Looking up from his tea Helo finds surprisingly delicious, both men are staring at him. Not totally sure what is going on and still feeling flighty, Helo sets the cup down and asks. “Um what’s going on. How did that girl make a light? Why did she call you a druid?”

  Bernard looks at Micah with an eyebrow raised. “I got a funny video of her seeing the bear and looking embarrassed, but did she use magic?”

  Micah with a sigh says, “Yeah it was supposed to be a surprise for when you saw her. This last year she gained the required the mana to start practicing. She is a natural with manipulation.” Looking back at Bernard “She even assumed that Helo was your apprentice because of his dealing with the bear.”

  Helo even more confused now than he was before and can only sit there are stare as these two men discuss magic as if it is real. “Are… is this all a joke?”

  Realizing that they got a bit distracted discussing their niece. Bernard laughs and scratches the back of his neck. “No young Helo, magic is real, and you already saw proof. As for you being my apprentice… Truthfully, I considered it. I’m a druid. I work with and guide nature. This includes plants and animals. This resort and my town are all part of my grove. Making it a pseudo-domain. Which are all things that don’t really matter right now.” Sighing to himself he continues, “I considered taking you in after seeing how you preferred to live alone in nature, but your affinity doesn’t quite line up for being a druid. Where I am within the natural world, living in and working with nature. You are more… on top of nature, like an apex predator. Animals don’t attack me because my aura and magic soothe them. They don’t attack you because they respect you like an equal or even an alpha.”

  Helo stares at Bernard in disbelief. What is going on. I have no idea what all this means. Looking over at Micah even his face is looking surprised as he takes in what Bernard said.

  Bernard continues speaking. “So truthfully, I deemed that getting involved would only hinder you. Growth in the world of magic is as much a personal endeavor as it is communal. For some and with the right teachings, having help will only boost them further along their path. But for others someone trying to influence their path will weaken the results.”

  At this point Micah speaks up realizing the point Bernard is trying to make. “If he actively tried to help you commune with nature like a druid, he could have hurt your path as a hunter and predator.”

  Helo looks at the two men still in disbelief. So… Magic is real. Proof I need proof. Looking up with a challenging eye he says, “Prove it.”

  Bernard laughs before raising his hand. His fingertips glow softly the color green, pointing toward a flower on the table. Helo can feel a light tingling on his skin. Then the flower starts moving before it blooms.

  “Woahhh.” Helo says with disbelief. Okay magic is real… Then what… “Then what are you saying.”

  With a serious expression Bernard answers him. “Well kid. Eventually you’re going to go through what some would call an awakening. A lot of what you do before then will influence the strength of your awakening and the path you follow. If someone with amazing potential with the spear trains with a sword. Then they awaken and choose to focus on the sword it will limit their growth. For some, this can be a boon. If you don’t have much potential for anything and a Spearmaster trains you. They can help you push boundaries and grow beyond your means by following a known path. But this generally pales in comparison to someone with massive potential that follows their own path.

  At this point Micah speaks up. “That’s you kid. If you follow your own path, you will have amazing potential. But if someone gets involved before you awaken, we could… muddy the waters per say. Making your awakening more convoluted.”

  “That is why I haven’t gotten too involved with your life. It is also why I let those poachers try to take the bear for the last two years. Also, why I didn’t stop you tonight. This was all great practice for you. Me trying to turn you into me, would be worse than me letting you be yourself.” Bernard says looking pleased with himself.

  “Wait! You knew! The last two years. You knew.” Looking angry then slowly getting quieter Helo isn’t sure how to feel. “So, what was tonight about.”

  “Well kid. Now that you know about magic, I can say that… What was his name… Fuzzball. Yeah, Fuzzball has also been influenced by the magic in my Grove. He is becoming a magic beast. Have you noticed him getting stronger the last two years.” Helo’s eyes widen in understanding about what he is talking about. “Yeah, so he is getting too powerful to let roam around. He could do a lot of damage.”

  “But why the poachers and what is going to happen to him.” Helo it still having trouble wrapping his mind around everything.

  Micah steps up this time. “Well, the poachers were because of the other families. This resort is considered neutral ground, so they kept sending people to try and capture him. A magic beast has a lot of potential. They are very valuable. Their offspring have a high chance of becoming magic beasts themselves, and their bodies are filled with useful things.”

  Bernard holds up a hand stopping Micah. “I sent men out to catch him because I am going to auction him off at this conference. As a little hunter do you understand why this in necessary.”

