AN: So, this was the first week of college. I got English and Image Manipulation two days of the week and Effective Speaking one day of the week. All in all, it's pretty nice. It does cut into my free time though, and I'm looking into getting a job at the library so that's even more of my time ate up, but what can you do?
This is just a general heads up, but I may not update very often because of my obvious responsibilities as a college student. I hope you all understand.
Well, that's all I have to say. Onto Jaune's adventure...
After closing the notification, Jaune began jogging in the direction of the explosion. He didn't have to look very far, it seemed as though something had exploded in the front courtyard. He saw Blake walking away from the scene with a smug sort of stride, and a girl dressed in all white heading in the opposite direction, silently fuming by the look of it.
He couldn't see the girl in white's Overview box, so he couldn't identify her. But something in the core of his being told him he didn't want to get on her bad side.
He called out to Blake, but didn't get a response. She kept walking, reading her book again, before disappearing behind one of the many buildings surrounding the courtyard.
He sighed, feeling more and more depressed over the misunderstanding with Blake.
'How am I supposed to fix a first impression? Just apologize? Is it that simple?' He cursed his social awkwardness.
He was so lost in his thoughts of how to fix his quickly deteriorating relationship with her that he almost didn't see the girl in red staring dejectedly above the crater she was lying in. He didn't quite grasp what had happened, but the look of absolute defeat on her face was enough motivation for him to temporarily put his own problems aside to help a stranger.
'I guess I'm not the only one having a horrible first day...'
He gathered his confidence and strode over to her prone position, making sure he didn't look like the awkward teen he was. He got within range of her Overview and tried to read her name, but instead he saw something strange.
?
"?"
Lvl ?
He stopped in his tracks.
'I can't see her Overview? But I could see Blake's fine, so why not hers?'
When no answer magically came to him, like he hoped it would, he continued forward.
Event: The Prodigy And The Poser
Jaune was really starting to think his Semblance had some sort of grudge against him. If his Stats weren't enough of a reminder of how weak he was, the Titles and Events really hit it home.
The Event notification closed, and he continued towards the girl, who had sat up and seemed to be wiping her eyes.
'Is she crying? Crap!' She must have thought she was being avoided and let her feelings get to her. He needed to remedy this!
Quickening his pace, he hurried to her side. He held his hand out, inviting her to take it, and introduced himself.
"Hey... I'm Jaune."
'Smooth, Arc.' He thought sarcastically.
After hearing his voice, the girl hurriedly finished wiping her eyes and looked up. Slightly confused, she squinted to get a better look at his shadowed face, and he hoped she didn't recognize him from the airship. He breathed a sigh of relief when she smiled and took his outstretched hand.
"Ruby..." Well, at least they both sounded like awkward teens. Thing in common number one!
…
Yeah, that didn't really make him feel any better, but hey! At least she didn't recognize him!
She snickered as she got to her feet, "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"
'Of course...'
'Blip'
Congratulations! You've made your first friend and unlocked the Friend/Party Menu. Tap the Hint to check it out!
A bar with the word 'Hint' appeared in the corner of his vision following the notification.
Jaune ignored the pop up until it closed by itself, instead focusing on explaining to Ruby the very intricate and underrated issue that was motion sickness.
"All I'm saying is; motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on." Jaune motioned with his hands to accentuate his point.
It had only been a few minutes since he met Ruby, but he was already feeling much more comfortable now that he had someone who was just as socially awkward as himself to relate to. Even if the only thing they had to talk about was his motion sickness.
"Look, I'm sorry. Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind." She explained, which didn't exactly help Jaune's shortening fuse.
Somehow, that damned nickname had come back to haunt him. It was like elementary school all over again!
'I just had to jinx myself, didn't I? Well, if I'm Vomit Boy...'
"Oh yeah, what if I called you Crater Face!?" He retorted rather poorly. Though, it still got a rise out of her nonetheless.
The nickname was a great disservice to the girl he had somehow befriended, who, as the Event had said, was a prodigy. Jaune took a look at her now unlocked Overview above her head and felt his pride recede in shame.
Ruby Rose
"Crimson Death"
Lvl 7
So, as it turned out, he had to know the person before their Overview appeared above their head. Something his Semblance had failed to mention in the Tutorial, and something that didn't occur in Heroes Awakened whatsoever.
