(A/N) A guest caught a minor mistake with the status and Roman's bounty, thanks for that!
Cover art by DownSmashJon.
Playing Our Roles
Chapter 40
Two months.
There were two months until the start of the second term of Beacon. Despite the fact that I knew it won't happen until the term actually starts and volume two of the story begins, I was waiting for Cinder to go on about the second phase of her plan. While I am willing to wait and watch as Cinder goes with her "master plan" I know that even I am not able to go through with the breach, at least not entirely.
Other than messing with the things happening during the tournament, the only other major thing I want to change is the breach from Mountain Glen to Vale. Herding Grimm into the city isn't something I'd like to do so when I'm assigned to the area and order the White Fang to make the bombs I'm just going to have to turn them into duds. Fortunately, my crafting skill is quite high and also allows things like the deconstruction of a created item or even modification. The levels of the White Fang are low anyway and I've long since maxed out my stealth skill and learned an actual invisibility spell.
The Grimm are not a problem either because when Cinder orders me to start the real, large-scale recruitment my earth elemental Rumble will be out in Mountain Glen killing all of the Grimm. I'll probably have to order him to also move all of the drops to one area to be collected later as I don't want any of the White Fang patrols, or team RWBY, to just find Dust dropped from the Grimm lying around.
Right now I have Rumble out on the outskirts of the city looking for Goliaths and any other ancient Grimm besides the dragon to kill. I've given him half of my MP regen to use for whatever he needed and if he needs more he could just use our connection to ask.
Since changing the breach around is a pretty big shift I might even save Tuckson while I'm at it as he isn't exactly a major character. I think I'll have him spread a few rumors about Cinder around anonymously before heading out of Vale. He seemed like a nice enough guy the few times I've met him while he's been helping around, I don't think that he deserves to die to Mercury.
For now, though, I think that I'll take a look at this new special dungeon that I found when it popped up out of nowhere when I used my Find Dungeon skill. It was stuck in the middle of the city and kind of annoying to get to unnoticed when you're as infamous as I am. I used the excuse that I'm going to look around the city for other marks in order to get out on my own and gave the White Fang a nice long list of places to target and when to target them.
That should keep them occupied for a while as I'm only really needed now for the bigger stuff.
When I entered the special dungeon I looked around to see if I could spot anything that might have seemed different about the city. Other than the world being slightly duller in color, there wasn't any difference between the dungeon and the real world. Besides the people too, of course. With the special name of the dungeon, I'd have thought that it might have been different than the other city dungeons I've been in but so far it's the same. Much quieter too.
[You have entered the special dungeon DLC "Descend into Destruction"!]
[Time outside of the dungeon is slowed to a tenth of the dungeon's time!]
[Current Floor: 0]
[Quick travel: Surface, ?]
I hummed in thought as I stared at the text boxes in front of me, "So, this is like that dungeon that Jee-Han found in the manhwa? But, I don't think he had any fast travel options, how deep is this dungeon supposed to be then?" I tapped my cane against my leg and looked to the second box, "At least time is slowed outside, I'd never make much progress otherwise."
I looked around but didn't see the dungeon entrance, I sighed and summoned Wisp.
"Can you fly around and look for the dungeon entrance for me?" I asked my air elemental.
She just giggled and flew around my head for a bit before taking off to scout the surface of this dungeon for me. Call me lazy or whatever but I don't feel like looking for the entrance of the dungeon, this is why I have people to do it for me. Rumble might be a better option to use to find the dungeon but as I have him doing a much more important task right now I need to use what I can for now.
Using the Gift of Magic skill I gained from the wizard book and its connection to the elements and the world I shaped it and used it to make a throne out of the ground and sat down on it as I waited for Wisp to come back. I always thought it was a weird skill as it let me do so much with it but looking at its description helped me work through some of what might have happened in the past. I know that Salem and Ozpin are at the core of this and as the evil one Salem definitely screwed something up. My ability seemed to agree with me and that is one of the few things in the world that I trust with absolute faith.
[Gift of Magic LvMax]
Magic is a gift to humanity from the God of Destruction, taken away after Salem had done ? that resulted in ?. Now you are one of two people in the world with the gift in its entirety. How is it possible to have gained this gift?
Grants access to Remnant's ancient magic, long since lost to humanity.
Grants the ability to create spells from scratch, provided you have the MP.
Known elements: Fire, Lightning, Air, Earth, Ice, Light, Dark.
Known spells: (Tap to expand)
It wasn't a hard skill to level up to its max level either, compared to other skills that I have leveling of this skill practically flew by. At any rate, I only had to wait for a few minutes until Wisp flew back and led me to the entrance.
The entrance itself was a very typical RPG dungeon entrance that did not mesh well with the look of the city. The staircase down was behind an entrance that was made out of large stone bricks covered in moss and vines growing up the sides. There was a broken set of double doors and two lit torches on the doorframes. It looked like the entrance to some ancient ruins and despite the rather cliche appearance, I was a little excited.
