Tuesday September 12th, 2018

  Waking up the next morning, it takes Helo a few seconds to remember where he is. He is used to sleeping outside. Even in the Brightmoon and Kashiwagi territories, he slept with his windows wide open.

  But this morning the sounds are different… wrong. The bird’s caws are different pitches and tempos. The bugs sound larger and more numerous. After a few seconds he remembers that he is actually in a jungle not a forest.

  Laying back on his pillow with a sigh he unconsciously starts to pet Lelai and he thinks about the previous night. They walked and talked for a few hours. Every thirty minutes or so, Isabellas overwhelmingly powerful aura would sweep out and she would change directions or speed.

  Helo asked what she was doing and her response was that she was reading the spatial fluctuations. After many years of living here and traveling through the Amazon, she has an understanding that is almost innate about where spatial folds will open and their strength.

  So, it was only a few hours after that, that Isabella suddenly stopped. Looking around she smiled and started pulling things from her spatial ring. Out of her ring different tents, bags and cooking equipment fell. “Alright, let’s make camp.”

  Back in the present Helo takes a look around his tent. When she said that their tents and huts were nice, she wasn’t lying. They have spatial and temperature enchantments. Not only that but they also have built in kitchens and bathrooms, with enchanted plumbing.

  Spreading out his sense Helo can hear the soft breathing of the other occupants of his tent. The Brazilian Clan obviously isn’t going to provide tents for each person. Instead, they offered six-person tents to each team. But with the spatial enchantments, each person has their own personal space, if they lack a bit of privacy.

  Helo isn’t sure when, but Alli and Hinata were forced by the school administration to split their large party into two sperate parties. The only change they are allowed to make is to switch Bibben and Helo. He isn’t sure how long it took them to make their decisions, but in the end they came up with this.

  Team Alli, has Carl, Gabi, Luna and Arisah. With Bibben and Helo switching. Team Hinata, has Rocco, Cody, Aiko, and Rurgrim. With Bibben and Helo switching. The main benefit they get from the large party set up is that they were allowed to go to the same group for their ‘field trips’. So even if they can’t have one massive party for things like tournaments. When it comes to fighting stronger beasts to earn extra benefits in the dungeons, they have a leg up.

  As far as teams go, they are split pretty well. Hinata has Rocco and Aiko with her. Rocco trained all his life to be her guard, and Aiko is her maid. Plus, Both Rocco and Hinata are front line, while Aiko is support. Then she has Cody as a back line and Rugrim on defense.

  For Alli she has something similar with Carl and Luna. Luna is her maid or assistant, while Carl is trained all his life to be a knight sworn to a lord, in this case lady. Hinata is a back line mage, so Carl is a great front-line defender. Luna is support. Then that leaves Gabi as a front-line attacker, and Arisah as field control.

  With those two groups each party has support, attacker, defender, back-line attacker and something extra. Hinata’s group has an extra melee attacker, while Alli has a stronger back line.

  Then Helo and Bibbin come in. Bibbin is really making his own path as a scout with traps. Then Helo is a scout with a focus on assassin tactics, high damage single strike blows.

  So, looking around his tent, he can see that they didn’t keep to their party assignments. The tents are split between men and women. They have an even split between the genders, so it makes sense to split it this way, especially when both Alli and Hinata wouldn’t stop arguing about who got to sleep with Helo.

  Getting out of the tent it is still dark out and the jungle is full of animals waking up for the morning. Taking a walk around the area Helo starts to look for anything of interest. The small clearing that they created the night before has four large tents. Two between Alli and Hinata, with Maria’s party having one, and Tribal Leader Isabella having another.

  The four tents are arrayed around a small fire pit. The shrubbery is only cleared in the circle that the tents make. So, outside that circle, it is dense jungle. Sitting down to enjoy the morning Helo can hear birds, insects, rodents, and large animals all moving through the thick trees around him.

