Date: February 20thth

  Two weeks have gone by for Helo and he thinks that things are going alright. Every morning Helo goes to spar with Akira; they have started sparring in a vitality mist and Helo can tell that his body is starting the change.

  First, he is able to fight for up to thirty minutes now with his boosting skill activated. This is before his skill has the time to do any serious damage to him. This goes to show that he is starting to acclimate to his bloodline.

  Another thing is that Helo’s cells have started to change. It is nothing major, they still look like cells, they still act like cells. But if he activates his bloodline and strains his perception, he can see how the physical energy that his body produces has just the slightest strand of gold.

  This change was a huge win for Helo. He came to Japan hoping to learn about arrays and gain a few levels before they left for the school. But now he is finding a path toward awakening his bloodline.

  The final way that Helo can see his improvement is through his status.

  Name: Helo Vital

  Tier: 1

  Bloodline: Redacted (4.9%)

  It was only a few percent increase but with that growth he has some hope for the future. The stronger he grows and the more accustom he gets with his abilities, the less right he feels in his own skin.

  So, any growth is good. On the team front things have been going well. Everyone has gained at least a level and improved on their fighting techniques or class skill. Having Bibbin around is a huge relief for Helo.

  Having to scout all the time makes him feel tense. He wants to hunt, not watch. Bibbin is the exact opposite. The little halfling would prefer it if the world forgot about him. So, he is perfect for scouting. He can send messages over one of his class skills, he also has a class skill to draw attention. It is similar to a weak and precise taunt skill. So, when he wants to direct a monster to follow him, so that he can lead it to the team, he doesn’t even have to reveal himself. He just casts his skill.

  With the other party members things are going good as well. Of the five new members, three of them are being added onto Alli and Hinata’s guard detail. It is something that Akira asked them to start. Two of the party members are now following one of the two heiresses, they act as guards: checking rooms, covering her back, intimidation.

  The four guards are Gabi, Rocco, Rurgrim, and Carl. Of the four Carl and Gabi are the easiest to work with. Carl’s class is based on acting as a knight. He swore fealty to both heiresses, now he gets defensive buffs when he is defending them or acting in their stead. This confused Helo for a moment, he didn’t know someone could swear fealty to two people. But, from Carl’s perspective he swore fealty to their combined houses.

  Gabi on the other hand is her usual casual and flippant self. This is a good and bad thing. She does her work, but she hates acting like anything but herself. She refuses to dress like a guard, she hates having to stand at attention, and she doesn’t do well with etiquette. But other than her having bad manners, she is a great guard. She cares for both Alli and Hinata, and she is happy to defend them.

  The issues are with Rocco and Rurgrim. Rurgrim likes bashing head and bashing metal. Helo had to plead with him to accept being a part of the guard detail and has to force Rurgrim into his armor every time he is up. On the other hand, Rurgrim is Bannit’s nephew. Which is great for Helo because he has someone to make him more items for enchanting practice.

  Rocco is difficult because he sees his role as Hinata’s sworn shield. An argument broke out when Helo added Alli to his rotation. It almost came to blows but Hinata stepped in and asked Rocco nicely. Suddenly he is all for protecting Alli. Helo really just dislikes the guy.

  Like that, those two weeks went by quickly. Arriving back at the parties’ house Helo and the rest of the group that went with him all stumble into the first floor. There Hinata and Aiko look toward them from the kitchen.

  “What happened to you all?” Hinata asks with some concern on her impossibly attractive face. Everyone but Helo is covered in mud and blood.

  “Guhhhhh. Don’t get me started!” Alli says while flashing a glare at Carl and Rurgrim. Her glare doesn’t stop though, no, her glare ends at Helo. “This fool! He decided that Carl and Rurgrim need to be tested. So, he pulled a sound grenade out of his stupid bag.” She says, while turning her gaze to Hinata. As she turns viscera covered mud flies off her and onto the expensive and fluffy rug.

  Hinata is doing her best to look sympathetic but you can see the corner of her lips twitching upward. She also keeps looking at the mess Alli is making. Aiko on the other hand ducked under the center island and is softly chuckling.

  “WHO CARRIES A SOUND GRENADE!” She turns and yells at him.

