Before he gets up from the ring of bodies Helo takes a look at his status.
Name: Helo
Bloodline: Redacted (10.5%)
Tier 1
Class: Shaded Predator (Pseudo Tier 3)
Level: 38
Stats: 468
- Str: 27 (+5%)
- Agl: 78 (+15%)
- Dex:51 (+15%)
- Per: 58 (+30%)
- Vit: 100 (+50%)
- End: 27 (+15%)
- Int: 27 (+5%)
- Will: 100 (+50%)
He is happy to see the increase in his bloodline unlocking, but he is wondering if it has increased due to his recent advancements. Or if the act of absorbing all the energy within the bodies of these monsters is somehow helping him unlock his own.
It is almost late morning by the time Helo feels ready to enter the goblin rift. He has informed Alli and Hinata about what he has been up to. They also told him about what they have been doing. He also got in contact with Akira and explained to him all that he has seen so far. From what Akira has told Helo things are not going well.
Tier 3 rifts are massive and can take days to clear. At the same time the monsters inside are more powerful and intelligent. They only have a few tier 3 fighters and some are needed to keep the other monsters at bay. So only a few can enter one of the rifts at a time. With more than three tier 3 rifts that have broken, it is putting a lot of strain on everyone.
The final thing he was told was that the BrightMoon clan was experiencing their own issues and it will be a few days before they can come to help. Putting his tablet down Helo gets ready to enter the rift. This is the most powerful one he has entered so far and its monsters at the most intelligent. “I’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll gain another level by the end.” He says to reassure himself.
Taking a step forward Helo enters the rift.
You have entered the ‘Fairside Valley Goblin Retreat’ rift. (Tier 2)
This rift has been broken and is being powered by a secondary source. Due to this rewards and experience are increased.
Stepping down into the rift Helo takes a look around and is a little astonished by what he sees. The rift is beautiful; it is on the side of a mountain and overlooking a valley. Based on the system notification he is in some kind of goblin retreat. From the view he wouldn’t even argue that it was false.
Above he can see an open tunnel that leads deeper into the mountain. Down below there is a small village that it built into the side of the mountain. All through the village a hot spring runs and creates small pools.
Helo knows that with broken rifts, the boss monster itself has the choice to move the rift. In almost all of the broken rifts with non-sapient monsters, they will place the rift in or near their den. The more intelligent the monster is, the better their choice.
Stepping out of the rift and behind a nearby tree, Helo assumes that the boss monsters placed the rift in an easy access point. Somewhere where his fellow goblins can move to with ease.
After watching for a minute, he can see as forces are patrolling the entrance to the hot spring village, any goblins the come from the cave go right toward the rift. “So, you fight your way through the mountain and then attack the village.” Helo says to himself as he thinks about the rift.
Stepping from behind the tree, Helo makes his way down the mountain. Keeping his presence hidden he starts to scout out the hot springs. To his immense surprise it is a lot easier to enter than he expected. Slipping between the different caves, pools, and houses he starts searching for the leader.
Hearing some noises coming from the upper most house Helo makes his way there. Peeking through the window Helo isn’t sure how to feel. The goblin leader seems to have turned this into his personal sex-cation and done away with any desire to fight.
Ducking back and having to stop himself from gagging Helo dry heaves underneath the windowsill. Taking a deep breath, he wishes he could go back to the time just yesterday when he bloodline energy was unbalanced. At least then he was less resistant to his own dark energy and it made him apathetic.
Now with his body and mind balance, it was impossible to miss anything and the image will be impossible to forget. Looking back into the room, Helo can see a large group of hobgoblins as the pleasure themselves. Searching the room, he looks for the one who would be the rift leader.
Now the hobgoblins are arguably not unattractive. The females are anywhere from four to six feet tall and they look mostly humanoid, but with green skin. Assuming the boss will be in the center of all the action, he focuses there first. What he sees is not what he expected. Naked humans, kitsune, and dryads are all enjoying the party.
