Jaune and the Games we Play

by Catalist223

Ryuugi's the games we play, i didn't write this, just trying to make it easier for me to read on my phone. Check out the rest of Ryuugi's work at spacebattles. This is a story about Jaune living his life as if it were an RPG

1. Chapter 1

1. Threadmark: Chapter 1 - New Game

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
New Game

"Hey, mom?" I said, joining my mother in the kitchen as she watched the sun set outside the window.

"Hm?" My mother, Isabella, turned towards me slightly, lifting an eyebrow as she made the sound in the back of her throat. "What is it, sweetie?"

"I, uh…" I scratched my cheek as I frowned slightly. "Well, I guess I'm just unsure about something and I figured you'd know?"

"Oh?"

"Is it…Mom, which would you say is more important, Intelligence or Wisdom?"

My mom put down the dish she'd been washing, turning to face me fully with her head tilted to the side.

"I'm not sure I understand the question?" She said questioningly. "Where'd this come from?"

"Well," I said, wondering about that a bit myself, if for different reasons. "I was playing a game, I guess. You know, an RPG, right? And it had the usual stats: Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck. And I never thought about it until a few days ago, but its like, all the others are obviously different, right? I wondered why Intelligence and Wisdom seem to be the exception and I started thinking about whether they were different in real life, too, and how."

Mom seemed to ponder that for a minute.

"Well, I'd say that it's ideal to have both intelligence and Wisdom," She said. "Just how it's better to be strong and fast and tough and lucky, rather than just one in particular, but that's very rarely possible, is it? If I had to say which was most important…I suppose I'd say Wisdom."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well…If I was to differentiate between Intelligence and Wisdom, I'd say that the former was power and the latter the awareness of how to use that power. I'd say that Wisdom was the ability to make good choices and Intelligence a way to give you more choices. If you're smart and have a thousand ideas, wisdom would tell you which was the best choice to make and what the long term effects would be."

I nodded at her seriously.

"Then it would be better for me to become wise then become smart, right?" I asked, just to double check.

Mom put a hand to my cheek and smiled.

"Oh, Jaune. You're still young," She said. "You have time enough to become whatever you want."

"Thanks, mom," I said, smiling honestly. "Then…I promise I'll become someone great. And, uh, why don't I handle the dishes?"

At that, her eyebrows went up again before she chuckled and nodded.

"I'll leave it to you then." She said, patting my cheek again as she turned away. I stared after her for a moment.

?

LV?

Isabella Arc

I sighed and turned to the dishes, washing them one by one.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuously washing dishes has created the skill 'Dish Washing' to quickly clean dishes!

I just sort of…stared at the blue box that appeared before my eyes for a moment and then exhaled slowly, shaking my head.

So even stuff like this…

How do I explain this? I can't, honestly, which is my I don't. I didn't even tell my mom or dad. But if I had to, I guess I could describe this as my special ability. I haven't had it for very long—just a week, really—but…well, you see, the game I'd told my mom about, that made me wonder about all this? Well…

"Status," I muttered.

Name: Jaune Arc

Class: The Gamer

Level: LV2

HP: 100/100

MP: 50/50

STR: 10

VIT: 10

DEX: 10

INT: 10

WIS: 10

LUK: 10

POINTS: 5

MONEY: 100 Lien

This window appeared in front of me at the sound of my voice. I'd confirmed I was the only one who could see it by opening it repeatedly in a crowd and not drawing any attention. Initially, I'd wondered if I was just seeing things, but…well, I had an Inventory, too, and I could literally store stuff inside of it and they'd, well, vanish until I could take them out. Hell, I could store more stuff in there then I could physically carry. I could even go on quests and stuff, though most of them were stuff like 'Set the table,' 'Take out the trash,' and 'Go get groceries.' Despite that, they gave me experience points and yesterday I'd even leveled up and gotten points. Given the circumstances, I was willing to operate under the assumption that would work like in a game, too.

Which had led me to the question I'd asked my mom. My stats were…average. Perfectly so—I wasn't good or bad at anything, for someone of my level, but I had figured out pretty quickly that I was low leveled. Most of the people in my class had levels like three or four, but I'd started at level one with completely normal stats. It had been kind of depressing to have that thrown in my face, especially since I'd gotten the ability something like a day after I'd failed to get into Signal. Again. And it had hurt. The knowledge, the reminder, the proof right before my eyes hammering in what I already knew—that I was a…

I'd gone to sleep, woken up, and I'd been like this, which had mainly enabled me to see for myself how weak I was.

But now, if I had this ability, if it worked how I thought it did, then maybe I could change that. I was sure of it, now—I could do things no one else could do. I had five points right now and I could put them anywhere I wanted. I could make myself stronger, faster, or anything else. Given the raw potential held in these little numbers on my, well, character sheet, it was only a matter of choosing properly to gain strength.

I had no idea how to do that. I'd considered all my options. I wasn't sure exactly how the numbers worked, but I could become the strongest in my class in a snap of my fingers by putting them in strength or the fastest by placing them in dexterity. But which was most important? Being strong? Fast? Tough? I'd considered it but after sleeping on it, I realized I just didn't know. What's the best choice? Where do I even start?

And then I realized, if I didn't know that, wouldn't making myself smarter and wiser be the best choice? And if Wisdom is the ability to make good choices, then…

I pressed the arrow beside Wisdom five times and raised it to fifteen. Taking a deep breath, I nodded and closed the window.

"I'm done with the dishes, mom!" I shouted. "I'm going out for a bit!"

XxXXxX

I organized my thoughts, putting what I already knew in context. I was, essentially, a video game character. I could grow stronger by leveling up—whether that was my own, personal level or the levels of my skills. From what I'd seen, doing one didn't affect the other, so I had to improve them separately. I already knew how to do both, I'd just been uncertain as to how to go about it.

Improving my skills was as simple as using them. That in mind, I moved into the forest, took my sword out of my Inventory, and started whacking trees while I was busy thinking. I'd done this a little lately, once I'd developed my 'Sword Mastery' skill after practicing for a while. I'd figured out quickly that my skills could be either active or passive, but the method of improvement was the same. What I needed to do then was focus on two things: Leveling up important skills and finding new skills that would be useful.

I'd gotten 'Power Strike' around the same time I'd gotten 'Sword Mastery.' I could use the former about fifteen times before I ran out of mp, after which it took about an hour to regain it. It had taken me about two hours to increase it to level two and longer to raise it to level three, entirely because of how long it took to regain my mp. In comparison, I'd been able to raise my Sword Mastery to level five in a single day because I didn't need mp to use it. From that I could assume that passive abilities were easier to improve then active ones, as well as easier to use—but on the other hand, they were weaker individually and active skills got both stronger and cheaper as they grew more powerful. I needed to get many passive abilities that worked well together but also train my active abilities.

On the other hand, raising my own level was just as important, because it gave me points to improve my stats. Unfortunately, there were only a few ways to do that—doing quests was the only big one I'd done, though I could get a small bit of experience by studying and working out. But if I thought of the world as a game then presumably I could also do it by killing monsters and defeating enemies. Generally, quests gave more experience than individual monsters in return for taking more time and being more complicated. That all depended on the difficulty; I assumed that taking out the trash gave less experience then killing a Grimm would.

If I could do it, finding an area full of Grimm and killing them all would probably be the faster way to level up and places like that were easy to find. I could just leave the city boundaries and I'd find them eventually, though the forests close to the residential district were safe. But…I was still only level two and there was no way of knowing what I'd find. Getting stronger first was probably the wiser choice, as was sticking to quests for now.

Then…could I manufacture quests? If I could get five hundred experience from just doing things like doing chores for my mom, could I volunteer for tasks and do things around the neighborhood? Or did someone have to explicitly ask before I could do something? I'd have to find out. Even if I couldn't, there had to be a fair number of people who needed stuff done around town.

Then, that's where I should start, at least in terms of leveling myself up. For my skills…I should probably make a schedule.

Besides Power Strike and Sword Mastery, I didn't have many other skills. I'd gotten 'Observe' while watching the higher-level people I'd seen around town and the fights I occasionally saw. And, of course, I'd gotten 'Dish Washing' just a while ago, but I think I could exclude that from my list of 'Important skills to grind.'

Observe, however, seemed like the type of thing that could be extraordinarily useful. Even at level one, it showed me a lot about whatever I used it on. It was an active skill, but…it didn't seem to drain mp. Then, if I were to use it on every person I met—no, on everything I saw—I should be able to improve it at a decent rate, right? Did the level or value of the object matter? If it did, I could use it in stores and stuff, and places like that would also have lots of stuff to use it on. A library might be a good place to use it, too, if every single book counted. I could use that whenever I was in the city and I could spend a few hours wandering every day, maybe doing some quests in the process. My Sword Mastery and Power Strike I could train later one, like I was doing now. That would serve to level my existing abilities. As for acquiring new ones…

Dish Washing served as a reminder of how broad 'Skills' could be. If I could get a skill by doing chores, what else would count? Sword Mastery implied that I could get a similar ability with other weapons. It might be more efficient to stick with swords for now, at least in terms of melee, since I'd already put some work into it—but it might be smart to get a longer-range option at some point and maybe see if my hands counted as weapons, just in case. In fact, was there a Shield Mastery? I hadn't gotten one just by wearing a shield, but then I hadn't gotten Sword Mastery until I started using my sword. There wasn't anything nearby to attack me, but…would it count if I bashed something with my shield? I'd bring try it out in a bit.

Besides that, there were a bunch of things that probably counted. Sneaking around probably counted and if I wanted to reach the Grimm later, I'd need to get past the border guard, to say nothing of any of the other reasons I might need to hide. Something to help me run away, just in case. Ways to defend myself, though my shield might count if that worked, and I could try my armor. I'd focus on them for now and see what other skills I discovered and what came to me. I'd hopefully have some time before anything dangerous happened.

But what should I focus on, one I leveled up?

I closed my eyes and frowned. If I was right, then…it should get harder to level up as time went on, so early on I should focus on things I didn't want to wait for. My mom was completely right—I had time to become whatever I wanted. I could become strong and fast and tough and anything else. But while I could do it easily, I should focus on…

"Intelligence and Wisdom, huh?" I muttered before nodding to myself. If I was smart and wise, I could figure out how to get stronger or come up with solutions to things I couldn't face with strength alone. I could make up for weakness with intelligence, but could I make up for being stupid by being strong? Maybe, but it'd probably be harder and I might regret it.

"It's a plan, then," I said, smiling to myself as I drew my shield out of my inventory. "Just watch me—I'm gonna be great someday."

I then proceeded to start my path to greatness by repeatedly whacking a tree with a blunt object.

XxXXxX

2. Threadmark: Chapter 2 - Tutorial Level

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Tutorial Level

I woke up at six and started working on my homework the moment I rolled out of bed. I'd thought about it last night and had decided for sure—school was going to cut into my time a lot. Not only did I need to spend seven hours a day there when I could be training instead, but there was also stuff like homework I had to do out of class. So, to avoid wasting more time than necessary, I should get this done with as quickly as possible. Hence, waking up early and spending an hour on this week's homework.

Diligent studying caused your INT to increase by 1!

I turned to stare flatly at the notification, wondering why I was even surprised.

I could increase my stats like that, too?

That changed things. If it wasn't just by leveling up—that is, if I could get more than five points per level—then my plans needed to be adjusted accordingly. I'd need to test exactly how it worked, experiment to see if and how it applied to my other stats and how I could improve each, though I imaged that working out would improve the physical ones. In which case…

From eight to three I was in school. Taking into account breakfast and the time it would take to reach class, I would have an hour of free time in the morning that I couldn't use effectively in any other way, so I could study and work out then. At school, I could study and get ahead and nobody should be able to complain. After school, I could stay out until supper, if I told mom I was going to the library—which I was, so it wasn't even really a lie. I could practice a number of my skills then and after supper I could go into the woods to practice the ones I couldn't use in town. Mom would want me back by dark, though, at which point I could study and work out some more in my room.

No matter how exhausted my body got, I would recover after thirty minutes of rest. My hp and mp returned more slowly, but even they would be fully restored simply by sleeping in my bed for six hours. As such, no matter how hard I pushed myself at night, it was fine. If I could gain additional stat points at a reasonable rate, it was more than worth it—if I could gain even just one INT per level then even assuming I couldn't think of any way to get additional Wisdom, I could focus on it and get it to level fifty by level nine and still have an INT of eighteen or higher. If I switched my focus to it afterwards, I could raise INT to fifty as well by the time I was level fifteen.

I resisted the urge to pump my fist in the air before realizing there was no one around to look at me strangely and doing it anyway.

Then I went downstairs to make breakfast before Mom woke up.

The Breakfast of Champions.

XxXXxX

School was boring, as a rule, and it wasn't made particularly less so by the fact that I spent the whole time studying. My Int didn't go up again while I was there, which didn't particularly surprise me since even a week of school and homework hadn't raised it until this morning. After it let out for the day, I headed towards the library like I'd told mom, Observing everyone and everything that caught my eye on the way there. Most of them were just normal people, but practice was practice, right?

The library, however, turned out to be a treasure trove. Not just because it turned out that, yes, Icould Observe every single book and not just because there were plenty of books there that I could use to study after I finished with my textbooks. Those were nice, but they paled in comparison to the true power of the library. I'm not remotely ashamed to admit that I made a beeline for the section about Hunters and such the moment I entered. I started from the top and went through it alphabetically, taking a book out, Observing it, and putting it back. Each use gave me what amounted to a summary of the book, which got more detailed as I leveled it up again. But as I was approaching the end of 'A'…

You obtained the skill book 'Aura: The Light of Our Souls.' Would you like to learn this skill?

It took me a minute to understand what I was look at. When I did…well, if I'd been holding a drink, I would have crushed it to powder right then and I proceeded to press 'Yes' about twenty times in the half a second it took for the message to vanish. The book proceeded to fill with a bright golden light before flaking apart into what seemed almost like glowing petals and vanishing completely. As it did, I could feel the knowledge flowing into me and I knew, knew, exactly what Aura was despite having never even heard of it before.

Aura (Passive & Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The Manifestation of one's soul. Long ago, Man, who was born from dust, learned to wield the light of their being against the soulless Grimm. It's a power that allowed Mankind to reach past their human limits and drive back the darkness, letting them bear their burdens and shielding their hearts. Stat increases depend on the amount of Aura (MP).

Passively increases STR by 30%.

Passively increases DEX by 30%.

Passively increases VIT by 30%.

Passively increases INT by 30%.

Passively increases WIS by 30%.

Additional 30% increase to STR when activated.

Additional 30% increase to DEX when activated.

Additional 30% increase to VIT when activated.

HP regeneration speed increased by 100% when activated.

…Holy crap that's broken and it's only at level one. And all Hunters have this?

I looked at my hands as they—my entire body, really—started glowing bright white. After a few seconds passed, it began to die down, the power drawing closer to my skill. It was active already, I could feel it, and I had no objections to that whatsoever. This skill was one I wanted to level up as quickly as possible.

I tried to fight down the urge to start laughing and cheering like a madman and only succeed because I heard footsteps and they reminded me that I had no way of explaining what just happened and, also, I'd just destroyed one of the library's books which I really didn't want to explain either. Or, uh, pay for. Because my wallet was anemic.

Thinking quickly, I dove to the end of the row with my new found speed and turned around the corner, holding my breath in an instinctive attempt to go unnoticed. Someone—another library-goer or a librarian, I didn't know—stopped near where I'd just been and I silently crept past the thankfully empty row beside the Hunter section and turned down into the one two shelves down, where I spotted another person. I went back to looking at books in a way I hoped was casual, going back to Observing.

Seconds passed with nobody coming after me and I let out a slow breath.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuous hiding has created the skill 'Stealth' to avoid notice!

I didn't react as the notice appeared, focusing on the books. Just in case, I should probably avoid looking at the Hunter section again today, though I could still browse through a few shelves of books. I needed to remember that using skill books came with a lightshow and vanishing books and do it somewhere out of the way.

Out of the way…

I spent a minute browsing the shelf I was on, just for show, before minding another empty row. After a few minutes of searching and Observing, as well as some basic thought, I found what I was looking for. A Driver's Manual—or rather, to me, a driving skill book. I could use this with the push of a button and instantly learn how to drive and all it would take is a destroyed book. And…it may have been selfish of me or said something about me, but the destruction of a book in return for skills like this just didn't bother me. If anything did, it was simply that I would be taking the book from the library permanently in doing so and maybe a minor fear of being caught. But…

I took a deep breath and spoke.

"Inventory," I said and the window appeared before me. I pushed the book into it and it disappeared into a ripple in space, stored neatly into one of the top slots. And then, I went back to the shelf and started looking for other skill books.

I'll pay you back someday, I promised the library as I left a few hours later. As I passed through the threshold, a notification appeared.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuous theft has created the skill 'Theft' to take things that belong to others!

Mastery of the skill Theft increases! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one!

Ugh.

XxXXxX

After I left the library, I went home and started sorting through the skill books I'd taken. A number were of…questionable utility, but several actually seemed pretty useful, if odd. I'd gotten a Craft skill, for instance…from an art book, but it seemed to apply to making stuff in general, since I'd been able to add blueprints using several cookbooks, art books, and a number of other things. When I had a chance—and the money and the materials—I'd try leveling it up. There were a few others in the small section of the library I'd cleared, but they were mainly stuff like how to drive specific vehicles—leading to my Drive skill—and stuff. It'd take a long time to clear the entire library, I knew, but I was also excited to see what I'd find in doing so.

My ability is so cheap…

Once I was done with supper and my training in the woods, I went to my room, put my textbook on the floor, and did pushups until I thought I would die. I did my best to read as I did, though only covered about a fifth of what I normally would have in that time and then I rolled over onto my back gasping for air. When I caught my breath enough, I picked up my book and read for a while. After thirty minutes passed, I was completely recovered, as always.

I proceeded to do squats until I thought I was gonna die, placing my book on the table in front of me. Afterwards, I read until I recovered and did crunches until I thought I was gonna die, read some more, and did lunges until I thought I was gonna die. Then I went to sleep and woke up six hours later, completely refreshed.

Repeated effort caused your STR to increase by 1!

Repeated struggles caused your VIT to increase by 1!

I smiled brightly. That was about a week of effort to get a level in STR, VIT, and INT, without focused effort? If I stuck to my schedule, I should be able to do it in half that time or less. Though it should get harder to level up as my stats improved…but the stronger I got, the more I could train and the smarter I got, the more complex the things I could study, so it should remain roughly even, at least early on. For now, I could probably aim for half a week to a week of heavy effort, per point—maybe faster for INT, given that I spent most of my time at school studying. I'd need to think of something for DEX, however. Acrobatics? Running? I could do the latter as I moved through the city, but I'd need to think of something to attempt the former. I might want to look into weights, too, though I could probably borrow my dad's.

I looked at my clock and nodded to myself in satisfaction. I still had an hour before I needed to get going. Should I work out here some more? Study? Train my skills?

It was both exhilarating and intimidating. Not just my power but even simply knowing that I hadstats and skills, that they were numerical values I could watch increase. With a word, I could bring up proof that my every action, every choice, was defining my life. Choosing to spend my time one way was taking away from my time to train something else, but at the same time I could literally see any improvements. But what should I use this free hour in the morning for?

I could try working on my DEX, but it would take a while to bear fruit, even assuming I picked the right way to train it—and any time I wasted doing that was time I wasn't spending improving known qualities. The question, then, was if I valued DEX enough to bother, instead of one of the alternatives. And, if not, what did I value and what was most efficient? I spent about three hours working out and studying in the evening, though most of that was breaks to recover. Call it one hour of hard work to two hours of studying, though that was free time I could use for either. I spent seven hours at school and I spent all the time I could studying, so call it five to six hours accounting for various interruptions, but that was time I could only spent studying, because most of my teachers would probably object to me doing backflips in class. I had this one hour in the morning that I could also spend either way, studying or working out.

Except it wouldn't really be the same, would it? If I worked out, I would get at most half an hour in before I needed to rest, whereas I could spend the whole time studying. When my body was stronger, I'd probably be able to train for the whole hour—and I'd get that strong eventually, I knew that for sure—but right now…

I had the weekends off, I thought. I can literally train my body from dusk 'til dawn, then. And once I'd raised my Intelligence and Wisdom to fifty, I could decide how to handle everything else.

So I studied at home and I studied at school and by the time it let out I'd literally finished reading one of my textbooks and it was every bit as awful as it sounds. Maybe, hopefully, it would get easier once I'd gotten smarter—but I doubted it. It wasn't really the contents that were hard, since that had gotten easier to understand and I'd spent two days studying what felt like constantly. It was the fact that what I read was a text book and as dry as the paper it had been written on.

But once school let out, I finally had a break from studying, at least until tonight. I thought about heading back to the Library and searching for treasure; using Observe on even just one bookshelf took forever so I'd only gone through a small section of it. However…there was something I wanted to check out first. The library had been, would be, a treasure trove, but there were limits to what I could find there. I wanted to know I had options, other places to get skill books if needed—and, perhaps, books I couldn't get in a public library. I wasn't in a rush or anything, since I still had all the time in the world to get stronger, but it didn't hurt to look and I might even get lucky.

Which was how I found myself straying off my usual route home, towards a store I'd walked past a hundred times but never gone into.

I started thinking maybe it wasn't the greatest idea I'd ever had the moment I walked into the store and saw the shopkeeper. Or rather, saw what was floating above his head.

White Fang Book Trader

LV11

Tukson

XxXXxX

Name: Jaune Arc

Class: The Gamer

Level: LV2

HP: 100/100

MP: 50/50

STR: 11+3.3(30%)=14.3

VIT: 11+3.3(30%)=14.3

DEX: 10+3(30%)=13

INT: 11+3.3(30%)=14.3

WIS: 15+4.5(30%)=19.5

LUK: 10

POINTS: 0

MONEY: 100 Lien

3. Threadmark: Chapter 3 - Faction Quests

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Faction Quests

For a moment, my heart pounded. I knew about the White Fang, of course—everyone did. But I hadn't ever expected to run into them on the street or something. I mean, I don't know why I never thought about what they did in their free time, but—

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the Sun," Tukson greeted.

All at once, I calmed down and started thinking about this rationally. He's here. Running a shop. Meaning he's almost certainly not a known White Fang supporter and that he'd probably like to keep things that way. He wasn't going to grow claws and tear my throat out for not being a Faunus.

Furthermore, I knew he was a member of the White Fang because of his title but he didn't know that I knew; I was the only one who could see them. He didn't know anything about me and he probably wouldn't bother finding out so long as I didn't give him any reason too. What's more, I could find stuff out about him a lot more easily then he could about me.

Still calm as could be, I nodded to the owner and walked over to one of the nearest bookshelves and started browsing, casting a glance at Tukson out of the corner of my eye.

"Observe." I muttered and my new Observation window appeared before me. I scrolled past most of it, though it confirmed his race as a Faunus and gave him a title as 'Reluctant Gang Member.' At that, I skipped past his stats—I had no intention of fighting him, after all—and went to the new section at the bottom.

Background: A Faunus born in Vacuo, he joined the White Fang prior to its transformation into its current form. Uncomfortable with its new status as a radical organization yet not wanting to betray his friends, he finds himself on unsteady ground, afraid both to withdraw his support and participate. He seeks comfort in his peaceful life as a store owner.

Emotions: Anxiety, Uncertainty, Helplessness, Distraction.

Huh. That changed things. Hell, that threw my train of thought completely off the tracks.

I wondered what to do now. I was even less worried about Tukson now, but I should probably do something here, right? I mean, I was…wanted to be a hero. But I think I needed a higher Wisdom score to handle something like this. Tukson was a White Fang member, but I guess I couldn't blame him for that—even I knew the story of the White Fang. However, while I didn't blame him for it, I couldn't really help him with it, either. If I was in his shoes, would I want to betray my old friends? Would I want to run, knowing what might happen?

Then…should I just take control of the situation myself, ignore his wishes, and call the police? But that would just get Tukson himself wrapped up in this—and bad as what the White Fang did was, the fact was that a lot of people were biased against the Faunus. Who's to say they wouldn't just arrest and haul off everyone involved?

Then…

I sighed, raising the book in my hands and leaning it against my forehead.

Maybe I should just ask mom about it again. I bet her WIS score was huge.

"Is…something wrong?" Tukson's voice asked, sounding vaguely concerned.

"Ah," I said, lowering the book. "Sorry. A lot on my mind, is all. Sir."

"Heh," He answered. "I know something about that. Can I help you with anything?"

He nodded around his shop and I hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"Do you have anything about Aura?" I asked.

"Third row on the left," He said immediately, his phone ringing as I followed his directions. I saw his expression shift slightly as whoever was on the other end of the phone answered before he moved into the backroom, out of my hearing. Even so, given what I knew about him, it wasn't hard to guess what the reason probably was. I hoped—

Holy.

Crap.

Tukson's Book Trade's catchphrase probably wasn't literally accurate but damn, Tukson evidently had access to the good stuff. I was looking at the Hunter section the Aura books fell under and I…I had to hold myself back from reaching out to them. I mean, I want to, like…to touch them. Just for a little while. I—

I took one of the books down and stroked its cover gently.

You obtained the skill book 'Meditation: The Soul of the World.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to say yes so bad it hurt. That blue screen and button hung in the air, taunting me, the bookshelf of skill books just behind it. I could just slip this into my Inventory, grab a few dozen of its friends to keep it company, and…

I sighed and put it back in its place. No. For one thing, stealing may have been stealing, but for some reason, stealing from a person I knew was in need felt worse than stealing from a library. Maybe it was just because Tukson had a face and a little square for his background, I don't know, but it did.

Second of all, stealing from a place like this would be different than stealing from a library. Hundreds of people went to the library every day, shifting in and out, talking, drawing attention—who would remember one blonde boy in all of that, especially when he left with, apparently, no books on him? This place was different. I was the only person in here now and Tukson seemed like he knew his shop. If I left and a bunch of books vanished from the section he'd directed me too, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out the likely culprit. Even if he didn't notice for a few days, I'd still probably only have a few competitors for the title of 'Most Suspicious' by the time he did. And he knew what I looked like.

Also, he was affiliated with a gang that I was guessing probably wouldn't take kindly to one of their members getting robbed.

Or a Human robbing a Faunus.

Or my face.

I noted the price tags with a small hint of longing and sighed, stepping away. I'd have to figure something out and come back some other—

A quest has been created!

I blinked and looked around at the empty front of the store. Here? Now?

Nonetheless, I pushed the button.

Quest Alert!

Tukson's Hope: Delivery Boy!

Tukson's been called to deliver a package to a member of the White Fang. Deliver it so he doesn't have to! Time Limit: Three Hours.

Um.

I shifted awkwardly. I wanted to help Tukson. I really did. I mean, I could only image how sucky his situation must be, with no real way to win. That sucks and it's unfair and he didn't deserve it—no one did. I also wanted to be helpful, a hero.

