Waking up the next morning Helo wakes up and does a full body stretch. “AHHHHHH” He yawns. Feeling a nip in his side Helo looks down to see Lelai biting his ribs looking at him in annoyance. “Sorry girl. I didn’t mean to wake up.” Seeing Lelai’s clean coat Helo has never been more thankful for his new life of luxury. He is surrounded by open windows that have magic screens to let in fresh air, he is in a comfy bed and he has a great bath.
Getting up Helo gets ready for the day and picks out some clothes to wear. Getting a scarf to put on Lelai, Helo gets them both ready and goes down stairs. At the bottom of the stairs Helo sees Aiko cooking breakfast.
Feeling good and remembering how she tortured him when he was hungry, Helo steps up behind her and hugs her. Using a hand, he moves her blouse away from her neck and bites into her neck without drawing blood. Feeling Aiko’s legs give away as Helo is holding her, he unwraps his arms and pulls away.
Watching as she grabs the counter Helo laughs and heads for the door. “Good morning! I’m going for a run.” Helo says with a smile. As Helo leaves happy with his revenge as Aiko is grabbing the counter and calming her beating heart.
Closing the door behind him Helo looks down at Lelai then into the sky. It is a beautiful morning with a blue sky and soft clouds. There is a nice breeze coming through the valley and if Helo focuses, he an even hear the waterfall from a few miles away.
Taking in a deep breath of the fresh air Helo loves the smell of the valley. Looking around the sun is in the midst of rising and it is sending a soft glow around the area. The grass surrounding Allie’s house is making a peaceful view around the area.
Thinking back to yesterday Hinata’s decision to cut the day a little early was really appreciated. Helo was almost burned and stabbed alive. Getting to rest early helped him a lot. Something about the way that his mind thinks doesn’t let him carry mental trauma as much as others. But yesterday was still a lot.
Setting off toward the back of the house Helo goes for a run around the valley. Entering the tree line that hugs the mountain line Helo takes off running with Lelai. While running Helo is focusing on his skill ‘Double Lunge’. One thing that Helo wants to work on is using his bloodline energy to fuel the skill. Bet every time he tries the skill breaks apart.
So, trying again Helo can tell that since the skill is uncommon rarity now it last longer, but still breaks apart. Hoping for the best Helo thinks he has to wait until the skill is at least rare to fuel with his bloodline.
After trying and failing a few times Helo moves on to focusing on the power behind his skill. Pushing his speed faster each time. Flashing through the woods Helo and Lelai are racing around the valley. Finishing a lap Helo checks his tablet and only half an hour has gone by. Going again this time Helo focuses on how quickly he can use his skill. Helo wants to be able to use the skill every 10 seconds. It is his most used and also his favorite skill.
The ability to move quickly and change directions helps a lot and really supports Helo’s fighting style. Getting back to the house Helo heads inside and rinses off quickly before going to eat breakfast.
Entering the first floor Helo looks to the kitchen and catches Aiko looking at him. Smirking at her Helo takes his place on the far side of the table and dishes himself up.
When everyone gets to the table Helo speaks up. “Well, a few of us got new skills or upgraded old ones. We should take today and go over our new skills. Let’s take good notes and see how we can improve them.” Helo then looks at Allie and Hinata and they both nod in agreement. “Next…” Helo says while pulling out his tablet. Setting it on the table he opens a message.
“We have a request from Captain Amara to take a trip around our territory and check with all our different clans, villages, and groups.” Allie speaks up over Helo. She is acting a bit more serious than normal. “I respect Amara a lot and if she asks us to take a look around and show our faces we are going to agree.”
As she speaks Kenneth snorts and looks annoyed. Helo narrows his eyes at Kenneth and isn’t sure what to think. Kenneth’s reaction was in line with his usually attitude but this feels off. Deciding to talk to Elder Shelby about it, Helo sets it aside for later. “We will take Friday to go visit the surrounding area. This will be good because of haven’t had the chance to yet.”
Finishing dinner Helo and the party head outside to meditate then practice their skills. While out practicing Helo is now focusing on his ‘Penetrative Strike’ skill. This is his only common grade skill and Helo focusing on increasing penetration depth. With his bloodline he doesn’t have issue cutting but he can only cut so far.
“YESSS!” Hinata yells from the side. Looking at her she uses her skill again and Helo can see how the illusion that she creates also strikes her target.
