Gabi dodges the blow from Hinata, as the blade flashes over her head she is already spinning. Coming up from her duck the axe whips around going left to right straight toward Hinata’s chest. As Hinata jumps back from the heavy blow Gabi gives a vicious smile. Jumping forward after her, she takes the momentum of her last swing, with incredible flexibility and skill, she changes the swing to be a downward chop. Hinata parries the blow to the left side and retaliates. Following the change in momentum Gabi moves with her axe to take her just to the edge of Hinata’s range. Feeling the blade bite into her thigh Gabi laughs.

  This is the core of her fighting style. Relishing being in the thick of things, taking the blows, forcing retreats, and dishing out heavy blows. Each time she takes a glancing blow her dance gets just a little faster and her strikes land just a little harder. Her fighting style is all about shifting momentum. Shifting her axes momentum and shifting her own. With each blow the momentum increases until the momentum of the fight is in her favor.

  This is a brutal fighting style and it isn’t for the weak of heart. But it was passed to her by her parents. Nobody believed in her except for them. Her skills are meant for large men who use their bodies like a sledgehammer. But with her dad’s knowledge and her mothers dancing abilities she created a style all her own. Her father was taken in by the Guatemalan hidden Lopez clan. They are werewolves or wolf shifters and it is a brutal place. One of the clan’s children was out on vacation in Mexico. He was whoring his way through gang territories when he stopped in a pit fighting ring.

  Were-people are an amalgamation of beast kin and chimeric curses. They were created by a society of liches for war. The liches wanted an army with soldiers as inherently strong as the beast-kin people. So, they took humans and did unholy experiments on them. Eventually the Were-people freed themselves. They created their own communities outside the beast-kin nations and act as mercenaries. At least that was where the Lopez family came from. Gabi thinks to herself. Remembering her history that she learned.

  Anyway, her dad was in the ring and was trading blows with a man far larger than himself. After winning in the end, her dad was kidnaped by the Lopez heir and trained as a fighter. He was skilled enough to inherit a Lopez clan skill called ‘Damage Empowerment’. Things were going good for her father until he was used as a sacrifice so the clan heir could escape an ambush. Surviving the ambush and getting free, her father left back to Mexico. One night while he was at a strip club he saw her mother dancing.

  After repeatedly going back he finally convinced her to move away with him and the rest in history. Her mother opened a dance studio and her father worked in construction. Gabriella showed the correct temperament and high natural vitality to gain her fathers skills. So, with her mother and father working with her, they created a new style. “Ha, father always said that mother was skilled at dancing with a pole.” Gabi mutters under her breath as she plants the butt of the axe into the ground and spins to dodge a blow. Using the planted shaft she blocks the strike. With another spin around the shaft, she kicks her leg high causing Hinata to lean back. Planting her kicked foot, she spins with her momentum to swing the axe again. Falling back into a comfortable rhythm of trading blows she thinks back to that moment three years ago.

  The Lopez family had found them. She didn’t know how but they sent some low-level thugs to kill her father. She could still hear her parents screams as they told her to run. Coming out of her trace Gabi looks up from her place on the ground. Hinata has her sword to her neck.

  “Gabi-San, were you thinking about the past again.” Hinata asks.

  With a nod Gabi stands back up only for Hinata to pull her into a hug. Turing to pick up her axe she sees Helo watching them. With a wink she bends over touching her chest to her thighs and showing off. In an exaggerated move she plants the axe into the ground and slowly stands up. Feeling a smack on her ass she hears Hinata on her other side.

  “Don’t do that.” She said looking at Gabi’s arguably great ass.

  Looking over to Helo she sees that he is turned away now and looking into the sky like it holds the world’s mysteries. “Hehe, I don’t think you helped the situation by smacking me.” Gabi says in a sing-song voice. Grabbing Hinata’s arm they walk over to Helo. “Hey there big guy. Did you like the show?”

