The rest of the week passed by relatively quickly for Helo. Some of the girls wanted to go to the town this weekend but Helo told them to go without him. He told them that he was close to a breakthrough on his ‘Quick Step’. That is true he thinks he will have it soon. He has the control down and he just needs to focus on pushing the skill in the new direction that he wants.

  The true reason he told them to go without him is because his hunger. He isn’t about to start killing people but he is having focus issues. He even went back to the library to read the books again. From what he read it is because he is young. He needs to learn to control his hunger.

  That doesn’t change the relief he felt when everybody finally left. Now alone in the house Helo is sitting on the balcony railing looking over the forest. He has spent some time roaming the woods with Lelai. She even found a crack in the mountain that they have been hollowing out. While in the woods Helo even considered quenching his thirst. But in the end, he decided that testing himself was better. He knows that on Monday he will be going back to the restaurant called a dungeon.

  “You can’t keep calling it that Helo. It is a dungeon. Not a restaurant.” It doesn’t stop his overly hungry instincts to pull up the tastes of the different creatures. The rats were pretty basic but they would hit the spot right now, the wolves were even better, and the goblins were meh. But ohhhhhh the alphas. Yeah, those were good. Man but Hinata smells even better than them. Ohhh, I bet she would taste amazing. Helo lets his mind wander before snaping back to his senses. “No. Bad Helo. No eating your boss. Even if she does smell delicious. They all do, especially Allie and Hinata. But Hinata smells like a treat.” Helo says with a shudder.

  Pulling himself from the brink of something. Helo jumps from the balcony and hits the ground with a roll. Leaping to his feet he sprints off into the tree. Letting his aura out he can now sense about eleven meters and he is getting better at hiding it. Not trying to hid it now, he lets his aura out into his relaxed state and feels how it mingles with the world around him.

  Thankfully with a lot of tests he was eventually able to get his aura to stop messing with mana around him. All of the devices that used mana outside of their runes or circuits were being affected. He can’t pick and choose right now. It is either off or on but it works.

  Running through the woods Helo shapes his physical energy pathway before activating his skill. This time as the skill leaves his core it hits a double loop. This has a new pathway on either side. With a push of will the skill splits and travels both loops before going to either leg.

  Taking his first step Helo shoots toward a tree. Leaning forward he draws his blade like he is about to make a thrust. Planting his next foot into the ground he angles himself slightly and accelerates again while adjusting his stance. This time shooting off he slashes the tree.

  Continuing to lean forward Helo ducks under a pretend swing as his blade strikes the tree. Dropping his shoulder, he hits the ground in a graceful roll and gets back up to his feet. With a smile on his face that his practice is paying off Helo hears a noise.

  “Bing”

  Through your hard work and dedication your skill ‘Quick Step’ has been modified to ‘Double Step’

  Double Step (Common): This skill uses stamina (physical energy) to moderately increase the power of your next step on each foot. Can be used once per minute.

  With the smile Helo activates the skill again, this time with no extra effort from him his skill sends power to both his legs. The next two steps push him forward with a smile. Testing the limits of his new skill Helo can tell that the power isn’t as high as it was before. ‘Quick Step’ could increase his agility by half with that one step. While with the new skill the first step gets him of the thirty percent and due to his increase in momentum the second step gets him to about forty five percent.

  This means that he isn’t going quite as fast but he has two steps to take now. Running through the woods he is very happy with this new skill. He wants to get it all figured out, then he will increase the power of his steps. He has done that before and knows that it is fairly easy.

  Sitting down Lelai comes and sits on his lap. Petting the fox Helo realizes that he has never actually identified her.

  Hellesina’Lelai

  Tier 1 Level 12

  This is a mana enhanced. A creature that has gained the ability to wield mana.

  “Hey! You are the higher level than I am!” Helo looks at Lelai in shock. “I’ll have to look into mana beasts. I think I read something about how you can gather energy from the lands around you. I think it said that beasts can quickly grow to match the strength of the mana in the atmosphere. But also, that quickly growing can cause major mutations.” Holding the fox up and shaking her Helo says. “Don’t grow to a higher level than I am. No more absorbing mana. I don’t want you to mutate.” I’ll have to find a book on it. What I am remembering had to do with vampire thralls. So maybe I was wrong.

  Getting up and going back toward the house Helo practices his new skill on the way. Before he starts pushing this new skill to finally reach ‘Uncommon’ he wants to understand it more.

  When he is back to the house, he practices enchanting for a while and ends up going through six mana stones. Each one lasts about fifteen minutes’ worth of work. After that he goes to check on Elder Shelby.

