Helo has just fallen asleep, and the sun is in the sky. Everyone is up and excited for the day but looking around for Helo. Alli and Hinata decide to get him from his room if he isn’t up for breakfast.
Half an hour later Alli enters Helo’s room after knocking. Sitting on his bed Lelai is curled up under the covers. Her little fluffy head pokes up and she gives a little bark in greeting. Behind Alli, Hinata walks in as well.
Both girls want to wake Helo, its Christmas. Normally the team eats breakfast at nine. Due to the holiday, they pushed it back to ten. Now it is ten-thirty, and nobody has seen him for two days.
Walking into the room both girls silently think about how adorable Lelai is before finding Helo sitting at his desk asleep.
Sneaking up behind him Alli asks quietly, “What has he been working on?”
“I don’t know. But two days ago, he had a small freak out and ran away. He was gone the night before, and last night he was in his room.” Hinata say while walking up and softly running her fingers in his hair. Her touch makes Helo move his shoulders, but he quickly falls back asleep.
“I tried to get him to come eat but he ignored me. Honestly, I cheered for him when he told me about his knew meditative trace skill, but now I’m a little annoyed with it.” Alli says with a pout. She waits a few seconds while looking out the window, but her best friend doesn’t reply. “Hinata?” Looking over Alli finds her friend in a daze.
Following her line of sight, she finds a small array made with three items inside. She lets outs a small gasp as she studies them.
What she thinks are bracelets glow softly as runic lines are lit with mana. The lines are thin and delicate but cover the entire item.
Hinata has her hands over her mouth, and she starts to reach for the one that just has to be hers. She can see a tree with a dark green crystal that matches her eyes, the inside of the crystal is swirling with a dark light that reminds her of Helo’s bloodline. The lines are covering the tree in a slight leaf pattern and are glowing with a pure white light.
Alli grabs her hand before she can affect the array. “Wait. We don’t know what the array is doing.” She says this while string at the silver moon and the beautifully cared runes that are glowing around it. The runes are in a cloud like pattern and frame the moon. The white crystal has the same swirling darkness inside of it.
Alli has some knowledge on arrays that comes from her training. Her skill has a slight array focus, but mostly works on intention. But her bloodline also comes with an intuitive knowledge of arrays and mana. Focusing on the arrays she speaks quietly “It is some kind of mana sharing array.”
Hinata, who actually listens to her lessons, nods her head. “It is a resonance array. I think. It helps connect multiple objects. Do you have an appraisal skill?”
“Yeah, let me see. Oh…” Alli says as her eyes start to mist.
“Read it out loud Alli-Chan.” Hinata says while tugging on her arm.
“Maybe we should wait? They are obviously our gifts.” She asks, she read the first few lines and feels bad already.
“You already read it. It is only fair if I do to.” Hinata says imperiously. Looking at her face Alli can see she has a slight blush.
While the two girls are arguing Helo is waking up. He flicked awake for a moment earlier, but with a moment of sensing his instincts told him he was fine. All his subconscious mind could sense was his two closest friends. So, he went back to sleep.
But now they are whisper shouting over his head. “Can you two go back to bed.” Helo groans out.
“EEEP.” Alli jumps. “It’s almost eleven, were not going back to bed.”
“OHHHH sorry Helo.” Hinata says. She starts petting his head again. Helo isn’t sure when she started doing it, but it feels too good, and he is too tired to stop her.
Relaxing back into his desk he hears Alli whisper. “You tell him!” Before Hinata’s hands leave and Alli’s take her place.
Hinata steps beside him. “Sorry Helo, we haven’t seen you for two days. We were a little worried and came to check on you. It is past breakfast. We saw your ‘Resonance Array’.”
Hearing it was past breakfast woke Helo up a little and hearing that they saw his gifts finished the job. With a sigh he says. “It’s fine. They are yours anyway.”
Looking up he uses ‘Appraisal’ on his items.
Predator’s Moon Beacon. (Uncommon)
A chain link band made from a skilled crafter from Dark Steel. Enchanted by a rising crafter with simple but powerful runes. Filled with intention and connected through resonance. A dark moon opposite a howling wolf.
- Enhanced by dark energy to conceal beacon from others.
- Activate to send out a wave of dark energy to destabilize any surrounding magic. Sends out a signal of attuned mana to Receiver.
- Resonance Link.
- Depending on surrounding can signal up to 50 miles.
- Aura Burst: When the destabilizing wave is released an aura signature lingers behind. This is the aura of the Shaded Predator and will keep beasts away.