  “What? I’m a young and impressionable enchanter.” Helo says with a look of pure innocence on his face, he has been making a ton of random things. Some of them don’t work, some do, and some he looks at and thinks… Yeah, I can do something with this.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You said that already.” She cuts him off and goes back to telling her tale. “He sets it off in a rift full of Corrupted Bulldog Bats. These things were insane and blind. Every bat in the entire rift either charged or flew at us.” She throws her new light armored robe to the side and sits down with a huff.

  “Hey. I’m sure that was terrible, but please don’t sit on the furniture like that.” Hinata says while trying to stop Alli from flopping onto her back.

  “There were so many.” She whines with a haunted look. “There was mud. There was blood.” With a shudder she finishes, “And so much slobber.”

  In the door way Carl and Rurgrim definitely look the worst, but Cody, Luna and Arisah are not looking to good either. The only person who is clean is Helo. At that moment a happy Lelai bounds into the house from the back door and right up to Alli.

  With a happy yip she is about to jump onto Alli before she freezes in her tracks and you can see her little cute nose start to twitch. Lelai tilts her head to the side and gazes at Alli on the couch. With a huff, you can feel her mana start to gather. A second later and a cold mist starts to swirl around Alli.

  As the mist vortex soaks the living room and couch, you can hear Alli from inside the mist screaming. “No, it’s cold. No not there! Stop its so cold!”

  Hinata looks like she is on the wall between asking Lelai to stop because she is making the living room wet or laughing at Alli.

  A few seconds later the mist gathers into a ball and sails back toward the kitchen. It reaches the back door and instead of hitting the door it ducks down and out Lelai’s fox door.

  With a swish sound the mist leaves the house before there is a “BOOM” from the condensed mist bomb exploding. It is followed by a shriek that sounds a lot like Luna screaming.

  Standing on the couch in the middle of the living room Alli is dripping wet but a lot cleaner. Her face though is of pure anger. Helo and Lelai make eye contact, understanding passes between them and they both make a dash for the outside.

  Before they make it to the back door a glowing silver construct appears in their way. Not easily stopped, Helo draws his dagger and reaches out with his aura. Wielding his aura like a lance he sends it forward at the center of the construct.

  His aura starts to destabilize the integrity of the construct and forces Alli to use more mana. When he feels more mana enter into the construct, Helo can see runes start to appear on the face.

  Shit, she is making an array. With that thought Helo activates his ‘Bloodline Awakening’, a mixture of power and primal fury spread out from his body. You can even see as his veins start to glow golden. With his boosted stats and control he uses a mixture of his bloodline and his skill ‘Forced Still’ on the construct.

  Knife forward Helo makes contact with the same point that his aura is weakening. For a second it seems like he is going to be stopped, but with an ephemeral shattering sound the glowing construct destabilizes from the center out.

  Thankfully for Lelai and Helo, the runes didn’t have enough time to actually activate. As they pass through the door, at the bottom of the short stairs Luna is standing there in shock. She got splattered by all the gore that was in the mist explosion.

  Helo makes eyes contact and he can see as understanding dawns on her face. With a smirk he is past her before she can do anything and they are home free. Running through the woods and laughing with the barking Lelai, he made it out safe.

  Back inside the house Luna stops her way inside and Alli is still on the couch with her normally pretty face twisted into a visage of fury. Alli and Luna look at one another and at the same time say. “They are so dead.”

  Everyone else is watched the scene in silence. They didn’t want Alli to turn her fury onto them. Arisah looks over to Cody who just came down the stairs. “Is it always like this?” She asks him.

  The ever-silent Cody just shrugs and then nods his head.

  Arisah hums to herself and with her hum all the plants in the room start to shiver with joy, the smallest of them even grow a little.

  The rest of the day Lelai and Helo spend outside and enjoying the weather. There is still heavy snowfall but it isn’t as cold as it was when they first got here. Eventually it is their stomachs that force them to return to face Alli’s wrath.

  Trying to find something to assuage her fury, Helo and Lelai hunt in the woods for anything to give her. Helo stumbles upon an intricately woven web and he is about to pass by when he stops. “Hmmm this might do.” Helo thinks as he looks between the web and Lelai.