  Taking a deep breath, he breathes in and his sense of smell is inundated with a mix of scents. But there is one that sticks out. Tilting his head and following the scent, he can hear as leaves brush against fur. The sound is coming from just outside the tents.

  A deep but quite rumble comes from the back of his throat and Helo gracefully stands up. Turning to the gap in the tents on the opposite side of the sound and scent, Helo slips into the tree line. Just as he enters darkness of early morning, and the shadows of the trees wrap his body. Then his presence is gone.

  Helo slips through the jungle with the same ease that he walks through the forests of the north. He spent a while the day before getting used to the flows of vitality and lifeforce in the area. Once he felt the flow, it was almost natural for his own aura to mask itself within the flow. Out of all his titles, ‘Nature’s Alpha’ is definitely the one that he uses the most.

  A few seconds later and Helo has wrapped around the tents and is now on the other side. From there it is easy for him to follow the scent. The creature appeared to have been pacing in the treeline just outside line of sight.

  When Helo left the area, the creature did the same. Because of this it takes Helo a few seconds to catch up. But with his own speed and the way he easily moves through nature, he is beside, then in front of the large cat quickly.

  Stopping in front of the cat Helo watches as it lithely leaps over a fallen log. It easily lands on the group and keeps moving. Studying the large cat, Helo is a little amazed to feel a small amount of magic inside the cat. It reminds him of Lelai and Mr. Fuzzball. But a second later it stops and starts to warily look around.

  This action confuses Helo. My presence is hidden; how did it detect me? But before he can think about it further the Jaguar growls and lowers itself to the ground. Interanlly sighing, Helo drops his concealment and steps out from behind a tree.

  The moment that his concealment was dropped that Jaguar’s head whips to the side and it stares directly at Helo with a growl rumbling in its throat. But after a few more seconds, where it studies him. The large cat relaxes. Helo stares at it in incredulity.

  Tilting his head he looks back at the cat. “Why are you so calm?”

  “MRawwwwrrrrrr.” The cat leisurely says before leaping away. It lands and looks back at Helo.

  “Are you waiting for me to follow?” He asks. The cat doesn’t respond, it doesn’t know English, or any language on the matter. But Helo thinks that it wants him to follow.

  So, stepping forward he easily follows the movements of the cat. But after a minute of moving through the trees at a high speed he starts to mimic the cat. Using his four limbs more to leap or steady himself. He unconsciously lets some of his bloodline out and uses the claws in his hands to grip trees, branches and the ground.

  After another five minutes of running Helo is moving at a similar speed, he doesn’t want to leave the large cat behind. But he is also moving with a grace that he wasn’t previously. Using all four of his limbs in a way that he never even considered.

  He doesn’t have the body of any animal. So, he isn’t running on all fours. But when it comes to maneuvering, through fallen trees and shrubs and branches, the Jaguar had a lot to teach him.

  A few minutes later the Jaguar slows down. The run turns into a slow walk and it leads Helo toward a small cave that is dug out from the roots of a large tree. Within the tree he can hear the whines and cute growls of cubs.

  Looking at the mother Jaguar, he is surprised. “You wanted to show me your cubs?” It is rare, almost impossible, that a mother animal would lead a human to their den. But here he is, not only gaining a new sense of respect for the fluid movement of the large predator, but also being introduced to her cubs.

  Wanting to enter the den but not sure if he should, Helo stands outside and waits. The Jaguar gives him a long look before nodding her head. Then with deft movements she leaps down into the den using the thick roots.

  Waiting outside Helo can hear the animals inside meowing as their mother comes home. But then he hears a much louder moew and a few seconds later the Jaguar comes back out. This time she has a cub held by the scruff of its neck in her jaws.

  This jaguar is all black. Even the spots on its body are just a darker shade of black. Watching with wide eyes, Helo stands still as the mother drops the cub at his feet. The tiny creature mewls and cries, but with a “Chuff.” The mother uses her nose to push the cub toward Helo’s feet.

