RWBY and "DICE: the cube that changes everything" belong to their respective authors. Give credit to where they're due please.
I do not own either of these titles.
Except for this one.
Title: A boy and his 'X'
It was a simple night as any other. A young boy looked upon the starry sky with a sense of curiosity. His home was a simple cabin in the woods, far from civilization, but he knows his way around electronics. The boy of thirteen was a simple blond with blue eyes. He's as normal you can get, albeit with some sense of individuality. His attire was simple as he was with pale jeans, black hoodie, and a messenger bag he carries around from time to time.
"Jaune? It's dark out! Can you come inside?" A woman called for her son out into the dark, a tint of happiness was present.
"Be there in a sec, mom!" The boy named Jaune yelled back. He stood up from his bed on the grass, brushing off tuffs of green. Jaune forged on home, bothering to take in the sight of a beautiful sky he's seen hundreds of times. The moon was shattered as usual and the stars were their usual glitter of white, yet Jaune just can't help but feel elated whenever he sees it.
For all his life, his parents had told him, 'If you believe in yourself, all your wishes can come true.' Jaune believed them. So far in his thirteen years, he got what he wanted through his own deeds. Happiness, Family, Love. He never took his parent's words for granted, but still... Jaune couldn't help but feel unfulfilled.
At that point, he saw a bright light streaking through the sky. Jaune was surprised at the light; he knew these bright orbs in the sky as shooting stars, but it's been a while since he last saw one. The boy decided to take a common superstition to the test.
"I wish... for adventure." Jaune stood still, staring at the shining ball in the sky. He sighed and continued walking home, knowing well that wishes sometimes take a while to come true. Fortunately or not, this wish was one of immediate circumstance. Jaune noticed the ground flashed and looked back. Another bright, yet much smaller ball of light was falling away from the first and was heading... straight for him!
Jaune took no time to scream. He ran as fast as he could away from where this 'thing' is going to land, not bothering to look behind him. His eyes caught his shadow from a bright flash. His ears deafened when they found a sound too loud for normal humans. He felt his body being pushed by the sudden impact from the meteor. Jaune took the time to regain his breath and looked back at what might be a crater.
'Dice?' Jaune was confused at the sight. Instead of a crater, there was a shining pile of blue dice. Being the timid adventurer he was, the boy inched closer for an reaction, but then just walked up when he realized that die are harmless. He kneeled and picked up a single die to inspect it. It shined night colors, be it blue, purple, white, and pink. Jaune immediately noticed that these dice were transparent.
'What kind of comet is made of dice?' Jaune scoffed, looking more and more confused as he looked over the pile and counted.
'About sixty or so. Well... finders keepers.' Jaune sighed and tossed the die in his hand into the pile. It rolled and landed on a "6".
'Huh, lucky-!' Jaune's quip was cut off by a bright shine from the die he just rolled. He squints to catch that the die changed from a blue tint to dark pink.
'~Vrrr!' Jaune flinched by his scroll's sudden alarm. Ignoring the 'magical' die, he opened his scroll to see that someone messaged him.
'Huh? But I never gave anyone my number.' Jaune tapped and met a rather ecstatic message.
'Congratulations! You've gained a dice! Congratulations on becoming a Dicer. *\(=w=)/*'
'Eh?' Jaune twitched. Unfettered, he messaged back.
"'Who. Are. You?' and send." Jaune sighed and gathered the sixty or so dice into a pile, keeping the one that stood out, the pink die. He examined it all around.
"Jaune!? Honey? Are you okay?" Jaune's mother called out from their home. Jaune was quick to act.
"Uh... Yes ma'am! I'll be there in a minute!" he yelled back, turning back to the pile of dice. He scooped them all into his shoulder bag, holding on to the odd one out. They shined in his bag, but was snuffed when Jaune threw the cover over. He hurried where his mother was. She looked worried.
"Jaune, just what was that? There was a loud noise just then." His mother faltered.
"Oh let it be Jacqueline. I'm sure it was nothing. Jauney boy! Come inside! It's freezing out there!" A gruff man shouted a good aways at the door.
"You sure, Issac? Oh. Alright. Come now, Jaune. Let's get you some warm dinner." Jacqueline motioned her son in as she walked over to the kitchen. Jaune closed the door behind.
