A few days have gone by and Helo is enjoying his new life. The weekend was relaxing and filled with meditation. He probably meditated more than he needed to, but Helo was worried about his injured channels. To his surprise on Monday morning when Helo woke up, he had a notification waiting.
Because of the pressure you have placed on your energy channels you have begun cultivating your body and soul. +1 to Vit, Will, and End.
Helo has no idea what cultivation is. When bored he has read a few cultivation novels, so he understands the idea. But from what Helo has read cultivation isn’t a thing in the system. With this new knowledge he decided that he is going to explore cultivation before he enters tier 2.
Name: Helo
Tier 1
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 12 (625,935/1,026,000) (2000 + 1,024,000)
Stats: 181
- Str: 12 (+5%)
- Agl: 26 (+15%)
- Dex:19 (+15%)
- Per: 30 (+30%)
- Vit: 34 (+40%)
- End: 14 (+15%)
- Int: 12 (+5%)
- Will: 34 (+40%)
Happy with his growth Helo can tell that he is going to be extremely powerful in the future, at least on earth. He read a few books on increasing stats through effort and the books agreed on a few things. First, it is easier when you are lower level. Second, the more stats you can gain shows a higher potential. Third, as a bloodline awakens gaining stats is easier. It has to do with your expanded abilities and how an awakened bloodline enhances someone.
Anyway, the last few days went really well. On Monday when the group entered the dungeon everyone got close to their next level. A few people in the party even evolved or got close to evolving a skill. This is exciting because they all gained Tier 1 skills but have an easier time upgrading them to Teir 2 thanks to their classes.
Excited about the training day Helo finds that he is genuinely happy. He is excited to help the party learn about their new skills or finish the process of evolving their skills that are close. He still has trouble fighting in the group. His instincts want him to prowl the outside of the fights and stick to the shadows. Helo even noticed that his instincts prefer it when he is up high. In trees, on rocks, or a hill; it doesn’t matter he likes looking down on the party and striking at a perfect instance to kill a powerful enemy.
Getting out of bed and getting ready for the day, Helo takes a shower with Lelai and has to deal with her practicing her control over water. Cheyenne stopped by on Saturday and took Lelai for a few hours. Lelai came back to the house and proceeded to throw water around and make a mess.
Cheyenne just laughed as she left the house. She was laughing so hard her ears and silky cat tail even appeared for a moment. Helo stopped what he was doing and took a water ball to the back of the head as he stared at her silky appendages.
“Oh, sweetie you haven’t seen them yet have you. Well, a lot of people in this valley and the town below are not human. The same goes for Hinata’s clan. That is why we are so close. Both our respective backers are beast kin communities. They both have ties to the larger Beast Empire.”
Thinking back to that moment Helo blushes as he remembers how after he learned that he awkwardly asked Allie and Hinata if they had animal ears or a tail. They both said that their bloodlines were not awakened enough.
Shaking his head Helo steps out of the shower and gets dressed. Heading down the stairs he is surprised when he doesn’t see anyone in the living room. Usually, Aiko is down here and cooking or Luna is on the couch going over her reports. Shaking his head he looks at Lelai who is walking next to him. “Looks like it is just us this morning.” Lelai just yips happily and trots to the door with her tail wagging happily.
Helos follows her outside and goes for his usual run. He is focusing on his ‘Double Lunge’ skill. It is a low uncommon grade skill and Helo wants to push it to peak uncommon. He is hoping to infuse his bloodline’s null affinity into the movement skill.
His practice every morning is starting to pay off. He is able to keep the skill stable longer before breaking. But he doesn’t think that he will be able to infuse the skill with his bloodline before rare tier. So, he wants to push his skill to peak uncommon, then use his bloodline to push it into rare.
Getting back to the house Helo jumps directly to his balcony which is three stories up. His control over ‘Double Lunge’ is growing much better. Landing on the railing and balancing easily Helo smiles and looks down at the angrily yipping Lelai. Laughing at her he enters his room and sprays himself down before putting on his days normal clothing.
Clothing for his tends to be clothes that Allie makes for him. For some reason she like putting roses on his clothing. Helo has nothing to say about it because she is making his clothes without being asked and truthfully, he likes the design. From what he has learned about the integration having a recognizable image can help a lot in the future.
