Sunday September 17th, 2018.

  When Bibbin sees the newcomers and flees like a cat that got its tail stepped on. Helo on the other hand, looks around in confusion before slowly making his way to his room and hoping in the shower.

  It isn’t much longer before he steps back into the dining room in a sweatshirt and joggers. Looking around there is no sign of Bibbin. “Sit down Helo. He doesn’t want to be here. We are not going to force him.” Hinata says and pats the chair between Alli and herself.

  “Yeah.” Helo takes one last look around only to see Bibbin’s head peaking out from behind one of the door frames into the dining room. Their eyes meet and Helo’s eyes flash with a subtle red glow. As soon as Bibbin knows he has been spotted he ducks back, then Helo can hear the soft padding of feet running away. “That guy…” He mutters under his breath while taking his seat.

  Everyone is already eating and the scary maid Kristin is blinking in and out of view. She is flashing around the room taking care of everyone’s needs at the same time. Plus, every time Aiko tries to stand up to help, she is there with a wooden spoon. “Smack!” Then she is gone again.

  Chuckling at Aiko’s plight, Helo doesn’t even realize that food was place before him until the scent wafted up to his nose. Looking down and finding his plate filled with meat and sauce, Helo just shaking his head. He has long since given up on understanding that maid. If he had to guess, the way that she can move everywhere and know everything, she is tier 3. Maybe even on par with Akira Kashiwagi or Micah Brightmoon.

  To his right, Alli is enjoying listening to Jorden tell stories. As a senior with an extra year tacked on to the end, he has a lot of information about the ‘field trips’ they will be going on.

  “Just keep in mind that things are going to be more tense right now?” Jorden says seriously between bites of roast.

  “More tense?” Rocco asks.

  “Yeah. At the last sixteen clan meeting, they discussed how there were only four years left before earth reached critical mana levels for full system emergence.” Jorden says seriously. He looks around and nobody seems surprised. Rolling his eyes he says. “That means that the next two to three years are going to be filled with intrigue and powerplays. Why do you think that the Bloodline Supremacy Group attacked? Or that the elders in the Amazon tried to kill off Maria?”

  Rocco and Rurgrim are quiet, it is Carl that answers. “How despicable. To turn against those that they were sworn to protect.” He scoffs. “Kah. Disgusting. But they knew that time was limited. If they want to take control of earth, they can’t wage a coup in the middle of the world’s largest war.”

  “Plus.” Jorden looks around conspiratorially. “As soon as the system fully integrates earth. There is going to be a rush to reach tier 4.” He pauses to let that sink in.

  “Ohhhhhh.” Rocco taps the table with his finger. “There is no way that a coup would work if you’re targeting a tier 4 individual.”

  “Exactly!” Jorden pats Rocco on the back. “So be careful. We are friendly with Brazil. Their Wood Elf citizens really like the Kashiwagi Dryads and bonded trees. But even then, you all almost died.”

  “Bah!” Rurgrim waves away Jorden’s words like they are a fly. “We didn’t even come close!”

  “Whatever. I am just saying. China, Russia, Eastern USA, India, Guatamala, Italy, even Australia, you need to be careful when you are there. None of their members would go out of their way to make sure you’re safe.”

  Helo listens to their conversation for a moment, then hearing Hinata laugh he looks to his left side. There Hinata and Layla are chatting. Beside Layla is another dark-skinned woman and a man. Helo assumes they are her party members.

  “And then he just takes off his hood. Seriously, in the middle of a robbery, he introduces himself to me.” Layla is chuckling while telling how she met Helo.

  Hinata covers her mouth with one hand and reflexively places her other on Helo’s arm. This action doesn’t slip past Layla and she raises a brow. “Soo, you and Helo? Hummmm?”

  “What? No.” Hinata says, she is acting a little odd. Turning away her cheeks are slightly rosy and she quickly let’s go of Helo’s arm. Normally she is very calm, but to Helo it seems that the older girl makes Hinata a little flustered.

  In a sing song voice she says, “Ahuh, I don’t believe you.” Then she starts to poke at Hinata’s flushed cheeks. “Something happened right?” When Hinata doesn’t answer she smiles even wider. “Ohhh, something did!”

  “NO!” She yells before covering her mouth. “I mean, nothing has happened.”

  “Yet.” Layla smiles. “You mean yet.” Layla winks at Helo when she notices him watching their conversation. Then she goes back to teasing Hinata.

