Name: Helo
Tier 1
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level 11 (0/1,025,000) (1000 + 1,024,000)
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 (Epic), Boxers of Infinite Regeneration (Epic), A mother’s first gift, a father’s first lesson. (Mythic/Hidden) (Rare)
Stats: 162
- Str: 10 (+5%)
- Agl: 23 (+15%)
- Dex:18 (+15%)
- Per: 28 (+30%)
- Vit: 31 (+40%)
- End: 11 (+15%)
- Int: 10 (+5%)
- Will: 31 (+40%)
Helo limps up to the door of the Elder’s house. Outside the same four Elders are chatting. Dipping his head Helo greets them “Good evening, Elders”.
Shelby quickly ushers Helo into the library where a table is set up. “What happened to your leg kid?”
“Well.” Helo starts a bit sheepishly. “Ah. I was practicing with a skill. You see I found out how my gear draws on my own energy. Doing the same I hoped to modify my skill.”
“Ohhhh, and you blew your leg up. Haha, happens to all of us. Haaaa, those sure were the good old days.” She says this while looking into the air. Not sure how to respond and feeling like interrupting would bring some ire, Helo stands there awkwardly.
“Anyway, Now I talked to Graham about your schedule once you left yesterday. He informed me about your special circumstances. So, I have set aside time to teach you at 4:00 to 5:30 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Monday and Wednesday you will be in the dungeon with your team. You will also spend a few hours in the dungeon at night on Tuesday and Thursday.” As she says this, she is arranging a tray filled with sand on the table.
Walking up to the table Helo looks at the books and tray with some interest. “So why is there sand?” Helo asks.
“Well kid, that is pretty simple. Etching in an enchantment takes a very steady hand. I want to see perfect lines for all of the runes. Once I do, we will move on to wood.”
With a nod of understanding Helo looks at the five books that are sitting on the table. Each book is only thirty pages at most and each is filled with knowledge on a single tier 1 rune. Looking them over he starts to read. Due to his higher stats Helo finishes quickly. Looking over the runes they are for light, circle, gather, store, and release.
The books all talk about ways to use each rune and symbols to help connect them to other runes in an array. They also discuss ways to shape each array to fit whatever surface your on.
In theory you could simply line them all up and it should work. But enchantments are built to last and that means they have ways to dissipate extra energy and stabilize themselves. There are different ways to build them for different needs, like concentric circles, a spiral, a diamond or even in three dimensions.
Reading the books Helo can really appreciate all the work that goes into the craft. Grabbing his sand pusher Helo starts creating the runes. After about half an hour of work Helo has all of the lines perfect.
Asking Elder Shelby about moving forward she looks at the runes and shakes her head. “Now you also need to make the depth of your lines perfect.”
Looking at his runes Helo can see that some of the lines are a centimeter deep and others are two. With a nod and feeling like an idiot because the books talked about that he starts again.
Finishing after another thirty minutes he asked her again if it is good and gets told that he now needs to make each rune in one pen stroke. It represents the constant stream of mana. Sometimes lifting up your stylus isn’t an option.
“Remember what the book says Kid. From start to finish the rune needs to be filled with mana and meaning. It requires focus on a steady hand. Anything less and you will just be wasting my time and the clan’s resources.” She says this while dropping a book on the table. She points at a rune and looks at him.
“Um. What do you want me to do?” Helo asks in confusion.
“This is another unknown rune. During the clan wide search, they found a few books that had symbols we haven’t seen. Do you know this rune?” She asks Helo pointing her finger.
Looking at the rune Helo does not recognize it. But creating a mental image and letting is consciousness seep into the necklace he uses the search tool. He gets back a tier 2 rune that is connected to the Asuran language.
Looking at the rune again Helo remembers what Hinata said last night. If it isn’t important or doesn’t benefit the clan greatly, then he shouldn’t reveal his knowledge. With a shake of his head, he says no.
If the rune was important Helo might have said something but the rune was helpful in lifting objects. Helo saw what he assumes was a gravity enchantment in Shelbys workroom. So, he doesn’t think that this rune will be ground breaking.