  “You want me to take her?” He asks the mother. She doesn’t understand what he is saying, but she does have a good idea about his intentions. She nods and takes a step back.

  The mother jaguar was wary when it sensed someone nearby. But as soon as it felt Helo’s presence it knew that he was safe. She could sense a connection to him, then as she felt the dark energy that he controlled, she thought about her own cub.

  As a magical beast, she has some innate understanding of her own element and how to strengthen it. Her cubs all have the same element, and she knows exactly how to help them grow. But she has one cub, one cub that feels just like Helo.

  That is why they are here. She knows that if she wants her cub to grow up strong. This man that feels safe is the best person to do so.

  Looking down at his feet Helo can’t help but smile at the tiny cub. It is maybe a few months old. Weighing close to thirty pounds, it is still just a tiny kitten. Thinking back to how he raised Lelai, Helo eventually nods. “Alright, I’ll take her.”

  With his words the mother Jaguar gives her cub one last ‘boop’ before jumping back into her den. Looking at the cub, Helo sighs and reaches down to grab her. Once she is in his arms, he can feel the tiny amount of mana in her body. He can also tell that this cub has an affinity close to his own, something like shadow.

  Using his much stronger dark affinity he coats his hand in darkness and starts to pet the cub with his hand. The cub shivers, but before Helo can stop, it slumps into his body. This causes him to get a little worried.

  “Mreow.” It says quietly then, it falls asleep in his arms.

  “Oh. I guess she likes it.” Helo thinks. Then with a new fluidity that he didn’t have the night before, he takes off back to the camp with a cub in his arms.

  He is back at the camp only twenty minutes after he left. But by the time he returns some of the most diligent people are already awake. This includes Isabella, who Helo doesn’t think actually has to sleep, Aiko and Luna, who are ever loyal to their charges, then Carl, Rocco, Arisah and one of the girls that was with Maria.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  As Helo steps into the clearing he naturally reveals his presence. Hiding himself with his aura and bloodline is almost an instinctual action by this point. Finding a perfectly placed branch, he stops on it while he enters. “Snap!”

  All heads turn toward Helo, except Isabella, she already knew he was there. It is Luna that is the first to speak. All the beast-kin on earth tend to carry small enchantments that can hide their features from normal people. But as soon as she sees the tiny cub sleeping in Helo’s arms, the weak illusion breaks.

  Luna’s ears and tail appear around her and she leaps up from her spot at the table. “OHHHHHHEEHHHHHHHEEEEE!” She squeals so loud that off in the distance a flock of birds erupt from the trees.

  “CAW CAW CAW CAW!” The sound out as they fly overhead. But Luna doesn’t even pay attention to how loud she is being.

  “It is soooooooooo CUTE!” She appears in front of Helo and her face is inches from the cat. She studies it closely and her fingers twitch as she wants to pet it. Thankfully her own animal features were a big hit when she was little. Because of this she knows just how annoying it can be to have random people try to scratch her. Plus, her own cat like instincts let her know that grabbing the kitty while it is sleeping isn’t a good way to make it love her so much that it abandons Helo.

  “Look at these little spots, and her dark fur is so sleek.” Luna goes on complimenting the cat and doesn’t realize that she has woken up the rest of the camp. When Lelai comes out of Helo’s tent to find out what is going on, she just stares up at Helo with a look of pure betrayal.

  As Lelai is glaring at him, Alli and Hinata also leave their tent. They both stare in shock. Hinata is the first to mask her expression, but Alli is the first to speak. “Where did you get that!” She yells as she points at the cat.

  “Well, I woke up before everyone else.” His team rolls their eyes like ‘Obviously’. When I did there was a jaguar stalking out camp. I followed it.” Before he can go on Alli interrupts him.

  “You killed its mother and took the baby!” she shouts and points at Helo, like a mob yelling to lynch a witch.