  The rest of dinner goes by quickly. Jorden complains about all the work that he now must do. In the last week he has taken over all the shops on Blossom Street. That is fourteen different shops, one of which is The Moon’s Reflection, which is run by his fiancé Willow. Another is Ren and Jen’s Talisman’s. This one is run by the siblings that Helo helped.

  “You do not understand just how annoying Allen is. I mean they seriously call him the ‘Brutal Finger’. He is a melee fighter that has poking skills. It is so dumb.” Jorden complains.

  Speaking up Alli says. “At least the Starhaven’s haven’t gotten involved. He is one of their hired goons.”

  Raising his cup Jorden says. “Well at least there is that.”

  With another school week the following day, Dinner doesn’t last long. Their guests leave before it gets too late. Everyone heads off to their own rooms to get some rest. Heading to his room Helo sits with Lelai and Inka. Both are relaxing on his bed and Helo is going over some of his enchantments.

  He has been having trouble stabilizing the enchantment, that essentially will turn his second dagger into a plasma gun. “Maybe I should start with lightning.” Helo says while looking over everything.

  He came to the conclusion that the plasma element is too aggressive for his materials. So, he will need to get another dagger made. As it stands, he has his dark affinity dagger creating fire. “I guess I could have thought that through better.”

  The next morning Helo heads into the central area to eat, before going to his classes. His first class is the one that he must take on the History of the Clans. Then from there he goes directly to Noble classes with Alli and Hinata.

  Not much happens throughout the day. Classes on Etiquette and Leadership go by quickly. The Runeglass twins are great teachers and keep the class engaged. Even if the topics seem boring.

  For Helo, he thought that he felt their gazes on him a little more than expected. But at the same time, he just isn’t sure. From his conversation with Tribal Leader Isabella, he knows that he already has a lot of attention on him. But that will only increase once news gets out about his second aura.

  He was supposed to keep his skills secret. He obviously has failed horribly. So, he won’t be surprised if he is the target of attacks or assassination attempts. But truthfully, he really doesn’t fear anyone at the school. Maybe the noble upperclassmen could beat him in a fight. They have their own skills and special items. But he is sure that he can escape if necessary.

  After leaving Alli and Hinata with the rest of the party Helo heads off to another class that he isn’t interested in. Math. The class has more to do with mana types and how they interact and counter one another. So, it is an informative lesson, but he has trouble focusing on all the numbers.

  The next day Helo and his party get ready for the longer Party Battling Class. This class is taught by John Arkson. He is one of the best tier 3 swordsmen on earth. He might even be the best. That doesn’t mean he can beat someone like Micah Brightmoon in a fight. It just means that his swordsmanship is better.

  The class is over the course of four-hours that are split into two, two-hour blocks. With a break in the middle for lunch. At the start of class, they practice the ‘Switch’ command. Then after lunch they add another.

  With ‘Switch’, you call out and make an opening to attack your partner’s opponent. Today they add an ‘Assist’ command. This is a similar idea. You use ‘Assist’ when you are getting overwhelmed and need help.

  So, if you are the one overwhelming your opponent, you can use ‘Switch’ to help out your teammates. If you are the one getting overwhelmed, you use ‘Assist’ to call for help.

  These ideas are things that the Heiresses Party has been doing for a long time. They have trained together for months and are already used to helping one another. But this puts those instinctual moves into trained ones.

  By the end of class Alli and Hinata have a greater understanding of being in a team. They are already used to using a ‘Switch’ tactic. When Alli gets hyped up and wants to burn some energy, she screams loudly. Then Hinata rolls back and plays support to Alli’s melee.

  With a new respect for vocal calls during fights, Alli and Hinata add them into their normal morning spars. Even with classes, they make sure that their party gets up early enough to meditate and spar.

  Meditation is important for things like mana control, understanding one’s affinity, and cultivation. These things are not very important to a tier 1 person. But they expect their teams to reach peak tier 2 eventually. Then hopefully they can step into their 3.

  The issue is that not everyone is born with an innate understanding of their affinity like Helo. He was essentially born cursed and it turned into a part of him. A piece of him that is like a dark hole that erases all other concepts. Then with his new aura, it was a part of his original bloodline. A powerful life affinity. It changed due to whatever curse he was born with; it became a bloodline that focused on controlling vitality.

  But not everyone is like Helo. Cody has an innate affinity for ice. It makes his ice attacks more powerful. Since Akira let them all absorb attuned resources, his ice attacks have gotten even stronger. But that isn’t enough to create a concept and then actualize his understanding into the world around to make an aura.

  That takes time, effort, understanding, and potentially money. His ice affinity could turn into an aura with concepts like cold, freeze, stillness, or any other ice related idea. But he will need to understand one of them and internalize it into his own magic. Then he needs to use it to create an aura, which is even harder.

