NEVERMIND THE AO3, IT WANTS ME TO USE HTML AND I CAN'T BE FUCKED FIGURING OUT DOUBLE SPACING


Jaune was terrified, and he wasn't ashamed of that.

Terror was a natural feeling when staring down the business-end of a grenade launcher that could turn into a massive warhammer, at the behest of the frankly impressively strong girl that hefted it, her beaming grin doing nothing to dissuade him of his worry-turned-fear.

"Kick his ass, Nora!" Yang cheered, from the sidelines.

"Prove our team as the better, Arc!" Weiss exclaimed from the other side.

Jaune wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing Weiss was siding with him.

Pyrrha had stepped up to officiate once again, as the only one of them who had any modicum of experience in professional fighting, and she began to countdown. "3. 2. 1. Begin!"

Jaune yelped as the countdown came to an end and a grenade blew up where he had been standing only moments before, a lucky dodge clearing him of the significant impact, and even more significant shockwave it created.

His luck didn't get better, though, as another of those bright pink projectiles came hurtling towards him, and he reacted instinctively, raising his shield in an attempt to block.

He opened his eyes a full second later to find himself on the ground in a smoking crater, a rapidly approaching Nora bearing down on his collapsed position.

He didn't know what had happened, but as he tried to stand and his head decided to act as woozy as possible before it was nullified by System Mind, he realised that the impact had been way, way too much to try and block without some kind of assistance.

It hadn't cost him too much Aura, thankfully, but at the same time there was only so much he could do to prevent the hammer-wielding terror from breaking through his now apparently meager defense.

Defensive wasn't going to cut it, that much was obvious, but he'd be crippled in a direct melee confrontation, so as Jaune leapt to the side of the arcing hammer blow that struck the blackened tile with enough force to break an Ursa, he readied an attack.

Nora swung at him, hammer whistling as it travelled through the air at speed, but the sudden cessation of motion not only threw her off her game, but also threw her backwards, head over heels, as the full potency of a Mana Blast struck her in the chest at almost point blank range.

It'd cost him a little over quarter of his Mana, but it had been effective, knocking nearly ten percent of her Aura off and sending her back far enough to put him out of range of that warhammer, at least for the time being.

He didn't give Nora time to regain her composure as he decided the smartest decision he could make would be to pepper her with ranged attacks, so he cast Mana Bullet, the newly upgraded spell firing two shots for the cost of one, a mere 49 MP. Two casts had four high damaging bullets impact with the girl, but she wasn't unable to defend herself.

Three of the four were blocked by the relentless spinning of that damned warhammer, and the fourth hit her in the thigh, displacing Aura but not doing anything significant enough to cease the leap that had her hurtling towards him, Magnhild held high above her head.

Jaune barely had time to formulate a plan as the head of the warhammer thudded against his hastily raised shield, and he felt the wind get knocked out of him as his shield was driven point-first into the tile.

Jaune locked eyes with Nora, and the girl gave him a vicious grin as she wound up for a swing against the undefended boy, but Jaune gave up all pretenses of trying to fight fair.

He released his grip on his shield, stepped into her swing, and punched her in the nose.

If Jaune had been terrified before, what he was experiencing now was nothing short of absolute, untainted horror.

The punch didn't do anything. In fact, the girl just grinned harder as the hammer impacted against his undefended side, launching him sideways, fast.

If it weren't for the projected shield that covered the arena he would've penetrated the stands and probably ended up exiting the training hall through an impromptu exit in the form of a Jaune shaped hole in the wall.

As it was, Jaune, even with the inexplicably large amount of Aura he had at his disposal, felt the impact hit him hard enough to completely destroy 50% of it.

It hurt, a lot.

Enough to completely overwhelm System Body for a split-second, and he gasped and wheezed from his prone position at the edge of the ring.

But now, Jaune was determined.

He wouldn't let Nora win, there was absolutely no way. He wouldn't lose. He couldn't lose.

He crawled to his feet slowly, staggering slightly to the side, and as Nora approached, secretly impressed with the teens ability to handle such a powerful blow, he bared his teeth in a loose approximation of a grin.

Nora cocked her head at that, but Jaune didn't give her any more time to ponder what he was grinning at as he rushed her, in a headlong Sprint.

Crocea Mors felt light in his hand, and he got close enough to the girl to swing, but she went on the defensive, blocking his blade with the metal handle of Magnhild, but Jaune wasn't done, not by a long shot.

He had a free hand, after all.

He swung again, and as Nora blocked the strike a second time she felt her Aura flare instinctively as she buckled suddenly from the impact.