Getting back to working Helo finishes the first rune in about 30 minutes. Asking Shelby, she says that it was underwhelming but satisfactory. With their time up for the day Shelby shoos him away while handing him the sandbox. As he is leaving the garden surrounding the house Helo hears from behind him “I expect you to come back tomorrow and be able to create all five runes in under an hour.” With a nod Helo heads back home. Once he is away from the house he stores the box in his necklace.
Getting back home Helo finds that almost everyone is waiting in the living room. He can smell a heavenly scent coming from the kitchen and see’s Aiko cooking.
Sitting down next to a working Luna, Helo starts looking over all the papers. The stack is made of files. With each file belonging to an individual in the party. It has their contracts, skills, class and even what resources from the sponsorship have gone into them. On the back page Helo also finds a list of loot drops they have taken. Looking at it, it seems Kenneth’s shied and Gabi’s axe were both loot drops.
“This is a file with all of the loot we have collected. It also says what we have sold and what we keep for the future. If you look over the sold, kept and taken, everything should add up.” She is handing him a file while reading over something else. “While you were gone, I placed an order for the tablets. They are incredibly expensive. The clan only has 1,000 in total and about 500 are in circulation.”
“Wow. You keep everything very organized.” Helo says while feeling very grateful to Graham for training her.
“It is my job. I also found the division that handles personal. There is an internal and external division. But they are run by a husband and wife. So, they work together. Turns out they actually live in the town at the base of the mountain.”
“Ah. I have never been to the town before. Why do we care about them through?” Helo asks as he puts all of the reports away.
“We should ask them for a list of individuals we can hire for training. After the house payments, food, equipment maintenance and personal stipends… We have quite a bit of money left. Especially after Calain’s mess up. I heard about that by the way. Are you okay?” She asks finally putting her paper down. Her cat ears twitch as she tilts her head. Reaching out and grabbing his hand.
“Ahem!” Alli coughs, Luna jumps in shock and looks across the coffee table. On the other couch is Allie who is sitting there with her arms crossed looking very imperious.
“Achem, anyway. We have a lot of resources at our disposal. A year from now our lives will be under constant watch. Our days will be full of training and socializing with other clan families. We will still have time for private tutorship but not as much.”
At that time, they hear the door bell ring. Getting up and opening the door Helo sees the fading back of a servant. Looking at the ground there is a box with a see through over. Inside are palm sized devices. Looking at them they look just like the tablet he saw yesterday.
Bringing the box inside the house Helo takes out a tablet. As soon as he touches it the tablet expands to be the size of a piece of paper. On the cover are instruction for how to set up the tablet. From what he can read they are encrypted so that only within the presence of the owner can they be turned on.
Going through the set-up process Helo looks through his new tablet and is surprised to see that they are all connected. He knows that the tablets connected to the personal servers of the clan. But looking at his contacts he has every single other tablet listed. “Well, that’s handy. Searching for the couple who run the Personnel Division. Sending them a quick message asking for a list of people who are avalible for training Helo goes back to looking through his tablet.
Speaking to the room Helo says to everyone while they are looking through their tablets. “It seems that for access to more of the clan’s servers, we need to get granted access from a clan crystal. Like in that room we got my class or the one in the elder’s library. Also, in our own library function we need to go to the library crystal and request books to borrow.”
“Wow! Why have I never gotten one of these before!” Alli says while pulling up videos recording of her father’s fights. “This was from his first tournament! I bet he did really. AWE. That looked like I hurt.” On the screen Graham just got punched in the face. The hit was so hard it lifted him into the air. “Well maybe not.”
“Food is ready.” Aiko says. Everyone goes to the table except Gabi and Kenneth.
“So where are our missing companions?” Helo asks.
“Well, Kenneth is either with my brother or harassing a waitress somewhere.” Allie says with some distaste.
“Or both.” Hinata adds. “Gabi is with her aunt and cousins. When I found her three years ago on a business trip near the Mexican border her parents had just been killed. Taking her in she joined us. Once we learned about her situation, we sent some people to do some digging. Turns out she had some family left on her mother’s side. So, we brought them here.”
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Well, both seem like good reasons to me.” Helo says while eating. The other girls look at him in surprise. “What. Gabi being with her family is good and anything that makes Kenneth stop staring a hole into my head is a good reason to me.” With a laugh they all get back to eating. Once finish they go back to the couches. All of them agree to work on their professions before watching a movie.
