Saturday September 16th, 2018.

  Helo instinctively rolls to the side and lets out a low growl. It rumbles from the back of his throat and reverberates through the area.

  Beside him Isabella chuckles at Helo’s reaction. It was simple for her to sneak up on the kid. She can tell he isn’t used to people being able to do that. He relaxes slightly but is still on guard as he studies the woman.

  She is still wearing a colorful skirt with a long leg slit and a bra that is barely passable as clothing. The rest of her body is filled with ornamental jewelry and tattoos. She is gorgeous and dangerous at the same time. Revealing so much, also puts her rippling muscles and immense strength on display.

  “Your cute kiddo.” She says while patting the spot Helo was just sitting at. “Come. Don’t be such a scaredy cat.”

  Helo cautiously approaches, even more cautiously he sits down. But when nothing horrible happens he relaxes a little more. His aura goes from pushing out aggressively, to slumbering back within the vitality that flows through the jungle.

  As soon as his aura settles back into place Helo tilts his head and looks around. Flowing his bloodline energy into his eyes he tries to get a feel for the vitality in the area, something changed.

  It takes a few seconds. Where he is rudely ignoring Isabella.

  She doesn’t mind. She is enjoying watching Helo trying to figure things out. The answer that he is seeking is one of the reasons that she is here.

  When he finally does realize what’s different it shocks him out of his revery. “It’s me?” He asks, then turning back to Isabella he asks again. “My aura changed?” He asks her.

  “Yes.” She nods with a surprisingly motherly smile. “Everyone needs to uncover their aura to reach tier 3. But you gain a second class at tier 2.” She stops talking, but Helo picks up where she stopped.

  “Soo… there is a second class, meaning a second aura… I… Unlocked my second aura?” Helo asks her with wide eyes.

  Isabella smiles again. “I believe so, you truly are a remarkable child.” She sighs wistfully. He doesn’t know why she is sighing, but if he did, he would run. If only I was a hundred years younger, no eighty. Yeah, if only I was eighty years younger.

  “What does this mean?” He asks her.

  To that she shrugs. “For you, nothing. If anything, it was expected. You are already the child that unlocked his aura before he even knew about the awakened community. So, when it gets revealed that you found your second aura before reaching tier 2, nothing will really change. People want to kill you or befriend you.”

  “I already knew that.” Helo gives her a blank glare. “I mean for me, personally.”

  “Ohhh. Well, for most their second class will lag behind. Maybe they took a class that does truly suit them, because they needed money, or social pressure.” She looks a little lost, which surprises Helo. “Nobody on earth really knows, but we don’t think that gaining your second aura really matters until you are going to advance into tier 4.”

  “Because earth can only sustain individuals at tier 3.” Helo nods. “So, this is just a boon for me, my second class should start at pseudo tier 3 like my first class. Plus, it will be more personalized toward me.”

  “Cool.” Helo smiles again and nods to himself. It seems like he has a new thing to train.

  One quick teleport later and everyone is returned back to the Hernstrandir Nature Reserve. Helo isn’t totally sure, but he intentionally stayed back, while his party went home to sleep. It is already past midnight, but he wants to get the lay of the land.

  Wrapping himself in his aura and hiding his presence Helo starts to walk through the town. The main place that he stops at is a bar. Finding a seat in the corner Helo uses his enhanced sense to listen in on everyone’s conversations.

  “Did you hear. The final group returned from their field trip. It was the Twin Heiress Party and their group.” A drunk man says to his friends.

  “Really? Did anyone get a head count? I had a bet that they would lose less than five.” Another man at the table perks up and asks.

  “Less than five! That is ridiculous. The lowest is usually five, with the average being like seven or something.” The man to his right says while he shoves him in a friendly way.

  “What can I say.” The man grins back, “I was feeling lucky.”

  Helo isn’t sure how to feel about this. He does know that when he reports to Alli and Hinata, they both will feel sick about it. But to him, he doesn’t like it, but he has no strong feelings.

  But at the same time, he knows that Alli and Hinata will be upset. So, he subtly angles his hand like he is doing a palm strike, and he silently uses ‘Dark Hand’. In the darkness of night and the poor lighting of the bar, the hand isn’t seen. Using the skill as a force push, he hits he man that won his bet in the back of the head.

  The man’s head lurches forward, and he slams his face on the table. Grabbing his nose he bolts up. “I bwok me nosh!” He tilts his head back and glares around. “Wo dish it!”

  The man looks around with a glare, but when he looks at Helo, he doesn’t even acknowledge him. His eyes slip off Helo like he isn’t even there.