Heading back down stairs Helo can hear that everyone is up before he makes it to the first floor. Entering the floor Helo is shocked as he looks around. He was gone for almost thirty minutes, when he left the first floor was clean and tidy. Getting back, it is now a mess of color and balloons.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Everyone except Cody and Kenneth yell out.
Shocked by what he is seeing Helo freezes in the door way. He hasn’t celebrated his birthday for years. Allie runs up to him and grabs his hand. “Come-on we made a special breakfast for you.” She pulls him past the party and into the kitchen where Mila, the head maid, and Allie’s family are sitting at islands counter.
“Happy birthday kid.” Micah says to Helo with a smile. “I have a gift I want to talk to you about. But it is up to you. Ill talk to you about it later.”
“Happy Birthday Sweetie.” Cheyeene comes up and gives Helo a hug smothering him in her chest. “My husband and I don’t have a gift for you.” She says while giving Allie and playful glare. “Someone didn’t tell us quick enough. But you can come to us for anything you need. If you find that your gear is missing anything just come ask us.”
With a nod Helo looks to Graham who gets up and offers a hand. “Yeah kid. Congrats.” He says with a not unkind voice. Cheyeene smack Graham’s arm.
“Don’t worry about him Helo. He is just a grumpy old man.” She says to Helo with a wink.
“Food is ready!” Mila says from behind the counter. After her words there was a rush to the table as everyone was excited about the food. Sitting down and eating there is a nice atmosphere on the first floor. The only problem was Kenneth but everyone ignored him and it was at this time that Graham realized that all the reports he had on Kenneth’s attitude were correct. Deciding to start looking for a different take for his daughter Graham just ignores Kenneth.
After a while Kenneth goes upstairs and everyone downstairs is left in a good mood. As the food was finished and plates cleared Allie ran off with a happy sequel and grabbed a package that was hidden poorly under a cushion.
Running back up to Helo, she hands it off to him and smiles as she watches him. A second later she has already waited to long. “Open it!” She yells at him.
With a laugh Helo wipes his eyes and opens the package. This is the first birthday he celebrated since Ms. Accleas vanished. Thinking back to how much he missed her Helo can’t help but get a bit misty eyed.
Everyone pretends not to notice but Allie and Hinata both sit down on his side and lean into him while he opens the present. Pulling out a hoodie and joggers Helo looks at Allie with some confusion. These are made with much nicer material than Helo’s previous ones. They also have a mixture of roses, foxes, and panthers on them.
“Inspect it.” Hinata says while touching his arm. With a nod Helo inspects the clothing.
Rose Hoodie/Haori and Jogger Collection. (Uncommon)
Made from the silk of an uncommon spider and with the help of a powerful seamstress and alchemist. This collection of clothes is made to pair with any of the others in its set.
- Slashing and Piercing Resistance.
- Self-mend, self-cleaning, sizing enchantment.
- Innate transfiguration to change from a Hoodie to a Haori.
“This is awesome!” Helo says with a smile.
“I know!!!” Allie yells in his ear. “You keep destroying the clothes that I make for you.” As she says this, she glares at him. “Anyway, Hinata and I worked together to treat and prepare all the silk with alchemical materials. Then we designed them and I made them. We also got Helo from the Alchemist and Seamstress that are training us.” She says with a big smile.
“Our clans have a simple yet powerful enchantment that we share. It is a combination of three enchantments. Self-repair, self-mend and self-size. A lot of dungeon clothing will come with that and our backers long ago made an enchantment that they sent with us based of these three enchantments. It is simple but extremely helpful, especially when the materials are magical in nature and treated correctly.” Hinata says with a smile.
The door swings open and slams into the wall. Everyone’s heads whip around to face the door. Elder Anthony and Shelby enter the door with a swagger. You can tell that the friendly and loud Elder Anthony likes it as he is the center of attention. Before he can speak up his wife does.
“It is a beautiful enchantment that has been refined and passed down sense the beginning of our people. Most other factions don’t have one like it. Truthfully the enchantment that I put into your clothing set is a simplified version of a much more profound enchantment.” She speaks and smiles as everyone in the room is looking at her. She is one of the greatest enchanters alive and the best enchanter the BrightMoon clan has had in generations.
“This tri-enchant is made using a complex array ritual. We maintain it but only the best and most loyal enchanters are taught how to create the array. It makes it simple for us to place this enchantment on the clothing of all our guards and even sell them to others. The BrightMoon clan bloodline’s power over runes and conjuration makes this possible.”