  For their group spars. They have started doing two on two and two on one fights. Their Party Battling Class gave the heiresses a lot of ideas.

  Like this the week passes by quickly. In that week not only has the term Twin Heiress Party stuck, there are even rumors spreading about a ‘Glowing Wraith’.

  “Come on!” Alli shouts. She is holding her phone above her head and kicking her legs on her bed. Beside her Hinata is relaxing while petting Inka. “How could they call us the ‘Twin Heiress Party’! That is so dumb! It should be the Heiress Brigade!”

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  Hinata rolls her eyes at this and turns over. Dragging the last cat with her, she pulls Inka onto her chest and scratches her behind the ears. “It isn’t a big deal Alli-Chan.”

  “Isn’t a big deal?” She looks at Hinata in amazement. “Not only will this stick while we are in school, it will spread to the wider community. Then in a few years, the entire world.” She looks at Hinata like it is a matter of life and death. “And then what happens when earth opens up to the wider multiverse? It will spread to the galaxy, and then every dimension for all of eternity. AAAAAHGGGGG!” She sits up just to flop back onto her bed.

  “So? You want to change it?” Hinata asks. She truly doesn’t care, but she cares about her friend. She watches as Alli pulls a pillow over her head and smothers herself.

  “Ywes.” Alli pouts into her pillow.

  “So, find a name that the party likes, then make it happen.” Hinata says. She says that not knowing the true scope of the beast that she just unleashed.

  The next week goes by much simpler than the last ‘Field Trip’. They ended up going to the Starhaven Clan. Alli expected drama, intrigue and potential murder. Instead, it was a pretty boring trip.

  At their Brazilian trip, they were able to enter a ton of spatial layers and even into a tier 2 one. But in the Eastern USA, not much happened. The Starhaven Dungeon caters to resource gathering. Like the Brightmoon clan, they had a dungeon master when the core was planted. So, they had a lot of options on how it was set up.

  In the end they decided to focus on resources. Because of this they are one of the wealthiest clans in the world. The Brightmoon clan has their dungeon focus solely on combat. They loot the monsters to gather most of their resources. Because of this they have a massive guard force and potential army. It is one that they raised themselves.

  The Starhaven Clan on the other hand focuses on world commerce and most of their muscle is hired. They hire from any and all clans, even from small communities of awakened that have popped up all over the world. These are people that were exiled, left, or any other number of reasons. They formed towns near ley lines and live in relative peace.

  To the Starhaven they are a great place to hire potential recruits. They don’t have to worry about inducting unawakened individuals, and they can use their considerable amount of money to help them grow.

  Knowing all this Alli expected more. Instead, they were told they could wander through New York or sit in their hotel room. Which was incredibly nice. When it came to actually experiencing their dungeons. They were constantly watched and only allowed to enter certain areas.

  The places with unique resources or monsters to fight were under lock and key.

  For Helo this was a little bit of a blessing. He spent the time going over the enchantment for the barrier around their mansion. The prior week he had worked with Bibbin to trap all the holes. Now he is trying to find a better solution. In the end he didn’t want to modify the mansions barrier.

  They are going to be here for four years. But once they leave any enchantments he makes will more than likely be studied and dissected. So, instead he is trying to design a set of home defense enchantments.

  The main piece will be a powerful shield generator. It will create a barrier of a designated size in a circle around an area. The next few pieces of the set will be enchantments that are set up near doors and windows.

  He wants to make more. He has dreams about personal defense golems and massive arrays. But those are well outside of his skill level. For now, even the shield generator is a bit more than he can make. So, he starts with designing something to sound an alarm if anyone enters through a window or door.

  Because of his skill level. He is ordering expensive materials for the generator. These materials can make up for his own lack of skill.

  Like that the week quickly passed. In the end Helo was able to make designs for the door and window sensors. Now he must work with Rurgrim to forge the materials and then enchant them.

  The next week of classes go by normally for Helo and his party. With Jorden on the student council, there isn’t much trouble for them to deal with. Anything that might be an issue is quickly fixed. Guards that are trying to give them a hard time, people harassing the businesses they are protecting, someone trying to mug them. Every time something happens it is easily handled.

  Around the end of the week things start to change around campus. There seems to be an air of excitement. Leaving his room with blearing eyes and an unkempt appearance, Helo stumbles into the dining room for breakfast.

  “Helo!” Alli shouts as he comes in. “Are you sick?” She jumps from her chair and starts to feel his forehead.

  “I’m fine.” He tiredly says.