  “No!” He says with some annoyance in his usually neutral tone. “When I caught up, she seemed to sense my dark affinity. She then had me follow her back to her den, and she handed me one of her cubs.”

  “One off?” Hinata asks. She perked up a little when she heard that there might be more.

  By this time the cub woke up from all the noise, and all the girls are now surrounding him and playing with the cub. One thing to note, is that the cub isn’t as intelligent as Lelai. Lelai knew who Helo was even before he did. She was given a vision and blessing from an unknown god, this happened as her mother and siblings were killed, this is why she survived.

  “I understand that you all might want your own cub, but the Jaguar won’t part with any more of her children without a fight.” Isabella breaks into the conversation.

  This makes Luna and Hinata deflate. But then the cub jumps from Helo’s arms and starts to explore. This catches their focus again and the rest of the morning is full of everyone playing with the cub and eating.

  Once the sun fully crests the trees Isabella calls out. “Well, we will soon find our first spatial fold.”

  At her words everyone runs off to get ready. Helo is already wearing his combat clothing. A sweatshirt and hoodie. So, he doesn’t need to run anywhere. Instead, he is doing his best to get Lelai and the new Cub, which he decided to name Inka. To be friends.

  The cub has no issue with Lelai. If anything, it loves to play with her tail and chase her. It is Lelai that sees the cub as a people thief and attention hog. “Don’t worry, I won’t forget about you. I’ll still remember to brush your fur.”

  After his last words Lelai gives him a side eye. “Fine, I’ll also buy some of those treats you like.” She still hasn’t moved. “Once a week.” This time she looks at him with squinted eyes. They have been together long enough that Helo knows what she wants. Holding up a hand he says. “I promise.”

  Nodding, her glare lessons and she looks at his necklace. “Right now?” Helo says.

  “Yip!” Lelai responds.

  Rolling his eyes Helo summons a pack of gushers from his necklace. With a sigh he opens the pack and gives them to Lelai. He is nervous for the day that she realizes that gushers are not rare, but something you can buy in bulk. But she likes them so much that it is too perfect of a bribe.

  Isabella watches as Helo argues with his beast companions and chuckles as she sees him offer gushers like they are some kind of rare treat. But a few seconds later she can feel as two overlapping spatial folds are about to connect.

  “Its almost here.” She calls out.

  Maria is the first to respond. She and her party know just how important it is to time everything right. “Hurry everyone!” She shouts. Running out of her tent she is still tying her chest plate into place, but she still runs to a few bags that her adoptive mother left near the fire.

  “Everyone grab a stake.” She says while holding up a small device. It looks a lot like the enchantment that Helo whipped up to locate the anklets he gave Alli and Hinata. Only this is larger and is covered in small and well etched runes.

  She is walking around like she is holding a Geiger Counter. With the device in front of her she paces, it takes almost a minute before the device is glowing green and she stops. “Here!” She yells. At that her team. The three other girls, plus Ana. Run forward and stab their stakes into the ground. Then they look back at the other party. “Come on.” Maria yells.

  “Oh! Ah. Okay…” Alli replies as she steps up with her own stake.

  “No! Not there!... There!” Maria calls out to Alli.

  The rest of her party are giving similar commands to the rest of Alli’s party. Off to the side Isabella just covers her face with her hand. There is complete pandemonium as five girls yell at twelve others.

  Nobody knows who is giving command, who is supposed to listen, or where they should put the stakes. She can feel as the spatial layers are about to meet. They are going to have a thirty-second window to get the ritual set up. Otherwise, they will have to change locations and find a new confluence.

  Thankfully they manage to get their heads on straight before they lose the chance to enter into a spatial layer. “Alright everyone come step by me. Helo… trying to feel what is happening.”

  A few seconds later everyone is out of the ritual circle and Isabella nods to Maria. Maria is holding a separate stake. This one is smaller, but it has a mana core gathering array on the top. Slotting in a core she plants the stake next to the ritual.