Predator’s Tree Beacon (Uncommon)
A chain link band made from a skilled crafter from Dark Steel. Enchanted by a rising crafter with simple put powerful runes. Filled with intention and connected through resonance. A dark tree opposite a darting fox.
- Enhanced by dark energy to conceal beacon from others.
- Activate to send out a wave of dark energy to destabilize any surrounding magic. Sends out a signal of attuned mana to Receiver.
- Resonance Link.
- Depending on surrounding can signal up to 50 miles.
- Aura Burst: When the destabilizing wave is released a aura signature lingers behind. This is the aura of the Shaded Predator and will keep beasts away.
Predator’s Receiver (Uncommon)
A loops disk made from Dark Steel. Enchanted to find its connected beacons.
- Light to guide the way.
- Powerful receiver.
- Resonance Link.
- Depending on the surroundings can detect up to 100 miles.
Smiling at his work, Helo wants to get up, but at the same time his bed is ten feet away and calling to him. It might just be the happy fox, but it doesn’t matter to Helo. Getting up Helo falls into his bed and promptly falls asleep.
Both girls look at Helo peacefully sleeping and don’t have the heart to wake him. The hungry fox though… She doesn’t care. Jumping up she hits him with her front paws with a ‘Pa, Pa.’ sound.
The girls laugh at that and Alii’s goes to pick her up and bring her downstairs. Both girls grab their new chain link bands and put them on their wrists. They don’t know yet that Helo made them for their ankles. They were made to be out of sight and mind. Then concealed so nobody would notice them.
The small gem in the back helps run the enchantment. But the true fuel is the gems on the front that are swirling with darkness. Helo made them capable of holding mental energy. His own dark energy is close enough that he was able to put it in the enchantment.
Now as the concealing enchantment is activated it will draw from there. Same with the single enchantment.
Happy with their gifts the girls head downstairs, they decided to wait on opening present with their party for tonight. Leaving a note on the counter they decide to go to the main house. At the main house some of them split off to visit their families. Gabi, Cody and Luna have families near the area.
Hinata, Alli and Aiko stay at the main house. With Alli’s family, and Kiyoki. Kiyoki is already tipsy as they arrive and runs up to hug the group. “Ohhhh my sweet little ladies. Hick. Your all so beautiful. I can see your wearing the kimonos I sent you. Hick” Kiyoki is wearing a form fitting Kimono that shows her collarbones and a hint of bust. As speaks she keeps getting interrupted by hiccups.
They each received a winter themed kimono from Kiyoki the day before. They are white with different snowflake patterns on them. Slightly stumbling and hiccupping she pulls each girl into her chest and nuzzles her face into the top of their heads.
After she is done hugging the girls, she goes back to harassing a very flustered Micah who is on a couch. “Micah-Kun. Ohhhh.” She says while getting close to him. “Hick. You must lonely right now, don’t worry. Hick. I’m here for you.” She hugs his arm and sits next to him on the couch her was on.
The three girls are used to Kiyoki’s temperament, but Hinata is just happy that Helo isn’t here yet to see her aunt like this. Kiyoki is letting her more kitsune instinct out and is enjoying flirting with Micah and making him uncomfortable.
To Alli’s horror her mother is drinking with Kiyoko as well. Cheyenne is more like a cat who has found a toy. She is playing with Graham and obviously is leading up to something that Alli wants to be far away from.
Before they can get too far into the room, they are greeted my Elder Shelby and Anthony. It doesn’t take long for the enchanting elder to notice a new item on Alli and Hinata.
“Wait.” She holds up her hands to the two young girls. “What is that?” They both are wearing their anklets on their wrists.
“Our gift from Helo. He stayed up late finishing them and is sleeping right now.” Alli says to the elder.
“Mhmm.” She hums to herself, reaching out she asks, “Can I?”
Getting agreement from Alli, she takes the bracelet and studies it. “This is incredibly simple, but potent.” She looks between the two with get aura and skills. “He used a resonance array… Very smart. What receiver he has will be able to pick up the signal easier now.”
Handing the item back she says, “This is well made. For a mid-tier 1 crafter this will be potent. It’s not like someone at tier 1 or 2 can easily travel over one-hundred-fifty miles and escape the range of the beacon.”
Waking up from his nap Helo checks his tablet and it is already past noon. Getting out of bed the drowsy teenager stumbles around, eventually putting on clean clothes. Finding his way downstairs Helo uses his powerful sense and aura to look for his party. Nobody is in the entire house.