  Helo looks into his eyes wanting to be angry, but he is correct. Helo does understand. Nodding his head he looks away not wanting to look at the two men. In a quiet voice he says, “So. What now.”

  Bernard gestures to Amanda and she sets down a laptop and a box on the table. “Well not much will change. You’re getting older but as long as you’re within my grove the other families can’t do anything to you. Some of them would kidnap you and force you to work for them, hoping to turn you into a weapon. Sadly, it happens with individuals that show talents before awakening without a background.”

  Turning on the computer he pulls up a video from tonight. It is showing a barn and a wall with a small Helo on top of it. “Wah you knew everything. Were you watching me the entire time!”

  “Hahahaa yeah, we were. But watch this video. I think you will be surprised.” As the video plays it shows Helo drop to his stomach on the roof while two men walk into frame. As the men are drawing closer Helo starts to vanish as the shadows crawl over his frame and start to erase all signs of him.

  Helo is too shocked to say anything. He points at his image and stares at himself not sure of what to say.

  “Here watch this next one.” The next video is of Helo sitting on a branch with red softly glowing eyes as he watches the wall. You can see in the video that Helo concentrates. As he does the shadows of the tree crawl over his body. Whisps reaching further and further until his image is gone. “What the video doesn’t show you is that you’re also masking your presence from magic too. That is incredibly impressive, and you might not have gained such an ability if someone tried to get involved.

  “But… What does that mean?” a shocked Helo stutters out.

  “Well, it means that you should try to develop it. Try to find that feeling again then practice until you can do it at will.” Micah says he looked impressed with a gleam in his eye.

  “Now remember how I said that other people can muddy the water.” Bernard says looking at Helo. Helo nods with a serious face. “That is if they are trying to make you into something that you are not. But help is okay. I helped with the poachers making sure that they weren’t too much for you to handle. I also helped tonight. It was great training for you. So let me help just a little more. Here open it.” Pointing to the box the Amanda set on the table.

  Reaching for and opening the box Helo smiles as he sees what is inside. Sitting withing the box is a pair of crossed sheaths. “These blades are made to wear on your lower back. They don’t get in the way, and they are easy to access and hide.” Helo looks at Bernard with wonder in his eyes. “Now you’re young but very mature for your age. So, I’ll give you these only if you promise to be careful.”

  Nodding his head vigorously Helo yells out, “Yes Sir. Thank you!” Grabbing the crossed blades by the center Helo pulls one of them out. The handle is made of dark wood with the butt flaring out. Surprisingly the blade doesn’t gleam in the light. Reflecting very little light back out. Its color is grey. The blade is 10.5” and curved forward with a pointed tip. It’s thin and sharp. It has a tall body being 2 to 3 inches along the blade.

  “It’s called a Kukri. It’s a very versatile blade and it is something that I think you will find very useful. The handle is a common dark wood, but the metal is special. It’s what we would call a mana infused metal. This metal isn’t incredibly rare in the grand scheme of things, but it is unique right now. It is called Dark Steel, and it is commonly used by assassins. Specifically, by a race known a Dark Elves.”

  “Woah” Helo’s eyes are alight with happiness as he gazes at the blades.

  “Now. I’m not sure exactly what you did in those videos to hide but if you can recreate the experience. Try changing how you do things. See if you can focus on that feeling and pull it elsewhere, like on those blades. They have an affinity to shadows and darkness so maybe they can be a good focus.” Micah says while pulling out a spear from thin air and showing Helo how he can make the blade glow. “This is called a spear aura. By infusing my magic and aura into a blade it can make it stronger. You should see if you can do something similar.”

  “Now, don’t get ahead of yourself Helo. What you’re doing is impressive so just keep doing what makes you happy. Now young Helo. You probably have a very upset Fox to get back to. Amanda will show you to the Northern gate.” Bernard says. Helo gets led out with a hop in his step as he is excited to try these new things.

  Back in the house Bernard and Micah are sitting at the table again. Both men lost in thought. “So, what do you think?” Bernard says to Micah. “He must have a high affinity for shadows and great control over his mana. Something like that doesn’t just happen without going through tier zero into tier one. It means he isn’t normal.”

  “Yeah, my friend, your right. But your wrong about one thing.” Looking at Bernard with a serious expression. “He must be the child of an awakened to do things like that. Especially before at least becoming tier zero. The thing is he is too weak to hide anything from me and he didn’t use magic. I… I think that was aura manipulation. Making his abilities tier three.”