Ducking back down Helo, is no longer sure about anything. With his mind racing he starts to think things through. “So, the people that are attacking, are somehow taming the monsters and staying in the rifts. In some cases, they are enjoying themselves… with… yeah.”
Trying to think about what to do he realizes that he never actually saw a goblin that screamed boss. He didn’t want to be found with his aura, so he doesn’t have it out. Helo is now glad about his choice. But even then, more powerful people will unconsciously release some pressure. Especially when they are distracted, and oh yeah, they were distracted.
“So, he isn’t at the multi-racial orgy. Then where is he.” Stepping away from the center house Helo starts to search the village. Near the opposite end of town from the party, he finds a cave with only a single entrance that is being guarded by a man and a woman. Both are wearing the clothing of the Bloodline Supremacy group. The man has foxes on his clothing and the woman has trees.
The man is scowling and complaining. “Why does everyone else get to go have fun. Whatever they spiked the goblins meal with worked really well.”
The woman is just looking at him with disgust. “Your gross. I don’t even know why you are all here. They talk about Bloodline purity and now they are all… UGGG.” The woman shivers in disgust. She really is starting to regret her decision. All she wanted was to get back her family’s land, her father made some poor choices and lost their land. She saw no other way forward but something drastic. But she really didn’t know they were going to do something like this.
“They are just showing another expression of their superiority.” The man says with a smirk. “One that I can’t wait to join in with.”
Hearing them speak Helo isn’t sure if he should report what they are saying or not. He really doesn’t want to talk to anyone about what he has seen in this rift.
Getting a feel for their aura’s he can tell they both are at the peak of tier 1. Not finding himself feeling any worry or fear from the strength he can feel, Helo gets ready to attack. The cave is in the lowest location on the mountain and is only accessible by a small path. Instead of guarding the entire area they are just looking toward the path.
Scaling the mountainside Helo start to make his way over the two. He has to be really careful because any fallen rock or accidently sight will give him away. While he is climbing, he can still hear the two speaking. “I really didn’t want to be involved in this. I was just told that they had a way to get my family back their land.” The woman says in a clearly distressed tone.
Getting right over the two Helo gets ready to drop. “Well. You’re a part of it now. Just get used to it and stay in line. They will kill you if you mess anything up. Otherwise, you might find yourself an unwilling participant in their fun. Although, I wouldn’t mind getting a piec… Aguh” The man says with an evil smirk before his head slams onto the rock ground.
The woman to the side screams right as a man drops down in front of her. Looking up Helo makes eye contact and rises from his crouched position on the man’s back. At the same time, he slowly raises his hand. From the shadow at his feet a black blade flows up and over his hand.
Tilting his head Helo starts to wonder what he should do. This woman is helping the traitors, but she doesn’t seem like she wants to be here. What should I do. Shrugging his shoulder Helo just sends the blade toward the woman. In the air it twists one-eighty-degrees and strikes her with the butt of the blade.
The woman falls unconscious and drops to the ground in a heap. Storing the body of the man away Helo looks at the woman. Stepping over her fallen body Helo enters the cavern. Walking through the cave his feet make splashing noises as he walks on the damp floor. Once he got further into the cave it turned into a shallow puddle.
Follwing the twists and turns of the surprisingly deep cave, Helo ends up standing in front of a door. On the other side he can hear the screaming and grunts of a bound captive. Slowly opening the door, he finds himself entering a medium sized room. It is about ten-by-ten-feet and in the middle is a chained-up goblin. This one is larger than the others and must weigh at least two-hundred-fifty-pounds of muscle. Nodding his head in a very sagely manner at the sight, Helo says to himself. “Yeah, this is what a goblin leader looks like.”
Looking at the sight Helo can’t find much of a desire within himself to actually fight the goblin. There is no thrill or excitement in his body. He might be full of energy from his regeneration and siphon ability. But he is still exhausted.