  Getting to the Elders home Helo quickly gets sent away because she is still unconscious. “Well, that was a bust.” Walking back home Helo continues his practice with his new skill. Getting back the day goes by normally. Once the girls get back, he hears all out their trip about how they went shopping for new clothes.

  The next day Helo sets up a time with everyone to go over their Skills. This takes most of Sunday as he is having them test all their skills and craft a plan to strengthen them. Allie wants to push her ‘Runic Conjuration’ further. Right now, she can use five runes. But the more runes she adds the more she can augment a spell.

  Hinata is still working on making ‘Illusional Copy’ and ‘Second Strike’ work together. In the end they decided she should try to make ‘Second Copy’ not reflect a portion of the damage dealt but have a set damage based on her intelligence. This will make the initial attack act more like a mark. Then she will work on making ‘Illusional Copy’ act as a marker instead.

  Gabriela is working on something similar to Hinata. The Lopez family werewolves have high endurance and regeneration. So, their skill is made to increase their power, based on how much damage they take. Gabi isn’t a werewolf and she is only 4’9” tall. So, she doesn’t have much blood to spill. So instead, she is working on making the skill increase her speed and strength the same amount for every strike. With her dancer like skills and training it means that she can make many of the strikes she receives glancing blows. If the skill was normal, it would barely do anything. So, she is trying to modify it. They decided that she should work on limiting the boost she gains from heavy blows and trying to push more mana into her boost from lesser ones.

  Aiko wants to work on her ‘Heal’ skill the most. This skill will help the front-line fighters the most who are Kenneth and Gabi. She wants her heal to also give a buff to increase regeneration for a time. This should help Gabi a lot because it will clear away the small nicks, she lets herself take to increase her buff.

  For Luna she wants to increase the strength of her ‘Disarming Voice’ she wants the skill to hit hard and then have the debuff. Like a sonic blast to stagger an enemy. This will give her a better way to defend herself.

  Cody didn’t say much but he was very calm and polite as he went through all the exercises with Luna and Helo. Helo got the impression that Cody wants his bow to blot out the sky. He already has a massive frame and a massive bow with a ton of power. His normal arrows are as strong as another archers ‘Power Shot’. Coming up with a plan to increase the strength of his skill ‘Duplicate’. They came up with the idea to fire two arrows and once. Right now, he can only make four extra arrows. But if he can get the skill to activate on two arrows at once it will be ten. Then once he feels what it is like, he can work on having all eight extra arrows come from a single arrow.

  Kenneth didn’t show up, but when asked he said that his older brother and Calain were helping him. So, Helo just dropped it. He doesn’t know what he did, but Kenneth’s antagonism is starting to be a problem. Helo is going to wait to see how the dungeon goes before bringing it up with the girls.

  Finally with the new week they are going to go into the dungeon. Helo doesn’t think he has been more excited for anything in his entire life. Why… Because he is HUNGRY. All Saturday he was avoiding the girls and actively avoided Hinata. He doesn’t know why but unless it is draining the life from his foes beating heart, his instincts have no interest in casually drinking from another dude. Helo doesn’t know why it does that, but he does feel thankful. He is only getting caught staring at the girls this way. They notice him and then whisper to one another. He isn’t sure what they are talking about but it is about him.

  Helo doesn’t think that is a problem. He doesn’t want to snoop on their conversations. Little does he know that the longer this goes on the more sure the girls are that he is a vampire. Getting up far to early due to his excitement Helo is in the living room at 5:30 waiting for everyone to arrive.

  Thirty minutes later Helo hears someone coming down the steps. Looking over he sees a well-dressed but sleepy Aiko. Upon getting to the bottom floor Aiko turns the corner into the dark room and sees glowing red slitted eyes. Stumbling slightly, she exaggeratedly swoons. “Oh. Dear me, I just knew this day would come. You’re here to eat me oh great and vicious beast. Just make it quick.” She says feigning horror and pain. She says this while walking toward Helo and unbuttoning her shirt. This truly was a fantasy she had since last week. Something about the way Helo attacked her woke something up.

  Having no issue seeing Aiko’s neck and chest come into view due to his Darkvision. Helo is mesmerized and alarmed. Not sure how to react but have a strong desire to drink, Helo just lets Aiko walk up to him. Standing between his legs Aike leans forward and brings her neck in line with Helo’s mouth.