I haven't had any real dungeon diving experiences ever since I came to this world. They've all been single instances that ended after I killed the boss, looted whatever I wanted, and left. This right here was an actual dungeon with floors, I can only imagine that there might even be minibosses or unique bosses.
I don't doubt that they will likely still be Grimm of some kind, this is the world of RWBY after all and I've never encountered anything supernatural other than my ability and the elementals I can summon. But, well, despite that, this is a chance to feel like a real gamer for once. I've spent years doing criminal work, this can be a vacation of sorts.
And I do need a vacation.
With a smile, I nodded and thanked Wisp and sent her away to be summoned later. I had ten hours to get through some of this dungeon, I had best get to work.
Entering the dungeon, I immediately noticed a change in the atmosphere. The light dimmed and a sort of pressure attempted to invade my head.
[Curse of Apathy averted by Gamer's Mind!]
"A curse?" I asked myself as I continued down the stairs.
I didn't know what this apathy curse thing was about but it seems that I don't have to worry about it. The stairs finally stopped and I found myself in a hallway, stepping into the hallway that had its brick walls covered in a black dripping liquid that smoked when it fell to the floor. I looked left and right, trying to determine which direction I should go. A rumbling sound made me pause and I looked behind to see the stairs gone and replaced by a wall that looked the same as the rest of the walls.
"Guess the only way out is to beat the first floor then," I said to myself, not bothered by any of this.
I picked a random direction and went, the clacking of my shoes on the ground the only sound that echoed in the dungeon. It didn't take long for a couple of echoing moaning sounds to approach me and several different things appeared before me through the haze of the dungeon. They were Grimm but humanoid, super thin, hunchbacked and looked almost skeletal in appearance.
As soon as they saw me they screamed and went for the attack.
[Curse of Apathy averted by Gamer's Mind!]
They weren't really all that high of a level, the highest in the group was at a thirty. But, compared to most Grimm I've fought they could be considered high. Usually, the higher leveled Grimm were the ones that were larger and tougher to kill. With how these things were thin and weak individually, and needing to attack in packs and use some kind fo special attack to render their opponent incapable, it was kind of surprising to see them so high.
I raised my arms up and lighting began to swirl around me in large arcs. Since Rumble needed to use my MP regen to kill the bigger baddies in the outskirts I can't use my MP as Aura right now. I still haven't figured out the thing that I needed to have it on and at the same time have regen enabled as well.
"Well, I guess it doesn't matter now," I said to myself while I pointed a palm towards the rushing group and fired off lightning blasts. The lightning sheared through the Grimm it touched, the two halves of the Grimm hitting the floor and dissipating into smoke. Several more lightning blasts follow that one and this group of Grimm was history.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I saw that the drops continued to be Dust. Most of it was D-ranked Dust so I just left it on the ground and continued down the hall. This first floor went by smoothly after that first encounter and after a few hours of roaming around and killing groups of the Apathy Grimm, I found myself inside of a large empty room.
"This must be the boss room," I said to myself as I slowly looked around.
The room was circular in design with only one visible entrance that I was standing in. Torches lined the walls of the room at regular intervals and on the opposite side of the room, a large black pool of sludge sat on the floor. I looked more closely at the pool of black sludge and used Observe on it.
[Puddle of Destruction Lv N/A]
A small pool of pure destructive power created by the God of Destruction. It has the ability to bring forth the creatures known as Grimm and anything not of it will degrade on contact with the substance.
I hummed and stepped into the room. The torches flared up and the room was a tad bit brighter, a metal portcullis slammed down and blocked the way out of the room. The "Puddle" began bubbling and I realized that I had had a similar situation occur before in Vacuo. With a groan, I slapped a hand over my face, "This is a wave boss, just fucking perfect…"
With a sigh, I resigned myself to fighting this type of boss.
[Boss battle has begun! Defeat "Endless Horde" to advance to the next floor!]
Admittedly, the boss wasn't actually difficult to beat. But part of its name, endless, was seemingly true. I killed a few hours searching for the boss room on the first floor and sure, I wasn't in much of a rush, but I wanted to at least make it to the second before I was needed back at the warehouse. I honestly didn't realize that I'd have to deal with such a huge time waster as that boss, those Apathy Grimm just kept on coming.
As I ended up using the rest of my time left for the dungeon that I set aside for that boss I had to go to the second floor on another date. On the plus side, the dungeon was a new and better source of experience than I had previously assumed. Everything that I had killed, including the waves during the boss battle, gave me decent experience compared to any Grimm I kill outside of the dungeon.
I gained over a million experience killing all of those things and completing the first floor, which also gave me some experience for doing it the first time. After so long of just resorting to the experience I gain through guild missions and passively gaining experience through my minions doing crimes, I can finally start getting stronger by my own hands once again.
"We've hit every mark on the list you gave us, what now?"
I pulled the cigar in my mouth out and breathed the smoke into the air. I reached into my coat and brought out another folded up piece of paper and handed it over, "Organize some men and go after these marks on the date and time listed next to the address, Perry."
