Monday September 11th, 2018

  “Alright gang.” Alexia smirks. To her side most of the other tier 3 teachers roll their eyes. Oliver on the other hand glares at the woman. “So how are we going to choose who gets to supervise Group 5?”

  John laughs and pulls a deck of cards from his storage bag. “Let’s make this interesting.” He says with a grin.

  “We are not going to gamble on the future of our students.” Alex says to John with a serious tone.

  “Calm down ‘Mr. I used the be the seneschal for the leader of Hornheim’.” Ria says in a mocking tone.

  Alexia laughs as her other female teacher mocks her brother. “Yeah, chill Alex. We make bets on our students all the time.”

  Alex tilts his head up in silent admonition. “We make bets on tournament placements, not on who is the correct teacher to lead them. Just based off your actions. If anything, I am the best teacher to lead Alli and Hinata’s party. My own skills in managmanemt will go a long way to helping them when they return home.”

  After Alex’s little speech everyone else chimes in about why they should be the ones to lead the Twin Heiress party.

  “So, who do you think our teacher is going to be?” Alli asks Helo. She is skipping beside him as they make their way out of the auditorium. After Hal Frison left, they were all given a location to meet their teacher. Each group has just under seventy people and they were all given a different intersection in the town to meet at.

  Their group was given the location outside the guard house. That is back toward the entrance of the town. So, their group of twelve along with another fifty people are making their way through the town. All around the town there are similar conversations happening in fifteen different groups of seventy students.

  “It will probably be one of the tier 2 professors.” Hinata says from the other side. “They are going to be glorified babysitters. I don’t see why they would have some of the world’s most powerful and skilled people following us around.”

  Alli nods and what Hinata said, but she keeps skipping beside Helo. The town that houses the school is relatively small. It sits on a hill just outside Hornheim in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. So, in a few minutes they reach their location.

  Standing in the middle of the small open space in front of the guard house is a small but extremely fit woman. She is casually leaning on her bow, and her amber eyes scan the group of first years as they approach. “Well well well, took you long enough to get here.” Ria Garcia says as she leisurely lifts her weight from her bow. She starts to walk up to the group that froze at the sight of her.

  Quite a few people gasp as they recognize her. She is a famous archer and hunter on earth. The Mana-Net has yet to spread to the main population, but it is accessible to most everyone that has the money to come to this school. She is a well-known figure on the Mana-Net. She enjoys showing off her trophies from her hunts. The Brazilian Clan are more tribal, and they have a close affiliation with nature. They live deep in the amazon and are more remote than most.

  Alli tugs on Helo’s sleeve excitedly as Ria stalks in front of them with a predatory gait. Her movements are fluid and smooth like the greatest of dancers. At the same time her eyes are sharp. Helo can even see her long pointed ears twitching as she listens to everything around her.

  “I guess I should set a few ground rules. Oh Maria, good to see you.” Ria says as she looks toward the edge of the group.

  Alli and Hinata turn quickly and stare at the young woman that is off to the side of the group. She is surrounded by four other women. They are all tan and radiate a lesser feeling of Ria’s own predatory nature.

  “Anyway. So, rules. No killing. The headmaster means that as in, don’t stab someone with your sword. We teachers are allowed to do with that as we please. So, no killing. No leading people into traps. But if you find someone in a fight and they are getting overwhelmed, you are not expected to help.” She looks over the group, and she can already tell who is going to be problematic.

  “Some of the other teachers like Alex or John will tell you to help when you come across someone. But I’m different, I grew up in the middle of the Amazon, and it was survival of the fittest.” She shrugs and stores her bow.

  “Now, I have four students that will be checking in on everyone. They are under the same rules as you. So that means that they are not required to help you, so be nice to them.” She gives a tooth filled grin.

  “Those are the main rules, everything else goes. Steal kills, loot, I don’t care. As long as you don’t murder someone.” She turns and gestures to some people that are standing off to the sides. “There is no reason to make more rules. Each time we go to a new area we are going to have to deal with different types of terrain and sometimes even completely different dungeon systems.”

  As she speaks, four people walk out and stand in front of the group. One is a woman that looks similar to Ria. The other three are men of different races. One appears American, one is Japanese and the final is Russian. “Oh, one last thing. Do your best yeah? I had quite a few bets riding on you all doing well. Plus, I had to give up some quality vacation time to win this group.” Everyone stares at her in shock. They have no idea what she is talking about. But she just ignores them and moves on.

