Saturday October 7th, 2018.

  There isn’t much time to celebrate before the space around them shifts. But all three teenagers take a moment to check out their new skills. “RRRRRRRRRRHHHHH!” A soft low growl spreads through the area. This time they appeared on the side of a mountain, directly in front of a cave.

  Prowling from the cave, with slow methodical steps is a massive Lynx. Noramlly these beasts are the size of a medium sized dog. About twenty-five inches at the shoulder. But this beast is very different. Going up in tier’s is a unique opportunity, especially for creatures with mana. It is a chance to change and grow in a more structured way. This cat obviously chose to grow larger.

  Standing five and a half feet at the shoulder, this cat’s head is just below Cody’s almost eight-foot frame. Before the cat can make a move, Helo makes his own. A growl comes up from deep within, like a beast hiding inside of his body. “GRRrrahhhhh.”

  With Helo stepping forward the beast’s sharp eyes land on him.

  Giant Lynx.

  A Lynx that desired to grow larger. It became the apex predator of its mountain with its evolution.

  Weakness: N/A

  Helo is a little surprised to see that the cat has no weakness. But at the same time, his skill only displays which stat is the lowest. If all the cat’s stats are around the same, then it wouldn’t have a weakness. The aura surrounding the cat puts it a few levels into tier 2, but it also has an impressive weight to it.

  While Helo draws the cat’s attention. Cody, Rurgrim and Rocco check their new skills.

  Your skill FoxFire Ball (Uncommon) has evolved into FoxFire Spear (Uncommon).

  FoxFire Spear (Uncommon): A condensed and penetrating spiritual conflagration. Draw spiritual energy into your palm and send it in a spear tipped beam.

  Rocco is happy about his new skill. It stayed the same rank, but he can tell that it is on the cusp of evolving into a rare skill. As it stands, it is effective and powerful. He was able to send the attack through the layer of ice and earth, then kill the monster within.

  Your skill Earthen Wall (Uncommon) has evolved into Earth Control (Rare).

  Earth Control (Rare): One step on the road to true mastery. Earth Control takes your effort in changing and adapting Earthen Wall and gives you freedom.

  Rurgrim glances at his skill and grunts. “Huh.” It is impressive, his father took much longer to gain this skill. His cousin doesn’t even have it. But what else should he have expected. He is a proud dwarf. His control of the earth is second to none. He has already been able to use his affinity and will to manipulate ‘Earthen Wall’ to allow him to create holes, raise and lower the ground, and even launch himself. ‘Earth Control’ is just the obvious next step.

  Your skill Ice Wall (Common) has evolved into Iceberg (Uncommon).

  Iceberg (Uncommon): Use your mana and the cold air around you to cause a large ice structure to erupt near you. It can be used as a wall, a trap, or anything you can think of.

  Cody isn’t too sure about this upgrade. He had a specific idea in mind when he decided on how to evolve his skill. He wanted more structure. He liked standing on the wall of the settlement in Japan. Gathering cold energy and launching high powered attacks. This skill is much more powerful and useful, but it takes a step away from the controlled wall and into a wilder kind of attack.

  While these three take a moment to look at and study their new skill, Helo is in the middle of battling the Lynx. The cat is ferocious and uses its powerful body well. Its attacks are quick and it covers itself skillfully.

  With a kukri in one hand and his other free. Helo slips under an aggressive slash. He is forced to bend back and use his free hand to deflect the massive paw. His strength isn’t high enough to push the paw away. But he can divert it a little.

  Hitting the ground with his back, Helo looks up at the massive cat’s face. “Uhhhhhfff.” His breath is taken from being forced to slam on the ground. But at least he was able to defect the blow.

  Just as he is about to get up the cat lunges forward with its fangs wide open. Helo tucks his arms in and quickly rolls to the side. Unknown to Helo, but while he is rolling a subtle illusion is placed over the area.

