POV: Melody

Opening her eyes, Melody wiped the small line of drool from the corner of her lips and looked around the room.

‘Mmh, I am glad Mom told me to take a nap before beginning my Quest. Now I feel fully rested and ready to take on whatever comes my way.’ Thinking nothing of the strange occurrence, Melody hyped herself up while glancing over at the sleeping woman relaxing in the plush recliner across the room.

Right after she had finished reaching the halfway point of her Evolution, her Mom had suddenly advised her that it was best to sleep and allow her body some time to adjust to the traumatic event it had experienced.

The whole scenario seemed foreign to Melody since, from the beginning, she had been treated as a tool to better the Family interest and not a person. Yet here her Mom was, acting as if she cared about her well-being.

Stretching her upper body, Melody sat on the floor beside the Aether Capsule and waited for her Mom to rouse from her seemingly peaceful slumber; some minutes later, Claire finally woke up before giving Melody a stern look.

“You’ve had plenty of time; now it’s time. Place your palm on the center of the top of the Aether Capsule and allow your Mana to flow into it freely. Doing so will trigger the opening mechanism and let you assume your position.” Standing up, crossing her arms under her breast, and eyeing Melody carefully, Professor Claire instructed her daughter on what to do next.

Following the orders, Melody did as was told, and with a sudden burst of pressurized air, the stone sarcophagus creaked open, revealing a memory foam single-person black bed. The internals of the Aether Capsule was in stark contrast to its exterior, but Melody didn’t question anything and quickly hopped in before laying down.

Once inside, Professor Claire walked around the machine, placed her hand on the top, and leaned in before speaking clearly so that Melody could hear her words.

“Do not fail me; I have invested far too many resources to be wasted due to your insufficient lack of talent. If you do…hehe, seeing your little friends again will be the least of your worries.” Professor Claire closed the capsule and returned to her seat, leaving Melody panicked and hyperventilating.

‘No, calm down, don’t freak out, remember what Ivar always says,” closing her eyes, Melody reverted to her boot camp training.

The memory in question was one of Cynrik explaining the importance of keeping a calm and level head in any situation. And with her Mom blatantly threatening not only her but also the other members of MyrkLys, Melody needed more than anything to call upon the training ingrained repeatedly into her psyche.

It took some time to calm down, but Melody took several deep breaths, and when she finally did calm down, she spoke the start-up phrase for the Aether Capsule.

“Activate the Passing Down.” Melody stated in an almost robotic voice as she killed off any emotions or outside thoughts that Cynrik would have viewed as a hindrance.

-Welcome to the Aether Capsule Passing Down Interface.-

-Scanning Biometrics.-

-Peak Tier-2 Human Female Located, testing proper parameters for the Passing Down.-

-No Bloodline has been Detected.-

-All Tests Completed.-

-Melody Garland, Tier-2 Mage, Tier-2 Apprentice Summoner.-

-Generating Tribulation Quest.-

-Tribulation Quest Generated.-

-You have received the Trial Quest: Summoning Beyond your Scope.-

-Trial Quest: Summoning Beyond Your Scope.-

-You Must Summon and Form a Contract With a Being; what Type of Being and the Timeframe you have to complete this Quest is determined by the Difficulty Setting you Choose.-

-Please choose the Difficulty Setting you wish to partake in. *Reminder, a higher Difficulty Setting will result in better Rewards.*-

-Beginner, Adept, Advanced, Expert, Master.-

POV: Benny

“Hey, Kid, wake the hell up!”

Smack, smack smack

The sounds of Instructor Garrison not so lightly smacking Benny’s cheeks bounced off the Cachint walls of the room. He had been the first to wake up and quickly realized there had been an incident with Benny’s Evolution, where some backlash was experienced, knocking out Benny and him.

Sitting straight up as if he just awoke from the dead, Benny caught Instructor Garrison’s hand and frowned. At the same time, he glanced around the rocky room in confusion. Half a second later, he remembered that something weird had happened with the Mana in the room, causing him to pass out.

“I am ok; what the heck happened?” Benny asked as he released Garrison’s hand and rubbed his swollen cheek. It didn’t take much force for the more muscular Instructor to injure him, but Benny wasn’t bothered too much.

“That SEC grade Affinity of yours went all wonky at the last minute and caused a burst of Mana, knocking us both out, but it seems you are ok now.” Helping Benny up and giving him a once over to assure the kid was ok, Instructor Garrison gave him a couple of minutes to recover before hurrying him to the Aether Capsule.

“So long as you say you are ok, I will take your word for it. If it were that leader of yours, Ivar, I would doubt you, but from my observations, you aren’t the sneaky scheming type.” As soon as Garrison finished his statement, Benny opened the Aether Capsule and relaxed into it.

“Good luck, kid, and don’t forget the start-up phrase I told you.” Giving Benny a double thumbs up, Garrison closed the lid of the Aether Capsule, bathing Benny in darkness.

“Ok, now comes the hard part,” closing his eyes for a second before finding his resolve, Benny said the start-up phrase.

“Activate the Passing Down.”

Multiple bright lights flashed in his mind’s eye before he was put into a catatonic state. Meanwhile, his consciousness had been teleported to a pure white room, where he quickly located a virtual display showing multiple lines.