  “This is Cirila Garcia she is my cousin.” Cirila looks similar to Ria, only she has green eyes and her figure is fuller. At the same time her features are softer than her sister’s sharp features.

  “Todd Evans.” The next man steps up and declares him own name.

  “He is from America. Yada Yada.” Ria says in a bored tone. Todd has brown hair and blue eyes. He has a clean beard and looks like an average private school, frat boy douche bag.

  “Kodo Ide.” The next man steps forward and bows. He gives Hinata and Alli a quick smile before looking away. He has sharp features and a slim but fit build. His skin is tan and he has a clean shaved face with nicely styled medium length hair. “I hail from outside the Kashiwagi Clan area in Tokyo.” He bows again and steps back.

  The last man doesn’t say anything and Ria starts speaking. “This is Elvin Belyankov. He doesn’t talk much.” Ria shrugs and turns back to what she was doing. Which is typing on her phone. Elvin is large with blonde hair and blue eyes. His frame is much larger than the other Teacher Assistants and he stares at the other students with a permanent frown.

  The staring contest happens for a few more seconds before Ria breaks the silence. “Finally!” She turns around. “They are sending over some Space Callers to give us a lift.”

  Then with a consecutive and familiar popping noise four people appear from thin air around them. These four are different from the last, but they look similar. Long braided hair and dressed in furs.

  The four smoothly walk into position surrounding the students. Then they all summon staffs from storage. “And! Off we go!” Ria says. Then the world turns black.

  All Helo can feel is a sense of pulling and stretching. It feels like being pushed through a tiny hole, but at the same time he is getting stretched like a noddle. Actually, that is good. I feel like a noodle, angle hair specifically. Helo thinks. Then a moment later, or maybe a few hours there is a loud, “POP!” and a flash of bright light.

  Blinking the light from his eyes Helo quickly adjusts and looks around. He is in some kind of forest. “No… a jungle?” Helo says to himself as he looks around. All around him everyone is adjusting to the change in temperature and the feeling of being turned into a noodle.

  “Agh.” Alli says while shivering. “I don’t think I will ever get used to that.”

  “Yeah…” Hinata speaks quietly and nods from her place by Helo. “Oh. Maria.” She says out loud. Alli hears her and she nods quickly.

  “Come on!” Alli grabs Hinata and pulls her toward the edge of the group. There are about seventy people in their group. That includes the teacher and four TA’s. With the heiresses combined party moving to stand by Maria, the entire group shifts.

  Alli leaps forward to hug her friend. Helo stands quietly behind the two heiresses and continues to study the area. It is an open area in a dense jungle. The sky is visible up above, but at the same time the sun that was starting to rise into the sky is now back under the horizon.

  “India? No…” Helo starts to mutter to himself as he thinks about the locations of all the dungeon cores. “China, Australia… No.” He looks toward Ria and thinks about what she said about growing up in the Amazon Rainforest. “We are in Brazil?” He asks out loud.

  “Correct Helo-San.” Kodo Ide walks up with a kind smile. “The first week of your field trip, that is what the older students call these trips. You will be spending some time in the jungle.”

  “Thanks.” Helo gives a small smile. It is still enough to flash his fangs. But that is something Helo is used to. “Can you tell me about what this dungeon will be like?”

  “Mhmm.” Kodo thinks for a while before nodding. “Yes, what I will say is that it is similar to Australia and Greenland.”

  Helo tilts his head at that response. “Overrun by powerful magic and beasts?”

  “Haha. No not quite. The Amazon does have a supposed lay line running through it. But no, it is an open space with very little distinction between areas.” Kodo starts to say more but a squeal from the girls in front of them draws their attention.

  “So, you slapped him?” Alli says with an excited look in her eyes. Anyone could tell from her expression that she is completely absorbed in the story.

  “Well… he tried to force me into his harem. I mean… I don’t mind a harem…” Maria blushes at that. “But I wasn’t even attracted to him and he was like my brother...”

  The four girls behind her all look disgusted by what she is talking about. Listening to the conversation he assumes that these other girls had similar experiences.

  “What happened to your adoptive status?” Hinata asks.