  Hinata uses her ‘Illusion of Reality’ to try and give Helo space. With her high affinity with illusions and her strong will, her skill did more than just create a visual mirage. Using her knowledge about Helo, she unconsciously added his sounds and scent into the illusion. This is the aspect of her skill that can create semi-physical objects.

  Stopping his roll, Helo has time to get to his feet. Planting his free hand, he pushes off the ground and twists his body over his shoulder. He lands with both feet steady and facing the cat.

  The cat swipes at him aggressively. Helo is momentarily confused, then he takes in the illusion in front of him. He can see himself getting slashed by the cat, just a few feet in front of his body. Before blood can erupt, he watches as his own body fades away.

  Holding his knife in both hands and to his left side, Helo starts to gather energy into the blade. Leaping forward, he breaks through the illusion of himself. Landing in front of the stunned cat Helo stabs forward.

  The cat’s reflexes are enough to narrowly dodge the attack. It leaps back.

  Watching the cat dodge his attack, Helo activates the second enchantment in his blade. The red glow that was steadily growing hotter, shifts into the tip and edge of the blade. As the heat gathers it just starts to turn white.

  With the cat directly in front of him, Helo unleashes all the fire mana from his kukri. A wave of flame erupts from the tip of the blade. It rumbles with a “WHHOOOSSHH!” Sound as it overtakes the cat. From inside the ball of flame, Helo can hear the cat cry out.

  The flame eruption only lasts a few moments. He is no fire mage, and he didn’t have long to charge the attack. But as the fire clears, he can tell that he did some decent damage. The outer layer of the cat’s thick fur starts to fall into ashes. He smiles at that. He would have been able to do more damage, but the cat’s fur was full of protective mana. It was enough to weaken his dark element and stop him from easily killing the beast when he slashes it earlier.

  The cat lands and hits the ground far harder than it expected. Helo is about to step forward to continue the fight. But it seems like his teammates are eager to test out their new skills.

  The ground under the cat surges with mana, then the earth starts to soften and move. The cat falls into the soft earth, and it hardens around its paws. It looks up with a growl and traces the mana back to Rurgrim.

  Cody steps up beside Helo and focuses hard on the space around the Lynx. His new skill is different from what he expected. He can tell that with time and effort, he can learn to control the shape. But right now, he is new at using it.

  His own mana surges forth in an icy wave. Then it seems to suck in all the cold air around the cat. A moment later ice starts to form under the Lynx. Then the ice rapidly grows upward and completely overtakes the cat.

  Helo watches and is impressed with the skills. But at the same time, he knows that they would be easy to dodge. The Lynx could have done it easily, if it wasn’t just seriously injured.

  The two moves require a lot of mana and time to cast. Anyone with decent perception and senses could feel the mana gather. It would be simple to dodge or counter. But for two new skills, they are impressive.

  Before anyone can comment Rocco goes to work finishing off the cat. As he does, Helo looks down at his knife. “I really got over excited.” He says to himself. He shakes his head with some disappointment. He was too excited and eager to enchant his knives.

  If he was back in the Brightmoon territory when he started. Elder Shelby would have happily smacked him upside the head and told him he was being dumb. He added a fire attack to a dark element knife. He should have enchanted the knife with similar runes as the chain he picked up in the Kashiwagi rifts.

  It was a simple chain that had the effect of breaking down mana. It would have paired great with his own dark affinity. Plus, he doesn’t use mana, so it would have no effect on him. Instead, he jumped the gun.

  Looking up, Helo is just in time to see Rocco’s sword finish off the trapped creature. Then they are gone again. The level 60 fight takes much longer to finish. It is against a massive seal that had some kind of ice manipulation. The fight was annoying, but Helo was happy to learn that his aura ability ‘Null Presence’ has an extremely strong effect on manipulation skills.

  The need to constantly burn mana to cause any effect, didn’t pair well with his own ability to constantly weaken the mana. It caused the mana consumption to skyrocket to the point that they ended up wearing the creature down.