Jaune, free hand pointed at her stomach, stepped back a pace, the remnant Mana still smoking off the tip of his fingers from the point blank Spinning Mana Bullet he'd practically placed within Nora's unguarded midsection.

That'd burnt a considerable amount of Aura from the girl, who most definitely hadn't been expecting it. Instinctive Aura defense seemed less effective than deliberate, and for that Jaune was incredibly thankful.

Of course, the girl was about to smack him aside again, so he decided to postpone being thankful and instead cast Mana Field, doing his best to back up as he did so.

The light-blue glowing sphere that covered him tried, it really did, but Nora shattered it as if it was a mere afterthought, the impact of the hammer sending up a spray of shattered tiling and dust into the air with such velocity Jaune had no doubt that if here were to be struck a second time not only his Aura but his spine would break from the impact.

Before Jaune had gotten so competitive, Nora was perfectly aware of how much force she needed to apply to shatter his Aura without breaking anything, despite her constant reinforcement of what her favourite hobby was, but now that favourite hobby had rapidly overtaken the rational part of her mind, and Nora wanted to do nothing more than win.

At any cost.

That cost was shaping up more and more to be Jaune's ability to walk, and Nora was more than prepared to cash out.

Jaune gulped as Nora swung again, but he ducked under the swing, nearly going prone in the process, and the warhammer sailed over his head, but Nora's relentless strength made that a moot point as she simply brought the momentum of the weapon under her control as she made to swing once more.

Jaune needed defense, something strong enough to block the attack, but Mana Field wasn't going to cut it, it spread Mana out too far and too wide.

He lifted his hand, congealing Mana in the tips of his fingers, and concentrated, as the hammer closed in, inch by inch passing as if time itself was slowed to a crawl.

A far smaller, flatter plane of Mana appeared in front of his hand, and Nora, intent on smashing it like she did before, felt a shudder run all the way down Magnhild's grip, down her arm, and violently rattle her body.

Jaune's widened eyes stared at the impact point, as did hers, and the two stared in surprise at the floating shield that hovered just out of Jaune's reach, edges cracked from the impact.

There was a notification to go along with the situation, but Jaune decided to file that for later as he took advantage of his situation, a roar escaping his lips as he drained the final bits of Mana he had at his disposal, a joint triggering of Battle Cry and Mana Slash filling the battleground as Crocea Mors swung through the air, unleashing a pure blade of Mana into Nora, hitting the girl lengthways and sending her backwards, Aura dropping rapidly as it absorbed the damage.

"End of the match! Nora's Aura has been dropped into the red, Jaune wins!" Pyrrha exclaimed, no small amount of pride in her voice, and Jaune gave a weak cheer, before dropping to one knee and panting hard.

Exhaustion was becoming something he was getting intimately familiar with, now, and that was dangerous. Battle Cry was inherently useful to him, but it was the side-effect that was the most detrimental to him.

Considering the majority of his anti-person arsenal was magic-based, it meant he spent a lot of Mana per engagement, and his Mana pool, which he'd previously thought to be overkill, now seemed miniscule in comparison to the sheer amount of spells he cast in each battle.

That wasn't even considering his constant affliction of Exhaustion, courtesy of his near failure every single battle. He was practically scraping through every encounter by the barest of margins, and that was starting to get old.

Speaking of encounters, Jaune decided that thinking to himself about his situation could come later, and helping-slash-congratulating Nora would be his first priority.

The girl hadn't lost any of her excitement due to defeat, however, and it honestly seemed like she'd only gained energy, from the looks of things.

Well, now that Jaune looked closer, he realised that wasn't true. Adrenaline was still flowing through the both of them, but Jaune could tell she was more beat up than she let on, as her team surrounded her, issuing congratulations.

Jaune's own team were approaching him, but he made an effort to speak to Nora first. "Good fight, Nora. You really had me on the ropes for a lot of it."

Nora beamed at him. "You did really good, too! You beat me fair and square, and there aren't that many people who can do that, especially when I go all out!"

Jaune involuntarily shuddered at the memory of being struck by that hammer, and decided that repressing that was going to best for his continued sanity.

"I have to admit, Arc, you keep bringing new tricks out of your sleeve at the last possible moment, don't you."

Jaune resisted that permanent head-scratching urge as he stepped back, allowing his team to join the conversation. "I, uh… I don't mean too?"

"It is rather impressive, your ability to counter and attack with such a wide variety. You seem to serve as a perfect counter to most people's fighting styles, Jaune," Pyrrha informed him, and Jaune could tell she was eyeing him with a different look now. Less partnerly and more competitively, which almost made Jaune want to fight Nora again.