  Looking at Gabi’s smirk then at Hinata’s annoyed pout Helo takes the diplomatic route. “Ah, yes.” Seeing Hinata squint her eyes he holds his hands up and quickly adds. “You both have a lot of skills and training with your weapons. From what I can see your fighting style is really impressive.”

  “Thanks! It was a final gift from my parents, they developed it for me.” Gabi says with a smile. “Hinata did beat me though. But with our skills involved she would have a harder time deflecting my ‘Heavy Blow’. But at the same time skills like her ‘Second Strike’ are a weakness of mine. Until I get some skills to mitigate that my fighting style shines best against monsters.”

  Thinking for a moment Helo nods his head. “That makes sense, an ability like my ‘Disabling Strike’ would break your flow and something like Allie’s ‘Arcane Construct’ would mess with your ranges because of her ability to add on to her staff.”

  “Yep!” Gabi says not at all upset about the fact. “But with my constant heavy attacks and slowly ramping strength monsters are pretty great for me.”

  Hinata adds in at this point. “We generally have her act as a sort of second tank. She lures weaker monsters and by the time she is done, her blows deal a considerable amount of damage to stronger variants”

  “That is a pretty amazing style. Your parents must have worked hard.” Getting a nod and nothing else Helo looks over to the other fights. It looks like Allie is winning, her ability to make more than one projectile constantly is slowly overpowering Cody. Off to the side Aiko and Luna are going through staff forms while still using their skills on Allie’s fight.

  As the fight winds down, Allie comes out as the clear victor even as Aiko and Luna try to help Cody. Feeling tired all four of them sit on the sidelines. “So, now that you have seen a bit about how we spar are you ready to try?” With a nod Helo and Gabi step into the field. Looking at each other. Gabi smirks at him and points her axe.

  With a yell from Allie both fighters step forward. With a wide swing of her axe Gabi starts her dance. Watching the swing come in Helo ducks under the blow and steps forward to attack.

  Not letting him have an easy time Gabi follows her axe through her swing around leading her backward with a twirl. With the axe-girl just out of reach Helo misses. The blade comes back around forcing Helo to take a step back. As he does that she steps forward and sends a chop toward his head. Deflecting the blow to the side with his raised right hand Helo steps forward only for his right thrust to get parried by the butt of the axe in a twirl. Watching how the axe spins in the air Helo is briefly surprised. Jumping back he narrowly doges the slash to follows the axe twirl. “Wow, you are really good at keeping up your axe’s momentum. It is like you are wielding a giant metal covered staff.” Helo says this with a surprised look as he jumps back.

  Stopping for a moment Gabi says back, “Thanks, fighting someone who wields two weapons requires a lot faster movement then fighting someone like Hinata. For her deflecting her blade pulls it out of alignment allowing me to position myself better. But against you, your second knife is already swinging requiring me to spin my axe.”

  “Huh, you and your parents really thought that new style through.” Helo says and readies himself to attack.

  “Thanks. It’s obvious that you don’t have any formal training but you do have great instincts.” She moves forward attacking again. She brings the blade around and Helo ducks under. This time letting the blade connect against her side lightly Gabi takes the damage and gets faster. This dance continues as Gabi keeps getting faster. As she gets faster, she starts going back to her bread-and-butter technique of large flowing blows with spins and movement. She is able to keep Helo from getting a clean strike using her trained technique.

  Once Gabi is moving as fast as Helo is, he dodges under her blow. As she is about to twirl Helo takes a step forward to follow. Only, this time Helo uses ‘Quick Step’ speeding up and coming in closer than she is used to. Not being able to dodge Gabi twirls her axe hoping to catch Helo’s dagger.

  Helo not having ever used this skill in a fight before he messes up the distances and his knife strikes the butt of her axe. Moving faster than before both Helo and Gabi tumble to the ground. They both lay there tired after the last fifteen minutes of intense sparring.