  It was too hard to get close with its manipulation getting stronger and faster the closer they were. At the same time its body was thick, and its fat had some kind of energy resistance. Helo liberally used his aura to sap the seals attacks and eventually it didn’t have mana left to attack with.

  By the end of the fight everyone was feeling slightly winded. Even with Aiko’s new ‘Regeneration’ skill, the fight was long and taxing. Tier 2 creatures and individuals can survive a lot more than tier 1. Especially a massive seal with high endurance and vitality.

  As the feeling of being pulled through space surrounds them. Helo isn’t the only person that wishes to get a moment to rest. As they hit the ground near the level 65 monster. Helo starts to wonder if they will be able to get to the level 75 monster like Hinata wanted.

  At tier 2 you gain a second class, that means a second set of levels and stats. For monsters that means that they gain more for each level of growth. Plus, grow at a faster rate. Someone like Helo will have to painstakingly use his second class to catch it up to his first. But for a monster, it is a natural part of their growth and adaptation. Meaning that the tier 2 level 65 monster might have up to eight-hundred stat points, maybe even more.

  Looking around the area Helo can tell that the mana has shifted. They are not in the natural biome of Greenland at the moment. The air heats up and he can smell sulfur around him. “Whooosh whoosh whoooooosh.” Sounds out overhead.

  Everyone jerks up and looks above them. In the air a massive creature is flying above them. “What is that?” Rocco asks in wonder.

  “Is that a chimera?” Hinata asks. “No, it can’t be?” she mutters under her breath.

  Staring at the large creature Helo uses ‘Detect Weakness’.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Unstable Chimera.

  An unstable mix between a lion, snake and bird. This creature holds multiple affinities and skills within its unstable form.

  Weakness: Agl.

  Weakness: Str

  Weakness: End.

  As Helo stares at the system message, it continues to shift between stats. “My skill calls it an Unstable Chimera. It’s skills and stats seem to be in a constant state of change.”

  Staring up at the poor creature Aiko looks a little sad. “It is probably in constant agony. The process of getting rid of skills or even adding to many stats at once is horribly painful. But to it, it happens constantly.”

  After she speaks everyone else looks at the large monster with pity. “Then we will just have to put it out of its misery.” Rocco steps in front of the group.

  Hinata looks between her team and the monster that is flying through the air. “I think Rocco will be the most effective in this fight.” Everyone continues to watch their foe, but they listen. “Spiritual Damage is different from other damage types. If its stats are in a constant state of flux, then its spirit is constantly shifting to accommodate that change. Being malleable like that might make Rocco extremely effective against it.”

  “So…” Rurgrim’s ruff voice cuts in. “We just gotta get knock the flying abomination out of the sky.”

  At his words he stops his foot and his mana spreads through the ground around him. At the use of mana, the Chimera that was ignoring them, looks down. Its cry is a horrible mix of all the creatures that make up its form. Then the mana in the ground starts to act. Small spears form all over the area, pointing directly up and into the sky.

  At the same time Cody starts to gather cold energy around his body. The area around him drops in temperature rapidly and he uses ‘Cold Enhancement’. Then in a practiced and smooth motion, he draws his bow and starts to fire. Each arrow comes quicker than the last as he icy mana around him swirls. It makes Cody seem like he is wrapped in a personal blizzard.

  As Cody rapidly fires at the chimera, Rurgrim starts to walk through his area of spears. As he gets close to each spear his mana fills at and he mutters, “Earth Spear.” Then he smacks the spear with his hammer and launches it into the air.

  He has gotten in the habit of hitting his ranged attack with his hammer because during his smithing, he uses his skill ‘Reinforce’ naturally. So, each spear is slightly harder and more durable than it should be.

  Up above the chimera starts to dive and weave between the attacks. The lion’s head glares down at them with fury. The eagle head sticking out of its side tracks the attacks and flies through them. Any that get to close are knocked away by the large snake like tail. It hisses and snaps at anything that comes close.

  It takes a few seconds, but Rurgrim and Cody are able to overwhelm the beast. One of Rurgrim’s stone spears slips through and almost grazes the eagle head, flinching back the chimera flaps its wings and accidently flies into an arrow from Cody.

