The Status System: Resurface

Cypher sighed as he waited for Anna to return; it had been over twenty minutes since she had left. He had nothing but the thoughts he was hesitant to explore to entertain him, and even then, there was so much swirling around in his head that he couldn't decipher what was important anymore. The only thing he knew he wanted to do was to speak to Tyr until he had no more questions; it didn't seem to him that Tyr knew about anything that had happened, but it would at least set confirmation of what Cypher believed was necessary. Once again, he let out a sigh and did his best to sit up against the wall of his bed. Cypher hated that his body was so weak simply because he couldn't do anything in the state it was in; that feeling persisted until he smiled, remembering that he'd asked Cain about mana orb creation; he couldn't wrap his head around the already existing forms, and he didn't need to. All he needed was the idea of what he wanted to create; a mana orb focused on attack and status.

Cypher raised his hand and generated his usual form of orb creation; mana condenses, the sphere formed a mess of a mana orb that forced itself together in a symmetrical manner. The form mana condenses added an attack and enchantment bonuses and watching it made Cypher finally somewhat understand what Cain meant by chaotic. However, he knew he didn't have too great of an understanding of the subject. Cypher left the orb floating in the air as he watched it; it took him over five minutes to finally conclude how he should go about this process. He raised his hand and generated a mana shell; it was a form his mother thought of him and the one she primarily used. It took advantage of the status and manipulation advancements; it was the only one he could remember at the time doing so. Regardless, Cypher didn't care about anything other than figuring out what process sets in what configuration.

As Cypher stared at the orbs, he realized that just looking at them isn't going to help him; they look identical when they're already in existence; the two are only useful during the creation process, and so that's what he'd have to study.  Cypher managed to grab his phone and open up a writing document, and began describing the process of the two orbs formation, then the idea of matching them to the other forms that employ the same advancements would speed up the process. He watched as the mana whirl center eye variant formed two feet from his face again and again until he memorized the subtle movements of the form, and after he had written down everything he believed he needed, he moved on to the next state he knew of. Tyr's style, mana blaze, depicted a mana orb that quite literally looked like a controlled flame that condensed and smoothed out. After studying the final form, Cypher realized that the act of containing the chaos of the orb is what allows it to take advantage of the attack advancement.

Cypher smiled at his quick progress even with his stalling and foggy mind, regardless he then sighed at the thought of not knowing another status advancement-based form that could allow him to go through the same process.  At that point, the epiphany hit him about what he had to do, but his train of thought was stripped from his at the sound of the door opening; Anna had arrived at the worst possible moment; Cypher quickly tried to push the thought to the forefront of his mind, but he had already forgotten what he was thinking about. The only thing that took hold of him was the smell of the two large meals Anna had brought back; sadly, Anna didn't know how to cook, so she had to go to the cafeteria to gather the food. Cypher let out an exasperated sigh and didn't bother trying to remember what he had lost; instead, he just looked forward to the meal soon to come.

Gallow sighed as he watched Cain continue his gambling addiction even though they had already set the hours he was sure to waste on training; serving hours ended a while ago, and still, the entire room was filled with people excited to get a chance at playing around with Cain, the other happy that a month had been given for a rest period after three people recoiled due to stress. Regardless, Gallow stood and left the table to see if the cooks would mind if he asked for something small to be made; the trip there didn't take more than a few minutes, but even then, the sheer size of this place still amazed him. Gallow turned his head back to the forefront of his path to be met with a saddened look of indifference; Tyr Kuss stood staring directly at Gallow. In his hands, Gallow noticed a small tray of food, "Could you please move?' Tyr's voice echoed out and sounded surprised Gallow; it matched almost precisely what Tyr looked like; it was relatively low though it had more presence than anything, thou. Still, most seemed as if it were partly feminine with how smooth it was. 

Regardless, Gallow nodded and moved out of the way as to let Tyr pass him by; Gallow didn't wonder as to why Tyr didn't choose to move around him; his fatigued appearance told him enough. As Gallow reached his destination, he remembered that he wanted to see what happened to Tyr's arm, at which point he turned around only to see that Tyr had utterly disappeared. Gallow sighed and turned back to the counter, at which point the women that Gallow knew to be the lead chief showed him a stern grimace, "And what do you want." Gallow dropped his gaze and shook his head while turning on his heels; the women behind him called out in an apologetic tone, "Oh no, you're fine. You need to make sure you come sooner next time." Gallow turned towards the woman and offered his apology while offering up his request.

Cain laughed as another fool tried his luck against him and lost everything he was willing to bet, he turned and beckoned another to come and try their luck, and lucky someone was still willing to lose. The male placed down his food tray and softly spoke, "Let's make this quick." Cain turned to look at the man only to be met with the sight of Tyr, Cain's eyes widened, but his smile overrides his shock. "Oh, glad to see you up so soon. I'm sure you know the rules?" Cain watched as Tyr pulled out seemingly the last bit of wealth he had to his name and placed two black cards on the table; Cain smiled and spoke, "Oh no, I've been playing for too long," At that point, Cain placed an entire stack of black cards tied together with rubber bands and continued. "At this point, playing for so little does nothing for me, but I can see that you don't have that much on you, so what about a simple favor?" 

Cypher waited with glee as Tyr waved his hand unconcerned with the offer, "Just start the game before my food gets cold." Cain smiled and decided that the favor was more important than fairness and nodded his head and began generating a mana orb under the table. Still, as if he never planned on winning, he placed a mana orb directly above the table and detonated it himself. The extreme artificial force that came from it destroyed Cain's sphere and using Cain's widened eyes as confirmation of his victory Tyr takes his winnings and leaves as quickly as he came. Cain stared at Tyr as he walked off and cursed himself, and at that point, once it set it to everyone that there was now a method to cheat the game, more and more people were becoming willing to put their hand in the ring. Cain sighed as he started working his brain to figure out how to combat this new method and keep his wealth; he refused to ban the technique as that would take all the fun out of the game.