"You really think so?" He asked.

"I feel like even I'd struggle to get a grasp on your fighting style, Jaune. Your fight against Weiss proved that you can combat Dustcasters, and just now you proved you can handle strong opponents, so all you really have left to prove yourself against is agile fighters, like Blake or I," Pyrrha explained, Blake nodding along in silent agreement.

"Well, before I prove myself anymore, can I get some sleep? That fight really took a lot out of me," Jaune said with a laugh, and the others joined in his somewhat poor attempt at humour.

They decided to talk and walk, a smart decision considering the devastation they'd left in their wake, and being as far away from the scene of the crime was a good way to avoid both blame and the accompanying wrath of one soon-to-be irate Professor, who'd only just finished repairing a nearly destroyed office at the top of a tower.


Jaune sighed in relief as the hot water poured over his aching muscles, as he stood calmly in the shower, mentally preparing himself to look at his notifications.

[Sparring Complete!]

[You gained 500XP!]

[Skill Created!]

[Mana Shield (Active): Thanks to the System, you can project a shield of Mana somewhere around you, about the same size as a standard heater shield. It can be moved anywhere you wish within 5ft of yourself, as long as it is not solid. It can only take a certain amount of damage, and high enough damage will pass straight through. Costs 7 MP/s. Level 4; XP 68/768.]

[Skills have leveled!]

[Mana Bullet has reached Level 7!]

[Spinning Mana Bullet has reached Level 4!]

[Mana Slash has reached Level 4!]

[Weapon Proficiency: Unarmed Melee has reached Level 4!]

[Mana Blast has reached Level 4!]

[Thanks to intense training, you've gained +1 END, +1 AGI, +1 LCK.]

[Quest Complete!]

[Sparring: Nora Valkyrie]

[Reward: 1500 XP, 1 Skill Book]

Well, that was a lot to take in, but the two important parts were the new skill, and the skill book.

Jaune couldn't exactly read a skill book in the shower, or at least he didn't think he could, but he could still look at it in his inventory, so that was what he did, bringing up the menu and checking the details on the item.

[Skill Book]

[Of Old Gods and Storms]

[From what you can tell, this book is a recollection of tales concerning various mythological gods.]

Well, it didn't tell him what the skill he would learn was, but even that was enough to clue him in to something.

No, that was a lie. He'd never heard of this book, and he had no idea what it would contain aside from what the information the System had told him. It sounded interesting, though, so maybe he'd read it once he got into his bed.

It wouldn't be lights out for a little while, anyway, so it wasn't that he was lacking time.

More importantly, once he'd washed himself, he was going to check his stats. It'd been a little while since he'd done that, and he felt he was deserving of a little update on himself.

[STATS]

[Name: Jaune Arc]

[Title: Huntsman Novice]

[Level: 8]

[XP: 5552/6144]

[HP: 220/220 (1.1/s)]

[SP: 220/220 (4.4/s)]

[MP: 200/200 (2/s)]

[AP: 1760/1760 (0.44/s)

[STR: 20]

[END: 22]

[AGI: 15]

[INT: 20]

[WIS: 20]

[CHA: 12]

[LCK: 12]

[Skill Points: 25]

[Lien: 115]

Jaune knew what his meters said, he checked them rather regularly, but it was still a bit of a shock to see that his charisma and luck were so low still. He'd have thought himself pretty lucky thus far, and somehow becoming friends with seven people, six of which were girls way out of his league, he'd have thought his charisma would be way, way higher.

But they weren't the most important stats to him, not at this moment. Intelligence and wisdom were significantly more important, almost exclusively due to their ability to effect his Mana, something that needed improving.

Jaune had twenty-five skill points available to spend, but he didn't want to spend them all, as having a backup would be important just in case a situation arose where he needed a certain amount of a stat.

So, with all that in mind, Jaune invested ten points into INT, and ten into WIS, with the hope it would improve his chances in a fight.

What Jaune was rewarded with was unexpected, but most definitely not unwelcome.

[For reaching 25 INT, you have been awarded the perk Mana Tank]

[For reaching 25 WIS, you have been awarded the perk Mana Cognition]

Jaune poked each of them, intent on learning exactly what they meant.

[Mana Tank]

[Your access to the existence of magic and mana has increased, doubling your maximum MP pool.]

[Mana Cognition]

[Your understanding of the flow of mana has increased, doubling your MP regen rate.]

Oh.

Oh!

That was undoubtedly excellent, as Jaune now had access to 600 MP total, with a regen rate of 6 MP per second.

