Classes are finally starting the next day, and Helo is ready to complete a project he has been working on for a long time. The week prior after the team got caught up by Jorden, they all spent their time on personal matters. Helo decided to focus on finally enchanting his knives.
It took him a lot longer than he expected to be ready. This is because of the complexity of handling plasma-based runes. Plasma is a state of matter where gas is heated to the point where it starts to behave like a liquid. This is due to electrons breaking off from their atoms and starting to freely move. It is found in fire, lighting and even the sun.
Based on the fact it is one of the enchantments his parents sent him, he believes that one of his parents has a plasma affinity. If that is the case, it would be like shooting a ball of superheated liquid lightning. Working the affinity into a usable enchantment has been difficult for him. His father put a partial enchantment into his necklace’s library. But going from that to making an actual enchantment took a lot of work.
Not only is plasma hard to work with; it melts the material. Helo has had to learn how to actually make the runes. Being such a powerful substance, the runes are tricky and volatile. Thankfully the rune was in his birth language, so he had no issues comprehending the rune itself. Only in its creation.
Finally ready to start Helo has his knife placed in front of him. A while back he created a knife that would get harder the more it was heated. Working with that same idea, he is making it so that both his knives will act similarly. This was one of the reasons it took so long, finding the correct balance of heat and durability to create an efficient and stable enchantment.
Not only that, but he also had to study his bracers and underwear. He wants the enchantment to run off his own personal energy. He had the great idea of mixing his mental and physical energy to create an energy that acts like mana, but so far, he has had very little progress. Creating that silver-white energy is still tricky, takes a lot of effort, and it doesn’t last long. He believes that energy will act similarly to mana.
It is a mixture of mind and matter, it won’t be magical, but with enough study and effort he could use it in a similar way. At least he hopes. For now, he has to use his physical and mental energies separately. This means two storage gems and two sets of pathways. He considered using some kind of conversion rune, but it would take way too much blood.
In the end he was able to power the runes with the correct amount of energy to produce the effect he desired. Then it was simply controlling that effect. The fire and plasma runes each took their own mixture of energy to finally be useable with his personal energy. But building that ratio into the enchantment was easy for Helo.
The enchantment will still require mana to control the effect and activate some of the runes, but the main power source, the source of the plasma and fire, will be Helo.
To start off Helo makes the fire-based knife. He has practiced the rune work for days and has everything down. His ‘Stylus for the Manaless’ is topped off with mana, and he even has mana cores filled with fire mana. This will help Helo stabilize and power the fire runes.
Starting to carve the enchantment, Helo can feel as the further he goes the more the enchantment itself is fighting back. The amount of mana that is filling the knife is much more than it held before. This is one thing that Helo has yet to deal with. Most of his enchanting attempts have been pretty simple, even when he was practicing to make this one, he created each piece individually.
An hour into the attempt and Helo has sweat dripping down his body. Below his chair there is a small puddle of sweat that is building. Not giving in Helo draws out his aura and wraps the enchantment. Thankfully he is healed enough to at least do this. Using his aura’s ability to siphon and weaken energy he slowly draws away the mana from the runes. It isn’t enough to drain the enchantment, just enough to keep it from going out of control.
Two hours in and Helo is starting to feel faint. On the bright side he is almost done, the downside is that this will be the most difficult part. All the lines are drawn and the pathways are stable, but now Helo must fill everything with mana. He prepared for this, grabbing the different devices he created Helo lines them up with the correct runes.
The devices are small mana siphons that pull-out mana from a mana core and insert it into a rune. He is using this to fill the fire runes as he uses plain mana to fill the unattuned ones.
Most enchanters will get a skill to do this; some might even be able to with their mana control. But that isn’t in the cards for Helo, he has no control over mana. Other than using his aura to strip away the meaning and concepts.
Activating all the siphons with a small mental nudge he starts using his stylus to fill the rest of the runes. It is a balancing act as all over the knife, mana is flooding the pathways and surging. Extensively using his aura to weaken and make things easier, Helo finally finished. The downside of his aura is that because of its nature to strip away concepts, he needs to use almost twice as much attuned mana. Thankfully he is wealthy, or Alli and Hinata are wealthy.
Dropping on his desk, Helo closes his eyes and almost passes out. Using his aura for so long started draining his reserves and that put strain on his healing body. Checking himself over with meditation, his channels appear to be swollen but not further injured. “I don’t think I can make the plasma enchantment right now.”
Working with that element is much more difficult and will take a lot more effort to contain and create. Shaking his head he resigns himself to finishing this project when he is fully healed.
