Author's notes: I somehow completely forgot to mention in the last chapter that this story has reached 1000 followers(now over 1200). I want to sincerely thank every single one of you who has read my story. I was not expecting to get anywhere near this many people reading this let alone liking it.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or any recognizable characters from other series.

While leaving the mayor's home, I slide the map we recently acquired into my coat, sending it to my inventory. A map of the eastern dragon shaped continent appears in front of me. I willed the map away, revealing a small circular map in the top right of my vision. A letter for each cardinal direction was located in its appropriate location. At the center is a small gray arrow, which appears to represent myself. The rest of it is filled with a map view of only the surrounding area with the name Oniyuri village underneath it.

Cool, it even comes with a minimap.

"So we're leaving now? Asked Nora.

As I turned to face her, I noticed the point of the arrow moved in time with the direction I was facing.

"Not yet or at least not today, it's already in the afternoon and I prefer to have as much daylight as possible when traveling."

I'd also like to look over this new map feature and any of its settings before we head out on a multi-week journey.

"First, we need to plan out how we would get to our first destination, which would be Higanabana."

"The two of you are headed to Higanbana?" said the hunter from yesterday approaching us.

No longer wearing the cloak from last night. Silver pauldrons rested on his shoulders, connected to plating that covered the upper part of his torso all of which had various scratches and dents. A dark brown shirt could be seen beneath the armor, tucked into a pair of blue jeans that had more plating over the shins, knees, and belt areas. His black gloves had a silver-plated back that covered his fingers and extended up to the ends of his forearms.

"Well, our primary destination is Anima Port, but our first goal is to make it to Higanbana." I answer.

Raising his hand he scratched at his chin. "Hmm, even getting to Higanbana is a long journey for the two of ya to make on your own, about two weeks if you're quick." crossing his arms and giving us an ambiguous look. "I know it's really not any of my business, but I think it would be safer if both of you stayed here."

At his suggestion I looked around at the half built village and gave him a skeptical look, to which he continued.

"I know it's not much to look at yet, but it's got walls, a place for you to sleep inside, and I'll keep the grimm away," he said, pointing a thumb at himself as he said the last part.

I can completely understand his concern. Letting a couple of kids go out into a place filled with monsters, bandits and who knows what else is not a great idea even if you remove the grimm and bandits it is still dangerous. But just staying here and playing villager isn't an option even if I did not care about getting to the next world. I am a gamer and whether I want to or not, I will most likely be drawn into the plot of this world one way or another and I want to be as strong as possible when that happens.

I guess my determination showed on what he could see of my face as he let out a long sigh. He saw my pack and the shield attached to it and then the spear pointing skyward on Nora's. "How good are you two with those weapons of yours," he asked."

"I am decent with my sword, and killing creeps in a couple of hits is no problem for me. We were able to kill a boarbatusk while working together."

After my answer, he looked over to Nora.

"I can aim pretty well with the crossbow, but I don't know how to use the spear," Nora said.

After listening to her answer, he turned back to me. "You at least seem like you can handle yourself with a blade but it wouldn't sit right on my conscience if I let you take her with you as she is."

At his statement Nora moved closer to me as I gave him a frown at him implying to leave without Nora.

"Calm down, I am not trying to separate the two of you, I am just offering some training so she can at least know how to properly hold that spear she's carrying."

"You'll teach me how to use it?" Nora asked.

"Well not me, I'm more of an axeman myself", he says, raising his hand and knocking his fist against the side of the axe on his back. "Yeah, but before she wanted to learn the axe, she was pretty good with a polearm. I'll ask and have her teach you at least the basics."

"Will she really show me how to use it?" Nora asks, excited.

"I will ask her later, but I doubt she will say no. For now, I have to speak with the mayor."

"You weren't in the meeting we just had" I say.

"Yeah, I normally watch over the village when Helga takes care of the dayshift. The only reason I'm awake now is I want to know what's going on and what we're doing about Kuroyuri."

