Naruto was very glad there wasn't anyone else around to witness his predicament.
He was also very, very glad he didn't voice his first thought, instead skipping right past that and onto his second thought, which, to be fair, was sort of interconnected with his first thought, and as such could entirely be back-traced to discover what his first thought had been.
He blurted out said second thought without preamble. "Clothes!"
A fair and reasonable second thought, all things considered, even as his semblance was firing notifications at him like someone was holding down the trigger on Sandstorm.
Deciding for the sake of both Electrus' and his own modesty, Naruto turned aside to scan through his inventory, realizing that he was very limited on clothing options for the very clearly human-like Elemental, with only two different dress suits being his only options.
Well, unless he decided to take some of the stuff he was wearing off, but that also left him with the same issue, just with a different target. Him. He would be the different target, but then again, at least the suits fit him.
Or, he supposed, he could always send Electrus back to wherever it- er, her, resided whenever a summon wasn't summoned.
That was actually a good solution, assuming that Electrus could go back. If the Divinity stage prevented that, well, that wouldn't be good.
"I shall depart," Electrus spoke, and Naruto realized she still had that mental connection to him, and that he'd somewhat ordered her disappearance.
When he turned back, there was no evidence left that she'd even been there, the crystalline cocoon had even faded into smoke.
So, Naruto now had to go find Electrus an outfit to wear, for both her sake, and his own. That was going to the top of the to-do list.
Gods, the mental to-do list was too long. Naruto could barely keep up.
In order to distract himself from his ever-lengthening game of memory, Naruto decided to instead investigate his newest pending notifications, sighing ever so slightly.
One notification after another this morning, it seemed.
[Electrus has become a Divinity stage Elemental!]
[At the Divinity Stage, Elementals lose the ability to grow Dust Crystals of their corresponding element, but instead gain the ability to passively boost the Elemental Affinity of their corresponding element by two! Elementals also gain the ability to equip weapons, clothing and armor, and fight alongside you, as well as becoming near-to-human!]
Well, Naruto had figured out a part of that on his own, but the knowledge of the passive affinity boost was new, and much appreciated, especially considering his most used element tended to be Lightning. He'd made the right call choosing Electrus, at least.
His next notification was significantly more important, though, and something he'd been working on for quite a long time, if indirectly.
[A title has ranked up!]
[Soul Tamer Expert has become Soul Tamer Beast Master!]
[Summons are now even more powerful!]
[MAX RANK]
He might not have had concrete numbers to work with, but already Naruto could feel the latent power he always tapped into had increased. It was a distinctive increase when he unequipped the title, realizing that he rarely, if ever, actually unequipped that title. It was strange, and he felt oddly naked without the connection being anywhere near as strong.
He re-equipped the Soul Tamer title, his first proper max rank title, not counting the Devourer title, because that had come pre-maxed, and gave his arms a stretch, rolling his shoulders to loosen whatever tension there was.
He had a rather large shopping venture to perform, and he was going to be damned if he failed to get that done at least.
Surprisingly, Naruto had no trouble finding a store that stocked crafting supplies. Well, what he called crafting supplies, anyway, actual stores that sold the more stereotypical crafting supplies were mostly stocked with model glue and enamel paint.
He had absolutely no idea how much XP he was going to need in order to reach the Crafting level he needed to actually smelt and process Mithril Ore, so he decided to go for broke and purchase a large amount of both Iron Ore and Coal, investing a not-so-significant amount of Lien into his purchase.
Hopefully he'd be able to sell whatever he made back to another store to make a profit, but that was nothing more than blind faith, and reliance on the fact that his semblance had made everything else work like that to some extent.
He didn't really know, though, but he bought a thousand of each either way.
Which, naturally, set him back nearly four-hundred-thousand Lien. He blanched at that, but he knew that his increased CHA, and the perks that came with it, had lowered that price by a decent amount.
It also, apparently, unlocked an achievement, which Naruto quickly read through, trying his best not to look like he was staring into nothingness.
[Achievement Unlocked!]
[Big Spender]
[Spend 100,000L in a single transaction with any store.]
[Reward: 1 Grand XP Orb]
Well, at least he had a good start for his Crafting grind, depending on how much experience the orb offered. He was hoping it was a large amount, considering it was a Grand XP Orb, as opposed to something like a Minor XP Orb, but he wasn't entirely sure if it was going to be enough.
He shrugged. It was a benefit nonetheless, and there was no use complaining about things that were beyond his control.
Instead, his next stop was a store that sold high-quality clothing, though he was less in control of his actions inside this store as he could feel his mental link conveying certain pieces of information over to him.
Knowing better than to disagree with anything anyone ever said to him about clothing, Naruto simply bought what he was instructed to buy.
Once that had been completed, and he'd been set back just a little over two-thousand more Lien, Naruto set about moving away from Atlas's shopping district and towards the shuttles that would ferry him down from the giant floating city to the one that lay beneath once more.
