Chapter 4: The third member

The two of us awoke the next day to the chirping of birds and an alarm clock that told us the time was 8:30 A.M. We managed to snag some breakfast at the cafe we visited yesterday, costing us somewhere around ten lien. After that, we looked around for some sort of weapons dealer so I could test my new ammo modifying ability. We eventually found one near the barracks for the guardsmen and entered it. The first thing I noticed was the large amount of weapons lining the walls. From small pistols to the largest machine guns, this place had it all and I was honestly surprised that such a small and peaceful looking village would have a massive armory sitting pretty within it's walls. Ruby would love to see this place; maybe I'll show her after me and Cardin get back into Beacon, I thought to myself a little sadly. The owner of the place, apparently having had enough of our gawking, cleared his throat.

"So are you two going to continue gawking at my goods or are you actually going to buy something?", he dryly inquired.

His comment snapped me out of my reverie and posed a very good question. What did I want to get? I knew that I had a lot of options, considering the class I was, but what should I choose? I looked at the shop's keeper and asked which one he would recommend while stressing the fact that though I wanted something good I was also on a very tight budget. He looked at me with a bored sort of stare that communicated the he had heard this song and dance many times before. He sighed to himself and took us into the back where a shooting range of sorts had been set up. He asked what type of guns I could use and I answered with all the types listed in my class. He left and returned a few minutes late with one of each type I had specified. I took a turn shooting with each, getting the feel for each of them. I concluded that at proficiency 2 with these weapons I was able to shoot with decent accuracy.

After coming to that conclusion, I decided that my weapon of choice for the moment would be an assault rifle. It had a lot of flexibility and honestly I had a little more fun than I expected when I put the thing of full auto. Having decided, I asked him for the price of the piece he showed me and got an estimate of around 150 lien for the gun with some ammo. He said it would be more if I wanted dust rounds, which reminded me of why I wanted a gun in the first place. I told him that dust rounds weren't necessary and asked for one more clip of ammo just to be sure the assault rifle was what I wanted. I then activated the inferno rounds ability, watching my MP drop the specified amount and feeling some sort of mental time start in my head. I then started firing.

It was extremely satisfying to say the least.

I watched as the rounds from the gun which should have just hit exploded a little on impact, devastating the target. I looked at the owner of the store who looked at the now burning target and then back to me with a look of clear shock on his face. I then looked to Cardin and saw he sported a fairly large grin at the devastation I had wrought. Taking advantage of the shock, I managed to barter the price of the gun down to 125 with a small box of ammo thrown in with the promise that I would show the man more effects when I figured out how to use them. At that, he looked overjoyed at the prospect that I could somehow do even more than just reproduce fire rounds. We left with a successful purchase and I quickly re-check our budget.

280 Lien

We wandered around the town for a while, looking to see if anyone had any sort of job that could help us recover from our recent expenses and luckily enough the two of us ran into something good. What looked like members of the Schnee company were trying to get the attention of the town guard, but were turned away for some reason or another. They seemed desperate and willing to get anyone to do what they wanted, so the two of us approached them. They explained that one of their associates had fled into the woods while in a caravan to vale during an attack by the grimm yesterday. They were looking for someone to help the teams find the missing person and were willing to pay 100 lien up front and would give us 500 more if we managed to find our target instead of the other parties. After they finished their offer, a message appeared.

Job received: Manhunt

Find the missing person in the forest.

Rewards:

200 AP

200/600 Lien (100 on acceptance, 100 at end or 500 at finding)

+5 reputation (+15 with the SDC)

We accepted the mission immediately and set out, wanting to find the person as soon as possible, hopefully alive. We wandered for the better part of an hour before coming upon a small pack of 7 beowolves that seemed to be clawing at a tree, trying to get whatever was inside of it. Taking advantage of the fact that they hadn't yet noticed us yet, the two of us readied ourselves. I set up inferno rounds while Cardin prepped a spell. Kneeling down a small distance from the creatures, I switched my newly acquired gun to semi automatic mode and fired five rounds at the cluster of beasts. That opening volley managed to simultaneously get their attention and take out two of them. They charged towards us and my partner took the opportunity to unleash the spell he was readying. I watched as burst of ice appeared within the enemy group, taking out another two. I switched to my sword right as the final three got within melee distance. They all attacked me with clawed swipes coming in different directions. I dodged two of them, more nimble due to the skill I had learned yesterday but had to let my aura take a hit from the third one. I quickly countered, killing one while Cardin took another out. The last one, rather wisely tried to flee but died as a bolt of lightning combined with a few rounds of fire hit it's back, tearing it apart. With the battle over, we approached the tree to find out what the pack had been so obsessed with. We hoped it was who we were looking for.

As we got closer we saw movement from the tree as the object of the monster's attention, realizing that the threat to it was gone, stepped out of the tree. Two things came to my attention immediately.

1. This was very likely who we were looking for.

2. The people who hired us had understated how important the person we were looking for was, if my ability and memory served me correctly. Only one other person I knew had hair as white as hers.

Winter Schnee Lv. 5

HP: 60/96

Aura: 0/90

MP: 100/100

Support mage Lv. 2

I quickly showed the info to Cardin and he tensed up a little. As the person in front of us finally realized we were there, she froze with a look of apprehension and uncertainty dominating her face. I quickly broke the silence by saying what I thought would help.

"Are you okay miss Schnee? We are here to escort you back to the town and get you to safety." I said as I motioned for her to come with us.

"NO!" She yelled in response, causing the two of us to stop in our tracks.

"As in no you are not okay, or no you we're not here to escort you back?", I asked.

She looked at us for a few seconds before looking at the ground for a few seconds and almost whispering, "Please don't make me go back to there." That seemed to have been the straw that broke the camel's back, as after that she immediately collapsed and started sobbing uncontrollably. It took a few minutes to calm her down. After she had regained her nerves she explained what happened to her.

She did not, in fact, get lost during a raid on the caravan that was taking her to Vale. She had actually recently run away from a vacation home in the nearby area, stating that the way her father had started acting after recent events combined with the threat of the white fang simply made it too much to stay with her family. She begged and pleaded that she would do anything for us if we simply ignored seeing her and moved on. My ability and I had a better idea, though.

New optional opjective for manhunt!

Throw hunters off the scent of the heiress.

Reward:

200 lien

Winter Schnee joins you clan!

I went off to talk with Cardin about this while keeping Winter and he stated that, though the money was good for the other path, having a third party member would be invaluable. I agreed with him wholeheartedly. We came back to Winter and asked her if she would mind staying with us for a while if we got the SDC's men to look somewhere else. The look of hope on her face was a clear enough answer. I then extended an invitation to the clan to her which she accepted after the initial shock.

With the new member in tow, we started devising ways to complete the other objective. The three of us finally came up with something acceptable by around mid-day and started walking to Scarlet Knoll. As we got near the town gates the three of us, with our newest member in a baggy hoodie that hid her hair and obscured her face, confronted the members of the SDC. We presented a bracelet Winter had that we had freshly damaged, saying that it was found in the woods on the path towards Vale and insinuating that was where our target was heading while also making it clear that we could not continue due to some other "urgent business" that had our immediate attention. They gave us a hundred Lien, thanking us for getting an invaluable lead while regretting that we would not be able to offer our services for any longer.

We got a message saying that our quest was completed and went to the now somewhat familiar cafe to have a nice dinner before readying ourselves to discuss what my ability was about to the new member of our unlikely gang.

A/N Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. On the next one we'll get more characterization for Winter and more abilities to show off along with an entirely new class! YAY! Please stay tuned until next time.