She sweeps into the room and picks up the clothes Helo is holding. “The truth is that even the Kashiwagi clan enchanters know how to make this enchantment due to our similar backing. But they cannot maintain the array, the same way that the BrightMoon clan can.” She smiles and Hinata as she says this with a teasing look. Hinata just rolls her eyes and Elder Shelby continues.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“But…” She says as the entire room is captivated by her short lecture. “The more exciting thing is that this tri-enchant, which is the title that was given to this enchantment due to its popularity, it is only a simplified version of a powerful enchantment known only to the most respected of enchanters. This enchantment was made specifically so that the beast-kin can shift between their animal and elven shapes without losing the abilities and protection of the clothing that they are wearing.” She says and looks up with a smile.
“We have a few articles of clothing that are at this level. Relic passed down through the clan. I have seen it a few times and I continue to get knocked unconscious from the power of the enchantment. This isn’t just an enchantment but an artform that mixes enchanting and alchemy along with a third profession to make the gear.”
“The tri-enchant which is a staple of beast-kin economy is a simplified version of this enchantment.” She says with a smile. “And the beauty of both these enchantments is that they are made to be modified. Add in strength increases or passive resistances. Really anything can be worked to fit within these runes. Where would the beauty be in an enchantment designed to fit on clothing and gear if it took up all the room that was made to be enchanted.” Finishing her speech, she hands the clothing back to Helo and steps away. “I put your clothes through the tri-enchant array. You will have to learn how to enchant them yourself in the future.”
“Wow.” “Huh” “I didn’t know that.” Everyone in the room says out loud. Even Graham didn’t know some of what she was explaining. There were only two people who knew all of what she said and it was Elder Anthony who has heard this lecture multiple times and Cheyeene who spends a lot of her time with her ‘Auntie’ Shelby.
“Thank you. This is amazing.” Helo says while pulling out set after set of clothing. In the end he has over 20 different tops and bottoms of different color and pattern. Most of them are darker colors with bright patterns. The rose, fox and panther tend to be red, orange and dark purple. Happy with the gift Helo heads upstairs and puts away his clothing. Separating the new from the old Helo can tell that the new stuff is made from much nicer materials. But the older stuff is made from cotton like material and will be good for lounging around in.
Putting on a new hoodie Helo is wearing a dark grey hoodie that has an orange fox and dark purple panther around a red rose on the middle of his abdomen. It is like they are circling his core. Inspecting it some more Helo even found his own insignia in a small pattern on his right arm, left arm and on his lower back. The girls seem to like placing his insignia over where his weapons are. The pants that he is wearing are a simple black color that goes well with the dark hoodie.
Heading back down stairs Helo enters the first floor again and is met with cat calls from Gabi. Smiling at the group Helo bows in a horrible version of a Japanese bow and thanks everyone. As he straightens himself Hinata approaches and reaches for his neckline. “One of the unique tricks of alchemy is transfiguration.” She says while inverting his neckline and revealing a dense patch of mana. “Enchanting can do something similar, but it is just a knock off version of alchemy. We created this set to take two different forms.”
Hinata’s fingers light up with mana and the small patch of dense mana on his neckline lights up. Her fingers touch the small patch and the entire hoodie flares with mana. With a glow, a line gets traced down the front of his hoodie. As the line reaches all the way to the bottom, the hoodie splits into two pieces. Even the pockets split and invert into the inside.
“We made it to go between a hoodie and a haori. We will be spending half our time in Japan so we came up with this idea.” Hinata says with a smile as her hands trace down his bare chest. With a blush she backs away. “Sorry I didn’t realize.” She says while looking away.
All the adults in the room get a laugh out of the fact that Hinata just revealed Helo’s bare chest because he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
“Yeah!” Allie yells as she isn’t paying much attention. “I wanted hoodies and Hinata wanted haori. After days of arguing our teachers explained to us that they have worked together in the past to make clothing with innate transfiguration abilities.”
“That is really smart, but can someone make it a hoodie again? I’m not wearing a shirt.” Helo says while holding onto both sides of the haori. Looking down Helo can see that even the inside of the clothing has designs that are revealed when the hoodie transfigures into a haori. This one has roses all over the inside with his own insignia mixed in.
