Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.

Authors Note:

Spoilers for volume 6 episode 3 incoming!

Chapter 1:

Millenia ago, there lived a beautiful princess in a tower, imprisoned there by her cruel father. This girl, Salem, lived in a time where kings and their kingdoms were plentiful, and magic was wielded freely by all.

Yet this magic didn't help her escape from her accursed tower, and so she remained there for many years. Many suitors came to win her hand, having heard tales of her beauty. All of them failed the tasks set before them.

All save one.

One day, a legendary hero came to brave the challenges of the tower. A hero named Ozma.

Upon prevailing, he and the princess ran off together, deeply in love, and that is where most fairy tales would end. Yet, that was not the end.

Ozma fell ill, and where men and monsters failed, illness succeeded in bringing the hero low.

Certain that the Gods would correct this grave injustice, Salem went to the elder brother, the God of Creation, first. Entering the domain of light, she pleaded with the Elder to correct the injustice, only to be turned away.

And so, she went to the younger brother next. The God of Destruction was overjoyed to have a worshipper at last, and eagerly granted her request, bringing back a disoriented Ozma. And that was when the Elder showed.

After mentioning that Salem had come to the elder first, only going to the younger when he rejected her request, the Gods destroyed Ozma once more.

For seeking to resurrect her love, for seeking to violate the delicate balance between life and death, and for seeking to undermine the decrees of the elder brother, Salem was punished with eternal life. Unable to die, Salem wouldn't be able to reunite with Ozma in this life… or the next.

After having failed to take her life many times, Salem wondered what she could possibly do. And that was when she realized something.

She had been able to momentarily hoodwink the younger brother into bringing back her love, which meant that the Gods were not infallible, and if they weren't infallible, they weren't invincible.

Knowing this, she traveled from kingdom to kingdom, telling the kings and queens a revised tale. Instead of being cursed with immortality, she told them she had stolen eternal life from the Gods. And with this, she had lit greed within the hearts of men, as they pictured a day when no one they loved would die.

All they had to do was destroy their creators.

And so the greatest army in the history of Earth rose, as humanity banded together to overthrow their creators, laying siege to the domain of light. They fought valiantly, though ineffectually, and in revenge, the brother of darkness wiped out man to the last with a single blow.

With all the effort of closing a fist, the younger brother vaporized every man of Earth, reducing their bodies to dust, and Earth itself became a Remnant of what it once was.

The deed done, the Gods departed from Remnant, leaving Salem alone once more. Alone, she wandered the face of Remnant until she eventually reached the land of darkness where she came across the pool that the younger brother had once called home.

As it was the pool of the elder that gave her immortality, perhaps the pool of the younger would take it away and finally end her? Bereft of hope, she jumped.

She thought wrong.

Instead of ending her, it merged with her, instilling within her a desire for infinite destruction.

The Gods, watching from above, intended to bring back man once more, but recognized this new Salem would be a threat to the newly emerged humans, so they brought Ozma back once more.

Ozma was to unite humanity, and once united, he was to seek out the relics that the four brothers had scattered throughout Remnant. Once he had all four, Judgement day would come as the brothers evaluated humanity.

If humanity did well, they would once more be uplifted and restored.

If they failed on the other hand...

Originally, when Ozma was presented the choice between taking on the task and staying dead, he chose to stay dead, for he believed that the afterlife had Salem in it. It was only when he learned otherwise that he chose to take up the reincarnation option.

And so he descended to Remnant to a world vastly changed. A world without magic, one where some men bore fangs and claws, and the cities themselves looked vastly different.

Only two people bore magic in this new world. Ozma and Salem.

Eventually the two lovers reunited and under Salem's advisement, Ozma was convinced that all that humanity needed to unite them was a guiding force. Being the only two immortal sorcerers alive, Ozma and Salem were to be that guiding force as the Gods of the new world.

So that was what they became. With the might of their magic, Ozma and Salem defended towns from Grimm, and along the way they forged a following. That following became a kingdom, and at the head of that kingdom grew a family.

Soon Ozma and Salem became the proud parents of four beautiful girls. Somehow, the girls managed to inherit their parents magic.

All the while, they waged wars to bring humanity under their grip.

All seemed to be going well, but Ozma had his doubts as the words of the elder brother echoed in his mind. Eventually, the difference in opinion between himself and reluctantly, Ozma turned against Salem.

The first order to business was to get their children to safety, but while he was trying to smuggle them out of the castle, Salem discovered his plot and intercepted them. A fight broke out as the two clashed while the kids were present.