His home was a bit homely. There was a lit fireplace with a hologram above it playing a reality show. Jaune's father was enjoying it, if his laughter meant anything.
"Jaune. Sit down. I've made your favorite! Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli!" Jacqueline beamed from the kitchen.
"Really now? I suppose I'll sample some of that!" Issac shot up from his couch and hurried over to his wife's side, who tries to slap his hands away. The married couple played keep away with their chuckles. Jaune smiled at the warm sight. This sort of thing happens every night, one way or another. Jaune decided to sneak away to his room, emptying his riches onto his bed. Once again, Jaune's scroll rang. He reacted appropriately as he sat by his desk.
'Aw... I feel so loved. And just so you know, I'm starving right now. Seriously, the nerve of some people, rubbing whatever they got in people's face as if they own the place...' Jaune sweatdropped, but kept reading.
'Ah right, your question. You can just call me 'X'. Cliche name. I know, but honestly what did you expect out of a guy who just randomly messages people in the middle of the night?' Jaune can't tell if this guy was serious or not. He's even reluctant to answer back. Still he has to; between 'X' and the big ball of dice that nearly killed him, he didn't really have much to complain. Now topic-wise, Jaune guessed he'll just ask,
"What. is-"
'Ahh! Don't talk while you type. It's kinda redundant. Just type! DX' Jaune's mind jumped.
'Wait. How did you know that I was talking?' and the message was sent. Jaune immediately gotten a reply.
'Oh, don't you know? I'm. EVERYWHERE.' Jaune paled and his eyes widened. He was about to panic until...
'BAHAHA! You should have seen the look on your face! Oh man. I wish I recorded that.' Jaune boiled. He had half a mind to give to this 'X' guy.
"Okay! Just how are you doing this!? If you can hear and see me, then can you see this!?" And in a stoke of brilliance, Jaune did the most elaborate and embarrassing dance that puts the chicken dance to shame. His scroll buzzed again.
'... Yeah. Dude, stop that. You're only embarrassing yourself.' Jaune stopped after he read from his scroll. He slunk into his desk seat.
"... Oh." Jaune meekly said. He kept looking at his scroll for a reply.
'Look. To save you and more importantly me, of all this time and messages, those dice over there on your bed are kinda important.'
Jaune turned in his seat to look at his bed, now covered with shining blue dice. He took out the pink die from before.
'And it looks like you already activated your first die. Congrats again. But anyway, I 'see' and 'hear' through those dice, so... yeah. -_- '
Jaune shot from his seat, feeling angry and embarrassed.
"WHAT?"
'Calm down, you big pansy. I can ONLY 'see' and 'hear' through those things. Oh. By the by, don't bother throwing those away or burning them. They're indestructible. OwO'
Jaune slumped in defeat. This guy just shot down two of his most recent ideas, but he still stands strong.
"So is that all these dice can do?" Jaune huffed, sitting back down.
'Hehe. NOPE! There's more!'
'...'
'Grah... this is going to be one LONG explanation...'
'Screw it. I'll just dumb it down.'
'Basically those dice on your bed and in your hand are what I like to call, "The cube that changes everything"'
"What? That's ridiculous. There's no way-"
'Oh, believe me. Just ask away. Anything about the dice... or being a 'Dicer'. C: '
"Um... I thought you were going to just get right to it." Jaune stated it like a fact.
'Oh fine! Take the fun out of it. You like playing games?'
"Yeah... I play a bit every once in a while." Jaune was a bit surprised at the sudden change of topics.
'What makes a 'game', really?'
"Uh..."
'Don't answer that. I was being rhetorical.'
Jaune motioned his hand as a zipper across his mouth.
'Okay. So games are mostly based around quests and rewards. Most games anyway.'
'When you complete a quest, you get a reward. Simple right? You also feel 'accomplished' when you finish a quest.'
"Accomplished?" Jaune wondered why X puts apostrophes over 'accomplished'.
'I was making a point. Now, this is how games are supposed to work. You play because the process and results are enjoyable. This is why games are fun and why most people enjoy playing them. This also marks the difference between games and... ahem... REAL LIFE. So. How's your life?'
Jaune thought long and hard about this question. So far his life wasn't that bad. He has family. His grades were okay. Jaune's physique is just right. Actually, he has nothing to complain about, but then again. This is real life he's thinking about. Wait... there is the fact that he's... well... kind of a loner.