  “Hey Lelai, can you ask the spider in this web to sell us her silk.” Helo isn’t sure if Lelai understand him, but when she turns to the tree and lets out a yip, he pumps his fist.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Yip!” Give me your silk. Lelai demands of the spider.

  With a chittering noise the spider responds. “CHch, hsssss” NO, over my dead body!

  “Yip! Yip” So be it! My prince servant will take it! Lelai yells back and gestures with her head to Helo.

  This pulls the spider up short. They are not exactly speaking with words, more intention, tone, and body language. But the idea of a prince and servant being the same person brings the spider pause.

  Both the spider and Lelai are mana beast, they are starting to become more intelligent but they do not have sapience yet.

  Helo watches the two beings discuss with a little bit of awe. Lelai picked up what he wanted so quickly and the spider even bargained with her. Eventually they both look at him. Using identify he looks at the spider that is in the web filled tree.

  Mana Weave Arachnid

  Weakness: Vit, Eyes.

  From the feeling the spider gives of it is at the peak of tier 1. Helo starts looking through his ring for something to trade with.

  At the same time the spider and fox go back to talking. “Yip. Yip.” Don’t make me have him force you. This is as a gift for an angry cub.

  “Hisss.” His aura is interesting. What is he. The spider looks at Helo with confusion.

  Helo isn’t sure what is going on, though his aura he can feel the spider’s confusion. With a shrug he pulls out the carcass of a goblin. The goblin is about three feet tall and still has its core.

  The spider looks at Lelai. You said you were going to take it?

  “Yip.” I am magnanimous.

  Wanting the corpse of the goblin the spider starts to spin its own web into a ball. The tree that was covered in silk is quickly bare. The spider is holding the ball in-between it’s front chelicerae and trades with Helo.

  As the spider lowers itself on a thin line of silk Helo is a little surprised with its size. Honestly, he expected her to be much bigger. She is about the size of his hand and looks a little funny carrying a ball of silk five times her size.

  His is impressed by the spider’s strength though. She easily carries the body of the goblin and quickly starts to spin more silk. As Lelai and Helo walk back to the house they hear one final click. Come back again.

  Taking a long route back Helo and Lelai eventually make it back a little before dinner time. Walking up to the front door Helo pulls the silk from his necklace and holds it in front of him like a shield. He uses his ‘Appraisal’ on the silk.

  Mana Silk

  Silk created and carefully gathered by an appropriate spider.

  Filled with mana and great for weaving.

  After reading the description he thinks to himself. Yeah, this is good. Slowly entering the house with the fox, they move like they are entering the den of a mother bear. Step after step they slowly walk inside. All around the first floor the party is gathered. Some are talking, others are going over their hear or watching tv.

  Aiko is finishing cooking dinner and Hinata and Alli are at the kitchen table. Slowly making his way toward Alli, Helo sets the silk on the table and jumps back like he might get swiped at.

  Alli squints her eyes at him before looking down. A small flash of gold signifies her using her ‘Identify’ skill and her glare lessens. Looking back at Helo she quirks a perfectly manicured eyebrow.

  “ITWASN’TFUNNYWEWEREWRONG.I’MSORRY.” Helo gets out in a rush with his head bowed.

  Hearing Alli let out a snort Helo thinks that he is in the clear. Bending down her picks up Lelai and the town of them sit in a comfy recliner and wait for food. All around them the team that was expecting a show, sighs with some disappointment and gets back to what they were doing.

  Not much time later the group sits at the expanded table and starts serving up dinner. One thing that is different about Japan is that there are more servants here. Aiko has been in charge of Hinata’s staff since she was little. Her mother was Hinata’s lead servant. But when Aiko was old enough, she took over.

  As the maid and servants start placing down their meals and plates Helo looks around and is excited for what Aiko made. Even since they came to Japan her meals have gotten better, larger, and more varied. This is because she is in her home country and making meals she knows. She also has a group of servants to help her cook.

  Taking in a deep breath of the glorious aroma Helo is excited as his own dish is set down. Taking in a deep breath he is just so… disappointed. Eyes opening wide he looks down and thinks What is this! Out loud he says. “What is this!” Looking around he can see the amazing meals everyone else has. Even in the center of the table there are a collection of fragrant dishes.