He nodded and reached to take it from my hand.
I quickly pulled it back and stared him straight in the eyes, "Only on the date and time listed, got it? I had to pay off the cops to avoid these areas only at these times you fuck up you're on your own."
Perry nodded, "Got it."
"Good," I said and gave the paper to him. I was happy to deal with someone halfway competent in the White Fang, it was too bad that I don't think I'd be able to convince him to work for me. Then I looked over his shoulder and watched as one of the grunts dropped a crate full of fire Dust, sending its content spilling across the floor.
Gnashing my teeth together I slammed my cigar into an ashtray and stormed over. He stopped staring dumbly at the mess and looked up at me when he finally noticed my presence. I grabbed him by the front of his uniform and lifted him up to me to be at eye level.
"Do you mind explaining to me what the fuck you're doing?" I asked the idiot.
"I-uh. I'm," he started.
"That was rhetorical!" I growled into his face. "I don't care about you so if you want to kill yourself by blowing yourself from here to Atlas then be my guest. But don't do it in a warehouse full of every type of Dust known to man when I am inside of it!"
I harshly dropped the man from my grasp and pointed at the mess that was already being taken care of by some fo the other White Fang members, "Help them clean this up then report to Pierre for permanent guard duty, I'm not letting you touch any Dust when I'm around."
I went back to my little section of the warehouse that had a map taped to the side of a large crate of Dust and a smaller crate under it that I was using as a table. As I was getting myself ready to start going over other marks to keep the White Fang busy and out of my hair one of my disposable scrolls rang.
[Call from "Bitch" on "Disposable Scroll 2".]
I sighed and pulled the scroll out of my inventory.
"Why hello Cinder!" I said with such cheer that anyone who even slightly knew me could tell it was fake. "How's the little vacation been? You know, I've hard at work here all by my lonesome."
"Roman," came Cinder's voice. "Do keep your grievances to yourself. I have not been on vacation and have been doing my own work."
Oh, I know she's been doing her own thing this whole time, but it was fun to mess with her a bit.
"Mercury and Emerald will be back in Vale shortly, they will be keeping themselves clean and out of sight until I return," Cinder said. "Under no circumstances are they to assist you in your robberies, I have already instructed them not to. Are we clear?"
I rolled my eyes and sarcastically mouthed 'Are we clear' with a talking hand.
"Clear as punch, darlin'," I said, taking the time to lean against the crate and eye the busy warehouse. The mess from earlier was cleaned up now and things were being moved around cleanly and efficiently enough for now. I guess that even I can't escape my need to be a perfectionist in everything I do.
"And what about our little pest problem? Have you taken care of it yet?"
"You know, that's awfully racist of you," I told Cinder, fully aware of the irony of my comment. "He's actually some sort of cat. It's the current year, Cinder. Get with the times."
"Is it. Taken care of?" She said a bit more forcefully this time.
I nearly snorted but held back. Instead, I polished my nails on my coat and inspected them, "I haven't had the time to take care of it yet, I've been a little busy running all of your shopping errands across the city."
"Take care of it, Roman," Cinder ordered. "We can't have anything about our plans leaking out."
I rolled my eyes, "And what plan is that? In case you've forgotten, you haven't told me what that plan of yours actually is." I already know what she's planning, naturally, but I need to keep up the illusion of the in the dark partner that wants to know the master plan.
"You will know when its time," Cinder cryptically said, and boy does she enjoy being cryptic. And I knew she'd say it like that, so dramatic. "For now, just do what I say and take care of our little problem."
With that final line, she hung up on me. I was tempted to call her back, just to mess with her, but I doubt the headache to come from her when she gets back would be worth it. Nevertheless, I shall strive to not kill Tuckson as I am clearly too busy to do so right now. Saving his life at the last possible second and having him spread rumors once Cinder is stuck in Beacon and can't do anything about it is for the best. I just got to hold on a bit.
(A/N) Ugh, being sick sucks. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Name: Roman Torchwick
Age: 30
Class: The Gamer
Level: 149 (Next Level: 8,444,320/11,016,000)
Title: Crime Lord(u)/Partners in Crime
Bounty: 925,000 Lien
HP: 9,718
HP Regen: 194.36/min (2%)
MP: 23,540.4 [13,078 + 653.9(5%) + 9,808.5(75%)]
MP Regen: 5,437.8/min [2,589.4(base 11%) + 2,589.4(100%) + (259(10%)]
STR: 249.2 [Base 178 + 53.4(30%) + 17.8(10%)]
VIT: 226.8 [Base 162 + 48.6(30%) + 16.2(10%)]
DEX: 625.25 [Base 305 + 45.75(15%) + 91.5(30%) + 30.5(10%) + 152.5(50%)]
INT: 562.8 [Base 402 + 120.6(30%) + 40.2(10%)]
WIS: 112 [Base 80 + 24(30%) + 8(10%)]
LUK: 100 (Max)
Elemental Affinity: Earth (40), Wind (40), Fire (40), Ice (40), Lightning (40)
Attribute Points: 0