'I'll just take your silence as 'I'm a loner freak who nobody cares about!'.' Jaune resisted the urge to throw his scroll across the room, twitching with intimidation.
'Okay. Okay. Look, I'm just saying that life is hard to make into a game. Life is just not fair and, in essence, not 'fun'. That is... unless you got a good home or born with some freak talent. That's where I come in. DICE! \( =w= )/ ' Jaune took a take at the dice on his bed again.
"Dice?" Jaune was a bit bewildered.
'Yep! With those dice, you can change who you are however you wish. It's what every loser gamer in the world dreams about! All it takes is a roll of a die.'
"Hold on... however I want? Like in games?" Jaune was skeptical at X's explanation. Being able to change who you are with dice? Preposterous!
'Well, yeah! In theory anyway... O_o '
"What can I change?" Jaune pitied himself for delving into this charade.
'Whatever you want. Intelligence, Health, Endurance, Wisdom, Sight, Speed, Agility, Dexterity, Luck, Money, Willpower, Reflexes, Looks, Perception, Attractiveness, Strength, etcetera, etcetera. You know the basics.'
'If you want more dice though, you gotta do quests in due course. When you do finish one, you get the dice right then and there. No catch. Everyone gets a different quest every now and then, but since you're the only guy on this planet with dice. I guess you're pretty much special, aren't you? (-_-') '
"Eh heh... Was I suppose to take only one?" Jaune scratched his head, embarrassed over his blunder.
'No no. It's fine. You just 'happened' to stumble upon the only pile of dice in the world. Anyhow, how the dice work is this. You complete a quest and you get dice. Simple. Its first color is blue, meaning innate. You throw or roll it, then it [Activates] and turns red after the number on the dice is determined, meaning it belongs to you and ONLY you. You getting this? (-_O) '
"Uh, yeah!" Jaune was quick to answer. So far, Jaune gets the basics. Being able to earn 'rewards' through 'quests'. A concept common in games, but now it's here in real life! If what X is saying is true, then there's no telling what kind of mechanics could be included also!
'Now these [Activated] dice can used by [Synchronization]. Basically, [Synchronization] is just a fancy word for using dice. It's fairly simple when you get the hang of it. Through [Synchronization], you can improve your abilities. Just let me know which ones through text, talking, or whatever you guys in the woods do.'
"Wait... how come YOU do it? It's my person. It's not like you're some god." Jaune retorted in disbelief.
'Nope. The big guy up there wishes he can do something like this. Think of me as a GM. Sounds fitting, right? OwO '
"Game master...? I guess." Jaune sighed. He leaned back on his seat.
'The point is... you can 'level up' as much as you want IF you do the quests. Blue to Red to White after [Synchronization]. Those dice are kinda dead weight after you use them, but the upside is that you can use those white dice for board games! So... how about it?'
"... I gotta say. This is a lot to process. You're not lying to me, right?" Jaune questioned the GM.
'Dude. You nearly got killed by a meteor, watched a die randomly turned colors, and have little ol' me message you at night in the span of... 20 minutes. I think lying would be beneath me at this point.'
"..."
'... (O_O)? '
The silence was deafening to say the least. Jaune looked at the red die in his hand and thought. And thought. And thought. And found a compromise. What's there to lose? This 'GM' is practically giving Jaune powers for free. He supposed he'll humor his little 'game'.
"Fine. I'm using it." Jaune conceded and his die shined bright.
'Excellent. Just tell me what you want. Right now, you got "6" points. Good roll, by the way. (-w-)/* '
Jaune hesitated. What did he want changed? Strength? Endurance? Speed? Or maybe Intelligence? Seeing as there's no harm in being smarter...
"Intelligence. Make me smarter." Jaune sighed.
'Sure thing. Checking... Authorizing... There you go! Dumping everything into "Intelligence". How do you feel?'
Jaune felt his head twitch... then swirl. He winced his eyes shut for more pain, but it never came. Instead he felt different. He saw the red die in his hand turned white.
"Ask me a question." Jaune requested.
'Huh? Uh... Okay... What's... Seventy-Six Million times Four point Eight? \(O_o)/?'
"Three Hundred Sixty Four Million Eight Hundred Thousand." Jaune spat out in three seconds. His eyes widened.
