Date: February 6th

  Lelai loves her Prince, but he needs to learn how to sleep. Every day he gets up at an absurd time. Being the good fox that she is, she humors him. Even if it means having to get up early. She doesn’t understand why he stays in that two-legged form. When he unleashes his bloodline, she can tell that his body doesn’t match his true scent.

  At least all the extra time in the morning means she gets her fur cared for. Lelai thinks as she lazing climbs out of the bed. Heading to her own clean and unused bed she finds it just the way she likes it. Untouched. This is her territory; it should look pristine.

  Digging her nose under her cover she feels around until she finds the world most important item. Her brush. Carefully picking up her brush with her nose Lelai enters the bath.

  Seeing the steam in the air and hearing the sounds of the warm water makes her giddy. Prancing forward Lelai jumps back and glares at the floor. Right there in the tile… cold wet water. “Yip” Nope. Lelai says to Helo. She out of everyone knows just how good his senses are.

  “Everything okay?” Her fur brushing prince says. He looks out from the tub and sees Lelai glaring at the cold water.

  Lelai hears him sigh, but he gets out of the water and carries her over the tub. Nice. Lelai thinks while relaxing in the warm water, he hasn’t started brushing her fur yet. But he will. Laying in the water Lelai is about to doze off, the last thing she thinks about was how nice yesterday morning was. The fake-fox-not-human-strong-man entertained Helo so she didn’t have to take care of him.

  Lelai was sent here as a kit, the only thing she knew was that she was supposed to stay near the prince. If that means that he cares for her fur and carries her. Even better.

  Helo’s morning started out in a similar fashion to all his other mornings. Even if it is his second day in Japan. Lelai is as needy as ever, but she still gets up to run with him. Although Helo hopes to find Akira again. For some reason he feels like a wise old master. Plus, his presence is really welcoming.

  Walking through the cold morning air, Helo enjoys the swirls of snow that get picked up by the wind. Lelai is having none of it and hides in his sweatshirt. Using his aura and enhanced senses he is trying to understand the mysticism of the mana around him. Hinata was able to connect to the ambient mana in the surroundings, and the world responded. It kind of reminded him of Mr. Bernards domains.

  Arriving at the Kashiwagi Dojo, Helo sends out a weak aura pulse. It is a small and faint thing, but is enough to detect the powerful presence inside. Helo knows from experience that Akira is incredibly in-tune with his powers. Enough that Helo thinks he could lose system support and still fight normally or mostly normal. At least within the Kashiwagi Forest.

  In response he feels a welcoming burst of aura. Taking off his shoes and setting them aside, he learned how to do this yesterday, Helo bows and enters onto the mats. Setting the sleeping fox down Helo stands in front of the kneeling man.

  “Sit. Let us talk.” Akira says from behind Helo.

  Fighting his urge to turn his head as the illusion in front of him starts to vanish, Helo kneels down as a table and warm tea appear in front of him. “Now, you have something to say. Your aura is turbulent.”

  Surprised by what Akira can learn from Helo’s aura, he looks up in shock. Akira is sitting in front of him sipping his tea. “Ah. Yeah. Yesterday I had a… epiphany on my affinity and bloodline.”

  Telling Akira about the undead and how he felt a weak resonance with it, Helo spills his disgust with his own bloodline that is mixed with the contentment he feels about having a dark affinity. He ends up telling Akira that he believes that is the reason his bloodline was sealed, to either protect him or because of the perversion.

  “There is another option you have not discovered.” Akira says from his seat. “What about from the perspective of a parent that loves you, but is forced to send you away, to an unknown world?”

  “Ah...” Helo thinks on what Akira said, and his only guess is to protect him. Voicing his idea, he gets a smile from the man.

  “Exactly. When you are twenty and come into your bloodline in full. You will be a powerful man, able to protect himself. Also, the worlds integration should have started and you will be exposed to more danger, but your parents can also come get you.” Akira explains to him and thinking about how Ms. Accleas was supposed to be with him, Helo thinks that he might be right.

  Setting down his teacup, Helo is surprised when it falls to the floor. Before hitting the ground, it is caught in a powerful and steady aura grip. The aura is invisible to his normal senses, but he can pick it up with his own aura.

  To his surprise the aura flashes visibly and looks like a gloved hand. Surprised he looks at Akira who is taking two naginata down from the training racks. “Your aura is a representation of who you are, it is your will manifest on reality. That doesn’t mean all auras are similar. My affinity for illusions and spirituality makes my aura uniquely suited to interact with the physical world.”