But onto the outrageous part, she was two levels higher than Blake! Two! And she was supposedly younger, if her explanation of her older sister ditching her was anything to go by. He was outclassed by a little girl who had exploded within ten minutes of getting off the airship.
'Not that I think less of her, of course not. But... it's just... really? I'm really that weak?'
His eyes quickly shifted back to her own fascinating silver as she bristled, frowning in the way Jaune's adorable little sisters would when they didn't get a cookie before dinner.
"Hey! That explosion was an accident!" She cried indignantly, effectively ending any argument he may have had with her pout.
Jaune saw a rare opportunity to be suave in the lull of the conversation, remembering the line his Dad had told him to use when introducing himself. As he was about to recite it, he remembered Janis' advice.
'I keep accidentally falling back on Dad's tips out of habit. That's exactly what I need to fix.' He mentally scolded himself. 'Don't listen to Dad, you're not him. You're your own man, Jaune Arc. Now do this right!'
Jaune stopped, making Ruby stop as well with a questioning tilt of her head, and turned to face her. He took a hero's pose with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out.
"Well, I'm Jaune Arc, not Vomit Boy. I may not look like much now, but by the time we graduate I'll be a hero and you won't be laughing then." He closed his eyes and turned his nose slightly up, trying to imitate the heroes on Saturday morning cartoons. When Ruby didn't respond after a few seconds, he cracked one eye open to see what she was doing.
She stood there, completely awestruck and gaping like a surprised goldfish. Jaune dropped his act, both confused and concerned for her, waving a hand in front of her face to get her attention.
"You okay, Ruby?" He was met with a quick shake of her head, apparently to help her return to the land of the living, and she seemed to come back to her senses.
"Sorry, you just looked like a knight there for a second, hehe..."
Jaune flinched at the mention of that word.
'Knight...'
It didn't hold the same meaning it did when he was a kid.
Knights were the heroes that saved the Princess from the Grimm Dragon. He had always looked up to those strong, selfless men in shining armor. Ever since he was a kid, he tried to live up to that ideal so hard, but with naught to show for it.
He wasn't a knight, he could never be a knight. He had already tried, and disappointed his family in the process.
He fingered his plain sword, the only thing marking him as a warrior, and thought, 'If I'm not a knight, what am I?'
Ruby shifted her weight from foot to foot, waiting for him to respond and end the awkward silence that followed her embarrassing admittance. Realizing he wasn't going to speak, her eyes wandered for a topic to talk about. Taking a glance at him tapping his weapon, she grinned.
"So... I got this thing." A loud swish and thud, as metal shifted and impaled itself in the ground, broke Jaune out of his thoughts. He stared at the massive red farming tool the little reaper just produced with a wary curiosity.
"Is... that a scythe?" Just as he questioned this, a box appeared next her weapon in smaller text than any of the previous boxes.
Crescent Rose (One-of-a-kind)
Owner: Ruby Rose
The construction of Ruby Rose and beloved bringer of death to all Grimm she comes across. Forged in the Smithies of Signal, much care and planning went into this instrument of death, and it has a Grimm kill record to show for it. It is truly a weapon befitting The Reaper himself.
Type: Gunblade
Capacity: 10
Skill: Polearm Mastery/Scoped Rifle Mastery
Effects: Intimidation and Fear
Info: Weak against armored opponents.
"Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves, they're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool..." -Ruby Rose
As Jaune gaped at the massive scythe, another hint popped into the corner of his vision, briefly flashing to alert him to it's presence before merging with the already waiting hint and notifying him that he had two hints to check.
He was too busy questioning how Ruby could wield such a large, metal death machine to pay it much attention though.
'And did my Semblance quote her? But she's never said that to me, so did it get it from somewhere else? How? Aren't Semblances normally limited to the user and not the world around them?'
'Does this mean The Gamer can affect things around me instead of just being a stat tracker?'
Ruby cocking her oversized farming tool brought Jaune back from his thoughts.
"It's also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle." She added, confusing Jaune further.
"A..." he glanced at the Info Box hovering next to the blade, "… gun?" Ruby rewarded his borrowed knowledge with an excited nod. "That's cool!" He may not know much about weapons, but he definitely knew when something was awesome, and those Stats spoke for themselves.