  Maria looks a little crestfallen, but she sighs and continues speaking. “Since I wouldn’t sleep with the heir to the clan, they revoked my status. I guess legally they added in a stipulation that I need to marry into the family.” Maria looks like she is about to cry.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Holding back a sob she continues. “They adopted my almost six years ago, but as soon as I said I didn’t want to marry Miguel they cast me out. Like… I know they adopted me because of my magical potential. But I thought we were family…” At her final words she starts to cry and Alli pulls her into a hug.

  Ana, who is standing behind Maria, steps up and places a hand on her back. “We were her maids and teammates that they were cultivating for her. When they kicked her out, we all left with her…. They weren’t happy.”

  “How are you even here?” Hinata asks.

  “Well… Maria did a lot of training and saved up a lot of money. She paid for us all to go to school.” Ana looks a little sheepish as she continues. “It is the reason that are equipment isn’t very nice…”

  “Well, that is fine! We can give you some!” Alli says with a grin. She doesn’t mind helping out her friends.

  “Ah.. I mean… We can’t…” Ana starts to say but Maria chokes back her sob and stands up.

  Whipping her eyes she looks at Alli with a brittle smile. “Thank you Alli, but we can’t except that. We all.” She gestures to herself and the four girls behind her. “Trained a lot like you did, we know crafts and can fight. We can get our own equipment.”

  “That is really great.” Hinata says with a smile. Helo isn’t paying much attention to the conversation; he is mostly focusing on studying his surroundings. But after a few seconds a blushing Ana steps up in front of him.

  Just as she is about to speak Ria claps her hands. “Smack!” “Alright everyone, now that you have had a few minutes to get over your teleportation sickness, let’s get to work.”

  Everyone quickly quiets down and faces Ria. As they all look her way a man steps out from the jungle. He is wearing what can only be described as tribal clothing. His chest is bare, with an intricate necklace around his neck. It is a mix of beads and metal. Covering his lower body, he has a skirt that appears to be made from some kind of woven plant fibers. On his head he has a large hat that is made from blue feathers that rise high into the air.

  Helo is impressed by the feeling he gets from the man. He is tempted to try and feel if his headgear, necklace or skirt is enchanted. But the man has his aura and Helo would have to push the man’s aura back into his body to be able to feel the clothing.

  As the man steps out his aura surges around him and Helo instinctually steps between Alli and Hinata. His own aura spreads out and wraps the two girls. The man glares at Helo but he quickly moves on. His gaze is impetus and it rests onto Maria.

  Beside Hinata she shivers, and her head slowly starts to lower. Alli and Hinata both appear to be upset with their friend’s treatment, but at the same time they know that it isn’t their place to act out.

  Just as Maria is about to drop, Hinata gives Helo an apologetic look. She reaches out and grabs Maria. Then with a sharp tug, she drags the girl into Helo’s own aura. The man’s gaze turns back to Helo, but this time he is furious.

  His aura bears down on Helo with immense force. Not just spiritual, but also a physical pressure. Clenching his teeth Helo resists with all he can. His own aura forms into a visible dark energy, it starts with his own shadow and stretches across the ground. It forms a visible dark ring around Helo, Alli, Hinata and Maria. From there the energy swirls around them until it reaches about a foot above Helo’s head.

  But everyone can see as his energy writhes and coils around Helo. This is a visual effect of the man’s own aura trying to push in on Helo’s. The man’s aura is brown and seems to rise from the earth. It batters the edges of Helo’s control. It is an obvious loss for Helo, but at the same time a slow one.

  This seems to anger the man further. He bares his teeth in anger and his aura surges. This time the ground starts to tremble as his earth attuned aura starts to affect the earth around them. This increases the visual brown effect and Helo’s aura is pushed to the point that he holds both his hands out to the side to help focus his mind.

  The aura is pushed back until it just reaches his palms. The three girls’ step in closer to Helo. Hinata gives him an apologetic look. She never expected the man to be so angry, plus he is risking a lot by attacking a student.

  Helo barely has to think about it before ‘Bloodline Awakening’ activates and his own aura returns with renewed strength. This is the second time that a random person has decided to fight Helo in a contest of wills. The first time was John Arkson. That time it was a demonstration and a teaching moment. This time it is someone he considers an enemy.

  On the bright side Helo can already tell that not only is this random man’s aura much weaker than John’s, but his control is also much worse, matter of fact, it is worse than Helo’s own control.