So why was it that I wanted to turn and walk away from this sign? Maybe it was my new Wisdom score. I'd like to blame it on that—see, this wasn't because I was scared, it was because I wassmart. After all, it's a member of the gang Tukson's a part of; he'd be safe and I wouldn't. And, really, would this situation be improved if I, someone who had nothing to do with any of this, involved myself where I wasn't needed or wanted? Probably not. And, really, if it involves the White Fang, what are the odds it was on the level?

And see, all that was completely valid. Those were all good points. And, hey, if any of that had been what came to my mind, I might even feel reasonable about just turning away, if a bit sadly. Instead, what came to mind was more along the lines of 'Me? Talk to a member of the White Fang? Holy crap, I'm only level two! My hp score is almost as tiny as my STR, VIT, and DEX scores—and even that's larger then my life expectancy if I take this mission.'

I thought about refusing the quest because it was dangerous and I was scared and that was it. I considered leaving Tukson to do it alone to spare myself from having to get involved. And as I realized that, I wasn't sure if that made me want to take the quest in spite of all my reservations or run away even more.

But there was something I was learning lately. Every choice—the ones me make and the ones we avoid—defines who we are. That wasn't necessarily a good or bad thing, it was just a fact. I could walk away from this quest and nobody would ever know but me, but at the same time I wouldknow. That's not to say I'd necessarily regret it, because hell, maybe I walk away and find out tomorrow that I was completely right to do so. Or maybe I would regret it forever. I don't know what the future holds. But there was a choice in front of me and it was mine to make, for better or worse. Yes or No, the choice was mine.

I took a deep breath and looked down, thinking.

And my brain waves abruptly flat-lined.

Completion Reward: Exp 60000, Skill Book 'Meditation: The Soul of the World.'

Sixty thousand experience points.

That was…that was a lot. More than all the experience points I'd gathered thus far combined, many times over. That was enough to level me up for sure. Probably a bunch of times, though I could only guess how many; I'm not entirely sure how much I'd need for each level. And a skill book on top of that. Now that's just unfair.

I told myself it didn't matter. Whether I did this or not, whether I chose to aid Tukson or leave him be, had to be decided based upon me and Tukson. That's how a hero would do it. That's how I should do it. Tukson was a man in need and I had to decide whether I would help him, could help him, based solely on that fact.

But sixty thousand experience points and a skill book.

The reward doesn't change the quest. If I couldn't bring myself to help a man in need who has nothing to offer, what would it say about me if I would suddenly change my mind if I found out he was rich? My dad would help him either way. So would my mom. If I'm only helping him because of what's in it for me, when I would have rejected it before, then what did that make me? Not much of a hero, that's for sure.

But, I thought, I hadn't made my decision before I saw the reward. Maybe I would have helped him anyway, despite the risk. Maybe I wouldn't have. Maybe any decision I made now was biased by what I'd seen, whether to accept or decline. And, really, the reward itself told me about the mission—if it was that great, there was more to this then there seemed. Probably something dangerous—really, really dangerous. And if I did nothing, then Tukson would be the one to face that. He was at a higher level than me, but…

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I'd know the answers to all these questions if I had another ten or fifteen points of Wisdom.

Tukson returned from the backroom, features set in a severe frown.

"Sorry, something came up," He said, sounding honestly apologetic. "I'm going to have to close early—"

"Um," I interrupted, reaching out subtly to press the button. "It's okay, Mr. Tukson but, uh…actually…"

XxXXxX

It was surprisingly easy to convince Tukson to let me face horrific danger in his place—well, notthat surprising if you think about it that way, but it was still easier then I would have expected it to be given that he didn't know about that part. I'd basically just offered to do the job in return for the book, assured him I knew how to get there and was going in that direction, and tried to ease his concerns. Apparently the job was as simple as transporting a book to a building on the Industrial Side, handing it over at the front door, and coming back, so it wasn't like it was anything huge from Tukson's perspective. It was a simple delivery mission.

Yeah. Right.

I stayed on guard as I crossed the city, though I had to move it to make it in time to take the train to the Residential District and then another to the Industrial District. Even though I'd never been there before, I hadn't been lying when I told Tukson that I knew how to get there—I just said 'Map' and one of the City of Vale appeared before me with the position of both my objective and myself marked and the quickest route highlighted. I kept it open beside me and watched it with half an eye as I ran for my life and experience points.

I made it there with nearly an hour to spare and, strangely, wasn't attacked by the forces of darkness, angry Faunus, the police, or anything else on the way there. The most I got were a few odd looks from people as I rushed through the streets and I quickly found myself before a rather plain warehouse in the Industrial District. I was still early in the afternoon and the Sun was high in the blue sky. I could even hear birds chirping in the planted trees on the sides of the street.

I gave the other shoe a chance to drop, but it didn't oblige me. Odds were, it would spring until I'd gone too far to have a chance to escape—or, at least, that's probably how it'd work in a game. Could my power manipulate circumstance that way? Or was it just me it was manipulating, putting in the right place at the right time?

I looked around, looked at the clock nearby, and sighed before taking the last step forward and lifting a hand to knock on the door. I wasn't all that surprised when a blue window appeared before my eyes.

Destination reached! New objective: Survive long enough to deliver the package!

A quest has been created!

White Fang's Need: Rescue the Faunus trapped in the rubble!

Members of the White Fang are trapped in the rubble and need your help! Save them while Blake and Adam fight the Spider Droids! Time Limit: Ten minutes.

Completion Reward: Exp 3000 per Faunus saved, Increased closeness with the White Fang, quest item 'The Keys.'

The side of the building exploded outwards, three massive machines climbing out of the dust and smoke after a pair of blurs. Each of the machines had the same sign above their heads.

Schnee Security Droid

LV43

Spider Droid

XxXXxX

4. Threadmark: Chapter 4 - Mobs

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Mobs

I think what surprised me the most was that I didn't panic. I wanted to run, of course, and I was well aware of what a horrible situation I'd found myself in, but despite this being the first real fight I'd ever been in—and despite knowing instantly that I was truly, horrifically outclassed—I didn't lose my cool. It was kind of weird, honestly.

As the wall broke and the last pieces of rubble fell, I called up my Inventory, reached into it to get my great-great grandfather's sword and shield, and activated my Aura. Stepping back, I cast my gaze across the building, the robots, the two blurs that had finally slowed to a stop, and then back before walking into the building.

Crazy as it sounded, there was a logic to it. There were three of those LV43 Spider Droids and once the twin blurs had come to a halt I'd been able to see them, too.

The Beauty

LV34

Blake Belladona

The Beast

LV41

Adam Taurus

Given the circumstances, it was easy enough to guess that a fight was about the break out and, again, I was only Level Two. I wasn't gonna survive participating in a fight like that and I didn't want to take my chances in terms of being caught out in the open since each of those Spider Droids had four arm cannons. If I was on the streets when all twelve of those cannons started going off and even one shot happened to hit me, odds were good I wouldn't survive it and I'd rather not take my chances. The level difference between us was such that even a glancing blow might well be enough to take me out—I was a faceless extra in an action movie out here. The obvious thing to do was take cover.

Of all my options, I chose the ruined building for several reasons. First and foremost, it was by far the closest and I could get inside easily. I didn't have to sprint to a nearby building and hope it was unlocked or anything—there was a giant hole in the wall right next to me even if the door hadn'tbeen unlocked. Second of all, given the title of my new quest and what I'd already concluded from Tukson, it seemed safe to assume several things: This was a White Fang Base, 'Blake' and 'Adam' where White Fang Members, the Spider Droids were hunting the White Fang, and most or all of the Faunus inside had already been taken out. Adam and Blake seemed to be the priority targets in the Spider Droid's eyes as well, given how they were focused on them now, and it seemed logical to conclude that they wouldn't want the Spider Droids firing on the building containing their allies and would distract it. As such, it was the least likely place to be filled with bullets. Third…

Third, there were people trapped under the rubble. I accepted the quest and entered the building.

As I did, I had to amend my thoughts slightly, however.

Schnee Security Droid

LV10

AK-130 Android

So it wasn't completely safe in here. It wasn't my fault I couldn't see through walls—and at least they weren't twenty times my level. They didn't seem to notice me at first, which wasn't all that surprising. The sound of gunshots and explosions wiped away pretty much all other sound and even though it was still daylight and most of a wall was gone, the place wasn't exactly bright. Clouds of falling dust and rising smoke acted like curtains throughout much of the building, and half of the lights on the ceiling were broken, scattered by bullets or torn off completely. Several of the rest were flickering so quickly they made things, if anything, even harder to see. For people who couldn't see others by the signs above their heads, I could only imagine how they kept track of anything.

Another flickering glance told me everything I needed to know. There were five remaining Androids and the broken remains of about thirty or forty more. I spotted a number of Faunus by the signs floating about their heads and I saw several more above piles of rubble, which I assumed to be the trapped Faunus mentioned in the Quest. I counted three standing to the nearly ten down—not counting the corpses. The ones remaining were attacking the Androids, one with a gun and two with swords and none of them had a level above seven. Odds were they were going to lose and then die.

I should hide, a part of me whispered, or run.

I ignored that part; it was only a small part, thankfully, and it was crushed quickly beneath the merciless boots of logic. I could already hear the fighting beginning anew outside and however much I disliked being in a room with five killer robots, I liked it way better than being out therewith three killer super robots. It was too late to run and if I hid, odds were the robots would just kill these guys, sweep the room for survivors, and find me. I could fight them alone or I could fight them with help.

Besides, what was the point of running if it meant leaving people behind to be slaughtered?

I took a deep, steadying breath. Even if they outnumbered me and were five times my level, I could do this, had to do this. I knew I was a lot more powerful then I should have been at level two, thanks to my skills, training, and Aura—I just had to be smart, hit hard, and hope it was enough. If it wasn't…well, I wouldn't have to worry about it for very long, would I?

Of the five robots, two had been engaged directly by the Faunus, their hands having turned into wicked-looking blades to hold back the curved weapons of the White Fang. The other three had turned them into guns instead, which seemed like a bigger concern—and was probably why the two Faunus had gotten up close and personal with the other two, forcing them to fight on their terms. Outnumbered as they were, it still wasn't enough, even with the remaining Faunus trying to distract the other robots with cover fire—he was outnumbered and outgunned, even if he seemed like a good shot.

I focused on them as the bigger concern, knowing I'd need to make the first hit count. No one seemed aware of me yet, so this was my best chance. I focused on the training I'd done, on my Aura, on the Skills I'd trained, and dashed forward. The sound of gunshots filled my ears and I could feel the ground tremble slightly with the footsteps of the massive creatures outside, but I blotted it out as I narrowed everything down to me and my targets. One of the robots seemed to turn as I got close and I broke my run off to leap at him, swinging my sword down with all my might.

"Power Strike!" I shouted, the edge of my blade biting deeply into the base of its neck. The sight sent a thrill through me—I could do this. Jerking my blade back, I bounced back a step and readied myself to swing again as the machine tried to complete its turn, motions shaky and halting. "Power Strike!"

This time, the head came clean off.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continued use of Aura has created the skill 'Aura Channeling' to empower equipment!

I ignored the screen, casting my gaze at the firearm-wielding Faunus. He looked surprised to see me, but his expression smoothed as I jerked my head at the robot to the left of me and then stepped right. The element of surprise was gone, but I still had to press the assault. The robot I was approaching had begun firing before it had even completed its turn and I felt impacts across the left side of my chest in an odd way, like the pounding notes of some strange rhythm rather than bullets.

Nonetheless, getting shot at was bad and I broke off my run to throw myself to the side, raising my shield as I went. I heard clicks and bangs, bullets passing close enough to seem like insects buzzing past my ear, but somehow I managed to stay ahead just enough to avoid being hit again—until I realized I was running in a circle and that the Faunus would soon be in the line of fire if I continued to do so. I had a split second to think about that before I was charging, shield out before me.

Bullets rattled against the ancient metal, the blows soft at first but then abruptly harder, jolts rising up my arm at the force even though the shield held—and then I tried to gasp and scream at the same time as a knife of pure fire passed through the side of my abdomen. I went down in a slide, more by chance then choice, but I swung my blade again any way, catching the machine in the ankle hard enough to knock its feet out from under it and send it pitching forward.

I rolled over and fell to one knee as I tried to rise, barely able to breath or think as I reached for what was no doubt a gunshot wound—and the pain abruptly faded. I expected my hand to come away wet with blood, but instead felt only cloth.

What…?

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the endurance of pain and damage, the skill 'Physical Endurance' has been created!

The sight of the windows, oddly, brought me back to the present and I rose to my feet, turning. The fallen machine was trying to rise mechanically, but I lifted my blade like an executioner's axe and brought it down, snarling Power Strike as I did. The usual glow did not appear—was I out of MP already?—but the blade bit into the back of its neck and forced it back down to its hands and knees before swinging the blade a second time and then a third. At that, the head came off and the body went limp and I nearly stumbled back with relief.

Your level has increased by one!

There was no time to catch my breath, so I rose back to my feet, turning towards the rest of the battle. As I'd thought, with the numbers evened—no, with the numbers in our favor, counting my defeated opponent—things were going a bit better. The gunman was pinning the robot I'd directed him towards from a distance, distracting it while the other two had apparently been rejuvenated by the turn in battle. I ran towards and past the first, knocking it off its feet as I went and pausing long enough to drive my sword point first straight down into its head before hurrying to join the others. I caught one of the robot's blades with my shield and held it high so the Faunus to my left could hack at its hip, and then crossed blades as the other swung at me, the robots apparently focusing on me as the greater threat.

I swore, suddenly stumbling back to see claws where I'd just been, one of them having suck a blade under my guard, leaving what felt like a gash in my side before the other Faunus could bring his sword down on its exposed wrist, biting into it and knocking it downward. I stepped forward quickly and avenged myself upon it gratuitously. The last machine fell quickly under our blades.

And then I stood, panting hard in exertion but bizarrely elated. At what, I wasn't certain—survival? Victory? Perhaps a mixture of both, our perhaps it was just an adrenaline.

"Shit, dude, are you okay?" The Faunus to my right—a grey-haired boy who couldn't have been more than a year or two my senior and who had curling ram horns—asked as the last robot went down. He paused as he turned to me, looking confused. "Huh. I thought he got you."

I reached down to touch the spot that had hurt terribly moments before and which now felt perfectly fine, my clothes not even torn. Even without my Aura, even when it felt like I'd been hurt, there wasn't even a mark left behind. And yet…I called up my Status Screen and confirmed what I suspected; about half of my HP bar was gone. A good chunk of my MP, however, was back, the increase from leveling up adding to it. I'd have to remember that—and also keep in mind that getting hit with my Aura on drained my MP. Which, you know, was way better than dying, but still would have nice to know about beforehand. I added 'get better defensive options' to the long list of things I needed to work on.

After a moment of deliberation, however, I turned my Aura on again anyway. Not getting splattered was way more important than any other use for it right now.

"So did I," I said aloud. "Guess not."

"Lucky," Ram Man said, several wounds bleeding. "Fuck this went horribly. Thanks for the assist, uh—"

"What's a human doing here," The one with the gun asked, scales gleaming through torn sleeves, and I couldn't help but notice the shift in the other two at the words. Their bodies shifted slightly away from me, eyes dancing over my arms and face as if trying to find something and failing, before smiles dimmed. I wasn't going to lie, fine as I felt I really didn't want to fight three more people, especially not the ones I'd gone through all this to save.

"Tukson sent me," I said, thinking quickly as I raised my hands. "Easy guys, I'm a friend. Just here to deliver a package and when things got messy, I figured you guys could use some help. Speaking of which, we're not out of the woods yet."

I nodded at…well, the huge hole in the side of the warehouse and let the sounds of explosions punctuate my statement.

"Let's grab the wounded and get out of here." I said and led by example by approaching one of the bodies that had a sign above their heads and lifting it onto my shoulders. "We got a way out of this place?"

Lizard Boy was still for a moment before jerking his head at a semi-truck near the back. Nearby were crates that looked like they'd been torn open from the inside and the Schnee symbol on the side. In fact, looking around, I saw that symbol all over the place. Was this a Schnee warehouse?

I imagined the White Fang breaking in to do White Fang-y things and suddenly a bunch of boxes explode and release giant robots, catching them by surprise. Nobody expects the robot police.

Moving quickly, we managed to move the rubble off of the survivors and gathered them into the back of the semi.

"Adam and Blake are still out there," Ram Man said.

"We'll pick them up on the way out," I said before pausing for a moment, remembering something. "Where are the keys?"

He hesitated for a second before tossing them to me.

"You can drive, right?" He said, rummaging around until he found a gun. Probably to provide cover fire, though I really couldn't see the point with those Spider Droids.

Even when he took out what looked like a rocket launcher.

"Yeah," I said, thinking of my Drive skill.

Quest complete!

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

A quest has been created!

White Fang's Need: Escape the Spider Droids and get to safety!

Escort the White Fang to safety with Blake and Adam's help! Time Limit: Twenty minutes.

Completion Reward: Exp 10000, Increased closeness with the White Fang.

Failure: Death.

XxXXxX

5. Threadmark: Chapter 5 - Escort Mission

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Escort Mission

The thing about doors is that they're for people who aren't running for their lives.

Me? I drove straight through the truck entrance.

"Get in!" I shouted out the window as I saw Adam and Blake fighting. I ended up driving right between them and one of the Spider Droids by pure chance and the machine thankfully halted its attack for a second, apparently uncertain whether it should be shooting at me. Or maybe it was the logo on the side of the truck that stalled it, I don't know. Either way, I didn't slow as I passed them—couldn't afford to, honestly—but the two Faunus thankfully recovered quickly and I saw them hop on top of the truck through my mirrors.

I also saw the trail of smoke left in the wake of a rocket fly out of the back of the truck, presumably the work of Ram Man. A second later, I had to look away as it exploded right in the face of one of the machines—and wow, I felt that explosion even as far away from ground zero as I was. And it was loud, too; the movies don't do explosions justice. I had no idea where the White Fang got their rocket launchers, but whoever made them obviously didn't mess around.

I thought I would have been deafened by the sound—which would have been bad, damn it, why hadn't I thought about that when I saw him with a rocket launcher—but after the last sounds of the explosions died away, my hearing was left untouched. I wasn't sure if that was a Gamer thing or an Aura thing, but either way I wasn't going to complain right now.

"Damn it, Billy!" I heard a female voice snarl, sounding more than a little irate.

"Blake!" Ram Man, or maybe Billy, shouted, though I couldn't see why; the downside of driving a semi.

"Map," I said, nearly sighing with relief as the grid of streets appeared before me. Almost as useful, there were a trio of red dots moving on the map, close behind the blue marker of the truck. My eyes danced across the map for a moment before I swung the truck wide onto Afzan Avenue, passing through a holographic streetlight in the process. I heard shots hitting the pavement as I did, flashes of light too fast to see clearly in my mirrors, but I was driving faster than the machines could move, at least for the moment. Butut given that one of them was clinging to the side of a building as I flew past…well, I was depressingly sure they weren't limited by roads for mobility.

I had to prioritize. Blake and Adam may have been able to combat those things directly, but I had a truck full of people who couldn't have even if they weren't wounded. If those things started firing on us, I couldn't trust the truck to standup under their fire. It wasn't enough to just stay ahead, I had to keep them from having a direct line of fire—and oh boy was that gonna be a fun trick to manage against people who could climb a building and bath me in fire at range. And given the size of this truck…

I had to stay on roads wide enough to maneuver on and connected to other roads I could switch onto before the machines caught up and keep track of the machines locations in three-dimensions and the size of the buildings around me so I could try to keep out of sight. But where was I even going? The bridges? No, I couldn't be certain they wouldn't be willing to follow us into the Commercial or Residential Districts, at which point who knows how many people could get hurt, even assuming we survived crossing it, which was unlikely if they caught us on the bridges. Unfortunately, there weren't all that many roads I could safely drive on, excluding those.

And there was the police to worry about, I was sure. The idea of just going to them and placing this mess in their laps was tempting but…no. I didn't know what the robots would do and if they were violent, a lot of good men and women could die. If they were Hunters, maybe…but they weren't. And even if the robots refused to fire on them, the police would almost certainly want to arrest the White Fang and I couldn't imagine them coming quietly. Given Adam and Blake's levels…no. I had to avoid the police, too. Which probably just meant avoiding the bridges, for now—it had been, what, five minutes since the Spider Droids had gotten loose? Ten? The police wouldn't move in until they could mobilize a response capable of addressing the problem.

But if I couldn't cross the bridges, I couldn't get to…to what? Safety? Where could I take a bunch of White Fang members without them standing out, even if I could cross the bridges? Hell, discounting them, a beaten up, dust-covered truck would stand out all on its own. Where could I—

I had to slam myself back into the seat as a shape swung into the cabin, through my open window. I glimpsed hands grabbing the top of it, a blur flipping over and in, a heart-stopping moment where my vision was covered in black, and suddenly the was a woman in the seat next to me. Pale skin, long black hair, yellow eyes, black bow—Blake Belladonna. Ignoring the dust that covered her clothes and the smears on her face, she would have been beautiful under normal circumstances.

As is, her most distinctive feature was the belt of ammunition across her chest and the rocket launcher Billy must have given her.

"What the hell was that!?" I snarled, the shock she'd induced fading after a flickering instant. "Can't you see me trying to drive here!?"

I nearly growled in frustration as Blake cast me a measuring glance, frowning slightly.

"You're a human," She observed.

"Not this again," I said, nearly swearing. I wanted to say something along the lines of 'This human's saving your skin right now; you got a problem with that!?' but the Level floating above her head reminded me that she could probably break me in half with one hand and that I should be diplomatic. "Tukson sent me, I saw you were in trouble, decided to help, and I'm too busy driving to deal with your suspicions. Unless you'd like to do it?"

She blinked calmly at me.

"I'm not suspicious," She said. "Just surprised. You're obviously on our side; if you weren't, all you would have had to do was walk away."

"Finally, someone gets it," I said, slightly chastised. I checked the map again, keeping an eye on the Map. "We can't cross the bridges."

"No," She agreed. "Even if it wouldn't put people in danger, we'd never make it across."

"You got another warehouse?" I asked.

"Off the side of Wilhelm, down by Elsie," She said and I checked the map. One of the Brothers, the Rivers on either side of the residential district, it flowed down to the very edge of Vale. I could follow it down into the Agricultural District, which wasn't my preferred place to hide from a bunch of robots—but thinking about it, I could see the appeal of a base near the river, if you suspected you might need to make a getaway. After a moment, a marker appeared on the map, showing the location, and I nearly sighed in relief.

"I know the place," I said. "Not gonna matter if we can't lose them, though."

Blake nodded and rolled down the window on her side.

"W-what are you doing?" I asked, trying to split my attention between the road, the map, and Blake. Focusing on the first suddenly got really hard when Blake lifted most of her body out the window, sitting on the edge before resting the rocket launcher on a shoulder and aiming behind us.

"Trying to shake our tail," Blake replied, frowning in concentration. "Can you get me a clear shot?

I wanted to swear. I wanted to ask her what she expected to do to one of those things when she must have known it wouldn't change a thing. I really wanted to close my eyes and hope I'd wake up and this would all be a dream.

Instead, I focused entirely on the map and the road, keeping track of where the dots seemed to be positioned. That amounted almost entirely too bad news—there was one on top of a building, or else climbing one as we worked. It was a little bit off from the river, where a lot of the factories were. If I assumed the worst, which seemed reasonable, it could probably shot at me from anywhere within several blocks of its location; I drew a wide circle around it in my head and told myself to keep far away from that. The other two were roaming the streets at a slower pace, probably coordinating to either drive us into their buddy up north. One was moving into position along Main Street and the other along Anderson, which was gonna suck one way or another since I was gonna need to be on one of those to get anywhere. We were going to have to get past at least one of them or we were sitting ducks.

Anderson was the one that led down to the Agricultural district but it had an intersection with Main I could use and save myself some time, though it might take my too close to the Circle of Death. Of course, Anderson itself was so straight it was gonna be like a firing range past a certain point, which wasn't much better. I licked my lips, trying to figure out a way out of this, a way to get past a ridiculously overpowered robot without getting myself or my passengers shot, but I couldn't—

Or maybe I could.

I brought up my status window, hissing a breath out through my teeth. I didn't have a lot of time, so I considered my options quickly. I'd gained three levels, meaning I had fifteen points to burn, I just had to figure out where to put them. Strength or Vitality were out—it was tempting, to try to respond to my weakness, my helplessness, by improving my body. But I also knew the truth; even if I put every point I had in strength, I wouldn't be strong enough to defeat even one of those machines. If I put them all in Vitality, it wouldn't let me survive such a battle. Dexterity, maybe? No, at most that would give me more control over the truck, but that wasn't really my problem right now, unless it would let me ignore physics and the limits of the vehicle.

It came down to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck. And unless twenty-five points of luck would be enough to make lightning fall from the sky and smite my enemies, I don't think that would get me out of this—and relying on my luck seemed risky, even ignoring that it didn't benefit from my Aura. No, it seemed like I've to continue on the course I'd already set. Which to focus on then? Or should I split it? And if so, in what way?

I could boost INT to twenty-six, which the bonus from my Aura would raise to nearly thirty-four. On the other hand, I could raise Wisdom to thirty and let my Aura raise it to thirty-nine. I could split it nearly half-and-half or into thirds or any way I wanted, but what did I need?

I had the Map before me. I knew all the options I had available. What I needed to do now was choose and choose well—pick the way out, pick the way to win, somehow save the people I'd chosen to protect. But would I see something new if I was smarter, notice something I'd missed? What if I didn't? What if I tried and wasted points to no end? Or what if I would have seen a way out and squandered it by spending my points on Wisdom? How did I decide when I didn't know the answer and my very life was on the line—and the lives of people I was trying to save? I couldn't.

So I did the only thing I could. Was it a wise thing? I don't know. Was it a smart thing? I didn't know that either. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was a very basic, very simple, verychildish thing.

I didn't know what to do.

So I listened to my mother.

Dust, I hope I'm right.

I chose Wisdom and closed the window.

And then I twisted the wheel.

"Let's get out of this mess!" I shouted, turning the semi-truck in a maneuver that probably broke a dozen laws. "You really think that thing can take one of them out?"

"Adam can," She replied. "But only if we can get him a chance! You think you can?"

I merely smiled at her because, uh, no, I kind of wasn't. But I had an idea and this was our best shot.

I took Third West to Anderson and headed South, putting the pedal to the metal—I was going to need every bit of speed if I wanted this to have even a chance of working. The machine came into sight quickly, waiting in the middle of the street down the road—and it's really unfair that such a large machine could get into position so fast, even if I'd originally been heading North. But I didn't dwell on that thought for long, because I had more important concerns.