Just as he was feeling good about himself, Ruby threw him for a loop.
"So, what do you got?" Jaune gave surprised, "Oh!", before clumsily unsheathing his sword from his hip.
"Well, I've got this... sword." He held the black blade in front of her face, in what Jaune thought was a dangerously close proximity. Ruby didn't seem frightened in the least about being so close to a sharp object though. In fact, she seemed elated.
She ooh!-ed, expecting more, but quickly realized that was all he had. Instead, she took a long look at the straight edged blade, inspecting it with the eye of a master smith. She ran her fingers along the flat side of the edge, looking for any chinks or scratches, but finding none.
She hummed in approval, "You take good care of this sword, Jaune. The blade is perfect." Jaune could only smile and pretend he didn't bash a stump to test it out.
But then he had a thought.
'What if Ruby can help me make an actual weapon? The info box did say she made her own super-scythe, so she could teach me too. I could have a super cool, one-of-a-kind weapon like hers!'
He really liked the idea of becoming a hero with a weapon he made. So, with his mind made, he decided to tell her the truth. Or at least, the half-truth he told Blake.
"Actually, Ruby, this isn't my normal weapon," she looked up at him quizzically, "I bought this at a pawn shop as a replacement. My old sword kinda broke during a training session." He gave her a lopsided smile as a way of covering up his white lie.
"Really? Well that sucks." She looked down, mourning the death of his fictional blade, before jerking her head up with a fire behind her eyes. Jaune recoiled a bit in surprise as she got face-to-face with him. "Are you gonna make a new one?! Because I could help! C'mon, please?" She fluttered her eyelashes, obviously trying to make him give in even though he already decided to ask her for help. He smiled down on her, honestly happy that he made such a good friend.
"I would really appreciate that Ruby," he had to resist the temptation to pat her head like he did with his little sisters, "I've never really used a forge before anyways." He added as an afterthought. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Didn't you make your weapon in school?" Jaune felt his sweat begin to drop again. He wasn't prepared for this question!
"Uhh, no... I-I was home schooled." He threw out yet another half-truth. "My Dad made me a sword when I started training, and I used it ever since." Ruby frowned, and Jaune feared he had said something he shouldn't have.
"You shouldn't do that, Jaune. Weapons are an extension of our soul! What's the point if we don't make them ourselves?" At this, Jaune both relaxed and smiled. He was very glad he met Ruby, she seemed like a wonderful Huntress already.
Unlike him, who had to rely on others and lie to even get a chance to prove himself.
He knocked that thought away, focusing instead on Ruby's gushing about weapons and how a Hunter should treat them. She suddenly switched tempo and started naming off all the unique weapons she had seen at Beacon so far.
Jaune decided to stop her at the cudgel/sawed-off shotgun combo.
"Hey, Ruby?" She stopped her tirade mid-sentence to answer him.
"Yes, Jaune?" Jaune took a look at their surroundings. During their walk, they stopped in some sort of garden area.
"Where are we?" He gestured to their general vicinity.
"Ummmm..." she trailed off as she looked around, finding no one in sight and not a single landmark she recognized, before turning back to him and shrugging awkwardly.
He sighed.
'Just great...'
"There it is!" Ruby called as she sped ahead of Jaune at Mach 2.
Jaune himself was panting heavily from the short run there. At some point, a green bar appeared in the corner of his vision, informing him of his Stamina's status. No numbers to guide him, just the green bar draining rapidly.
Two minutes.
It had only taken two minutes for his Stamina to run dry. That seemed really pathetic, even if his Stamina was only two hundred. With some basic math, he knew that every hundred Stamina points stood for roughly a minute of exertion. And with that knowledge, not to mention his burning lungs, he decided he was going to jog more often.
It was lucky they ran into one of the professors that worked at Beacon, Professor Peach if he remembered her name right. It would have taken much longer for them to find the Auditorium without her directions.
He arrived at the entrance much later than Ruby, still panting while placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath. He could practically hear the flashing red Stamina bar begging him to rest.
He looked up at Ruby, wondering how she could run so fast and not be winded at all.
"Ruby! Over here, I saved you a spot!" Jaune turned his tired head in the direction of the shout, and audibly groaned.