  “It is like the trick you use with your ‘Dark Blade’. You can control it with your aura because you have a connection to it. I just use my illusions to trick reality into thinking that I am grabbing it. Makes it easier to be subtle.” He says as he tosses a blade to Helo.

  Looking at the table, he is kneeling in front of he isn’t surprised to see it already gone. They start out similarly, slow and steady attacks and defends. But as they start to move Akira starts dropping small orbs around the center of the room. Then with a flex of his will a barrier appears.

  Almost missing a strike Helo is about to ask what he is doing, but Akira speaks up. “Your path is your own, you need to find balance within your body and bloodline.”

  As he says that the orbs glow a feint gold/green color. They give off an energy that Helo is familiar with. A second later they start releasing that energy into the air. As the vitality is released Helo can feel his cells start to absorb the energy.

  As he is working out, his body is losing the physical energy produced by his cells, due to the excess life energy in the air his body is absorbing, it replaces what is being lost. At the same time his bloodline wakes up, it isn’t the same rampaging power of ‘Bloodline Awakening’. It is a response to the excess vitality inside of his body.

  “Good! Speed up!” Akira says with a smile. He saw Helo’s eyes change color and his strikes naturally got stronger. Akira made a few assumptions about Helo, but so far, he thinks he is right.

  Due to his sealed bloodline his body isn’t attuned to the energy he is supposed to naturally produce. Now for a tier 0 unawaken basic human this is simple, there are biological processes that happen to produce energy. But a tier 0 water spite with a fully awake bloodline, those processes start to get a bit weird.

  His assumption is that Helo was never supposed to function using normal physical energy. He knows that things changed due to the curse, it complicated things and adds another level of complexity. So, he thinks that Helo needs to slowly acclimate his body to his affinities before fully awakening his bloodline. Otherwise, his bloodline will continue to stress his body and mind.

  Continuing to fight Helo, Akira is impressed by the change. With Helo’s body being filled with excess vitality he has a noticeable increase in all his physical abilities. Even his ability to think and react has increased.

  Increasing his speed another step, Akira rains down a series of blows onto Helo. Eventually after their actions appear like a blur, Helo is forced to use his ‘Bloodline Awakening’ skill.

  With another burst in speed Akira and Helo’s blows start to kick up the wind in the dojo. Lelai, who was happily catching up on lost sleep, was forced to hide behind the weapon racks.

  Blocking a blow and ducking under a follow up strike, Helo’s face has a massive fang filled grin. Whenever his awakening skill is fully activated, he always feels like everything is right in the world. Well, that is until his body and mind start to accrue too much damage.

  Feeling the intoxicating flow of vitality as it streams into his body, every single breath is almost like a shot of adrenaline. Eventually the speed of Akira’s blows reaches a point where Helo can’t keep up. Akira noticing Helo starting to have trouble slows down just a little and they continue to fight.

  Fifteen minutes later Helo is panting on the floor and having trouble lifting his sweaty body up. His body is sore, and he feels like his bloodline skill was trying to rip him apart, cell by cell. At the same time the lingering vitality from the orbs is rejuvenating him. It made a unique dichotomy for Helo. His ability to regenerate after draining vitality is powerful. He can go from a step away from death, to perfectly healthy. But whatever his bloodline does to his body is something that not even his regeneration can fix. It’s like he is being torn apart from the seams.

  As he regains the strength to sit up Akira speaks. “That was fifteen minutes, seven minutes longer than yesterday. You took one step on a very long road. But you are that much closer to balance.”

  Bowing his tired head Helo thanks Akira. The moment before Akira leaves Helo asks him a weird question. “Is there a reason you talk like a wise sage?”

  His question gets Akira to pause and tilt his head. “Mhm. It is a biproduct of the mystical mana attunement. Which is connected to my family’s illusion and nature affinities.”

  After that Akira’s body fades away. Looking around the man is nowhere to be seen. The naginata that Helo had sitting across his lap even fades away into white flame before winking out. “How does he do that?” Helo asks himself.

  Falling back onto the mat he groans at the stress in his body. Checking his status, Helo is happy by what he finds.

  Name: Helo Vital

  Tier: 1

  Bloodline: Redacted (2.6%)

  It might only be one percent, but it is still growth. It is also growth that Helo can replicate. Falling into meditation, Helo doesn’t notice as a furry creature sits on his chest to finish her nap.