  “Us girls have been noticing your gaze.” She says in his ear in a sultry tone. “We don’t mind, but everyone was trying to guess what you are. I know. I didn’t say anything, but sense that moment in the bathroom, I knew.” Wrapping an arm around his head she draws him close. “Now here I am. A delicate maiden. A helpless servant, in front of the big bad beast.” Whispering she says. “What are you going to do, when I offer myself up to your fangs.”

  Losing the contest of wills against his own instincts Helo leans forward and opens his mouth. His fangs elongate and start to graze along her neck. Breathing in deep Helo can feel Aiko shudder as she feels his teeth start to break skin. About to bite down Helo hears a noise from the staircase.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Barely pulling himself back Helo growls low and pulls away. He grabs Aiko’s open blouse, closing her shirt and buttoning the first button, then he fully pulls away. By this point Aiko, with a heated gaze looks at Helo and is about to speak but he whispers through his growl to her. “Someone is coming.”

  With wobbly legs and a “tch” Aiko heads into the kitchen. Both Helo and Aiko take a moment from their respective location to get ahold of their emotions. Helo’s instincts are being aggressively possessive, while also raging about the lost prey. He can feel himself want to lash out at whoever is coming down from the stairs. While Aiko was on the verge of collapsing and now has to recover herself. Deciding that the first thing she needs is to go upstairs and change.

  Hinata comes down the stairs and finds a unique sight. Helo is sitting on the couch with a clenched fist, fangs out and with his eyes glowing. While Aiko, her ever present maid, gives her a dirty look with a furious blush. Aiko brushes past her and goes back upstairs.

  “Are you okay? You have been acting odder every day.” As she says it, she walks closer to Helo. She sits on the couch next to him but Helo keeps his head down and scoots away.

  After a minute Helo says “I’m fine. I’ll be better after we get to the dungeon.” Helo says.

  At this time Aiko comes back down stairs looking pleased. She then cooks breakfast. Helo and Hinata sit on the stools near the kitchen island and chat while waiting. Eventually every gets down into the kitchen.

  Checking over all their gear eventually everyone is ready to head into the dungeon. Getting in the pimped-out golf carts they all are about to leave but the Lelai jumps into the cart. “Get that mutt out of here. Why is it still around.” Kenneth says. He has never liked that fox. She is unnecessary, plus she belongs to the guy who is in his place.

  The girls give him a glare but they don’t say anything, they do look at Helo. “She hunts with me all the time. She will be fine.”

  Heading to the north of the valley and into the cavern, soon everyone is standing outside the portal. Double checking their gear everyone is ready. Before heading in Allie speaks up. “We have been training for a week and are ready to go. The dungeon is never the exact same so by ready for surprises. We are entering on the 17th floor. Highest floor we all have made it to and we can only exit the dungeon after completing a floor. So, we will hopefully make it to the 20th floor before leaving. Alright. Let’s Go!” She says getting more pumped as she talked.

  Entering the dungeon the party steps into a large cavern, it spans a few miles and has multiple entrances and exits. Roaming in groups of fifteen to twenty there are an assortment of monsters. The cavern is dimly lit from crystals on the ceiling and all around are boulders and ravines. It makes the terrain difficult to travel and fight in.

  Speaking up Hinata takes charge. “Alright, Kenneth in front. He will tank and draw their attention. Gabi and I will support him on the sides. Cody and Allie will be on the wings with ranged attacks. Aiko and Luna will be in the center buffing and supporting. Helo you and Lelai will range around. Lead other groups away, support anyone who is in trouble and take opportune attacks. Alright let’s go.”

  With a cheer Allie gets into position and the party moves forward. The first enemies are a group of rats. There are three giant rats surrounded by ten large ones, the rats are half hidden by a large protrusion. Two of the giant rats are in the front while the other is sitting behind the rock wall. As Kenneth steps forward a glow surrounds his body, it shifts red and the group of rats all focus on him. He has a heavy shield held in both of his hands. On his waist is a mace.

  Right before the first Giant rat is about to smash into him a wave of sound spreads out and all the rats start moving slower. This is Luna’s disarming voice. After the sound an assortment of arrows and fireballs hit the charging creatures.

  Gabi not really seeing a reason to play a long game starts swinging her axe each strike kills or wounds one of the large rats.

  When the damage starts to stack up the rat’s focus starts to move away from Kenneth. Hinata steps forward and with her ‘Mana Shield’ active she blocks the heavy strikes from one of the giant rats and starts peppering it with wounds. She is using a mix of ‘Illusionary Strike’ and ‘Double Strike’. She uses an illusion to show her strike attack its leg but instead lands a cut on its shoulder. Then a moment later the wound gets worse as another blade appears and strikes the same spot.