It was the girl he nearly puked on. Of course she had to know Ruby, why would the gods ever make it easy for him?
Ruby turned to Jaune, "That's my sister Yang that I told you about." Jaune nodded glumly. "Well, I gotta go. I'll see you after the ceremony." And with that, she took off in the direction of her sister.
"Hey, wait!" Just like with Blake, his extended hand did nothing to stop her. "We were supposed to talk about... my... weapon... you know what, never mind." He could talk to her later, right now he needed to find a spot to watch the ceremony.
Before he started moving, he received another message.
Event Completed: The Prodigy And The Poser
Title gained: Friend Of Death
Friend successfully made! Charisma +1!
He closed the message as he walked straight through the holographic text. He didn't want to bother figuring out how he gained Charisma, but his brain chugged along anyway.
'Maybe it's because I made a friend. But then, is that the only way? Do I have to specifically make friends? Or is it just talking to people in general?'
He pushed the many questions out of his head as he continued forward. He would have to test it out later.
Maneuvering between the many people, he noted that everyone, even the few animals allowed on campus, had a box containing the same three lines of text. Most of them were question marks, since he hadn't met very many people yet, but it gave his world a whole new look, like the Full-Dive game systems Atlas recently started developing. It was pretty cool, if he was honest.
He came to a stop at the back of the Auditorium, near the side exit, and took a look around.
He scanned the large, open room for a clear spot. He thought he saw a Blake somewhere in the crowd opposite of Ruby, and immediately pushed his way past people to get to her, thinking that now was as good a time to apologize as any. When he reached the spot where he saw her, though, she was long gone.
Sighing to himself, he made his way back to the side exit, where he found a nice quiet area with no one around. He didn't feel like watching the ceremony anymore, and instead wanted to check the hints that had been following him around. With no one paying him any attention, he opened the first hint.
Hint: You've unlocked the Friends/Party Menu in the Relationships Tab.
Jaune reread that very, very unhelpful hint a few times before sighing and closing it.
'Parties? That was never a feature in Heroes Awakened. It was all singleplayer, with the hero of the land saving people and making everyone happy. There wasn't any party system. Why didn't it include that in the tutorial? Why is it suddenly only giving me the barebones of information?'
Deciding he'd figure it out eventually, meaning later, he opened the next hint.
Hint: To check the Stats of an Item, just look at it until an Info Box appears next to it.
Well, that was simple. Actually, he already knew that, so it was completely useless!
While it WAS completely useless, it did remind him of his own weapon. Curious, Jaune unsheathed his simple sword and held it in front of him. Within a few seconds, a small Info Box 'blipped' into existence, much like how Ruby's Crescent Rose had done.
? (?)
Owner: Jaune Arc
Handed down and traded through generations of warriors and travelers, this sword had no one to call a master. It had been used in many legendary battles with no name and no history until it ended up in a pawn shop in a country village, and finally in the hands of an ordinary boy with extraordinary dreams.
Type: Bastard Sword
Skill: Swordsmanship Mastery
Effects: Arrogance
Info: Ineffective until level 3.
"Well, I've got this... sword." -Jaune Arc
Jaune found himself, once again, confused by the lack of information.
'More question marks and flavor text? Arrogance effect? Ineffective?'
More and more questions were appearing from thin air, and Jaune had no time to find any answers for them. It was really starting to get on his nerves.
The info screen was forcibly closed when a large boy bumped into Jaune, sending his sword clattering to the ground. Jaune quickly crouched to retrieve it, but the boy who had bumped into him put his large, armored boot on the blade to stop him. Jaune cautiously looked up.
Towering a full head over his normal height, the chestnut-haired boy was almost as intimidating as Crescent Rose. He had the look of a knight; large, bulky armor across most of his body, save for the joints and head, but his demeanor gave off a very different impression than that of a noble man of honor.
'Wow, I didn't know you could go from really frustrated to scared crapless in less than a second. Hehe, the more you know...'
"Don't you know how to apologize, loser?" The boy sneered. Jaune swiveled his head left and right before pointing to himself questioningly. "Yeah, you. It's not nice to bump into other people without an apology." The boy had a sinister smile plastered on his face with every condescending syllable, raising his voice to garner more attention.