  “You were working on a project?” Hinata asks him.

  Not finding the strength to answer, he just nods his head.

  Things quickly go back to normal. They have all seen Helo like this when he gets invested in a project. Across the table Rurgrim is glaring at Helo. He has been in his forge all week making, remaking, fixing, and adding to the parts of Helo’s project.

  “So? Anyone know what this challenge thing is about?” Gabi asks. Every one of the upperclassmen are talking about it.

  “Yeah. I got a run down from Jorden.” Alli says, she pauses and smiles and Gabi.

  Gabi waits excitedly for Alli to answer. But then when she realizes what the heiress is doing, she glares.

  Eventually Alli starts to answer. “The challenges happen every two field trips. The week after the school hosts a challenge that all parties are welcome to join in. This is how they determine who enters the student council. It is a great way to earn respect as well.”

  “So do you know what the challenge is?” Luna asks her.

  “Nope. They are going to make an announcement on Friday after classes.” After Alli gives everyone the run down they get back to eating and continue to talk about the different challenges. Alli pulls out her tablet and shows off videos from previous ones.

  Just before everyone is about to get up to head to their joint Party Battling Class. Helo’s tablet dings. He doesn’t often get messages, so everyone looks at him expectantly. Pulling out the device he reads the message out loud.

  Eriana (Old Lady Healer): Helo, your last month of rest is finally over. Get one last check from Aiko and you are permitted to rejoin in training and fights with your party. Not like you listened to me anyway.

  Helo isn’t sure how to respond to the message. She is right, he was in a few fights. He is also appreciative of her care. Sending back a quick reply, Hinata is chuckling beside him. “Did you really make her contact ‘Old Lady Healer’.”

  Gabi and the others laugh at him as well. He wants to add a description to remember her by, that was the first thing he came up with. “I was injured and on medication.” Helo grumbles as he exits the room.

  The next day, on Friday October 6th everyone on the campus gets a message at the same time.

  Challenge 1: Beast Combat.

  One by one everyone with be transported to Greenland by the Spacecallers. There they will have to fight different beasts until they can’t any more. Each successive beast will have a higher level than the last.

  When Helo got the message he just got out of his Math class with Carl, Gabi, Cody, Bibbin and Rurgrim. They all look at one another and Rurgrim breaks the silence. “This should be fun.”

  After that they all start to talk expect Helo, the ever silent Cody and the nervous Bibbin. Carl quickly quiets because he is the most respectful. That leaves Gabi and Rurgrim trying to ask about the challenge.

  Helo just rolls his eyes and heads out. They were all planning on meeting up with Hinata, Alli, Luna, Aiko, Arisah and Rocco at a nearby café. But seeing how everyone seems to have the same idea, to talk about the challenge. Helo texts Alli and Hinata asking to meet at the mansion.

  It is only thirty minutes later, and everyone is sitting in the largest of the mansion’s common areas. On the screen the ever-diligent Luna has pulled up a video of Jorden and his party doing the exact same challenge the year before.

  “From what I can gather.” She starts, “This is a very common type of test. Sometimes the mid-terms are similar.”

  “How do you know this?” Gabi asks. She is sitting in the middle of the room with her chair balanced precariously and her feet up on a table.

  “Jorden sent us quite a few videos of him and his team. I think he mostly did it to boast and show off.” Luna says the last part a little awkwardly.

  “Yep. That sounds like him.” Alli says with a chuckle from her place in the room.

  “Anyway. This should help us prepare for tomorrow.” Luna sits down and plays the video.

  It starts just as the fight does. For the first few fights there is only one person fighting. The monsters are only early tier 1, so all the other members are just chatting while a man is doing the fighting. Alli speaks up to give context. “That is Leon. He and Jorden are good friends.” She starts to laugh as she tells them about him. “He always wanted to use a greatsword. Even as a kid. So, he would carry around this massive slab of wood on his back to train.”

  As the video goes on, the monsters start to get stronger. By the time the monsters are in tier 2. Everyone in the party is battling. Eventually they reach a point where they have to all work together to keep from getting seriously injured. In the end they meet their match facing against a massive mid-tier 2 manticore.

  “Woah.” Rocco says while looking at the massive monster on the screen. They have fought large monsters before. Many creatures naturally grow as they get stronger. But nothing so large and so ferocious.

  Beside him Cody is silently nodding his head. He is staring at the screen like he is trying to find the best place to place an arrow.

  “Mhm that’s a bimmum. Cody, it looks about just your size, to use as a mount.” Rurgrim jokes.

