"Spoken words, quotes, etc"
'Thought words' – Humans/Faunas/Etc
Thought words – Grimm
→System←
Quick author notes;
19/09/21 - Made some changes and fixed a few mistakes.
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Chapter 9
Mr. Grimm
The Grimm isn't sure how long it's been dozing in the shade, time is a weird thing, but that stench of terror, though weakened, is still present. It's been a while since The Grimm has hunted, the fallen tiny-human doesn't count. However, the target of this hunt won't be the tiny Human, The Grimm can't be sure that Voice could free them from another hole. No, the target will be the tiny Human's herd. For where else would the child of run to. Child? Child. Yeah that works.
The Grimm starts in the direction of the child, that term fits so well, ran off in – staying on the trail of terror. Unlike all those years ago, it moves slowly and carefully. The Grimm uses its' slow pace to appreciate nature. The trees are towering, branches are caked in leaves. The grass is waving in the breeze and the flowers are in bloom. Freedom is sweet.
It's past nightfall, it may have stopped a few times to enjoy nature, when both Voice awakes and The Grimm nears a clearing containing large stone walls.
'Where are we? What's with the walls?'
Answer, herd
'Herd? What doe- Oh, yikes. We're really doing this? I get that there's an urge or something but is there no way you can't put this off until we find some bandits?'
Answer, hunt
With that final response, The Grimm begins bounding towards the walls. Mid-leap it feels something on it's hind-paws – some form of cushioning? Doesn't feel like fur, in fact, it doesn't feel like anything The Grimm's ever experienced before.
'Don't freak out, I'm just trying to muffle your steps more. Also, please don't do that. It is super disorienting to see the world move from the perspective of a quadruped.'
Very useful. Should make stalking much easier. The Grimm has approached the wall, on a less occupied section as advised by Voice, and is judging the height it needs to jump. If it runs up the wall it might be able to clear it without having to dig its claws in – that would be super loud. Actually, this is another "hole" situation.
Question, assistance
Voice doesn't answer for a moment, maybe Voice can't repeat what it did in the hole? Good call on avoiding holes on the way here.
'Only if you promise to listen to me while we're in there. I'm serious, if you don't listen to me you're going to get us killed. There's no way a settlement like this doesn't have at least a couple trained huntsmen – and we're not gonna be able to win that fight.'
Herd size indicates strength? Like a large pack is lead by an Alpha? Interesting, and concerning. Might be best to avoid large herds until The Grimm and its voice packmates can join a strong pack.
Wariness. Answer, acceptance
'Great. Since we're working with some proper materials this time I shouldn't need to strengthen the handholds. Just give me a bit, this'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience.
/
Soul
Mr. Grimm's followed my advice so far, as promised, and we're now standing at the back of a stone house right by where we climbed in. This whole settlement looks to be made of stone, with swaths of wood splashed here and there. Was there a lack of available materials? No, they literally built in a forest. Where'd they even get so much stone? Unless we're standing on now-hollow earth. Christ that's a scary thought – a hole we can't just climb out of. Fuck holes, fuck spiders, fuck God, and fuck the system. Speaking of the system.
'[Earth Manipulation]'
-7mp
With a mental command, the wall before us begins to flow down into a rather thick welcome mat. That wall segment was solid stone! Did they chisel the houses out of large stone blocks? That hollow-earth theory is looking far more likely now.
Mr. Grimm slowly enters through the new doorway. If we're doing this, and apparently we "have" to, then I'm making sure we stay undetected – no fucking way can we survive one of those super-powered bastards. Not when Mr. Grimm is mere fodder and I don't have any offensive magic yet, note-to-self – start developing offensive magic. Right now I can maybe trip someone.
Light footsteps can be heard approaching from a doorway across the room. Followed by a call of "mum?"
'Oh fuck me! Quick, hide next to the doorway and grab the fucker!'
/
Nink
Nink is reading her favourite book, "Tales of the Silver-Eyed", when she hears some footsteps in the other room. 'Isn't Mum still on guard duty?'. Placing her book down, Nink gets up to check who it is. "Mum? I thought you were o-!". She is interrupted when a large hand smothers her face. Her panicked shrieks are muffled to mere whispers as her air supply ticks down. She's not sure if it's seconds, minutes, or hours before it happens – she finally passes out.
/
Soul
'Holy shit that was close.' question, reaffirmation, alive, 'Because, if we kill a child within the town then we're gonna get hunted down and slaughtered. Fuck that.' The girl is placed in a closet, with a first-of-its-kind stone doll gifted in apology, and forgotten about. Acceptance.
Various screams begin sounding throughout the village.
[Spontaneous Quest] – Village hidden in the forest – has begun!
Objectives;
Survive []
Bonus Objectives;
Survive with over quarter [Health] []
Keep [Villager]s alive – 0/100 []
Keep [?] alive []
Slay grimm – 0/20 []
'That can't be good.'
Mr. Grimm walks up to the wall opposite the closet-
-1mp
-A small hole appears in the wall, near-perfect size for a certain voyeur, Mr. Grimm is met with a horrifying sight. Hundreds of grimm are swarming the village and killing off villagers, it's a massacre. A massacre The Grimm is excited to join.
'No you're not. We're not going anywhere near that.' Soul hasn't forgotten its morals or values and is not particularly interested in slaughter. What's an even bigger deterrent though are the brief flashes of silver light, magic, and gunshots. Wait, Magic? How far before canon were they? 'We're getting out of here, no way we can survive any of that shit. This town, evidently, has a silver-eyed warrior, the fuckers gifted with "anti-grimm" eyes.' Concern, brethren. This makes Soul pause for a moment before answering, 'No'.
Just as Mr. Grimm moves to leave, the lights begin shining through the hole far too bright for comfort. Soul injects all the mana it has into the stone wall in front of Mr. Grimm, and promptly passes out.
/
Nink
Nink awakens to a thundering bang! How she got in the closet, and the pretty doll, can come later, what was that noise? She opens the closet door to find a wall segment, lined up directly with the door, standing alone among a puddle of molten stone.
She looks past the wall to find scorched earth, scattered corpses, and a menagerie of grimm following a limping, and smoking, woman into the forest. One beowolf sticks out – several familiar looking dolls speared on its' back-spikes.
/
Name: (Error)
Age: (Error)
Level: 2 (15/100 Exp)
Class: (Error)
Health: (Error) (Regen (Error)/hour
Mana: 0/65 (Regen 5/hour)
Aura: [Locked]
Str: (Error)
Agi: (Error)
Dex: (Error)
Int: 13
Wis: 10
Available stat points: 5
Lien: 80
Skills
Gamer's Mind (Passive: lvl max)
Gamer's Body (Passive: lvl max)
Earth Manipulation (Active: lvl 11 37%)
Material Strengthening (Active: lvl 10 64%)
/
Final author's note;
I spent hours trying to figure out where to take this story, I have a 2k words document with ideas listed, crossed-out, highlighted, expanded-upon. The village scene went through a few minor iterations, but was largely written a couple days ago – I had to make some changes to fit what I came up with when writing chapter 9 for realsies.
I was planning this chapter instead of writing chapters 7 and 8
I also spent more time researching RWBY – there is no definitive timeline that I can find, and no years are stated as far as I can tell – so I'm guesstimating some events and time periods. Expect confusion, retcons, and plot holes.
Depending on how I take the story, I may create separate stories that follow other possible routes.
Feel free to leave criticism or questions in the reviews.