Warlock of Oceans: My Poseidon System

His expression was cold, but his eyes quivered as if he was troubled by something. This was the first time I had seen any hint of real emotions in this boy, and somehow I'm seeing it now. Was I imagining things, or was I digging too deep into this?

"What do you mean you can't?" I quickly asked the one thing that shot into my mind.

"There is a responsibility I must fulfill. Also, I want to fucking eradicate those siblings of mine," The boy grits his teeth, sliding a book back into place. "That man was never in my life enough for me to give two shits about him… but those siblings of mine… I will eat them alive if that is what I have to do to take revenge."

"*sigh*... I hope you know your siblings aren't the real enemies. I hope you recognize that one day and realize that the one you should be angry with is your father. He made your siblings that way through mental torture and anguish from the harassment of our mother. The high stakes that he holds his children to. The pressure he is under. Everything leads to him. So if you're going to kill anybody, then at least slaughter him."

"Huh?" My brother's expression crippled into a frown of anger whilst walking towards me. "Of course, I'm gonna kill that asshole."

Seeing my brother return to the walls of books, I stared at him. I wondered if maybe he had some kind of mental disease that made him so agitated. The way he flipped between calm and angry was so instant you'd think he was bipolar.

But, upon further thought, it was obvious. He was angry. He was just angry all the time, and when that seal was loosened, it really exploded out. He tried to hide it with a mask of cold emotions, but I could see through it.

"You're a strange kid," I yawned, and before I knew it, his time was up. He walked back towards me, a leathery book in hand. It was hard to tell if he was content with his choice because of that continuous mask of cold emotions.

"Alright, let's get out of here… I'm starving."

My brain lit up with an idea as I entered the elevator. My brother soon followed, yawning while staring off into space. He had a rough day, especially since I heard he had to fight a goblin shaman, one of the strongest beings in the A-Tier collection of monsters.

"Hey, want to get-"

"No," He immediately responded, not even giving me a second to finish. He didn't even care to look at me as I stared directly at him. He was cold. Way too cold. It was as if his mask was slipping and he needed to cover it up with a stronger and even firmer layer of ice-cold emotions.

"At least let me finish," I sighed.

"I'm fine. I was planning on going to sleep anyway, so go ahead and eat by yourself… or with friends… I don't really care."

"Hmmm… Okay…" I responded, feeling an awkward drop of sweat run down my cheek. "Where'd you get the earrings? They have some magical enchantment, but I can't quite put my finger on it… is it a defensive charm in case you get hit by a life-threatening attack?"

"Uh, yeah. It isn't that powerful, though…"
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"And where you got them from?"

"I got it from somebody who I saved. This was their reward for me, and I'm pretty content with it-"

"Is it from a friend? You can just say that it's from a friend… I won't tell anybody," I smiled as the elevator finally reached our destination. We saw the massive library as we stepped out of the metal box. And as my brother walked away, a few words just barely managed to slip out of my mouth. "Hey, stop for a second."

"What is it?" He immediately swiveled his head around, clearly annoyed. But before he knew it, I wrapped my arms around him and pressed his head into my stomach. He didn't do much but accept his fate, letting out a quick sigh of exhaustion.

"I love you. Remember, if you ever need me for something, then you can come to me. I'll always be here to help you, no matter how mad I get…."

"Okay… thanks," He pushed off of me, not even giving me a goodbye, but I wasn't really bothered by it this time. For the first time since our reunion at this academy, I was able to hug him without resistance. In fact, that might have been the first time we've had physical affection, period.

I watched my brother walk out of the library, suddenly attacked by three kids similar or identical to his age. They looked familiar, and with a split-second squint, I saw that they were his roommates. The boy hugged him tightly while the girl with white hair received a head pat from my brother. The girl with black hair, on the other hand, just gently smiled as they began to walk away.

"Seems he's got good people around him… lucky him-"

Suddenly, I saw my brother's eyes slightly tilt up. His cold expression was filled with a tad bit of warmth. And from the depths of his facial muscles, I saw him lightly smile as he grazed over his roommates.

"Luck them…"

…

(Cyrus POV)

As soon as we returned to our dorm, Petra and Asger immediately hit the sack. Exhausted from their fights earlier and the fact that it was a bit past twelve, they immediately went to sleep upon touching their sheets. So Mari and I tucked them in before sitting down on the floor.

"You aren't going to sleep?" I asked the girl, who stared blankly at me from just a few feet away. She picked at the little fuzzy strings coming off of the rough material, waiting for something. "It's already past midnight, you should get some sleep."

"No, I want to see you use the skill book… also, what is the skill? I'm so intrigued… I've never gotten access to a skill book before, but they seem like such a cheat code."

"They are a cheat code," I smirked, looking down at the leathery book and feeling its coarse texture run across my fingertips. Quickly, I opened it, and instead of reading the contents, I looked up at the panel which appeared in front of me and selected the only right option there.

[Would you like to absorb the skill book?]

[Skill has been added to your collection]

『Status』

[Name: Cyrus]

[Race: Human]

[Class: Aether Magician]

[Level: 20/50] (25/100) XP Needed

[HP: 50/50 MP: 30/30 SP: 15/15] - Normal Human

[Strength: 10] - Normal Human

[Defense: 5] - Normal Human

[Magic: 15] - Normal Human

[Speed: 10] - Normal Human

[Aether: 20] - Non Human

[Skills: [Tidal Strike] [Water Magic] [Water Ring] [Poison Murky Water] [Mana Control]

[Aetheric Infusion] [Aether Control] [Aether Explosion] [Aether Creation] [Bloodlust Incarnate] [Tangible Bloodlust] [Empowerment of The Giants] [Form Creator (One Time)]

[Tarot Power: [World of Flesh] [Locked] (Upside Down World) [Locked] [Locked]

[Runic Skills: [Fingers: Water Strings] [Arm: Brand of the Controller] [Spine: Brand of The Angel]

[Passive Skills: [Water Body] [Light Allied Aura] [Dark Enemy Aura] [Trait: Aether] [Angel Core] [Heightened Senses of an Assassin]

[Master of Mana: [Foreign Mana Control]

…

"Kekekeke… Man, am I lucky," I smiled at my status. It was a bit disappointing how I couldn't get any experience points from the high troll as it was a summon, but the fight after reassured me something. I actually learned something from that fight. "Hey, once the entrance exams are over, wanna do a dungeon? Asger is still too naive despite being so strong. Petra, on the other hand… she needs to recover more. Her mana core is still shaky."

Some other things on my status caught my eye. The fact that I had two passive skills where one supposedly allowed me to be more in favor of people of the light attribute while vice versa for the dark attribute. And it was really strange because the complete opposite has been happening where I've been butting heads with light magicians and been getting along with dark magicians.

"Sure, I'm down," Mari shrugged her shoulders, but still eager to hear what my skill was.

"It's a skill that can't be obtained naturally. Most skills can be earned through hard work or genetic passing, but there are some which can only be found as rewards from dungeons. These are the real skill books, and while some are the skills you can acquire through the former reasoning."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… what is it? Come on, stop beating around the bush."

"It allows me to create my own form. You know how some of the top families have their own martial arts or their own tree of magic skills that they can wield?"

"Oh, you mean like when your sister says Poseidon's Armory or something?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess… also, how'd you know that? You weren't even at the tournament recently held."

"I'm a big fan," She lightly chuckled, rubbing the back of her head, embarrassed at the piece of knowledge.