"Ah, well what happ–"

"You don't have to explain again, kid, I'll get the information I need from Schniel," he says interrupting me. "If I have any questions, I'll come find ya." as he begins to walk off, "I will send Helga your way when she has time."

Watching him enter the mayor's home, I turned towards Nora, "looks like we're going to be here the next couple of days at least while you get your training."

"So what are we going to do right now?" she asked.

"I wanted to look over the map we got. So I plan on going back to the room to do that."

"Okay."

"This is kind of boring" murmured Nora, face resting flat on her sleeping bag.

I looked up from the map that I had placed between us. "Well yeah, looking over a map isn't going to be very entertaining."

When we returned to our room, I removed the map from my inventory.

I have noticed that simply adding the map to my inventory once unlocks the map feature for that area permanently, even when I remove it later. The map in my HUD looks only as detailed as whatever map I add to my inventory, since it's missing some of the markers and names compared to the larger map the mayor owned. I need to get a map of Anima that is more updated.

I had put the map between Nora and myself so she could see it, but I was looking primarily at the map in the menu of my HUD. So I could understand how she would quickly succumb to boredom while just staring at a regular map for quite a while.

Pulling some lien out of my pocket/inventory, I hand it to her. "How about you look around the village and see if there is anywhere you can get us some food, what was left of my lunch earlier wasn't really filling."

Standing up with a little excitement after perhaps being able to do anything that wasn't just stare at an ordinary map. She quickly left the room to begin her search for food.

Now alone, I look back over my map settings. By completely zooming out, I can see the entirety of Anima. I try going further, but I receive an error message telling me to acquire other maps to do so.

The surrounding oceans are dark blue, while the continent is a lighter blue color with the exception of the black points and names that represent the different villages and towns.

At the top of the map are three buttons, the first with only a letter A, pressing it removed all the names and points from the map. The one after it had a small image of a mountain, selecting it caused the previously blue continent to change color to white over the northern part then fade into a green going west and south then to brown as it went further east. Looking at the map from the side it wasn't completely flat and it showed some elevations in certain parts, mostly the north where the terrain seemed to be mostly mountainous.

So this is some type of topography setting, neat.

Turning that setting off, I clicked the final button that had a little walking stick figure man on it. A line connecting where I was on the map to a point a little to the east was shown. Turning back on the map text, the linked area turned out to be Kuroyuri.

So this is some kind of path tracker. How far back does it go? Is it based on time or distance I travel? I'll need to do some testing of it later when we're not staying in place.

Turning that mode back off, any further testing of my map was cut short when Nora returned. Half eaten meat bun in one of her hands with a small bag full of more in the other. Following behind her was Helga.

Nora mumbled, her mouth full of food, "Rain, you have to try these, they are sooo good!" walking up to me, stuffing the last piece of her half eaten bun into her mouth as she pulled another one out of her bag and handed it towards me.

Looking at the offered meat bun then at Nora, whose mouth was smudged with whatever sauce was in the food. Standing up and taking out a washcloth from my pocket/inventory I wiped her mouth then took the bun she was giving me.

"So what's going on with you?" I ask Helga who was standing near the door, then I take a bite of my food. It's good, maybe some kind of pork.

"Gunther asked me if I would teach her some spearmanship, and I came across her while she was searching for food."

"But I told her I needed to bring you back your food first" Nora interjected.

"And you need to fetch your spear," Helga added.

"Yeah, that too" Nora said before taking another bite of her food.

"I wasn't expecting for you to start training her today didn't you have some village defense stuff you had to take care of?"

"Gunther said he'll handle it. He seemed very adamant with me showing her the most I can before you guys leave." she says walking over to Nora's pack and weapons. "May I?" she asked Nora Gesturing at her spear that was against the wall.

"Mhmm" Nora nodded with a mouth full of meatbun.

She picked up the spear and examined it. Raising her brow at the indentations Nora had left in the shaft.

"No offense but the quality of this spear could be... better" she said to Nora after her inspection.

"We know it's just something we picked up during our escape from Kuroyuri." I pick up my shield and orient it so that she is able to see the dent on it. "That's one of the reasons we are going to another village to buy new weapons."