"Observe," I muttered, focusing intently. I ignored the stats, mainly to spare myself the knowledge of how bad things were, and focused on Weaknesses instead.

"That black spot in the center of its stomach—that's its main eye!" I said and had to take a hand off the wheel to grab Blake by her shorts to keep her steady as she took a moment to brace herself and then fired. It hit dead-center with the camera and I shifted the truck into the left lane to put space between me and the last place it'd seen me.

And I didn't slow down. Not even a little. That sudden boost in Wisdom hadn't provided any miracle solution, sadly, it had only…clarified things a bit, made the choice easier to make, the conclusions easier to draw, and maybe, just maybe, giving me a little idea. I'd chosen Anderson not because it kept me from the Circle but because of its long shape, perfect for picking up speed at a time like this. There was no way to safety except past one of these things and nothing we had—except maybe Adam—was going to really hurt them. If we wanted to have a chance, we were going to have to do this just right.

If the Droid wasn't blinded, at least temporarily, it wouldn't work. If it had a chance to figure out what I was planning, it wouldn't work. If I didn't have time to build as much momentum as possible, it wouldn't work. Even with all of that put together, I still wasn't sure it would be enough.

But I'd had a thought. I knew the basics of the new ability I'd gotten, that 'Aura Channeling.' Hunters channeled their Aura through their equipment—through weapons and armor alike—increasing their power to harm or defend. It was a simple technique, but a stunningly powerful one if properly honed, based on a very simple principle; Mankind had risen to power thanks to the usage of tools and it only made sense to express the power of their souls in a similar fashion.

And what was a vehicle—such as this truck—but another of those tools?

It wouldn't be enough to defeat the machine. It probably wouldn't even hurt it all that bad. But I didn't need to, for this—I just needed to get through.

I dragged Blake back into the cabin as best I could with one hand. With the one I had on the wheel, I focused my power—all of my power, as I would upon one of my weapons but to a greater extent.

And then I ran a glowing white truck straight into a giant robot.

Mastery of the skill Drive increases! Drive's level goes up by one! Drive's level goes up by one! Drive's level goes up by one! Drive's level goes up by one!

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the shattering power of your soul, the skill 'Aura Crash' has been created!

XxXXxX

Name: Jaune Arc

Class: The Gamer

Level: LV5

HP: 250/250

MP: 150/150

STR: 11+3.3 (30%) = 14.3

VIT: 11+3.3 (30%) = 14.3

DEX: 10+3 (30%) = 13

INT: 11+3.3 (30%) = 14.3

WIS: 30+9 (30%) = 39

LUK: 10

POINTS: 0

MONEY: 100 Lien

XxXXxX

6. Threadmark: Chapter 6 - Delivery

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Delivery

Of everyone involved, I think I weathered the crash the best. I slammed forward against my seatbelt and then got knocked back into my seat by the airbags fast enough to probably give me whiplash. It hurt for a second and probably took a chunk out of my HP, but it didn't kill me and I felt more or less fine a few seconds later.

Blake, in comparison, nearly went through the window. Would have, really, if my hold on her hadn't delayed things long enough for her to be hit by the airbags, too.

When the pain faded, I realized I was laughing madly. I didn't mean to, it's just…I was alive. I'd survived the crash and nothing was filling me with bullets just this second either. The airbags quickly began to deflate, but I had started trying to move the truck the moment I could and we were in motion a second or so after the crash. Whatever Aura Crash had done, I'd successfully kept the truck in one piece even after running into something big and hard enough to bring us to a complete stop, which was pretty awesome. I felt bumps in the road that I assumed were the Spider Droids legs as I drove over and past it and a few seconds later I could see it in my mirrors, along with—

Shit.

"Adam, get back on board!" I shouted out the window at the Faunus who hadn't been inside and didn't have anything to hold onto. He must have gone flying when we crashed, but it said something about him that he immediately started getting up and brushing himself off, looking more annoyed than anything else as he placed a hand on his sword and took a ready stance. Or, well, I assumed he was annoyed. It was kind of hard to tell with most of his face covered by his mask. Behind him, the Spider Droid was beginning to recover, turning itself around on the ground with its splayed legs; I was gratified to actually see visible signs of damage and broken joints in several of its legs. I didn't think it'd be able to stand up on its own, much less give chase if we got away. If we could get Adam or if he could run and meet up with us later, then—

As if just to spite me, the machine's four cannons merged into one and began glowing with a bright blue light. It wasn't hard to guess that something big was coming.

"Some warning would be appreciated, next time," Blake said flatly, yellow eyes boring into me. "Or, preferably, never do that again."

"Let's aim for the latter," I said. "Sorry, but I didn't want you to worry about what would have happened if it hadn't worked. Adam! Get on!"

"If it hadn't worked!?" Blake asked, her eyes actually widening incredulously. It was the largest display of emotion I'd seen from her yet. "What do you mean if it hadn't worked!?"

"It's called improvisation," I told her without even looking her way. I was more focused on what was going on behind me—particularly the glow that machine was starting to emit. "Dammit, Adam!"

Blake checked her own mirror and exhaled slowly.

"Keep going," She said. "He'll catch up when he's done."

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing, Blake? Because it looks like that thing has a beam cannon the size of a car!"

"Just watch," She said.

Not having much choice, I did. The machine's glow brightened even as Adam maintained the stance he'd adopted and then there was a torrent of bright blue light that I was briefly certain would eclipse Adam entirely—but it didn't. Instead, he caught the laser beam on his sword, slammed his blade back into its sheath, and started to laugh. And glow, but really, the laugh was creepier. Had I sounded like that?

And then, it was over in a flash of light, the machine literally disappearing even as Adam began to stumble and fall.

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

"Shit," I said, glancing at the map even as I stopped the truck, ignoring the notifications. The other two machines had instantly reacted to their fellow's destruction, but…

"I'll get him," Blake said, disappearing back out the window. Seconds ticked by almost painfully slowly even though I knew logically that Blake reached her partner's side with amazing swiftness. I heard the back of the truck open and then close and moments after, Blake was back in her seat beside me and I drove on.

I kept watching the map, waiting for something else to happen, but nothing did. We drove right past the border into the Agricultural District without even getting stopped by the police and I realized belatedly how little time had passed in all this chaos. From when I reached that warehouse to right now…it hadn't even taken half a damn hour. I'd gone up seven levels in half an hour and it wasn't over yet. Speaking of which…

As I pulled up to the place marked on the dot and got out of the car, I reached into my Inventory to retrieve the package I'd originally agreed to deliver. When Blake and I went around to the back to get the wounded, I tossed it too her.

"Here," I said. "This was what Tukson wanted me to deliver to you before…everything."

Blake looked down at the messily wrapped package and cracked a smile.

"Neither rain nor sleet nor giant robots, huh?"

"When I take a job, I finish it," I said tiredly, reaching up to open up the back. The White Fang members looked a fair bit more banged up then they had before they'd gotten into a car with me, but they were alive and they were somewhere safe.

Quest 'White Fang's Need' complete!

Your level has increased by one!

Package Delivered! Return to Tukson to receive your reward!

"We'll need to dispose of the truck to get rid of any evidence," Blake said, nodding towards it. "I have some red Dust—we'll take it somewhere away from here and burn it."

I nodded before looking back into the truck. Adam, down. The three White Fang members I'd met inside the warehouse had collapsed, too, probably banged around from the collision. Right now, it was just Blake and I. But then…

"What about the wounded?" I asked. "I'm guessing we can't take them to the hospital, huh?"

"No," She said. "Even ignoring what we are, the hospitals are required to tell the police about wounds like these, and then…"

She shook her head.

"I know first aid. I'll do what I can," She said. What she didn't say, however, was that it wouldn't be enough. Not for most of them. There were too many bullet wounds, too many injured, too much—

Some of them would die in a few hours, even with the care the three guys in back had managed to give them. Maybe even most of them.

"Is there…" I hesitated before giving up and sighing. "Is there anything else I can do?"

"Not unless you know a way to heal the wounded," Blake said frankly, but not cruelly.

I looked down helplessly—and then glanced back up as a blue window appeared.

A quest has been created!

One after another…

But I guess I wouldn't complain. Just this once.

"Maybe," I said, eyes scrolling over the information as it appeared. "But we'll have to hurry."

XxXXxX

Once we'd burned the truck, Blake and I took the White Fang's boat across Wilhelm before rushing to the train and riding it up to the Commercial District. It might have been quicker to steal a car—and it was an emergency—but Blake and I agreed that we couldn't risk someone noticing, calling it in, and getting us wrapped up in another fiasco, especially when we didn't have time to spare. Depending on how long things took, we might just have to risk it on the way back, but I didn't want to chance that until after we got what we needed.

Even so, we were going to be hard-pressed to make it within the time-limit of 'White Fang's Hope,' the new quest I'd gotten. I was running the moment the doors opened and pushed myself as hard as I could to get to Tukson's Book Trade. Blake kept pace with me easily, eyes sharp and alert just in case someone had somehow connected us to the mess that was now preoccupying most of the city—but no one seemed to notice a young boy and girl running, either going about their normal lives or focusing their attention on holographic screens that couldn't seem to decide whether to blame the incident on the Schnee Dust Company or on the White Fang. That wasn't my concern, though, so I just pushed my body as hard as I could, following the route on my map and barreling through the door to Tukson's place.

Repeated struggles caused your VIT to increase by 1!

"Tukson!" I shouted even as I struggled to breath, Blake slipping in quietly after me and shutting the door behind us.

I heard a sudden rattling sound from the back room before Tukson swept up front, the light of a hologram shining briefly before the veil fell back into place.

"Boy?" Tukson asked, expression seemingly unable to settle on a particular emotion. I could guess why, given he probably didn't know what had happened—he'd been worrying about his friends, worrying about me, wondering if he'd gotten me killed, wondering if I'd been the cause of all this. When his eyes settled on Blake, however, he took a deep breath and his features settled. He paused for a moment, before apparently deciding on something and nodding to himself. "It's good to see you both made it out okay. The others?"

I guess it wasn't too hard to figure out that I knew what was going on when a powerful White Fang member was looming in my shadow and following my lead. I wasn't sure what that must have looked like to Tukson, but I was happy to exploit it now.

"Alive but most of them are hurt pretty bad," I said, looking left and right with a frown. "I'm gonna need everything you have on medicine and healing."

I paused for an instant and when no windows appeared before me I spoke again.

"I delivered your package, by the way, so I'm taking my book, too," I said.

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

The skill book 'Meditation: The Soul of the World' is now yours for the taking!

Brushing past them, I went to the shelf and grabbed the book I could blame at least part of this mess on and then crouched down to glance over the others. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Blake moving quickly to one of the other shelves and gathering a few books herself.

"Hey, Tukson, is it possible to heal with Aura?" I asked, lifting my voice.

"It's possible, but it won't help you much," Tukson said. "There are a number of ways to do it, but they all take a lot of training. Up in Vacuo—where I'm from—there are a few monasteries and schools that train people to use their Aura to do stuff like that but it takes years to master it. It's a lot easier to heal yourself than others; something about the differences between souls."

"I'm a fast learner," I said. "Do you have any books on it?"

Tukson opened his mouth again before closing it and shaking his head, apparently deciding against whatever he'd been about to say.

"Yeah," He said. "In the back, just let me get it."

Tukson popped into to the back of the shop and just as quickly returned, carrying what looked more like a notebook than anything else. I looked down at the cover as he held it out to me and could honestly say I didn't understand a word of it. Hell, I didn't even recognize what language it was in, and though the book itself only seemed a tad worn, the script seemed old, somehow.

"This is an old, old Vacuo manuscript—or, well, it's a copy, at least. Back in the War, a few of the monasteries got raided and had their tablets and texts stolen. Afterwards, most of them got returned or put in museums, but a few ended up in some expensive collections. This is a transcription of one of the latter that my friend managed to get for me after the guy got raided himself."

As he spoke, he cast a sidelong glance at Blake before focusing back on me.

"I don't know how much help it'll be to you, though. The original tablet was something like three thousand years old and the monks kept the transcriptions under lock and key. It took me a month to hunt down enough books to even try translating it and it wasn't very helpful. It's the third tablet of a set of eight and it builds off principles in the first two, so I couldn't make any sense of it. I don't even know if I translated the name right…"

I took the book.

You obtained the skill book 'The Forge of Souls Creates Life.' Would you like to learn this skill?

"Did you translate it as 'The Forge of Souls Creates Life'?" I asked. "Because that's what I'm getting."

I saw both Blake and Tukson turn and just…stare at me. I made a show of flipping through the book quickly and nodding to myself as if I could actually understand it.

"It's not a problem," I said. "Blake, let's go. Sorry Tukson, but I might not be able to return your books. Thanks for the help."

I put my new skill books under one arm and turned to go before pausing.

"Actually…you have a car, right?"

XxXXxX

Blake was gripping the armrests to either side of her as I sped through the streets. I was careful not to break the law where anyone was watching, but the moment I was out of sight I was going as fast as I could. The ride back the Agricultural District should have taken an hour.

At this rate, I'd get us there in under half that.

"You must like books a lot," Blake said through slightly gritted teeth as I drifted around a corner in place of actually slowing down.

I glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"To go through all this trouble for one," She clarified. "You must like books a lot."

"I like learning things," I said, figuring she was trying to make conversation to distract herself. "I like knowing things. Books are good for that."

"You don't enjoy reading for its own sake?" She asked.

I mulled over that for a bit before answering.

"Enjoyment doesn't really factor into it. I spend most of my day studying to learn more and become smarter," I said, telling the truth. "It doesn't really matter if I enjoy it. But I've never enjoyed reading stories much, no."

She peered at me out of the corner of her eye, apparently forgetting about her aversion to my driving.

"Why?"

I considered remaining silent since it was something that actually mattered, if only to me—but then again, the White Fang had seen my face, as had Tukson, and I wasn't dumb enough to believe there weren't investigations and background checks in my future. If they didn't have a name and a profile to attach to my face by tomorrow, I'd be shocked. Most of my story would be in their hands before long and the rest…well, I couldn't see them guessing that stuff from anything but me flat-out telling them, though at this point I was probably going to have to let a few details slip loose.

The real question was what they could and would do with that information. Generally, the worst case scenario in a situation like this would be that they could try to threaten my family but, uh, even if they had reason to, I imagined they'd change their tunes when they saw my family. Instead, if they were trying to get to me, they'd probably try to blackmail me by threatening to tell my family what I'd done—but there were ways around that. If needed, I could just explain things to my mom, explain that I'd done it to try and save lives after getting wrapped up in a huge mess, and…well, honestly, that might not be so bad. Telling my mom, that is. A part of me had worried about it for a long time and I still did, kind of, because truthfully I'd always been weak and I didn't want to tell them until I wasn't anymore, but…a part of me wanted her and dad to know.

However, the point was, even if they could threaten to tell my parents or the authorities—and even if they'd gotten pictures to prove it or something—I hadn't done anything that bad, not really. I mean, about a million traffic violations, but mainly in an emergency and in the defense of life. A pretty tiny amount of property damage, too, all things considered. The worst I could be accused of was aiding the White Fang, which, yeah, could be pretty bad, but was largely circumstantial—namely, I wasn't doing it for the White Fang, I was trying to save lives. And hell, I was a minor; I could probably talk my way through it, given the giant robots that had suddenly attacked. There were a few other things they could do, but I thought I could deal with it if they tried to get at me that way.

And more than that…they didn't have much reason to want to do stuff like that, did they? Not yet, at least. I mean, hell, I'd sort of saved their skins, hadn't I? I couldn't say I really knew these people, much less trusted them, but Blake at least didn't seem like the type to ignore that. And by answering her question, I could create a rapport, become more of a person in her eyes, and maybe learn some things in return—and it might help gloss over what I was guessing would come up soon.

And maybe, just maybe, I wanted to finally say it out loud.

"Because the only stories that ever got told in my house were ones I couldn't live up to," I said honestly. "At least, not for a long, long time. And you? You like stories, I guess?"

She was silent for a long minute, staring out the window before looking away. Nonetheless, she seemed to be getting used to my driving—or maybe I was just getting better at it. I'd probably level up the stat some more soon.

"I like stories," She said. "I just know the difference between them and real life."

I hummed, wondering how to answer that, and silence lingered until we finally reached our destination and got out of Tukson's truck. I put my two skill books under an arm while Blake carried hers close to her chest. Just as I was about to go it, she stopped me with a hand.

"Why won't you be able to return the book?" She questioned, glancing at the notebook having apparently deciding to finally ask. "Tukson didn't ask because of…everything, but why wouldn't you be able to give them back?"

A part of me had kind of hoped that she wouldn't notice—but I wasn't actually surprised that she did. I considered staying cryptically silent until she gave up, but I was going to have to use the skill books soon and it was gonna be hard to do that without her noticing, what with the light show and the vanishing books and the instant skill in stuff. I could try getting out of sight, but that might just make it even more suspicious when I came back plus talent and minus books. Given that, she might well make the connections all by herself.

So I told her the truth.

"I'm going to devour them for the knowledge they contain within," I admitted, smiling at the look she shot me. "Hey, you asked. You can see for yourself, if you want."

I held out a hand and she gave me one of the books she'd taken from Tukson's.

You obtained the skill book 'Practical Medicine.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I tapped the yes option with a knuckle and watched the book shatter into light and vanish, feeling the knowledge flow into me as it did so. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, before opening them once more.

You've obtained the skill 'Medicine.'

I looked at Blake, whose eyes had widened slightly as my power took effect.

"I told you I learned fast," I said.

"Is that…your Semblance?" She asked.

"Pretty much," I said, figuring it was probably even partially true. "It's kind of complicated, though, so give me a second?"

I knelt down, lifting my real prizes.

You obtained the skill book 'The Forge of Souls Creates Life.' Would you like to learn this skill?

This time I pressed 'Yes' and blinked when a window I'd never seen before appeared.

You cannot learn this skill. Required: INT 25.

So some skills have prerequisites. That was…fairly unsurprising, honestly. There wasn't enough information to say if it was limited to just stats or if some skills required knowing others—but the latter seemed likely. This, thankfully, didn't seem to be one of them despite being the third in a set, and INT 25 wasn't an issue. I hadn't intended to put points into INT yet, but…actually, now might have been a good time for it. I had enough points to reach it and my chosen goal for Wisdom. First, though, I should check the other book as well, to see if it had something similar.

You obtained the skill book 'Meditation: The Soul of the World.' Would you like to learn this skill?

'Yes.'

You cannot learn this skill. Required: WIS 55.

I hummed to myself.

"Something wrong?" Blake asked.

"Not…really? It's hard to explain. It's not an issue though; just my power being finicky." I answered distractedly before turning her way and holding up the book. "Actually, you know Tukson pretty well, right? Do you know anything about this book?"

Blake frowned at it for a moment, expression considering.

"It's old," She said. "I glanced through it once about seven years ago, when Tukson first got it, but neither of us could make sense of it. Tukson said he'd gotten it from a private library, but whoever wrote it translated it strangely. It's a crude direct translation rather than a transcription and since most of its written in parables and metaphors. There are a lot of what we think might have been poems or rhymes but they don't make a lot of sense in another language. Tukson figured it might have been legible in the original language but…"

She shrugged.

"Tukson kept it in the back for a while, trying to figure it out, but put it up front after giving up and putting it on display. There are a few interesting things in there, like historical accounts that were used as references and even mentions of stuff before the original war with the Grimm, but its...hard to read. I guess that's not an issue for you, though, is it?"

She stared at me with interest.

"You can understand it, right? There were mentions of how it supposedly worked, which kept Tukson interested for quite a while, but…does it…?"

"I'll tell you in a second." I said, frowning at the book thoughtfully.

It was a significantly higher prerequisite, which implied a more powerful technique—for some definition of power, at least. I checked my Status Window to make sure and confirmed that I had forty points to spend, just enough to manage both. Did my bonuses from Aura count towards the requirement? I doubted it and it wouldn't matter one way or another but I should probably check.

Wisdom first. Partially because I really wanted the Skill Book I'd gone through all this trouble to get, especially now that I knew it was apparently something amazing, and partially because I'd originally planned to increase Wisdom to fifty, but mainly because, well, it was Wisdom and it had served me fairly well so far, in terms of staying alive. I'd go to fifty-five and then decide if it was worth investing in any more or if I should switch my focus elsewhere. If I considered ten to be average and thirty to be exceptional, then a fifty-five in Wisdom—or a seventy-one point five if, as I suspected, the bonuses didn't count—should serve me well for a long time. Once I was at that point, I could probably rely on the decisions I made in terms of my other abilities.

Nodding decisively, I raised my base Wisdom to forty-three and pressed 'Yes' again.

You cannot learn this skill. Required: WIS 55.

As expected but good to confirm. I added another twelve points to my Wisdom, taking the base score to fifty-five and giving me seventy-two after Aura's passive buff. The moment I finished, a new window appeared before my eyes.

The skill 'Nature Affinity' has been created through WIS rising above 50.

Nature Affinity (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

Long ago, Man, who was born from dust, realized the power of nature and the light that shines within all life and turned its wrath against the soulless Grimm, burning away the darkness. This skill increases the users sensitivity and control over those forces, improving their affinity with the elements.

25% Increase in Mana Recovery Rate.

10% Increase to Elemental Attack.

10% Increase to Elemental Defense.

50% Increase to Element related skill effects and Dust use.

I stared. I did that a lot with my power, but…but…

…Wow. That was…impressive. Not only the skill itself, but the implication contained within it—that there were similar benefits for raising other abilities above fifty. And was it just fifty? Would something similar happen if it was raised above another number, such as a hundred? Then…what skills would manifest where?

A part of me was eager to find out—but I stayed calm. I'd intended to raise my stats from the beginning by training my body hard, but I had to be careful about it. I needed to raise my INT to twenty-five now out of necessity, but I could improve my other stats relatively cheaply through normal means, which was more effective. Raising a stat became more difficult as the level increased—I could safely assume that simply from what I'd seen with my skills and Vitality, as well as how Strength and Intelligence hadn't improved a second time yet. The cost for raising a skill the mundane way became greater and greater over time.

The value of my points, however, was different. One point would increase the stat by one, no matter what its value, with no additional effort beyond what was needed to level up in the first place, though that itself increased over time. That is to say, raising my strength from ten to eleven via training required relatively little effort, but trying to raise it from fifty to fifty-one would likely be very difficult—and even more so to raise it above, say, a hundred. But the same point I could use to circumvent that small amount of effort could also be used to circumvent that massive effort. Baring special circumstances like this one—or stats like Wisdom that I didn't know how to improve easily—I should train my abilities the mundane way while they were low and gather points to raise them further once they were higher.

I nodded to myself, I drew up my Status Screen again and spent all but one of my points on INT, raising it to twenty-five before pressing the 'Yes' buttons again, this time watching as the books dissolved.

You've obtained the skill 'Soul of the World.'

Soul of the World (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

Since long ago, Man learned to harvest Nature's bounty and wrath alike, using it to forge hope and life from the hostile darkness. All living things possess Aura, the light of the soul, and Nature's power runs through the World, sometimes crystalizing as Dust. This technique enables the user to directly touch and take in power from the World, drawing strength from the world to survive within it using meditation.

Increase HP recovery per minute by WIS while meditating.

Increase MP recovery per minute by WIS while meditating.

Increase Stamina recovery per minute by WIS while meditating.

Aura (MP) can be trained through meditation.

You've obtained the skill 'Soulforge Restoration.'

Soulforge Restoration (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:50

Within the darkness, Man learned the truth—that the soul is something infinite in distance and unbound by death. By releasing it, they found immortality even in their own passins.

Without Dust Crystal, 50 HP restored, low-ranking Illnesses removed.

With Dust Crystal, 50 HP restored, 50 MP restored, low-ranking Illnesses removed, variable effects dependent on type of dust.

God my ability is cheap.

Taking a deep breath as the knowledge filled me, I stood and faced Blake again.

"Let's finish this before it gets any later," I said, stretching.

XxXXxX

Name: Jaune Arc

Class: The Gamer

Level: LV13

HP: 600/600

MP: 725/725

STR: 11+3.3 (30%) = 14.3

VIT: 12+3.6 (30%) = 15.6

DEX: 10+3 (30%) = 13

INT: 25+3.3 (30%) = 32.5

WIS: 55+16.5 (30%) = 71.5

LUK: 10

POINTS: 1

MONEY: 100 Lien

XxXXxX

7. Threadmark: Chapter 7 - Downtime

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Downtime

I'm not ashamed to admit that I didn't stick around for the after party. I healed them, chatted a little bit with those that were comfortable enough around me to talk back, and then I got out of there before anyone decided to bring up the elephants in the room. I didn't hate the White Fang or anything—they hadn't done anything to me to get a reaction like that—but I was kind of scared of them and they were anti-human terrorists wanted by the law. I was glad I'd been able to see them but it seemed wise to go before anything else happened.

I took Tukson's car back to him and left it outside to avoid any questions before heading home. When I finally got back, the place was empty even though it was only just getting dark. My parents had left a note on the counter, saying they'd be out late tonight, probably because of what was happening in the Industrial District, and that there was food in the refrigerator.

I ate the food and turned on the news. It was about the chaos I'd been a part of all day, though, so I turned it back off and just…sat in the silence of my empty house, taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly.

It was…strange, really. All that chaos and rushing to try and save lives—my own and those of others—and then…it was over. Things were calm and silent and just…finished. After I'd gotten what I'd needed from the skill books, healing the injured had been simple. I used Soulforge Restoration to heal them until I ran out of MP, used Soul of the World to restore myself, and then went back to healing.

Now I was just marveling at the day I'd had, letting it really sink in. This morning, I'd been level two. Now, I was level thirteen, simply because of a quest gone horribly wrong. Or maybe right. I still wasn't sure.

I felt…not tired, really, but strange. This morning had been so peaceful, then everything had been thrown into chaos, and just as quickly I was back to my normal life. A small part of me worried about the consequences—that someone would find something connecting me to this, about the White Fang in general, and so many other things—but the rest was just wondering 'What next?'

I guess the same things I'd planned to do this morning. Keep training, keep working, keep getting stronger, keep getting better. The Soul of the World was, despite everything that had happened, honestly worth all the trouble. Up 'til now, the thing that had been holding me back the most was…myself. I could only train so long before my body was exhausted and though I could completely recover in thirty minutes, it still took thirty minutes and I only had so much free time once you took out the seven hours from school, six hours of sleep, the time I had to spend at home, and everything else that got in the way. When I'd trained before bed, I'd spent more time trying to recover then I'd spent actually training.

My training in the woods went only a little better. I'd exhaust my MP quickly and it took a hundred minutes to recover it completely, leaving me to work on Sword Mastery until I exhausted my body too and then to rest until that recovered. I could try training harder, but that just meant I'd tire out more quickly and be forced to rest for a long time again.