On the bright side. Helo holds up his finished knife. “Appraisal.”
Fire Touched Dark Steel Kukri (Rare)
This blade was forged by a skilled smith and given to a promising child. That child has used these blades for years and enchanted them himself.
- This weapon has two fire-based settings.
- The hotter the blade, the stronger the metal. (Increased Durability)
- Fire mana converges on the tip and edge of the blade. (Increased Penetration)
- It can release the fire mana from the blade as an explosion of heat and flame.
Helo wanted more ranged abilities, but in the end, it was much easier to manipulate the fire mana to do what he wanted than the plasma. His plasma-based knife will have the same durability enchantment, but it should act more like a wand.
Within the fire enchantment he was able to mix in a secondary effect to increase penetration. Smiling at the weapon Helo starts to fill the different runes with the required energy. The weapon has a gem built into the handle that is used to refill the control runes. This control rune switches between the weapons two forms, durability and penetration. Helo can’t supply the mana himself, so he added a reservoir. Also built into the handle is the fire-based rune and the pathway that Helo will use to directly fill the weapon.
The blade itself has pathways to increase durability and focus of the flames. The fire burst is connected to the focus pathways, so the burst shoots from the tip and edge.
Holding up his completed project, Helo tests the weapon for the first time. Connecting his own energy pathways to the weapon with a loop for his physical energy and a vortex for his mental energy the blade starts to fill and heat up. This is a benefit of using his own energy. They follow pathways and flow naturally though his body. All Helo has to do is divert the flow and now the blade has a constant supply.
As the energy enters the collection of runes that create the fire the blade starts to heat up. Once the heat increases the gem in the handle starts activating the rest of the runes. They pull the fire mana away from the handle and into the blade itself.
Helo stares with a smile as the blade continues to grow hotter and hotter. Due to the nature of the enchantment, there is no actual fire. The metal continues to heat up as it slowly gets filled with fire mana. A portion of that same mana is siphoned into the ‘Tenlashea’ rune. This was the same rune as before; it has a similar meaning to the word ‘tenacious’, with the meaning the rune, it has the concept of not giving up and staying persistent. In reality the rune increases the durability of an object, the more energy that is damaging it.
So, when the metal gets to the point that it should be turning into slag, the rune is instead making the metal’s durability rise sharply. The thing that Helo likes the most about how this rune works is that it draws on the same energy that is harming it. So, Helo doesn’t need to give the rune any special mana. At this point the dark steel blade has gone from its normal dark gray color to a bright red blaze.
The only issue he has had with this rune is that it requires precise balance to use. There is a fine line between soaking up so much fire mana to increase durability that there is no heat left, and not using enough mana so that the heat starts to harm the blade. If he was using a fire-based metal, then he wouldn’t have as many issues.
With a mental nudge to the control rune the fire mana starts to flow from the entire blade and into the tip and edge. This will increase penetration and damage from stabs or slashes.
As the fire mana leaves the blade it slowly reverts to its normal color. But the edge is now glowing brighter and brighter, it is emmiting a red heat, now it is a pure white searing edge. Studying the effect Helo can see that the ‘Tenlashea’ runes on the edge of the blade are drawing in mana at a much faster rate. They need to because if they don’t, the edge would melt.
“So, it takes about a minute for the blade to naturally charge, then ten seconds for it to shift forms.” Helo speaks out loud as he studies the effect. “The runes draw to much energy in the penetration form. This can only be used for a short time. Not like it will matter much anyway.”
Helo says that because of the final effect of the knife. It’s ability to release all the fire mana as a blast. Holding the blade out Helo is about to activate the rune, but he stops himself. “Oh, that was close.” He says as he looks around. He is still in his bedroom at his desk.
Getting up Helo exits his room and heads toward the stairs to the ground floor. The back of the house has a large training field, and it would be a good place to test the knife. Cutting off the flow of energy the knife starts to radiate all the fire mana. The runes are no longer containing the heat, and it is freely spreading.
“Owe, shit!” Helo says while holding the knife out with two fingers. “I did not think that through.” Continuing his journey, he is about to step outside when Hinata steps up behind him.
“Helo-Kun, Alli and I were about to head into town. Want to come with us?” She says as she is walking up to him.
Looking between her and the knife Helo eventually just vanishes the still heated knife into his storage and agrees. They meet Alli in the central living area and the three of them exit the mansion. “Shouldn’t you have Rocco and someone else with you?” Helo asks them.
“Rocco? Why single out Rocco?” Alli questions him.