"Ah, ok, well this should do for something temporary then, but I don't really know anything about the sword and shield."

"That's fine I can handle myself. I would appreciate it if you could do what you can to help Nora with her spear."

"That I can definitely do, before I started using this axe I had a few years when I was learning the spear, so I can show her what I know" she says moving over to Nora and handing her the spear.

Nora, taking the spear with now empty hands. It seemed she had finished the half dozen meat buns she had in her bag while Helga and I had our brief conversation.

"Let's go outside the village walls. I don't want to risk damaging anything inside the village. Are you coming too?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I want to see how it goes," I say while rolling up the map and sliding it back into my inventory. Picking up my weapons and my pack with my familiar egg, I follow them out the door.

I started thinking as we approached the outside of Oniyuri. Helga is a huntress in training, shouldn't she be in an academy right now?

"Helga, you're training to be a huntress, right?""

Turning her head toward me, she replied. "Yeah, why?""

"Shouldn't you be at one of the academies, or are you on vacation or something?"

"I'm not old enough to enroll in one of the four main academies yet, not until next year" she says.

So that makes her like fifteen or sixteen, so she should be in one of the prep schools like Signal. I think that was the one Ruby went to. "What about one of those prep schools?"

"Prep school? Oh, you mean a primary combat school? Yeah, I went to one of those for a couple years before Gunther let me travel with him for my training."

"How does that work, do you not need to graduate from a combat school in order to enroll in one of the major academies?"

"Didn't you say you were training to be a hunter, shouldn't you know how this works?"

"Well a trainee hunter is less of a decision I made and more of a description of how I'm currently living my life. I'm mainly doing it to gain power I guess. As of now being a hunter is the best way to accomplish that." I answer.

"So you're becoming a hunter to get stronger?" she asked, offering an uneasy expression.

Did I offend her by just deciding to become a hunter for power? I didn't really put much thought behind it, I'm definitely not doing it for selfless reasons. Just going around killing grimm seems like the best way to level.

"Sorry if I offended you, but the reason for my decision wasn't really noble or anything like that."

"Offended? No you didn't do anything like that. Just most people who would encounter a grimm like the one you said was at your previous village don't normally decide to take up a profession of fighting them after seeing something like that. It's not like all hunters are saints anyway to most of us including myself it's just a job."

By this point we had made it out of the village and was at one of the outside walls which Helga was now leaning against.

"Well since the two of you don't seem to know squat about how this works, I'll start from the beginning. The easiest and most common way to become a hunter is to attend a combat school. Most schools start taking kids in at the age of ten."

"I'm ten," I said.

"Nine" Nora answered.

"Your nine?" I asked her.

"Yep my birthday isn't till July 4th. When's yours?"

Given that I'm sort of starting a new life as a gamer, do I give myself a new birthday?

"What's today?" I ask Helga.

She pulls out her scroll and looks at the date "February 12th.""

I have been on remnant for two days. "February 10th," I replied with my new birthday.

"Wow, you had one of the worst birthdays of your life with a horde of grimm attacking the village you were in." Helga said.

"I didn't know that was your birthday. I'm sorry we weren't able to celebrate it," Nora said, hugging me sadly.

"It is alright you didn't know, besides albeit was unintentional on your part, you getting us away from the beowolf was a great gift'' I say while patting her head.

Helga cleared her throat to get our attention back on her. "And continuing with what I was saying, you can enroll in a combat school and after graduating, you can then enroll into one of the four academies. Once you graduate, you are a full fledged hunter."

"But there are other ways right because you're not at a combat school" I say.

"Yes, as I mentioned before, that is the most common method. For someone like me who is essentially learning under a huntsman, or anyone else as well, there is a combat test as well as a few academic ones you will have to pass to qualify you for enrollment in one of the academies."

"What combat schools are around?" I ask.

"The closest one is in Kuchinashi, but I wouldn't recommend it. Sanctum up in Argus is the best on Anima, but Nora said you guys were heading east you wouldn't make it before the school year starts in April."