"Holy dust, it works." Jaune couldn't believe his ears.
'See? I told you so! Now about the rest of those dice... ;D '
Jaune whipped to see the rest of the dice on his bed. He stood up and kneel over them.
"Oh boy... I have to roll all of these?" Jaune grimaced over the sixty or so dice.
'Yeah! All eighty-seven! I can count. OwO '
Jaune sighed and began one by one counting every roll, dealing with every shine and keeping track of the total points in all. The process was not 'fun' for Jaune.
"One. 4."
"Two. 10."
"Three. 12."
"Fourteen. 55."
"Twenty-Five. 83."
"Forty... 164..."
"Fifty-one... 194..." Jaune groaned. There was just a few more left.
'You can do it, Jaune! (owo)/~* '
"Sixty-six... 222..."
"EIGHT-SEVEN! 318!" Jaune gasped. He laid on his bed surrounded by eighty-seven red dice. 'X' was in the palm of his hand. Jaune's hand rumbled and he raised it up.
'Actually, it's 330. But at least you tried. ;P '
Jaune's eye twitched.
"You mean... you could have kept track for me!?" Jaune was exasperated with grief and anger, more so with the former.
'Hey. I DID say I can count... \(-.-')/ ' Jaune merely sighed to that comment.
'So. What's the plan, oh magnificent Jaune? ;D '
330 points... That's a lot of points. He had a lot of lucky rolls too. He can't just dump everything into Intelligence again. That's too simple. Jaune needed a more dynamic approach. If he's going to be dealing with real life, then he needs to think what might be ahead of him. Being the casual gamer he is, he decided to test X in game mechanics.
"If we're talking about points, then surely there's a character sheet, right?" Jaune raised his brow.
'Well duh! What do you take me for? Here~ '
Jaune's scroll switched to a self-portrait of himself with a row of numbers and words beside them.
Name: Jaune Arc
Strength: 3
Endurance: 3
Intelligence: 9
Charisma: 1
Speed: 2
Flexibility: 2
Luck: 4
'Not much... but you got 330 points, right? :D '
"Can't you give me rules about these?" Jaune saw that if life was suddenly a game, then games have to have rules.
'Ooo. Smart. Maybe those points are doing you some good already. ;) ' Jaune glared.
'Right now, you're 'level one'. Look I'm just making up names. Bear with me, alright? And because you're level one, you got limits. You see, to stop people from using one stat and ignore another, the rules have it where if one raises a stat too high, they... Well... Let's just say their body won't really appreciate it.' Jaune looked perplexed, despite his intelligence.
'Point is you can't raise any stats higher than 50. That's the cap for level ones. There are exceptions though. Intelligence, Charisma, and Luck are free game. It's just the physical attributes you want to be wary about. Any more than 50 and expect nasty side effects. \(-_o)/ '
"Wait. Then 330 is more than enough to max out everything right? Can I just fill everything and be done with level one?" Jaune sat up excited.
'Well sure. Why not? ('') ( :) (..) (: )'
"Wait... Why are you so calm?" Jaune looked at X's recent text with skepticism.
'Observant, aren't you? There is this one rule I hesitated to say. It's kinda sketchy, but it might work in your favor. See, instead of spreading your points to 'all over' your body, you could focus on only one body part. Doing this would increase the part in question without messing with the others. It's great in practice, but if you spend too much points on it, it'll act like you went past the cap. Get it? :/ '
Jaune took his recent text into consideration. 'Focusing on one part sounds great, but it's unbalanced... The thought of having one arm stronger than the other seems a bit much. Forget it.'
"It's fine. I don't need to do that. So... When are you going to start?" Jaune smiled.
'Ooo! Scary! I like it! Just give the word and I'll get to it!'
"Max everything to fifty except for Charisma." Jaune jumped off his bed to prepare for the sudden jolt.
'Roger! That's about 276 points. Processing... Authorizing... Done! Any second now. (-w-) '
Jaune braced himself and felt... nothing. 'Did the process work?' Jaune tested his strength by picking up his bed, about three-quarters of the dice on his bed turned white. Jaune pulled and the bed went up with no real effort, minding the ceiling.