Everyone looks at Helo in confusion until Shelby speaks up. She is the one to know the most about Helo’s lacking mana due to her teaching him enchanting. “He has no mana you idiots.” She says into the room.
“OH! Sorry.” Hinata says her blush gets worse and she steps forward holding the now split patch of mana near his collar she pushes them together and uses her own mana to ignite them. The same glow appears and starting at the top the haori reconnects and turns into a hoodie.
“The way that it changes is really cool.” Helo says while looking at his now thicker but not as long hoodie. He can’t help but wonder how expensive this all was.
Seeing his look Elder Anthony steps up and places a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it so much son, your position as Hinata and Allie’s head guard means that you have certain privileges. It also means that your expected to have clothing of a certain caliber. Otherwise, we will look bad. Plus, you needed the clothes.”
With that the rest of the morning goes well Aiko had cinnamon and caramel rolls in the oven that everyone ate together. Then at 9:00 the everyone left and the party met to start their meditation and training.
Putting on a white undershirt Helo doesn’t know why but he asked Hinata to make his hoodie change. Meditating while wearing a haori just felt right. The sleeves became roomier and flowing. The sides split and laid on he ground near his waist. The part of Helo that still gets excited about book and comics couldn’t help but compare them to himself.
Getting up from his enjoyable meditation Helo stops and realizes that his status has probably changed as well.
Name: Hellesion’Kai’Vital’Spiratam
Tier: 1
Bloodline: Tier 2 Vampire?
Title: Nature’s Alpha (Epic)- This title augments your aura to be more connected to nature around you. Increases the efficiency of Vitality, Will, and Perception by 25%. Gain x4 to experience when killing an alpha and its pack in a nature themed type dungeon.
Gear: Alpha Wolf Hide Bracers (Epic), Boxers of Infinite Regeneration (Epic), A mother’s first gift, a father’s first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare), Rose Hoodie/Haori and Jogger Collection. (Uncommon), Dark Steel Kukri (Uncommon)
Age: 15
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
- Level: 12 (625,935/1,026,000) (2000 + 1,024,000)
- Aura: Null Presence – your aura passively breaks down external energy phenomena in range. By focusing your aura, you can concentrate your effort on a single phenomenon. Due to ‘Dark Curse’ this works best on Mana.
Stats: 181
- Str: 12 (+5%)
- Agl: 26 (+15%)
- Dex:19 (+15%)
- Per: 30 (+30%)
- Vit: 34 (+40%)
- End: 14 (+15%)
- Int: 12 (+5%)
- Will: 34 (+40%)
Racial Skill: 5
- Greatly Enhanced Perception (Instincts) (Rare)
- Greatly Enhanced Natural Energy (Mental/Physical) (Rare)
- Regeneration (???)
- Major Vitality Siphon? (???)
- Dark Curse (???)
- Primary(N/A)
- Secondary(N/A)
Primary Class Skill: 3
- Crippling Blow (Uncommon)
- Double Lunge (Uncommon)
- Penetrative Strike (Common)
Skills: 3
- Identify (Basic)
- Natural Meditation (Uncommon)
- Dagger Mastry (Common)
Looking at his status Helo is happy to see that his age went up to 15. He is also happy to see that his new set is in his gear as well. He is surprised that his Kukri are now shown as a part of his gear. That hasn’t happened before, he has had his Kukri the longest out of all his gear. “Huh… Weird. The author must be too lazy to go back and fix it.” Helo says out loud before pausing and shaking his head. “What was I thinking again... Oh yeah it is probably because that my new set isn’t enchanted like my other gear is. It is mostly crafted items; this is similar to my knives. It means my status now accepts them as gear.”
Shaking off his confusion Helo starts the next portion of the days training and goes over everyone’s new skills or skills that they want to evolve. Allie wants to push her ‘Runic Conjuration’ to have 10 runes total. Then she is going to try to combine it with ‘Arcane Construct’ to be able to reinforce her constructs with runes.
Hinata is still practicing her ‘Illusional Strike’ Skill. Helo is pushing his ‘Penetrative Strike’ skill. Luna is working on increasing the power of her ‘Haste’.
Aiko upgraded her ‘Protect’ skill. The skill is already boosted by her gear and now its name hasn’t changed but it is a full-scale personal shield now at uncommon tier. It wraps an individual in light and stays on them until fully destroyed.