I supposed I should count my blessings, since I could recover completely in just half-an-hour and I knew mentally I was improving at a rigorous pace, but…

Well, it didn't matter now. With the Soul of the World, I could restore myself in a fraction of the time, whether it was my body's stamina or my MP. I could train myself to exhaustion and then recover quickly to do it again. Because of that…

I needed to redo my schedule again. I'd given heavy precedence to training INT despite already training it throughout the school day, simply because I couldn't train my physical skills very efficiently in my limited amount of time. I'd intended to improve my INT first, slowly raising my physical abilities as I did until I could switch to training them later. I'd planned to give my mental stats precedence in the beginning anyway, simply so that the decisions I made during my training would be the right ones—and that was still true, in a way—but…

Wisdom was high enough for me to focus on other things, for now. I wanted to get Intelligence above fifty next, but I didn't want to spend any more of my points on it then I had to—especially since I had no idea when I would even be able to get another level. Despite that, I think I was giving Intelligence enough attention by spending most of my school day reading, though I could adjust that if needed. I could devote the early mornings and the time before bed entirely to training my body, instead of trying to split my attention—which, thinking about it, had probably be inefficient itself.

In fact…maybe it was my bloated WIS score or my newfound INT, but I was starting to wonder how efficient any of my exercises had been, studying included. I'd spent all day reading my textbooks, trying to figure things out, but even now I wasn't certain how much had truly sunken in. But with my INT at twenty-five and my Aura boosting it above thirty…I think I could train it a lot more easily too, now. My INT had been just like my other stats in that its low level had made raising it harder.

Now…now I felt like I'd be able to do better. That if I read the same book again, I could soak it up like a sponge. I'd have to try to make sure, but…I think that my INT would actually increase fasternow that I could learn things more easily, just as being able to train longer would do for my physical stats. At least, up to a point; I'm sure there was a point where the economies of scale tampered off, but I couldn't be certain where without actual practice.

Then, I'd give the time in the morning and before bed to training my body and the time during school to my mind. But how should I spend the rest? Observe…Observe was an enormously useful ability, but I think it was high enough for the moment, though I'd train it whenever I got the chance. I was thinking that avoiding Tukson's place for a long, long time would probably be a good idea if I didn't want to get wrapped up in any more of the White Fang's business, but I could go back to the library and try to gather more skill books.

On the other hand…before it had really just been Power Strike, Sword Mastery, and Observe, so I'd trained the latter after school and the other two in the evening, but now…now I had a lot of useful skills to train and not much time to do it. But how should I prioritize them?

I frowned down at the table and organized my thoughts.

Aura, I felt, was the most important for several reasons. It was an enormously powerful ability with broad utility and, better yet, I could train it just by keeping it active, meaning I could do it while also doing other things. It would wear down my MP a lot more quickly, but when that happened, I could simply meditate for a few minutes. If I was careful, I should be able to do that even while I was at school, training Aura alongside my other stats. With the partial exception of Observe—which only increased when I learned new things about something and which I'd already used on most of the school—it was the only ability I could train any time. It also wouldn't interfere with the rest of my training, except possibly by exhausting me more quickly—which, really, was just a way of training the Spirits of the World.

Speaking of which…Spirits of the World allowed me to raise my MP independently of my INT, though I imagined it was similarly difficult and time consuming. The question was, then, how much time should I spend training that? Should I do it when I exhausted myself in-between the rest of my training or set days aside for it—or both?

Let me see. The most efficient way of training at first would be to train with my Aura on, using my sword and shield. I could raise Sword and Shield Mastery, Power Strike, Aura, and Aura Channeling at the same time that way, most likely, though I'd need to check the profiles off all my new abilities, since I'd been busy when I'd gotten them. I imagined I'd exhaust myself quickly if I fought that way in a real fight—which was one of the reasons I should probably focus on them for a while, as the cost of the skills went down as the levels rose. At the very least, I wanted to get Aura—or else my MP regeneration—high enough that I could keep it on constantly even without Soul of the World, since it was hard to deal with when it cost twenty-five MP a minute.

Of my other skills…Drive had proved itself surprisingly useful and was currently the only skill I had that could be used to escape danger—but I couldn't train it legally, yet, even if I could already drive masterfully. I'd need to go through official channels to be allowed to drive, one of my parents would have to accompany me and watch for weeks, questions might get raised about how good I was at this already—it could be problematic to train it further, currently, though I'd luckily already leveled it up quite a bit. Theft was the same in that it was illegal, though I was sadly aware I'd be leveling it up as well sooner or later. I'd need to improve Stealth eventually, but it wasn't a pressing need until after I'd grown strong enough. Dish Washing I figured I could safely set aside.

Then there were the abilities that would just be difficult to train. I'd need to check Aura Crash to figure out precisely what it did; if it required the use of a vehicle, I'd need to put training it on hold, too. Physical Endurance required me to get hurt and however useful the skill was, it would be hard to engineer situations where that was possible without drawing attention, though I might be able to try beating myself up.

The only other skills I needed to worry about then were 'Craft' and 'Nature Affinity' and I'd need to figure out precisely how to train both before deciding whether I would or not. I wasn't sure where to even start with Nature Affinity yet, though, and the main issue with Craft was the matter of materials. Given that I'd originally gotten it from an art book, I might be able to improve it some if I took up drawing and cooking in my free time, but I imagined those could only take me so far. Eventually, I'd need to actually build stuff.

I knew there was potential there. Even if it was mostly in books or on TV, I'd seen some of the weapons Hunters used and I'd seen my Mom and Dad's a few times. I'd also seen some of the things technology could produce—like, oh, super death bots that chased people around—and I could admit there was definite appeal to the whole Craft thing, but it was all dependent on my resources.

Should I steal stuff so I could practice? But if I stole anything really useful and valuable—weapons, Dust, etc.—it'd draw attention, especially since I'd likely have to make a lot of stuff to level it up. I did not need that kind of trouble right now, but without it there was only so much I could do and that rankled.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, calming myself. The thing that annoyed me the most was that I was too smart and wise to not know why I felt that way. Bringing up my Inventory, I withdrew my sword and shield.

Well, 'my' sword and shield. Originally, they belonged to my great-great-grandfather Julius, but my dad had given them to me several years ago, before I first applied to Signal—and before I first failed to gain entry. The idea was that I'd use them until it was time to get my own weapon. That's what my father had done when my grandfather had given it to him, just as my grandfather had done before him. It was a family heirloom, of sorts.

But…to be honest, I'd always thought of it as more of a hand-me-down. Maybe not at first, when I'd been honored to even hold it, but after I failed, after I proved again and again I wasn't good enough…

It wasn't an honor to me anymore. It was just a reminder, a weight, and maybe even a mark of shame. Jaune Arc, who carried his ancestor's blade because he wasn't worthy of having one of his own. There was a part of me, a fairly large part even, that wanted to level up Craft and was honestly considering theft to help do so despite the risks, simply so I could make my own weapon. Just to have my own weapon.

But…if I put that aside and thought about it logically…was that wise? Was it smart? Given the risks of grand theft and the costs of buying the materials legally, it was unlikely that I would be able to afford improving my Craft for quite some time—whereas my Sword Mastery, Shield Mastery, and the various skills I had to improve it could be leveled many times in that period.

If it took, say, a year until I could make my own weapon without drawing attention, then given my rate of growth and my Sword and Shield Masteries, I probably wouldn't benefit a whole lot from a new weapon. No, more than that, I probably wouldn't need one. If I did ten percent more damage with Sword Mastery at level one and thirty percent at level five, then following that trend I should do at least two hundred fifty-five percent more damage at level fifty before taking into account the bonuses from Power Strike, Aura Channeling, and the bonuses from my Aura. To say nothing of the increases to my stats from training and leaving aside the additional attack speed granted by Sword Mastery and how it would improve. Or the defensive benefits of Shield Mastery.

If I waited too long, I would have no logical reasons to stop using this weapon.

Was that really such a bad thing? It felt like it in my gut, but my brain disagreed. Crocea Mors, the Yellow Death. It was old and outdated technologically speaking, but it had been cutting edge back when it was first made and my great-great-grandfather had used it to great effect in the War to drive back the Grimm. He'd been truly legendary; you could crack open a history book of your choice and odds were you'd find his name in it somewhere. Even now, Crocea Mors was an amazing sword, made by the best smith Julius Arc had been able to find and seemingly untouched by the passage of time, even if it didn't have a lot of additional utility. Beyond the need to have ranged and unarmed options just in case, there wasn't a lot of need to put it aside, beyond my wounded pride. At best, I might want to modify or improve the blade itself, once I was able.

Goddamn Wisdom.

I reverted my shield into its smaller form and sheathed my blade, putting it on the table before crossing my arms on the edge and resting my head. I looked at the blade for a while before sighing deeply.

"What a day," I muttered. "But I guess you've probably seen loads worse, huh?"

It was a rhetorical question. I'd heard all the stories. Julius had fought armies and led them, driven back the Grimm, helped forge Kingdoms, and done things that others had believed impossible until he'd proved them wrong—and Crocea Mors had been beside him through it all.

And I guess it had been beside me through pretty much everything. However much its status weighed on me or what it reminded me of, whenever I'd needed a weapon, I'd drawn it. I could have gotten something else or taken one of the White Fangs guns, but I hadn't. And, in fairness, Iwas still here, despite the mess I'd thrown myself into. And I remembered, though it seemed like a long time ago, how fast my heart had beaten when my father first gave it to me

Sighing again in irritation, I picked it up and leaned back in my chair, drawing the blade just to look at it. I felt my aura wash over it, embracing it like an old friend—and I felt the blade, too, in a way I hadn't felt before, resonating with my Aura, tied to me strongly, but also independent. I could feel it and I, like music just out of synch, and felt my Aura reacting to that, shifting.

"You and me, huh…" I said at last as we became aligned, feeling as if I knew on some level what was happening. "I guess…that's okay."

New Status, "Metal Element Affinity" has been created.

XxXXxX

I had the next day off from school, so I went into the woods to train for the day. My parents had returned by the time I'd woken up and though I hadn't really been worried about them because, well, they were terrifyingly powerful, it was good to see them safe. Breakfast had passed without incident, ignoring my dad's storytelling and my mom's sarcastic but smiling commentary. No one asked about my involvement, so I assumed I really had gotten away clean, and I left the house with little more than a promise to be back for lunch.

With two days off—and free to spend grinding however I pleased—I decided to start by experimenting with my new Status, 'Metal Element Affinity.' I was ninety-nine percent sure it was the result of my Nature Affinity skill, which had all sorts implications I'd need to experiment with, but first I needed to see what the effects of such a status were. I was more…aware of Crocea Mors, but I wasn't sure if that was because of my Metal Element Affinity, my Nature Affinity, or both.

Frowning, I sat down, crossed my legs, put my sheathed sword in my lap, and closed my eyes. I had no idea what Metal Element Affinity did. When I checked my Status Screen, it had said 'Gives the user an affinity with the element of Metal' which was both obvious and useless, so I'd need to figure it out some other way.

So I meditated on it. I'd learned how when I obtained Soul of the World, probably because youneeded to meditate to use that skill, and I'd gotten some practice in between healing the White Fang members. Because of the way Soul of the World worked, though, it was always an interesting experience.

As I relaxed, I could feel—almost see, even, in a way that was hard to describe—the world around me. I could feel power in the air, the ground, the plants, in everything, and glimpse the massive shifting forces throughout the whole of Remnant. Compared to even the small fragment of that immensity I was capable of observing, I was a spark at the edge of a roaring forest fire, only barely separate from it, from being consumed by it. And then I shifted that boundary, touching that power directly and letting it flow up into me, through me, and then away; a tiny, tiny shift in a river's stream, like a child making a hole at the edge of the water with the tip of a finger, that nonetheless filled me to the bursting.

I guided that stream carefully and calmly, letting it in and out, again and again. I didn't lose myself in it and I didn't let it slip from my careful control, but I focused myself on it, on the spinning awareness of the rivers flow through my body and soul. It would have been easy to lose track of myself like this, especially without anyone else around for me to keep track of. When I'd been with the White Fang, it had been easy to keep track of time by the life draining slowly out of the wounded or by the power filling me when I was drained, but here I'd need to do it entirely on my own. I focused on the cycle of energy within me, on the beating of my own heart, counting the moments as they passed me by.

When I was sure I wouldn't lose track of time, I shifted my awareness, focusing it in around me and on my surroundings. I could feel the energy in the air as I breathed and took it into my body and the shifting earth beneath me and there was something there but…instead, I focused further yet, on what I felt most keenly. Crocea Mors sang to me, glowing with my Aura but also with the ancient power of the blade itself. Though my own Aura, I touched that musical power and altered my own tune to match. It was easier then I would have thought—perhaps because there were already traces of the tune within my soul—and after I resounded with the steely song I opened my eyes.

A skill has been created through a special action! Unification of world and soul has created the skill 'Elemental Aura' to shroud yourself with Nature's wrath!

I looked down at my hands, inhaling deeply. I didn't look any different—my skin hadn't turned to steel or anything like that—but I felt different. When I touched my chest, it—or my Aura, more likely—felt more…solid might have been a good way to describe it. When I put a hand on the ground to lift myself to the feet, my fingers left narrow gouges in the dirt. My aura was harder, now—and sharper.

Elemental Aura (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The shifting of Aura in accordance with one's Elemental Affinity, empowering the user by drawing upon the element. Power changes as the caster's INT, skill level, and Elemental Affinity grow. Only possible for those attuned to the forces of nature.

Additional 25 MP used per minute.

Known Elemental Auras: Metal Aura.

Metal Aura: 15% increase in attack damage. 10% decrease in damage taken from physical attacks.

Elemental Aura, huh? Not bad. Maybe a little expensive, but training it wasn't a problem for me and I could probably reduce the cost. Once I did that, the benefit would be more than worth it, especially since that would probably increase, too. However…

When I used one of my skills it wasn't—or, at least, wasn't usually—just me saying the name and the effect happening. I mean, it was about that easy and that quick, but I could feel my MP or Aura or whatever you wanted to call it as it took effect. Like with Soul of the World, the effect happened as written in its profile and I regained however much HP, MP, and stamina per minute, but it wasn't just sitting there as they just came to me, even if it was essentially that simple.

With my Metal Aura, it was the same. I could feel my aura resounding with the song I'd heard before—not with my ears, but with my Aura, my soul. And the source of that song was the sword I held in my hand. But then…

I put Crocea Mors on the ground and stepped away from it, the song fading quickly as I did. As I'd thought, it really did require me to draw upon the element.

I considered that as I picked my sword back up. The profile had pretty much stated that there were other Elemental Auras—the classic Earth, Water, Fire and Air sprang quickly to mind—which would be useful and which I'd have to experiment with. If it required proximity to the element, however, there were limits to it. Or would that change as I leveled the ability up?

I'd need to test if it required a significant amount of the element to be present, if it required contact to initiate, the range, and what other limits there were to the ability. The amount would affect which ones were feasible; I could carry around a few water bottles in my Inventory for Water, if that worked, and stones for Earth. Assuming it didn't, the most reliable elements would be Air, Metal, and Earth—the former was essentially everywhere I was capable of surviving, after all, and I could always carry my sword and armor. Earth could be a bit more variable, depending on how it was affected by going inside, but…

As for Water, it could vary a fair bit, depending on what counted as a valid source of water. Fire…fire was the most uncertain. Depending on how the skill worked, I could call upon it easily or it would be nearly impossible to use effectively. It would need testing, but for the moment I could train with the Metal Aura on.

What else…?

I'd need to find a chance to test it with Dust. If 'Nature's Wrath' itself counted, then it would be simple, after all. I'd needed to figure out what each element did and how leveling up changed the limits. And, of course, I needed to figure out what else I could do with Nature Affinity. For now, though, I'd focus on leveling my skills up, including Elemental Aura, and then on my stats later.

"Time to get to work then," I muttered, drawing Crocea Mors and drawing the Metal Aura back around me. A glance at the sky told me I still had four or five hours until lunch, so I started practicing.

XxXXxX

The next week passed quickly in a blur of constant effort. I woke up and worked out, studied during school hours, worked out for a while after school before going into the woods, ate supper, went back to the woods, and then came home, day after day. Whenever my body seemed ready to give out or I ran out of MP, I closed my eyes and meditated on the titanic power of the world beneath my feet, something no one else seemed able to feel, and then got back to work.

I never stopped unless I needed to and sometimes not even then. With the Soul of the World to restore my HP, MP, and Stamina on top of the odd way my body already worked, I didn't reallyneed sleep, so when I thought I could get away with it without my parents noticing, I worked out through the night. When I thought that would draw attention, I studied or meditated instead, but either way I kept my Aura activated nearly twenty-four hours a day, only turning it off when I ran out of MP and needed to refuel.

Sleep is for the weak or at least non-game characters. I'd thought that eventually it'd start effecting me mental or give me hallucinations or something, but that didn't happen—and though it was weird to never sleep, it got me forty-two extra hours to work with a week instead of wasting on sleep. That was valuable time I could spend training instead and I knew I was making amazing progress. Sure, my rate of advancement was already slowing down as my stats climbed higher, but…even having just had this ability for a little over half a month, I was sure that I could have gotten accepted into Signal if I'd been like this before, even ignoring my skills. And if you included themand how they'd leveled up…

I was going to be a Huntsman. That wasn't a dream anymore, or a foolish, flickering hope, or anything like that. Someday, someday soon, I would become a Huntsmen. When the time came, I'd take Beacon's entry exam and by then I knew I'd pass, I'd be ready for whatever came my way, and—

"Welcome back, Jaune," My mother's voice interrupted my thoughts as I walked through, an odd expression on her face. "There's someone here to see you."

"Hi, mom," I nodded at her, frowning slightly as I jogged in place. "Here to see me?"

My mind quickly came up with a number of possibilities, none of them good. I didn't have a lot of friends, even before my power turned me into a workaholic. I mean, I was on fairly good terms with everyone in my class, but I wasn't best friends with anyone anymore. If something happened, I was usually invited, but I didn't hang out with a lot of people after school, because at school, there were three types of people: Hunter kids, Hunter fans, and everyone else.

Hunter kids were, well, kids like me, who had Hunter parents. My Mom and Dad had a lot of friends and when I was younger I'd hung out with them a lot and they'd been, I guess, my friends. But, the thing is, because they were Hunter kids, pretty much all of them went off to one combat school or another and we'd sort of fallen out of touch after I…hadn't. Hunter fans were the ones who thought Hunters were awesome, which was pretty much everyone, including me, but…there's just…there's just something uncomfortable when the hottest girl in school agrees to go out with you, but only because she wants to go to your house and see your parents.

And I got that. My parents were cool. Hell, my life goal was to become a Huntsman—I understood how they all felt. And I also got that underneath that desire to ogle my awesome, celebrity parents, there were probably a lot of nice people who could be really good friends. But…

Also, bringing people to my house was always an experience. There was a hallway covered in pictures of all the different types of monsters my parents had killed one-on-one; they'd been competing since pretty much forever, before they'd gotten together—apparently that was howthey'd gotten together, actually. But the whole thing could substitute as an encyclopedia of the Grimm. Literally. Mom said that she and Dad had once gotten an actual encyclopedia and then gone on a trip around the world to make sure they'd gotten one of each, including the ones that lived underwater.

Did I mention I'm not afraid of people threatening my parents?

And as for the final category…it was my teachers, pretty much. Who I hadn't given any reason to make a house call, unless this was about my grades suddenly improving and they were suspecting me of cheating or something—which, surprisingly, was the best possibility I could think of. If they thought I was cheating, it'd be relatively easy to prove I was just smart.

But if it wasn't anyone from school…

It could be the police or someone like them, finally connecting me to my thefts or the White Fang thing, or…

I walked passed my mom and into the dining room, a dread filling my stomach as if I already knew what I would find.

"Oh," I said as I saw him, letting out an already exhausted sigh. "Hey Tukson."

"Hello Jaune," The bookkeeper replied, nodding at me from where he sat, drinking coffee with my dad.

"Tukson here was telling us about how you did some work for him?" My dad said with a smile. "Why didn't you tell us you got a part-time job?"

"It was only a one-time thing, really…" I said, dragging my eyes away from the Faunus to look at him. Now that I was here, facing him, I was kind of surprised at how calmly I was taking this. It had gotten to be something of a trend.

"There was a book he said he wanted to buy," Tukson explained. "I said I'd give it to him if he ran a delivery for me. Well, it's more like he talked me into it; you have a very convincing son, Mr. Arc."

"Jacques, please," My dad replied immediately before turning to my mother, teeth gleaming. "First time he does real work and he asks to be paid in books. His mother's son, eh?"

Mom rolled her eyes.

"What do you need, Tukson?" I asked politely.

Tukson scratched the back of his head, smiling at me apologetically. I wondered if it was fake and used Observe on him; he was actually sorry. Or, at least, sorry about something, it might not have anything to do with me.

"Blake asked me to invite you to the shop, if you wanted," He said. "She didn't know your number, so I guess now I'm running deliveries."

"Blake?" Mom wondered.

"My niece," Tukson answered, though I was pretty sure that part was a lie. "She's about Jaune's age; he helped her out while he was working for me."

"A part-time job and a girl—" Dad began before falling silent at a glance from mom.

"What's Blake need?"

"She wanted to ask if you'd be interested in helping her again."

Of course.

I was trying to think of how to reply when my dad was at my shoulder, rising from his chair and coming beside me so quickly I hadn't even been able to see him move. He leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Son, when a girl asks you if you want to come over and help her with something, the answer isyes," He told me seriously, before suddenly letting me go as mom placed a hand on his shoulder.

I looked at him and then back at Tukson, unsure. A part of me didn't want to get wrapped up in anything involving the White Fang, remembering what had happened last time—but the other was thinking of last time too, of how I'd gone from level two to thirteen in a few hours. I hadn't leveled up once since then, though I'd improved my stats a great deal; even though the quest to heal the White Fang had gotten me nearly seventy percent of the way to the next level, the experience I got on a day to day basis wasn't getting me anywhere fast. The difference between getting to level two and to level fourteen, I suppose. And whatever she was, I guess I…kind of trusted Blake? At the very least, I didn't think she would be here for no reason or to hurt me.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to stop by after school and see what she needs, right?" I wondered out loud as much as to Tukson.

The smart part of me told me to stop trying to lie to myself.

XxXXxX

8. Threadmark: Chapter 8 - Mission Control

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Mission Control

As I'd promised, I went to Tukson's Book Trade after school. Blake, one of the most powerful people I'd ever met especially near my own age, stood alone among the fantasy novels, nose in a book. She looked up as I entered, nodding at me slightly.

"Hello, Blake," I said as politely as I could. I was a bit irritated to be drawn back into this, but one didn't mouth off to people more than twenty levels above oneself. "Did I keep you waiting long?"

"Not really," She answered, placing a bookmark in the novel and closing it before moving towards me. "I wasn't certain when you'd arrive, so I came early. Hello, Jaune."

We were silent then, both having apparently run through our lists of casual conversation topics. Blake walked passed me and pressed a button, making its color shift from green to red, before closing and locking the door and making the windows opaque.

Well. That wasn't ominous.

I glanced above her head as she worked, checking her sign.

The Beauty

LV36

Blake Belladonna

Two levels already? It'd only been a week. But then, I suppose she probably saw a lot of violence as a high-leveled terrorist. I figured fighting multiple super droids was probably out of the ordinary even for her, but what did I know?

"What did you need, Blake?" I finally asked, going right for the point after the silence continued to linger. I figured we'd both appreciate getting down to business.

In reply, she tossed me something. I caught it reflexively before looking at it. Glancing up at her curiously, I opened up the scroll and watched as images appeared and began to, well, scroll through the images even as the last remnants of my good day evaporated.

"Those are photos from a company town on Mantle," Blake stated evenly. "Do you know what a company town is?"

I nodded without saying a word but she continued anyway.

"All the businesses in the area are owned by the same company and they all accept company scrip, which is the only thing those employees are paid with."

"'Those employees,'" I repeated, though it was easy enough to guess.

"The Faunus," She said, mouth twisting. "Mantle's famous for its technology, but that's the type of thing that needs a lot of, preferably cheap, manpower, especially to mine dust. It's also not a place famous for its high opinion of Faunus. If you're known as one, there aren't a lot of places you can work, but the major companies will employ them…in a sense. In truth, it's more of a legalized form of slavery. They're given enough to get by, to survive and keep working, but they owe everything they have to the company and if they step out of line, they'll have it all taken away and find themselves out of the streets. What you're seeing is what a few of our people on Mantle have able to get about their living and working conditions and their general state of health."

I didn't reply until I'd finished flipping through the pictures, burnt all the images into my brain and made sure I would remember them. It was…

"Disgusting," I said. "Isn't this illegal?"

"Not on Mantle," Blake answered. "Or not enough that anyone truly cares. Even after the Faunus Right's Revolution…"

She shrugged.

"Things aren't perfect and are worse in some places then others. The White Fang has more traction on Vytal than Mantle and with travel between Kingdoms as it is…" She shook her head, exhaling through her nose. "My associates have been discussing how to take action against…this for several months and there's been a lot of talk about mobilizing a large response."

I closed the scroll and tossed it back to her.

"If you're waiting for me to try and defend that, you're gonna be waiting a long time," I told her. "What those people are doing is sick. But I hope you don't think that just burning the company to the ground is going to help anything."

"I know it won't," Blake said, shaking her head. "I've been one of the people arguing against it. Even if we destroy the entire town—something that would inevitably result in countless meaningless deaths on both sides—it wouldn't help the Faunus employed there. The root of their problem, and the reason they can be exploited in such a way, is that they can't find work elsewhere. Unless we can solve that problem first, destroying the only places they can work isn't going to make their lives better, even if those places are horrible. A lot of the leadership agrees with me, but there's a demand for action and if an alternative can't be found…"

She shrugged again.

They'll do something stupid instead of doing nothing, I understood and nodded. In the long run, it might even help—if they could cause enough fear, if they could show enough power, and if, in doing so, they didn't ignite a massive response and kick off a major conflict. But those were a lot of ifs and there would be a lot of deaths even if they managed it. In time, they might be able to scare people into employing the Faunus on reasonable terms, but that wasn't going to help the ones that would be left homeless and unemployed in the here and now.

Or maybe that was the idea? If there was a lot of anger and fear directed at the Faunus, it wouldn't take much for the Faunus to start giving some back. It could easily drive a lot of them into the arms of the White Fang, giving it the foothold it apparently lacked on Mantle and increasing their ranks majorly. That was a cold way of looking at it, but…if they took it far enough, there could be another war.

Then again, a coldly logical part of me said, if this was how the Faunus were treated even after the Rights Revolution, maybe they could use another war.

I hushed that part quickly.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked. It wasn't a rhetorical question; if she was here, she must have had an idea and I probably wasn't gonna like it.