Jaune noticed that most of the other students were hurrying out the doors, after the Headmasters speech apparently ended while he wasn't paying attention. They were either giving him sympathetic looks or glancing at him out of the corner of their eyes. It looked like they all were rooting for him, offering silent support.
Yet no one stopped.
"Well? Are you gonna apologize, or not?" The boy seemed to be getting impatient, and Jaune wondered if he would actually try to start a fight in such an open area. He was a bully, but he wasn't stupid was he?
That question reminded Jaune of the bullies in his old school, the only one he ever went to before he was pulled for homeschooling. They were brutes, picking on the weaker because they could, which meant Jaune was one of their main targets.
That was going to happen again, he was going to be a target because of his weakness. It was all going to repeat. The beatings when no one was looking, the crumbled papers of insults, the jeers and sneers, all of it.
'Isn't this supposed to be a school for heroes? Where are all the gallant horses and smiling fighters of justice? Am I just going to be pushed down, stomped on like I'm nothing, while the future generation of Huntsman and Huntresses watch from the sidelines? Aren't they here to help the weak? Aren't they the strong?'
'You're your own man, Jaune. Now do this right!' His own words from earlier that day echoed within him.
No, he wasn't the same Jaune Arc as before. He was Jaune Arc, Huntsman-in-training, now. Even if he lied and cheated to gain that title, it was still who he was.
He wasn't as strong as his peers, not even Ruby or his own flesh and blood sisters. He definitely wasn't as strong as this bully. But, he had to take a chance at some point, had to prove he could stand just as tall as the rest of them.
He wanted to be someone people could look up to, someone great, and nothing was getting in his way.
"No." The boy blinked at Jaune's downturned face.
"What was that?" Jaune stood to his full height, still being dwarfed but not letting the difference in size affect him.
At least on the outside, he was a cowering mess on the inside, but he couldn't let his own cowardice become his defining trait. He had to take a chance at some point, so he might as well start right away.
He met the bully's gaze, making the false-knight take a step back in surprise from the look of resolve in his eyes.
"I said no. You bumped into me, you apologize." It took everything within Jaune to stop his voice from shaking. He knew that if his bet didn't pay off, he was going to get the crap kicked out of him and become a laughing stock. But he wouldn't allow himself to become the coward he was before.
A few of the students actually stopped when they heard his challenge. A crowd began to form around them, and Jaune's escape routes were cut off by the various bodies. His fate was sealed, it seemed. He just hoped that fate had planned more than seventeen years for him.
The false-knight clenched his fist, ready to leap at him and tear his throat out, while Jaune tensed his legs to dodge as best he could in the crowded circle. A sudden shout caused them both to stop and the surrounding crowd to part like the sea in wake of a Mistrali battleship.
Luck +1!
'Wha-?'
His internal question was cut off as the source of the shout came into view.
"What is going on here!?" A blonde woman that Jaune was sure he'd seen somewhere before came to stand in between the two of them. She carried a clipboard with a list of first-year students, which she promptly checked for their names. "Mr. Arc?" She gave him a glare that put his sister's to shame before turning to the other boy. "Mr. Winchester? Is there a problem here?"
The two boys shared a look, and that was when Jaune realized he had just become a prime target for the bully. Whatever the false-knight was planning, Jaune knew he wouldn't be getting away Scot-free.
"Not at all, ma'am." Jaune said as he bent down to retrieve his weapon, which was free of the boot now that the Professor was there. The other boy, Something Winchester, gave a halfhearted grunt in agreement.
The intercom crackled to life as the crowd dispersed.
"Professor Goodwitch, the dining hall requires your assistance. It appears we have a slight problem in the kitchen. Do hurry." The Professor turned her head up to listen to the Headmaster's announcement before sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Not again..." She looked back to the two of them. "I'll let you both off with a warning, but don't think you can pull one of these stunts again." She warned as she began her stiff, efficient walk to the dining hall.
Jaune sheathed his sword and walked out behind her, not even giving the bully another glance. He was still shaking inside, and he didn't want to see what type of expression the Winchester boy had for him.