“You did it!” Allie yells from her spot next to Hinata. She is still focusing on increasing the number of runes she can make at a time. She got the number up to seven at the end of the dungeon yesterday and now she is practicing it. She jumps at Hinata and hugs her. “So, what happened! TELLL MEEE!”
“They combined into ‘Illusional Strike’ it has the abilities of both skills. I can make an illusion and it can be real or fake.” Taking a second to stop and think her face turns more serious. “Now I want to make the illusion larger and stronger.”
“Hopefully you get to choose two skills in your next selection Hinata-Sama.” Aiko says from the side.
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t be bad if I can’t. This skill will be a great foundation for my bloodline abilities.” Hinata says to Aiko with a smile. “I’m going to call my father.”
The rest of the crew gets back to work and off Hinata’s victory has more energy in their attempts. Finishing their morning session with technique training the group parts to clean up and then have lunch. The next session will be sparring and then end with most of them practicing their professions.
The rest of the day goes well and Helo heads to his enchanting practice. Entering Elder Shelbys work station with a knock Helo finds her up and about. “Good evening. It looks like you’re feeling better?”
“It is good to see you too kiddy.” Elder Shelby says to him. Getting narrowed eyes because of what she called Helo she laughs at him. “HA show me your work.”
Taking out all his different tablet Helo shows them to Elder Shelby and she give a slight nod. “These looks good and your enchantment?”
Handing her a piece of paper that outlines a circle practice plate Elder Shelby looks over his light rune. It has a large gathering rune in the center and is designed to spread out the mana to run a circle around the outside of the plate. With a nod at the design Elder Shelby looks at Helo. “This is good kid. You see all these connecting lines and pathways. These will make sure that your enchantment is hard to overload. It also has a large storage due to how it is set up.”
With a smile Helo says back. “I read a book about how really enchanters create redundancies so that an enchantment lasts a long time. With it like this even if half the plate is broken it will still light up.”
“Good. Now grab a practice plate and make it.” Pointing to the cabinet Helo has taken plates from before he starts to grab a plate. “No not that one you idiot. You want something softer for your first attempt.” Smacking Helo on the head with a mana hand she uses it to point at a different plate.
By the end of the hour and thirty minutes Helo has a massive welt on the back of his head even with his high vitality. He has also gone through seven plates. Enchanting requires an intense degree of focus. Breaking your focus while in the middle of a rune or without balancing the mana makes the entire enchantment fall apart.
Each rune has meaning and you need a clear mental image of what that meaning is to make an enchantment work. If you stop part way through the meaning is broken and can have explosive results. Thankfully this first enchantment is very weak. One annoying thing Helo is learning is that due to his lack of mana he needs to constantly be using mana stones. They need to be similar affinity, level, and creature. Otherwise, it can unbalance the entire rune.
This adds another layer on complication to Helo’s attempts. But he is making it work. It requires a powerful affinity for a monster to have attuned cores. So, all the cores he got from the goblins the other day were perfect for his practice. The next most important thing is his stylus. Due to his mana needs the stylus is incredibly important. Elder Shelby told him that he now has to maintain and make his own from here on out. She gave him the books for the runes that make up the stylus. This is adding to what he needs to study but it will be helpful for him making something for himself.
Getting ready leave Helo is packing away his new books and cleaning his work station. “Just spit it out kid.” Helo hears from behind him. Looking at her in surprise she says. “I am a peak tier 2 with an aura. All I need is the experience and I’m a shoe in for tier 3. There isn’t much you can hide from me. But your aura and bloodline are incredibly impressive.”
“Um. Thanks. And well….” Helo says as he turns to her. “I’m not sure how to explain this.” Getting a raised eyebrow Helo coughs and takes a breath. “Alright so Kenneth is turning into a problem.”
“Yeah, I expected he would be problematic.” Elder Shelby cuts in. “But what is the issue.”
“Why is he even on the team if you think that?” Helo asks her.
“This isn’t something I have to talk to you about. But…. Since you are the team’s number two… Well… three. Kenneth is the second cousin of Luca Carbani.” She says to him.
“The Italian clan? Why is he here?” Helo asks while confused.