"There…was one other idea proposed, a long time ago," Blake actually seemed hesitant, which sent off alarm bells in my head. "Mantle…I wouldn't say Faunus are treated great anywhere, but Mantle is by far the worst and the White Fang has enough assets on the other continents to assist newcomers in settling in. The issue is the transition, but if we could get them into Vytal—"

I stopped her right there, putting the pieces abruptly coming together. The bottom dropped out of my stomach and I was already regretting…so many things, coming here the first and foremost.

"You…you want me to fly an airship," I paused for a moment, contemplating what would be needed for something like this. "You want me to fly an airship across the ocean, past who knows how many Grimm, invade a continent known for its advanced technology, perform a mass rescue operation, and then get back out of there, cross the ocean again, and get back here? Is that about right?"

After a long, still moment, Blake nodded, actually looking a little embarrassed.

"The White Fang has attempted to create a system to move Faunus between the Kingdoms several times, but always had to abandon the plan as unfeasible on a large scale—even the possibility has been discarded now and isn't brought up as an alternative anymore. The Grimm are too dangerous and, because of them, boarder control is too tight. With that and peaceful protest abandoned…I really think the leaders are going to push things until there's another war. There are already plans being made for an attack and I…" She shook her head. "I want to avoid that. I think we can avoid that, but we'd need to prove a point here and now that other ways are possible. But it would require something big. Something like this."

"Assuming, of course, that this ludicrous plan is possible," I said. "I mean, what good would saving one town do when so many others are still kept in bondage?"

"It would show everyone that another way is possible," Blake said. "And it would show the Faunus of Mantle that there is a way out for them. It would give people hope, even if only a few hundred were saved."

I sighed and shook my head.

"And how would you suggest we pull this off? Do you even have an airship?"

"We'd need to steal the airship," She admitted. "The White Fang doesn't have any that are big or fast enough for something of this magnitude."

"Oh, right, sorry—that makes sense," I nodded and corrected myself. "You want me to do all of that with a stolen airship, ensuring people will be chasing from the very beginning, meaning I'll have to escape the country and get back into it, after committing a crime that would make me an enormously wanted criminal if I got caught. Anything else?"

"There are only a few airships that are big enough and fast enough to make such a trip and airships in general are equipped with a number of systems to prevent them from being stolen," She added. "Which means acquiring one will be…hard and the moment we have one, we'll need to go. And the chances to steal a major Airship before it's under heavy security are…limited. The only chance I can be sure we'll have before the White Fang takes action is in less than two weeks."

"And a time limit for preparation, because who doesn't love a challenge?" I muttered before lifting my voice. "I have just one question. Well, no, that's a horrible lie—I have about a million questions, but I'm gonna start with this one: Why me? Why am I the person you're going to about this? Ignoring everything wrong with the idea, of which there is a great deal, why do you want to recruit a human you met once to go along with this ludicrously dangerous idea? I mean, let's assume for just a second that I agree to this. You would be trusting me with your life and the lives of everyoneinvolved with this mission. So, again, why me?"

Blake seemed to have been waiting for that question.

"Several reasons," She said, lifting a hand in preparation to tick off her fingers. "The first is simply necessity. If this mission is to have any chance of working, I need someone who can learn to fly a vehicle they've never encountered before, figure out its exact specifications with no experience beforehand, become skilled enough at programming to deal with any measures already on it, use it to outrun the military, and do all of that in a very short period of time. Otherwise, the plan won't work."

"That's because the majority of your plan is 'Hope a miracle happens,'" I informed her.

She ignored me.

"Secondly, your ability to heal others and to regain your own power quickly makes you invaluable for…pretty much any mission. In that particular regard, your own personal power is only a minor consideration—rather, your presence serves as an enormous force multiplier. Adam and I could not do such a task alone, but if we were restored to full power anytime we began to weaken…" She let that statement hang in the air. "But the third reason is the most important."

"Oh?"

"I'm asking you because I think you might say yes," Blake said solemnly. "I can't say I know you, but a week ago, you got involved and risked your lives to help people you didn't even know, simply because they were in danger and you could help them. I think you're good man—I'm not amazed by your sense of self-preservation, but I think you have a good heart. I need to save these people and I need to try and stop the White Fang from going any further down this path. Will you help me?"

I put a hand over my eyes and sighed loudly, turning away from her as I rubbed my face. When I looked up, I was unsurprised to find a blue screen hanging in the air, but I still glowered at it.

A quest has been created!

A Friend In Need: Help Blake with her insane mission!

Reach the Faunus on Mantle and then escort them to freedom! Time Limit: Two weeks.

Completion Reward: Exp 950000, Increased closeness with the Faunus of Mantle, Increased closeness with the Faunus of Vale, Increased closeness with the White Fang, Increased closeness with Blake.

Failure: Decreased closeness with Blake, Imprisonment, or Death*.

*Depending on time of failure.

Don't even try to tempt me with your sexy, sexy numbers, I thought, even as I counted all the shapely zeroes. I knew full well that if the reward was that high, getting it would mean terror and pain. I'd known that last time, too, granted, and it had turned out surprisingly well in the end, but the reward for this one was over fifteen times that one. If that said anything about the danger involved, well, I could only imagine. But this time—

I sighed deeply.

"There's too many ifs involved," I said. "Maybe we can get the ship and maybe I can fly it and maybe I can escape and maybe I get us there in one piece and maybe I can get us back—but those are all really big maybes."

"Believe it or not, I actually have a plan, though a lot of details need to be hammered out," Blake said dryly. "Though none of it matters without your help and I'm not going to hurt you if you want to back out. But we can do this. You might not even need to fight."

I thought there was pretty much no chance in hell of that being true, but maybe I was just getting cynical. Still, being in a party with people of Adam and Blake's levels was…

Still not enough to make this sound like a good idea.

"And stealing an airship…that's a major, major crime, especially on the type of scale you're talking about. Who would we even be stealing it from? The military? Because that would be an unspeakably bad idea without even getting into the amount of people we'd piss off afterwards. I mean—"

"Schnee," She interrupted me.

I looked over my shoulder at her in disbelief.

"You mean…"

"The airship is being produced by the Schnee Dust Company," Blake said. "The same company who owns the town on Mantle. They'll be showing off their newest model in Vale soon at a conference."

Wow, this plan was just getting better and better.

"Poetic justice aside, you…do realize we'd be pissing off one of the most powerful organizations in the world, right?"

"The Schnee Dust Company and the White Fang have been at each other's throats for years," She dismissed. "This won't make a difference on that front."

"Not for you, maybe," I said, turning to face her fully. "But what about me? Even if we succeed, if anyone sees my face…"

Blake reached down to grab the bag at her feet and threw it to me.

"What's this?" I questioned, looking down at it. It was heavier then it looked.

"I just told you, I'm not stupid," Blake said, giving me a flat look that made me think it was wise not to argue.

Hesitating for a moment, I opened the bag with a sigh. On top were a few small cases, a large box, and…

I took out the mask. It was a lot like Adam's, though the designs were a bit different and in black instead of red.

"Um…"

"It's one of Adam's old ones," She said. "But it should fit you, too."

"…Yeah," I said, drawing the word out. "No offense but I don't think hiding my upper face is going to protect me for long when I find myself on every TV station from here to Atlas."

She rolled her eyes and made a rolling gesture with one hand and I took the items out of the bag one by one. After I took out the box, I found myself looking at the back cover of a book and reached in to remove it—

You obtained the skill book 'Makeup for the Menagerie.' Would you like to learn this skill?

…Wait. What?

You obtained the skill book 'Making Faces: How to be a Makeup Artist.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You obtained the skill book 'Windows to the Soul: A Thousand Designs for Beautiful Eyes.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You obtained the skill book 'The Fairest of Them All.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You obtained the skill book 'Let Down Your Hair.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I looked up at Blake silently and then turned to the box. I opened it. Then I raised it, unfolded it, separated it, and stacked it. It was a makeup kit—a real, professional one which had so much stuff inside of it, the box must have contained a pocket dimension. There were about fifty million different pieces—for my skin, my eyes, my hair, my lips, my nails, and who knows what else. It featured about a thousand colors I hadn't known had names and implements which may have doubled for use in torture. The cases that came with it contained what looked almost like slides, with about four dozen colored contact lens in them. Looking at it all was both intimidating and terrifying.

I didn't touch it. It was complex enough that there may have been a self-destruct.

"This is the basic kit," Blake said, which made me look at her again. "I brought more, in case we need it. I only know the basics, but it should be fine with your power."

She stepped towards me and grabbed my chin with one hand, turning it one way and then the other, staring at me like I was a specimen on a slab.

"Didn't think so," She said, before elaborating. "No identifying marks. You're lucky; that makes this easier."

"Um," I started to say before her index finger and thumb forced my lips apart and she stared at my teeth analytically.

"You have good teeth, too. Alter the lines of your face with the mask, change your eyes, maybe shift your skin tone…we'll need to do something to your hair, of course, and we'll need to change your wardrobe, but…do you have any birthmarks?" She asked, freeing my lips.

"No, but—"

"Scars? Tattoos?" She continued.

"No!" I said, pushing myself to my feet. "But wait a second, will you? I haven't agreed to anything yet."

Blake looked me up and down even as her hands busied themselves putting away the makeup kit.

"You want to help," She stated. "You're scared, but you really, really do."

"Of course I want to help, but the odds of this plan working…" I shook my head in irritation. "We,you, aren't going to help anyone by getting killed. If I thought it could work, maybe it'd be different, but…this is…"

Blake nodded.

"I know. Adam said the same thing and I agree," She stated. "And until last week, I'd never have even considered the idea. But it is possible. Or haven't you realized…?"

She turned and began to walk towards the back of Tukson's shop. Before she passed through the curtain, she paused and looked over her shoulder at me.

"Oh, that's right; you've never seen Tukson's private collection before, have you?" She mused. "He keeps all his best books in the back."

I stared after her for a moment. This was the part where I should walk away. I hadn't agreed to anything yet and wasn't going to; I should just click no on the quest screen, walk out the door, and never turn back. This was insane and there was no point even discussing it further, much less in giving Blake a chance to try and make me go along with it. There was nothing but trouble behind that curtain, even if I knew Blake wouldn't force me into this. I should leave right now. That was the smart thing to do, the wise thing to do, and I knew it.

But…

I swore and followed after.

If only Greed wasn't my sin.

And if only she wasn't right about me wanting to help.

XxXXxX

Tukson's backroom was like a dream come true. One of my dreams, specifically. There were boxes on the ground, some of them open, all of them filled with books. There were several rows of shelves, all of them taller than the ones up front but spaced far enough apart to move through comfortably, and the back wall had apparently been fake because it slide aside to reveal a hidden shelf in the hollow space behind it. There were books of every shape and size, scrawled with more languages and scripts then I could count, and ripe for the picking.

I whistled quietly.

"Impressive, huh?" Tukson asked, smiling at me even as he moved between the shelves, drawing out a book every now and then. "Not a lot of people appreciate a collection like this—but I guess if anyone would, it'd be you."

"I told Tukson about your Semblance, in case anything like this happened. He's been sorting through his collection lately, making copies." Blake said and I shrugged, not really surprised or upset or anything. "As for the others…there have been questions, but considering what you had to go through to help us, Adam and I have been deflecting attention as much as possible. I'll let you decide what to tell them later, but I'll probably have to explain things to Adam."

"If I even agree to help," I answered distractedly, moving in the direction of the shelves. Blake caught my hand before I could go and dragged me too one side, where a full length mirror was set on the wall beside a desk. Blake took a length of yellow measuring tape from atop the later and then positioned me in front of the mirror.

"Tukson's getting stuff for you now and you can look through the rest later," She said. "First things first. You can't very well run around in the same clothes you wear normally, can you?"

"Um," I asked awkwardly as she started measuring me. "Is this really necessary? I mean, if I diddecide to go along with this, I could just grab a shirt anywhere."

"The clothes make the man," Blake answered. "You'd be amazed how different a change in wardrobe can make you look. You for instance…this is what you normally wear, correct?"

I glanced down at my hoodie and jeans and crossed my arms over them defensively.

"Yeah, so?" I replied, not mentioning that my mom had had them tailor made for me.

"Your shirt's a bit baggie," She answered, grabbing it with two fingers, seeming to talk more to herself then me. "The materials rather thick, too. That's good for us; it hides a lot of your build. We could hide even more of it and try to change the shape of your body, but that could make fighting harder if it comes to that. Then…perhaps the opposite? A change in style…something more formfitting, then?"

"If this is heading towards spandex, tell me now so I can leave. I'd rather wear a fake mustache and use an awful accent."

She rolled her eyes as she finished with the measurements and stepped back. She pondered me for a moment before nodding her head and speaking.

"Take your shirt off."

"Um," I answered her words with the razor edge of my wit. "What?"

Blake looked at me and exhaled impatiently.

After an awkward pause, I followed her commands and took my hoodie off before her eyes—and let me just say, though I've had fantasies which involved getting undressed in front of a beautiful woman, they generally involved her looking less…bored. A raised eyebrow was all I got out of Blake as she looked me up and down, frowned slightly, and then stepped close to me with a length of measuring tape. She checked me around the waist, stomach, chest, shoulders, arms, and a few other places before nodding to herself and scrawling my measurements in a notebook.

"Something you need to remember about Hunters—and people like them, such as you and I—is that they tend to stand out, partially by design," She said, sounding like a teacher that was barely paying attention. "Unique outfits, unique weapons…there are many reasons for it, one of the most import being that we want to draw attention. People who are shooting at us aren't shooting at the people we're trying to protect and our allies can easily pick us out of a crowd. Whether we're fighting against each other or against the Grimm, both of those things are important. However, one of the other reasons is because it's so hard for us to blend in, especially if forced into combat. I can fade from sight in when I need to, but there are only so many people who use Variant Ballistic Chain Scythes. It kind of gives me away, even without getting into my Semblance—and if I refrain from using either, that costs me a lot."

I mouthed the words 'Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe' to myself, having not realized that was a thing until now, but nodded at the point.

"But you're different—or rather, your Semblance makes you different. The thing about disguises is that they come in many forms depending on what you seek to accomplish—but the best ones come in layers," She stated, already drawing in her notebook. "A wardrobe change, a mask, and some well applied makeup are all good places to start, but alone may not be enough. Those of us with Aura usually don't have to worry about most types of biological evidence, thankfully, but there are other things that can give you away. Your weapon, for one, but even how you fight and act, and those can be harder to change. Luckily, it shouldn't be much of a problem for you. You use a sword normally, right?"

"Sword and shield," I answered, wondering if I could put my shirt back on. "It's a family heirloom, but I've gotten used to it."

Tukson dropped a small stack of book on the desk while Blake hummed.

"I would recommend avoiding both of those, then. For people like us, suppressing instinctive reactions and ingrained training is the hardest part," Blake continued, still drawing. "Most people won't notice the specifics, but if another Hunter is nearby, they might recognize you by the way you fight if they see you again later. Do you have a preference for what type of weapon you'd like to learn to use? I'd recommend guns, of course, but you'll need to be careful; Dust residues can themselves give you away and you'd be amazed how much they can get from that stuff if you don't have time to go through the proper channels. Still, it's more than worth it to give you several books on the subject. You'll want a close range option, too, though. A spear, maybe? We don't have the time or resources to manufacture anything special, but that should be doable."

I shifted uncomfortably, enjoying this less and less by the second. I didn't like the idea of switching weapons, even if I understood the intent, both because I wasn't keen about abandoning the bonuses I got from Sword and Shield Mastery and also because I'd already come to terms with making my great-great-grandfathers weapon my own. I had decided to make Crocea Mors my own and I wanted to stick to that. But…

I remembered what I'd thought about before. Just in case, it would be good to have a ranged option and…

"Do you have anything about unarmed fighting?" I asked. "Martial arts or boxing or something I can use with my bare hands? I've been meaning to work on that, but…"

Blake paused in her drawing and looked up at me and then turned to meet eyes with Tukson. It felt as if I were being excluded from a conversation.

"You think he can do it?" Tukson wondered after a second.

"I've no doubt about he's ability to learn it," Blake stated. "I'd have questioned his ability to use it properly, but he's more muscular than I'd have thought."

"I've been working out," I told them, flexing one arm.

Everyone ignored me.

"If anyone did recognize it, it would help cement his image as a Faunus…" Tukson mused before sighing and nodding. I glanced at him as he shoved the stack of books over to make more room before going back to the shelves.

"So…mind filling me in?" I asked Blake.

"He's getting you what you wanted," She stated vaguely, frowning at me before raising a thumb center with my chest and closing one eyes. "If the clothes make then man then…"

She nodded, flipped a page in her notebook, and started drawing again, only pausing when Tukson returned.

"Tiger, you think?" She asked, nodding at me.

Tukson blinked before looking at me.

"Kind of cliché, but…fitting, I suppose," Tukson shrugged. "It could work, I guess. You said his Aura was white?"

Blake nodded.

"Jaune, how much time do you spend shirtless?" Blake asked me seriously, turning back to me.

"Uh," I replied. "What?"

"How much time do you spend shirtless?" She asked again, voice and expression both annoyed. It was nice to know I was the only one embarrassed about any of this. "In public, that is."

"I…none?" I tried. "Unless I'm swimming or something and I don't do that much anymore."

She narrowed her eyes again before nodding.

"It could work," She said. "Layers and padding are usually preferable, but it's something people wouldn't normally associate with or expect from you and it could allow for false identifying marks to help throw people off. Give you the mask, do something with your hair, lips, skin—something distinctive, to draw attention. Strips, perhaps, or a tattoo, so that if people do see you shirtless, they won't make the connection. If you fight with your hands instead of a sword and play to the martial arts stereotype instead of the knight…it could work."

I squinted at her.

"You…you want me to fight shirtless?" I asked incredulously.

"You say it as if the armor you wore before would have protected you from anything without your Aura," Blake said frankly, making me wince. "You can wear a shirt instead, if you want, but remember that we're trying to sell an image here. As long as you find something that fits, it's fine. You want to look the part of the martial artist and the Faunus. Play it up as much as possible and it'll be harder to connect it to you. A lot of the White Fang has embraced such stereotypes, regardless. I was thinking something relatively subtle; a stripe across each cheek, a few across the shoulders and arms, some altered lines on the chest, a meaningless trinket or two for people to remember. Yellow eyes like mine, perhaps. We'll focus on your hair, though, change the style, change the color—something to stand out. Multiple colors? We could continue the tiger theme and with Adam there, it wouldn't even look too strange. Or maybe just white?"

Blake hummed to herself, apparently dismissing me entirely to focus on her note book.

"I still haven't…" I shook my head and abandoned that ship, focusing instead on Tukson. "So! What do you have for me, Tukson?"

"A classic," He said with a sigh. Probably because I was gonna eat it. "From quite a ways before Menagerie. You've heard about the four Beast Kings, right?"

"Weren't there five?" I asked, furrowing my brows.

Tukson waggled a hand.

"Depends on who you listen too, but going by what few scripts remain, there were originally four and it's believed the fifth was someone's personal addition to the story—hence how he was actually the king of them all, the golden lord of Faunus-kind, a better fighter then any of the others, and also strong and wise. But on the other hand, we thought the same about Nicholas the Toymaker and it turned out he was real, so who knows, right? It's hard to tell when it comes to stuff that far before the War, because life before Dust was…"

Tukson shrugged one shoulder.

"Well, you can probably imagine. With the presence of the Grimm and without Dust, things were a lot harder—often times in ways a lot of people don't think about anymore. Without the convenience of energy propellant and with the Grimm everywhere, it was far more difficult to extract, smelt, and forge metals and we couldn't do it with metals as good as we use today; depending on the time and location, some places would be lucky if they could use iron and even they might not be able to extract it consistently when the Grimm could rampage through town any day. And we're talking just basic weapons, because we didn't have the technology to make everything with a gun built right into it. Or guns as we know them today, even. But while we didn't have Dust, we still had Aura and because of that, we could make our fists as strong as anything we could make."

I nodded getting it.

"And it was easier than making weapons," I guessed. "Lots of martial arts, then?"

"Quite a few," Tukson nodded. "If you ever wondered about all those martial arts films set before the War, they're partially rooted in fact, it was just…usually not as the movies depicted. Anyway, at the time there were lots of different groups and schools and such, but over time, several stood out among the rest as they grew and developed followings that could defend greater areas. Among the Faunus, these were the Beast Kings Meng Zhang, Ling Guang, Jian Bing, and Zhi Ming. Or…those might have been their names, at least; the best records we have are from Haven, so it might have just been the names they were known by there. It's also why Jian Bing's, better known as Bai Hu, martial art is the most complete of those that remain."

"What happened to the others?" I asked.

"There's a reason we call this world Remnant," Tukson answered simply. "And after the discovery of Dust and the resulting industrialization, we had better options—especially once we learnt how to fashion Dust into bullets and create better weaponry. As it became far easier to train people in other forms of combat and just as or more effective, Martial Arts faded from prominence during and after the War. There were the occasional upswings and there are always a few schools with popularity, but it takes less time to learn to use a gun then to learn to focus your Aura in specific ways…well, for everyone but you, I suppose. I spent some time in Haven researching it after the Rights Revolution, luckily, and these are the copies I made of the tablets in Bai Hu's temple. I never got around to translating it all and a lot of it was clear as mud, but…Blake tells me that won't be a problem for you."

I took the first in the stack from him, curious.

You obtained the skill book 'White Tiger's Tread.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I clicked yes and the book glowed brightly, fragmenting as knowledge filled me. I took a deep breath and then exhaled, looking at Tukson who stared at me in undisguised interest and then at the window that appeared before me.

You've obtained the skill 'White Tiger's Tread.'

White Tiger's Tread (Active & Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The foot technique developed by the Beast King Bai Hu.

Passively increases movement speed by 10%.

Increases movement speed by 50% when active.

Additional 10 MP used per minute.

"Yeah," I said as Tukson put the books down on the table. "No problem. Maybe I should visit Haven someday myself, though."

I turned my attention to the two stacks of books. The taller one was composed of items Tukson had picked out after Blake asked—stuff he thought might be useful, mainly. I couldn't train all of them and I doubted all of them counted as skill books, but…well, I'd bear the burden of having many skills with the dignity of an Arc.

"Is this really okay?" I had to ask though, feeling a little bad about devouring the books when I still hadn't really agreed to this ridiculous plan, however certain Blake seemed of my involvement. The only reason I was still back here—besides, I admit it, my shameless lust for Tukson's books—was the fact that she said she wouldn't force anything on me.

That damn quest window was lingering ominously, though.

"It's worth it for the chance." Tukson said, putting down the books with a sigh. "Saving lives, giving second chances…I was around for the Rights Revolution—got taken from Vacuo—so that's the type of thing that means something to me. And even…maybe this could even be the start of something new for the White Fang. If we could prove it was possible, establish a precedent…if the people you saved could be accepted even somewhat here in Vale…"

"You really think that could change the White Fang?" I said, doing my best to keep my skepticism out of my voice.

"Maybe. Probably not," He admitted. "Too much has been said and done for any one thing to change the White Fang. But it could be a start, perhaps. Something to build off of. If it was big enough that neither the public nor the White Fang could ignore it, flashy enough to stick in their minds and stay around, if people told stories about it…it could start something. That's what I think."

He smiled at me.

"Besides, what's the point of books if not to learn something from them?" Tukson asked. "And if you really do understand whatever you eat, then I can just ask you about it later."

I wasn't sure what to say in the face of that, but…

I reached out to touch the first book in the stack and took it in.

You've obtained the skill 'Computer Mastery.'

"I guess…" I sighed, regretting this more and more by the minute. I don't even think they were necessarily trying to make me feel guilty.

Blake hummed, still drawing.

"Don't forget the books I gave you," She said absently and I rolled my eyes before reaching for one.

You've obtained the skill 'Disguise.'

"Hey," Tukson asked, peering over my shoulder. "Blake are these…?"

Blake raised her head and gave him a look that shut him up.

"Ah," He continued awkwardly, still looking at the books before shaking his head. "Actually, give me just a second. There's one more book I want to give you."

Tukson went back to the back wall shelf, index finger trailing over the spins. I glanced at Blake, opening my mouth to ask—

"Don't," She said softly.

I didn't.

"If I went along with it, I'd need the manual for the specific model of airship you'd need me to pilot," I said instead, even as I absorbed a book about Airships. All vehicles fell under broad skills like Drive, Sail, and Pilot but I could gain familiarity with or vehicles this way; the other books Blake had given me would probably do the same for Disguise and how Engineering books added Blueprints to Craft. "I could potentially get by with a normal book on the subject but I'd really rather not."

She nodded and I reached out for another book.

You've obtained the skill 'Firearms Mastery.'

"Found it!" Tukson said, coming back to my side just as I was about to reach for another, a short, well-worn book in his hands. "Have you ever read this one?"

I accepted it.

You obtained the skill book 'The Story of the Wind.' Would you like to learn this skill?

"The Story of the Wind?" I asked, shaking my head. "I've never heard of it."

Tukson clicked his tongue, shaking his head.

"Really? I get not knowing about Bai Hu, but this one is an actual classic," He said. "One of the oldest stories in the world. Even I don't know how old it is."

My eyebrows went up at that and I looked at the book in a new light. It didn't look old, though staring at it, I realized the cover must have been torn and replaced at some point. This was probably just another copy, but…

"You sure about giving it to me, then?" I asked. "It must be pretty—"

"You can buy it in any bookstore in Vacuo," Blake said without looking up from her notebook. "And in a lot of bookstore down here. Or just read it online, honestly. It's a very famous children's story up north."

Oh. That was kind of a letdown. But hey, a skill book is a skill book…right? But what skill would a children's book give?

And why would Tukson give me one?

"What's it about?" I asked, hesitating before consuming it.

"Well…Blake's right, I suppose; it's a story about a boy who got lost in a storm—and, by the way, you have not seen a storm until you've been to Vacuo—but found and befriended the Wind, who guided him back home and kept him safe, through the night and the Grimm and the cold. Supposedly, the boy recorded it all in this book and passed it down." Tukson scratched behind one ear. "It sounds kind of silly saying it like that, but it's a good book and a lot of stuff in it does work. Some people think it was actually an accounting of very early Dust use, in fact, because during the war they managed to imitate a lot of the feats, exactly as written—even the designs. Everyone in Vacuo's read that book at least once, I guarantee it."

"They give everyone in the military a copy," Blake added in a quiet voice. "In case any soldiers get lost and need to find their way home."

I looked back at the book, understanding what she was saying.

"This…then this was yours?" I asked Tukson, who shrugged. "I…I can't take this."

"Didn't you hear Blake?" He asked. "You can get one of those anywhere. Really, look at that old thing. I should have gotten a new one a long time ago. Besides which—I know my way home. Besides, I'm not much of a fighter anymore."