  Around him his friends are laughing uproariously. “Hahah! Man, nobody hit you! You fell!”

  None of them were able to see the hand, so they all assumed that he fell and hit his face. As he listens to the man at the bar, Helo slips out and starts to look for the bookie. He wants to get a better idea about how many people died. If what they said is correct, and the average is seven. That means over a hundred of the first years are already dead.

  When he was told that they expect only thirty groups to graduate, he assumed it was because of dropouts. Not that nine-hundred other students will die.

  It doesn’t take Helo long to find what he is looking for. Slipping into another nearby bar, he finds a group that just learned that the so called ‘Twin Heiress Party’ returned. One of the men bet on exactly four people dying.

  So, when he heard the number, he jumped into the air. “I’m RICH!” He yells. His friends quickly pull him back down.

  “SHHHHH. You don’t want to go yelling that here. You know that Luca is the Captain of the Guard. He likes to take his cut.” His friend whispers low enough that nobody can hear within the loud murmur of the bar. That is nobody but Helo.

  Another of the friends get up. “But we should go now. Now that all the groups are back, he might set up a guard detail near the bookie to collect his ‘taxes’.”

  Helo smiles to himself and quietly thanks the man. With this, they can lead him where he wants to go. They all step out of the bar on slightly wobbly legs. They keep whispering about how much money they made, and how they are going to spend it. To their drunk minds they are keeping quiet. But everyone they pass can hear them.

  Following behind the group of drunk gamblers, Helo jumps up to the roof of the buildings. The small school town only has one street that is lined with bars and other less than positive businesses. So, it doesn’t take the men long to get to where they want to go.

  Across the street Helo can see them enter from the roof of the building. The street is dim but filled with drunk students between sixteen and all the way up to twenty-four years old. Most nobles graduate around twenty and twenty-one. So, anyone that is still here is like Jared, who took another year of classes to help support a freshman. They are partiers and aren’t doing great in school or they are normal students that are taking a longer track.

  The building that the group entered is two stories like most buildings on this street. It has a bouncer outside and a lot more traffic than the other buildings. Inside Helo can see smoke pooling on the floor and colored flashing lights. He can also hear the loud noise of music. Even a normal human could hear the sounds of the building from a block away.

  Some kind of Club?” Helo thinks as he starts to get closer. Going a few buildings down he crosses the street and jumps onto another building. Then he makes his way back toward the club. With the buildings so close together Helo is easily able to step onto the roof of the club. It only sits a few feet higher than the buildings next to it. At the same time it has a patio out back.

  As he places his feet onto the buildings roof Helo can feel as mana within an enchantment starts to activate. Unlike the mansion that they are living in, the enchantments on this club are more like children’s drawings. Using that unique feature of his aura that he rarely uses, Helo starts to get a feeling for what is happening.

  Using his aura to not only weaken the enchantment, but read the flow of mana, he starts to mutter to himself. “Some kind of silent alarm, a tracking mark, annnnnd…” Helo traces the mana back to a single place. He crouches down and finds an inscription plate. Reading the runes on the plate is easy for him. “Oh, a binding trap.”

  Hitting the plate with his aura, the mana within the enchantment starts to leak into the air, at the same time the trap that is supposed to spring, starts to fizzle out. Pulling out his own inscription stylus, Helo quickly slashes the portion of the enchantment that sends out the alarm. It is a simple wire that leads deeper into the building.

  Then drawing quickly on the same plate, he uses the same basic language that the enchanter of the plate used. Only he is writing much smaller than theirs. So, he is able to fit his own runes within the spaces between the other enchanters.

  Then using a simple mana gathering rune, he drains away all the mana within the inscription plate. He could have it dissipate or something simple. All the mana that is gathered into the gathering rune, is directed toward the trap rune and a simple touch-based activation rune.

  Now the next person to touch the plate will find the trap activating with the full power of the array.

  Looking down at his work Helo grins. He is aware that his skill in enchanting is high. He hasn’t moved onto tier 2 enchantments yet. The only reason his own works will reach that tier is due to the material used.

  But when he compares himself to his peers, instead of Elder Shelbey or Yoeko Yamamoto, he is well above them.

  Not only does he have much more knowledge thanks to his teachers and the library of knowledge left to him by his parents. His energy control is much higher, he writes much smaller, and much faster.

  Thanks to this, he was able to use his aura to intercept the enchantment before it could be activated. Then moving quickly, he drained its mana and redirected it. He has no doubt that someone soon will learn that the inscription plate was tampered with. But Helo’s gathering runes and activation rune were from the same enchanting language that the enchanter who made the clubs defenses used.