“We are not enemies or even antagonistic. At least not yet. But, Calain is friends with Luca and has Kenneth’s older brother on his team. The brother’s mom moved to America and left the family. She then had two kids and they ended up with us. What you need to know is that Calain and Luca are friends. Calain always had this assumption that he was special but when he met Luca at the clan’s school things got worse. Then he learned that his little sister had a fate affinity and he got even worse.” She explains to him. “So, what is going on?”
“Well, first he is lying about one of his skills. He says he has ‘Taunt’ but I watched the skill activate and him use it; the skill is ‘Control Grudge’. He tried to send a monster after Luna but I killed it while the taunt was transferring. Because of me getting involved I don’t have any proof. But the main thing right now is that he had this reaction to the Captain Amara.” Helo tells her.
“First, not telling you a skill is okay. Lying about a skill still isn’t something we can do anything about. But a skill like ‘Taunt’ is suspicious and dangerous. Second, Captain Amera rejected Calain. He wanted her to be a concubine to him. She said no. After that happened Calain stopped respecting powerful women as much.” Elder Shelby tells him. “Now I’m telling you all this so you can keep those two girls safe. Don’t do anything dumb.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
With a nod Helo excuses himself and heads home. He is lost in thought as he is walking about the things he just heard. He doesn’t want to over react but Kenneth makes him feel suspicious. Like there is a plant feeding secrets back to Calain. Deciding to hid his growth from Kenneth, Helo jogs back home.
Getting home Helo takes out his light plate and sets it in the center of the table. Taking out a mana core from a slime he places it in the center of the enchantment and the gathering rune activates. The edges of the plate start glowing softly and lighting the table. Smiling Helo nods and moves into the kitchen.
Aiko is cooking and Luna, Allie and Hinata are sitting out the counter. Sitting with the girls Helo starts chatting with them about their own training. Hinata’s alchemy is going well. Her dryad race makes working with all the natural resources easy for her. She even has a ton of books with her that has her family’s techniques in them.
Allie’s seamstress working is going well too. She is learning how to weave right now. The end goal is weaving enchantments into her clothing. There are many techniques to enchant clothes and weaving them into the cloth is the best way.
Aiko’s cooking is obviously going well and Luna’s manager work is great aswell. She has been spending her time setting up bank accounts and a business to sell their excess loot. This is something the clan does for them but having something that is there own to manage is also important. Eventually the magic society will span the entire world, then the rest of the galaxy. Having their accounts set up is important. When the world opens up to the rest of the galaxy their dungeon core and connected systems will reconnect to the rest of their societies in the beast nation.
The others are not here but they all usually spend their free time with their families. Like this the rest of the day goes by and Helo heads into the dungeon around seven o’clock. Allie tired to come with him but Helo explained that he really needs to rush and get experience. Entering at the 14th floor Helo takes off in the sprint. The team isn’t going into the dungeon tomorrow so Helo can take tomorrow easy and spend some extra time here tonight.
Rushing through the floors Helo remembers that his boxers actually hold extra energy. Stopping for a moment Helo smacks himself in the head. Remembering and using that would have been extremely helpful against the Ash Elemental. Drawing from his boxers Helo decides that he won’t stop until his personal reserves and his boxers are empty. With over 1300 units of energy and his regeneration Helo can go at full speed for a while. Collecting all the cores and being as efficient as possible Helo is happy with his haul in the end. He made it his priority to find any alpha beasts and kill them with their packs. This vastly increased his gains. Add on his lower level and solo running Helo is making massive gains. In that 8-hour dungeon run Helo killed over 2,000 creatures between the entirety of the 14th through 19th floor.
Class: Shaded Predator Level: 12 (522,968/1,026,000) (2000 + 1,024,000)
Smiling at his progress Helo can’t believe his gains. Part of him thinks that Elder Anthony is modifying the lower floors to be massive spawn points for him.
Congratulations you have reached level 12. You have gained 2 free stat points.
You have gained +1 to Vit, Will, Per and Agl. Due to your race being Vampire?
Because of your class ‘Shaded Predator’ you have gained +1 to Will, Vit, Agl, and Dex.
Name: Helo
Tier 1
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 12 (522,968/1,026,000) (2000 + 1,024,000)
Stats: 178
- Str: 12 (+5%)
- Agl: 26 (+15%)
- Dex:19 (+15%)
- Per: 30 (+30%)
- Vit: 33 (+40%)
- End: 13 (+15%)
- Int: 12 (+5%)
- Will: 33 (+40%)
Happy with his gains Helo stumbles home covered in blood and tired. It is about four in the morning and Helo has had so much energy pass through his body that he thinks he pulled his metaphysical back. Constantly pushing energy thorough his body and soul Helo is ready for sleep.