"Whoa... This is awesome!" Jaune grinned as he tested his flexibility by bending backwards. His back made a beautiful arc with no pain in his spine while his hands laid flat on the floor. Jaune bent back up to test his luck. He took a used die and rolled. "3!" and it rolled a three. "6!" and it was a six. "1!" but this time was a two.
'What? You think you would get lucky ALL the time? That's for later when you earn it. ;D '
Jaune scowled and tried his speed. '50 speed...' Jaune sped around his room after grabbing a broom from his closet, cleaning every nook and cranny until every speck of dust was in a trash can. Estimated time: Seven minutes. His room was spotless and he even stacked all of his dice into a pyramid with the red ones as the tip. Jaune whistled.
"Hey. How much points I got left? 54, right?" Jaune said, admiring his work.
'54 points left. You're right. Honestly, you're like a genius or something... Oh wait... Anyway, whatcha gonna do with them? You could max out Charisma already.'
"That's not important right now. I'm saving those for the time being. I should do quests now, right?" Jaune asked as he picked up his scroll after putting away the broom.
'Right. Here you go! Three simple quests. How'd you like? :3 '
Jaune looked surprised at the sudden message.
Quest: Eat your dinner in 3 minutes. Reward: Dice x2
Quest: Help clean the dishes. Reward: Dice x3
Quest: Take out the trash. Reward: Dice x4
"Uh... there are house chores..." Jaune erred.
'Yeah? And? ;3 '
"... Nevermind." If Jaune's going to be getting quests from a person like X, he'll need to remember not to question him and his methods, even if they're ridiculous.
"Jaune? Dear? Hurry up! Dinner's getting cold!" Jaune heard his mother calling for him. Jaune hurried out his room to finish his first quest, more preferably with a warm dinner.
"There... all done. That was quick." Jaune sighed as he tossed a trash bag into a trash can outside. His scroll rang as he walked away from the garbage. He checked and saw that it was X.
'Ding! Congrats. Here's your reward!' At that moment, Jaune noticed a flash of pink light at his feet. It looked like pink pixels going outwards. He reached in and picked up nine blue dice.
"Convenient. Is it like this all the time?" Jaune talked to his scroll and by extension, X.
'Yep. Get used to it, kiddo. Oh and since you're thirteen, I'll be giving you some 'easy' quests. Just don't expect me to do the same when you're in high school. ;D '
"Yeah... Thanks." Jaune smiled as he pocketed his new loot. He saw his mother coming out to beckon him inside with a smile. Jaune looked at the stars.
'I wonder where that bigger star went... Well... I bet it passed already. No need to worry about that. Time to earn some dice."
And with that, Jaune set out to be the best 'Dicer' Remnant had ever seen with the help of X. Actually... Jaune's going to become the only Dicer in Remnant, seeing as he has the only dice ever to exist in Remnant.
In the last four years, X had Jaune do some odd jobs for him. Some of them included:
Quest: Beat everyone in a marathon while blindfolded and running backwards. Reward: Dice x5.
Quest: Steal underwear from the Girl's locker rooms and clean them. (especially the tough and beautiful ones ;D ) Reward: Dice x5 per Normal, Dice x10 for the suggested.
Quest: Peep into the Girl's locker rooms and take pictures of the pretty ones. Reward: Dice x6 per Part Shot, Dice x7 per Body Shot.
Quest: Sneak into the Girl's locker rooms and this time, hide their underwear outside of the locker rooms. Reward: Dice x4 per set.
Quest: Hide in the Girl's locker rooms while the girls are changing. Reward: Dice x8, Dice x10 if caught... and lived.
Quest: 'Volunteer' to be target practice for the Female Swords Team. Reward: Dice x6, Dice x7 if an accident happens.
Quest: 'Volunteer' to be target practice by the Female Archery Team. Reward: Dice x5, Dice x7 if an accident happens, Dice x10 if an ACCIDENT happens.
Quest: Run to the top of the school building and Yell 'I'm in love with you!' Reward: Dice x3.
Most of them involved Jaune getting injured by a girl in one way or another. Can one figure which? Even so, the other quests were more mild and less... private. Some had low rewards, others had high, but Jaune took them all down one by one.
At the end of the day, Jaune would roll all of his wealth, ill-gained and otherwise, and stuff them in his closet. By the end of the four years, it's just cramped of red and white dice, more so with the former. The reason behind this is because Jaune wants to save these points should there be a time when he'll actually need them. He's already content with being a level one with '1' Charisma. X didn't seem to think so, but shrugged off Jaune's decisions.