  “Wait Micah. Are you saying that a twelve-year-old unawakened child is capable of manipulating their aura to that extent. That is a tier three skill. I couldn’t do that until I was 35. I was stuck at level 100 for four years. You were what 29 and you are considered a prodigy.” Bernard says with astonishment filling his voice.

  “Well actually I was 25. But I didn’t get to level 100 until I was 29. But yeah, that kid is a genius.” Looking at his friend with and adding some gravitas to his voice he says. “Nobody can know. This is our secret. We take it to the grave or at least until the kid can protect himself, not even my brother. Hmmh. One of us will have to take the kid in before he draws too much attention.”

  Bernard nods his head in agreement. “It should be your family. The kid is too much of a predator for me to train him. Once he is awakened and classed I can help, but by that point it would be considered favoritism and go against the rules for me to help raise someone your family takes in.”

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  Agreeing with his friend Micah gets up and says, “It’s time for me to head out. Let’s leave the kid be for a few more years. Then I’ll start pushing my brother to find his daughter a personal guard and add to her retinue before she goes to private school. I’ll try to get the kid added to that somewhere. Hopefully Graham won’t push back too hard. See yah.” Waving over his shoulder Micah leaves the room.

  In the morning, the day the conference starts, a sleepy Alli leaves her room to go and get breakfast. As she walks through the halls of the ranch house, all the servants and guards she passes lightly bow while saying things like, “Morning young miss.”. Barely acknowledging any of them as befits a young miss like Alli, she finally gets into the dining room. Looking up she sees someone she tried to visit yesterday. It’s a beautiful Japanese girl with dark hair and eyes. Her skin is flawless, and she is wearing a bright smile. “Hinata-Chan!” Alli yells while dashing over and hugging her best friend. “It has been like… for-eee-ver.”

  Hinata smiles and hugs her friend back. “Hello Alli-Chan, I heard from Graham-Ojisan that you had an interesting night.”

  “OMG you will not believe what happened to me.” Alli excitedly says while her mother looks on with a fond smile. Her father looks slightly aggrieved that she is acting this way, but he is used to it. She proceeds to tell a dramatic retelling of her night starting from her masterful planning, going to her daring escape from an ensnaring root, how she risked life and limb to scale the wall. Then telling how she fell off said wall. “And I was just trying to see what was moving in the shadows. Once I was on the ground all I saw was the outline of a boy. His eyes were glowing! It was sooooo pretty!” When she mentions a boy, Hinata looks excited wanting to hear more but her father looks shocked as he listens.

  Graham looks up after catching a movement and sees his brother in the doorway holding in a laugh while recording him. Glaring at his brother he mouths “you knew” laughing the brother only smirks and goes to sit at the table. Opening his mouth he says. “Yes, she had all sorts of questions about him. I hear she even went to recover the bear to try and see him again.”

  A very embarrassed Alli due to her uncle’s teasing glares at him and sputters out. “Nnnno no I didn’t! That that’s a lie.”

  Hinata smirks back at her with a knowing look in her eye. Looking at one of the servants she says. “We will take our food in another room. We have a lot to talk about.” She grabs Alli’s hand and pulls her out. “Now that we won’t have interruptions tell me what happened. Your uncle mentioned a bear!”

  The adults hear this as the girls walk out. Micah and Cheyeene look pleased with the conversation while Graham looks indignant. “What is this about a boy? Sneaking around at night! With a bear! Meeting my daughter! I will be talking to Bernard. We will have to deal with this situation.”

  Micah just sighs and says, “There isn’t a situation, nothing happened. Leave the poor boy alone, his friend got taken from him. He doesn’t need an angry father chasing him as well.”

  In the sitting room connected to the dining room Alli tells Hinata everything that happened. Even how cute it was that the boy and bear acted similarly to the light spell. “I never even got his name. I don’t even know what clan he is from. Nor do I know what he looks like, he covered his face and took off. Uncle won’t tell me either. He said he will once we leave.”

  About five miles northwest of an excited pair of thirteen-year-old girls, Helo has been awake for a few hours already. He is happily testing out his new knives while a frustrated Lelai watches from a nearby rock in the sun. He checked his traps earlier in the morning and is using his new knives to skin the game. “You know Lelai. These knives are great, but I don’t think they are made to skin game.” He says while smirking and still happily trying his best.

  After skinning and eating the game, he goes back inside to wash up. Calling out to Lelai she happily joins him in getting cleaned off. Scrubbing the fox down then brushing her fur he gets her all cleaned up. Lelai is happily running around after getting dry. Then she hears Helo speak out. “Hey girl, let’s get your new bandana on.” Holding out a pink bandana that almost matches his eyes he says, “Wendy really liked this one for you. She said we would match.”