When Helo entered the dungeon for the first time, he fought for days on end. But at the same time, he wasn’t using as much skills or abilities. He was just running through caves and slitting throats. But now he has been using his boosting skill for hours and can feel how drained he truly is.
Staying in the doorway the struggling monster has yet to notice him, so with another shrug Helo starts to prepare. Creating another dark blade, Helo momentarily activates ‘Bloodline Awakening’ for just a moment the more powerful energy overwhelms his concealment and the goblins head turns to face him.
As the goblin gets to its feet and starts charging, Helo just calmly stays put. But the time the goblin crossed the room his blade is ready. As the goblin lunges with its hands out and sharp nails ready to claw his face, Helo flicks his hands up.
The blade that was just created is floating up from his shadow. At his flick the blade leaps straight up into the air and spears under the goblins chin, through its head, and out the top.
Spinning to his left the goblin’s still moving corpse flashes past his body and two feet outside the doorway its body comes to an abrupt halt. With a clang the chains that had the goblin bound become taunt and it slams into the ground. Hearing a “BING” Helo checks his notifications.
You have cleared the ‘Fairside Valley Goblin Retreat’.
Due to the broken nature of the rift, you only have five minutes before rift collapse.
Multiple non-rift monsters are detected, calculating rewards.
Error.
Some inhabitants have corrupted the rift. Rewards calculating.
In the end Helo has seen notifications like this in all the other rifts he entered. He isn’t actually sure if it is good or bad for him. But he does know that he is almost to the end of level 38. That does surprise him because he only just reached that level. He also is surprised at how weak the monster was.
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Crouching down Helo wants to study the room for a minute before leaving. He isn’t surprised by what he is seeing, all the other rifts had similar rituals, and they all had a focus on the boss monster. “Probably because the rift and the boss monster are connected in some inherent fashion.” Helo says, he isn’t really sure, but that is what he has assumes.
Continuing to search the area Helo first looks over the boss. “Ohhh. That’s why it was so easy.” Helo nods, the monster is wearing a collar and cuffs that are designed to weaken the wearer. Dragging the body back into the room Helo shuts the door. ‘Appraisal’
Metal Bindings of Monster Weakening.
An enchantment created by an eccentric researcher, it only weaken monsters and only within core bound sub-spaces.
- Weaken monster’s physical stats
- Weaken monster’s mental stats
- Disable all skills
- Works on low tier 2 monsters
Reading over the information Helo finds himself a little shocked. He can tell that the limitations make the item much easier to create. The don’t actually weaken the monster as much as the limit it’s connection to the core. The bindings are more like a signal blocker than anything else. But still, it has a runic script that Helo could learn from.
Stripping away the bindings Helo starts looking around the room the monster was trapped in. Almost all of the runes are destroyed and the formation is useless now that to boss is dead. But Helo still tries to see if he can learn anything new. To his annoyance there isn’t anything new.
Checking out the rest of the room Helo isn’t able to find anything, annoyed he pulls out the body of the man. Searching him he does find something that might be usable. It is a red dagger with a bone white handle. ‘Appraisal’.
Dagger of Blood Sacrifice (Rare)
A dagger made to sacrifice the living. Metal of the blade is dyed red due to the countless innocents that have suffered.
- Converts vitality into mana
- Empower any vitality absorbed
- Sends mana into linked ritual
- (???)
Helo isn’t sure if this will be of any use. But a dagger that is literally dyed red due to innocent people dying, isn’t something that should be left laying around. Looking at the dagger, he gets an eerie feeling from it. Like the dagger actually hungers from suffering.
There is even a piece of the description that he isn’t able to view. This means that it is beyond his appraisal and outside of any knowledge that he knows. The skill draws on the limited knowledge within the skill itself, it’s conection to the system, and any knowledge Helo has. For the skill to not register, it must mean that it is a pretty unique ability.
Giving the dagger another glance Helo shivers slightly from the eerie feeling it gives off and puts it away. About to finish his search of the man, Helo is distracted by noises from the cavern leading to the room.