“Because there is no way that Rocco would want someone else to guard Hinata.” Both girls take a second to think about it then nod.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“True.” Alli starts to skip ahead. “Still, we will be fine.”
Hinata grabs Helo’s arm and the two of them exit the gate and follow Alli. She is fluttering between the different flowers and trees that line the pathway, like some kind of butterfly. They don’t speak much as they walk to town, but they don’t have to.
Over the year that they have lived together, they have gotten extremely comfortable around one another. Thankfully on this trip to town nobody jumps out of the shadows to try and harass them. “Ah… So where are we going?” Helo asks Hinata.
“No where really. This is out last day, Alli and I wanted to enjoy the town.” So, until sunset the three of them spent the rest of the day exploring the town together.
Eventually they decided to head back, On the way to the eastern gate Helo suddenly pulls both girls into an alleyway. With an annoyed huff Alli hits Helo on the arm “What are you doi…” She tries to say but his hand clamps over her mouth.
Peaking around the corner Helo spots the man that he struck in the face. He is following another man and looks annoyed. Hinata ducks lower and peaks out from below Helo. “Do you know that guy?”
“No, but they guy behind him, I punched him in the face.” Helo says with a small smirk.
“You what?!?” “Seriously Helo.” The girls say at the same time.
He just shrugs. “What? He was being an ass.”
Hinata rolls her eyes, “Yeah and that is enough reason to punch him.” As she is speaking the two men are almost in line with the alley.
“SHhhhh. Illusion please.” Helo says to Hinata. With her new rare skill ‘Illusion of Reality’ she creates the largest illusion she can. The skill has a strong focus on personal realistic illusions and giving them mass, not size.
But when it got to rare tier, the skill started allowing for larger illusions. Wrapping around them, a mystic energy with a tinge of light and darkness wavers in the air, then they disappear from the alley.
The two men walk past, and Helo can hear them talking. “Allen, did you hear that?” Eric says, this is the man that Helo punched.
“Hear what? There is nothing here.” The man, Allen says. “Eric just shut up, you’re not here to do anything. All I need from you is to stand there. There are some newbies that just got into town. It’s time to ruff them up a bit.”
The three people in the alleyway give one another a look, they don’t quite like what they are hearing. But at the same time, they are not really sure what they can do about it.
The two men walk past and enter into the store that the party just passed. Helo looks at the two girls. He can see it in their faces. They want to do something. At the same time Helo really doesn’t want them too.
“Haaahhhh fine. I’ll go, you two head back to the mansion.” Helo says in a low voice.
“NO!” Alli shouts. It is Hinata this time that leaped forward.
“Shhhh, they are in the store next door.” Hinata grabs Alli and starts to drag her away. “Obviously we are not particularly good with stealth. We will go.” Hinata and Alli leave out the other side of the alley way and they head to the mansion.
Still in the alley, Helo ducks behind a trash can. Wrapping himself in his dark aura, he vanishes his presence and slightly hides himself in the shadows. The door to the store slams open and Eric bursts into the alley. Behind him Allen is following with a scowl.
“I told you there was something! I heard it again.” Running into the alley Eirc runs right past Helo. The aura wrapping him has a slight effect of making him harder to detect. But as Allen comes past at a much slower pace he stops. Tilting his head he looks down toward the can that Helo is behind.
As the man stops Helo dashes past and behind Allen. As the man looks down all he can see is the stirring of a leaf from Helo’s passing. Allen continues to spin following the twirl of the leaf, but Helo doesn’t stop behind him. He moves smoothly and sticks to his back like a shadow.
As the man’s back is now facing the wall Helo smoothly runs up it. Extending his nail, he uses it to reach the roof and slip over. Allen spins in a circle and looks around with wide eyes. “What?” He whispers to himself. He was annoyed following Eric. He didn’t hear anything, but Eric swore that someone was watching them. Now he is starting to get angry.
“Boss! Did you find anything?” Eric spins around and watches Allen takes a look around in confusion.
Looking up with irritation he shouts, “Nothing! It’s… Nothing!”
Helo watches them finish looking and as they exit he drops back down. The buildings in this part of town are two stories and appear to be a mix of a storefront, workplace and an apartment. “If I didn’t have Alli and Hinata’s money, I’d probably stay in one of these.” He thinks with a small laugh. He really went from living in a cave to living in the lap of luxury.
Part of him looks at the building with a little bit of longing. He has a lot of responsibilities and staying in one of these would probably simplify his life a lot. “Ahhh I really like my massive bed.”