Showering as quickly as he can Helo leaves his clothes on the floor next to the shower and falls into bed.
What feels like a single moment later Helo wakes to Lelai, Allie and Hinata sitting over him. Lelai is licking his cheek and the two girls have their arms crossed. Giving them a fang filled smile Helo looks up at them. “Hey, what time is it?”
“Time for breakfast.” Hinata says to him. “Did you over do it yesterday?”
“Yeah. What time did you get in?” Allie ask after Hinata.
“Ummm. I don’t know. Maybe around four.” Helo responds as he gets up. Stumbling his way out of his bed Helo heads to the door. Almost hitting the wall, he hears Allie call out.
“Put some clothes on.” Looking down Helo is in his boxers and nothing else. Nodding he grabs a random pair of joggers and a hoodie.
Getting down stairs Helo the first thing he hears is Luna on the couch. “What happened to you?”
Everyone turns to look at him and can see how tired he looks. Kenneth looks interested when he sees that Helo is exhausted but doesn’t say anything. Noticing this Helo wonders what he is planning but he grabs a breakfast sandwich and speaks. “Alright meditation time.” Heading outside Helo sits in his normal spot and gets ready to meditate.
Looking inward Helo finds his channels and is surprised by what he sees. His channels look strained. Both the physical channels that are a part of his body and his metaphysical ones connected to his soul. Worried about his channels Helo starts messing with the energy flowing in his body and can tell that he strained himself yesterday. Reasserting his decision to take today easy Helo gets started meditating. Focusing near his diaphragm where his core is Helo tracks the energy as it flows from his core and through his channels both mental and physical.
He tracks it all the way to his bloodline in his heart, there Helo watches for a while as his energy dances through the patterns that make up his bloodline. His bloodline is difficult to understand, it is made up of the dark energy that comes from his curse and then the golden energy that is his original bloodline.
Taking a closer look than usual Helo notices something that he never saw before. Surrounding his heart where his bloodline is housed is a powerful enchantment. It gives off the same feeling to Helo that his necklace does. As Helo looks at the enchantment that he can barely understand he hears a loud noise and can feel his necklack start to grow hot on his chest.
“Bing”
Seal of Protection and Secrecy.
A seal placed on you from your soul bound item. This seal helps you awaken your bloodline in gradual process. It allows you to better control your growing power and instincts.
Opening the description of his necklace Helo reads what is written.
A mothers first gift, a fathers first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare/Shown)
This is a fang made from a divine being and soul bound to you.
It is enchanted to by another divine being and will awaken when you are ready.
- Bloodline Awakening 1.1 %
- Hides its nature and yours from others.
- Only another divine being will be able to read this item’s full status.
- Seal of Protection and Secrecy.
- A seal placed on you from your soul bound item.
- This seal helps you awaken your bloodline in gradual process. It allows you to better control your growing power and instincts.
- Soul Manifestation: This item was enchanted into your soul.
Tier 1 Awakening:
- Spatial Storage: 10m^3, stasis
- Tier 1 Compendium of Knowledge.
- +5% to all stat efficacies.
Tier 2 awakening: (???)
Looking at the changes to the item the first thing Helo notices is that it now tells him how awakened his bloodline is. It also added that it hides its own nature and his along with what that means. The final thing is that it changed from soul bound to soul manifestation.
Not sure what all this means Helo decides that he will deal with it as it comes. Looking into his heart and pulling on his bloodlines power Helo doesn’t think that it changed much when it comes to his stats or anything. But the energy does feel more pure and powerful. If only by the slightest amount.
Pulling his focus back to the world Helo looks around and nobody seemed to notice his changes. That probably is because of the necklace’s abilities. Activating his bloodline Helo feels as his body changes. His nails are a little longer. Feeling his fangs, they are as well. Everything just seems to be the slightest bit more; Sights, scent, instincts and his body.
Happy that he has another way to progress Helo goes back to meditating and starts practicing his skills. ‘Penetrative Strike’ feels ready to grow it just needs a little push. Still feeling his injured channels Helo decides that he will do it later.
The rest of the morning goes by and Helo works with his party on their skills and techniques. Letting his party know that after lunch they are leaving the valley to take a trip to see the towns around the area the party gets cleaned up and heads into the garage.