Once he was a safe distance away, Jaune ran to the building the other first-years were streaming into, a large, castle-like, stone building that gave off the intimidation of an impenetrable fortress and the elegance of a formal gala at the same time. A black directional sign that read "Ballroom" in white text was positioned on the path leading into the building.
He entered to see many of the students setting up small areas with their luggage, but Jaune ignored them.
He hurried into the mens bathroom and stopped at a sink. Washing his face of the fear he just experienced, he finally let out a shaky breath.
Enemy gained: Cardin Winchester
Jaune stared past the notification, completely ignoring it, at his reflection in the mirror. The notification disappeared as he moved away from it. The adrenaline was finally starting to wear off, and he felt the fear knot itself in the pit of his stomach.
"That was terrifying..." He wiped his face with a paper towel from the nearby dispenser before realizing he wasn't alone. He turned to the only other occupant of the mens bathroom, a mysterious boy with a striking pink highlight. Jaune eyed it, wondering if it was natural or dyed.
"Uh, hi. I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc." He introduced himself, only slightly less awkwardly than the last few times. The boy quickly finished brushing his teeth, spitting toothpaste into the running sink.
"Lie Ren. Just call me Ren." The boy returned impassively, only glancing at Jaune out of the corner of his eye while washing his toothbrush. The lull in the conversation turned into full-blown silence quicker than Jaune was comfortable with.
"Um, so where are we sleeping?" He pushed on.
"Here." Was Ren's simple answer. Jaune got the feeling he was a man of few words.
"What?" Jaune was genuinely surprised that they'd be sleeping in the ballroom, and not in, say, a comfy bed to shake off the jet lag.
"Ms. Goodwitch announced that in the Auditorium." Ren finished washing his toothbrush and slipped it back in it's carrying case. He turned to give Jaune his full attention.
"Oh. Yeah, I was... out of it. I missed the entire speech. So, we just sleep on the floor or...?" Jaune trailed off, not sure if he was asking a valid question or just making a fool of himself.
"No, we were told to bring accommodations. The school sent out an email before we got here." Jaune mentally cursed his paranoia. He put a fake email on his forged information for fear of being caught through it somehow.
"Dang, I changed emails after I got accepted. I would've brought my onesie if I knew." Jaune lied easily. It was becoming second nature by now, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth.
Ren gave him a strange yet still impassive stare before voicing his thoughts.
"I don't really know you, Jaune, but somehow I think that would've been a bad idea." With the amount of quiet confidence he had saying that, Jaune felt inclined to believe him.
Jaune laughed uneasily, deciding that he had had enough of the day and just wanted to sleep.
"Well, thanks for letting me know. I'm gonna go... find a soft piece of cement, or something." Ren nodded, and Jaune quickly left to find a quiet space to think.
As Jaune laid under one of the windows in the corner of the ballroom, he thought about his first day so far. He was having a very hard time finding the silver lining of it all.
He threw up on the ship. No surprise there, really.
He met Ruby, which was one of the good points of his day. He even got her to agree to help him make a weapon, so that should be fun. Assuming he didn't get killed by the first Grimm he saw, anyhow.
He sighed.
And then there was that bully, Whatever Winchester. He didn't want to have to deal with him ever again, although that wish was very unlikely to come true. But at least he stood up for himself, that was good. Unless it came back to bite him later. Then that was bad. Very, very bad.
He shifted, trying to find a comfortable position against the itchy, carpeted floor.
'Oh, and how could I forget? I accidentally sexually assaulted a girl I just met, and a really beautiful one at that...'
He mentally scolded himself for forgetting to track her down after the speech. He got too distracted by that fake knight, Winchester. The damn bully.
He tried shifting again, but the floor was uncomfortable no matter what position he was in. He was about to give up on sleeping altogether when he heard someone sit down on the other side of the grandfather clock to his right. With nothing else to do, he let his curiosity get the better of him and took a quick peek around the corner.
And there she was, the beauty he desperately wanted to apologize to, lighting a candle to read under.
"Blake?" Said girl jumped in surprise, nearly dropping the book she had just opened.
She blinked once before answering, "Jaune?", in a slightly more surprised monotone than when he first met her. He supposed it was better than the crushing indifference she had before.
He moved out from behind the clock, thinking of the best way to apologize as he did.
Unfortunately he was interrupted before he could get the chance.