  The fox happily prances up to her companion and lets him place the bandana around her neck. Then she twirls around happily showing off her new look. “You know beautiful, I wonder if your magical as well. You are far too smart.” We still have a few hours before we have to go to work. Let’s go check out the town. Helo decides then to get his new clothes on as well because he wants to show Wendy. Ah I guess I should get my haircut too.

  “Well dear it’s about that time.” Graham says to his wife Cheyenne. She is a beautiful woman with a bountiful bosom. She has brown hair and blue eyes. She is naturally tanned and is incredibly fit from all her time outside on the Ranch. Graham looks a lot like his brother, but his eyes are green, and he is a little shorter with a clean-shaven face. His hair is also a lighter color, almost white, compared to his brother’s grey.

  “It’s okay dear. Have fun at the conference and if the Starhaven Clan Leader says anything don’t get too upset. They can’t do anything without our approval.” His wife says back with a soft smile and a bit of concern in her voice. Turning to Micah, “Keep him from doing anything stupid yah.”

  Micah smiles before Graham cuts him off. “I don’t need my brother to keep me in line. Bah calling himself a prince. That idiot has no idea what is truly out there.” Speaking loudly and in an indignant tone.

  “Don’t worry Chey, I’ll keep my idiot younger brother from being too stupid.” Micah says this while pushing Graham out the door while he is still raving about the stupidity of Starhaven.

  While walking together down the path the two brothers are quiet, both have their minds on the same thing, but for different reasons. Micah is excited to recruit such a genius and see how far the kid will go. While Graham is thinking of ways to keep some dirty cave boy away from his daughter.

  “So… Did he really sneak in here and reach our property all alone.” Graham asks his brother eventually.

  “Yes. It was truly impressive.” Micah responds hoping that his brother will see a portion of the value the kid represents.

  “Mmhpf, all the more reason the keep the kid away from my sweet little Alli. You can’t trust someone who sneaks around like that.” When Graham says this Micah stares at him with surprise. He can’t help but think about how their family combat arts have a portion on stealth and surprise ambushing. In his head he is thinking, do you have no shame brother. You are better at stealth arts than I am.

  A few minutes later the two brothers reached the wall surrounding the arena complex. It’s called the arena but it’s more like an event building. This is where the conferences are held. Walking up to the large building the two are greeted respectfully as they enter.

  All the employees and even some of the servants to the other families are bowing as the walk past. The two brothers are known for their teamwork in combat. They have competed in many duo tournaments, taking a win in all but their first. The elder brother is a frontline damage dealer focusing heavily on dishing out damage with his poloarm and defending himself with magic. The younger of the two and the clan leader is a distance fighter using a bow. He goes in and out of cover and stealth dealing precision damage to vital locations. The two brothers make a great team and are respected because of it.

  They enter the conference hall together and look around seeing the clean leaders or their representatives. There are people from all over the world. This is how these things play out if a clan leader from across the world shows up, it usually means they have a grievance or problem. Sometimes there is something being sold or discussed that they are particularly interested in. If there isn’t then they usually send a representative. This is someone that they trust to sit in their place and speak with their voice. It is usually an elder, advisor, or direct family member. Sometimes all three. Which is the case for man in the South Korean seat.

  “Ahhh, Representative Ji-Ho-Nim, it is a pleasure to see you again. How are you doing today and how is your Clan Leader. I am surprised he isn’t here today.”

  “Jae-Hyun-Joka is doing well Clan Leader Brightmoon-Nim. Something came up for his schedule and he was forced to stay behind so he sent me.”

  “Well, let him know I missed seeing him, mine and Akira’s daughters are definitely missing out on seeing your granddaughter. They were excited to spend time together. Let us catch up after the meeting.” Walking past the respected elder the two brothers greet a few more guests before they take a seat. Micah sits on Graham’s right on Graham’s left is an open space then the Japanese contingent. Looking over to see his friend smirking at him Graham glares back. “You heard about last night huh.”

  “Graham-San, I know not what it is you speak of. Could you be more specific my friend.” Akira, Hinata’s father says while keeping a very serious face. Graham knows his friend well though. Glaring at his friend his eyes say. I know you’re laughing at me.

  “Well, it’s good to see you Akira-San.” Graham says slightly defeated from all the teasing today.

  “Clap, clap, clap.” “Well, if I can have everyone’s attention we can start our meeting today.” A very formally dressed Bernard says while tugging on his collar and looking annoyed at it.