Heading to the first floor he looks around and ends up finding a note.
Thank you for the gift!
We're going to the main house.
The note is simple but to the point. Vanishing the note into his necklace Helo starts using his new ‘Mental Grasp’ skill to get food ready. For some reason he finds great joy in using his mental powers to move things. It might be because he obviously thinks it's awesome, but his willpower is one of his highest stats. So, pushing his mind like this almost feels right.
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Eventually sitting down and eating, he looks into the kitchen and shudders. Not everything went well in his skill practice. His grasp skill is more powerful than nudge. He has more options for movement and control. But having the option doesn’t mean he can do it.
With nudge the skill would surround an object in his mental energy, that energy would naturally levitate the object. Then Helo would just give it a push in a single direction before the energy would dissipate. There isn’t any real room for failure.
This new skill does something similar but the grasp on the object is stronger and if he doesn’t push too hard, it can last longer. Due to this he assumed that he was ready to hold a bowl of eggs. Evidently, he was not.
Looking into the kitchen after eating, Helo just wants to take another nap. But he has to clean. It would already be done if he wasn’t so tired. Helo isn’t a normal teenager, but is some ways he proves that he is in fact still a teenager, and the youngest on the team.
About to get up Helo hears footsteps coming up the path to the front door. Freezing he focuses and counts. 1…2,3…5. Oh shit. One of them has to be Aiko. Abort. Abort! New plan Helo. Hide.
Scrambling under the table Helo wraps himself in his bloodline and pulls his chair in behind him. He can hear people outside talking and laughing. Along with Hinata, Alli and Aiko, is Micah and Kiyoki.
As they enter the house, he can hear a sharp intake of breath from an Aiko-like voice.
“Now don’t freak out. He must have been tired and hungry.” Alli says in a calming voice.
“DON’T FREAK OUT! This is my KITCHEN!” Aiko freaks out. “LOOK WHAT HE DID.” She says while looking at the counter. Entering the kitchen and looking into the sink, Aiko gasps again. “He is dead.” She says in a surprisingly calm and scary voice. She holds up her favorite pan; it is covered in burnt food.
Charging to the staircase she starts running to Helo’s room with a spatula in hand. Behind her Alli and Hinata and trying to calm her down.
At this time Helo is slowly crawling out from under the table and is about to sneak to the wall. A laughing Micah says. “You can come out now.”
Feeling his heart shudder, Helo slowly turns around, while releasing his aura. He totally forgot about those two. As his presence starts to become visible again Kiyoki laughs. “HAaa when I told this big boy here that I wanted to go for a small walk, I didn’t expect entertainment.” She skips up to Helo and smothers him in a hug. “Don’t worry little Helo-Kun. It will be okay. I won’t let that mean girl hurt you, older girls can be so mean.”
Not sure if he should feel safe or scared with Kiyoki hugging him, he looks to Micah for support. Instead, Micah is studying the wall. He is just relieved that Kiyoki changed her focus. Her flirting is fun, but she is relentless.
Trying to get out from her grasp Helo ends up relenting and letting Kiyoki hug him. “How come I couldn’t feel you?” Helo asks Micah. When Micah first spoke, he was surprised. He heard him walking up to the house, but as the girls were yelling Micah and Kiyoki vanished.
“An advanced technique. Something that I won’t be able to show you until tier 3. Well for you maybe late tier 2.” Micah explains. “Auras are the representation of your body and spirit on the physical world. They are guided by your experiences and will. Eventually auras of a certain strength will naturally levitate your body, once they are dense enough.” At this he lightly levitates off the ground. It is a similar effect as when his ‘Mental Grasp’ skill grabs something. “This is where the meditating old master comes from, that sits above the ground.”
“Then you will notice that when you express your full power, eventually the ground will crack, and dust will rise. Soon after that you can do things like minor telekinesis. Easily able to be disrupted and nothing to powerful. But one of the most subtle aura techniques have to do with manipulating other auras. Like bending yours around Kiyoki and I, so that you can’t sense us.” He says with a shrug.
Upstairs they can hear the Aiko shouting about how the “bastard escaped”.
“But we should leave.” Micah says, he waves his hand and the kitchen cleans itself. “Getting rid of the evidence.” Winking at Helo he turns to the door and disappears into the snow.
Following after Helo is surprised to see large wolf prints where Micah was.
After Aiko had a sufficient time to calm down, the rest of the day went well. The group exchanged simple gifts and had a great dinner.