  The arrows are all empowered by ‘Cold Enhancement’. It strikes the chimera’s body on its hindquarter. The arrow lodges in its body. There is no blood, but the Chimera roars in its discordant three sound voice. The arrow instantly started to freeze the unstable monster, but before it can fully work, the body heat from inside the beast thaws out the arrow.

  Just as they are about to cheer, the arrow that was shot falls from the sky. Along with it the chimera’s blood also falls. Wherever it lands the ground starts to hiss and sizzle. “Acidic Blood?” Helo asks as he steps up closer.

  To either side Rurgrim and Cody and still launch attack after attack. But it doesn’t seem to be all that effective. The beast is too strong for Rurgrim’s attacks to do much damage. Cody could, but if he uses his two attack skills, then he will quickly wear himself out.

  Hinata sighs as she watches the fight. “We really need a taunt skill.” She says and starts to come up with a different plan. She was hoping that they would be able to ground the creature. But she obviously underestimated how strong it is.

  While she is forming a new plan, Helo starts to gather his energy. First, he uses ‘Bloodline Awakening’. His veins start to glow with a golden light and shadows swirl around him. Then he uses ‘Dark Blade’. From the same shadow whisps that are leisurely swirling around him, a blade of inky blackness is formed.

  Holding the blade in his hand he casts ‘Dark Hand’. The shadows surge again and a monochrome film surrounds his hand and the blade. Staring up at the creature Helo plans his attack carefully.

  It isn’t too hard for him to hold his skills like this. The blade is really a single cast and then it stays until it is destroyed or dissipates. His telekinesis skill takes a large surge of energy to cast, but to keep it up, he only needs a mental tether of energy. At the same time his boosting skill is a double edge sword. It makes his energy stronger and his control better. But this can also speed up the process of overwhelming his channels.

  Aiko and Rocco look at Helo quizzically. It is hard to feel Helo’s energy, especially when his eyes are red. But his boosting skill has some obvious tells. Both party members expected Helo to do something, instead he is staring at the Chimera seriously.

  “Did he get a new skill?” Aiko says in a joking voice. “Ohh! Look of death!” She says and chuckles to herself. She and Rocco have known each other for a long time. He just rolls his eyes, but keeps his eyes on their foe.

  Helo can hear Aiko’s jokes, but he just ignores her. He has come to learn that Aiko isn’t a very serious person. Instead, he continues to stare at the beast.

  Three seconds pass.

  Unstable Chimera.

  An unstable mix between a lion, snake and bird. This creature holds multiple affinities and skills within its unstable form.

  Weakness: Agl.

  Three more seconds.

  Weakness: Str.

  Three more seconds.

  Weakness: Dex.

  Three more seconds. But by now Helo is having to force his skills not to dissipate.

  Weakness: N/A

  Three more seconds. Helo energy is surging and he is struggling to keep his three skills steady within his flowing pathways.

  Weakness: End.

  Now! Helo shouts in his head, the energy he was keeping contained surges and…

  “Helo! What are you doing!” Hinata asks as she steps in front of him.

  All the energy that was pouring through Helo’s channels quivers slightly and then he is forced to clamp down on his swirling pathways. His energy almost runs rampant, thankfully his will was strong enough from causing a major backlash.

  He is forced to release ‘Bloodline Awakening’ so that his energy calms. By then he decides to drop ‘Dark Blade’ and ‘Dark Hand’. Both skills were already well past their duration. They were only being kept together by Helo’s skillful manipulation and will.

  His face tightens momentarily from the tiny backlash. Then all the shadows that were gathering as his energy surged fade, they go back to their respective places at everyone’s feet.

  Hinata was so lost in thought that she didn’t even stop to think about what Helo was doing. She finally came up with an idea, then she looked over at Helo and he seemed to be struggling. She clamps her hands over her mouth. “I’m so sorry!” She shouts in her hands.