  Kenneth having just walked outside from a nap he was having laughs. “Hahahah, what a loser. You couldn’t even take out a little girl without falling on your face.” He says while walking up and standing over Helo’s head.

  Trying to sit up Kenneth kicks him back over. “I don’t see what makes you think your special. You’re in my place. I should be up on the third floor with them. But instead it goes to a nobody loser like you.”

  “HEY. Back off Kenneth. That wasn’t nice and the only person who said it was your place was my brother. This isn’t his party.” Allie says while stomping over. Glaring at Kenneth he just rolls his eyes and backs off. Damn women and their mood swings. They will be eating out of my hands soon enough when I show them who is the strongest. Kenneth thinks with a scoff. Turning around he goes over to Cody. As he is walking away, he hears Gabi speak up.

  “Plus, he never used ‘Disabling Strike’.” Not knowing what that meant, he just ignores them.

  Helo who is definitely feeling his low endurance and strength right now can feel himself recovering quickly. Staring at the back of Kenneth’s head for a moment his oval pupils shift into a reptilian shaped jagged line before going back to normal.

  Getting up he brushes himself off and goes to rest up. Sitting next to a tired Luna they both start talking about his skills. First, she asks him what he wants them to become. For ‘Quick Step’ he doesn’t mind the cool down or the reduced number of steps. If possible, he wants it to become even faster. Maybe add another stop so he can alter his trajectory.

  For ‘Disabling Strike’ he can’t decide if he wants to increase it so that it totally shuts down a limb or decrease the cooldown. For his fast-paced style he doesn’t think that he needs to spend much effort to increase the time disabled.

  Having someone have their entire arm useless would be great. But also having and arm and a leg slowed for the 5 seconds where the cool down and infliction time overlap would be great.

  Deciding that the quickest option is the best Helo decides to increase the strength of the disabling feature. Maybe upgrade it to ‘Crippling Strike’.

  For ‘Penetrative Strike’ Helo decides to focus on distance. He hasn’t tried to use his bloodline energy with his skills. But with his bloodline being fueled by the same energy that his skills are, he thinks that he can. Once he learns how to penetration power will increase greatly.

  So, the best bet is increasing the range. Rereading the skill he also wants to work on making it so that it doesn’t specifically require a thrust.

  Finishing talking things over with Luna Helo gets up and stops. Realizing he has yet to test his aura. But, looking at the sky their training is almost done. He can aleady hear Gabi talking to the ever-silent Cody about his fletching skills. She mentioning that he should try to learn other wood craft skills.

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  With everyone wrapping up they all go to their respective rooms to shower. After getting out of the shower Helo heads to the northern most house that is near the dungeon entrance. This house is more like a mansion and is three stories. Unlike Allie’s house that has a lot of space open outside. This house is surrounded by a garden and a small wall. Out front he can see four elders. Walking up and giving a light bow Helo says. “Good evening Elder Anthony. Elders.” He says with a head dip to the rest. Two of the elders visibly look annoyed by the lack to respect.

  “Ahhhh. Young Helo. It is good to see you again. This beautiful young woman next to me is my wife Shelby, she is an enchantress.” He says with a smirk. The woman next to him is a beautiful woman with greying hair. Her face has a few lines, but they seem like laughter lines and bring out her mature features. Her eyes are blue and filled with laughter and annoyance in equal measure.

  Getting a smack on his arm Shelby scolds him. “That joke was funny the first time you said it 85 years ago and only then.” Seeing Helo’s wide eyes at that she responds. “Agh, tiering up extends your life span and prolongs youth. And no, I am not an enchantress. I am an enchanter. Much different.” She says with a glare at her husband.

  “Any way young one.” Anthony says. “The two over there are Elders Dean and Brianna. You can ignore them.” He says while waving Helo to follow him. “Micah stopped by and said you were interested in looking at some texts.” Leading him to the back of the house he shows Helo in to a massive room. The room actually takes up all three stories and has a hole going up the center. Looking up Helo can see a massive skylight.