He had a specific destination in mind, a place he'd been before, and recently, too.
He was just hoping the Doctor would be as open to allowing him to use the workshop as he was hoping he would be, because otherwise Naruto was going to have to figure out an alternate, and private, place to train his Crafting.
Naruto paused, halfway into the shuttle dock, eyeing the Bullheads that lined one side of the structure, waiting to be dropped in case of an emergency.
Why did he need to take a shuttle when he literally had a Bullhead in his pocket?
The answer to that question was quite simple; he didn't. He could quite easily step outside and simply conjure his Bullhead out of storage and hop in.
Of course, that would mean that there was a chance someone would notice a Bullhead materializing in front of them, but those were semantics.
Semantics that Naruto was very, very unconcerned about as he shrugged off the warning the nearest soldier gave him and took a swan-dive off the edge of the shuttle bay.
He was surprised how used to free-falling he'd gotten. It didn't catch him off-guard anymore, and there was no longer any hesitation about flinging himself to what would be certain death if he didn't have a landing strategy or several at his disposal.
He didn't even have to bring out his Bullhead, if he was being honest. Shirdal, Alcmena or Apollo would be more than enough to slow his fall, and Shirdal still had the saddle equipped, the one he'd practically slept in on his way to Menagerie.
And, if he was being honest, the Bullhead was a mite too conspicuous regardless. He shrugged, realizing afterwards that the motion was a little lost, partly due to him not having an audience, and partly due to the fact that he was currently plummeting towards Mantle at terminal velocity.
Shirdal appeared next to him, wings tight against his body as he too dove, minimizing his wind resistance.
Naruto maneuvered himself towards the Griffon summon with remarkable ease, one hand snagging one of the saddle's handles, and he urged Shirdal to level out.
Wings spreading out, Shirdal did exactly that, carving through the air in a sweeping Uzumaki that carried Naruto safely towards his destination, stopping to land atop a nearby rooftop.
Naruto ruffled the feathers behind Shirdal's head-plate in gratitude, slinging himself down from the leather saddle and onto the concrete rooftop. "Thanks, buddy. I can always count on you to catch me."
Shirdal ruffled his wings and de-summoned himself in reply, though Naruto could feel that lingering feeling of faith in the back of his mind. His mental link had grown stronger, that was definitely for sure.
He quickly dropped himself down the side of the building, grabbing one of the bars of the metallic fire escape on the side to slow his fall, one hand snagging the cold metal without any trouble, ceasing his momentum with ease.
He hit the alley pavement without so much as blinking, and quickly began walking.
He wasn't quite sure where in Mantle he was, but he'd be able to get his bearings pretty quickly once he came across something at least somewhat familiar.
It took him next to no time at all to actually get said bearings, considering he'd landed pretty much just south of possibly the most main street of all the main streets in Mantle, so navigation was practically a metaphorical cakewalk as he followed a path he was somewhat familiar with.
He arrived at Doctor Polendina's workshop for the second time in roughly as many days, stepping through the door and knocking on the wall inside, calling out. "Hey, Doc, you busy?"
He could hear mechanical movement a moment later, and the walking chair maneuvered it's way out of Pietro's small office. "Naruto, my boy! How good to see you again! Is there something I can help you with?"
"Sorry to interrupt your lunch," Naruto remarked, noting the sandwich that the doctor still held in his hands. "I was just wondering if it would be possible for me to borrow your workshop for a little bit? I kinda have to do some, er, workshopping?"
He really should have come up with a better excuse than that. Or any excuse, really.
"Of course, of course!" Doctor Polendina exclaimed with a beaming grin. Naruto was honestly surprised the scientist didn't want to ask any more information. "Might I ask, is this to do with your semblance?"
Damnit. Naruto and his big mouth- er, internal monologue.
Well, the man did work for the Atlesian Military, and he was Penny's father, so if he couldn't trust him with at least some minimal details, who could he trust?
"Yeah, something like that," Naruto remarked, shrugging. "I'm not really allowed to go into detail, though."
When in doubt, base your lies almost solely on truth. That was hardly even a lie, just a redirection of the truth.
Not that he didn't trust the Doctor, of course. Honestly, Pietro seemed to Naruto like the only honest man in Atlas, but then again he was technically in Mantle.
He didn't know if that warranted a distinction or not, but he felt like maybe it did. Then again, if Pietro took the flight up to Atlas, he'd definitely be the most honest man in Atlas. The Doctor was remarkably endearing, though that might've had something to do with the almost grandfatherly aesthetic he gave off.
"Of course, I understand confidentiality more than I think you may realize, my boy. Please, by all means, use it as you need, I owe you that much and more," Pietro spoke, with a jovial laugh. "Now, I have a date with the rest of this sandwich!"