At the end of the fight, Ozma was killed by Salem in a rapidly deteriorating castle and all of their children were presumed dead by Salem, who found three tiny corpses crushed under the debris. While Salem couldn't find a fourth corpse, she assumed it had been burned to ash by one of the many fires raging around the castle.

All of the girls did not die however. One survived.

The eldest with her bright blonde hair. She fled into the night while her parents fought, tearing apart her childhood home in the process. And overnight, she went from princess to beggar.

With one parent dead, and the other having fled the castle, she had no one to turn to, and no one to believe her when she claimed to be royalty. Dressed in a dress that was falling apart, she hardly looked the part after all.

The eldest princess was eventually taken in by a humble but kind hearted farmer, one by the name of Arc, where she eventually grew up to marry his son, Arthus Arc.

Ozma would locate his daughter in his second life, but when they talked, he was saddened to find that she wanted nothing to do with him. Her life as a farmer's wife may have been humble compared to her last one, but she loved it all the same.

By this point, she had children of her own, and wanted to keep them safe, far away from her parents feud, and in order to do so, her father had to leave.

Conflicted though he may have been, Ozma eventually agreed, leaving her be, but not before giving her a simple weapon. One that he called Crocea Mors, a sword wielded by members of Salem's family.

Salem's family sigil was two golden arcs pointing down with a sword piercing it, all on a blue background. Crocea Mors was the sword on the sigil, and the heater shield it came with had the two arcs.

The eldest daughter accepted the sword only because it would make her father leave faster. After he was gone, she tossed the sword into a cellar, where she hope the eternally sharp blade, a relic of a bygone age, would lay forever.

And so many generations passed without incident. Ozma watched over his descendants from a distance, aiding them where he could, and ensuring that those who chose to become warriors became great.

The eldest daughters wishes for Crocea Mors would not be realized as many Arc's, tempted by glory and stories of heroism, sought out the path of the warrior.

Not one of them however, ever wielded magic.

Magic, contrary to popular belief, is not intuitive. In many ways it is much like a semblance.

A semblance is not 'unlocked.'

It is an intrinsic ability of your soul. You no more unlock your semblance than you can unlock your right arm.

After your aura is unlocked, a semblance has to be discovered. Oftentimes, it emerges under stress, and afterwards, it is easy to bring forth due to you knowing what it was.

One way that magic and semblances differ is that, because it originated with the Gods blessings instead of within man, it didn't react to human emotion. And so, it became entirely possible for a family to possess magic, and for no one to realize it. Including them.

At least until Jaune Arc.

Jaune's grandfather, Polterist Arc, had fought in the army. He made a name for himself on the battlefield with his semblance, aura amplification, saving many lives out of combat due to its healing abilities, and taking many lives in combat.

Jaune was raised on stories of his grandfathers deeds in war, and his father's service as a hunter of Vale, and so of course he wished to be a hunter as well.

And that is where our story truly begins.

Last night, Jaune had decided it was time to get started on his life long goal of being a hero. Normally, he would be under the watch of his parents, who were both hunters, as well as his seven domineering older sisters who had a fondness of playing with him.

By 'playing,' Jaune meant that they liked to dress him up.

Yesterday though, his mother had left the house with his sisters, taking them all shopping. As one would imagine, shopping for eight females could take a while. His father, a forty year old man with graying blonde hair, shuddered at the thought of spending that much time at the mall, and so he decided to volunteer to stay home to watch over Jaune. This left Jaune with only one guard, as opposed to his normal eight.

Furthermore, his father did not expect Jaune to try his hand at killing Grimm that day, and as such, didn't bother keeping a particularly close eye on him. Eventually, he decided to take a break from watching TV and went to take a bath, leaving his sword, Crocea Mors, unattended. Jaune saw his chance, and he took it.

He had killed plenty of Grimm in his video game's. Everyone knew that Beowolves were the dungeon crawler rpg equivalent of a slime.

If Jaune was ever going to become an epic hero like his dad, he was going to have to start now.

Whenever he asked his dad for training, he was rejected.

According to his dad, Jaune didn't have the work ethic to be a hunter. If Seif were to train Jaune, Jaune would practice under his watchful eyes, but Seif couldn't be there forever. The minute he looked away, Jaune would slack off, and in a field as physically demanding as being a hunter, slacking off would get him killed.

It would be better for everyone if Jaune chose a safer field, like working on the family farm.

To Jaune this seemed unfair. How would his dad know that Jaune had no work ethic, given that he had never been given an opportunity to show his work ethic? Did Jaune work the hardest when it came to shoveling manure?

Maybe not, but that's because shoveling manure is a pointless and unimportant task, unlike killing Grimm.