  Reaching forward to take something else his hand gets smacked. Whipping his head at his attack he sees Alli staring at him. With some shock he freezes with his hand out. “No. You get that.” She points at his plate that has a piece of bread and a warm hotdog. “You’re lucky I had them heat it up for you.”

  Looking at him meal he wants to complain. He is about to do just that but he catches Aiko looking at him from her spot at the table. Remembering how aggressive she can be when her cooking is disrespected Helo just ducks his head and has his meal.

  From across the table the knight looks at Alli, a smirking Luna and Aiko before he says. “My father was right. Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

  The next morning things are back to normal. Alli is her cheerful self. On a positive note, the playfulness Alli and Helo displayed made the rest of the team more comfortable. Now that everyone has spent some time together, Helo and Luna are planning on getting together with everyone so they can go over their skills.

  They are going to space it out over a few days and make sure everyone has a plan to strengthen they skills. They all have tier 2 skills and uncommon classes. This means they will gain more stats, which is great. But they all will have an easier time getting their skills to uncommon grade. They can reach peak uncommon before they lose system assistance in their growth.

  From what he has learned you need to have all your skills at the grade of your class to tier up. But Helo wants his entire party to at least have their main skills to be rare or peak uncommon. This will help them get better class skills and have a more personalized class.

  You also have to keep in mind that it is at level 51 where you gain your second class. The second class starts at tier 1 and is known to grow fast. Each level in your secondary class is another small batch of stat points.

  Meeting with his first team mate Helo smiles at his favorite addition. “Hey Bibbin! I’m glad you came.”

  The halfling looks scared and is avoiding making eye contact. “Wah… I did.. didn’t have to come.”

  Helo and Luna share a look. They are in the dojo right now while the rest of the party is across the courtyard and in their house. Helo gestures with his head toward the nervous Halfling.

  With a sigh Luna steps up to answer. Speaking in a soft voice she says “Well.. no you didn’t.” She can see how the halfling wants to leave. “But. The stronger your class is the better you can hide and trap your room.”

  At that the Halfling visibly fights his instincts to flee. With his small frame he looks up to Lune. Sending a glace and Helo, he shivers and looks toward Luna. “D.. Does he have to be here?”

  Helo feels a little hurt from Bibbin’s words. Bibbin is his new favorite person. With Bibbin acting as scout Helo is freed from his responsibilities.

  Struggling to answer with Helo’s gaze locked on his he says. “He has a scary aura.”

  At that Luna laughs into her hand. “hahah. No, he can leave. I think he is scary too.”

  At that Helo is shooed away. Walking out of the dojo enchantments and into the cold Helo just shrugs. This gives him more time to meditate. He has been enjoying practicing his telekinesis.

  He will be meeting with everyone else as the week goes on. The decided to hold these meetings once a month. Helo and Luna will talk with their teammates during practice and go over their skills.

  Heading back to the house Helo summons a ‘Dark Blade’ and starts sending it in a circle around his body. This is a little bit of a struggle for him because as soon as he loses sight of the blade it because harder to focus on its location.

  As the blade comes around for another pass he casts ‘Mental Grasp’. Dropping his aura, he now moves the blade with his mind. This time it is even more difficult to maintain control. The skill description is specific when it says “on an object in your sight.”.

  Helo has been working on using his aura as a medium, in place of his vision, but it isn’t going well. The ‘Dark Blade falls into the snow to his left side as his ‘Mental Grasp’ dissipates. At least this time he got the blade almost all the way around him.

  Instead of instantly loosing his grip, or only getting a single push, he now is able to make it follow the curve around his body. Feeling into the snow with his aura Helo easily detects the blade. Lifting it free with his aura Helo starts the practice again. Each time he gets just a little bit better at maintaining control.

  Eventually he makes it back to the front house. While practicing on his away back he actually slipped into his active meditation and ended up walking the path for longer than he intended.

  With blade spinning around him, Helo is lost in his practice as he walks past the house. From inside the doorway, he hears. “Where are you going?”

  Shocked out of his meditation, Helo almost falls on the snowy path. At the same time his blade sails off into the distance and strikes a tree. The fact that it sticks the landing shows have much force Helo can generate with his aura and mind. The blade quickly dissipates and Helo catches his fall.