Taking out his sandbox he hears the girls’ making jokes about the little boy playing in the dirt. Ignoring them he focuses on making the first rune. After an hour he has made progress with the five different runes. Sitting up he realizes that he is getting hungry again.
Getting up he looks through the kitchen but can’t seem to find anything that he actually wants to eat. From the living room Allie calls for him to make popcorn. All of the girls cuddle up on the couch to eat. While Helo and the ever-silent Cody sit on another one.
After the movie Helo ends up carrying Allie and Hinata to their rooms again.
Waking up the next day everybody is in the kitchen ready for breakfast. After eating they all go outside for meditation. Well meditating Helo focuses on what he learned yesterday. With this he works on the speed he can branch out his pathways from its normal flow.
Finishing his meditation, he starts working through his knife forms well practicing ‘Quick Step’. Earlier he was able to form a loop in his energy pathways quicker than before. So, while practicing his forms today he is working on control.
Focusing towards his core Helo activates his skill ‘Quick Step’, before it can travel far, he creates an energy loop and tries to slow the skill. Mentally grasping the skill Hilo can feel it flutter in his mental grasp. Slipping free the skill continues onwards before dissipating.
Trying again Hilo is able to pause the skill long enough to take multiple steps without activation. Continuing with the training by the end of the session he is able to stop the skill. Coming out of his focus Helo looks around only to realize he is hungry again. Getting frustrated because the same thing happened last night Hilo starts sparring with Hinata. Well sparring Helo notices that he is weaker than yesterday. Thinking that he is just having an off-day Hilo goes to the sidelines to watch.
While watching his teammates spar Helo’s eyes keep getting drawn to the movements of the girls. As the spar continues, the intensity of the match rises, at the same time so does his hunger. He is having to fight back a growl and getting up. Getting lost in his head Helo doesn’t realize that the spar has stopped.
The girls well sparring all noticed how Hilo was watching them. They didn’t mind but by the time the spar finished his eyes were softly glowing red and his fangs had slightly elongated. Allie being the first person to get to him asks “Hey. Are you okay?” while tapping his shoulder. With a flinch Helo looks around.
“Ah… Yeah... Yeah. I am fine. Just not feeling great. I am going to go inside.” At this Helo turns around and heads to his room. Thinking back Helo realizes that his focus had been on Hinata’s neck. He was watching how it rose and fell with her breaths and how a bead of sweat was rolling down in between her breasts. She just smells so good the amount of vitality in her blood is amazing. I just want to drain her dry… “Dry… Oh… Shit.” Having a bad feeling about what is going on Helo checks the clock. It is 10:45 and the training is about to end.
Outside the girls are all looking at another awkwardly. “You all say how he was looking at us right?” Allie asks
“I really don’t mind if he checks me out.” Gabi says. “But at the end it felt like he was going to eat us. Well, more like Hinata.” Gabi winks at her.
“Yeah, his gave was pretty focused on her.” Allie says not sure how to feel.
“It felt like Helo-Kun was staring at my neck.” Hinata says. She didn’t mind either of the gazes. She likes it when he looks at her and that last gaze made her tingle with some excitement.
“Does anyone know what he is?” Aiko finally speaks up with a quite voice. She has seen what happens when he views them as a treat. She was held by her neck against a wall because of it.
All the girls look at one another and shake their heads. “Well. Maybe you should ask him?” Aiko tells Allie and Hinata. She wants verification on what he is.
Allie just waves it off. “I’m sure he will tell us when he is ready.”
Back inside Helo is getting ready to head over to the Elders house. He wants to look into his race and hopefully learn about what is going on. Quickly heading downstairs, he sees the girls coming inside. “I should be back soon I have to go to talk to Elder Shelby.”
Helo works on ‘Quick Step’ while he goes past the main house. Rounding the lake Helo is working on slowing the skill while he is on the move. Getting to the main house he knocks on the door.
Opening the door Helo sees that it is Elder Dean. With a slight bow and a polite “Good Morning Elder.” Helo asks if he can go into the library.
Not having a reason to tell him no the elder lets Helo into the library before leaving.