Quickly moving over to the door way Helo places an ear against the door. Listening carefully, he is barely able to hear what is being said.
“This sucks, I can’t believe that we are being sent to investigate the boss.” A man’s voice says.
“Just shut up already, it’s only a short walk and it isn’t like you weren’t already out of endurance.” A woman’s voice cuts in with some bite in her tone. She has been listening to the man complain for the entire walk.
Another man speaks up now. “This is important, the boss shouldn’t have just died like that. We have modified the ritual after each rift to increase the success rates. Plus, finding a guard missing and another unconscious, its suspicious. So be on your guard, we are coming up to the room.” This man’s voice is deep and has an air of senority to it.
Stepping back from the door way Helo isn’t exactly sure about what to do. He only has a few seconds to make his plan. Activating his ‘Bloodline Awakning’ skill Helo waits for the moment before his energy is back in control and then he gets ready to fight.
Drawing his blades he waits for the three individuals to enter the room. As the door slowly creaks open Helo hides behind the door. His presence in concealed and nobody should be aware him. The first man enters the room and Helo isn’t sure which voice the body belongs to. Following directly behind him is a woman.
Helo gets ready to strike them both and prepares to lunge forward. At the last second he ducks backward and rolls to his back. He had a feint sense of danger and just as he cleared the door with a roll, the door shattered into pieces. Flying through the broken door a red circle whips past Helo’s face and into the far wall.
Surprised by the speed and strength behind the attack Helo follows the red blur. To his surpise it appears like blood is seeping out of the hole the red dick made in the wall. Turning back to the doorway Helo isn’t the only one who is surprised.
Both the first man and woman are not only staring at Helo but the third man in shock. “Hehehka, you thought you would get the drop on them. But I almost got you. Truly a shame, I had to leave the party to come stop… what… a child?” The man speaks and Helo is surprised by the high pitched and odd laugh. It is followed by a deep and mature voice.
The first man speaks up. “Rogar, what was that! You should have warned us.”
The man, Rogar just looks at the first man with pity, “Why would I do that. The only worth you truly had was you access to the rifts and territory. Now… your really just…” The man tilts his head and smiles cruelly, “Entertainment.”
Staring at the third man as he is speaking Helo catches a sight that stops him in his tracks. A pair of fangs are pointing down from the mans bottem lip. As his smile widens Helo can see that all his teeth are sharp and vicous looking. It is like staring into the mouth of a shark, but on a man.
Looking back at the wall, Helo sniffs quickly. “Iron.” Looking at the man, he whispers. “Vampire.”
The vampire Rogar has senses strong enough to hear what Helo whispered. He just looks back at Helo. “Obviously.” Rolling his eyes he gestures to the man and woman. “Now finish him and quickly. I have things to do.”
The man and woman look at the vampire in annoyance. He obviously thinks that he has done enough. He did in fact save them from a sneak attack. Now he just casually leans in the doorway.
While the three are all glaring at one another Helo is taking stock. Now that they know about his presence Helo lets his aura out. He had it retracted, just in case on of them could detet is. From he looks on the vampires face he had his aura hidden for good reason. The vampire looks more interested, but he also shows no signs of getting involved in the fight.
With a sigh the man and woman turn from the vampire and step toward Helo. Both are kitsune and have visible ears and tails. The woman steps infront of the man and she splits in two.
The man takes a step to center himself between the woman and her issusion. His hands start to glow with the obvious signs of foxfire. Helo has trained with Hianta and Rocco so he isn’t to worried about fighting them both.
With his aura now out, he can tell that the two people he is now fighting are both at the upper end of tier 1. The vampire seems to be somewhere in the middle of tier 2. With a quick thank you prayer to well, anything, Helo is relieved that the vampire is to arrogant and eccentric to enter into the fight.