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  So, there isn’t any real way to tie things back to him. Only the knowledge that the person that tampered with their defenses was much better than their enchanter.

  With the enchantment no longer trying to wrap him in some kind of restrictive spell. Helo crawls to the edge of the roof and looks down onto the patio.

  From what he can see directly underneath him is some kind of rooftop bar. Out in front there are speakers, dancers, and decorations. Helo wants to slip down right away. It would be easy to get lost among the crowded dancers. Then he just has to find the guys that he followed here. The issue is that he is having some trouble with the sensations.

  The sounds of the music, all the bodies, the scents they are giving off. Helo has to almost force himself to jump down. Eventually he makes it off the roof and into the dance floor. With all the flashing lights and bodies, nobody even noticed as Helo fell from the roof.

  Diminishing his presence, Helo uses his aura in a unique way. He has practiced blocking sight, sound, smell, energy, and his presence as a whole. But right now, he just wants to erase anything that makes him seem more than a normal human. It isn’t a technique that he perfected, but again, with all the bodies and people. He doesn’t need perfection, just good enough.

  Slipping through the crowd is easy and Helo follows a couple down the stairs. As he does he sees the group that he followed walking up. As the two groups pass one another, Helo quickly slips behind the group that led him here.

  Following them back upstairs, they walk through the patio area and toward the bar. Helo wants to groan, but he only permits himself to roll his eyes. If he waited just thirty more seconds, he would have seen them come up.

  Keeping a lock on the group of friends with his aura, Helo slips to the side of the patio and with a quick leap he is back on the roof. Then he just follows the group as they walk past the bar and into the back room.

  From what Helo can feel, the room that should have been a storage space has multiple people inside. The room is on the second floor and on the wall facing the street. It only takes Helo a few seconds to find a window that leads into the room.

  He wants to find a list of how everyone in their year did. How many deaths and so on, he doesn’t want to get caught for breaking and entering. Just as he has this thought, a little portion of his ego rears its head. There is no way that they could catch me.

  Waiting for the group of friends to leave with their winnings, Helo stands on the roof just above the window. His entire presence is concealed and his hood is pulled up. Thinking about it, Helo takes off his hoodie and swaps it for a plain black one. There are a lot of people out there that know he wears hoodies with rose patterns.

  Then on the count of three he turns and steps off. Grabbing the windowsill as he is falling, Helo uses it to swing his legs forward.

  The windows are enchanted against penetration. But enchantments like that are easy to break through, for Helo it is even easier. Wrapping his feet in his bloodline they easily crack the enchantment with a resonate sound of shattering glass. A moment later the real glass shatters and sprays into the room.

  Moving quickly Helo already knows where everyone is and how strong they are. At the Kashiwagi residence they had enchantments to block out people’s auras. But it seems that is something the school doesn’t worry about. Who would believe that a student could find their aura, when they are supposed to just reach tier 2.

  Using the momentum of his swing, Helo’s feet strike the man that is sitting at the desk in the back. This man is the assumed bookie. The bookie’s head hits the desk with a “CRACK!” And then Helo is crouching on the man’s back.

  “WHAT!” the man in the corner says. He has the look of a guard, and he is the first to react. The other person is a woman that was sitting on a couch sipping tea on the other side of the room.

  Stepping off the bookie’s back and onto the desk. Helo reaches behind him and makes a basic throwing knife appear.

  “Hey! You better put that away!” The guard says pointing at the knife Helo drew.

  He casually stands up and drops the handle of a basic throwing on the back of the bookie’s head. The knife is wrapped in the dark swirling aura of ‘Forced Still’. It hits the bookie in the back of the head with a dull “Thud.” And he is no longer able to move. The blade hit him in the back of the neck, freezing just about every nerve in his body.

  Off to the side the woman has yet to get up from the couch. Helo isn’t using any easily recognizable skills or abilities. The only thing he is doing is erasing his entire presence. She casually sets her teacup down and studies Helo.

  Ignoring her, he turns to the guard. As he does, the guard draws a sword and leaps forward. The guard is early tier 2 and has considerable skill. But his movements are easily read by Helo.

  Slipping low Helo ducks a slash. Then stepping in he grabs the guard’s wrist. Helo doesn’t have the strength to contend with the guard in that category, but he does have the speed.

  The guard fights back and pulls up his hand. It moves easier than expected and Helo uses that confusion to push the hand up and step through. Now he is behind the guard. With a quick punch and another ‘Forced Still’ the guard drops.