Going to the section on beasts, monsters and races. Helo finds a book about vampires. The first section is about tier 1 vampire servants and thralls. They are a form of vampire with similar abilities. The main difference is that thralls are more monstrous in appearance and action. Other than that, difference their abilities are quite similar. Regeneration from blood and slightly boosted physical abilities. They also have a weakness to sunlight, holy magic, light magic, certain types of metals, and are quick to starve.
The tier 2 is just labeled as vampires. They are capable of using magic with an affinity for blood magic. Tier 3 is capable of making others into vampires and have vastly more powerful abilities. They also have another affinity, death magic.
Looking it over none of them actually sound like Helo. “Well I guess that is why I have the question mark on my race.” Putting the book back Helo finds another book called ‘Vampire Regeneration and Feeding’. Reading the book, he finds that the weaker a vampire is the more it has to feed. With tier 1 variants having to feed at least once a day. The longer a vampire abstains from feeding the weaker they become.
Finally finding what he is looking for Helo reads on and finds out that older more powerful vampires can live off normal food but if they use any supernatural abilities they have to feed. “This is what I was looking for.” Helo says outload. Reading on the book says that once a vampire reaches starvation they will go into what is called a ‘Blood Frenzy’. This is a state where the vampire loses all rational.
Thinking about his own abilities Helo classifies his own vampiric abilities as tier 3. With this he reads that he should be able to go a month without eating before going hungry. If he uses his skills and trains, he should be fine. But he will get weaker each passing day.
Feeling better about everything Helo heads back to his house and enters the living room. He got back just in time for lunch, sitting down he feels a poke to his side. “Are you okay? You ran off all of a sudden, we were a bit worried.” Allie says to him.
Looking up everyone is staring at him. “Yeah, I am fine. There is nothing to worry about.” Seeing that he has no more tension and isn’t lost in thought they drop it. With that everyone finishes their meals.
The rest of the day goes by normally with everyone making their own progress.
The next day went by normally. Helo’s hunger is getting stronger but he is able to hold himself back. Training goes well and Helo is on his way to meet with Shelby for his next enchantment lesson.
“Alright kid, first things first. Show me how your practice went.” The elder says. This time they are in her workshop. She is working on some gear while Helo is practicing. Drawing the runes well Helo shows them to the elder. “These look good but you need to work on your speed.”
“You want me to go faster?” Helo asks her.
“No, I want it to be steadier. Your movement should always be a single speed, be it fast or slow. You shouldn’t change your speed while you are drawing the rune. Once you start working on making an enchantment the entire thing has to be created at the same pace.” She says this while demonstrating that every move she makes is that same speed. Pulling away to transition to the next line is also the same speed.
With a nod Helo gets back to work. An hour later Helo is given the okay to move forward. “Alright, see that cupboard on the wall near my desk,” she says while pointing to her left. “Find a material that is labeled the softest and get to work.”
Opening the cupboard, it is filled with tons of the testing plates that Shelby used to test the rune with the meaning; left. Each stack is labeled with a multiple number. “Which one do I use.” Helo asks not understanding what he is seeing.
“Those numbers are a system I created. The first on tells you how dense a material is. The second is how brittle it is. The third is its ability to conduct energy. The less dense a material is the easier it is to engrave. The more brittle the more delicate you have to treat it. Mana conductivity is tricky.” She says pointing at Helo’s back.
“The dark steel that your knives are made from conducts dark energy really well but it has a slight repulsion to other energies. So, I sort by how well a material conducts energy that I will use it for.” For this she picks up two stones that are on her desk. One is red and the other is blue. “I don’t sort fire granite for its ability to use water mana.” She holds out the red rock.
“Anyway, right now you’re going to work on material density. The denser it is the more pressure is required. Well, you could just use a better tool.” She says with a shrug. “Anyway, get to it. All the numbers are labeled one through ten.”
With a nod Helo looks through the plates and finds a large piece of light grey metal. Looking back Shelby nods. “Yep, that is Sky Gold. Very low density, conducts air mana well. A normie could bend it with their fingers. There is an engraving pen on the table, its yours now.”
Looking at the engraving pen it looks like a stylus but it has a diamond shaped tip. Grabbing it he can see that there are multiple runes built into it. Getting everything ready Helo starts trying to engrave into the metal but it isn’t working well.
“Did you forget to turn it on!” Shelby says while standing over his shoulder. “You just inject some mana into it.”