  As ‘Bloodline Awakening’ activates Helo’s veins start to shine with a golden light and dark shadows seem to writhe along his form. This being the second time it has happened, Helo is happy to see that he learned from the first time. Not only did he intentionally activate his bloodline this time, but he also suppressed his physical manifestations. No sharp claws, long fangs, or anything else.

  As his energy starts to emit from his body, his aura also gains a solid increase in strength. The dark energy starts from his shadow and sweep outward in a wave. As the wave hits the edge, where his palms are extended, the safe area around him suddenly grows by a foot, then another few inches before stopping.

  Pulling back his lips in a victorious grin, Helo looks up and into the mans hatred filled eyes. Helo’s fangs are showing and his eyes are glowing with a brilliant red light. As their eyes meet, they both know that the man might win, but the real winner was Helo. The tier 1 that not only held back a tier 3, but pushed him back.

  Rage fills the man for a moment and he loses himself. Dropping his aura attack, he condenses it until it is wrapping his body and dives forward. He only makes it two feet, not that Helo or anyone in the class can see with how fast the tier 3 is moving.

  But before he can even move a few feet a foot comes from nowhere and slams into the side of the man’s head. A loud “THWACK!” Echoes out and the man launches off to the side. He hits the ground once and kicks up a dust cloud, then a moment later he is out of the clearing and crashing through the trees.

  In his place a beautiful woman is standing. Helo looks up at her with a little bit of awe. She is gorgeous and massive. She is wearing similar clothing as the man, but she has a small bra that covers a portion of her chest. Rippling with muscle she smirks down at Helo. But then her smile turns soft and she looks at Maria. “I have missed you daughter. I am sorry I wasn’t here when Lucas and Miguel hatched their plan.” She gazes at Maria for a few more seconds before smirking at Helo. “Good job kid. I have been wanting to put that ass in his place for a while. But I needed a better reason than him using some old and arbitrary law to end an adoption. “

  She looks at the hole she made in the trees with what Helo assumes is her husband’s body. “Not only trying to use his aura to suppress a child from a school. But someone directly connected to two other clans. Then to go so far as to attempt to physically attack him.” She smiles. “Yes, I can do a lot with that.”

  Helo has no idea what is happening. He listened a bit to Maria’s situation. But it seems like there is a lot more going on. “Um… You’re welcome… I guess?” Helo says while not really sure how he should be feeling.

  “AHhahha, Yes thank you child.” The woman then looks at her group. Everyone is shaken and just starting to come back to their senses. Someone like John was able to test Helo and not affect anyone else. But the man’s poor control meant that everyone else was getting a residual amount of pressure.

  “How about you all follow me, and we can share some breakfast. I’ll give everyone a rundown on how our Dungeon operates. Maria, come walk with your mother.”

  Like that everyone follows the woman into the trees. They are going the opposite direction that she sent the man. They follow her for a few minutes before coming into another clearing. This one isn’t completely bare like the teleportation location. But the shrubs have been cut down. It is an open area with many trees rising up into the sky.

  All around there are small circular tables that are built around the trees. These tables are ladened with different foods and drinks. Around the edge of the area there are different huts and tents.

  Helo looks around with some awe, but before he can really take it in Alli is grabbing his hand and pulling him to try all the different food. After a few minutes of eating and mingling everyone finally feels better.

  “Alright, I hope you all enjoyed the pre-breakfast entertainment.” The woman says as a joke. Maria chuckles along with Alli but nobody else does. It is the unfortunate side effect of being the all-powerful leader, humor is hard. Especially when the pressure you unconsciously emit almost forces people to respect you.

  Rolling her eyes she mutters. “Hahhh what did I expect. Anyway, I am Isabella Carvalho. I am sure you all have heard a little bit about our people but let me give you a run down. We mostly travel in groups we call tribes. I know it might not seem like much, especially compared to other areas.” She gestures to the huts and tents.

  “But we respect the nature around too much to harm her more than we are now.” She gestures to the cut down shrubbery. “But at the same time, our huts are pretty advanced. We also have a few prime locations with small towns, and one major port city.”

  She smiles and looks at Hinata. “The Kashiwagi family control the area around Mount Fuji. Everyone knows this, but what you might not know is that we count the entire Amazon Rainforest as out territory.”