  “Impressive. I know. I helped design it.” Anthony says looking smug.

  “He is a dungeon master and sees himself as a professional architect because of it.” Shelby says to Helo. She followed them in and sits at a nearby table that has a few books on it. Taking a book, she finds the book mark and starts reading.

  Sitting next to his wife and taking from a separate pile he explains the library to Helo. “The bottom floor obviously can hold more.” He says pointing to the massive hole in the second and third floors. The bottom floor starts at tier 1. Then so on with the second floor and tier 2. Directly in the back on the left side of the first floor is a complete bestiary. Housing all beasts and monsters we know. But you can also find tier divided bestiaries on the second and third floors.”

  “The left side has knowledge on crafting the right is on fighting. The first few shelves will tell you about classes, for each on both sides. If you look at the small shelf that is on the front of each row you will see a list of books that are glossaries. They give basic information about everything we know about. They even mention forbidden knowledge. But the books on forbidden topics are not here. In the back right next to the bestiaries is information on magic.”

  “Next… well. That’s about it kid.” Anthony says. Waving his hand around.

  “Whack!” “Owe” Looking back he sees Shelby lowering a book.

  “The crystal in the middle of the first floor also has access to all the information we talked about. It can connect to the servers that are protected and hidden. On the servers there is a general generic library with basic things. But if you bring a mana tablet with you.” She says while holding up a palm sized device.

  Holding it up she presses a button and the device expands to be the size of a piece of paper. Seeing Helos eyes she sighs. “Ah. It seems Hinata and Allie have yet to buy them for their teams. You should do that. The phones that they have are meant for communication. They have priority access to communication, but when it comes to information, they are as generic as the phones we will distribute to the rest of the world post-integration.”

  “The phones are mostly meant to be used for social media. Once enough mana is in the air electronic communications tend to stop working. They are putting a heavy focus on social media because whoever controls the most ground and has the most support will get system rulership over earth. Once earth is no longer contested. Which happens about 100 years after integration. A technology heavy world like this, that has a massive society can bring any ruling family great wealth and status.”

  “My wife got off topic. What she is saying is that the phones are meant for communication and social media with some basic apps you see on a phone. Like a calculation and notes. But the tablets they are far more protected and can not only access the generic servers that they built to run the phone network; they can access the clan’s person servers. These servers are also connected to the dungeon core and things like the class crystal. I can use my personal tablet to access the dungeon core and check on the dungeon. Then using my class I can make modifications at a crystal like the one you see in the middle of the room. But for you, you can get digital copies of all of the books in the library. You need a tablet first and your access is only for a week before the book is deleted from your tablet. It is a security feature to protect clan information. But you can always come back.”

  With a nod Helo sets out to look around. Looking at the lists of information Helo is getting overwhelmed. Finally deciding to get a piece of paper and pencil Helo starts writing what he wants to learn. First looking at fighting classes he sees a list of class skills and how to get your desired outcome. Then he finds one on knife fighting. Then he finds a book in the magic section about the dark and life attributes. Going around the first floor he keeps finding books he wants to read. Stuff about the soul, natural energies, and even cooking.

  Finally feeling overwhelmed Helo just grabs a book that outlines the basics of crafting and goes to the tables to read. Reading through the book it is filled with different crafts and their sub categories. Like how a blacksmith might want to learn mining. A seamstress might want to learn leatherworking. Or a cook might want to learn gardening. Looking through the book he finds a section in the back on how to choose the right craft. This section talks about how to find a craft that goes with your class. Feeling a feint buzzing Helo looks around. Not seeing anything he keeps reading the book. That buzzing keeps popping up but Helo ignores it.

  Ten minutes later Helo hears someone say “What the heck.” Looking up it is Shelby and Anthony.