"Hello~! I believe you three may know each other?" Jaune and Blake both turned in surprise of the boisterous call.
Jaune lamented his luck even further, briefly considering getting a lucky charm of some sort, when he realized the singsong voice was actually Ruby's sister. Said sister had apparently dragged Ruby over, if Jaune was seeing Ruby's struggle to escape her sister's clutches right.
Jaune attempted to blend into the background, hoping against hope that she didn't recognize him like her sister did.
"Wait, isn't that Vomit Boy?" And of course that didn't work.
"Yes." Both Ruby and Blake answered in unison, the former covering her mouth while the latter opened her book.
"Hey! I thought we talked about this, Ruby!" He pointed an accusing finger at the fidgeting reaper, "And how do you even know what that means, Blake?" He turned to the quiet girl, who stalwartly ignored all three of them to continue with her book.
"Anyway," the blonde continued, "My name's Yang. What's yours?" She gave a beaming smile that somehow made Jaune feel insignificant.
"Um, Jaune. Jaune Arc." He held out his hand timidly and she took it, shaking it with a grip that could crush a log.
"And you?" Yang let go of his hand, which he clutched like it would fall off at any second, in favor of greeting the other unwilling participant of the conversation. Blake sighed before answering.
"Blake." Her voice held a finality that told everyone the conversation was over. But apparently Yang didn't care enough to read that far into it.
"There you go, Ruby. Blake and Jaune, now make friends." She quickly pushed her sister forward, throwing her completely under the bus-shaped spotlight.
"Uh, hi. I'm Ruby." She greeted, much more awkwardly than when Jaune met her. Blake continued to read despite the effort being put in to get her to speak. Jaune honestly thought Blake was a lost cause at this point, which he heard Yang echo in a hushed whisper. The only reason he was ever able to talk to her was because she took an interest in him first, for whatever reason.
Blake flipped a page.
'Sooooo awkward.'
"Um." Ruby bit her lip as she thought up other conversation starters. "What are you reading?" To everyone, even Yang's, surprise, Blake actually looked up.
"What?" She even lowered the book slightly! Jaune was waiting with baited breath.
"Your book. What's it about?" For the first time since Jaune had met her, which admittedly wasn't long, Blake looked genuinely surprised at that question.
"Well, it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body." As Ruby and Blake began talking about stories, Jaune took the chance to sneak away.
With Blake and Ruby actually holding up a conversation, he decided he was better off behind the clock. He didn't see any chance to apologize with Ruby and her sister hanging around. He couldn't even find a point to join in on the conversation anyway, so he decided to go investigate his Semblance more.
'How do you open the Inventory? It never explained that.'
Jaune muttered a few expletives at his lack of understanding as he got comfortable under the window again.
He tried making various motions with his hands, like the ones he had seen in demos of Virtual Reality games being developed in Atlas, all to see if they would bring a drop down menu, or select something hidden at the top of his vision, but nothing worked. Then he had an epiphany.
'It can't be that easy... can it?'
"Inventory."
'Blip'
Apparently it was that easy. The same blue box with the fancy cursive writing popped into his vision.
Weapons
Main Hand: [?]
Off Hand: [ ]
Armor
Chest: [Training Chestplate]
Legs: [ ]
Arms: [Training Spaulders]
Hands: [Fingerless Leather Gloves]
Feet: [ ]
Head: [ ]
Clothes
Shirt: [T-Shirt]
Pants: [Blue Jeans]
Jacket: [Black Hoodie]
Shoes: [Old Tennis Shoes]
Hat: [ ]
Accessories
Left Hand: [ ]
Right Hand: [ ]
Utility: [Belt]
Wrist: [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ]
It had the standard equipment; clothes, armor, weapons, and whatnot, but it also had five empty slots below the labeled equipment slots. The tutorial said that he couldn't equip things from the Inventory, but it didn't say anything about storing things. If his theory was right...
He pulled out a pencil from his pocket, holding it unsurely in front of one of the empty slots. He pushed it forward, and, like he hoped, it phased out of existence, and the slot was filled.
Weapons
Main Hand: [?]