Gabi is on the cusp of making her ‘Damage Empowerment’ skill shift its focus to be a steady gain no matter the damage. She has let her other skills slide and is obsessed with changing this skill. She is focusing so hard to honor her parents’ memory.
Cody is working to add more power to his ‘Heavy Shot’. Every time he practices, he is making steady progress with his ‘Stationary Enhancement’ skill. This skill has massive potential and Cody is always using it.
Kenneth upgraded his ‘Steady Bash’ to ‘Leaping Bash’. It takes away the more defensive aspect of the first skill and changes it into a leaping charge. This adds movement and momentum to his shield bashes.
Looking around Helo can tell that the team is making good progress. They will be competing against the parties of the other families. Helo doesn’t know what they are like but he does know that he is proud of the progress they have made.
Moving on the technique work Helo and the party start going over they individual technique books and videos. Helo has tons of advanced techniques within his necklace’s archive. Using that Helo is learning a dagger style called; Twin Fang of the Beast. Helo is hopping to change his ‘Dagger Mastery’ to ‘Twin Fang of the Beast’ style. He isn’t sure when he will be able to make enough progress to do it though.
After lunch the party spars and before he really realizes that his tired body has moved Helo is showered and ready to practice enchanting. He heads out the door and waves to the group that are on the first floor. Many of them have their own instructors to go visit. Still wearing a Haori Helo is really happy about his gifts.
Getting to the elder’s home Helo enters and heads right to Elder Shelby’s workshop. Knocking as he enters Helo finds the elder hunched over a sword and making etchings. Keeping quite Helo enters and sits at his desk in the corner. “That is for you.” Elder Shelby says and points to a new stylus on the counter.
Looking over Helo can see a stylus made from an extremely mana dense material. Walking over and picking it up he is astonished by how heavy it is. The material isn’t just stuffed with mana but it is also extremely dense. Looking at the stylus Helo is astonished by the intricate runic enchantment that coating it.
Setting aside the now finished sword Elder Shelby speaks up. “This is my birthday gift to you.” Seeing Helo’s look, she stops him with a hand. “No, the clothing wasn’t from me. And the tri-enchant is done by an array it was simple. I had a lesser enchanter do it for me.”
Pointing at the stylus she says. “That is from me. It is one of the best stylus’s I have made. On par with my own. No, it won’t help you learn the basics easier, if you want to create an item to help you enchant, you will need to make it yourself. It is a rule we enchanters have. ‘If you can’t make it yourself you can’t use it.’” She says in an old sounding voice. “That correlates to advanced styluses too. But with your mana issue I bent the rules a bit. That stylus isn’t capable of helping you more than the one you have, well other than the tip is now a shapable mana blade. But… the important part is that it holds a massive mana charge within itself and converts any core you place on its gathering array into neutral mana. I made it with powerful runes and expensive material. This should last you well into tier 3.”
She says while pointing out and demonstrating the pieces. She shows him the gathering array on the back that absorbs mana cores. Then she shows him how to use the button and sliders on the side to choose depth and width of the blade.
“This is amazing. Thank you!” Helo says with a ton of emotion in his voice.
“Your welcome kiddy.” She says while giving Helo a hug. “Most enchanters use styluses with similar tricks to help them. My own stylus has the ability to convert any mana into neutral mana. But keep in mind that the process uses and releases excess mana. So, you need to let it finish the process before you start.”
Excited to start Helo takes his new stylus and sets it in the box that she made to store it. If you open the lid there is a section for the stylus and another section to store the mana cores you want to be filled into it.
Stylus for the Manaless. (Rare)
An adamantium stylus with a mithril tip made by a skilled enchanter for her protégé. Ment to help this mana less child enchant.
- Mana Converter
- Mana Battery (10,000 units)
- Mana Blade
- Self-repair
“Woah, that is equivalent to 2,000 in a mana stat!” Helo says while looking at Elder Shelby.
“I told you it is one of the best I have made and it is made from expensive materials. Mithril is great for enchantments and mana conductivity. Adamantine is extremely dense and for you it is indestructible. It isn’t as great at mana conductivity but its strength means that it can safely hold massive amounts of mana. It gets its tier from the materials and storage size. The other enchantments are pretty basic.” She says while obviously proud of her work.
“Our dungeon is known for its flora and fauna. With little in regards to other resources. But the Kashiwagi’s dungeon is great for mining and resource gathering.” The elder then points to Helo’s desk and tells him to get to work.