  Turning around he can see Arisah standing in the door way. With a small smirk, he rubs his neck. He is feeling a little embarrassed due to the situation. “Nothing, I was just lost in thought.”

  The dryad raises her eyebrow and gives him the ‘No duh’ look.

  “Ah. Right. Yeah, um ill come inside.” Helo awkwardly makes his way to the front of the house.

  “How do you feel about the new members?” Arisah asks him.

  “Aren’t you a new member? You’re asking how I feel about yourself.” Helo looks at her as she closes the door into the warm house.

  Arisah helps him take off his jacket as she says. “Well maybe I’m curious how you feel about me.” With that line she flutters her eyelashes a little and tilts her head in an incredibly cute way.

  “Ah. OH. Ah.” Helo says while feeling extremely flustered.

  Arisah starts laughing and turns to hang up the coat. “Hahaha! You should see your face. Your sooooo red!” Laughing her way into the kitchen she looks over her shoulder. “Sooo, are you going to answer me?”

  Feeling a little awkward, but funnily enough more comfortable with her he thinks, did she do that on purpose? Out loud he says. “Yeah, I think we have a little too many people for the party format. But at the same time, the group size was formed with the intention of being able to split in two.”

  “Yeah. I get that. More people mean you need more structure. When the party format is meant to be closer.” She nods her head and starts making a sandwich. Looking at Helo she quirks an eyebrow.

  “Oh. Yeah, I’ll have one. Thanks.” He says while sitting at the island counter. “But I think everyone that joined is pretty great. Even Rocco, I want to hate him. But he is incredibly talented.” Helo runs a hand though his hair and thinks that it is almost time for a haircut.

  That gets a laugh from Arisah and Helo continues. “You’re a powerful mage so there is nothing there. But Bibbin is still my favorite.”

  “You do know he is terrified of you right?” She says with a smirk.

  “Yeah… but still. I don’t really like scouting.”

  Along with their conversation the two eat a small meal. As they are finishing up the rest of their team enters the first floor. Some come from outside, while others from different floors. Hinata is the last to enter and she gathers everyone together.

  “My father informed me that we are going to have a structured outbreak drill.” As she speaks Alli, Rocco and Arisah nod along. “For those that done know, when the integration happens rift, dungeons and mutations will appear all over the world. They will get progressively stronger but there will be some outliers. Tier 2 monsters that appear next to a town with tier 0 people.” She stops speaking a Luna jumps in.

  “It’s actually interesting to study how the world balances and shifts it’s mana saturation to create low and high magic zones.” She is going to keep speaking up Hinata gives her a look. “Right. Sorry.”

  “As I was saying. We will be there to help the world along. So, my family conducts drills. With our rifts it is easy to simulate an outbreak. Letting the rifts in our territory break, then we have to get there and save lives.” Everyone nods at this and they think that it is starting to make sense.

  “So, for the next few months we will be entering rifts, but not clearing them. We want them to be stable. Then a few months from now, at any time, my father will pour mana into the rifts and we will have to stop whatever we are doing and clear them.” She looks at the group and everyone nods.

  Gabi speaks up with a smile. “This sounds kind of fun.”

  “Yes. The first day. But after a week of constant fighting where we barely get a chance to sleep. It will be exhausting. But it is good practice. The integration will be much worse.” Hinata finishes and they all go about their days.

  From this point on, everyone focused on their skills and training. From what Akira told them. The last three months of their time in Japan will be a constant training simulation.

  For Helo, this means that he starts pushing the boundaries of his awakening skill. It is his most powerful ability. The boost it gives him is strong and continues to grow. An issue he is having is that sparing in a vitality filled environment is starting lose its effects.

  Akira told him that it is only a surface level change, he needs to change every cell in his body. The only way Helo can think to do this, is to damage himself with his skill. Resources to give his body the correct affinity are incredibly rare. The physical energy that the body naturally produce is then taken and changed by the body to be stamina and health. But Helo is trying to get his body to directly create the golden vitality of his bloodline.

  He first needs to make his cells change the type of energy they produce. Physical energy and his bloodline energy are similar, so the change isn’t impossible. But to do so he needs massive amounts of vitality to absorb. Because of this his next few months are filled with being constantly sore and hungry.