Off Hand: [ ]
Armor
Chest: [Training Breastplate]
Legs: [ ]
Arms: [Training Spaulders]
Hands: [Fingerless Leather Gloves]
Feet: [ ]
Head: [ ]
Clothes
Shirt: [T-Shirt]
Pants: [Blue Jeans]
Jacket: [Black Hoodie]
Shoes: [Old Tennis Shoes]
Hat: [ ]
Accessories
Left Hand: [ ]
Right Hand: [ ]
Utility: [Belt]
Wrist: [ ]
[Dixon Ticonderoga HB #2] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ]
'They ARE Item Slots!'
He silently cheered his success. He quickly pulled the pencil out, which was as easy as reaching into the Inventory and grabbing it, and tried a larger item: his sword.
Weapons
Main Hand: [ ]
Off Hand: [ ]
Armor
Chest: [Training Chestplate]
Legs: [ ]
Arms: [Training Spaulders]
Hands: [Fingerless Leather Gloves]
Feet: [ ]
Head: [ ]
Clothes
Shirt: [T-Shirt]
Pants: [Blue Jeans]
Jacket: [Black Hoodie]
Shoes: [Old Tennis Shoes]
Hat: [ ]
Accessories
Left Hand: [ ]
Right Hand: [ ]
Utility: [Belt]
Wrist: [ ]
[?] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ]
'It worked!'
With this he could carry five items of, hopefully, any weight and it wouldn't encumber him. At least, he couldn't feel his sword's weight anymore, so that was his theory.
Leaving his sword in his Inventory, he navigated to the Skills Tab.
SPECIAL
S: 5 (0%)
P: 5 (78%)
E: 4 (66%)
C: 5 (23%)
I: 5 (45 %)
A: 7 (0%)
L: 8 (12%)
Skills
Swordsmanship Mastery: 15 (0%)
Light Armor Mastery: 10 (0%)
Parrying Mastery: 15 (0%)
The Gamer's Mind (Toggle)
The Gamer's Body (Toggle)
Perks
The Gamer
Jaune's finger inched towards the Swordsmanship Mastery Skill, wanting to see what would happen if he clicked on it. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for his tired body, Professor Goodwitch announced lights out, and Blake's illuminating candle was promptly extinguished, leaving Ruby, Yang, and a third, previously unheard person to stumble back to their sleeping bags, muttering apologies, profanities, and something about insufferable dolts respectively.
Maybe he missed something?
He decided it mattered little, and, just now finding out his Semblance didn't give off light, lied down to go to bed, deciding he would find time to really investigate his Semblance in the coming week. The floor was still uncomfortable, but he would have to make do.
Tomorrow was a big day, after all.
AN: And that's chapter two! I hope you enjoyed.
Now comes the hellish part where I have to come up with a team name for Jaune's team, and the other team that I won't be spoiling here. A lot of you can probably easily spot Jaune's partner, but can you guess his other two teammates? Here's a hint: think RPG classes, with Jaune playing the Assassin-Tactician type. I can't wait to hear your guesses.
And thanks to everyone who reviewed, namely Riero, who helped me iron out a few points and make some small changes to the first chapter, which have already been implemented. You might want to reread the last chapter to make sure you didn't miss anything, just to be safe.
Also, this chapter has a lot of last second editing in it, so if you see any mistakes let me know. I'll try to fix them at some point.
Thanks again for reading, and don't forget to review!
Svenska är skit: vad är ditt mest "stolta" eller "coola" spel ögonblick? (What is your most "cool" or "proud" game moments?")
Honestly, any time I get to work with my friends to win is my proudest moment. That's why I love coop games and team games. My friends don't take tactics as seriously as I do, so I usually come up with the plan. It's a great feeling when it works, but of course it usually doesn't.
My favorite moment was probably in Battlefield 3, when we were attacking in Rush and my squad single-handedly took out the entire team in an ambush. I can't remember the map name, but it was the one where you attack a beach/port area from a carrier, and it was a desert map. My second favorite was in Battlefield 4, the icy prison map that I also forgot the name of. My squad of two, me and my friend, holding a hallway to stop a group of reinforcments from sneaking up on the rest of our team. We ended up dying, but took out enough of them in the process so they couldn't break out line. It was pretty great.
I've actually been told I should try and go pro before. But I don't think I could ever really get into super serious games like Counter-Strike or League. I'm more of a casual gamer that likes to explore dungeons.