  “Not only are the tribes a way of out people, but it is also how our dungeon works. You see. The dungeon in Brazil works by layering a second reality over this one. There are paths to slip in and out of the layered reality. It isn’t one massive realm you can step into, but multiple folds that are scattered all over the place, and the entrances and exits are always moving. Hence, the tribal setup.”

  She looks out over the group and is happy to see they are paying attention. “Most entrances are going to be in the center of the jungle. But you must be careful and focus on the mana output. If the spatial fold you are next to shifts only a few feet, you might find a different layer that is ‘deeper’ and filled with denser mana.”

  Helo takes a second to process what she is saying and realizes that it is a mix of the Kashiwagi and Brightmoon dungeons. The spatial folds are all over like the Kashiwagi, but you enter into areas that mimic reality, but are like the dungeon floors of the Brightmoon.

  Nodding to herself and happy to see that at least one person in each party has a semblance about what is happening she steps off to the side and back to Maria. She truly is sorry about what happened to her. Her idiot politic marriage of a husband used an ancient law to kick out her daughter.

  The law was for when they first arrived on earth, they were more separated and used to raid other groups to find mates. But that changed when they were all dragged under one banner, her great grandmother’s banner. Since then, they have had a matriarchy.

  Some of the tribes grumble about being led by a woman. Her husband was a political marriage to mend fences, but obviously he is a problem. He was upset that she adopted a girl and was grooming her to be the next matriarch.

  So, he hatched a plan with her son to either force the girl into a bad marriage or to get rid of her. She wanted to break all his limbs and leave him a cripple. But if she did that they would revolt. But now, now she has the perfect leverage to get them back into line.

  The next few hours go by quickly for the group. Tribal Leader Isabella spent a lot of time with her adopted, then banished, and in the future re-adopted daughter. But once everyone got their fill of food she stepped up again.

  “I know you all are here to train and fight, so I won’t hold you back any longer. Each of your groups will have a guide that knows how to sense the spatial folds. For the next week you all will be acting like one of our tribes, traveling the amazon while you fight in the spatial folds.” She smiles at the group. Normally she stops by to say hello and then someone else takes over. But with her daughter her, she stayed.

  She does truly enjoy this aspect of the school. Sixteen weeks out of the year she gets to show these children about her culture, most of them end up enjoying themselves and that makes her happy.

  “Now get into groups of three to four parties. The layers that you will be entering are large, some can even expand past the Amazon. So, there will be more than enough fighting. But sometimes the enemies are too numerous, and it takes an entire tribe to hold them off, so going in larger groups is better.” After that she meets back up with her daughter. She then grabs Alli and Hinata and leads them away.

  With Alli and Hinata’s large party they essentially already have three parties. Smiling down at everyone but Cody, Isabella grins, “I will be leading you all for the next week.”

  Maria, her four party members, and Alli look excited that the leader of this entire clan will be leading them. Hinata also seems happy about it, but she is far more reserved. “Follow me, lets get started.”

  With that she turns quickly and starts to walk further into the forest.

  Helo and the rest of the group end up walking for a few hours. As they walk Isabella points out different plants and creates. She focuses specifically on how they change when you enter a new reality.

  Reaching out her hand snaps left and her large fist closes on a small creature. Opening her hand she shows them a frog. “Maria, would you mind telling your friends about this creature?”

  “Yes Mother.” Maria mummers quietly, her head is ducked but Helo can tell that she is happy. “This is a poisonous Dart Frog. You can identify them by the bright colors. They can be blue, purple, yellow, red and any mix of those.”

  She grabs the frog from her mother’s hand. Petting it with a smile on her face she continues. “It’s toxin is incredibly deadly. Especially the golden ones. It can easily kill normal humans. But in the rifts they become strong enough to stumble even the most durable of people.” Tapping the frog on the butt it hops from her hands and into the trees.

  The group continues to walk, and Isabella shows different animal and plants. The plants are known for their ability to heal, cleanse or poison. She even stops to show off a plant that helps Shamans in their rituals. For the animals she talks about how they change. Sloths are known to camouflage themselves and attack with surprising speed. Their claws are massive and can elongate. Snakes that swallow people whole, birds that use their mimicry to lure away people, crocodiles that drag people into the river and tear them apart.

  “Well… Crocodiles would do that anyway.” Maria jokes with a smile. Isabella is happy to see her daughter joke and smile with her friends, so she doesn’t mind the interruption. “But they get huuuuuuge!” She holds her arms out to show how serious she is.