I exhaled slowly.

Damn it, damn it, damn it, this was unfair.

"I have some things I need to do after this," I told them both. "And a few things I want to check out, too. But after that, I'll give you an answer, okay? One way or another. You gonna be here for a while, Blake?"

She tossed me the scroll from before again.

"All the important stuff is on there and you can use it to contact me. Keep it."

"Thanks," I said before pushing the button to accept the skill book.

And then I froze, staring for a long, quiet minute.

"Hey, Tukson," I said after I shook myself from my thoughts. "Thanks."

I could hear a new song, carried on the wind, something familiar and half-forgotten—and it made me want to call out to it, to raise the wind and ask it to join me and share the joy in that song, but…

But beneath the gentle song of the air, I heard the stead beat of iron drums, like of an army ready to march, and felt a comforting weight by my side. I knew the steps that had to follow now, to begin the dance.

However, there was something I had to do before anything else, so I could make my decision.

"I'm going to need to go for just a bit," I said, glancing at the clock as my hands gathered up the remaining books.

I had to speak to my father.

And then I had to speak to my sword.

You've obtained the skill 'Summon Elemental.'

New Status, 'Air Element Affinity' has been created.

XxXXxX

9. Threadmark: Chapter 9 - Prerequisites

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Prerequisites

"Dad?" I asked with a raised voice, stepping into my house. "Dad, are you still home?"

"One sec!" I heard sounds of motion and then saw my dad coming down the stairs a moment before his hand was on my head, ruffling my hair, dropping a bag by the door.

"There you are!" He said, grinning widely. "How'd the date go, lady killer?"

"It wasn't a…" I shook my head. "You know what? Whatever."

I looked down at the bag, nudging it with the toe of my shoe.

"Leaving again already?" I asked.

He smiled apologetically.

"Duty calls. Sorry kid; your mom already went ahead to get our rid prepped, but she'll swing by before we have to leave. You can take care of yourself, right?"

"I always do," I said. "Can I talk to you about something before you go?"

"Is it girls?" He asked, wagging his eyebrows. "Because you're right; we should talk about that now. I know I'm usually busy, but you're sixteen now and—"

"It's important, Dad," I said, not letting myself get distracted even as I felt traces of heat rise in my cheeks.

"Ah," My father said, face becoming serious. Pursing his lips for a moment, he jerked his head towards the dining room and I followed him. When we were both seated, he looked at me with a steady expression. "What's wrong, Jaune?"

I lifted a hand to my lips, wondering where to even start. The beginning, I decided.

"I've been training a lot recently," I said. "Since a bit less than two weeks ago. I didn't really mean to keep it a secret, I just wanted to get a bit stronger before I told you because…"

I could help but look down. We both knew why.

"You've never had anything to prove, Jaune," My Dad said seriously. "Not to me or your mother."

"Yeah, but…I had to prove stuff to myself, you know?" I continued, looking down at my hands on the table. "Ever since…I failed to get into Signal again and again and the others all went off to combat school, but no matter how hard I tried, I was never good enough. And after you gave me Crocea Mors…but I still couldn't…"

I shook my head.

"I tried. You and mom told me I could be anything I wanted, do whatever I wanted, but what I wanted was to be like you and mom, like grandpa and the others. Everyone expected me to become a Hunter, but more than that, I expected it, wanted it. But…I wasn't good at it. At anythingI tried. Until two weeks ago."

I tried to gather my thoughts and put them into words.

"I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but…I guess I found my Semblance," I shrugged, honestly having no idea how or why it had happened. "I awakened the rest of my Aura a week or so later, after I figured out how to use it."

Dad's eyebrows went up at that, surprise on his face.

"After you found your Semblance?" He asked.

I nodded.

"After I went to the library, I found a book about it. I don't really know how to describe it without sounding strange but I can do stuff like that; I learn things fast, from books or otherwise, and I recover quickly when I get tired. Recently, I've been training or studying all through the night and I went out every day to train, and…"

I shrugged.

"I know," My father said after the silence lingered. At my look, he gave a half-smile. "Give me some credit, kid; I've known since…I guess it would be after you woke up the rest of your Aura. It's the type of thing that changes you and how you move and, well, you've been leaving it on all the time. Your mother and I have talked about it a few times, but we decided to let you come to us when you were ready. We were going to say something when we noticed you staying up all night, but you were always fine in the morning, so…"

He sighed, smile fading, and I had the feeling there had been more to these talks then he was letting on. Thinking about it, I wasn't even that surprised to hear that they knew, given who they were. I'd always just accepted that my mom knows all and sees all, but she usually didn't bring things up if I didn't want to talk about them unless she thinks she really has to or I do something bad. I hadn't even really been trying to hide it, I just didn't want to bother them about it.

"My Semblance has…well, it's just weird," I admitted. "But it's pretty awesome, too, and it can do all sorts of things. But…I'll tell you about that latter. What I wanted to do is ask you for some advice. About, well, I guess about what I should do about a problem I've been having."

Dad bobbed his head once.

"I, well, I have a friend," I said, before briefly debating with myself and just coming out with it. "Blake, the girl you heard about earlier—and please don't start, Dad, please—asked me for my help and I don't know if I should say yes or not. Because…Dad, have you ever had a friend who wanted to do something that was just stupid?"

He laughed in my face, like I'd just said something hilarious before suppressing it—only to lose control again when he saw my face. I stared at him oddly until he wound down, but even then there was a small smile on his face and mirth in his eyes.

"Sorry about that," He said. "You'll understand later, if you become a Huntsman. But I have some experience along those lines, yeah."

"I'll take your word for it," I said, figuring he was the one with experience—and if he and mom were anything to go by, well… "But Blake's idea, it's stupid. But…I think it may also be the rightthing to do and I don't know if there are any better options. And if I don't help…she can't do this without me and other people will suffer if nothing is done."

Eyebrows furrowed, the Arc patriarch looked away, the beginnings of a frown on his lips. He stared at a few of the pictures on the walls, of his old team.

"I know a thing or two about that, too," He said, mirth gone. "Is it dangerous? Something you can go to a teacher or the police about?"

'Or me' went unsaid.

"I don't think the police could do much about this—or even the Hunters. And yeah, it's dangerous," I said. "That's why it's stupid. But I think…I can make it work, maybe. And if I do nothing, it won't stop being dangerous; it'll just be dangerous to other people instead of me. And the more I think about it…"

"The more the thought sickens you," He nodded. "You want to do something. Feel like you have to."

I thought about it and nodded firmly.

"Yeah," I said. "I want to help them. There's so much about it that scares me and makes me want to run away, but I want to help. And I keep thinking maybe, just maybe, I could actually do it, if I went all out in my training and try my hardest."

Dad took a deep breath and looked around as if expecting some horrible monster to pop out of the shadows.

"Your mother is going to kill us both…" He sighed before looking back at me with steel in his eyes. "Promise me that if you think you might get hurt, you'll back out. You'll call for help, delay, whatever—but you won't get hurt."

"I intended to do that anyway," I said, even if I was becoming less and less sure about that as time went on. "And Blake and her friends will be there, too. They're strong. Stronger than me. I think if we tested her, she could get into Beacon right now."

"I…God, I don't want to say this, but it'd be hypocritical not to. I made my own father go through this, once, though I was a little bit older…" He exhaled through his nose. "Jaune, listen to me. Sometimes, you have to fight even if it's dangerous because the alternative is worse or because you couldn't live with yourself if you didn't. I understand that, believe me—every Hunter understands that, accepts it the moment they really become one. It's a dangerous job but it's one we chose to do. So…I won't tell you not to, even if I want to. If you're doing this to help people, then put your all into it and help them. But there are three things you have to remember at all times, okay? The people who have your back, the home you have to come back to, and the things you need to stay alive to do. Promise me you won't forget those three things, no matter what."

I stared at my Dad's face for a long moment, noting how uncharacteristically solemn his expression was. He was taking this seriously.

So was I.

"I will," I said in the same tone. "I'm going to get everyone out safely and come home and then I'm going to become a Huntsman. I'll keep training hard and when the time comes I'll take the test and enter Beacon and I'm gonna graduate and I'm going to become the best Hunter in the whole world. I will."

"That's my boy," Jacques said, baring his teeth in a smile. "Do you need any help?"

I understood the offer for what it was and glanced back at the bag he'd left in the hall.

"Don't you need to be somewhere?" I asked.

"A murder of Giant Nevermore came in to roost near Mistral and they keep trying to abduct people to feed their young," He said with a shrug. "Your Mom and I are going in for a few weeks to serve as reinforcements, but…we can find someone else if you need."

It'd be a lie to say I wasn't tempted. Like, truly enormously tempted to just tell him 'Yes, Dad, please call off all your plans, including the ones to save countless lives and help me.' But…I hesitated. Part of it was because I knew that those people probably were in great danger and Iknew my parents were some of the best equipped to save them. My dad made a flock of titanic Grimm sound like an everyday thing, but…

So part of it was the fact that, much as I wanted to, I couldn't place myself above others, even for something like this.

But, perhaps even more than that…I didn't want to bring my parents into this. If it was…if it was me getting into trouble or making sacrifices, that was one thing, but I couldn't ask that from them. I wasn't worried about them getting hurt, but there were other things that could be taken from them. If I asked them to come—and they would, if I asked them, I knew that much for sure—then if something went wrong, if someone noticed them or something about them…And they were famous, amazing Hunters, way better known than someone like me…

I could be asking them to give up the lives they had made for themselves, what they'd worked so hard to create, and the names they earned. I knew this was risky for me as well, but there were things I could do that others can't—and if I was caught, it would just be on me. I couldn't do that to them, even if I wanted their strength on my side. I didn't know if it was smart or wise or whatever, but I couldn't, I wouldn't.

"Ugh," I said. "You want me to bring my parents to a party? How old are you that you think that would be remotely cool?"

"Yeah, I guess I'd cramp your style, huh?" He smiled sadly. He lowered his head to look me in the eye. "I'll hurry home, okay?"

"Okay," I said. "But I'll be back before you."

I'd try to make sure it wasn't a lie.

"I have to get a few more bags," Dad said. "I'll leave you a few things while I'm up there, just in case."

"Thanks," I said, before stopping him as he turned away. "Dad. Just so you know…I'm gonna turn in my homework for the next few weeks tomorrow, because after that, I'll be missing school for a while. I just wanted you to know, so you didn't…"

He sighed.

"Your Mother is gonna kill us…" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "But I'll handle it. When we both get back, will weather the storm together, okay? A man's gotta take responsibility for his actions."

"Deal," I answered. "Good hunting, Dad."

"You too, kiddo," He said. "And be good, okay?"

"I'll give it my best effort," I hedged, smiling as I watched him go.

When he was gone I let out a long, slow breath, closing my eyes for a minute before opening them once more. I'd decided and now I was resolved.

I accepted the quest and the window finally faded from my sight.

Just one more thing to do.

XxXXxX

When I absorb a skill book, I understand what's written inside as if I've known it forever. After I devoured Tukson's gift, I understood it in its entirety—everything it was attempting to convey, hidden within the story, including the skill Summon Elemental. The moment I first received the skill, I realized something in short order—the skill was 'Summon Elemental' not 'Summon Air Elemental,' just as my Elemental Aura hadn't been restricted just to my Metal Affinity. If I followed that to its logical conclusion, assisted by the knowledge I'd gained, it should be possible to use the spell with other Elements, so long as I met all the conditions.

To summon an elemental, you need three things. The first, of course, is an affinity for the element in question, natural or otherwise. The second is a supply of the appropriate element with which to summon it from. My power supplied the former easily enough and both of my current affinities, Metal and Air, were easy enough to come by. However, the final thing was something that needed to be prepared in advanced—a contract.

After saying goodbye to my mom and dad, I sent a message to Blake telling her about my decision and then went out to what had more or less become my place in the woods to do what I needed. I drew a pair of concentric circles and then a five pointed star with its tips touching the outer circle. Then, I took Crocea Mors out of my Inventory and placed it at the center of the circle, shield over sword. I surveyed my work for a moment to make sure everything was in order and nodded to myself.

"What's that for?" Blake's quiet voice reached my ears, sending my poor heart vaulting up into my throat for half an instant before it calmed. As it had done that several times, I was pretty sure that was some aspect of my power, but I'd need to check on it later.

"I didn't expect you to come today," I said, deciding to pretend I'd known she was there all along. I wasn't sure if she'd snuck up on me on purpose, but if she had I wasn't gonna make it fun for her. "I didn't mean to make you rush over."

"I have my books," She answered. "I can read them anywhere. Besides that, there's not much I want to do in this city besides work."

I hummed in acknowledgement.

"This is a summoning circle," I said. "I'm going to summon an Elemental. I picked up the skill from Tukson's book; figured I'd put it to use."

"You…" I heard surprise in Blake's voice. "That's real? The boy and the Wind?"

"Looks that way," I said, look over my shoulder at her. "I don't know how many people could do it given it requires an Affinity with the Element in question, but it's possible, yeah. Tukson said the boy wrote down everything he learned; I think he was right."

Blake frowned at that, tilting her head to the side.

"I…suppose I shouldn't be too skeptical, given everything I've seen," She said. "If there's one thing I know for certain, it's that our world is a strange place. And there have always been stories in Vacuo."

"Oh?"

"Because of the nature of Vacuo, the winds and storms have always been popular in their legends…or, perhaps, in their history. For instance, in the Hall of Kings, the lives of the ancient rulers of Vacuo are transcribed. Four of them claimed to have married the daughters of the North Wind, the Four Winds that are believed to bless Vacuo," Blake said. "And it's often said that if one ventures far enough into the Frozen Desert, they will find Snow's Palace. It's generally accepted as just another myth and expeditions to the far North haven't noted anything of the sort, but…well, here we are."

"Here we are," I agreed.

"Are you going to summon the Wind?" She asked, eyes focusing on the circle interestedly. "Like in the story?"

"Yes," I said. "But later. I gained an Affinity for the Element of Wind from Tukson's book, but I already had an Affinity for Metal—and there's something I have to do."

She tilted her head to the side, looking past me at Crocea Mors, which lay within the circle. Her mouth opened slightly in understanding and she nodded, hand going to her hip.

"Would you like me to leave?" She offered.

I shrugged, a bit embarrassed despite myself.

"You don't have to," I told her. "If it works, it'll be something I'm proud of. Just…be quiet for a minute?"

As she nodded, I touched my hand to the circle and closed my eyes, taking one last deep breath.

"I, Jaune Arc, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee," I spoke, my voice low but clear. "I hope that you heed my call. Come, Metal Elemental!"

My sword and shield rattled against one another, shaking in place for a moment before going still. For a moment, I wondered if anything had even happened, until I saw my reflect shift in the surface of my shield. The man looking back at me was older then I was and he looked stronger. I'd only ever seen him in artwork, but he looked like my great-great-grandfather. Or, just maybe, like I might look someday.

I…Here. You…the Fifth. Why have you called upon me?

The words took form in my thoughts, but they weren't my own. They weren't loud by any means, but even sluggish as they were, as from some who'd just been woken, I wouldn't call them soft. I'd known that Elementals could communicate in such a way, but even so it surprised me to actually feel it.

But there were respects yet to pay.

"I'll begin in accordance to the ancient rituals," I continued. "My real name is Jaune Arc. You have heard my true name; please tell me yours."

This time, my sword didn't so much as move—but I found myself falling, my vision going black. I…remembered something, except I couldn't remember something that had never happened to me, could I? I don't know how long it was dark for, except that it was a long, long time until suddenly there was light and I was removed from the darkness. I remember there being heat, felt my body coming apart as I was bathed in that fire. I felt the pounding blows of steel, the chill depths of water, and I was changed. Flickering images flowed before my mind's eye alongside rushes of sensation. I felt the rushing touch of the wind, hot liquid washing over skin, soft things giving way before my hard form, the power of life and death in my edge, and knew this was my new purpose.

And then I saw myself, kneeling beside the circle, except I was different. My body, hair, and even clothes were made of smooth, shining steel, like the flawless work of a master artisan.

And then it was my turn to change. I felt myself melting and unlike before where it had been an odd sensation, this time I felt it, felt myself twisting and flowing away—and it hurt. But beneath my fingers, I suddenly felt the cool edge of my sword and all of that just…went away. The metallic coating I'd felt over my flesh chipped away, flaking off with tremendous speed and all that pain was replaced with a simple, beautiful feeling of completion.

For the first time in a long time, I was truly, completely happy with no conditions or reservations, as wholeheartedly as a child.

Crocea Mors. I am. The Yellow Death. You. The Fifth. Jaune Arc?

I opened my eyes and looked at the sword that had somehow traveled from the center of the circle to beneath my hand.

"Yes, I am Jaune Arc."

You and me. That is okay?

"It's better than okay," I said, remembering the words. "It's great. And so are we."

We are one, as the ancient contract decrees.

"Our souls are one."

I am Crocea Mors.

"I am Jaune Arc."

Until our souls meet their end—

"—We will be forever one."

Then know I will protect you always.

And as abruptly as it had come, I felt the presence fade and realized how exhausted I abruptly was. I tried to stay upright but it was a lost cause and I felt myself tipping over, falling—

Blake caught me before I hit the ground.

"Did it work?" She asked quietly and I smiled.

"Yeah," I said. "I'll tell you about it later, but…for now let me…"

I tried to fight it, tried to meditate instead, but I couldn't fight what was coming. For the first time in a week, I felt myself drifting off and away to sleep. But as I did, I thought I heard Blake speaking.

"Are you jealous, too? Gambol—"

I was gone.

I dreamt of battlefields, of dark creatures thick enough to turn a green plain black charging forward, towards what was behind me. But I didn't flinch. I had my blade in my hand and I met that charge with my own. I swept across that field, cutting down monsters like that were naught but grass in the summer. The sun gleamed down from above as the bodies fell and I…

XxXXxX

I woke up and stared groggily at the ceiling for a minute before my brain started working, at which point I realized there were several things wrong with this picture. For one thing, I didn't sleep any more. For another, I'd been in the forest a minute ago—though I assumed it had been longer in the land of the living. And finally, Blake was at my desk, reading a book.

Groaning, I sat up.

"What a waste of time," I sighed, glancing at my alarm clock. Four hours gone that I could have spent doing things that actually matter. I saw Blake set her book down, looking at me calmly. "Sorry for making you waste your time on me, Blake."

"It's not a problem," She said. "Did you get what you needed?"

I glanced around until I found Crocea Mors, back in its sheathed form, leaning against the wall. Rolling out of bed, I walked on bare feet to pick it up.

"Let's find out," I said, closing my eyes. "Crocea Mors."

I am here.

I felt his presence before he spoke and though there was no change to the weapon itself, when I drew the blade and looked at what was reflected in the shining steel, it wasn't my face. Of course, I hadn't truly materialized him, yet. There were two ways to use summoning spells, at least for elementals. The first is simply by summoning the spirit form of the elemental and drawing upon it to manipulate its element—I would feed it my power and it would act as I commanded it. The second method was to truly materialize it, allowing it to act as it wished, though that was more expensive in terms of MP, generally.

But I had an idea I wanted to try. Or, at least, a wish. Because I'd already decided, that we'd…

"Crocea Mors, can you tell what I'm thinking?" I asked, sheathing. "Can you do it? Would it hurt you? And could you…fix it?"

I received no response but the hard metal beneath my fingers softened until it seemed, if anything, like syrup. I grabbed it with my other hand as rivets of liquid steel began to flow across its length—not necessarily downwards, though. They flowed towards my hands, over them, and then down towards my elbows. After a second, I wasn't holding a sheathed sword any more, but a shrinking ball of steel, connected by flowing strands to my fingers.

When it was done, my arms were coated in shining steel from fingertip to near my elbows. I flexed my fingers, rolled my wrists, and worked my elbows to make sure I still had the full range of motion in them as the metal settled and looked down to see Crocea's face in my arms reflection. My left arm, made from my shield, was more thickly armored, better equipped for blocking, but also more than hard enough to deliver a stunning punch. My right, as ever, was my sword, with metallic nails and a sleeker design. My own work, at least mentally, and it was a good first draft at least. Crocea Mors had used his own power to make thought into reality.

This was my desire—to fight with Crocea Mors, regardless of shape. Even if it meant sacrificing the weight of a sword and the bonuses of my power, I'd made a decision and I would stick to it. This way, at least, I'd still be somewhat armed as well and further equipped by the presence of an ally.

Still, I was breathing hard. That had cost a lot of MP, even if I hadn't materialized Crocea for it and I doubted it would have even been possible if it hadn't been his own body he was shifting. It'd take practice before I could do something that fine to something else, much less in combat even ignoring Aura. However…it was still pretty damn awesome.

Mastery of the skill Craft increases! Craft's level goes up by one! Craft's level goes up by one! Craft's level goes up by one!

"It worked," I told Blake, who had watched the entire process in fascination. I had to smile at that, especially as the blue windows appeared before my eyes. "You mind staying like this for a while, Crocea? Turning back won't be a problem, will it?"

No.

That was apparently all I'd get out of the Metal Elemental. I'd try manifesting him in a minute, but…

"Let's get to work Blake," I said. "There's a lot we're going to have to do and not a lot of time to do it, so I'll cut right to the chase. I'm going to need training and I'll need your help for what I have in mind, so let me tell you exactly how my power works…"

XxXXxX

10. Threadmark: Chapter 10 - Grinding

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Grinding

"Your power is bullshit," Blake said as I finished my brief explanation. While we'd walked back into the woods, I'd told her about everything I thought would be important in the coming weeks—about my Inventory and how it could be used to transport things undetectably, about how Skills and leveling up worked, and about how I could see titles and levels in signs above people's heads. Things that we might need to plan around or which would come in handy, such as if Blake saw someone suspicious and needed to know if he was a Level 67 Destroyer of Fools or something.

"I know, right?" I agreed, nodding with a smile.

"It was bad enough when you could just devour books, but…" She shook her head. "Well…I suppose I shouldn't complain, since that's good for us."

She frowned in thought, the bow on her head twitching.

"But let's be careful about this. Because of your 'Inventory' you have what amounts to a pocket dimension that you can store and retrieve things from effortlessly. Did you test if the things you stored inside it could be detected by others?"

"Of course," I answered promptly. "I passed through metal detectors and it didn't react to my sword. When I stole stuff from the library and left with them, there was no reaction then, either. I can't say its undetectable because there was only so much I could feasibly test and I'm sure there'ssome power or another that could detect it, but nothing I've tried has been able to do it. And before you ask, there doesn't seem to be a weight limit in terms of how much I can carry, though I've only been able to store things I could lift, with a few other restrictions. If getting inside without anyone knowing about our equipment is an issue, I can handle it. And, for what it's worth, the food I've stored inside it hasn't gone bad yet, though the watch I put inside to test the passage of time has functioned normally. And no, I have no idea how that works."

She'd opened her mouth to ask a question, but I'd apparently answered it so she closed it and nodded thoughtfully.

"What you can take with you on a mission like this is always an issue, as is getting it past security," She stated. "We're generally forced to travel light by necessity, but if your…Inventory can really do what you say, we can go in with almost everything we could want. There may be some issues getting Adam through the front door, but he and I can manage. Once we're inside, you can identify everyone important by their…name tags, I suppose? What does mine say?"

"The Beauty, LV36, Blake Belladonna," I recited. "Last time I saw him, Adam's was The Beast, LV41, Adam Taurus."

Blake's lips twitched downwards in displeasure.

"And just to make sure, they said that before you knew who we were, correct?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "For people who are vastly more powerful than me, it doesn't give all that information, but even then I can usually tell something's up because I'm seeing question marks."

Blake muttered darkly under her breath before shaking her head again.

"And you?" She asked, elaborating as I tilted my head. "What level are you?"

"Ah…LV13, now, but I was LV2 about a week ago. That whole mess caused me to level up eleven times, but I haven't gone up again since. You went up two levels, though," I said.

"And your 'Stats'…when you level up and put points in the stat, it really makes you stronger? Faster?" She pressed.

"Yeah. So far, the only things I've given points to are Wisdom and Intelligence, but it seems to improve them," I answered, nodding again. "So does normal training, though. I managed to raise all of my physical stats to near thirty with about a week of effort. Ideally, I'd like to get them all to at least fifty by the time of the mission, but I don't know if that's possible through training alone; after they hit twenty, the rate of increase got slower and slower. Intelligence and Wisdom are my highest stats, currently."

"I struggle to see it," Blake said skeptically. "I can't say I've had much time to get to know you, but in that time you've done a fair amount of things which seemed enormously stupid. Agreeing to help me, for instance."

"I'm aware of the smart thing to do; that's not necessarily the same thing as doing it. Nor is 'wisdom' a synonym for 'heartless'," I shook my head before taking a deep breath. "Speaking of which, the answer is no."

"No?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "To what question?"

""Am I doing this just to gain levels?'" I said. ""Was that the only reason I helped them out?' I'm not going to lie and say I don't appreciate those benefits, just as I'm not going to claim I don't appreciate the skills I gain from the books I devour. I'll even admit that I have wondered for a long time whether I was being selfish or heroic a week ago. But this time, I can say for sure that it's not the reason."

Blake looked at me, silent and expressionless, for a long moment before slowly exhaling through her nose and giving me a nod of concession.

"So you claim, but how do I know that?" She asked.

"Because I'm telling you about my power instead of lying about it or changing the details—and I think we both know that I could, easily, and no one but me would ever know," I told her. "That's how you know I'm telling the truth about this. And I know, because I had chances to back out and didn't take them. I told my dad about my power and talked to him before I called you. If all I wanted was experience points, I had a better option in him then you, because I can gain that experience just as easily by defeating Grimm and with him there, it'd be a lot less dangerous to me than this mission. I could have spent a few more weeks working on my stats, asked him to take me out past the limits when he came back, and fought Grimm knowing he was there if anything went awry. And in case you didn't see the pictures, my dad has killed every monster in the book. Literally, every monster in the book. You can go check."

I took her wince as an 'I'd seen it.'

"I could have refused, walked away, and asked him to help me train and gotten the same reward as this mission; more, in the long term. My dad is gone a lot, but I'm sure he could make arrangements. I already intended to ask him and Mom for training when I was ready, in fact. If anything, I think that would be the fastest way to level up, and the method with the least amount of moral quandaries: kill the monsters, save lives, get stronger. But here I am, because you were right. I want to help those people and I want to help you. So I'm going to trust you and tell you the truth and hope you trust me, too."

I saw Blake's eyes move over my face, her gaze intense enough I thought I could feel it—and then I saw her nod.

"Maybe I can see it…just a bit," She said, looking at me considering. "I trust you, Jaune."

I smiled at her.

"Out of curiosity, would it have made a difference if I was just a greedy bastard?" I wondered.

"What do you think?" She asked, raising a questioning brow.

I laughed.