Maybe that's for the best, going to a school filled with a bunch of preteens with weapons sounds like a pain in the ass. Sitting in a classroom for the next seven years will only slow down my leveling.

"If you can find someone to train you both. Once you're of age, you can go straight to an academy like I plan to. That's all the basics if you have any more questions, I'll answer them later, but I should start showing her how to use her weapon before it gets too late."

Sitting near the wall, watching Helga instruct Nora how to hold her spear. I realized I already seem to know the basics of what Helga is teaching Nora. Then I thought back to the fights I've been in, how did I know how to use my sword and shield? In my previous 'life' I am sure I had never used a weapon.

It's due to your class's weapon proficiencies.

What are weapon proficiencies?

Weapon proficiency determines how skilled you are with different categories of weapons.

There are four ranks of proficiency.

Novice, Adept, Expert and Master.

Classes that are weapon focused will give you varying ranks for different weapons depending on the class.

Each weapon rank has a level tied to the level of the class that gave the rank.

So… what does that mean for me as a paladin?

As a paladin, your proficiencies are.

Expert: Shield

Adept: 1 Handed Swords and Maces

Novice: 2 Handed Sword, Maces and Polearms

By just leveling up paladin, I will automatically learn how to properly use the weapons listed?

Correct.

So as of right now my skill with 1 handed swords is level 13.

Rank Adept level 13/100

The rank represents the maximum amount of 'skill' you can achieve with a weapon.

The level represents your current 'skill'.

Ok, since the level just matches the class level. How do I increase the rank of a weapon?

As of now, the only way to increase ranks is to pick a class with a higher rank.

The knight class would give Expert Rank for multiple 1 handed weapons.

While the warrior class would do the same for most 2 handed weapons alongside giving the Adept and Novice Rank for a multitude of other weapons like daggers and bows.

So I would have to level certain classes to get Expert rank, but what about Master?

Master Rank is for specific weapons that a class is based around for example the samurai class will give Master rank for katana's.

I didn't even see a samurai class when I looked at the class list.

As you max out some classes and complete worlds, more classes will unlock. Some require a certain overall level or a certain class to be maxed, while others require a certain world to be completed.

Ah, that makes sense. There were less than two dozen classes when I started even maxing them all out would fall short of the infinite power I know that gamers can achieve.

With my recently acquired weapon knowledge answered, I returned to watching Nora and her training, but after a few minutes, my mind started to wander again.

I reached over and opened my pack and pulled out my familiar egg.

I haven't really looked at it since I first received it.

Index, do I need to keep this egg warm or something aside from just carrying it around? You didn't really tell me much.

The familiar egg does not require heat.

And why is it random? Wouldn't it be better if I could just choose the familiar?

The familiar eggs are not exactly random. The familiar that will hatch from it depends on the person it is bonded to during its egg state.

So whatever hatches from this will be based on myself or what I need or something like that?

Those are some of the factors that will affect what hatches from the egg along with others.

How long does it normally take for these things to hatch?

The incubation period is variable, some have hatched the moment they were received, some have taken weeks or months, others have taken years.

I stare at the large rock-like egg in my lap. I really don't want to be carrying this around for years.

"What's with the rock?" Nora asked who at some point during my examination of the egg had walked over and was now standing over me. Looking behind her I see Helga on her scroll.

"It's an egg," I replied back.

"Nope I'm pretty sure that's a rock, rain" she says while crouching down and poking the rock-like egg. "Yep definitely a rock. Eggs are smaller and white... and not rocks."

"It's a special kind of egg that only looks like a rock," I explain.

"Ooooh, can I hold it?"

Well it's not like she can break it. "Sure" I say, handing her the egg.

Taking it from me she lifts it up to her face right in front of her eyes and examines it then places it at one of her ears and knocks on it from the other side.

"You sure this isn't just a rock?"

"Yes I'm sure."

"What's with the rock?" Helga asked, walking over done with whatever she was doing before.