  Focusing on his body Helo starts using his growing perception to look at his cells. He isn’t sure what they looked like before, but he wants to track their progress. He isn’t totally sure what is acclimating, but he thinks that it has to do with his cells.

  Obviously, Akira already has an idea. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have tried to train like this. So, Helo is going to find out for himself exactly what is going on.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Thirty minutes later Helo is good enough to get up and head back to the house. The rest of the morning passes by normally for Helo. The team heads to the Kashiwagi Dojo to do their morning training. They swapped their sparring for meditation and skill practice, they don’t want to take up too much time. Meditation can be done at the house.

  Seeing the dojo for the first time with the lights on Helo is surprised to see that each door has a barrier enchantment. It keeps the cold air out, but lets light and wind through. This makes the dojo very open to the environment without letting it affect training.

  After all their training the team meets for lunch and goes over new party members. Of the original batch, eight made it past the team’s causal scrutiny. Those eight they are going to be meeting later today.

  At the moment they are looking to add four new members. Of the four they are looking for two members that can act in a tank-like position.

  The eight prospective members were actually going to drive around with them and clear rifts. Something Helo just learned was that depending on the rift you could actually gain negative exp modifiers by entering with more than seven people. Due to this rule that seems to be semi-constant, the school makes people enter with teams of that have five to seven people.

  Alli and Hinata got some special treatment due to their family’s strengths. With a team of ten to fourteen they can split into two groups when they need to, so there are no issues with the school. But the true reason that Alli and Hinata’s parents pushed for this was because they know that the integration will start. It will happen before they leave school and they will need a strong team to survive.

  Today they are just going to test out their recruits, not gain levels. Hinata’s family actually left many of the tier 1 rifts that spawned go unbeaten, because Hinata was planned to use today to meet the new members.

  They have a total of six rifts that are within their level ranges. With a total of fifteen individuals, they set out to get to know one another. It doesn’t take long for the party to reach the first rift. Standing outside is a collection of individuals that looks like an odd mix.

  Helo’s first impressions are based off sight and aura and they are all over the place. From the folders he read on everyone he already knows their names. They all introduce themselves and the group quickly enters the rift.

  Taking a look around the vicinity Helo can see that it is a perfect rift to start in, the mana feels to have low concentration, and it feels like a simple neutral affinity. Looking deeper around the area Helo starts to use his aura and sense to feel for the enemies. It isn’t long before he can hear a “Plop, Plop.” Sound coming from in front of them.

  With a laugh every looks at him. He waves them off. “Sorry, sorry just reminds me of my first time.” He says with a smile. Everyone gives him a weird look, but it isn’t long before a little slime hops into view.

  The first person that is up is a tall and beautiful woman, she is wearing light metal armor and wielding a short spear and shield. From his memory she is the Malen-ek woman name Joreen. She is a barrier mage. The Malen-ek race looks similar to angels and they tend to follow in similar paths to them as well. But from the look on her face and feel of her aura she seems like an arrogant and difficult woman.

  The woman sneers and says “Really, a slime. This is below me.” But she still takes a step forward and stands in front of the group. With a chant, a simple barrier constricts the slime in place. With a wave of her wings, she sends forth what appear to be feather barriers. They easily pass through her own barrier and strike the slime.

  Helo is impressed by her skill. The ability to attack through your own barriers is unique and powerful.

  The next person is actually standing a little away from the group and shivering. This is the one individual that Helo chose himself. They party needs another scout, and he would be perfect. His name is Bibbin and he is a halfling. Feeling his aura Helo gets the impression that he isn’t shivering due to the cold, but stage fright.

  “You’re up Bibbin.” Luna says in a calm voice. As the manager she is taking charge of the proceedings.

  The halfling flinches “Oh a… ah. Yeah.” He says then disappears behind a nearby bush.

  Joreen laughs at the halfling and to Helo that is another negative. But it really isn’t up to him much. It is only a few minutes later when a running Binnin can be heard from the group. He comes back from the side and is being chased by three slimes.

  Reaching into a bag at his waist, he pulls out little crystals and tosses them on the ground. As the slimes pass over the crystals, they have their mana drained away.

  “Stealth and traps. Mhm. That is a good combo.” Luna says before calling the next person.

  After him is a man who is casually standing without moving. Even in the cold weather he is only wearing the simplest of linens. He has a bald head and the air of tranquility. His name is Elnar and he is a monk.

  Luna asks Bibbin to continue acting as their scout. With a flinch and a garble of words he agrees. A second later he looks at Luna, and she makes a ‘get moving’ gesture with hear head. She wanted him to draw enemies back to them.