As the metallic clanking of the chair walking back to the office sounded, Naruto let a small grin show on his face. The man certainly seemed to be in higher spirits than he had been when Naruto had initially met him.
Not about to let himself get sidetracked by bloating his own ego, Naruto reached into his inventory, withdrawing the Grand XP Orb he'd been awarded a short time ago, absorbing whatever latent energy was within it that constituted whatever experience physically was.
Naruto felt it seep into his mind, body and soul, a feeling of potential that he couldn't quite put into coherent words leaving a tingling trail from his fingertips to his toes as it zapped up and down his spine.
He also felt Crafting level up once, going from thirty-three to thirty-four in less than a matter of moments.
Naruto laughed to himself somewhat. If only he had a hundred more of those orbs. Free experience was a very intoxicating feeling.
Unfortunately, he didn't, which meant he was going to have to rely on the primary method of training Crafting, which usually just meant Naruto would be stuck funnelling ore into a furnace for a few hours.
Of course, with his Instant Smelter perk that was pretty much nullified, now, and he could do them all in one lump sum, but it did still mean he was going to have to smelt down ore into ingots.
He needed to find something that was quick and cheap, but still offered decent experience. He twisted his lips in thought as he began smelting his newly-acquired batch of iron ore.
Unfortunately for Naruto's thinking time, that was soon to be finished just as soon as he started it.
Which was disappointing because he hadn't had a revelation of what to make during the time it was melting down.
He had a list of things, of course, various bits and pieces that he, for the most part, didn't have a clue to the use of, but he was still interested in them, to a certain degree.
He knew he needed metal plates to make armor, so he could turn some of his Bronze into Bronze Plates, but he wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do with armor made of bronze. In the grand scheme of things it didn't exactly strike him as particularly powerful, and he already had the ability to make better materials, though currently he really only had Bronze Plates available. He knew more were locked behind a higher level, but he hadn't reached that level yet.
And in order to reach that level, he needed to make stuff for the experience, in order to reach the level to make stuff to get more experience!
Naruto sighed, taking the 'technically-a-metric-ton-of-Iron-Ingots' out of the small forge and placing the amalgam item into his inventory, where it immediately auto-filled the amount and awarded him the experience.
It came in a burst, just like the XP Orb had, but Naruto didn't feel a tingling sensation. He assumed that was more specific to the orb.
He did however notice two things. The first was that he'd unlocked a new material, High Steel, which apparently cost four times as much Coal as Low Steel did, and secondly, a new notification.
[A title has ranked up!]
[Designer Adept has ranked up into Designer Expert!]
[Gain an extra 40% XP from Crafting!]
Naruto grinned at that. Today seemed to be a day of constant upgrades and progress, and he was more than happy with that fact.
He still hadn't unlocked Mithril, Adamantite or Orichalcite yet, though, so he was going to have to continue, though what better way than to make a bunch of the new High Steel?
He could make a quarter-thousand of it at present, with the thousand Coal he had on hand, but that was definitely a large enough amount that it would level him up some more.
He grabbed what he needed from his inventory and dumped it into the forge, closing the door and waiting the few moments it took to create the alloy.
When he took it out and put it in his inventory, he felt himself go from Level forty to forty-four in a sudden instant.
And yet, still no Mithril! At this rate, Naruto was going to run out of raw materials, and have to resort to making components at a much slower rate.
Actually, he was pretty much going to have to do that. All he really had for making some more ingots was a few pieces of scrap metal that he'd needed to melt down regardless.
The Tough Scrap Metal melted down remarkably quickly, just like the rest of his ingot-making processes, and Naruto added the result, twenty-four Low Steel Ingots, to the rest of his inventory with a frown. Still not enough to go from forty-four to forty-five. He needed something more.
He browsed through both his inventory and his Crafting menu, frowning. Surely there had to be something quick he could use for the little bit of experience left he needed to push him to the next level.
Granted, that was relying on the fact that he'd actually get anything worthwhile unlocked at the next level, but he was holding out hope. It had pretty much all worked out thus far, he didn't want to imagine that was going to stop anytime soon.
He didn't need to limit himself to ingots, though, despite the obvious speed advantage they offered over other methods. He could turn those ingots into something, or he could do some alchemy. Maybe making a bunch of Alchemic Reagents would be enough to push him to forty-five?
He didn't know, but he knew he couldn't actually make any Alchemic Reagent right now, as he lacked one of the crucial ingredients. Though he supposed he could go out and buy some alcohol, there wasn't much anyone could do to stop him. He had an official Hunter's license, now, so that meant he was, as far as the law was concerned, an adult.
He didn't really feel like one, but then again, what did that feel like? Was he expecting to just turn into some kind of responsible, tax-doing citizen overnight?
He was getting sidetracked again. Maybe he should make a few Potions of Aura? He never knew when he was going to need them, and it was better to have and not need than to need and not have.