"Nah, I already know the answer," I said. "It wouldn't matter to me, at least, if I was in your shoes. As long as you did what I needed and helped people in need, would it really matter why? Just wanted to see what you'd say."

Blake rolled her eyes but smiled.

"What is it you need?" She asked, expression becoming serious again in seconds. "You'll want to fight the Grimm to…level up, I assume, and you need someone to watch over you while you do. I take it this entire spiel about trust is to convince me to take that role in place of your father?"

"Among other things; I just think this will go more smoothly if we're all on the same page and not worried about one another. I'll need to grind some of my skills, too," I said. "Disguise, computers, my new fighting style, stealth, and anything else that might be useful. We'll need to work on our plan whenever possible, though I have a few ideas I'd like to put into action. The fact remains that there's a lot to do and not much time to do it—but thankfully, I don't need to sleep."

"I do," Blake said flatly. "I can go without it, but only for so long, especially if I'm pushing myself. If you need me for any of this, you might want to build your schedule around that."

"I know," I assured her. "Which brings us to a rather large issue. You're bringing Adam into this, right? Now that you have me on board? I suppose it's about time he and I talked again."

Blake's hidden ears twitched again but she nodded.

"It'll take a day or two to arrange everything on that front. It's not just Adam and now that we have your Inventory, we'll want to bring in more resources, if possible. The White Fang moves fast and Adam's been lingering nearby, I'm sure, but you'll be on your own for a while," She said. "What do you want me to tell him?"

"Didn't we go over this?" I wondered aloud, stretching as I rose. "Tell him what you want. I trust you, Blake. Just send him to me when he gets here so we can talk."

"And you?" She asked. "What will you be doing until then?"

"Can't you guess?" I asked, smirking. "Training, of course."

I drew one of the books Tukson had given me about Bai Hu's martial art from my Inventory, holding it aloft.

You obtained the skill book 'Jaws of the White Tiger.' Would you like to learn this skill?

Clicking yes, I paused for a moment, expression softening as I drew in the knowledge—and the power, for wasn't that what knowledge was in the end?

And then I slammed my left hand up to the second knuckle in the trunk of a nearby tree, fingers flexing within its wooden confines and sending cracks trough the bark before I ripped a chunk straight from the tree. These were the 'Jaws of the White Tiger'—it was an active technique like Power Strike but with three parts, consisting of the initial attack, a crushing attack to gain a grip, and then a ripping attack to finish. From what I had learned from the book, it was intended to be used on spines or throats. However, as a three part attack, the total MP cost was high, especially when enhanced by Power Strike, as I'd just done.

I did it again before speaking.

"Most of my skills are good even at their baseline, but the Active ones are too expensive to use consistently. A week ago, I tested myself to see how long I could last fighting at full power, using my Aura Channeling, Power Strikes, and everything. In total, if I enhanced every attack, I could only last a minute or two. But the MP costs go down as I level the skills up—and that's in addition to the power increasing. I retested mid-week and I lasted five times as long. I haven't gotten a chance to check again yet, but…"

I shook my head, tearing another handful of the tree away.

"But now I have more skills and they each start at level one," I said. "I'll need to level them up until I can at least fight effectively in combat; if I train them constantly for a day or two, getting them to twenty or twenty-five should be possible. There might be a limit to how far the MP cost can be reduced—my Aura skills stopped at five MP a minute—but that should let me use them for real in battle. I was aiming to get all my skills to fifty before, but…"

"Which ones are you going to train?" Blake asked.

"All the ones I can. The martial arts techniques, Summon Elemental, everything I can train on my own out here. I can only train skills by using them properly, though, so Stealth, Disguise, and Computer Mastery and such will have to wait for now."

"You think we'll run into trouble no matter what we do," Blake said, understanding.

I looked at her oddly.

"Don't you?"

She chuckled before disappearing—but for just a moment, her voice lingered.

"At the very least, you're thinking like one of us."

I snorted and attacked the poor tree again. I'd need to heal it soon, no doubt—

A skill has been created through a special action! A skill that uses excessive strength, 'Rip,' has been created!

A skill has been created through a special action! A skill that uses excessive strength, 'Crush,' has been created!

Huh…?

XxXXxX

After a few minutes, the combined MP cost of all the skills I was trying to train took their toll and I was back to meditating to recover. Even as I felt the shifting tides of the world around me, though, I couldn't help but think of the three skills I had just gained.

I was well aware of how little I truly knew about how my power worked, but it seemed to feel the need to hammer it in whenever possible. I knew logically that I had been focusing on improving what I'd already had and developing my stats which didn't leave me many chances to successfully experiment, but…it was kind of depressing how easily I'd gained skills to assist my martial arts when all I had for swordsmanship were Aura Channeling and Power Strike—which could alsoenhance martial arts, so.

I'd known that actions could become skills, of course, and even that specific forms of attack could—Power Strike had proven that, for example, as had Aura Crash—but in my practice in the forest, I hadn't gotten any new sword attacks just by wailing on trees. Granted, my sword practice was fairly basic, consisting mostly of practicing Power Strikes while boosted by all my Passive or persistent skills and I had intended to see if I could make my own sword skills once I'd grinded my stats a bit more, but…I'd already gotten two 'martial arts' skills even without counting the ones I'd gotten from the skill books and I'd probably get more; Martial Arts or Fist Mastery, at that very least.

Thinking about it logically, maybe there was a certain sense to it; Bai Hu's martial art was created in a time when weapons and Dust couldn't be relied on against the Grimm. It was a method of manipulating Aura to enhance human capabilities in specific, useful areas, so it wasn't that odd that it would itself grant me useful skills. But when this was over, I was going to learn how to really use a sword. Not just hitting a tree really hard, but all the minutia that didn't fall under Sword Mastery or Power Strike—maybe get to work on trying to create my own style, like I'd planned. Even if I knew that my focus on improving what I'd already had and developing my stats which didn't leave me many chance, this was just irksome. There had to be a long-lost magical sword stylesomewhere. Hell, I should have asked Tukson about it, even if it would have been useless for this mission. I'd need to do that when this was over.

Opening my eyes as I finished meditating, I reactivated my various persistent powers and let them begin to drain my MP and gain experience. Once that was done, I reached into my Inventory to extract another book and got back to work. Stupid as it left me feeling, I wanted to test this out right now.

You've obtained the skill 'Claws of the White Tiger.'

Claws of the White Tiger (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:10

The most basic technique of Bai Hu's ancient martial arts style. Through the gathering, hardening, and sharpening of Aura around the hands and feet, it becomes possible to inflict terrible wounds even with one's bare hands.

30% increase to martial arts attack damage.

Additional 20 MP used per minute.

I took a deep breath and focused my power around my hands and feet, changing the feel of both. Really, it was a lot like my Metal Aura, though focused on a particular part of my body—in fact, so far this entire style went very well with the enhancements I received from my Metal Affinity. Given some of the things I learned from the book, it made me wonder if Bai Hu had been…

I shook away the thoughts and concentrated, drawing the power together.

A skill has been created through a special action! The skill to directly use aura, 'Energy Bolt,' has been created!

Energy Bolt (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:5

A skill that attacks by emitting Aura.

Attack power increases with INT.

Range 10m.

I ignored the new pop up, despite how it made me twitch in irritation to learn I could have had a ranged attack a long time ago if I had just gathered Aura in my hands instead of my sword. In a moment, my gauntlets were glowing white with my Aura, part of which extended from my fingers like, well, claws before the glow faded. It was a persistent skill, meaning I should be able to improve it just by leaving it on, so…

"Energy Bolt," I said a little petulantly, holding my hand out at the tree I was thoroughly ruining. What looked like a sphere of white light shot out of the palm of my hand, flashing quickly across the distance to explode violently on impact.

I whistled softly as the smoke cleared, leaving behind a small crater in the tree's truck. Ten meters wasn't great, but it was a lot better than what I'd had. If I improved the skill, lowered the cost, and increased that range, it should be enough to at least let me close the distance. And perhaps…

I focused on my gauntlets, on the Metal Aura I had already surrounded myself with, and gathered my power again.

This time the Energy Bolt was a misty-grey in color and when it hit the tree it didn't explode—it crashed straight into the trunk like a cannonball, leaving a shattered imprint behind in the wood.

A skill has been created through a special action! The skill to directly use element-attuned aura, 'Elemental Bolt,' has been created!

I let out a surprised laugh before rushing over to the tree and using Soulforge Restoration to heal the damage I'd inflicted before it fell over. Backing up a few paces with a smile, I lifted my hand and closed it into a fist except for my index finger. Inhaling deeply, I frowned in concentration. The normal Energy Bolt exploded on impact while the Metal Elemental Bolt—I decided to call it Cannonball—turned my Aura into an almost solid projectile. But if I could focus all the energy I'd put into the Cannonball into a smaller area such as the tip of my finger…

I tried, focusing hard as I attempted to compress my aura into a smaller shape, turning it from a Cannonball into a bullet. But as I tried to force it to obey, it seemed to slip through my metaphorical fingers. I tried harder, attempting to crush it into the shape I desired, but—

"Damn it," I said after a minute of it constantly escaping my grasp. Try as I might, I couldn't compress it the way I wanted. I'd try again later, but every minute that passed was an enormous drain on my MP. For now…

I took out another of Bai Hu's books with a sigh.

You've obtained the skill 'White Tiger's Lunge.'

White Tiger's Lunge (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:40

A technique central to Bai Hu's ancient martial arts style. A skill to move quickly between targets, striking them down.

100% increase to jumping distance.

50% increase to movement speed.

50% increase to attack damage.

As I felt the knowledge take hold, I frowned before my expression brightened in understanding as a picture in my head began to grow clearer. Or, rather, as I began putting the pieces of a puzzle together—and that's what Bai Hu's art was, a puzzle with many pieces to put together. The individual techniques could stand on their own, but…

I drew another book from my Inventory.

You've obtained the skill 'White Tiger's Hide.'

White Tiger's Hide (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP:30

The primary defensive technique of Bai Hu's ancient martial arts style. A skill to harden Aura into armor around oneself rather than use it as a passive defense.

Blocks up to a certain level of damage.

Armor's strength, density, and duration increase with level.

Armor's strength, density, and duration increase with INT.

Additional 50 MP used per minute with White Tiger's Hide is active.

As I thought. Then…

I drew out the remaining books I had on Bai Hu's art.

You obtained the skill book 'White Tiger's Roar.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You obtained the skill book 'White Tiger's Five Hundred Years.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You obtained the skill book 'White Tiger of the West.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You've obtained the skill 'White Tiger's Roar.'

You cannot learn this skill. Required: STR 50, VIT 50, DEX 50, INT 60, WIS 60.

You cannot learn this skill. Required: STR 70, VIT 70, DEX 70, INT 90, WIS 90.

I outright goggled at the prereqs on those skills. I mean…damn. No, more than that, if the skills existed then that meant that…

Wow. Bai Hu must have been hardcore. And there had been three—maybe four—guys as strong as him? That was…wow.

Should I make those my new goals? I mean, there was no chance of me getting up to the minimums of White Tiger of the West anytime soon and I had no idea if I'd be able to use these in public after this was over, but…well, I suppose they made as good a goal as any. It's not like I intended to stop training any time soon and logic dictated that I'd reach those prereqs eventually, even if it took years, at which point there was no reason not to take advantage of them, for the sake of completion, if nothing else.

But…even without ultimate and penultimate techniques…I could still see how this art was meant to be used. It wasn't complicated—okay, that was a lie; I mean, for anyone who couldn't just absorb the knowledge like I could, it was probably a bitch to learn. But the way it was designed to be used…I could see it now that I had all the basic pieces. No, more than that, the knowledge had been hidden in the text and now that I had the parts I could put it into action.

I crouched slightly, drawing a careful breath as I readied myself. White Tiger's Roar wouldn't work without a living target, but I activated White Tiger's Hide. I already had the Claws and Tread active, along with my Aura and Metal Aura. I had materialized Crocea, too, and channeled my Aura through him. Altogether, it cost me almost two hundred MP a minute even if I did nothing else. And that wasn't what I was going to do.

I used the White Tiger's Lunge to reach the nearest tree and sank my hands deep into it with the trunk, assisting the initial attack of Jaws with Power Strike and then following it up with Crush and Rip to enhance the next two phases. In that same moment, my feet touched the bark of the tree and I was Lunging away, leaping towards a second tree to do the same. I dragged away a broken chunk, touched the ground, and then was flying towards a third tree. As I savagely tore into a third tree, a window appeared before my eyes.

A skill has been created through a special action! Through repeated leaps and bounds the skill, 'Jump,' has been created!

I ignored the screen, already rushing at a fourth tree, moving upward in a straight line that took me further from the earth—and further still as I did the same to go even higher towards the fifth tree, and then the sixth, before falling like a meteor at the ground of the clearing, plowing a crater in the soft earth even as I prepared for an eighth jump—

And stumbled.

I was out of MP, I realized as the effect didn't take hold, my other powers unravelling and fading away even as I thought about it. Breathing hard, I looked around and saw gaping chunks torn out of the trees all around me, as if a massive beast had actually sank their teeth into them and torn pieces away. I tried to turn around and stumbled again, this time falling flat on my ass as I struggled to catch my breath and then falling onto my back, closing my eyes as I tried to recover.

It was amazing. The amount of damage I'd inflicted, the sheer, terrifying power and speed I'd been able to put behind each blow as I'd moved faster and hit harder than ever before. I'd been so fast, so strong, amazing—

For the three seconds it had lasted. Nearly twelve hundred MP gone in seconds—I'd burnt a lot already, in fairness, simply to activate and maintain my persistent powers, but…even if I'd been at full power, I doubted I'd have managed to attack more than ten times. I couldn't even fight at full power for five seconds.

But I'd keep training, keep trying, keep struggling until I could, until I could fight like that normally. I'd known, of course, that I wasn't strong—that I was weak compared to any Huntsman or Huntress or even the students training to become like them—but this…it had been a taste of strength. For a moment I'd reached higher then I'd ever come close to before and now I wanted to keep climbing, to feel that way more.

I thought about Bai Hu, the Tiger of the West—of how powerful he must have been at his height if he could use the whole style consistently, and of the fact that he had possessed equals. I thought of my parents and of the Hunters I knew were above even them and I wanted to join those ranks. I always had, really, but in an abstract sense. This…this was different. This was…

I opened my eyes and held my hand up towards the sky, looking at it Crocea Mors metal gauntlet, of the legend who'd once raised him high as a sword and carved out history.

"I want to be strong," I told him though his summon had faded, even as a new pair of windows appeared before me. "I…"

A skill has been created through a special action! A skill to utilize the power of your body, 'Martial Arts Mastery,' has been created!

A skill has been created through a special action! A skill to draw upon an ancient martial art, 'Bai Hu's White Tiger Technique,' has been created!

I stared at them both for a moment and then shut my eyes again, falling into a meditative state before I fainted from exhaustion. There was still work to me done.

XxXXxX

11. Threadmark: Chapter 11 - Skill Tutor

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Skill Tutor

I used my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face, trying to slow my breathing. I'd been here for…around two days now, I think; I hadn't stopped practicing since I'd come out here and I'd lost track of time a few times because of my frequent meditation sessions.

At first, I hadn't even been able to practice my powers all at once; they were just too exhausting to make it feasible. I could only go full power for about five seconds and then I'd need to meditate for something like ten minutes to recover—the speed I exhausted myself undid the main benefit of using Soul of the World for training. I'd had to train myself piecemeal, starting with just using my persistent skills and then meditating with Soul of the World to lengthen the time I could keep them on.

I couldn't do much else while I was meditating, but for techniques I could train simply by leaving on it didn't matter—at least, not when I didn't have anything else to do. I hadn't done it much while training my Aura, partially because there had been so much else to do, but mainly because I had managed to get it to the point that I could keep it on all the time with just my passive MP regeneration and there wasn't much need. But for this…

The upkeep per minute for Summon Elemental and White Tiger's Hide, quite possibly my two most valuable skills regarding this mission, were ungodly at fifty MP per minute each—higher than that of Claws of the White Tiger and White Tiger's Tread combined. If I used all my persistent skills, I'd exhaust myself in a little over eleven minutes; less time than it took to regain all of my MP though Soul of the World. If I trained them while using Soul of the World, however, the addition to my MP regeneration was such that it greatly slowed the process; with that method, I could train the techniques for over an hour before running out of MP.

Furthermore, the math quickly proved to be in my favor as the cost of maintaining those skills dropped swiftly as they leveled up and were slowly overcome by my increased MP regeneration until I reached the point that they could be maintained indefinitely while I meditated. By the time day had come and gone and the moon had risen, I'd reduced the combined cost of all my persistent skills to around fifty-five MP per minute, discounting the MP I regenerated every minute, raising the amount of time I could fight with just them to close to over twenty-five minutes thanks to the MP I'd gained from Soul of the World—more than twice what I'd started with. At that point, I'd decided to practice my Active skills, leaving the persistent ones on as I did, because I could use Soul of the World whenever my MP got low and maintain them constantly.

I'd started with Jaws of the White Tiger and, honestly, had kind of felt like a cat with a scratching post. That's pretty much what training it had amounted to, to be honest; shoving my fingers into trees and tearing them apart. I added in Power Strike, Rip, and Crush once I got Jaws cost down some, as the former was already pretty cheap from my week of training beforehand and the latter weren't all that expensive to begin with, at least comparatively. I'd gotten a lot of training in for Soulforge Restoration, too, healing the trees I'd set about ruining, though it improved slowly.

I'd trained that from what I judged to be a little before midnight to around dawn before switching over to training Lunge. Once it got dark again, I put everything together and started bounding around the clearing, tearing the place up and putting it back together again and again and again. Blake hadn't called me yet, so I figured I'd keep practicing until dawn—it was cheap enough to actually use in combat as more than just an ace in the hole, but it still tired me out too quickly, reducing the amount of time I could fight to somewhere around thirty seconds. If Blake didn't come back by dawn, though, I'd probably have to call her instead.

I flexed my fingers, looking down at them. I'd need to meditate soon, but I could go a little bit longer. I'd leveled up Martial Arts Mastery with my earlier training, but improving Bai Hu's White Tiger Technique required using several of the techniques together and improving Jump was easiest to do while practicing Lunge; all told, now that I had the costs down some, this was the best way to grind all my skills. Taking a breath and crouching, I was preparing myself for another series of crushing attacks.

"So that's the famous technique of the White Tiger of the West," A voice interrupted me—and very nearly scared me out of my skin before I suddenly calmed again. I turned around to stare at Adam's red and white mask and the passive portion of his face that was visible below it. "Impressive. I've known of several Faunus who sought to recreate it from the tablets, but even after years of study and practice, I don't think any of them came as close to mastering it as you have in just two days."

I laughed a little at that.

"Thanks for the compliment," I said. "But this isn't mastery. It's not even close. There are still two techniques I'm not even strong enough to use yet and even these ones I've only just gotten good enough to use for real. If I had mastered this style, well…I don't even know what would happen, but I think there'd be a lot less trees in this forest."

"Even so," Adam said, reaching up to touch the broken surface of one of the trees. "Your power is amazing."

"Blake told you, then," I said, unsurprised.

"Did you think she wouldn't?" He answered evenly.

"I told her to tell you whatever she wanted. I trust Blake," I returned, not rising to what I figured was probably bait. "I'm glad she told you, actually, because that means she trusts you and it saves us some time. I take it she told you I wanted to speak to you? This is a pretty good opportunity, actually—I got most of my skills decently leveled. Now's as good a time as any to start moving on to the next step."

Adam said nothing, just staring at me steadily. Or I assumed he was staring at me—it was hard to tell with the mask, to be honest.

"Since you're here, I assume you'll be joining us on this mission," I filled the silence when it became evident that he wasn't going to. "To be honest, I feel better about this insane plan with you at my back."

"Because I'm strong?" He asked.

"Yes," I told the truth. "No offense, but you and I don't really know each other yet. We didn't really talk much after I healed you and I left shortly after. I only know a few things about you as a person: That you're here, so you must want to help those guys on Mantle as much as Blake and I, that Blake trusts you, and that you're strong as hell. The first two are enough to make me comfortable with working with you and the latter is enough to make me real glad you're here. What about you?"

"What about me?"

I scratched my head and sighed, musing—but no, enormous power or not, there was a reason I'd called him here. I settled my own gaze on him and was glad I was so calm, whatever aspect of my power was responsible for it.

"Well," I said. "I assume you don't like me much."

"Because I'm part of the White Fang," He said and it didn't sound like a question. It didn't sound particularly accusatory, either, thankfully; it was just a statement of something that was, to him, a fact.

"No," I shot down immediately, shaking my head. "I can think of loads of reasons for you not to like me—and any number of them could play into why you might be in the White Fang—but I don't think you'd hate me solely because you were a member. I mean, for one thing, Blake doesn't seem to mind me too much and she's part of the White Fang and most of the guys I healed seemed okay with me, though some of the others were a bit cold. They all at least tolerated me, though, because of what I did. And you seemed to as well, but…"

"If you're worried about me stabbing you in the back, you can relax," He said quietly. "It's true that I hate a lot of humans and I'm apathetic about many more, but I'm aware that there's more to groups than the group and specific individual people can be exceptions to any rule. I don't particularly dislike you, as these things go—and I wouldn't endanger this mission even if I did."

"I know," I nodded. "I got that feeling from you and I trust Blake enough to trust you. But what I'm saying is, though you don't hate me, you don't like me, either."

He shrugged.

"Like you said, I don't exactly know you, do I?" He answered. "If it makes you feel better, I don't like many people. I don't have to like them to work with them."

"Cool. But since we're going to throw ourselves into the fray together in an absurdly dangerous mission that could quite possibly get us all killed, I'd like to get to know you a bit," I said. "As such, I came up with a team building exercise."

"And that's my cue to leave," Adam said, turning around. "Blake said she'd be busy until around noon, but she'd come by then. See you later."

"Wait!" I stopped him quickly. "Stop, it was a joke. Sort of. I really do need your help with something, though!"

"Get to the point, then," He stopped and looked back at me with a trace of irritation.

"Blake told you about my skills and levels and such, right?"

"She did," He said. "I don't know how many games Blake's actually played, so I'm not sure how much of it she's clear on, but I understand how your power works, more or less. You've been training Bai Hu's style out here, I assume."

"Yeah; that and a few other things," I said. "Mostly my combat stuff, since that's easy to practice on my own and I kind of need to abandon my usual style for this mission. But there are a few other skills I think will be useful that are hard to train quickly, or at least safely, without help. I'm gonna have Blake help me with Stealth and Disguise, for example, because those seem to be her things, but there's another one that I think you could help me with."

"Oh?" Adam asked, slowly turning back around to face me.

"For this mission, I'm both the medic and the driver, which means staying active is my main priority—especially since I'm the only one who can fulfill either of those roles. I've been training my combat skills for the point when things inevitably go horribly wrong, but on the whole, my most important skills are my defensive and healing ones, which are what I'd like you to help me train. You've seen my healing skill; it improves based on how much HP I heal, so these trees aren't a great way to improve it anymore. I've also got a skill called 'Physical Endurance,'" I said, bring up its window as I did so. "I got it back in the warehouse, after a robot drained my aura and shot me. Long story short, it makes me more durable; even at level one I receive three percent less damage from anything that hits me. But as far as I can tell, the only way to improve it is to lose HP to physical attacks. Without my Aura on."

Adam tilted his head to the side and I was sure that if he hadn't been wearing a mask, I would have seen furrowed eyebrows.

"Wait, then….you want me to…"

"To beat the crap out of me, yeah," I said. "Many times. You beat me up for a while until I need to back off and heal and then I get back up and we go again, rinse and repeat until I grind both skills up some. I'll need to test how the reduction in damage interacts with my other defensive powers, too, so we'll test that as well."

"Why not just continue to improve your Aura-based defensive techniques?" He asked. "There's one like that in Bai Hu's style, isn't there?"

"White Tiger's Hide, yeah, and I've got my Aura and Metal Aura, too," I said, nodding. "But there's the issue of diminishing returns and we don't have a lot of time. Like…I can usually learn the first ten levels of a skill in about eight to ten hours if I train it right, but getting it to twenty takes around the clock training for several days. Going by my Aura and Metal Aura, getting them up to fifty…I think it'll take three weeks to a month, even if I focused on them. The effort I have to put in to see improvement grows fast, but the amount of improvement per level is usually fairly constant. And since Physical Endurance is passive…"

I shrugged.

"I get more out of ten levels of it then I would from one more level in White Tiger's Hide. So I need you to hurt me a lot."

Adam just shook his head—and then said something that surprised me.

"I guess that's fitting if you're a game character. It worked in Grimm Nights," He sighed.

I blinked at him. Once. Twice.

And then I smiled brightly.

"The lava cheat in Three?" I said.

"I played the first few a long time ago, when I was a kid," He said, looking away. "Before the Rights Revolution."

I assumed from his wording that he hadn't played any of the others. It was fairly easy to guess why.

"You should play at least six, seven, and ten, if you haven't," I said. "They're the best in the series."

"I don't have time for games anymore," He said, voice flat.

"Neither do I, since I'm busy living one. But since I don't sleep I'll be working around the clock, so there'll probably be some downtime for you and Blake when I don't need one of you to help me; you can play mine, if you want," I shrugged. "Or borrow it. My parents will be out of town for a while, so you two can crash at my place if you don't have anywhere to stay."

"Maybe," He said with the same voice as before. "Also, I know what you're trying to do."

"My mom always says that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet," I said, smiling as I gave him another shrug. "And since we'll be out here for a while, we might as well talk some. And hell, if you want me to shut up, you can just keep beating the crap out of me."

Adam was silent for a long moment.

"That seems fair," He mused at last.

XxXXxX

For a moment, I was weightless. I saw the bright blue sky above me, white clouds drifting by in the slight breeze. Then I saw the earth below me—green grass and brown dirt partially obscured by the leaves and branches of trees. I saw the sky again, then the earth, sky, earth, sky—

And then I reached the apex of my arc and gravity seized me in its merciless hold once more. I came crashing down into the branch of a tree—I had begun to think of this entire exercise as the Tree's Revenge—but it wasn't sturdy enough to hold my weight so I quickly found it breaking under my weight, sending my plummeting head first back to earth.

It hurt.

A lot.

I lay there for a moment, stunned, before Adam appeared by my side, glanced around once, and shrugged before grabbing me by a leg. The next moment, he was swinging me through the air in an unmercifully short arc that ended with my back hitting a tree, before he let go of me.

Which, by the way, hurt even more then falling, at least for a few seconds—at which point it immediately and abruptly faded and I took Adam's offered hand, pulling myself up.

"So like I was saying, if we both survive this mess and see each other again, could you teach me some sword skills?" I asked, gasping for breath. It had felt like my ribs had broken, but only for a few seconds, and I had been forcibly inoculated against pain within the first hour or so. Or at least the way my body felt pain.

