajamas and threw him into his bed before scrubbing blood off their carpet and eventually going to bed himself.

A couple of hours later, before the sun came up, Cynrik suddenly sat up with a big grin plastered across his face. It took all his restraint not to start laughing like some idiot as he read through all the system notifications floating around his head.

The smile turned into a cocky smirk; ‘See what did I tell you, Tobs, how could you ever doubt this Lord?’ While the event he had gone through was miserable, he couldn’t refute the rewards he had gained from his encounter with death.

– You have Successfully Assimilated an Enhanced Elemental Affinity Orb (Fire)-

-Your Vitality Stat has increased by 20-

-Your Mana has increased by 50-

-You have completed 80 Mana Cycles-

-Your Codex has strengthed to Tier 1-

-Your Mana Circuits have strengthened to Tier 1-

-You have awakened an Affinity for the Basic-Grade: Fire Element Tier 1-

-Random Event Quest Complete-

-You have obtained +8 Vitality, +8 Mana, +8 strength, +10 Skill Points, +2500 Essence-

-It is advised that the host does not act so recklessly any time soon.-

Reading his rewards, Cynrik couldn’t help but want to cry for a multitude of reasons. For Starters, he had finally upgraded both his Codex and Circuits to Tier 1 after such a long time. Not only that, but he felt brimming with power as most of his stats significantly increased.

Looking around the room, he noticed Brance had put him to bed and gone to sleep, and with a quick check of his Watcet, he saw it was already 5 in the morning.

‘There’s no way Father didn’t notice what happened during the night. His Mana perception is leagues above ours. So what’s my best course of action here? Do I play it off as if nothing happened or tell them about our affinities?’

Tossing the question out into the void and getting no response, Cynrik redirected his thoughts, shuffled himself on his bed, and propped up against the wall, already not liking the idea he was coming up with.

What he was thinking was simply inconceivable considering what he had just gone through, not even 3 hours before.

Without allocating any more brain cells to his idiotic and dangerous plan, He flicked his wrist, and yet another orb appeared in his palm, this one being of the Wind Element.

‘Dad has Wind, Mom has fire since Brance got Wind; it shouldn’t be that big of a deal if I suddenly awaken it as well,’ not giving himself any time to turn back, he immediately started absorbing the Wind Orb while expecting the worst-case scenario.

But soon, he was met with something he hadn’t prepared for.

No sooner than Cynrik had begun to absorb the Elemental Affinity orb did a series of notifications start popping up from Tobs.

– You have Successfully Assimilated an Elemental Affinity Orb (Wind)-

-Your Agility Stat has increased by 10

-Your Mana has increased by 30-

-You have awakened an Affinity for the Basic-Grade: Wind Element Tier 0-

These notifications stupefied Cynrik as his jaw hung open in shock. Who am I, Where is this, What just happened? The notifications had fried his brain momentarily. He was expecting pain and resistance. But, instead, Cynrik watched the Orb instantly dissolve without any effort at all; he had awakened a Wind Affinity.

‘Look, Tobs, I know you’re Overpowered and break limits and all but isn’t this a little too much,’ still in shock, he couldn’t help but question his robotic companion.

-Host has already awakened a higher Grade and Tier Affinity, and thus the assimilation of lower-tiered Elemental Affinities can be instantly completed.-

For once, Tobs had replied to one of his questions without hassle, making him feel light-headed. Unable to completely process what was happening, Cynrik slumped over with his head hitting the pillow and dazedly stared at nothing with unfocused eyes.

He stayed like this for hours until the sound of his mother’s voice waking them up for breakfast brought him back to reality as his eyes and Brance’s eyes met since their beds were only a few feet apart.

[You good, what happened?] Brance looked his brother over with a worried expression.

To this question, Cynrik absently mindedly sent over his newly updated Status, and Stat displays with a metaphorical wave of his hand.

[YOU LUCKY FUCK! HOW IN THE HELL!! Brance’s reply was to be expected, seeing the massive changes his older brother had gone through in only a few short hours. Wait…..YOU ALSO ABSORBED WIND WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?.]

While Brance went through many different emotions and responses, Cynrik silently got out of bed while ignoring him and made his way to the kitchen in his still zombified state.