At least, that was what he'd always been told, but there had to be a reason that the saying existed.
He watched in mild boredom as the Inert Dust reacted with the Minor Soul Orbs and the Alchemic Reagents, forming a small cluster of the Potions of Aura, which he quickly dumped into his inventory.
He was surprised to see that their quality had been dramatically improved, sitting at Greater. Despite the improvement in item quality, though, it still hadn't been enough experience, and Naruto frowned, deep in thought.
He had so many little pieces to work with, and he wasn't sure what would be more worthwhile to do.
He shrugged, grabbing a handful of some of the herbs he had in his inventory, dropping all the Eogenlit Herbs he had into the bench-mounted grinder, flicking the switch to pulverize the materials.
He did the same with the rest of his herbs, the trickle of experience still not enough to push him over the line, but getting him closer and closer.
Again, he shrugged. He had an inventory full of Bronze Ingots that he wasn't using, and one of the things he could use them for was making and selling armor. It might not have been very powerful armor, of course, but it was better than nothing, and he wasn't exactly doing anything else with the bronze.
So, he was going to make Bronze Plates until he leveled up. He grabbed a nearby hammer, giving it a perfunctory spin, stretching.
"Here's hoping this doesn't take too long."
It took next to no time at all, in fact, as Naruto only had to hammer out fifteen ingots.
He felt the level-up send a minute signal to his mind, and suddenly his Crafting menu was populated with a number of new recipes. He kept his fingers crossed as he scanned through it, looking for Mithril.
He let out a breath of relief when he saw it, feeling the tension in his shoulders slip away. There it was, the recipe for Mithril Ingots, a two-to-one conversion of ore to ingot. Not a bad ratio at all, if he was being honest. At least there was no secondary ingredient that he didn't have, or would have to track down. This he could do, and with the amount of Mithril Ore in his inventory, he could do a not-so-insignificant amount of it.
So, he placed it into the forge, closing the door yet again. It would take only a moment, and when he withdrew it, he could do nothing but stare.
It was a beautiful bright blue, shining brightly in the workshop's fluorescent lighting, but the most noticeable thing about it was that it weighed significantly less than any other ingot he'd held thus far.
He placed it in his inventory, watching as the number auto-populated itself from the single ingot into the full amount he'd smelted.
And to think, he'd been struggling to push himself over the threshold to forty-five, and yet all the Mithril Ore in his possession had pushed him from forty-five to forty-eight.
Movement behind him startled him, and Naruto found himself quickly whipping around in surprise.
Doctor Polendina seemed equally surprised, his chair jolting back a half-step as the man threw his hands up. "My goodness, I'm quite sorry! I hadn't meant to startle you, my boy, I was just quite intrigued by that metal you had!"
Naruto relaxed the moment he noticed it was the doctor, hand straying away from Predator. He let out a laugh a moment later. "I must've really been absorbed in it too, I didn't even hear you sneak up on me."
The doctor's face twisted into a rueful, apologetic smile. "I am truly sorry to bother you when you are so into your work, Gods know I'm familiar with the feeling, but would you be able to tell me what that metal is? I've never once seen it before!"
Naruto internally shrugged, where was the harm? Technically, Naruto would be sharing some of the details with Jacques Schnee at some point, so having someone quite a bit better of a person finding out wasn't going to be a problem.
"I'm not surprised you've never seen it before, no one has. It's Mithril, and I'm the first person to have ever made an ingot out of the ore. At least, as far as anyone knows."
Pietro's eyes widened, a surprised gasp on the edge of his lips. "I… how…"
That was a question Naruto couldn't really answer, but this was a good opportunity to create a cover story.
He was about to do just that when he realized that he should probably discuss that cover story with Blake and Ilia before he began talking about it.
"I'm sorry, Doctor, I can't really tell you where I found it. At the moment that's a trade secret, but I promise I'll let you know when I can. Still have to handle some legal stuff first."
The doctor nodded, but continued unabated. "Perhaps there is a chance I could take some off your hands? For experimentation, of course. I would quite like to see what it might be useful for, and to simply test and log how it reacts to certain tests. I would be more than willing to pay, as well."
Far be it for Naruto to refuse. "I can spare about ten ingots worth, but you can't share any information on it until it goes public one way or another. I'll make sure your name comes up in any business discussions, though."
Pietro nodded, carefully taking the stack of ingots from Naruto, marvelling at the light weight. "It barely feels like the weight of a single piece of steel! This is already incredible! The applications for a lightweight metal like this are more than plentiful!"
The mechanical chair moved somewhat, and suddenly Naruto was being presented with three platinum Lien cards. "Here, fifteen-thousand Lien, as agreed!"
Naruto wasn't entirely sure when they'd agreed on that, but it was more than he'd been expecting, and he grinned. "Pleasure doing business, Doc. If you could, do you think you could let me know what you find out? I'm as interested in figuring it out as you are."