  Just as she does the entire ritual lights up. Off to the side Helo has no idea what he is feeling. It feels like space is getting heavier. But at the same time there is more space trying to overlap with their own. The heavy space is making it harder for space to overlap, but it is also forcing two points closer together.

  Then just as those two points are about to touch. One feels like space, and the other feels like a layer of mana that is emerging from nowhere. Then they touch. As they do, space warps and folds. The stake that Maria planted starts to rapidly draw mana and then the two points seem to fold in on one another and open up a passage.

  Helo is standing with the rest of his group with his mouth wide open and complete bafflement on his face. For everyone else, they saw the ritual light up, then a fold in space appeared and turned into a passage.

  “So, what did you feel Helo?” Isabella asks.

  “I… I don’t know.” He speaks.

  “Just give it a try.” Isabella calmly pushing him forward, for a student, putting their own thoughts into words can help.

  “It… It felt like a second reality was trying to interpose itself on this one. Then the ritual activated and space became heavier. It weakened the effect, then once two points met, the ritual formed a bridge.” He looks at the stakes on the ground and effect they have on the mana in the air.

  “That is pretty close.” Isabella says. “You see. Our clan never had a Dungeon Master like the Kashiwagi clan. So, we didn’t get a regimented and simple dungeon format. When we planted our dungeon core it started forming all new realities over our own. Then it would randomly connect them.”

  “My ancestors would be walking through the jungle, then suddenly the mana would get heavy and they would go from earth, to a tier 2 version of it.” Her words cause Alli’s party to widen their eyes. That sounds like a terrible experience.

  “That is why many of our tribes have a Shaman that is either a leader or in a place of prosperity. They created divination rituals to help them weave through the overlapping folds. Then they created rituals to help them stabilize a desired reality. Eventually, they created stakes to do the ritual for them.” She points at the ritual on the ground. “This is relatively new. It was only after my grandmother united the jungle, that all the Shaman’s were able to meet and create a single ritual that did everything.”

  “Woah, that is amazing.” Alli says.

  “Yeah, it is cool to see all the unique cultures that appeared on earth.” Hinata says.

  “Yes. But that is also why in the end, the war for earth will be a bloody one.” Isabella says with a serious tone.

  This breaks the excitement and interest everyone has in the ritual and puts a dark mood over the group. “I don’t want to bring you all down, but I want you to understand that in the end, only those with cultures that mix will, will be left standing.”

  “Yeah… I guess I can see that.” Hinata says sadly.

  “Well.” Gabi smacks Alli on the back. “It just means that you have to kick all their asses and take over yourself.” She grins at the other girl.

  Alli’s mood rebounds like a ball thrown at a wall and she nods aggressively. “Your right. If we take over, then we can just let everyone live in peace.”

  Isabella smiles at the naivety of the young girl, but it is a breath of fresh air compared to the tribal and world politics she has to deal with. “Well go on, why don’t you check out the layered reality.”

  The group quickly stands in front of what looks like a rift gate. Only, instead of appearing like a tear in reality, this looks like a fold in space that opens up to the same space. The main difference is that from the fold, large amounts of tier 1 mana is pouring into earth’s reality.

  “Come on!” Maria says as she steps forward. She has no fear; this isn’t a new experience for her. She grew up entering these folds.

  “Well. I guess we just walk through.” Alli says as they all watch Maria and her four teammates walk through the passage. “At least this looks easier than the rifts. Plus, we can see what is on the other side.”

  Putting a nervous smile on her face, Alli breaks away from her group and steps forward. What she doesn’t know is that Helo is already through and making sure the other side is safe. It is his job after all.

  She gets through the other side, and nothing really changes. The only change is that the mana density skyrocketed. But at the peak of tier 1. All the tier 1 mana in the air feels refreshing to Alli. She turns around with a grin.