The rest of December went by quickly and before they knew it, it was time to go to Japan. With only six months until the start of school they have a lot of training to do. Helo has yet to hear much about the school. But the more he learns the more he realizes that it is as much a school as it is as political and magical battle ground.
The school is run by the four neutral families, with the main family being from Iceland. Who are not always so neutral, each neutral family has their own agenda and goal. It is staffed and funded by the other fourteen. Rewards are great and opportunities are vast. But they have to be earned and fought for.
In Japan they are going to be doing they final training before they go. Over the next six months Alli and Hinata are expected to reach the level 40’s. They need to find at least three to four more teammates. The rest of the team is expected to be pushing into level 40 as well.
For Helo, he is going to be transitioning away from enchanting with Elder Shelby and learning about Arrays. They are made using the same symbols and runes. But their effects and creation are much different.
The only arrays that Helo has made are a ‘Stabilization’ and ‘Resonance’ array. Both used only a few runes, only lasted for a few hours, and were very simple. True arrays can shape the world around you. They are large scale magic.
Putting the two crafting styles together you can make things like long term arrays, talismans, or rituals to cast magic, and the pinnacle of the two crafts are city wide enchantments. The enchantment that is surrounding the BrightMoon’s valley is a region wide enchantment. It stops the mana infused beast from leaving the plateau and defends them from attacks.
For Helo personally he wants to get his final skills to rare tier, this is in preparation for his upgrade to tier 2. He also wants to train in counter assassination. Hiding from and finding others who are trained to do so.
While at the school that will be his main job. Even if everyone else thinks he is some kind of bodyguard/assistant. They will hopefully be finding two more party members that can fill the bodyguard role. Both girls already have Luna and Aiko for the assistant spot.
It was a few days before they left that they got news about the attack on Helo. They had gotten updates but not much was found out. After going through Grant’s stuff, they found correspondence about his betrayal and groups were sent to follow leads. Nobody but Calain and Braden knew that the ‘correspondence’ was planted by the two of them.
On the day they were set to leave they were joined by Alli’s family and Kiyoki. Kiyoki was hanging off Micah while saying goodbye. But she is Hinata’s alchemy teacher, so she is going back to Japan with them.
The goodbye was tear-filled and long. Graham insisted that he just had something in his eye.
After that they were off. The flight was only half as long as normal flights. This is due to the plane being magical. Flying over Tokyo, Helo is amazed by the view. It is a large and beautiful city. But the plane doesn’t stop there. They continue past the city scape and start flying over a mountainous region.
Landing on a hill overlooking the Tokyo area Helo is not sure how to feel. He wasn’t exactly sure what he expected, but going from on mountain to another was a little anticlimactic for him.
“My family lives in the Mount Fuji National Park area.” Hinata says as they all walk off the private jet. Outside there are a line of men in black suits, behind them are black SUVs. Each one bows sharply as Hinata passes and speaks respectfully. “Ojo-Sama”.
Hinata walks past and the only attention she gives them is a light wave of her hand. At the end of her wave all the men stand straight and starts collecting their bags and leading individuals into the SUVs.
Once they are all seated and, on their way, Helo looks at Hinata with a tilt to his head. This was not what he was expecting. The BrightMoon guards were respectful and nice, but this feels more like worship.
“This is our way.” She simply states.
Not sure how to respond Helo watches as the trees and hills pass by.
Eventually they stop. Stepping out of the SUV, he is surprised by the beautiful view. The snow-covered land is similar to the BrightMoon’s land. But this also has a sense of mysticism. Looking around and poking with his aura, he can tell that the ambient mana is different.
In the BrightMoon territory it was natural, almost wild. But here it seems mystical and serene. Using his physical senses Helo looks around and the driveway is lined with short but wide topped cherry blossom trees. Instead of flowers or leaves, each is coated in snow and ice.
Turning back the front, he can see a series of beautiful houses. They are tradition Japanese style homes with a modern touch, pure wooden colors, sweepy style roofs, the houses looks like they are decorated with the utmost care. But they are also open concept with windows lining the walls.
Helo can see as a woman inside one of the houses touches a window and it becomes and opaque tan color that matches the sliding doors.
For one of the buildings all the windows and doors are open, inside there are a group of young men performing sword katas. “Wow. Last time I was here, I felt like I was in an anime.” Gabi breaks the silence. “Well… I still do.”
Hinata just sighs and starts walking inside. The steps are lined with bowing servants who stand as she passes. The servants bow to Alli as well, just not as deeply. To Helo’s surprise, they also bow to him.