Well, that had solved at least some of his problems concerning his rather life-threatening situations he'd been subjected to the past few weeks.

It also confirmed that he got specialised perks at or beyond the twenty-fifth digit of a certain stat. That meant when STR, END, AGI, CHA and LCK reached twenty-five he'd get a perk. What those perks would be Jaune didn't know, but he was interested in finding out, that was for sure.

He'd tripled his Mana capabilities now, though, so that was good. He was actually pretty close to being able to constantly cast Mana Field or Mana Shield, to the point where he'd never be without a shield. It was kind of pointless at the moment, because not only would it prevent him from being able to move properly, but he'd also have no Mana regeneration, and both of the spells were quite weak at the moment, as evidenced by the fact that Nora easily broke the much larger Mana Field with a single swing, and Mana Shield had nearly broken from a half-strength blow that she'd delivered as a way to get back into a position for a more powerful wind-up.

Other than all that, though, he was pretty ecstatic about his situation.

Of course, he didn't have much more time to muse over his good fortune as a knock sounded on the bathroom door, indicating that he'd spent far too much time inside it, and that the three girls waiting outside for their turn were about to give him some more violent encouragement.

Naturally, he towelled himself down as fast as humanly possible, before changing into his sleeping gear and stepping out into the dorm room, quickly stepping over to his bed and laying down.

He watched with mild interest as Weiss and Blake silently argued as to who was going to have the next shower only to see the two completely miss Pyrrha quietly sneak past the bickering pair.

The door shut to the stunned silence of the two, and Jaune's light chuckle. They glared at him, and he surrendered immediately, reaching under his bed and discreetly pulling the skill book out of his inventory, pretending he'd retrieved it from underneath his mattress.

The title hadn't changed since he'd last checked, unsurprisingly, but he looked it over just the same, eyeing the detail in the artwork that the cover so valiantly presented.

It was like a giant mural, painted so many years ago that the edges of the very wall it had been painted on had worn and chipped away, leaving crumbled marble in their place.

It was a photograph, one Jaune had never seen before, but that wasn't even remotely surprising, as Jaune didn't spend much time looking at photographs. It did peak his interest, however, and the concept that ancient ruins existed out in the wilderness was accentuated by the first sentence the book presented.

'The wilderness of Mistral is untamed, dangerous, and full of ancient structures from times long past. Of such ruins, many still have their stories written down, whether in books much like this one or in other, more atypical methods, such as the mural on the cover of this very text, but regardless of which way they were recorded they all share one key feature. A plot, a hero, a story to tell. This text compiles many of the discovered stories, and I have personally spent months making sure they were as accurate as they are entertaining.'

It was a note from the author, and Jaune sat back, wiggling his rear to get more comfortable, and began to read the first story.


He hadn't gotten a skill.

He had, however, quite enjoyed the story the book had presented to him. It had been almost an hour, now, and there wasn't much longer till the team would turn in for the evening, but Jaune wanted to keep reading, and so when he flipped to the next page, he realised something that was starting to become a common theme with skill books.

The entire chapter was blank, and as he flipped through page after page once again believing it to be a printing error he suddenly found himself on the third story.

That was… annoying. He'd actually wanted to read the second story, but he guessed that a skill was a reward worthy of the sacrifice of a part of his evening entertainment.

The corresponding notifications and confirmation boxes appeared when he attempted to learn the skill, and he accepted them all without a second thought, and the book glowed a light blue as he absorbed the knowledge.

He blinked back the effects of the already nullified headache as he regained his senses, and three pairs of eyes stared at him.

"Oh."

'Oh' was right, because Jaune had forgotten that the three members of his team were still awake, and very much aware that Jaune had just made a book glow.

"Jaune, what did you just do?"

The sentiment, initially put forward by Blake, was quickly reinforced by the questioning glances Pyrrha and Weiss were giving him.

"I, um… tried putting my Aura in the book?" Jaune ventured, a convenient excuse that was not at all convincing springing forth from his lips, courtesy of Deceitful Speech.

Orbs of amber, crystal and emerald locked with his own, and even he wasn't dense enough not to notice that they didn't believe him.

But, he decided to double down on the excuse regardless.

"I tried using my semblance on it, just to see what it would do."

The stares became less questioning and more confused.

"Jaune, what would it do anyway? What possible situation could there be where you would need to use your semblance on a book?" Weiss asked, wondering if her leader hadn't gotten more injured from Nora's warhammer than he initially let on.

"Uh… In case we're attacked by books? Or fighting in the library?" Jaune answered, internally cringing at the words that came flying out of his mouth of their own accord.