  It really was like walking through a door. Even reality on the other side is the exact same, same trees and plants. The only differences are that they are filled with mana, meaning they are larger and more colorful.

  She turns and holds up her hand in a peace sign. But as she does, she falters. Standing just beside the passage, where he won’t be seen by those on the other side is Helo. Alli’s face turns into annoyance, and she stomps out of view. On the other side of the passage her party gets worried.

  “What’s wrong?” Hinata asks as she rushes forward. Rocco and Carl both dash ahead of her. As they pass through, they quickly turn and brandish their weapons. Their faces blanch as they are now pointing their weapons at Alli and Helo.

  “I was supposed to be the first one through!” Alli whisper shouts. It is the reason they didn’t know she was okay, they couldn’t hear her anymore. Alli is whispering because the baby cub is sleeping in his arms.

  “Why are you here?” Alli asks Helo accusingly.

  He just looks at her a little stunned. “Um… I am your Head Guard. It is kind of my job?” He looks a little confused and he turns to Hinata. But she looks away and ignores him.

  Rolling his eyes he turns back to Alli. She isn’t done yet. “I don’t care. Next time you ask first.” She crosses her arms and tilts her chin up.

  “Soo… Next time we go through an unknown portal to an unknown place? You go first?” Helo asks.

  Not really thinking about it, Alli agrees. “Ah sure…” Helo shrugs. “Anyway. Shouldn’t we all start hunting?”

  “Oh yeah! Come on group!” Alli shouts and starts to walk in a random direction.

  “Wait!” Maria calls. She was standing off to the side while Alli poorly flirted. Running up into the group of twelve she starts giving them instructions about how the layered realities work. Then she hands a Geiger Counter looking device to each of them.

  In essence, if the counter goes off, they should avoid that area, they might end up going into a higher or lower version of reality. After that everyone went their own separate ways. For this trip Helo is with Hinata and Bibbin is with Alli. It works out well for Alli because right now Helo is injured and is just going to stick in the back with Aiko and Cody. Plus, Lelai still has the habit of tossing out random mist bombs and exploding everything around her.

  As they start trying to find a direction to leave Helo points off toward the direction that he went with the jaguar. He is interested to see just how much these layered realities resemble the real one.

  The group set off and it takes a few minutes but eventually they find signs of life. It is Aiko that notices all the different plants that they are passing. “This place must be amazing for gathering resources.” She speaks.

  Her words get everyone’s attention, and she points to the side. “Look.” She reaches down, she is about to pluck out the plant, but Hinata calls out.

  “Stop. Not like that.” She steps up and shows Aiko how to pull out the plant by loosening the soil around it. Helo often forgets but Hinata has her own hobbies. Alli made Helo’s wardrobe. But Hinata is training to be an Alchemist.

  “Thanks. But this is called a Cat’s Claw, it is supposed to help with boosting the bodies response to infection.” She smiles as she puts the medicine away. She is the group’s healer, so finding something like this is a boon for her.

  “But think about it, if this place works like she said. Then you find a plant that heals wounds, mark it, then find an entrance to an upper layer and go back to the same place, then you keep doing that until there are no more upper layers. By then you have manaless to high tier 3 medicine!” Aiko is excited as she finishes speaking.

  “That is a good point. Other than the difficulty in entering and exiting the layers, this is a great for resource collection.” Rocco says while he looks around.

  “Who cares, not like it matters to us.” Rugrim says in his gruff voice. “This place belongs to the Amazons.”

  “Well, it might when Alli realizes her plans of world domination.” Hinata says with a smirk.

  Rurgrim just grunts in response to that. Then the group continues their way. Aiko is happy with how many medicinal plants she is finding. Helo is also intrigued to find that the entire forest is almost the same. There are some key differences, plants are larger due to the mana. So, the space seems to be larger by a degree. But other than that, even the fallen tree that he jumped over was the same.