Jaune wanted to be a hero. A true huntsman. If given the opportunity, he knew that he could prove himself dedicated, but given that his dad refused to give him the opportunity, he would have to make his own.

He had show initiative, and what better way to do that than to actually kill the principal enemy of the hunters, the creatures of Grimm?

And so with sword in hand, Jaune left his family farm.

Jaune had had no trouble sneaking into the nearby forest. It was only when he met his first beowolf that he realized something. Life was nothing like a video game.

The beowolf may have been a slime in video games, but in real life, it was about as tall as Jaune himself, and a good deal more vicious and muscled than Jaune was.

Luckily, Seif arrived on time to save Jaune's life, but not before Jaune had a good scare.

As punishment for his stupidity, Jaune was grounded indefinitely.

At the time, Jaune didn't think he had been injured, but given that he now had hallucinations, maybe he was mistaken.

Congratulations, you have awakened your semblance. Press 'Continue,' to go to the next page.

In front of the seven year old Jaune Arc was a blue screen, hovering in mid air. Briefly, Jaune wondered what a 'semblance' was before dismissing the thought. Instead, he deliberated on whether or not to press continue before deciding to go ahead.

He had nothing better to do anyway given that he was grounded. The writing on the panel changed, morphing into more text.

Welcome to the tutorial.

Last night, when you fought the beowolves, you activated your aura and your semblance. Your aura is 'the light of your soul.'

It is the mystic energy that allows hunters to fight at the level they do. It does this by enhancing their speed and strength. Aura also acts as a force field. Your semblance is a unique superpower granted by your aura.

Your aura is a byproduct of your soul. Unlike your memory, which is governed by your brain, your soul cannot forget, hence why your semblance has access to information that you don't remember.

It is a part of you, and as such, this tutorial is actively responding to your thoughts to ensure all your questions are answered. This is not a violation of your privacy, given that your semblance is a part of you. You may be as disturbed as you wish to be, once a semblance is activated, it cannot be turned off.

Due to your personal preferences, your semblance has taken the layout of a rpg video game.

To read more about the function of the game, press 'continue.'

This. Is. So. Cool!

Jaune's face split into a grin. He had super powers now! And his superpowers gave him the ability to live his life like a video game, which was fortuitous given that his parents had taken away his video games as part of the grounding. He'll never be bored now!

Without any hesitation, Jaune pressed the continue button.

The game has many parts, the main two being the user growth system and the assessment system.

Which would you like to read about first?

The user was him, so Jaune chose that first.

You have selected the user growth system.

The user growth systems, breaks your body down to its components and quantifies them as 'stats.' Your stats are: strength, dexterity, vitality, intelligence, and wisdom.

Strength determines how much you can lift. Visually, this increases your body mass, in both fat and muscle. A bear, for instance, would have a very high strength stat.

As a human being you have a cap to how high your strength stat could be.

Dexterity determines your speed. This is done by decreasing the body fat you have and increasing the muscle. Unlike strength, the muscle increases for dexterity are focused on the legs and the lower back. In the legs, increasing dexterity increases the prevalence of fast twitch muscles. It also improves your body's reflexes by improving the nerve connections in your body.

As a human you have a cap on how high your dexterity could be.

Vitality works around the fact that you are a squishy human by improving the force field aspect of your aura. As you grow in size, you will be able to lose more blood without dying, naturally increasing your health bar, which is why a human can afford to lose more blood than a goldfish, though it should be noted that taking a wound to a vital area such as the heart or brain without aura will automatically reduce your health to zero regardless of your size.

There is no other way to increase your health bar other than growing. Points in vitality will increase the quantity of your aura. Vitality will also improve your immune system to ensure you don't get sick. Unlike strength or dexterity, vitality is not visible.

Intelligence increases your memory by enhancing your hippocampus, as well increasing the number of glial cells in your brain. This may also result in a slight increase in reaction speed. Functionally, intelligence will allow you to learn skills faster. Every point in intelligence will increase the speed at which you learn skills.

Wisdom is the ability to recognize patterns, as well as decide when to use a certain skill.

As a descendant of Ozma and Salem-

Who?

-you are one of the few humans who have access to magic. This takes the form of a sixth stat, appropriately named 'Magic.'

As you are now the main character of a dungeon crawler rpg, you cannot increase your stats by training-

Jaune promptly stopped reading. If he couldn't increase his stats by training, then how was he supposed to get stronger? If he couldn't get stronger then he would never be a hero! Hoping that the answer would present itself in the text, Jaune went back to reading.