The two of them are... what one would consider 'Best Pen Pals'. While the two speak through a scroll, they developed a strong and mutual friendship.
'So... are you going to do it? :D '
"... Maybe..."
'Well, you don't really have a choice, do you? XD'
"I'm stuck inside a locker waiting for these girls to change. I wouldn't think I do." Jaune said as he preps a camera.
"Hey... did you guys hear something?" A random girl on the other side of the locker called to her friends. Jaune slapped his mouth as he read messages of X laughing out loud.
"I think it came from this locker." Jaune heard footsteps near the locker he's in.
'Well... look at the bright side. If you live, you'll get ten dice, right? Well... if you survive 'target practice'. (OwO)/* '
"... I hate you..." Jaune grimaced as he puts away the camera and primes himself to sprint past the crowd at the other side of the door.
'Love you too, buddy. Good Luck! =D '
Target Practice was not that painful... with 50 endurance and strength.
Anyway, after those four years of combat school, he finally reached the prime age of 17 to send a recommendation letter to Beacon. He didn't have much, but it's still worth it. That is... until X sent him this...
Quest: Send a 'Forged' Letter to Beacon. Reward: Dice x5.
Quest: Get accepted into Beacon. Reward: Dice x15.
"Are you serious..?" Jaune twitched.
'Hehe. Yep! :-) '
"You love making my life worse, don't you?" Jaune sighed.
'I try. (-w-)/* '
Well... perhaps 'Strong' would be an understatement for these two...
One month later, Jaune found himself at a docking bay with his mother hugging him tight. His father had a single tear with his smile.
"OH! I'm so proud of you, Jaune!" Jacqueline pulled from her hug to take one more look at her son, much to Jaune's lung's relief. His endurance may be 50, but that won't stop motherly love.
"That's my boy. Make us proud again, Son!" Issac's voice crackled. Jacqueline went by her husband's side to comfort him from crying. They both struggled to hide their grief as they bid farewell to their son.
"I will! Bye, mom and dad! I'll be home soon!" Jaune waved, toting his messenger bag and walking off where everyone else was headed to, an open dust plane.
As soon as he stepped on the plane, his scroll beeped.
Ding! Quest Complete: Accept your parent's resolve in letting go of their son. Reward: Dice x7. Claim?
Ding! Quest Complete: Get into Beacon. Reward: Dice x15. Claim?
Ding! Quest Complete: Board the plane to Beacon. Reward: Dice x2. Claim?
"Later. Right now, I just gotta relax." Jaune sighed as he stood around a crowd of freshmen. He felt uneasy. Jaune did have trouble being around people. Maybe it's his self-esteem or maybe it's because his Charisma is still at "1".
'Oh fine. Just so you know, since the last four years, you have about 1913 [Activated] dice and 3603 points. Just when are you going to use them!? O_o?! '
"Like I said, later. I can spend those points anytime I want. There's no need for rush. I just gotta sit back and relax." Jaune whispered as the dust ship took off.
'*Tch* Fine... Whatever you say, Jaune... Say... Don't you have motion sickness?'
Jaune's eyes widened as he read X's message.
'Whoops. Did I 'accidentally' reminded you? Heh, my bad! C= '
'In fact... Here! Enjoy!' Ding!
Jaune looked in horror at his latest 'quests'.
Quest: Ride a dust plane to Beacon and relax. Reward: Dice x2
Quest: Vomit your breakfast. Reward: Dice x3
Quest: 'Accidentally' get a girl's shoe dirty. Reward: Dice x4
"Oh... I hate you so muc-!" Jaune couldn't finish his hatred on account of fulfilling the aforementioned quests.
'Hehe... I know. XD '
Author's Note: This here is a one shot I had in mind. I just had the idea and just wrote it... That's it.
The Manhwa the dice and 'X' came from is "DICE: The cube that changes everything." It's a good story with great visuals.
So another OP Jaune story. I wouldn't say OP since it's not in stone yet. Jaune knows his limits and he intends to keep behind them instead of going to far.
There's nothing else to say except:
Enjoy the story!
Reviews are appreciated!
Until next time, this is destinyTail0 signing off!