Walking directly through the front house they enter into a central courtyard. The courtyard is surrounded by trees and other houses in a large square. In the center is a tall traditional building. It has over five stories and each one has a wide sweeping roof and a balcony that wraps the building.
Outside the front of the building is a smiling Japanese man and woman. “Sis!” Kiyoki yells. Right after she breaks the solemn feeling in the air and runs to hug Yuki Kashiwagi. Helo remembers her face from a few years ago. She was at the BackRoom with everyone else.
Smiling at the two laughing women Akira claps his hands. “Welcome! Tonight, you will rest. Tomorrow we can get down to business.” With a wave of his hand, the black suited men that followed them from the trucks carries their luggage into a three-story building to the left. The building has the same layout as the one you girls designed. But instead of a cabin design it is a traditional Japanese design.
The group follows the men and enters their new home; they will be living and training here for six months. Most people enter the school below level 40 and they are not expected to reach tier 2 until their final year. For individuals like Alli and Hinata the expectations are much higher.
They are expected to reach tier 2 by the start of the second year. They might not gain much levels during that year, but it will give them great opportunities to raise their class skills.
Entering his new room, Helo begins to unload all his enchanting gear onto his desk. As he does Lelai trots in with her own storage bag in her mouth. She has taken to carrying it around with her. If she finds something she likes she uses her mist to ask Helo to put it in her bag.
Looking at Helo with blue pleading eyes she whines and looks toward where her bed usually goes. With a sigh Helo gets Lelai’s bed and belongings organized with a little bit of annoyance. You don’t even use this bed.
After everyone has some time to get unpacked, they a wave of servants sweep through the house, they let everyone know that they are expected to meet in the main house for dinner. To Helo’s surprise one of the maid’s, he can barely even sense. As he tries to get a feel for her, she turns to him and winks.
They are all then lead into the main house and on the bottom floor is a large and beautiful dining room. In the center of the room is a low table, it takes Helo an embarrassing moment of confusion before he realizes that it is meant to be knelt at.
“Come sit.” Akira says from the head of the table. His wife is right next to him, and she is still getting talks to by an excited Kiyoki. She is now telling her sister Yuki about how easy it was to embarrass Micah.
The group has a nice dinner, but Helo is a little confused. He expected… well not hostility, but at least distance from the Kashiwagi leaders. Instead, Akira is incredibly inviting to him. Yuki even made jokes about his developing relationship with her daughter Hinata.
Getting told that they will be woken up early to start training, the team goes back to their houses and goes to bed. It is still pretty early, but they had a long day. They are all excited about what tomorrow will hold for them.
Not feeling tired yet, Helo sends some time practicing his ‘Mental Grasp’ skill. He wants to learn how to take more control over the mental construct that is used surround the item. Right now, he is practicing on his stylus. It has more weight due what it is made from and it has an off shape. Due to this it makes for a good practice tool.
Eventually his reserves run dry, still not feeling tired, he runs a bath. Sitting in the nice and grand bath, Helo thinks about his day. He wants to know why the Kashiwagi family is so nice to him. He didn’t expect them to be mean. But he didn’t expect this much warmth.
Eventually he ends up falling into an idle meditation. Drawing out not just his dark energy but his bloodline, he watches as it starts to flood his body. Ever sense he got the ‘Bloodline Awakening’ skill, he has had a more difficult time drawing his bloodline out. It’s like the skill opened the tap and now his body gets flooded with powerful energies that he isn’t ready to withstand.
Letting the skill run through his body he focuses on his channels and cells. They are being strained and destroyed in the wake of his bloodline’s energy. Looking at the place where his bloodline destroyed, he can feel some pain and strain on his body and mind.
Pulling back on his energy and locking it back into his heart, Helo looks back at the destroyed section. It is starting to heal, to his surprise it looks almost healthier. Maybe livelier than portions of his body that didn’t get touched.
This is something that he never would have been able to see if his perception wasn’t so high and is his meditation skill didn’t upgrade. With a quick thought he uses appraisal on his necklace.
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 2.5 %
- 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: (???)
“Huh… It has gone up. Is there a way to track that?” Helo thinks while looking at his awakening percentage. “BING”
Your Status has been updated.
Name: Helo Vital
Tier: 1
Bloodline: Redacted (2.5%)
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), Stylus for the Manaless (Rare), Revolution Naginata (Uncommon), Predator’s Receiver (Uncommon)
Lying in bed he thinks to himself. Hopefully now I’ll stop forgetting to check it.