  Elnar does an impressive showing. His defensive abilities are high, and he would make a good dodge tank.

  After Elnar is a swordsman named Carl. He seems to have a similar disposition as Joreen, but after a second of study Helo gets the idea that he isn’t arrogant but… Knightly. Like he isn’t standoffish because he is mean, but because he is overly respectful and curt.

  His showing is similar to Elnar, but he uses his shield and armor. He has more reach and can deal more damage with his sword.

  Next up is a man that is sneering at Helo. His name is Rocco, and he is a kitsune with blue fox ears and a tail. From what Helo knows about him; he is the greatest prospect in the Kashiwagi family. He has a similar story to Kenneth. But he at least seems more respectful to women.

  Rocco’s showing was incredibly impressive. He wields blue flames similar to Akira and his sword moves in a dizzying pattern. He obviously has trained his life to protect his princess. It isn’t hard for Helo to realize. From his skill, the sneers at Helo and the way he calls Hinata “Ojou-Sama.”

  After him is a beautiful and buxom Dryad. She is named Arisha and is wearing an elegant dress that hugs her curves, over it she has a nice coat. From what Helo has read about her she is great plant mage. Her affinity and bloodline lined up perfectly for her skills.

  She kills the slimes before they enter the clearing by asking the bushes and trees around them to help her. Her ability was incredibly impressive for Helo. With his ability to hide his aura in nature, watching her work was interesting.

  Next is a surly dwarf that is wearing full plate armor. He is holding a shield that Helo doesn’t think he can even lift. His name is Rurgrim and from what Helo knows he is related to Bannit in some way.

  The dwarf shows off a taunt skill. This gets looks from the party due to Kenneth, but his skill sends out a wave of power, and seems to boost his strength and defensive abilities.

  After Rurgrim is a human man that seems to have the worst attitude of the bunch. His name is Armin and he is obviously racist. Honestly Helo isn’t sure why the man signed up. How did he get here. Helo asks himself. He doesn’t even fight a slime before they send him packing.

  With seven more people to choose from the group continues on their way. Each of the individuals has grown up in awakened families and has spent time training and gaining levels. They are all between seventeen and nineteen years old, and have levels similar to Helo.

  Helo is obviously much stronger than they are. But with their specializations and skills they are impressive. Gaining the levels required to catch up to the group should be easy for them. Especially if they tag along as the party fights stronger monsters. Getting fed exp doesn’t work very well, but it can help someone boost their levels.

  After a few hours of walking through rifts and watching the recruits they are still having are hard time. Each of them is impressive in their own right, and each would be an excellent addition.

  In the end the team had already dealt with someone with a terrible attitude, so they said goodbye to Joreen. Some of the group wanted to shoo away Bibbin because of how meek he was, but Helo was adamant that they needed him. Bibbin was doing a good job and Helo wanted someone to help with scouting. So, he was allowed to stay longer.

  In the end the only other person that didn’t make the cut was Elnar. He was a calm and respectful teenager. The issue was that his skills didn’t mesh very well with the group. He actually had skills that negatively affected Hinata’s illusions. In the long run that is something that could be trained and worked around. But they already had to include up to four other individuals.

  In the end it was the meek Bibbin, knightly Carl, sneering Rocco, joyful Arisah, and surly Rurgrum. With some time left in the day the team decided to split up and take on the last two rifts.

  Hinata and Helo went with the new members to one of the rifts. Alli and the others took Bibbin and went to the other. It was Helo’s idea for Bibbin to go to the stronger rift. The truth is that he wants to pump up his levels. Helo doesn’t mind acting as a scout. But he prefers to be freer to move and act. He might be selfish, but his selfishness got the little meek halfling a great gig. So, in Helo’s mind he is doing a selfless thing.

  Smiling at his mental gymnastics Helo happily walks with Hinata and the newbies to the weaker of the final rifts. While walking he asks Hinata about Rocco, who is still glaring, and Arisah. He is curious about their heritage.

  “Well, they are actually pure kitsune and dryad. The purity of their bloodlines make it much easier for theirs to awaken.” With shock, Helo looks at her. “Yes, they are at the same level as Alli, and I when it comes to stats.”

  “I didn’t expect that. Nobody else has bloodlines like you and Alli. I kind of assumed it was a princess of the clan thing.” Helo says while scratching the back of his head.