Doctor Polendina nodded, already pulling out various tools. "I'll send you a detailed report as soon as I have one made! Shouldn't take me too long, of course!"
Naruto nodded. "Thanks, Doc, and thanks for letting me borrow the workshop! I'll see you later then!"
With that farewell, Naruto stepped out of the building, into the warm, smoky air of Mantle.
He decided against taking a deep breath, the air wasn't exactly the cleanest, but he did begin walking, aimlessly.
He was just wandering at this point, hoping to stumble across something interesting.
After nearly half-an-hour of wandering, he still hadn't come across something interesting, but a burst of notifications had appeared instead, startling him.
[Hunter Bounty Started!]
[Search and Collect: World's Peak]
[Search World's Peak for a specific item.]
[Reward: Atlas Reputation increased by 3]
[Hunter Bounty Started!]
[Extermination: Nanuk]
[Kill 14 Nanuk.]
[Reward: 1 Greater XP Orb]
[Hunter Bounty Started!]
[Elimination: Frostwreath]
[Hunt and arrest or kill a specific target hiding in Frostwreath.]
[Reward: 3 Grade IV Sonic Dust Crystals]
Well, Blake had been busy. Three Hunter Bounties had suddenly appeared in his Bounty Log, and almost the moment he finished reading the notifications, his scroll began buzzing.
He pulled it out of his pocket, hitting answer.
He didn't even give Blake a moment to speak. "Blake, why did you have to take three bounties? Why not just the one?"
"Blake took three bounties?" Ilia asked, confused.
Oh. "Oh. Sorry Ilia."
He couldn't see Ilia, but he knew she was shrugging regardless. "How fast can you get to Mantle?"
It was Naruto's turn to shrug. "As fast as you need, why? Where are you?"
Ilia began giving Naruto directions, and he followed them, moving rapidly through the crowds, stepping past the various pedestrians and occasionally just ignoring traffic laws and vaulting a car or two as he made his way.
He could see Ilia now, and he dropped his scroll back into his pocket, walking over. "What'd you find, Ilia?"
She gestured to the alley on her left. "Down here, it's an entrance to the old evacuation tunnels. I managed to crack the lock."
He glanced around the corner to where Ilia was pointing, a small metal hatch with a broken padlock dangling from a chain.
"Right," Naruto stated, hand reaching the back of his head to ruffle the hair above his neck. "Anything interesting?"
Ilia nodded. "Well, for one, it's empty. Whatever they have at the end of it, no Grimm have managed to breach it, so it's pretty much clear down there, not even any rats. Not warm enough, I guess, they probably prefer the factories."
She continued on as she heaved the door open. "I dunno where it leads, though, I didn't exactly find the end, but that's where you come in. All we have to do is head in one direction until we find an exit outside of the Mantle limits."
Naruto peered into the murky depths. "I'm the one without night vision, Ilia, why do you need me to do that?"
"Night vision doesn't do shit when it's pitch black, idiot. I went down with a flashlight, but that's not exactly great for navigating a bunch of old tunnels. This place had lights at some point, but it's obviously cut off from Mantle's grid. Besides, I can't do much down there besides explore. Blake said you were the plan guy, so I figured if you got down there, you could see if it would help."
Instead of looking down into the tunnels more, Naruto instead turned his vision one-hundred-eighty degrees and stared up at the underside of Atlas. "Huh."
Ilia began looking up as well, copying his statement, and adding to it. "That's pretty convenient."
Directly above the two of them, and slightly to the east, was the underside of Schnee Manor.
"Well, we definitely know how and where we're getting out of the city. Now all we have to do is figure out a way to get Weiss down from there to here."
"Rappel?" Ilia offered with a shrug. "Though that's a hell of a long line."
"A bit too long," Naruto replied. "Atlesian Military would catch us before we even got halfway down."
He looked back down into the tunnel entrance, distracted for a moment. "Uh, Ilia, you said there were no Grimm, right?"
Ilia frowned, peering into the darkness. "Yeah, when I was down there earlier I didn't run into any, or even any sign that they were down there. Why?"
"Because something down there just moved."
Naruto didn't like it down here, not one bit. Sure, he'd been in his fair share of dark, spooky places, but even with Candlelight casting a bright light through the corridors and tunnels, it cast just as many shadows, and every flicker of movement drew his eye, and his aim.
He'd not used Terminator before, and he was almost hoping he could keep it that way, the lever-action shotgun held in one hand, extended in front of him, his finger steady on the trigger.
He'd end up having to use it, though, he knew that much. He wasn't a fool, he knew how this sort of thing worked. He'd seen movement, and now he, and Ilia behind him, were being led deeper and deeper, where they'd be ambushed by some kind of cluster of Grimm.