  Kenneth and Hinata are distracting two of the giant rats. Gabriela is attacking the smaller ones with shots from Cody and Allie. Aiko has a constat stream of ‘Heals’ and ‘Protects’ going to heal the teammates and Luna is focusing her voice to keep everyone moving faster while reducing the rats strength. The small rats quickly fall as they work together. They quickly gang up on the larger rats and finish them off. Aiko looks around because she didn’t see Helo at all during the fight. Soon everyone else notices his absence as well.

  “Ha, I told you all he was no good. He is a coward and homeless fool.” Kenneth loudly proclaims. He says this while smugly gesturing to the rat he killed by himself.

  Everyone one looks for Helo and can’t help but feel confused. Then Hinata says. “Where is the third Giant rat?” She says while looking toward the protrusion. “There clearly were three of them.” She then walks toward the outcropping in the wall.

  Everyone follows and they all see a dead rat. It has a single wound in it scull. From behind it a happy fox jumps out. Aiko and Hinata both have their assumptions about Helo’s race. Allie and Luna might, but Luna is far busier than the rest of them and Allie is a little to care free.

  Cody seeing the clean kill just nods in appreciation. Everyone else is still wondering where he is. From behind them they hear, “Hey everyone. Another group is this way.”

  Looking back, they see Helo standing there with a soft smile. Allie comments. “It’s good to see you back to smiling.”

  “Ha. Yeah, sorry I guess I was just feeling a little cooped up or something.” Helo says while scratching his head. Hinata walks closer with Aiko behind her. As she draws near, she notices how for the first time in a few days he is acting normal. She gets closer and notices that he is no longer avoiding her being near him. He is also not tense and trying hard not to look at her neck like a snack.

  With a smile Hinata reaches up and wipes some blood from the corner of his mouth. “Hmh. You missed a spot. It’s good to have you back to normal.”

  Feeling a little sheepish Helo just says, “Yeah sorry. That shouldn’t happen again.”

  “If you had just asked, we would have offered.” Hinata says while stepping back. “Well, lead the way Mr. Scout.”

  Leading the group in another direction Helo feels great. While walking he looks at his notifications. He is feeling a little dejected. He no longer has the solo, lower tier and alpha bonuses.

  You have gained experience. Your experience is split between the party.

  Class: Shaded Predator Level: 11 (295/1,025,000)

  “Well, it could be worse. Maybe. From what Allie said some of the strongest people alive started out needing five-hundred experience. Ah. At least they are letting me in here by myself later. Anyway, I finally feel like myself again.”

  After those seven days he was running at like 75% strength. He also was constantly hungry. Finally feeling like himself again, Helo brings them toward another group of rats. This one has a fourth giant rat in its mix.

  Before Kenneth can taunt them all, Helo from his forward position as scout dashes ahead. With everyone watching Helo a swirl of darkness wraps around him. All of them can sense as his presence disappears. He is no longer makes any sound or wind from his passage. They watch as he uses a smaller rat as a springboard. As he steps on the rat it squeals and draws attention. But he is already in the air. Landing with both feet on the head of a giant rat Helo slams his dark knife down toward the rat with an activation of ‘Penetrative Strike’. A golden blade sprouts from the tip of his shadow wreathed knife. Slamming the confusing yet beautiful amalgamation of dark and light into the rat’s forehead, it shudders and dies.

  As the rat dies Helo actives ‘Double Step’ using his technique to control a skill he loops both instances and takes control of them. Then activating them at the same time Helo launches himself backwards in a flip off the rat. As he jumps two tails slam onto the rat’s head, barely missing him. A moment later with a swish another tail comes in from behind.

  He can hear a gasp from the group behind him but he is already pulling up his legs into a flip. As he pulls up his legs the tail passes under him, striking the dead rat’s head as well. With a twist in the air and a roll on the ground Helo pops up and jogs back to the group passing Kenneth with a smirk, Helo says. “I thought four giant rats was a bit much for our stationary tactics right now.”

  Getting in the group Helo smiles at the gazes that he can feel on them. Everyone seems impressed. It feels good for Helo to be able to move freely again. “Stationary tactics?” Allie asks. Before he can respond Kenneth starts.

  Shouting out his skill name another red glow surrounds Kenneth drawing the attention from the rats. With Hinata and Gabi in his wings he steps forward to take the blows from the tails. After the first blows land the glow of Kenneths second skill activates. He is using ‘Steady Bash’ it is a branch of the shield bash tree but fucuses on staying in place and tanking hits. But after the enemy’s blow’s there is a retaliatory shield bash.