  It isn’t long before they enter the rift and everyone groups together. Hinata quickly takes charge. To Helo’s surprise Rocco listens to her orders perfectly and with a lot of curtesy. Realizing his mistake, it is because he expects him to be like Kenneth. But no, he just doesn’t like Helo. He isn’t a bad person.

  Like that the group moves forward. Helo is scouting. Rurgrim is front and center, Carl and Rocco are to his sides, and Arisah and Hinata are behind them. For Hinata this is intentional. One she wants to watch the new members and two she wants to practice using her semi-physical illusions at a longer range.

  The rift they entered is a cave with decent mana levels. The cave is tall and lined with moss and small plants. Silently running down the tunnel Helo uses his sense of smell to try and pick up what they are fighting. He can pick up the smell of damp air and dirt, which is expected. The other smells are like sulfur and a gross musk.

  It is only a minute of moving before he comes upon his first enemy or enemies. Helo is upon them quicker than he expected. He isn’t sure if they used some kind of concealment skill or if he messed up. But rounding a corner he finds himself running face first into a scaled chest.

  The creature is taller than he expected to find due to the mana levels, but he should have been a little aware due to the cave height. It is about seven feet tall, and its body is covered in scales with rippling muscles. Its chest is bare, but it is wearing a loin cloth over its waist.

  Thank God. Helo thinks as he studies the creature.

  Kobold Bruiser

  Weakness Int, Light

  Not finding much help from his skill, and standing directly under the creature maw, Helo rolls back as it tries to bite his head. Focusing on his surroundings this is the only one. With a shrug Helo scoops up a rock from the ground and tosses it at the creature.

  Turning around he leads the creature on a short chase to the party. Rounding a corner, he sees them ahead, Hinata who sees Helo running back says to the group. “He has something for you. Get ready.”

  Behind Helo the very tall and very angry lizard man runs out. As he gets back to his group, he mutters to himself. “Why did I also smell sulfur.”

  Hinata gives him a look and is about to ask what he is saying to himself when Rurgrim speaks up. “It’s got a wyrm bloodline!”

  Not knowing what he is talking about, Helo watches as the Kobold’s mouth starts to emit smoke. As the scent reaches his nose he dives backward and thinks Ah, so there is the sulfur.

  Rurgrim with his dwarven heritage has learned a lot about Kobolds. They are a nuisance as well as a powerful race. With the backing of a dragon or wyrm they can obtain powerful bloodlines and skills. This can lead them into making large civilizations.

  Otherwise, they are numerous and extremely annoying. They live in similar locations to dwarves. He has heard many stories in his household about kobolds.

  Using his taunt skill ‘Metal Presence’ he releases a shout forward that travels in a visible wave. At the same time his armor, shield, and axe seem to shine brightly.

  The kobold seeing the dwarf would have already singled him out due to his instinctual rage, but the taunt skill pushes it even further. Overpowering its flame breath the kobold burns its own throat to try and hurt Rurgrim.

  The dwarf holds his ground. Taking a step forward he plants his shield and the flame parts around him. Arisah is obviously nervous around the fire and backs away. She ends up behind Helo and peeks out around his body. Helo looks down at her face and shakes his head.

  Up in front Carl and Rocco both step behind the dwarf. The fire quickly ends and finishing off the over extended kobold is simple from there.

  They continue forward and seem to work well together. But most of that is coming from Carl and Arisah. Carl’s sense of knightly justice makes him think of acting as a team as his duty. Arisah is just too sweet to get in anyone’s way. When she does, she just gives a beautiful smile and apologizes.

  Arisah’s weakness and semi fear of fire makes the enemies a problem. But she is a mage with a high attunement and a powerful bloodline. She doesn’t have to be near someone to attack.

  The roots in the cavern walls and the moss on the ground will suddenly burst forth with growth to entangle their enemies. If there is no nearby plant life, she tosses out an assortment of seeds to be used instead. These seeds seem to be specially grown to turn into whatever plants she needs at the time.

  For Rocco he is calm and quiet, which makes him come off as stern to everyone else. To Hinata he is a loyal retainer. To Helo he is a very angry man. Helo has tried to talk to Rocco, but he just huffs and walks away. Not exactly sure what to do he asks Hinata only for her to tell him that it will get better.

  Like that the rift experience ends. Nobody gained a level but that wasn’t the intention. Now with such a large group the team will have to start being more intentional about their training.

  They will often be splitting into two groups, and they need to practice for that. At the school it will be what is expected of them. Thankfully they should have about four rifts a day. The party will be split into different teams of five to seven, then they will use the rifts as practice.