He could tell Ilia was getting frustrated. Every time she saw movement it was barely a flicker, a faint after-image, but it was just enough for her to direct his movement, to tell him which way to turn.
He'd made it pretty clear to the chameleon faunus that they were being led into a trap, but she was having none of it. Either she truly didn't believe there was a trap ahead, or she didn't care, it didn't really matter. They were still moving, still delving further and further.
For what felt like the millionth time, Ilia swore under her breath, fingers tensing on the grip of her weapon. "It went left."
For what felt like the millionth time, Naruto sighed. "It's still a trap."
For what felt like the millionth time, Ilia ignored his statement.
They kept walking, and then all of a sudden it wasn't a corridor anymore, but a large room, devoid of any light other than his own. Concrete and steel, as was typical for Mantle, lined the room, but it was the structure on the far side that drew his eye the fastest, taking the standard Mantle palette and adding glass to it, along with what looked like a very secure steel door on one side, at the top of the metallic catwalk that ringed the top of the structure, stairs leading from interior to the exterior to connect the two segments. He had to assume there was another door on the side he couldn't see, on the ground floor, but it was a guess at best.
Of course, that wasn't the only thing in the room, and as his eyes strayed to the shadow that Ilia's eyes had yet to leave, he sighed yet again. "I told you it was leading us into an ambush."
Ilia definitely knew, her weapon raised to point at the shadowy creature that stood upright in the center of the large room.
Naruto could see the rest of the picture, quite a few similarly sized shadowy blobs surrounding them. He turned to check the hallway they'd entered through and could make out two more.
He hooked his hand into Crocea Mors, the shield fitting as comfortably as ever on his arm as he pointed Terminator at the closest blob, and willed Candlelight to glow as bright as possible, raising the lightsource up to the ceiling.
He promptly lowered his weapon a bit in surprise. "You've got to be kidding me."
Ilia seemed equally surprised. "No fucking way. Penguins? Fucking penguin Grimm?!"
The penguin Grimm in question, the one standing in front of the two of them, opened its white beak, revealing a razor-sharp serrated edge.
There was a moment of complete stillness that passed by when Naruto ruined it, a notification startling him.
He squeezed the trigger in surprise at the notification, and the blast of buckshot left the barrel of Terminator and entered the black fleshy Grimm, exiting out the back in a spray of dark viscera.
It was certainly underwhelming, on the Grimm's part, as it just sort of slumped over, dead.
The second moment of complete stillness ended a moment later, as all of the penguin-like Grimm swarmed Naruto and Ilia, beaks snapping.
Naruto felt instinct take over as he twirled the grip of Terminator, the lever coming out to meet the rest of the weapon, and he saw the spent shell eject, and as he blocked one of the Grimm, he planted the barrel against the center mass of another, pulling the trigger once more.
It burst like a water balloon full of shadowy gore and he winced, even as he gave the Grimm gnawing, or pecking, on his shield a momentary reprieve, withdrawing his shield close to his body.
Only to slam it back down against the fleshy mass, staggering the Grimm back a step where Naruto swung his leg, punting the three-foot penguin-like Grimm into a nearby wall.
He twisted again, slamming a freshly-chambered Terminator into the open beak of another, turning the back of it's head into mulch with another pull of the trigger.
He was part way through spinning the shotgun when he felt something sharp latch onto his firing arm, and he looked down, noticing one of the Grimm was currently latched onto his shoulder, gnawing at the only thing protecting his skin, his clothing. Well, and his Aura, though he doubted he'd even need it with this thing.
He slung Terminator back over his shoulder, even with the extra weight, and used the tip of his shield to pry the thing off, where he grabbed it by the head and melted it into blackened slag with a point-blank Mana Beam, wincing at the smell.
He cut the beam quickly, wary of collateral damage, and instead reached into his inventory with a vicious grin, withdrawing Caligo Mors.
The morningstar was as sharp as it was blunt, and it was like hitting flies with a mallet as he squished Grimm after Grimm with it, flicking the weapon out to pulverize a beak or cave in a skull.
Even the Alpha that came last, after Ilia had finished her little cluster, posed quite literally no threat as Naruto simply threw Caligo Mors at it, the end of the spiked mace inverting the thing's beak and staying stuck there as the Grimm was bowled over.
He stepped over to the remains of the Alpha, tugging the mace loose with a chuckle. "Well, I take it back, Ilia, that was a lot more fun that I was expecting."
Ilia cocked her head to the side. "Oh yeah, I just love getting attacked by little penguin-Grimm and getting covered in Grimm-bits. My favorite way to spend my time."
Naruto shrugged. "It's just a bit of Grimmflesh, you'll live. Not the worst thing I've ever been covered in."
"Do I even want to ask?" Ilia asked, doing her best to flick chunks of Grimmflesh off her shoulder.
Naruto laughed. "I got eaten whole by a King Taijitu. Those things have acidic internals, melted right through my armor."