Entering the garage Helo sees the golf carts on one side. Turning to the other Helo can see two SUVs. Each is completely customized to run off mana and is covered in defensive enchantments.
Entering the first truck Helo sits in the back seat. He is only 14 and doesn’t have a license. As everyone piles into the SUV, they all are ready to leave the valley. Exiting the house, they have to drive past the main house and the lake. The only bridge to cross the river that flows in the middle of the valley is before the elder’s home. Traveling back down the road they pass the training and crafting building before passing Calain’s house.
Exiting the valley is easy. Rolling down the window Gabi who is driving leans back so the driver can see Allie. After a thumbs up the group heads down the mountain. The are driving down a switch back road that leads them to the base of the mountain. After a 30-minute cruise down the side of the mountain they arrive at the base. About two miles from the base of the mountain Helo can see a decent sized town. There are not many trees around the base of the mountain but past the down there is a forest.
The town is set up with walls and rivers that act like a moat. Other than that, it looks like a classic town. The walls that surround the town are actually a historic site. The walls were built hundreds of years before by Allie’s family. They keep updating the town in the walls to look modern but the walls are equipped with the best defenses they can make.
Entering the large gate of the town Helo can see a large gap between the walls and the beginning of the town. “The town is surrounded by a garden and park.” Allie says to Helo. She is turned around in the front seat and facing him. “The population is strictly maintained. Any over flow goes to our other towns around the area. This town is set up as a defensive fall back. It has extensive bunkers underground with enough room to house our entire population. Which is about 10,000 people. There is a dwarven community in the Swiss Alps that came over to build it for us. Some of their people stayed behind and now live in the Rocky Mountains as well.”
“Only the most loyal and important families have houses here. If the valley is made for the BrightMoon clan’s family and party members. This town is their party members families and the most important people.” Hinata speaks up from beside Helo. “They call this town Valley Reach. Due to its unique position as gate keeper to the BrightMoon Valley.”
Driving past the park that surrounds the town they get to a massive parking garage. “With stats and skills driving in town this size just doesn’t make sense. Some people use things like mana powered scooters or boards but most people just run or walk.” Allie continues after giving Hinata a look for cutting in.
They have an assigned spot at the entrance of the garage. The entire party gets out and heads out of the parking garage. Being led around the town a lot of people are stopping to talk to Allie. Her silver hair sets her apart and shows her as a member of the BrightMoon Family.
“So, we just came to show our faces.” Allie says. “Amara is hoping that we spend out Friday nights around the different towns and get to know the people better.”
“Is there a reason for this?” Kenneth says in a combative attitude. He thinks that they are doing it to gain favor from the people so Allie can take her brothers spot as Heir.
Giving him a look Allie answers after a minute. “Oh, this is the town center. This little garden is surrounded by the most important buildings. And I think it is because reports are showing that the Integration is starting sooner than expected. My father believes that one of the families are intentionally releasing extra mana and raising the worlds mana concentration faster than is safe intentionally.” She says this while looking around.
“You can ask the elders about it but let’s not talk about that here.” Hinata says, stopping the conversation.
The rest of the night is uneventful. This is the safest and protected of all the towns in the BrightMoon territory. The group had dinner at a nice place. The entire time Aiko complained that Hinata-Sama is supposed to eat a healthy diet.
Afterward the team sat around at the garden at the center of the territory. Eventually some parts of the team left to do other things. Gabi went to see her family, Cody went to see his and Kenneth left to be a tool.
Sitting on a bench overlooking the city center Helo watches as all sorts of different people are walking around. Helo has seen elves, dwarves, humans, and all different sorts of beast kin. He even sees people that he has no clue about.
Enjoying watching all the different people travel the city Helo is surprised to see different animals as well. He is even more surprised when he watches a hawk shift into an elf in front of his eyes. Watching with wide eyes Helo stares as the woman walks away.
Allie sees as Helo is surprised and speaks about it. “That is something that Luna, Hinata and myself can potentially do. It has to do with awakening a bloodline.” Surprised Helo asks how that happens. “Animals can gain human like forms after they reach tier 4.”
“Wow. That is amazing.” Helo says while looking at Luna who is sitting by his feet.
The rest of the night goes by quickly and eventually Helo, Luna, Aiko, Allie and Hinata head back home.