  “Now that was impressive.” The woman says as she stands up. She is tall with dark skin, honey-colored eyes and an impressive figure. She is wearing a beautiful tight dress that seems like it still allows for full range of movement. Sitting beside her is an impressive sword. It is a simple weapon, not overly ornamental. But at the same time Helo can feel the peak tier 2 aura coming from it.

  That weapon almost broke into tier 3. Helo thinks with some amazement. Skills and resources to make a weapon like that are rare on earth. They are rare even in the wider multiverse, not that Helo knows that.

  Looking back up from the sword Helo studies the woman’s face better and he freezes. She is standing up and staring at him with a smile. She studies him with her gaze and looks into his softly glowing red eyes. “So, do you want a job?”

  Pulling back his hood he says. “Your… Ahhh… Layla? Right?”

  The woman looks surprised by his actions. Not what he said, she is used to people knowing her. But the fact that he broke in and concealed his identity, then he just took off his hood. “Yes. And you are?” She says smoothly. She might be confused but can easily roll with the punches and keep a calm demeanor.

  Looking around Helo sheepishly scratches his cheek. “My bad. I’m Helo. Alli and Hinata have said a lot about you. This… isn’t your place, right?”

  Layla pauses. Did he really recognize me and take off his hood. After potentially attacking my establishment? “Hahaha. Oh. This is great. No, Helo. This is not my place; I was here for business.”

  “Good.” Helo nods and turns to the desk. He starts to rummage around but he stops and looks up. “They will be coming back too soon. Also, Alli and Hinata would like you to visit. Oh, and I already have a job.”

  Layla rolls her eyes at Helo’s last sentence and mutters, “Obviously.”

  Saying his piece, Helo gets back to what he was doing. It was easy to find what he wanted. It isn’t really hard information to find, and the bookie was just about to finalize his scorecard. Taking the piece of paper Helo gives it a quick scan and turns to leave.

  “Nice to meet you, Helo.” Layla Al-Katib says as Helo disappears. She is the granddaughter of the Egyptian clan leader, and this was one of the most interesting first meeting she has ever had.

  It doesn’t take Helo long to get back to the mansion. The trip to and from the mansion takes a while when they are all together and walking. It seems dumb to Helo, but he was told that if they are seen running, then it looks poorly on them.

  He doesn’t understand how running is bad politics, but he doesn’t care. It also makes more sense about how getting put in the mansion that is furthest from the school is seen as a slight against them.

  Personally, Helo loves it. They only have one neighbor and a great view. But walking to class is a little annoying. Thankfully in moments like this Helo’s presence and aura are almost completely undetectable. He can remain hidden and scan for others with nobody knowing.

  A high or peak tier 2 might be able to detect him or anyone stronger. But when it comes to students at the school, he is a ghost.

  Getting back to the mansion and slipping inside is easy for Helo. A minute later he steps into one of the many sitting rooms within the mansion. Most of his fellow party members are sleeping. But when he entered the mansion into the central area, he found Aiko up and finding tea. She told him that Alli and Hinata were waiting.

  “So… find anything interesting?” Hinata asks. It is well past midnight, and she is a little annoyed that he ran off as soon as they got back.

  “Yeah.” He says while he takes his seat. As soon as he is comfortable, he starts to speak again. The two girls were sitting on couches on one side of a table; he is relaxing on the other. “They take bets on how many will die, from what I heard the fact that we only lost four students is impressive.”

  Both girls look upset to learn that. Then Helo pulls out the paper that he… liberated. Setting it down he slides it over. Hinata is the first to pick it up, but as she does Alli stands up and walks around the table. Sitting back down next to Helo, she gives her friend a smirk.

  Hinata rolls her eyes, but she does the same thing. Now that they are all on the same couch, Hinata looks at Helo with a raised brow. “And how did you get this?”

  “I just grabbed it off a desk.” He shrugs. Not wanting to meet Hinata’s glare he looks toward the door. As he does, Aiko enters and brings them tea. Thanking her, he uses it as an excuse to look back at the table and take a sip. That is when he notices the blood stains on the paper.

  “Oh, well I might have knocked out the previous owner. Ah! I met Layla, she is as beautiful as you two said.” Helo nods his head and takes another sip.

  Behind him he can hear as Aiko’s hand meets her face. “Pat.” “Haaa idiot.”

  “What was that?” Alli glares at him.

  “Mhm, I see.” Hinata acts indifferently.