"And you lived? You're either invincible, or an idiot."
He gestured his hands like a pair of scales. "Not exactly mutually exclusive."
"What the hell were those little things anyways?" She queried, looking at the rapidly disintegrating remains of the nearest one. "Kinda cute, in a creepy Grimm way."
Naruto ignored his notifications in the more pressing need of checking his Grimmonomicon. "Uh… Pengrimm. Apparently."
"Pengrimm," Ilia deadpanned.
"Yup," Naruto replied with a shrug. "That's what it says."
"I hate Atlas."
Naruto countered that quickly. "Menagerie has gigantic spiders."
"It also has gigantic spider Grimm, do you see me complaining?"
Naruto had to pause to think about that one for a moment. "Wait, like, actual regular spiders?"
Ilia nodded as she began wandering towards the nearby building. "Yeah, they're pretty venomous. There's a reason why most people don't let their kids play in the older houses."
Naruto shivered. "Never thought I'd be glad to be away."
"They're not so bad. You don't bother them, they won't bother you, that's about it. The Arachnae are a different topic, though, those things suck."
Naruto nodded. "I'm familiar. There was a literal unending swarm of them in the first floor of the Hallowed Bay."
He put a pause on the conversation as they neared the far door to the ground floor of the building. "Can you get that open? I've got a bunch of notifications I've gotta check."
Ilia didn't answer verbally, instead kneeling at the level of the lock, already getting to work. "I'm not as good as Blake is, but this shouldn't take me too long."
Naruto copied Ilia in not answering verbally, bringing up his latest notifications.
[Encounter Complete!]
[You have gained 1,411,228 XP and 23,110L!]
[You have acquired 12 Inert Dust, 5 Pengrimm Pelts, 4 Pengrimm Flippers, 1 Alpha Pengrimm Flipper, 4 Eogenlit Herbs and 1 Thasgade Seed!]
It was a typical encounter notification, but it wasn't what had startled him in the first place. That was a bit longer of a notification, and with it carried a lot more ramifications.
[The System has updated!]
[Combat 2.0 Update has gone live!]
[Combat 2.0 is a complete overhaul of the numerical calculations for damage, armor, and a number of other combat applicable bits and pieces! It also comes with a number of adjustments to pre-existing systems, and an addition of a number of new systems!]
[View Full Changelog Here]
Naruto scratched at the back of his head with one hand as he tapped the view button with his other, waiting for the screen to load, which took next to no time at all.
[Implemented Armor Class, Damage Class and Damage Mitigation systems for new Damage Calculations!]
[Revamped and adjusted all Buff Skills!]
[Adjusted Armor Values for new Damage system!]
[Adjusted Elements, added new affinities, implemented new Elemental Strength/Weakness system!]
[Adjusted and implemented new Equipment screen!]
[Adjusted new Damage system to apply to Grimm with Armor Class and Damage Class typings!]
[Revamped and adjusted Armor Forging for new Damage system!]
[Revamped and adjusted Crafting locations into tiered Workshops, with ranks and level limitations!]
[Removed old Minimum Damage Blocked system to make way for new Damage System, rolled Stat mods and other mods into Damage Mitigation!]
[Other minor changes!]
Naruto gaped at the list. "Woah."
Ilia turned around for a moment, pausing her lockpicking. "What?"
"System update," Naruto answered. "A bunch of stuff in my semblance just changed, pretty massively. Updates don't happen very often."
Ilia wasn't entirely sure what that meant, and she didn't care enough to ask for Naruto to elaborate, so she just shrugged and went back to trying to pick the lock.
Naruto leaned against the wall next to where she was working, pushing his hair out of his face as he reread the changelog.
He filed the idea of checking what had changed away when he heard the telltale click of a lock disengaging, and Ilia gave the door a gentle shove, swinging it open.
The small room was as dark as the exterior would have been if Naruto's Candlelight hadn't been casting a bright light across all the surfaces.
Naruto brought it close, sending it through the door to cast light across the scattered table and chairs inside, past the tiny nook that appeared to serve as a kitchen, to sit in the far corner of the room.
Naruto stepped through, Ilia following close behind.
"Bunks?" Ilia questioned, peering at one corner. "People lived here, a long, long time ago."
Naruto nodded in agreement with her theory. "Probably before Atlas was floating, if I had to guess. I doubt anybody's been down here in a while."
He kept moving, taking the steep metallic stairs two at a time, one hand using the railing to pull himself up. Ilia peered up the staircase, and Naruto turned to face her. "Another door, but I can crack this one. You wanna keep looking around down there?"
Ilia didn't, so she made that clear.
Naruto shrugged. "Suit yourself, but wait until I'm in the second floor. I don't know if this catwalk can hold my weight and yours, it's already creaking like mad."
He knelt down at the door, withdrawing his lockpicking kit from his inventory and got to work.