-the only way you can increase them is by leveling up. You can level up either through the quest system or by killing the creatures of Grimm.

Jaune snorted deprecatingly. He tried that yesterday, and lost to a slime/beowolf. As cool as aura was, he highly doubted he was going to be able to kill a beowolf at his level. He would have to do quests until he leveled up more.

Every level, you gain five stat points, as well as a perk point.

The best way to explain this is as follows. Say for instance you kill a lamb that just grazed on grass. The grass that it grazed on is broken down in its body and turned into ATP, or energy. This energy allows for growth and the maintenance of bodily functions.

When you kill it, you absorb all the ATP in its body. Most of it is turned into stat points. Energy that physically changes your body.

E= mc^2

Energy can be transformed into mass in order to strengthen your body by adding muscles, or more delicately to make new cells in your brain.

Part of that energy is stored however into a perk point.

Perks are specifically tailored to your desires… to an extent. Neither energy, nor mass can be created or destroyed, so when you 'request' a perk, the game automatically attempts to find a way to accomplish the task.

So for instance, if you wanted a mini map, the game would have to map the surrounding area in relation to yourself. One way to do this would be to use a bat like echo location, but the echolocations aren't free. They cost energy.

The game would determine how much energy echolocation mini maps cost before presenting you a price tag for your desire.

Next section: Assessment section. Press 'Continue.'

Jaune didn't understand most of the scientific terms or formulas, but he hit the continue button anyway. He got the gist of it.

Kill shit, git gud.

Assessment section:

There are two types of stats. Raw and effective.

Aura is a force multiplier. It doesn't just increase your strength or speed, it multiplies them many times over. It also provides a second bar, your aura bar, that must be depleted before you can be injured.

Strength: Hafþór Björnsson, the world record holder for the dead lift, can carry 1,041 pounds for a few seconds. He has not awakened his aura, as regulations for civilian competitions demand. Every point in strength raises your strength by 20 pounds. This gives him a raw and effective strength of 52.05. Aura, upon awakening, doubles the strength stat. This means that Björnsson, with his aura, would have an effective strength of 104.1, or 2,082 pounds.

It is said that an elite hunter, such as dad's drinking buddy, Qrow Branwen, can multiply there strength and speed by at least eight. This means that even if he can only lift three hundred pounds normally, with aura he can lift over 2100 pounds, making him the stronger of the two.

Humans as a species have a maximum lift of 1,500 pounds, or 75 points in strength.

Dexterity: Theoretically humans without aura can reach the top speed of 40 mph, though Usain Bolt only runs at 27.8 mph. This means that you have a maximum dexterity score of 40.

Though it varies with specialty, an elite hunter should be able to run at 18 mph without aura, and 144 mph with it. Every point in dexterity increases your max speed by one mph. An elite hunter has a raw dexterity score of 18, and an effective score of 144. It should be noted that the dexterity scores of others are calculated with there top speeds in mind, which doesn't always translate to fast reflexes. Usain Bolt, for instance, may be able to outrun Bruce Lee, but Bruce Lee would react faster in a fight.

Vitality: Vitality is not a muscle and as such it has no theoretical upper limit. Besides this, it varies wildly from person to person, even among the elite. Some are better at not getting hit or blocking hits than others. Every point in aura will add another fifty points to your aura bar. A pound of blunt force, that is to say force delivered by fists, maces, clubs, or other flat or circular weapons, will drain one point of aura. A civilian championship boxer can deliver 1,066 pounds of force per hit.

Intelligence: There is no theoretical upper limit to intelligence among the human race. Once more, it varies wildly from person to person. In your case, a point in intelligence will lead to a 1% increase in the speed that you learn something.

Wisdom: Once more, wisdom has no upper limit. Numerically, increasing wisdom doesn't really do anything. It increases the penchant a person has for making good decisions.

Magic: The ability to command nature's wrath without dust. It was an ability shared by all of humanity before the younger brother eradicated man in his rage. When mankind remerged on Remnant, the only two humans with the power of magic was Ozma and Salem. There is no theoretical limits on magic, and you can use it as a substitute for dust.

These are the six stats that determine level. In the case of you, Jaune Arc, your level is determined proactively from this point on. Your current stats are as follows:

Name: Jaune Arc

Title: The Gamer

Level: 10

Exp: 0/1000

Health points: 100/100

Aura points: 1,000/1,000

Strength: 2/75 (4)

Dexterity: 1/40 (2)

Vitality: 20

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 15

Magic: 0

Stat points: 0

Perk points: 10

This gives you a total of 50 stat points. Because you gain 5 stat points per level, you must be level 10. This is called retroactive assessment, and is how the game determines the level of everyone around you.