Still hiding his presence, Helo looks around and finds that nobody has spotted him. He slowly walks to the store front and slips into the door. Inside the store Allen is standing with both hands on the counter and looming over a scared young girl. She appears to be young, and her aura puts her in early tier 1. Eric is behind Allen and doing his best to appear menacing. Helo just thinks he looks funny, but the girl is truly and rightfully afraid.
“So, you do realize that your boss bought a store on my block.” Allen says with a smirk. The girl cowers lower. She has tear stains in her eyes and dirty blonde hair. Her eyes are green like grass. She appears to be the same age as Helo.
“I… I don’t know a… anything.” The young girl cowers lower. Her older brother was excited to purchase this shop. He came home this last summer with a grin, telling her family that he made enough to not only get his own shop, but also pay for her to gain her tier 0 levels, and come to school.
Now it looks like everything is crumbling before her eyes. “I… Please… don’t hurt me.” She starts to cry. She is frozen in place and having trouble running away.
From the back Helo can hear another door opening. Then a man that looks a lot like the young girl steps out. He is wearing a large apron and has ink stains all over his body. “Jen, do you need any help up front. I can hear some people, let them know the shop is closed?” Ren, her brother says while doing something in the back. Not hearing anything he walks out into the front room. He is about Helo’s height at 5’9”, scrawny and wearing a pair of glasses. His hair and eyes are the same color as his sister’s.
He steps into the room and pales a little. “Um… Ah…” His look flashes over the room and his gaze passes right over Helo. Coughing into his hand he says. “How… How can I help you?”
Allen just smiles with a malicious gleam, “Well, you bought a store on my street.” He waves his hand behind him. “Everyone on this street pays me protection money.” He looks at Jen, and his grin turns into something with an extra splash of evil. “Or we can find another way for you to pay.”
Jen stumbles and catches herself on the desk. Ren speaks up with a little authority. “Sis, how about you come back here with me?”
Allen reaches forward and grabs her hand that is holding herself on the desk. “No, how about she stays here?”
“What do you want?” Ren says. He lost his will to resist and just nodded his head. “Just let my sister go, please.” Letting go of Jen, Allen lets her stumble to her brother.
“Half your profits, I’ll come collect…” Helo strikes then. He has been listening to the conversation and has wanted to interrupt the entire time. But he also knows that Allen is tier 2 and isn’t someone he can non-lethally put down quickly.
But Allen relaxed at that moment. He won the argument and got way more profit than whoever is pulling his strings wanted. Pulling his hood to cover his head Helo jumps forward and flares ‘Bloodline Awakening’. He has yet to use the skill, but he is momentarily surprised to realize that there is no pain. Reaching over twenty-percent in his personal awakening made it so that the energy his bloodline naturally produces no longer harms him.
Using the boost in physical stats, especially agility, Helo crosses the room in a moment. His first strike is a clawed punch to the back of Allen’s head. Allen is tier 2 and his perception, reaction, and instincts are enhanced over someone in tier 1. Unfortunately, Helo is too quick, too close and his increase in dark energy is making his presence harder to detect. It is too much for him to truly react to.
He starts to turn and Helo’s palm lands on the side of his head with a “THUNK”. The man freezes as ‘Forced Still’ activates. The rare skill is enough to stop him in his tracks. But the blow isn’t enough for Helo to knock him unconscious. Helo’s second strike is sent along with a powerful aura blow. The second blow is sent directly to the man’s temple. This strike mixed with the mental blow that comes from Helo’s aura is enough for Allen to drop.
Stalling his momentum using Allen’s body, Helo presses both feet against him and pushes off. Allen’s body launches forward and splits the counter in two. Wood pieces launch outward and rain into Jen and Ren.
Everything happens too quickly for Eric to react and before he can even pull back his fist to strike, Helo is already bouncing off Allen and into his chest. He rides Eric to the ground like a surfboard and sends a powerful left hook to his temple. Eric slumps to the ground and everything goes still.
Helo’s head is still covered, and he looks up from Eric’s body. His blazing red eyes meet Ren and Jen’s. Both can feel a shiver run down their spines, like an apex predator is preparing to strike.
Not wanting to say anything to the two, and not sure about what to do with the bodies. Helo just grabs them with the ancles and starts to drag them out the door. Getting to the door and to the three steps that are at the front door, Helo just drags the two down them. The heads make a duel “Knock, knock, knock” as they strike the steps.
Nobody noticed him entering the place, but people sure do notice as he leaves. Dragging two bodies and tossing them into an alleyway is bound to draw attention. The streets in the area are not very full. This is a street filled with personal shops of skilled crafters.