  Cody obviously doesn’t say anything, but his look does change. From wondering if it tastes good, to wondering how he could shoot arrows from its back.

  The group watches another challenge of the same type before Luna pauses the screen. “So, I think one thing to learn from this is that they take it slow. Did you see that as soon as the monster died, the Spacecallers would start to gather mana.”

  “Mhm. Good point Luna.” Hinata says. “So, we should take out time and let people rest before finishing off a monster. Also look how they had the person with the greatest stamina do the fighting in the beginning.”

  For the next hour the group plans on how they should tackle the challenges. But in the middle of their planning session Helo asks. “Wait? Are we still split into two groups for this?”

  Everyone looks between one another before breaking out into groans, sighs and yells. “How could we forget!” Alli yells.

  “Well, we should split into two groups and make our plans like that.” Hinata says while getting up. Casually leaving the room she grabs Helo’s arm and pulls him out before Alli realizes what she is doing.

  As the door closes behind her party she can hear Alli shouting. “Hinata!”

  End the end Hinata’s group all agrees to let Helo battle through the first monsters. His extremely high vitality and regeneration will make it so that he won’t tire easily.

  After they are done, Helo heads back to his room to practice something he has been putting off. It has been a few weeks since Isabella told him about his second aura concept. He has wanted to get a hang of it, but he has been busy making sure the mansion was safe.

  Sitting on his bed with his legs crossed Helo starts to feel around for any changes in himself. He can feel his aura like a second limb. It is something he has been using since he was a child.

  Releasing his aura is as natural for him as breathing now. Wrapping himself in his aura, he starts to use his bloodline energy to try and find out what was different when he was fighting in the tier 2 spatial layer.

  Unfortunately, after hours of meditation he can’t find anything different in his aura.

  The next day everyone in the mansion is up earlier than usual. They got a message with times for everyone to participate. Each year is separated into their own group. The first years are in the morning.

  The entire large party heads out together. Following the crowd, they end up standing outside the stadium. Helo follows behind his party and studies everyone. From what he can see most people have unenchanted tier 1 armor and weapons.

  “Huh.” Helo looks a little surprised.

  “What?” Rocco says from in front of him.

  “Enchantments really are as rare as you said.” Helo responds. Rocco has to think for a second, then he remembers what he said to Helo when he paid for a meal using an enchantment. Rocco doesn’t even give what he said with a response. Scoffing he turns back toward the stadium.

  Helo enters with his group and they all enter the stands. Looking around there appears to be a ton of people from their age group. He isn’t surprised to see them; they are all going to be participating in a challenge. But what does surprise him a little is the large number of older students.

  Before he can ask about why they are here. Hal Frison stops into the center of the stadium. He turns in a circle and looks at the hundreds of students at are watching him. Then with a smile he starts to speak. Just before he opens his mouth large screens are projected into the air above him. Then his face appears on them.

  “Hello everyone! We have a lot of battles to get through today, so we will be starting shortly. As each group goes through the challenge their fights will be projected on the screens.” Hal smiles and disappears. In a very sneaky Akira like style another man is standing in his place.

  “Hello.” He says very blandly. “I am your commentator.” Turning around he looks at where Hal is now standing. “Do I really have to do this.” Hal doesn’t answer just nods his head. “Hahhh. Fine. I am your commentator.” His voice is extremely dull, bland, boring, uncaring, but he is inflecting his words like he is half trying to make things exciting. “Ryan.”

  “Now. Let the first four groups come up.” The floor around him rises from the ground and creates a square platform. Then in each corner four Spacecallers appear. With twelve spatial magic users on the stage, they now have enough to work four groups at a time.

  At his words there is a rush of bodies as people try to get to the stage. Showing the first emotion since he entered the stage he stares at the mob of students with amusement. Off to the side Hal covers his face and sighs. He knows his assistant is peculiar, but he didn’t expect him to find amusement in trampled students.

  Further up in the stands Helo and his party look down on the mess. “Let’s wait.” Hinata smartly decides.

  “Should we help them?” Alli asks.

  “Look.” Aiko says. She points down to where one of the students just fell in the mob. Right before he got trampled, he vanished and reappeared in the stands. There, he sat down and smartly decided to wait.

  “Oh, that’s good.” Alli sighs. Then above the stage the screens flare to life one at a time.

  “Well, it seems that four full parties made it through the mob safely.” Arisah says in a sweet voice.

  They expect the turnaround to be rapid. Each fight should only take a minute or so. If every party participated each Spacecaller should have about forty parties to transport. With each challenge taking about ten minutes, they will get through all the first years in only a few hours.