The second excuse was somewhat reasonable. The first was ridiculous. Jaune didn't know what to say for himself, except that maybe he should just shut up and not lie anymore, but that notion was dissuaded by the unbidden memory of the Headmaster's warning.

"I… No, you know what, Arc? I don't care. You do whatever you want with your semblance, it'll probably work anyway. I don't even want to start getting into the details of whatever your semblance is, especially after what you said. Just, don't be so blatant, please?" Weiss addressed him directly, before rolling onto her side in her bed and promptly attempting to go to sleep, hoping to have forgotten the strange incident in the morning.

"Uh, yeah, right. Will do. Sleep well, everyone."

The rest of AWBN decided to pack it in then and there, getting comfortable in the evening moonlight as the lamps were switched off.

They had a busy morning up ahead, with a planned excursion to the Forever Fall in the company of Professor Goodwitch, and that wasn't even what Jaune was dreading.

No, Jaune was dreading the skill he'd just learned.

[Skill Learned!]

[Elemental Infusion (Active): Thanks to the System, you can now infuse spells with elements! Elementally infused spells will do increased damage, and have unique effects based on the element infused. Increases cast cost by 10%.]

[Subskills: Lightning Infusion]

He was going to electrocute himself.


A fun chapter, in which Jaune gets smacked around, smacks Nora around, and then realizes his terribly ability to lie will inevitably get him caught. Better improve that Charisma, buddy, lest you be as dense as Canon Jaune.

Anyway, Elemental Infusion is my new method of getting around having three-hundred-thousand different spell variants, because that would be infuriating. Also lightning, storms, old gods and Nora, what a wacky unheard-of combination that has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all, whatsoever.

Now, reviews!

jbrew123: You are right, he did only just get told. However, Jaune feels that the more they yell at him the more they get their anger out of their system, so to speak, and he still technically should've or could've told them about his semblance way before Ozpin warns him not to, but he instinctively kept it a secret much like Pyrrha still is with hers. It's just because of the constant onslaught of circumstances that he accepts that it might be partially his fault he didn't warn them of the danger they might've been in, potentially.

Master DK: This one's a little longer, but I did write it in only a day. Work, man, it piles up fast. At least I didn't miss this week! As for skill increases and pacing, the best I can do for advice is to look into actual RPG game theory. My original XP pacing was screwed to say the least, and it wasn't until I started looking into the theory behind it that I realised exactly what I needed for this to pace it well, so it fit with the plot. The best you can do is make sure you know where your story is going before you try and pace the skills along with it, and experiment with certain formulas to see how fast or slow a character can progress. As for the average huntsman or huntress's stats, I decided that every person reaches maturity (17 years old) with 10 in all stats, at perfectly average, with no experience. So a regular person might be anywhere from 1 to 30 depending on what they do with their life, but a hunter will be higher due to extreme training, and such. I'll go into more detail when Observe levels more, when Jaune can see Stats pages for other characters.

Remzal Von Enili: I'd love to know the origin of that wizard, because despite it sounding familiar I can't quite place it. Glad to see Jaune is the second funniest, though, I've always found his bumbling to be rather endearing.

WonderDildo: Great name, and yeah, I figured breaking up action with blocks of numbers would detract from what is supposed to be a fast-paced scene. Kind of like talking in a fight, it doesn't fit very often.

The Wizardrous Magicman: Sifting through porn shouldn't be that difficult, I can read pretty fast :P As for the rest of AO3, I made an account when you left this review, and I will be uploading chapters up on there soon enough, for those who would rather read there. I'll put that in a little notification at the top of the chapter, which by now you've already seen, so writing this is rather pointless. Oh well. Also hooray, drafts!

merendinoemiliano: I hate to disappoint, but I don't think we'll be getting Arkos in Systema. I'm going to do some less common ships when I do get to that, and some more common ones too. I won't make any guarantees, though.

TypedSomeWords: Instantaneous Eyeball Detonation, the IED. It's super-lethal, and it's the skill Jaune gets next. I'm kidding, though with Lightning that might just be what happens!

Beowolfalien: There won't be parties, because despite it being similar to the Gamer this is a technically original system. Also he does have the summoning ritual available, but he hasn't looked into it because he doesn't own any components yet. Once he starts getting some Dust I imagine it'll occur to him to check it out.

And that's it for reviews this week, sorry to all of you I didn't get to, but I still love you, trust me! (There are so many of you now, I don't know how to handle this!)

And, as always, see you next chapter
~AFatFlyingWhale