-Welcome to the Aether Capsule Passing Down Interface.-

-Scanning Biometrics.-

-Peak Tier-2 Human Male Located, testing proper parameters for the Passing Down.-

-No Bloodline has been Detected.-

-All Tests Completed.-

-Benjamin Sanford, Tier-2 Hoplite-Vanguard, Tier-2 Basic Spirit Armament Smith.-

-It has Been Detected that All of your Stats have reached their Cap.-

-Generating Tribulation Quest.-

-Tribulation Quest Generated.-

-You have received the Tribulation Quest: Endurance Combat.-

-Tribulation Quest: Endurance Combat.-

-You Must Survive A prolonged Simulated Battle while making it through a sizeable obstacle course; the Timeframe you have to complete this Quest is determined by the Difficulty Setting you Choose.-

-Please choose the Difficulty Setting you wish to partake in. *Reminder, a higher Difficulty Setting will result in better Rewards.-

-Difficulties below Expert will be removed since you have multiple Stats that have Reached their Cap.-

– Expert, Master, Grandmaster, Legend.-

POV: Gabby

Unlike the others Norik had knocked out, Gabby was already lying in the Aether Capsule when she lost consciousness. Cynrik had found her, and after opening the capsule up so that she wouldn’t suffocate, he opted to leave the girl inside the capsule.

When she came too, she noticed Instructor Alistar rubbing his head and smiling at her. To him, it seemed like he had just gotten lost in thought for a moment, but now, with his hand on the top of the Aether Capsule, He wished Gabby luck, closed the lid, and plopped down on his recliner.

Inside the capsule, Gabby retrieved the half-hanging-out sleepy kitten from her blazer and laid him next to her, to which she only received a sleepy mew in reply, making her chuckle and pet him for comfort.

She was extremely nervous, especially after finding out how high the failure rate was for this Evolution.

“You ready, Milo?” Gabby asked while wearing a strained smile.

“Mew,” Milo responded while nuzzling his head against her hand.

“Activate the Passing Down,” Gabby said clearly and rested her arms by her side.

A moment later, Milo and Gabby found themselves in an empty white room, where the only thing in sight was a large floating virtual monitor. Hence, the pair briskly walked up to it, and Gabby began reading while Milo hopped up with little effort onto her head to watch.

-Welcome to the Aether Capsule Passing Down Interface.-

-Scanning Biometrics.-

-Peak Tier-2 Human Female Located, testing proper parameters for the Passing Down.-

-No Bloodline has been Detected.-

-Beast Companion Located.-

-Tier-2 Male Smilodon-Thṓs Located, testing proper parameters as an Assistant in the Passing Down.-

-Beast Companion Bloodline: Supreme Beast.-

-Beast Companion Accepted as an Assistant.-

-All Tests Completed.-

-Gabriella Sanford, Tier-2 Huntress, Tier-2 Basic Potioneer.-

-It has Been Detected that your Dexterity Stat has reached its Cap.-

-It has Been Detected that your Agility Stat has reached its Cap.-

-Generating Trial Quest.-

-Trial Quest Generated.-

-You have received the Trial Quest: Hunter’s Game.-

-Trial Quest: Hunter’s Game.-

-You Must Survive and hunt a predetermined amount of prey, the Timeframe, and amount of prey you must hunt to complete this Quest are determined by the Difficulty Setting you Choose.-

-Please choose the Difficulty Setting you wish to partake in. *Reminder, a higher Difficulty Setting will result in better Rewards.-

-Difficulties below Expert will be removed since you have two capped stats, and your Beast Companion has a Bloodline.-

-Expert, Master, Grandmaster.-

POV: Selene

Sitting in the lotus position on the hard rocky ground beside the Aether Capsule, Selene waited patiently for the Headmaster to wake up. As one of the Over-Break hosts, she was privy to what had transpired, and occasionally her eyes darted between the sleeping Headmaster and the Aether Capsule.

After Cynrik and Norik had suddenly appeared and soon after disappeared, Selene was left with numerous questions but only a single regret.

Because Cynrik had been so focused and only gave her a brief summary before getting to work, she didn’t find the time to inform him of what Headmaster Rivia had told her about Professor Claire and the contract.

And now, a few hours later, Selene was still stewing over her lack of action.

Her failure to inform Cynrik had been bothering her for hours now. Even though she was supposed to focus on her upcoming advancement, Selene had devoted her time to beating herself up mentally for her lack of action.

With the thought of her failure lingering in her mind, Selene glanced back at the Headmaster and was startled to see he was awake and looking right at her.

“Are you ready?” Geralt asked as if he hadn’t just been asleep. In fact, of everyone put to sleep by Norik, Geralt was the only one whose mind had been altered to think nothing had happened, and to him, he had only just looked away for a moment before returning to himself.

“Yes, Headmaster.” Standing up and straightening her clothes, Selene waited for Geralt’s assistance before entering the Aether Capsule and the white room.

Without hesitation, she made her way over to the Virtual monitor, but it was empty, and instead, notifications from Tobs flooded her vision.

-You have entered the Passing Down Virtual Realm.-

-Linking The Over-Break System to the Passing Down Interface.-

-Scanning Biometrics.-

-Peak Tier-2 Human Female Located, testing proper parameters for the Passing Down.-

-Bloodline has been Detected.-

-Bloodline: 90% Human, 10% Æsir.-

-All Tests Completed.-

-Selene Nilsson, Tier-2 Valk-Vanguard, Tier-2 LeatherWorking.-

-Generating Trial Quest.-

-Trial Quest Generated.-

-You have received the Trial Quest: War of The Abyss.-

-Trial Quest: War of The Abyss.-

-You Must Survive and destroy the opposing predetermined Demon Army; the Timeframe and amount of enemies you face to complete this Quest are determined by the Difficulty Setting you Choose.-

-Please choose the Difficulty Setting you wish to partake in. *Reminder, a higher Difficulty Setting will result in better Rewards.-

-Difficulties below expert will be removed since you have a Bloodline.-

-Expert, Master, Grandmaster.-