  Helo gives her a weak smile and looks but up at the creature. “Um… I came up with a plan. But you looked like you had an idea.” Hinata steps back and gives Helo a supportive nod.

  He wants to complain; she messed up his plan. Now she is looking at him like he can just do it again. With a sigh he reactivates his boosting skill. This time things are just the slightest bit easier. At the same time there is the slightest bit of strain from his channels. Energy backlashes are a serious thing.

  It only takes two switches this time before the beast’s endurance is its weakest stat. In that three second window Helo’s energy surges. Using his aura and his telekinetic strength, he launches the blade directly at the Chimera.

  The shadows around him surge and the blade disappears with a line of black whisps connecting his hand to the chimera. A moment later and the Chimera cries out. “RAAAASHHHHHHCWAAAA.” The amalgamation of voices cry as the blade enters the Chimera’s left wing and erupts from the back trailing tendons and blood.

  The blade disappears from view as it continues into the sky. A few seconds later it dissipates into the energy of the world.

  With his attack completed everyone stares at the Chimera. It is obviously struggling to fly. The blade stabbed through the joint one of its wings. The wing is now flailing wildly as it attempts to catch the wind. Only to fail and cause the chimera more pain.

  With the chimera no longer able to dodge. Rurgrim and Cody bombard the monster with attacks. Rurgrim’s spears hit its body with impressive force. They shatter on impact, but each one thuds onto its body with immense weight.

  Cody’s attacks are much less forceful. But at the same time each arrow is coated in powerful ice mana and able to freeze the spot that it lands. With so many arrows landing at the same time, the chimera is no longer able to melt the arrows away.

  Before long the Chimera hits the ground and stumbles to a stop. Its normally graceful movements are now awkward and ungainly. Its underside is a bruised and iced over mess. At the same time, its left wing is painfully trailing behind it.

  Hinata looks at the poor monster sadly. “Alright Rocco, let’s put it out of its misery.” Her mana surges in its graceful and subtle way. The creature might have almost double her stats. But it is in to much pain to focus at the moment. Not only is its abominable body constantly shifting and fluctuating. It has many broken bones and a destroyed wing.

  She is able to weave a simple illusion around the monster that it is too distracted to see through. Still keeping her mana together like this around a tier 2 creature is draining her rapidly. Just keeping the illusion up is difficult.

  Thankfully she only needed to keep the monster still for a moment. The beast stares out at a simple grassy field, then through that field a pale blue sword tip erupts. It burns through the air trailing whisps of blue fire.

  Too quick for the monster to dodge. Rocco’s ‘Reposition’ makes it easy to speed through the illusion and directly in front of the Chimera. His sword tip pierces through the chimera’s eye and into the lion’s skull.

  ‘FoxFire Cut’ leaves a glowing blue hole where the blade pierced through the monster. Rocco takes a step back. He feels different about this kill than the others. To him, this was more about setting the creature free, than gaining experience.

  Rocco bows to the creature’s body out of respect for the three majestic animals that it once was. Everyone expects to be teleported away. But nothing happens. Helo is the first to notice. He can still feel the chimera’s lifeforce within his aura.

  ‘Bloodline Awakening’ erupts through and around his body. His veins have yet to start glowing and the shadows were only gathered around his feet, but he is already moving. Dashing forward Helo tries to tackle Rocco.

  Unfortunately, he is too late. The snake tail lunges forward and clamps its mouth onto the bowing Rocco’s shoulder. Just as he is starting to get pumped full of venom. Helo is there and tackles Rocco away.

  The snake’s fangs are torn from Rocco’s shoulder, and he screams out in pain. Then he starts to convulse in Helo’s hands. Helo looks back to Aiko, but she is already rushing forward.

  While running the snake’s head lunges at her as well. Just before it can strike a reflective light barrier appears in its way. ‘Reflection Protect’ blocks the snake for only a moment before dissipating into light. But by that time Aiko is already past. With her hands on Rocco, she casts ‘Regeneration’. Then holding her hand over the snake bite, she starts to cast ‘Searing Cure’.