As the woman dashes forward, she draws a blade from a storage pouch on her back. In a practice and smooth motion, she swings her drawn blade. The illusion is a mirror of the real her and is following the same motion.
For many her illusion might have tricked them, but Helo has spent hours training with Hinata. Her illusion is an almost perfect copy of her appearance and the sounds she is making. But Helo can tell which is which. There are many things that are letting him know, which is which. But the two that he is focusing on are the lack of sound her illusion makes in the air. This shows Helo that the illusion isn’t physical. The second is that the illusion isn’t advanced enough to match her scent.
With the illusion being incorporeal Helo steps through the sword swing, at the same time he is ducking under her real saber. The man is rasing his hands from behind. Neither expected Helo to so easily dodge the attack. She is an illusion and agility-based fighter. But even with agility being Helo’s secondary focus, he is getting a large increase from his boosting skill.
The man is surprised but he doesn’t hesitate to attack when he sees Helo step through the illusion. Diving forward Helo dodges the blast of blue flame and retaliates with a blade thrown from his bracer.
The blade is coated in ‘Forced Still’ but he isn’t able to hit the man where he wanted. The man was already moving and saw the blade coming. Only a second later Helo is leaning backward and avoiding antoher blade slash.
As he is standing back up, he can hear the man crumple to the ground as his leg gets paralyzed from the attack. Moving left Helo keeps the woman between himself and the man. He is also conscious about the vampire that is now to his left.
Stepping forward Helo falls back as the woman uses some kind of movement skill to appear in front of him. Leaning to the right he gets his own dagger up just intime to parry the blow to his side. Striking with his other dagger Helo can feel as the blade bites into her skin.
She dodges backward before the blade can do any real damage. Instead of following through, Helo is forced to dodge back again due to another ball of blue flames. The fire strikes the wall and rolls off in a wave.
He can feel the flames kissing his skin before they dissipate. But in that moment Helo can feel his already tired and sore mind get pushed just a bit further. Flinching Helo is to distracted to completely dodge the next sword strike. He can hear the vampire laughing from his left as Helo is struggling with the two foes.
Swapping for his naginata Helo starts defensively fighting. Using the spinning blade and the projection Helo is making a wall that the woman can’t get through. At the same time his aura is weakening the blue flames enough that he is able to use the projection to swat them aside.
The fires explode to his left and right and Helo is pushed further and further into fatigue. At this point he is thinking about looking for a chance to flee. But he knows that the vampire wouldn’t let him do that.
Pushing his channels to the limit, Helo does something he hasn’t done before. While using the ‘Moon-Style’ technique he creates a dark blade. At the same time, he uses ‘Dark Grasp’ to get a hold of the blade. His aura is too important at weakening the flames to use them to help hold the blade.
The blade takes longer than usual to form but once it does, Helo uses a weak imitation of the thrusting technique Micah showed him. Instead of thrusting forward with the projection, Helo sends out the projection and lets it burst. The woman is knocked back with a grunt and the mans attack gets sent wide. The ball of flame burst and Helo can hear the woman groan in pain from the other side of the wall of blue fire.
Riding his own energy burst, Helo lets it push him closer to the exit. At the same time, he twists and strikes the vampire with the full force of his aura. It isn’t much at this point, but it is enough to make the vampire flinch.
As soon as the vampire filches Helo sends out his ‘Dark Blade’ laced with ‘Defiled Wound’. The vampire’s senses are too powerful to allow the blade to strike him cleanly. Even if it is sent out with a powerful telekinetic throw.
The vampires’ eyes go wide only for a moment and then he glares forward. Another disk of blood flows from the vampire’s sleeve and create a wall to stop the blade. At the same time, he moves to the side.
His eyes go wide again as the blade blasts through the blood, like it is just thick water and not magically controlled blood. The blade strikes the vampire in the shoulder instead of the heart. But his own dodge and the momentum from the blade push the vampire from the doorway.