Jaune nodded. That made a lot of sense. He couldn't help but notice the two numbers in parenthesis after his strength and dexterity scores.

The numbers in parenthesis after your strength and dexterity scores are your effective scores, while the normal numbers are your raw scores. As long as your aura points do not hit zero, those are the numbers that are relevant.

Jaune remembered that aura could boost someone's strength eight fold and wondered why it was only two fold for him. In response to his question, a new screen appeared.

Skill Screen

Gamer's body, passive, lv. max- Allows Jaune to live life like a video game character.

Gamer's sight, passive, lv. max- Allows Jaune to see the levels of those around him.

Warning: When calculating level, it will only take the raw stat scores of the scanned into account. As such, it is only really accurate on Grimm and civilians. Can be misleading for hunters.

Jaune scoffed. Why in the world would he ever have to fight hunters for? They were all on the same side! Besides, even if he did run into crooks with aura, he could always just use his own aura to even up the playing field.

Gamer's mind/Dark Brothers Taint- When Salem jumped into the pool that the Dark brother called home it changed her thoughts to be… darker. Given that she only had children after being tainted, the curse lives on in your blood.

The original gamers mind would have blocked out any external influence on your mind, blocking out illusions and the like, but at the same time dulling extreme emotions such as joy, hatred, pain, etc.

The original taint would have left you with a very big predilection for destruction, vengeance, and hubris.

The new combined 'skill' almost completely shuts down your emotional empathy. You now gain joy from the suffering of others. As a plus, you still have a dulled sense of pain, and it still blocks out illusions and the like.

Jaune tried to tell if he felt any different than before, but couldn't really spot anything. He felt… calmer than usual, but that was it.

Shrugging, he continued reading.

Aura, passive, lv. 1, 0.07% to next level- A shield that also increases the physical parameters of the user.

Current buffs:

Shield: One point of aura takes one pound of force to drain (upgrades at level 2).

Multiplier: Doubles strength and speed (upgrades at level 3).

Beginner longsword combat, active, lv. 1, 0.01%- Jaune Arc's ability to wield a longsword in combat.

Beginner kite shield combat, active, lv. 1, 0.01%- Jaune Arc's ability to wield a shield in combat.

Press next to continue.

Jaune did so.

All skills level faster in combat. The last three features you need to be aware of are the title system, inventory and the party system.

Jaune's eyes widened at the last one. In video games, a party system allowed you to play with your friends in a single party.

Jaune wasn't sure how he felt about sharing his semblance with other people though. Everyone had a superpower and the gamer was his. It was supposed to be his path to power and hero-hood. If he shared it with everyone, then he wouldn't be special anymore.

Whereas killing animals, faunus, humans, and grimm automatically takes energy from them to strengthen you, titles indirectly take aura from others through long periods of time to grant you special abilities.

A person is constantly generating aura as you can see from your own aura skill. However, they can only store so much at any given time, and so once they are full, the excess bleeds off into the environment, saturated with their emotions, beliefs, and experiences.

It is fear tainted aura radiation that allows Grimm to find scared people.

In your case, the game can actively absorb the aura of people who have a certain belief about you.

So for instance, if they believe that you are a master swordsman, the game will absorb the aura they are radiating and once it has crossed a certain threshold of aura absorption for a certain belief, it will automatically create a title that you can equip to boost your power.

The more famous he got, the stronger he got? Jaune liked the sound of that.

The inventory is a hammer dimension, within which you can store inanimate objects. Formerly alive objects, such as corpses, cannot be stored.

That was easy enough to remember. Jaune hit next so he could start reading about the party system.

The party system is yet another way to gain more energy. The party master, that would be you, has the ability to set the percentage of energy, or experience, a member of the party gets from each of his kills. You get the remainder. So for instance, if you set the experience share rate to 80-20, then he will keep 80% of the experience from his kill, while you will get 20% of the experience.

A final note, the party system is highly customizable. You can control what your party members see, what the invite reads as, etc.

… Holy shit.

Authors Note:

Edited and Reposted on 11/30/18

Currently looking for a beta

Chapter 2 should be out within the next week, but I am notoriously inaccurate with estimates. I'm feeling inspired to write right now, so I am going to hammer out words until I'm sleepy. I might just end chapter 2 really short (if so, it'll be out in a few hours) and post it before heading to bed, or I might sit on it and try to get 4-5k out.

We'll see.

Also, check out my new stories. Arthas is another RWBY CYOA story, this time an insert into Whitley Schnee, Weiss's younger brother.