He shrugged. I'd learned a few things about the man through trial and error, mainly what subjects were safe. I mean, I didn't always stick to those subjects, because he was kind of going to beat the shit out of me one way or another, but it was still good to know. He was massively out of date in terms of games—like, fifteen years out of date or something—but he didn't really seem to mind me talking about them. He didn't get excited about it or anything, but he didn't mind the conversation. He also seemed to be fine with me asking for advice and I was getting the feeling that, oddly enough, the mentor role was not new to him.

Subjects that he didn't appreciate or which made him angry were many and included, but were not limited to, the Faunus War, his family, his life before and during the war, and why he wore a mask. I learned quickly which subjects would get me pain and answers and which would just get me pain, but mainly I learned that Adam didn't talk much unless you knew how to come at him.

Talking about swords was one way.

"You use a longsword normally, right?" He asked as I began healing myself. "I don't know if my style would work well with that, due to my focus on Iaido. You could try, though; if nothing else, perhaps you could develop a quick draw skill of some kind. I can find you a sword to practice with and we'll see if it translates over to different weapons."

"Maybe," I said thoughtfully, peering at my status screen while my HP refilled. "Mainly, I just really want to have some really cool sword skills, because now that I have all this stuff, well, I feel like I'm lagging behind there. Like, when this is over, what am I gonna do? I'll need to hide my martial arts stuff but those are now my best moves and stuff. A few of them are subtle enough to apply to both martial arts and swordsmanship and you gave me some ideas, but…"

This time, I shrugged.

"Keep in mind that Bai Hu spent years working on his style," Adam said passively. "That it's stronger then what you've managed to puzzle out in a week is unsurprising—especially since it's all about short burst of incredible power. Give it time and keep working. Ready?"

I nodded and a moment later his boot slammed into my knee and I was falling. He caught my right arm with both hands, heaved, and I was flipping over his head. A moment later my back collided with the unforgiving earth. My legs went into the air as I crashed limply into the ground and Adam grabbed one to swing me up and down, up and down, again and again, portions of my HP bar highlighting and vanishing with each hit. After about ten hits, Adam grunted, heaved, and smashed head first into another tree.

I tried to catch myself as I collapsed but couldn't support myself through the pain and slid weakly to the ground. Thankfully, the pain swiftly faded and I managed to lift myself are, shaking my head even as I half expected it to finally fall to pieces. A pair of windows appeared before me as I flopped over on my back.

Mastery of the skill Physical Endurance increases! Physical Endurance's level goes up by one!

"Oh, hey," I choked. "I got another one."

"Back to normal, I guess?" Adam mused, drawing his sword. He gave me a moment to recover and heal myself and then started stabbing me, pulling his sword free, and stabbing me again after a moment's pause—as he had been for most of the last eight or nine hours. It was simultaneously painful for me and painfully boring for Adam, hence him occasionally practicing his throws, hand to hand, marksmanship, and various other methods of inflicting harm.

"Ow," I intoned obligatorily, used to it by now. Chunks of my health bar faded with each stab and it hurt, but the pain both faded quickly and had steadily lessened as my Physical Endurance improved. I stared up at the sky, past Adam's shadowed, stabbing figure. The sun had steadily risen in the sky above us, but I wasn't certain what time it was—somewhere around noon. I could take my watch out of my Inventory and check, but I didn't care that much. "Ow."

Adam shook his head, sighing quietly.

"I'm deriving a lot less enjoyment from hurting you then I thought I would," He said. "It was fun for a while but now this is feeling like work. And you smell horrible."

"I haven't bathed for, like, three days, man," I said after a moment, frowning as I went over the math in my head. "And I've been training constantly that whole time. Sorry I don't smell so great right now. Also, I'm not sure how I should take that first bit. Ow."

"Take it as 'this is really boring,'" He said, still stabbing me. "I can't go all out and I'd tire out eventually even if I could, so instead I end up standing here doing the same thing over and over and over again."

I squinted up at him against the light.

"Boohoo; getting stabbed repeatedly isn't exactly fun for me, either," I said, laying my head back again. I kept an eye of my HP bar just in case, but after hours of this, Adam and I had a system. The next however long passed in a steady cycle of stabs and heals and if I'd been able to see Adam's eyes, I'm pretty they'd have been glazed over. He wasn't the one getting actual, tangible,permanent benefits from this endeavor, so that was understandable.

I saw clouds move to cover the sun, putting an end to my halfhearted attempts to guess the time, and shifted my attention. I took a moment to search through what topic to bring up next, discarded 'girls,' and went to the next option.

"Adam," I spoke, giving him a moment to return from his zoned out state. "New question."

He grunted which could have meant anything—but he did it a lot and I'd decided to interpret it as whatever was most convenient for me at the time.

"You said before that you were apathetic about more humans than you hated, right?" I mused aloud. "Why's that?"

He silently stabbed me a few more times. Just as I was about to accept he wasn't going to answer, though, he spoke.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, I guess. And Blake's taking her sweet time." I sighed. "We should be working on the next step of our plan but…"

Adam grunted and I was pretty sure this time it was in agreement. Of course, he stabbed me afterwards which kind of sent mixed messages, but still.

"The Faunus weren't imprisoned within Menagerie by the people who hated them, not really," He said after several minutes of literally pointed silence. "Or at least, I don't think so. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of people who don't care—and that's the problem. You can see it anywhere; when a Faunus is getting bullied in school, does the whole class cheer? No; a lot of them might even disapprove. A lot of places discriminate against us, use us, do horrible things to us, but do I think everyone has this deep-seated hatred for us? No. But how many do anything to stop what happens? When they hear a news report about something happening to the Faunus or see them get hurt, they don't really care, not enough to get involved. Even the ones that could do something."

I thought about how many news reports I'd seen and let pass me by, about the kids in school I'd known were probably having a rough time, and felt guilty.

"Yeah," I said quietly. "I can see that, I guess. 'You don't give a shit, I don't give a shit,' basically?"

"More or less," He agreed as I leaned back and sighed. I looked back at the sky, wishing the sun would come out again.

"I'm guilty of that, too," I admitted. "A lot of times. Little things I never really thought about and stuff I saw on the news that I always thought 'I can't do anything about that' or 'Someone else will do something.' But I guess if everyone thinks like that…"

"I figured," He said, shrugging as he shoved his sword into my stomach. "And I'm not stupid; I get it. But that doesn't make it right and it doesn't help the ones who suffer. I'm not going to curse you for not having a perfect record, if you're worried about it; the fact that you agreed to this mission speaks for itself. But there are things people need to understand."

I had to stare for a moment when I realized that Adam was reassuring me and then snorted.

"I'll work on it," I said. "After I get back to school, I'll sort some things out. Considering that you've given me enough punishment to make up for literally everything I've done wrong in my entire life, let's call it even, okay?"

Adam shrugged one shoulder before sheathing his sword.

"I'm bored again," He said when I gave him a questioning look. "I'm gonna go back to punching you."

I shrugged and he dragged me to my feet before his fist went across my face fast enough to make my head spin. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it but he just punched me again, kicked me in the gut to send me back into a tree, before jumping towards me, boot slamming into the side of my skull. I went down, barely catching myself with my hands, and saw Adam's legs before me. More specifically, I saw his right leg drawing back to kick my teeth in and braced myself.

"What the hell are you two doing!?" A voice—Blake I realized after a moment—startled us. Adam even paused in mid-kick for a moment.

Then he kicked me in the face anyway and turned towards Blake.

"Passing time," He said, sounding bored.

"I like to think of it as a bonding experience," I said after the feeling of a broken jaw faded and I had a moment to heal myself. "He punched me in the face, so now we're friends."

Blake looked at me like I was insane.

"You need a Y chromosome to understand," I explained. For an instant, I thought I saw an expression of Adam's face that—given time, water, sunlight, and tender care—might have one day grown into a smile if he hadn't cut it down young. Blake just stared harder, frowning at me, so I rolled my eyes and told the truth. "He was helping me train my Physical Endurance; don't worry about it. You took your time."

Blake's frown deepened and then she tilted her head, opening her mouth to say something, but for shutting it wordlessly, shaking her head.

"Some things came up," She said, evidently deciding to just keep going.

I cracked my neck once and nodded.

"Then now's as good a time as any to talk shop," I said. "You got everything, I take it?"

"Everything I thought you might need," She answered, nodding. "You said your skills were largely general, so I managed to pull a few strings and, thanks to Adam, I got us a Bullhead for you to practice with. A few of our local members agreed to chip in as well and volunteered eleven computers and some extra parts, as well as some Lien and what they could get about the area. Several of them are on rotation, watching the places we know about, and they'll be sending us pictures of everyone who enters and exits. Rodrick is watching the news, to see if anything important comes up."

I think that last part was directed at Adam, but I nodded anyway. I was smart and wise enough to know I couldn't have done that in her place; neither intelligence nor wisdom were replacements for connections. Or experience, I suppose.

"Way to go, Blake," I said. "Then there's a few things we're gonna need to do. Like I told Adam here, I can gain the first ten or so levels of a skill pretty quickly if I train them right, but after that it starts getting harder and harder to improve. Thanks to you, Tukson, and Adam, I got all the basic skills and I had a chance to prepare for the inevitable, but now we're gonna need to use the time we have left to the fullest—and I'm going to need you and Adam to help me on that front."

"I assume you'll be wanting me to assist you with Stealth and Disguise," Blake asked.

"Yup," I nodded. "I may also need some help getting something else; a suit of armor."

Blake frowned, brow furrowing.

"I thought we'd already decided on your disguise?" She said.

"It's not for my disguise," I shook my head. "It's for my training. Weight training, specifically."

"First games, now cartoons?" Adam shook his head, obviously getting the reference. "Well, it shouldn't be an issue with your body. Maybe it'll work."

"I know for sure it does," I answered, glad he understood. "I've been training for a week with my own armor, plus my sword and shield—but the whole thing only weighs about fifteen, twenty kilos. A well-made suit of the stuff can weigh anywhere from thirty to fifty; I was going to work my way up to that, but considering the circumstances…"

"How much is that going to cost?" Blake asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Not a penny, hopefully, since we'll just be taking the materials," I told her, flexing my gauntleted fingers. "I've been keeping Crocea here on constantly to get him leveled—I don't have a lot of faith in my Crafting skill, but with his help and some practice, it should be doable. I don't need it to be good as armor, yet, I just need it to do what I want which is mainly to be heavy. Once I have the armor, Adam and I will do some training at night."

"Grimm," He guessed. "Might as well gain some levels and grind your skills while you're at it."

I gave him a thumbs up.

"I'll fly us there and back in the Bullhead and get as much practice as possible on that front, but I'll wear the armor as long as I can, even in the day."

"The last time I left you drive me anywhere, I ended up flying into the middle of the road in front of a hostile giant robot," Adam noted evenly.

"Well, this time, wear a seatbelt," I advised. "When we're not doing that, I'll be working on my other stuff, like Computers. We still need to get the manual for the airship, right?"

Blake nodded.

"You're going to use a virus?" She asked and I shrugged, wondering how much experience she had at this type of thing. I was guessing not a lot.

"Well, I guess," I said. "Getting it that way would be pointlessly difficult, but I'll grind the skill as much as possible, since it'll help later—so we'll call that plan C or D, I guess."

Blake stared at me, tilting her head.

"And plan A?"

I smiled.

"There are a few things you need to know about hacking—it's not like in the movies," I told her. "First of all, and most importantly, never forget that people are stupid."

XxXXxX

12. Threadmark: Chapter 12 - Infiltration

MurazorChief EncyclopedistSuper Awesome Happy Fun Time

The Games We Play
Infiltration

At times like this, I thought back to the question I first asked my mom, about the difference between Intelligence and Wisdom. To be honest, back then I'd mainly just trusted her and had taken her word for it—though even now, there were a lot of times I wasn't sure about the difference. Hell, there were times I even wondered if I was wise and how I could tell. What did that fifty-five on my character sheet mean, really? I could test how strong, fast, tough, and, though it was a bit more difficult, even how smart I was, but how could I do that for wisdom? It wasn't easy.

But then there were moments like these when I thought maybe, just maybe, I could see it.

Blake and Tukson had provided me with more than my fair share of books about computers—stuff about computer languages, how to build computers, how to network them properly, security, hacking, on and on trying to prepare me for this mission. By the time I'd devoured everything they'd given me, I…well, I wouldn't claim to be a master at any of the stuff, but I had options and skills. My Intelligence showed me all the ways I could use that information, put what I had to use. Within minutes, I had rough plans for half a dozen viruses that I could send through emails, downloads, and more. I had ideas to figure out who had access to what, to find system admins and project heads or perhaps even where the company's server farms were located. A few minutes of browsing on my scroll and the right phrasing led me to some web applications for several programs I could set up to try and brute force it after I got a good enough computer.

Wisdom, though, told me I shouldn't do any of that stuff. It said all those ways would be impractical at best, taking weeks of effort if they worked at all, which they probably wouldn't. In the movies, there would be a lot of skulls and geometric shapes and cool, flowing lines of code while I used my lightning fast reflexes to type on my keyboard, but in reality what probably would of happened is that I'd have spent at least several days planning and writing code and building the computers I'd need, set the program running, and then reloaded pages a lot to see what happened. Or just walked away and come back a few hours or days later, after it was done trying stuff.

And maybe I'd have found something, some weak point I could then exploit, possibly even a really useful one to do exactly what I wanted.

But I was kind of doubting I'd find anything major any time soon. I was sure the Schnee Dust Company spent some ungodly amount of money on all their security and had a bunch of people watching things and if they really had to, they'd probably just shut their computers off if they noticed something wrong. People always seem to forget about that in movies and stuff; the all-powerful off switch and reset button. Even if I'd had several more weeks or a few months to prepare and test, I wouldn't try that method. I might do it in my free time because it turns out they pay anywhere from five hundred to forty thousand lien if you do find something and report it—which also meant I'd need to find something that no one else had found and corrected—but as a way to accomplish my current goal? No.

Because Wisdom said I didn't need to. It said that those methods were needlessly difficult and I didn't need to bother hunting down weaknesses when the biggest one was already right before my eyes. Behind those defenses, behind the probably millions or billions of Lien the Schnee Dust Company had spent on cyber security, behind everything like that—I was facing people. A large group of people, perhaps, which greatly outnumbered me, but that was to my advantage in this case, not theirs. After all, I didn't have to outwit everybody in that group, I just had to outwit a person who had the information I needed.

And I figured a lot of people had that information, or at least could get to it. Sure, it wasn't publicknowledge, but it was a top-of-the-line, cutting edge new airship. You can't build something like that secretly, not really. How many people need to be involved in the planning for something like that? The countless trials at every stage of the development? The programming? The shipping of materials, the budgeting, the planning, engineering, construction, error checking? People were going to have to go over it repeatedly to make sure everything meets the proper criteria and safety regulations and then there were the people outside the company who were going to go over it. Probably the advertising department had been involved extensively, designing the marketing campaign for after it was finished, plus who knows how many project directors, however many test pilots, on and on.

Did all those people have exactly the information I needed? No, probably not. But the point was, this 'secret airship' was secret only in the sense that we and the public didn't know anything about it. In even the most conservative estimate, hundreds of people were involved in the project; more realistically, there were probably tens of thousands with various levels of separation.

It's said there's an idiot in every crowd. How many were there in a crowd that size?

"Before we get started, let's get a few things straight," I said as I shifted through the trash the White Fang had provided me with, using Observe to sort things out quickly. "First off, passwords. People aren't very good at making them. There's a lot of reasons why that you can find out easily if you look online; general, people have a hard time memorizing something past seven or eight digits if there's no meaning attached to them, so they use things like words and dates and stuff instead—but things like that don't make very good passwords, especially not the words people tend to choose. I could get into how many combinations a computer can guess per second, but even ignoring that, you can look up a list of the most common passwords. Take a guess at what some of the most common are."

A dark-skinned man with folded dog ears set a box down in front of me, another bundle of uneven trash. I was mainly interested in the papers and had already begun sorting useful stuff into a pile, but it was easier to just have them bring me everything because you never know what you might find. And I meant that literally—it's kind of stunning what people just throw out.

The various Faunus in the room looked at me nervously. I was already in costume, practicing my disguise, and I don't think they knew what to make of me yet except that I was with Blake and Adam—who were obviously well respected and high-ranking—and that I was giving orders without either of those two complaining. These guys seemed a bit intimidated by me as a result, though it could also be Adam who was looming silently behind me for lack of anything else to do.

When none of them replied, however, he was the one to speak up.

"Stupid stuff," He guessed with a bored sounding tone.

"Stupid stuff," I agreed. "The most common password in the world is, perhaps inevitably, 'password.' The second most common is '123456.' From there, you get variations like '12345678' and '654321,' words like 'pussy' and 'penis,' the same character repeated some number of times like '111111' or seven sevens, easily recognizable patterns on keyboards like 'qwerty,' and common, popular words and phrases. A lot of people tend to make the password the name of the website or application they're accessing, so 'Schnee' itself is also a common one, and of course there's the enormous number of people who use their birthdays or some other meaningful date. I went through the trouble of printing off a list for you all; if your password is on this list, go change it."

I handed the list to the dog Faunus who retreated quickly, grimacing after a short glance at the long list.

"One in every nine people use a password on that list. One in fifty use one of the top twenty. Odds are good we could use that list to get what we need, given some time," I said. "That's our backup plan if our current strategy doesn't work and we'll likely need your help for that as it's relatively manpower extensive. However, thanks to your help thus far, I don't predict it will be necessary."

I saw several of them shift as if to ask, but then they seemed to think better of it. I just smiled cryptically at them.

"For now, this should be enough," I said, nodding my head at the pile of garbage I'd accumulated. "I—and the White Fang—thank you for your help. If you would be willing to give us a bit more of your time, we'll be proceeding to site be for a secondary mission, but I understand if you wish to go home now."

"That's it?" The dog-man asked after a minute, hands twitching towards the box he'd dropped off. "It's only been an hour…"

"I believe in working smarter, not harder," I replied calmly. "The secondary mission shouldn't take much longer than this one, though there will be a bit more heavy lifting involved. Nothing dangerous, I assure you, but I wouldn't mind your help. If you will excuse me, gentlemen."

I emptied on of the boxes and replaced its contents with my horde, arranging it so that the most important bits were on top, and then lifted it and left the room with Adam trailing behind me. I heard whispers as I left, the Faunus I'd left behind already talking about me, but my mind was on other things.

"So what's with the trash?" Adam asked after a minute and I was a bit surprised it'd taken him that long.

I smiled again but didn't look at him.

"Haven't you heard? One man's trash is another man's treasure, Adam."

"Ah," He said and was silent for a few steps. "So what's with the trashy treasure."

I snorted and looked down at the box—and really this was a great example of one man's trash being another man's treasure, purely because of whose trash it was. I'd enlisted the aid of the local White Fang to go through the Schnee Company's trash through Blake, scrounging up the things that hundreds of employees thoughtlessly threw away—which was a lot. There wasn't a master list of passwords or a folder stamped 'Top Secret' or anything, but there didn't need to be. There were reports, documents, print offs for presentations, and countless other things; tiny bits and pieces you could take as a whole to get a larger picture.

And I'd struck gold, if not in a way that might have been immediately obvious to most people. I'd been able to piece it together eventually even if I hadn't found a convenient graph, but it didn't even take that much effort because there'd been several.

I held up my greatest prize.

"This beauty is what's called an Organization Chart," I told him. "As its name implies, it's a chart of an Organization—of the local branch of the Schnee Dust Company, specifically. Its purpose is to tell people in the organization who's responsible for what. Note that beside their names are their email addresses. Also recall those 'Remember Me' checkboxes we use on most sites. In most cases, getting into someone's email is actually fairly simple, given access to, say, their work computer or something similar."

"Is that where Blake left to after you talked?" He asked. "Looking at other people's computers?"

"Pretty much," I shrugged. "I gave her one of the copies and she's running recon and stuff, too. I told her that if that wasn't enough, she should search the computer for any files labeled 'accounts' or 'info' or 'passwords,' too, and then move on. Once we have their email well…you'd be amazed. That's plan B, for 'Blake.' You and I will be working on something else."

Adam sighed tiredly but played along.

"Oh? And what's plan A?" He asked.

"We'll be using this copy of the chart for something a bit different," I said and allowed the suspense to build for a moment. "See these scroll numbers? We're going to call people…and ask for the passwords to things like the company server."

"Ask them?" Adam asked disbelievingly.

"Our boss needs us to do something," I said seriously. "It's very important, but we forgot the password."

Adam stared at me for a moment before shaking his head.

"When I dreamed of being a spy as a kid, it was a lot cooler than this," He stated flatly. "You're ruining the magic."

"Just wait until we go dumpster diving," I said, wagging my eyebrows.

XxXXxX

True to my word, we were shifting through trash within the hour. The simple fact of the matter was that people threw out a lot of stuff without thinking about it. Company or not, you'd be amazed at what people put in the garbage—even ignoring the little stuff which can add up a lot if you put some work into it, there's the stuff they throw out just to get it out of the house. A few years pass and the family upgrades their scrolls or hologram projectors or whatever; what do they do with the old ones? All sorts of things. They can leave them somewhere to gather dust or give them to a friend or try to sell them or any number of other things.

But a lot of the time, people just throw them out.

Thanks to Crocea Mors' guidance and some long poles to poke around with, we had found a lot of stuff even before the others showed up. I checked my scroll and saw that Blake had forwarded me a fair number of emails which seemed promising, as well as a steadily growing list of usernames and passwords, which brightened my day somewhat. By the time the next car pulled up, Adam and I were carrying a large hologram generator that must have been relatively new, but had somehow been cracked. At the fourth place we checked, we found a set of scrolls that might have been a few years old at most—I assumed a family had gotten new ones and thrown the old ones out. With the White Fang working together and following my orders carefully, we soon had a small mountain of devices in various states of disrepair.

Those were half my interest in this, but that was for later. For now, I was more interested in the scrap metal we'd gathered en masse. It was easy enough to gather to get any number of forms. Aluminum, of course, was trivial to find in large quantities and iron and steel were pretty much everywhere, and in short order I had all the metal in the world to play with.

And after several days of grinding Crocea Mors, I was ready to play.

"Blake get what you wanted?" Adam asked as I got everything ready.

"More or less," I replied absently. "She got into plenty of email accounts, at least, and that's a goldmine on its own. I'll have to search through to see what I can find, though, and I'll make a few calls once it gets late enough to make people feel really bad for a put upon new guy. It shouldn't be an issue though and with any luck we won't even have to set foot on company property."

"And if we do?"

"We'll handle that as we come to it," I promised easily. "I'd prefer not having to actually go on site, but if it becomes necessary, it shouldn't be a problem. In all likelihood, though, someone emailed themselves a copy to work on at home or something and it's just a matter of patience. If we dohave to, though, we'll run some reconnaissance, steal a scroll, and I'll walk into the building with a clipboard, a box of donuts, a coffee-holder, and a confident stride. If even that's not enough, we'll have to take a few chances. But for now, let's cross our fingers and hope that it won't be an issue; we don't want to risk anything if we don't have to."

He grunted

"What are we going to do now, then?"

"We'll prepare for what's ahead. Remember, Adam, that whatever happens, whatever difficulties arise, this is going to be the easy part. For now, we have the advantage of being proactive, because no one even knows they're supposed to be fighting us," I said. "As soon as they do, though, things are going to get hectic and that's what we need to be ready for, because our only advantage then is going to be the fact that we had time to prepare ourselves. So if you'll excuse me, Crocea Mors and I have something to do."

I knelt beside the pile of junk we'd gathered into the hideout, gauntleted hand touching the floor as I closed my eyes and focused on the image in my head. I imagined aluminum cans and metal parts liquefying into a wide, controlled puddle before beginning to move—and then felt my Aura flowing out of me as if through a sieve. When I opened my eyes at a crumbling, crunching sound, I saw cans being crushed and flattened, a broken toaster cracking along the edges, parts tearing free of old toys, and screws twisting free. As they did, as metal parts and pieces clattered to the floors, they all but jumped in place, several pieces hoping up and down. After a few seconds, gleaming droplets seemed to almost condense on their sides before flowing free, crawling across the floor towards me until they touched my armored hands and began to climb up them with increasing speed.

The flowing metal was surprisingly cold as it touched my skin and climbed up my arms. More drops of metal joined the stream with every second, leaving tracks of metal across my bare skin. I began my work just above my elbows, building my armor as the metal progressed. I flexed my arms as I did, making sure I knew exactly how wide each piece needed to be, and they constructed it based on that, the metal alternatively tight against my skin and giving it room. In places where solid armor wouldn't work and beneath it, I thought smaller, of links of chain so small they could barely be seen, fine enough to be almost like cloth. I guiding the metal over my feet, next, and up my legs, before four streams converged upon my chest, before it went up my neck and over my head. I built the helmet around the mask I wore now and covered my lower face as well with air holes built into the mask.

It wasn't fancy, even though my control over metal gave me a great advantage. Most of the materials I used weren't ideal, either. Ignoring the metallic cloth, it was nothing but smooth surfaces and hard, heavy plates. Maybe when this was over and my affinity for metal even greater, I'd work on something stronger and more detailed, but that wasn't the purpose of this. Even protecting me wasn't really the point, though the defense rating was decent and I was sure Crocea Mors would put it to good use. I was only after the training it would provide.

Even with the stat boost of my Aura, getting to my feet was a bit of an effort, as unused to the new weight I was carrying as I was. Counting Crocea Mors, I must have been carrying sixty kilos and it was weighing upon me in ways I'd never had to deal with be for, changing how I had to do even basic things like balance myself—and it was going to take time to get used to that.

I glanced at the windows that appeared before me, informing me of the levels I'd gained in Craft by making the armor and the new blueprint I'd created, and then turned to look at Adam who'd waited silently while I worked.

"What do you think?"

"I've seen worse," He said, looking me up and down. "But you don't seem to have any way to take it off."

"I'll have to melt it every time," I said, voice muffled slightly by the piece in front of my mouth. "Both to take it off and put it back on. Figured it'd be good Crafting experience. I'll change it once I grind that some, but making it hard to remove is fine for now, since I don't intend to remove it unless I have to."

Adam hummed in understanding, pushing himself off the wall and striding closer to me. He knocked on my chest plate with a fist and then nodded to himself about something.

"You sure you're gonna be able to fight in that?"

"Only one way to find out. Feel like going for a spin in the Bullhead?"

Adam grunted again.

"First you wanted me to help you move trash. Now you want to go play with monsters," He said. "No offense, but hanging out with you isn't much fun."

"Hey, if its fun you want, I'll be happy to oblige," I smiled. "I never got to fly an aircraft before. Let's see if we can find a Nevermore or something to practice on, yeah?"

Adam just sighed.

XxXXxX