  “What’s wrong dear?” Anthony asks while putting down the book in his hands. It is on the art of water levels. Helo feels nothing when he sees that book because he doesn’t know the pain yet. So he goes back to reading

  “It’s this enchantment.” She says while pointing at a rune carved into a plate. “Its efficiency is at least five percent off what it should be.” Picking up the book labeled ‘Holograms for Dummies. How to make light work for you 101’. “This rune helps in the transfer of light and I made it perfectly. But somehow its losing efficiency when the light magic gets projected.” Looking at the rune Shelby activates her aura. Her aura is powerful and tightly controlled. Wrapping the runic plate with her aura she feels how the bleeding stops. Feeling around she finds a twirling aura that almost blends into the surroundings. It feels like a twirling anomaly of vitality and negation. It’s a swirling blend of golden energy and sweeping shadows. Looking around all she sees are Helo and her husband.

  Watching her with a smirk and with his far more powerful aura senses he is feeling what she is doing. Anthony already knew what was happening. For someone at his level it is almost impossible to not know what is happening around him. He had felt the effect Helo’s aura had the moment it happened. But he was enjoying watching his wife get frustrated. What’s a harmless prank between lovers right.

  “It’s the boy?” Shelby asks looking at he husband. He only shrugs, looking back around she sees Helo looking at her. Pointing at her rune she retracts her aura that is covering it and watches as it dims by five percent. “Focus your aura here.”

  Helo not totally sure what is happening but also curious about his aura abilities does as he is told. He pulls his aura out of its almost passive ‘Nature Stage’. It is the ability that he gained from his title and is something that he has been working on all day. It diffuses his aura into the nature energies around him.

  When like that it weakens his senses, but it also makes it so that others have a harder time recognizing it because it feels more like the natural world around him. Helo heard about how it was common curtesy to keep your aura retracted when around others. But in that state he assumed it was okay. Keeping it in that stage takes some focus so he has been practicing to make it more of a passive stage. Once he pulls it out of what he calls it ‘Nature Stage’ it is in what he calls its ‘Natural Stage’. As this happens the light coming out of the rune dims another ten percent.

  Everyone watches in interest as Helo focuses on the light, he is contracting his aura from the surrounding and pushing all of it over the rune. The rune goes from 85% to 80% then all the way down to just a flicker of light.

  “Woah. The rune is at like 30% efficiency. Plus, it is draining itself dry trying to keep the light powered. If I wasn’t a tier 2 enchanter this rune would already be empty.” Shelby says while watching. Overpowering Helos aura she pushes it aside and watches how the rune goes back to 100% except now it has about 5% of its mana left but it is refilling correctly.

  “Helo. Be careful with your aura. You’re going to have to learn how to turn it off or exclude individuals. Just add it to your training.” Anthony says. “Also, your aura concealment is quite good but keep in mind that with its connection to nature, as soon as you came inside it didn’t work as well.”

  With a nod Helo takes in everything Elder Anthony said. From what he said it is obvious that he felt his aura from the beginning. I’ll have to be more careful when I am around others.

  Seeing that Helo understood his unspoken warning Anthony looks back to his wife.

  “Boy, you’re coming with me to my workshop.” She says as she gets up and grabs his collar. Looking confused and alarmed Helo follows behind. Expecting to go across the river to the crafting complex they go upstairs to a suite with what Helo assumes has a bedroom behind one door. On the other side are two work stations. Setting Helo down in a chair she goes to her desk. Coming in behind them is an amused Anthony.

  Looking around Helo sees as all sorts of objects dim and their effects lesson. In one instance a crystal that is floating between two weird claw looking things falls onto the floor. Shelby looks back at Helo with a glare. Helo quickly retracts his aura. Anthony who is watching the whole thing laughs. “Oh yeah you need to get that under control.” He says to Helo.

  Shelby glares are her husband before looking over at a device in the corner. “Don’t focus it. But let your aura touch here.” With an effort that was a mix of pushing but relaxing his will Helo passively touches the device.