It took less than a minute, either because the lock was a lot weaker, or he was just lucky, but the door swung open regardless, and he stepped through.
Ilia followed him in a short moment later, as did his Candlelight, and he took in the room, a curious expression on his face. "What do you think this place is?"
Ilia brushed a layer of dust off of a control panel. "Old Scroll tech, positively ancient. It's an actual screen and a physical keyboard. This is a control room of some kind, obviously, but what for?"
Naruto wheeled one of the ancient seats over, only for the wheel joints to turn to powdered rust. He shrugged, setting the wheeless chair in front of the control panel, sitting in the surprisingly well-kept leather upholstery. "Let me see what I can make this thing do."
He tapped the keyboard. Nothing happened. "Okay, either this thing has no power, or I have no idea what I'm doing."
Ilia bent over, popping a panel on the side off. "Well, there's your problem. Reserve Dust battery is empty, probably has been for centuries. Got any Energy Dust in that inventory of yours?"
Naruto nodded, grabbing a Grade II out of his inventory and handing it to her, watching as she plugged it in. "There you go, try it now."
Naruto hit the keyboard once more, watching as the panel lit up, flickering lights and indicators coming online.
"Damn, it needs a password. Give me a sec," He muttered, slipping off the seat and kneeling, taking off a different panel and bringing his Candlelight close, dimming the light enough that it wasn't like holding a lamp next to his eyeball.
Ilia watched as Naruto fiddled with various wires and other bits and pieces, cocking an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
Naruto finished, getting back in the seat. "Old tech like this isn't very secure, they're pretty easy to break into if you know what you're doing. I've just reset the internal clock to default time, so if we reboot it should go to safe mode, and from safe mode we can boot into an unsecure account and use that to change the password with a couple console commands. Pretty easy."
Ilia stared at Naruto.
He did as he'd just said, and after a moment he'd cracked the system. "There we go, easy peasy. Thank you Dad for forgetting your password to your old scroll that you refused to throw out."
"So not your semblance, for once?" Ilia asked.
Naruto nodded. "Entirely a Naruto skill. Though I pretty much only know that and how to fix basic issues, anything more than 'turn it off and on again' is beyond old me. Though I did hack a Scroll recently, that was my semblance."
He adjusted his position in the seat as Ilia peered over his shoulder. Navigating through the old deskScroll was an interesting trial in arrow-key-based navigation, but he got the hang of it pretty quickly, finding an old log.
"Date's corrupted from when I reset the system time, but from what this says, this is the main control hub for the entire evacuation tunnels…"
He trailed off, eyes widening. "This console literally controls everything down here, from secure doors to lights, to automated defenses. Positively ancient, probably corroded automated defenses, but still."
"Damn," Ilia remarked. "That's some luck. Think we can make use of this?"
Naruto nodded, withdrawing his Scroll. "I might be able to link my Scroll to the console with some trickery, so we can remote-control all the systems down here, but I'll need to scrap a Scroll for the components."
Ilia handed him her Scroll, and he eyed it warily. "Uh, don't you need this?"
She shrugged. "It's a burner anyway. Link it to my other burner, this one," she showed her other burner Scroll. "That way if anyone does find this place, they can't track it back to us."
Naruto nodded, taking apart the first burner and beginning to work.
Ten minutes later, Naruto resurfaced from underneath the console, wiping dust from his face. "Well, good news, it's all linked up."
Ilia opened her eyes, ceasing her leaning against the wall. "And the bad news?"
Naruto grinned. "I didn't say there was bad news."
He handed Ilia back her second burner. "Numbers are labeled for what they do. Dial the number, and it'll toggle the function on the console. Now all I gotta do is link it back up to the Mantle power grid, so we don't have to worry about that Energy Dust running out, and actually have power for all the functions to actually work."
Ilia took the burner from his hand, scrolling through the list. "And how long will that take?"
"Done," Naruto answered. "It's literally a single Y/N argument."
"I'll just pretend I understand what you just said, and we can move on."
Naruto agreed. "Yeah, let's get out of here. I need to talk to Blake about excessive acceptance of Hunter Bounties."
"Yeah, I think I remember you mentioning something about that."
The two began backtracking their steps, heading for the nearest exit, helpfully labeled with lit signs, now that the entire tunnel network was hooked back up to the power grid.
"Honestly, though, well done Ilia. This'll be a real help," Naruto said, after a few minutes of walking.
Ilia stretched. "If it was always this easy, maybe I should've kidnapped a Schnee years ago."
Naruto stared at the chameleon faunus. "Yeah, right. This was the easy bit, I've still gotta get an idea of how to get Weiss out of the gigantic flying mansion. Any ideas?"
Ilia didn't have any good ideas, but she had plenty of bad ones. "Jump?"
Naruto scoffed. "Jump, yeah right. As if."