  After that he tells them about how he found a bookie and broke in. Then how Layla was there having a meeting. By the end, Alli is laughing. “Oh, that must have been a great first impression. Hopefully we can see her next week.”

  After that they all look over the lists of information. Each group is labeled with the number they received, and who the notable members are. They also talk about deaths and small bits of information that must have been collected.

  “This is disgusting, who would make bets about being dying like this.” Alli complains.

  Hinata agrees but she does try to add something positive. “On the bright side our year averaged six, not seven. It would have been four, but Adan Lopez probably used the normal students as cannon fodder. Plus, look.” She points at the paper. “He went to Guatamala. They probably had the students fighting in death pits or something.”

  After that the trio quickly went to bed. It is early Saturday morning, and they have yet to sleep. When Helo finally gets back to his room he finds not only Lelai sleeping sprawled out on his bed, but also Inka using his pillow as her own.

  With a sigh he crawls into bed and tries to find a spot to sleep. He doesn’t have the heart to wake them.

  The next day things go smoothly for Helo and everyone else. They do their morning meditation session. It is followed by the usual light sparring and skill practice. Then by ten everyone is free to do as they please.

  Having thought about his slightly unwelcome visit to the club, Helo starts to think about their own enchantments. So, instead of working on his plasma dagger. He decides to spend his day testing the barrier around their house.

  Everyone sleeps peacefully because nobody can get through the barrier. But they never truly tested it. So, for the rest of the day Helo walks around the edge of the property. He is studying the barrier that connects to their wall, and the barrier that stops people from climbing the cliff on two sides of the house.

  At first it takes a while to understand what he is truly looking at. The barrier is sophisticated and obviously made by a very skilled enchanter. Someone that is near the level of Elder Shelby. But after finally understanding what he is seeing, he realizes that the barrier has some inconsistencies.

  Certain portions seem either to have been done horribly wrong, or are intentional weaknesses. They are like a wall that is staked into the ground, but one portion doesn’t have a stake. With this in mind, Helo tries to devise a plan to fix it.

  Unfortunately, he took all day to understand what he was looking at. So, with dinner time around the corner Alli drags Helo back inside to relax. There he enjoys spending time with the party. But then he finds just the person that could help him. “Bibbin!” Helo says while stepping up to the Halfling. Before he can tell Bibbin what he needed, the little Halfling is already booking it out of the room and to his own. “Huh… well I guess I’ll ask him tomorrow.”

  Off to the side Alli chuckles at Bibbins frightful run. But Hinata glares at her and Rurgrim.

  The next day Helo wakes up before sunrise like normal. No longer so overly excited to have found the answer to his problem, this time he approaches Bibbin in a calmer manner. While everyone is enjoying their breakfast, Helo looks over toward the Halfling from his spot between the Heiresses.

  “Hey Bibbin.” Helo says. The Halfling flinches, but this time he doesn’t bolt. “I need your help with a project; do you think you could help me after sparring?”

  “Umm…” Bibbin says quietly. “Sure…” He nods sharply and looks at his food like it is a lifeline.

  The rest of Sunday morning goes smoothly. After sparring Bibbin follows Helo toward the wall. Once they get there Bibbin looks at Helo in confusion. “The protective enchantments are intentionally wrong in certain areas.” This statement causes Bibbin to look at Helo with a wide scared look.

  “I have come to the conclusion that it is intentional. Some kind of test.” Helo says. “I don’t have the skill to modify such large enchantments. That means we need to patch the holes.” Helo looks at Bibbin intentionally.

  The Halfling stands quietly, but after a second his face brightens. “Traps.” He says this with a smile, obviously he really likes traps.

  “YeP.” Helo pops the ‘P’. “I was planning on marking where the gaps are, and you would create traps around the area. Then I was going to make a second array that detects intrusion. Right along the wall.” Helo gestures to his idea of making a second array just inside the first.

  “Array? Not an Enchantment?” Bibbin asks.

  “Well to enchant the entire perimeter I would need a ton of resources and time. An array is weaker, but it also much easier to make.” With the plan set the two of them spend the rest of the day marking out all the areas that have weaknesses.

  By the time they are done going over every spot it is dinner time again and Alli steps out to drag both Helo and Bibbin inside. As soon as they step into the dining room, they realize that there are more people here than they expected.

  On one side of the table Jorden sits with his fiancé Willow. He is happily chatting with Rocco and Carl. On the other side sitting next to Hinata Layla Al-Katib is staring at Helo with an interested gaze.

  Looking down at himself he can see that he is covered in dirt. When Alli sits back down she looks at him and rolls her eyes. “I told you to go get cleaned up.”