Looking up at her Helo says. “But. I can’t use mana.”
They both look at one another before Shelby replies. “Oh. Fuck. Yeah forgot. Gimme that.” Taking the stylus, she tosses it away and grabs a blank one. Quickly soldering on four prongs she starts enchanting the stylus. “Well, you will have to use monster cores. You are going to need a ton of neutral mana affinity cores.” She says to him while finishing up. “See these prongs. You will need to put a monster core in there to supply the mana. Otherwise, you should be fine. You won’t learn how to use elemental mana for a while. The most you will use right now is element ink. But that is premade so it won’t be an issue.” Tossing the new stylus to him Helo gets back to work.
Feeling proud of his work Helo gets jolted out of his focus by a book hitting the table. Packing things up he hear, “No you still have 15 minutes. I just need a rune.”
Looking at her Helo isn’t sure what to say.
“Barriers are a vital resource. They can be made thousands of different ways. For hundreds of different uses. We use them with the wind element to conceal noise, the light or dark element to conceal sight. We use force to deflect attacks and even barriers to stop normie satellites from seeing us. So. Can you write down your languages word for barrier.”
Understanding that his could be important Helo writes down the word and hands it to her. Hearing a thank you Helo gets back to work. A minute later he hears a gasp and then someone falling. Turning around he watches as Shelby tumbles from her seat. Starting to freak out and not sure what to do Helo rushes over.
Turning her over she is unconscious with blood leaking from her eyes and nose. Checking her pulse Helo hears the rooms door slam open. Jumping away from her body he yells “I didn’t do it! We were just enchanting! I swear.” before holding his hands up in surrender.
Rushing in the room was Elder Anthony. Stern faced he takes in everything with a glance. Seeing the writing that obviously wasn’t his wife’s on her desk. Plus the evidence that she was about to make something, he just shakes his head. “Aahhh. You gave her a rune right.” He says this while checking her pulse. “Looking at her open books it had to do with barriers. My overly excited wife. I don’t know why she thought she could make a rune that was so complex.” He picks her up and carries her to the couch. “She will be out for a while. The left rune had her unconscious for about 12 hours. I don’t even want to know how long she will be unconscious now. She is lucky to be alive.” He says this while rechecking her pulse and brushing her hair from her face.
“What were you working on? I’ll have to report this to Graham; the weapon order will be late.” He says while starting to wipe her face. Helo can see the worry on his face but it seems like she will be okay.
“Um. I started engraving on plates. Working on being smooth and having everything… balanced, seems like a good word.” Helo says with a head tilt.
“Yeah, balanced is good. Everything needs to be the same from all lines, all the depths, and the speed it is made.” He picks up the pen that was made for Helo and laughs. “Dang young Helo. You’re going to go through a ton of cores. Just make sure they are neutral. Anyway, grab the practice plates for anything under five on the density scale then practice at home.”
“She said the same thing.” Helo grabs the plates and is about the leave the room.
“Helo. Those of us that know, can guess your necklace has storage. Just store your plates before you leave.” The elder calls out to him.
Turning around Helo nods. “Yes, Elder Anthony. Let me know when she is okay.” Then he heads home.
“Oh my, is auntie going to be okay?” Cheyeene says with a soft gasp and a hand coming up to her mouth.
“Yes. I had a healer check over her condition. She has the normal status of someone who reached too high. I had the healer lay a regeneration ritual around our couch where I have her laying. He will have to recharge it every day. But otherwise, everything is fine. The main issue now is that she was supposed to make swords for our peak tier 2 guards.” Anthony says from a sprawled position on the couch in the lounge of the main house.
“Well, I am glad that she will be okay.” Graham is looking over some paper work. “We don’t know how long she will be out?” He looks at Anthony, getting a nod he continues. “Alright. Push her work off to someone else. It won’t be as good but it will do. Damn we go through a lot of weapons and armor.” Graham says holding up a report.
“Well honey we have a lot of people training and fighting monsters daily.” Cheyeene says while patting his side. “It is a sign of our growth.”
With a reassured smile Graham sets the paper down. “Well new rule. Shelby can only look at one new rune a month, and it can’t be something as tricky as ‘Barrier’. Have her start with tier 1 basic stuff.”