Dashing through the doorway, Helo disappears around the corner and his aura retracts. Once his aura can no longer be felt, his presence disappears and leaves the area as fast as he can.
Behind him he can hear as the vampire growls in pain and then a scream from the man. A second later the man’s screams cut off.
Back in the cell the vampire holds onto his bleeding shoulder and waits for the wound to close. He is surprised by the strength behind the child’s attacks. He is a lower tier, so his attacks should have bounced off. At most they should have stopped just below the skin. Instead, he was surprised by the fact that a tier 1 was able to actually harm him. Not critically but enough that he could have if Rogar didn’t dodge.
Good thing his instincts are as sharp as they are. As soon as he felt the childs aura he knew that the kid was a predator. When Helo’s aura locked onto him, he felt death wash over him. Like he was on the edge of a cliff and about to jump.
With a sigh Rogar looks at his shoulder and attepts to use some of his skills to stop the blood flow. Vampires are similar to humans where blood means life. But for them it is also mana. To his anger his skill isn’t strong enough to instantly stop the slow.
Looking toward the two lesser beings that came here with him, Rogar lets out an annoyed growl and grabs the man by the hair. Biting into his neck faster than he can dodge, Rogar drains the man of his life.
After a few gulps his wound has closed. Rogar is to annoyed to care about his lesser screams and he doesn’t care enough to stop. As the last of the blood drains from the man Rogar drops his husk of a corpse. Looking at the woman whose name, he doesn’t even care to remember he yells, “What are you doing! Get the boy!”
Smiling at the boost he feels after draining the last of the man’s vitality he turns toward the door. He is start to feel excited, at first, he was just amused. But now, after feeling like death was looming over him. He will relish in making the child scream.
Helo isn’t sure what he can hear behind him, but he knows he wants absolutely nothing to do with it. Runnng through the cavern he is moving as silently as he can. Unfortunatly every step creates splashes and ripples in the water on the cave floor. He can silance his initial step, but even splash a movement in the water is something that he has no control over.
Ignoring the screams of the kitsune man, it doesn’t take him long to burst free of the cave and into the artificial light of the rift. Five feet from the exit the cave ground became water free. By the time he exited the cave, his entire presence was hidden again. Only those with enough knowledge and perception to track him using the stirring in the dirt would be able to.
With a quick glance Helo can see the woman still unconscious on the ground. Running past, he debates on carrying her out with him, but in the end, he decides that she isn’t his problem. She made her own choices. If she gets out, then good. If not, then he really doesn’t care.
Not sure on how much time he has because the sub-space starts to collapse, Helo decides to take the pathways toward the exit so that he can move more quickly. Rounding the first switchback on the path Helo can hear as a man is coming down the next one. Not even slowing down Helo hits the man with the full strength of his aura as soon as rounds the corner.
In that moment multiple things happen at once. Helo uses his aura to get a read on the man’s strength. The strength of the aura takes in a lot of factors. Someone’s tier plays the largest part, level is the next, but there are also the bloodline and classes to consider. The read Helo gets puts the man somewhere in the late to peak tier 1. At the same time, his aura feels warm.
Not only is Helo using his aura to get a read on the man. Ones aura can put mental and physical pressure on someone. The man staggers back in a similar, but more pronounced flinch than the vampire.
A moment later a black blade sprouts from he mans chest. Helo made sure to aim for center mass so that it would be much more difficult to dodge. As the man clutchs the blade in his chest he starts to fall to his knees. His eyes go wide and he opens his mouth like he wants to talk. Instead, blood starts to pour out.
Not breaking his stride Helo runs up to and past the man. As he passes his quickly lets out a single swipe from his kurki and cuts open the man’s neck. Seconds later Helo is past the man and disspearing further along the trail.
That was the kind of fight that Helo excels at. A quick blow without any way to dodge. Even though the man had arguably ten or so levels above Helo, he still went down in about three seconds. If Helo and the man met on even ground then he still thinks he would win. But that is mostly due to the strength of his bloodline.