  The skill is a helpful mixture of a tanks bread and butter. For growth it can go either way so it is a very desirable skill. The only issue is that the time that the steady portion is activated is lower.

  But after the retaliatory strike the team moves with skill and some eagerness. Everyone is feeling a little eager to prove themselves after watching Helo’s opener. Hinata draws one of the rat’s and Gabi is again swinging at the large rats. With the third giant rat in play everyone is a little unsure.

  Allie is focusing on it instead. She is using a mixture ice, cone, and throw runes to launch icicle lances at the rat. The lances are not doing much but they are slowing it down. Cody is assisting Gabi in clearing out the smaller ones.

  With support from Luna and Aiko everything seems to be going well. That was before a large rat changed its target from Gabi to Hinata. Hinata was focusing on the giant rat and didn’t see the other one coming in. Helo was about to step in but Allie told him to finish off the giant rat she was throwing ice spear at.

  Listening to her Helo rushes forward. The giant rats still have to much endurance for Helo to fight without his aura wrapped blade. But he has made enough progress with his aura that he can use it to control his bloodline while also using it to sense around him. Sensing the tail coming in from the left Helo jumps in the air and rotates over his shoulder in a barrel roll. Dodging the tail, he lands in front of the rat to slams his shadow wrapped blade into the side of the rat’s head.

  Looking back with a laugh Helo sees the spell caster of the group wielding a massive hammer. By now he has learned that not only do the individuals in the BrightMoon Clan with the strongest bloodlines have an affinity with fate, they also tend to have a bit of a bloodlust. From what he understands Allie gains a stat in strength and intelligence each level.

  This was surprising to hear. It makes for their clan mates being great spell blades. But he learned that Allie’s father, uncle, and brother follow a path focusing and mixing blades with spells. But Allie inherited her bloodlines fate affinity and her mother’s prodigious casting skills. So, she was trained as a caster. “Well, that girl love’s her hammer.”

  “She really missed her calling.” Luna says as Helo approaches.

  “Yeah. Look at her grin. Id help, but I think she would turn the hammer on me.” Helo says while he watches the grinning Allie slam her hammer into the face of a dazed rat. The rat that was about to attack Hinata was already dead. But instead of stepping back Allie waded forward into the frontline fight.

  Pulling out his throwing blades two of the large rats that were on the edges of the front line had knives sprout from their eyes. Moments later the knives disappeared leaving wounded and half blind enemies. With Hinata about to finish her enemy she turned to look at the fight only to smile seeing her friend have a good time.

  Stepping back, she let Allie come in and finish off the giant rat. The fight quickly ended after that. With a splattering of blood on her face Allie comes up to Helo with a big smile. “Did you see that. Pretty great right!” She says while flexing her lithe body. Right now, everyone is wearing simple leather armor. They have yet to purchase or loot more expensive things. But Allie’s fit body fits into the leather’s well.

  “Yeah, you were great. I think you missed your true role as a berserker.” Helo replies with a smile. Stepping up and wiping the blood splatter off her cheek, Helo sucks it off his thumb without thinking about it. As he does his eyes flash gold before going back to red. Turning around and he heads out to check for more enemies. Coming out from the back of the group Lelai who has been silently following them comes out and runs with Helo.

  Back with the group Allie looks and Hinata and says, “Did you see that. His eyes were so cool!”

  Gabi speaks up from the side interrupting them. “You just watched a man eat blood from your face and you’re talking about his eyes.”

  “Well, if you aren’t talking about his eyes then you obviously didn’t see them.” Allie says back completely brushing over the blood aspect. She already knows what is going on but will act like nothing is happening until he tells them himself.

  Hinata steps up to her friend. “Yeah, his eyes were great. I know you want to let him talk to us but we really should talk to him about his… condition.” Looking around she sees Cody and Kenneth are outside hearing distance. “Aiko already tried to tempt him into dining on her.” Allie looks at Aiko with an affronted look. She isn’t yet aware of her friend awakened desires.

  Luna who is standing by Allie asks, “You mean with her. You were going to ask him to dine with you.”

  Aiko just looks away and doesn’t say anything “Ha. Do you really think I didn’t hear you this morning. You were serving yourself up on a platter.” Hinata says while laughing at her long-time companion. She was really intrigued after hearing what her friend was saying that morning.

  An awkward cough comes from behind the speaking girls. Standing there is Helo looking extremely embarrassed. “Well, ah. I found the next group.” He says before disappearing in a swirl of shadow.