  With Rocco in Aiko’s hands, Helo gets up and starts to systematically dismantle the chimera. The lion was the main body of the chimera. He easily weaves through the snake’s attacks and stabs one of his knives up and under its jaw. Taking out the eagle would be even easier. But he stops himself before finishing off the monster.

  Looking back, he finds Cody’s large form holding Rocco down as Aiko uses her skill. ‘Searing Cure’ burns its way through Rocco’s body as the light mana finds the venom and burns it in the light. Rocco’s entire body is subtly glowing, and his teeth are clenched as he convulses.

  Helo isn’t sure if the venom or the light magic is causing the kitsune more pain.

  A few minutes later Rocco is paler but no longer inflicted with any kind of venom. He unsteadily makes his way to his feet and does his best to stand firm. Hinata can see that he is trying, but he needs a few more minutes for ‘Regeneration’ to work.

  Unfortunately, the wounded monster doesn’t give them that long. As soon as Rocco got back to his feet, the monster eagle head drew its last breath. A moment later they are all pulled to a new location.

  This new location is similar to the last in the fact that it doesn’t match Greenland’s natural biome. But instead of being hot and dry, it is hot and wet. All around them tall trees have started to grow with large leafy plants all over the ground. It reminds Helo of the Amazon.

  Everyone starts to look around, but Helo holds out both his hands and starts to bat the air. They all get the idea. Everyone crouches and looks toward Helo.

  “This area is far to overrun with flora to make fighting the creature easy. My aura isn’t much help either. This is a mid-tier 2 area. Even the plants are filled with more vitality than I can easily parse through to find our foe.” Helo might be impressive. But he is still a tier 1 individual. Even if he has an aura, there is only so much he can do. Especially in an area that is overflowing with energy.

  Once thing he does trust, is his own ability to hide his presence. Leaving his team behind he steps into the dense underbrush. The Spacecallers sent them here, so that means the monster must be nearby.

  It doesn’t take Helo long to find it. He follows the sound of running water. As soon as he sees the river he pauses in his steps and he unconsciously clenches his teeth. Sitting on the bank of the river, basking in the morning sun is a massive crocodile.

  Helo is happy that his party is so trusting. If any one of them started making their way through the dense jungle, this beast no doubt would have woken up and attacked.

  From his place in the tree line, almost fifty feet away, he can smell the stench of old meat and rot coming from the massive beast’s mouth. Helo doesn’t even want to identify the monster; he is sure that it can feel the skill being used on it.

  Slinking back into the tree line Helo slowly makes his way back to his party. Once he steps free of a bush nearby, Hinata perks up. She looks at him and is about to speak, but Helo jumps forward and covers her mouth. The abrupt movement almost sends Hinata falling.

  Holding the heiress close. Helo thinks quickly. He pulls their bodies together and uses his other hand to grab the back of her neck and keep her steady. With their faces inches apart, and bodies together, he slowly withdraws his hand. The rest of the party is staring at the two of them with amusement. Helo wants to scold himself.

  Dammit. He thinks. Everyone saw that…

  Sounding just the slightest bit more amused than his normally bored tone. Ryan speaks into his mic in an almost utterly boring voice. “Well, you have seen it here folk. Our last freshmen team to be taking the challenge is now on to their level 70 foe. This more than guarantees that the monster has over double their own stats.”

  Ryan pauses as everyone in the stadium, at the school and in Hornheim watches as they appear in jungle biome. “It looks like Helo is taking charge of this fight. Making sure that the slim chance they have that the creature can’t sense them is kept.”

  “Oh, looks like their foe is taking a nap. The level 71 Tidal Ripper Crocodile is a dangerous foe.” Even though he is talking about how dangerous the creature is his tone still stays completely neutral.

  “Well, would you look at that. Quite an intimate moment between the heiress and her head guard.” Ryan comments, as probably every awakened in Iceland sees Helo and Hinata standing extremely close together.