  “Our docket for this meeting is first to discuss our mana concentration sensers. Second, is holding a small auction. Third is to go over business dealings. Fourth as always is to discuss any new members added to our clans or changes in family dynamic. Finally, we need to go over the combat personnel we have and make any new borders official. It is more important now with the system initiation soon.” Pointing to a screen behind him it flares to life. As this happens Bernard sits back down and an older man with whisps of white hair and hard eyes stands up.

  “So, I have been going over the sensors from all over the world, it is safe to say that the final stage of the system initiation will commence anywhere from three years and if we are lucky 10… The worlds mana concentration is reaching tier two. Once this happens, we will officially start finding tier one gates and dungeons appearing naturally. Fauna and flora will also start adapting. As this happens the world’s mana will continue to increase all the way into peak tier two. It is well documented that the transition from tier two to three is a major bottleneck. So, depending on our handling of the so-called apocalypse we could see tier three gates before the world is ready or we could never advance that far and always be considered a backwater.”

  The meeting trailed on like this for hours as every dungeon region had its mana concentration examined. After four hours the meeting finally ended, and they took a break for lunch.

  As Graham and his brother walked out of the grand conference room, they went down the hall toward where the head chef of the Resort was ready to make fresh food. Approaching the line Graham heard Micah let out a loan groan. Turning the ask what is wrong he sees an Elven man quicky approaching from behind. “Ah I see why you did that now. I am jealous of your senses brother.” Turning around and hoping the Elven annoyance will go away he hears an obnoxious cough from behind.

  “AHEM, Hello BrightMoon Brothers, I see that the people around here still respect you both for your tournament victories. It might be impressive if you fought someone from my illustrious family but, oh well, we of the Starhaven Princedom have far better things to do than pretend to be warriors.” Turning to look at the annoying Elf Graham sighs.

  Making eye contact with his brother and seeing he has no intention of turning around Graham can only bemoan his fate of being the clan leader. With a neutral and bored tone Graham ignores most of what Victious Starhaven says. “Hello Clan Leader Starhaven.”

  “It. Is. Prince. Victious. I know that you Beasts have such small intelligences.” The elf says with his nose in the air.

  “Hello Victious. I see you still think that the initiation won’t be a problem for your clan. Calling yourself royalty might be fine on earth but out there,” Pointing at the sky and all around. “We are small fish. I always find myself impressed by how you Elves never change. Your age, appearance, and opinions.” Graham says this hoping that Victious will take the hint he doesn’t want to talk.

  “Why thank you. I know. We Elves will have no trouble with the initiation and are so very rarely wrong that we never have to change our minds.” Victious says with a smirk and a gleam in his eye. “Which is why I am surprised that you still haven’t accepted my contract to betroth your daughter to my son. Don’t you beasts need someone to work off your instincts. What about when she goes into heat. She is getting close to that age. She is going to need a strong man to keep her in check.”

  Graham starts to growl at this and can feel his anger rising. His right fist starts to clench and right before he is about to break the assholes nose his brother grabs his hand. Looking him in the eye he takes a notepad and a pencil out of storage before writing down a quick note, folding the letter, writing Bernard’s name on top and handing it to the chef at the counter.

  Following that Micah’s aura explodes out covering the entire building as he drives his fist through the elf’s nose. Victious gets sent back through the air. Flying back until he hits the wall on the other side of the cafeteria.

  Micah then pulls a towel from his storage device and proceeds to calmly clean his hand. Graham is stunned as he stands next to his brother who just displayed extreme violence while keeping a totally straight face. He only showed his intentions for a split second through a powerful and stunning aura burst, before striking out.

  Muttering under his breath Graham says to himself. “And my wife wanted you to keep me in check. Huh.”

  After this both brothers proceeded to exit the hall and head back to their villa. The chef behind the counter. Looking down at the letter and seeing the name on the front he ran off to deliver it.

  Bernard looked at the letter in his hand a sighed. This is Micah’s handwriting and based on the aura burst Micah did something dumb. “Huh. Well, I might as well read.”

  Bernard,

  I hope that you have a lovely rest of your day. My brother and I accept our dismissal from the rest of today’s proceedings as is the rule of striking someone from another family, outside of a dual or spar while on Resort grounds. For striking a Clan Leader I have left the appropriate sum at the front counter of the arena. You or the asshat can pick it up at your leisure.

  Micah.

  “How can someone be so violet but so respectful and thoughtful at the same time.”