But there are a few people still wandering about, they all stop and stare as Helo steps into the cool fall air. Behind him two large unconscious men are being dragged. His hood is still up but he sends a small wave to the people walking by. “Nothing to see here.” Then he turns back into the storefront.
Everyone on the street stops and stares, then someone calls out. “Is that Allen the Brutal Finger?” He is well known in the area because of his shakedowns of the different shops. He got his nickname because of the skill he is known for, ‘One Finger Pierce’. It is his main skill and a finisher that he uses with his unarmed combat style.
“What does this mean? Is someone else taking over his protection fee?” Someone in the street asks. Around the area similar cries are ringing out and Helo just ignores them. He considers entering the store, but he has no desire to deal with whatever is going on in there. He can feel the emotions of Ren and his sister within the store. They are crying and Ren is holding his sister as she weeps.
Jumping up to the roof Helo lets his skill go and he slumps a little. The skill is no longer hurting him, but it still does come with a moment of weakness. As the weakness passes Helo jumps two roofs over and drops back to the ground. Pulling off his hood he starts to walk smoothly to the eastern gate.
It doesn’t take him long to leave and in only a few more minutes he is at his new house. Pressing his hand to the reader, the gate swings open. Stepping into the mansion the first thing he sees is Alli and Hinata standing in the entry way with arms crossed.
“Ahhh. I didn’t mean to send you away?” Helo says like a question. He can tell they are upset, and he isn’t sure about what to do.
“Huh.” Alli says with a glare.
“Kuh.” Hinata snorts and turns her head.
“Um, I did make a potential problem for us.” He says while scratching his head.
“What did you do?” Hinata turns back to him and glares.
“Well, I might have involved myself in the so-called protection game. We might have to act as the backers of a budding business.” Helo smiles a little and Alli smiles right back.
“Ohhhhh, that sounds fun.” She looks at Hinata and her smiles turns into a fake stern look. “I mean, you should have discussed it with us first.”
Hinata just rolls her eyes, but Helo can tell that she is a little annoyed. “We are in our first year. This isn’t something we can deal with right now. We will be spending half the year going between the different clans.”
“Soooo?” Alli tilts her head and puts a finger to her chin with a cute thinking face. “Let’s talk to my cousin. He was supposed to graduate last year, but he stayed to help us. He can take care of it.”
“I don’t like asking for help like this. But I guess delegation is important.” She sighs and looks at Alli. “Classes start tomorrow. Ask him if he can meet us that afternoon.”
With that done, Helo fully enters the house and takes a seat on the couch. Now that he knows the name of the man that he knocked out… twice. He can finally look him up. Pulling out his tablet he starts to go over the information that was given to him by Jorden.
The information that the school gives out lays out political roles. Essentially, who runs all the different councils or clubs for the school. But Jorden gave them information on everyone who runs the businesses, who they are affiliated with and so on. He also got information on the different parties.
Looking through the lists, it isn’t hard for him to find a file on Allen. From what he can see Allen has a party of bruisers and tough guys. He works as muscle for hire for the Starhaven family. “Huh I wouldn’t mind putting them out of business.” He says with a smile.
“Alli! Hinata! Come look at this!” Helo shouts into the mansion. The two girls come in and sit on the arms of the chair he is sitting on. “Look at this.” As they are reading Helo hears a yip from the hallway. Lelai heard his yelling and came running.
She runs into the living room and jumps into his lap. Petting her, he waits for the girls to finish reading. “Is this the guy you hit?” Alli asks him.
“Yeah, this is the protection ring that I accidently got involved in.” Helo says. Alli looks a bit happy about the fact that the family of a guy that has constantly annoyed her is going to get interrupted by them.
While Alli looks happy, Hinata has a curious look on her face. “Helo made a deal that Dorimer will leave us alone. Would this nullify that?” Alli and Helo’s smiles drop, and they both start to think about it. “Maybe? But we could start to interfere. It would just mean a lot of work for Jorden.”
“Why?” Helo asks her.
“Well. We don’t have many people here, especially fighters. There are only a few older parties and us.” Hinata says, as she uses the tablet to show a map of the area. The map shows the locations, in color of all the different businesses, crafters, and fighters and the clan or group they belong to.
“Look, there is nothing here. Only a single shop and the houses we all own.” Hinata shows them the map. It has three different mansions and a shop near the eastern gate.
“Hey at least the shop is close to the one Helo got involved with.” Alli says with a smile.
The alleyway that they entered was in the center of the street, and Helo got involved with the shop next to the alleyway. The shop that is run by the Kashiwagi clan is on the end of that same street.
“Well, it looks like we have a lot of work cut out for us.” Helo says with a sigh.