  Shelby watching how nothing happens looks intrigued. “It doesn’t affect shielding runes. Interesting. Now focus your aura.” Focusing they all watch how the shield flickers lightly. Brushing aside Helo’s aura she uses her own to investigate. “Mhm. It seems it does decrease the rune efficiency. But only by about 15%. Which was what your aura did normally.” Nodding her head she takes out a book and starts writing. “Maybe I should take you on as an apprentice. Having you drain all my tests would make things go a lot quicker.” She says this while writing.

  Looking around Helo finds a plate of metal that has a light rune. Connected to the light rune are three others. Helo doesn’t know what two of them do but he does know what one of them does. “Why do you have the left symbol on this enchantment?”

  They both look at him, Shelby looks surprised but Anthony just answers. “I found that in an old book it was talking about some kind of trade agreement with a neighboring society. That symbol was supposedly used in a powerful enchantment but due to the nature of the enchantment, he passed out after looking at it, he was only able to remember that. It is interesting how that happens, there are some languages that are inherent to the nature of some ancient bloodlines. Shelby took over three days before she could use that rune without a headache.”

  “Oh. Interesting, do you know why that happens.” Helo asks.

  “Well like I said it is coded for a certain bloodline. Like a language that is all their own. Plus, bloodline have meaning in them. The older and more powerful bloodlines are filled with a lot of meaning and power. Like an affinity so profound that nobody can understand it. But to those people it comes naturally. Some ancient languages are like that. The letters are filled with so much history that each letter has its own power and meaning. Almost like the universe itself recognizing it.” Anthony says all of that with a shrug.

  Not noticing his wife’s shocked look he continues. “I actually read about this in a book, it is actually quite interesting; a lot of runes used for enchanting come from languages like these. Yah know. Like why does this rune mean light. A lot of people would just shrug but someone theorized that it is a distilled version of a much more ancient rune. Then it draws its meaning from the connection it has to the original. A lot of people spend a lot of time trying find what they call the ‘Primordial Alphabet’. But whatever. I just play with my dungeon.” The old man says with a smile. Obviously, he likes his job. Looking over at Shelby he asks. “What is up with you?”

  Looking at her husband she shouts, “What do you mean! What started that tangent of yours, that you read in some obscure book!?”

  “The only reason you have that rune, that the kid knows, is because of my ob…. Oh.” Stopping Anthony’s eyes open wide. “Were going to the main house.” He says moving far faster than anything Helo has ever seen. In a flash they are moving and Shelby is sending out texts to Micah, Graham, Cheyeene, Hinata and Allie.

  Getting to the main house faster than Helo thought was possible they push Helo into a chair and set the metal plate in front of him.

  With the slamming of a door everyone turns as Micah enters the room with a massive wave of wind in his wake “What is the emergency!?!” He says while looking around.

  “Honey… What did you say in your text?” Anthony asks looking at his wife with a laugh.

  With a loud crash, then a stomp the back door now slams open. Graham flies in while he finishes putting on his pants. Cheyeene much calmer than her husband swishes in wearing a robe around her body that is incredibly flattering. Looking around and seeing Anthony laughing and Shelby’s sheepish face she turns with a flutter of her robe. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Mhm. It’s not my fault.” Shelby says a minute later to the glaring Graham. Obviously, he got interrupted while having a great time. At this point both Hinata and Allie run in the room and look at Helo. Seeing he is okay they both hug him and sit on either side of him.

  Cheyeene comes back with her phone in hand. From her smile she thinks the situation is hilarious. “It’s okay auntie. I was already finished and just waiting for Graham to be done.”

  “What happened?” Allie says to her parents.

  Hinata that is looking at Graham disarrayed and poorly chosen clothes then at Cheyenne’s messy hair decides to keep quiet.

  Cheyeene seeing a prime opportunity to embarrass her daughter tells her exactly what happened. After much yelling from the younger woman and laughing from the older, the room finally turns to look at Shelby.