"It's not a rock, Rain says it's an egg" Nora answered.

Helga leaned closer to the egg then looked down toward me. "That is definitely a rock."

Dropping my face into my hands I let out a long sigh. "It looks like a rock but I can assure you it's an egg."

"Where did you get this not rock and what is it supposed to hatch into?" Helga asked.

"I got it from a... friend, It was a gift and I have know idea" I answered.

Helga gives the not rock a few pokes "Your friend isn't really good at giving gifts."

"Yea I know, believe me I know. Anyway, you guys done?"

"For now we are, Gunther needs me for something, so we'll have to pick this back up later, but for a beginner, she's getting the hang of it pretty fast" she says, as she starts walking toward the village's entrance.

I took the egg back from Nora and was about to put it in my pack.

"You can't just leave it in your bag. Eggs need to be kept warm until they hatch," she says, taking it from me and wrapping her arms around it.

"No it will be fin–"

Rain, I have no idea what kind of egg this is but one thing I'm sure of is that if you want them to hatch, you need to keep them warm. That's why food eggs are kept in refrigerators so they don't hatch."

"...that's not how that works at all."

"Then how does it work"

"Well..."

I'm not explaining the process of fertilizing eggs to a ten year old Nora

"Nevermind if you want to keep the egg warm fine by me" I say exasperated.

Leaving the egg with Nora I catch up with Helga.

"Would you know where I could find a tub or something like it?"

"If you're just trying to wash up there should've been a wash basin in your place" she answered.

"Well I need something bigger to fit like most of my body." At the questioning look she gave me I explained further. "I'm an aquatic faunus, a shark to be specific, after a while of not being in water it gets... uncomfortable."

"Oh, that explains the teeth. I thought you were some kind of crocodile with how angry you always look. Hmm, you would have to ask someone else in the village they would probably have an actual tub you could use."

After a quick soak my debuff was now temporarily gone and, upon returning to the room, Nora had constructed a nest out of blankets and things that she had acquired from somewhere and was sitting on top of the egg. When she's outside of our room and not training with Helga she carries it around. By the second day she convinced someone in the village to make her a baby-like carrier for it.

It has been almost two weeks since Nora had been training with Helga. She picked up the basics surprisingly fast or at least that is what I was told by Helga. I even sparred with the trainee huntress a few times, I didn't stand a chance. After seeing what I was capable of with my "semblance" they felt more comfortable with us leaving on our journey.

Nora and I stand at the village exit as the sun rises. Everyone came to see us off, more specifically to see Nora off. Over the past half month everyone had grown quite attached to the girl and the egg she carried around that they all think is a rock.

Giving our goodbyes we start making our way to Higanbana.

Author's notes #2: I gave Rain and Nora birthdays in this chapter. Nora doesn't have an official birthday so I just made it the 4th of july cause it seems fun. But after looking up the birthdays of the main cast I realize how off I was when I made the timeline for this story. Ruby's birthday is Oct 31 and Blake who is the oldest is on Jan 19 and since Ruby is 15 at the start of canon and Blake is 17 that means the beacon's school year starts in November at the earliest. Who has a school year begin in November! I'm not redoing the timeline I made. So for this story the school year starts in April like in japan. So when canon rolls around everyone is going to be 7 months younger, ruby will be 14 Weiss and Yang will be 16 turning 17 a few months in.

I added the thing about the pre academy test so Rain, Nora and whoever joins them can avoid spending the next seven years in a school. I couldn't find if anything like that exists but I think it would have to cause I doubt Raven or Qrow went to a combat school pre Beacon. I'm not completely sure what they will be doing when canon comes around but this way it leaves that option open.

As for the familiar I got a lot of suggestions in the last chapter. Thinking of maybe sticking with the norse theme and having it be a squirrel and maybe have a serpent and bird later on or maybe a turtle and have the four symbols(turtle, dragon, tiger phoenix) eventually. But there's also an idea that was given on ff net by CyberDragonEX of having a creature similar to Fou from Fate Grand Order which will fit very well with some plans I have for the next world.