Disclaimer - I don't own RWBY or this concept... Yada Yada.
A Day's Training
-Chapter 4 Start-
"Ten more reps Ruby," Qrow said from where he was spotting for the girl. She was currently bench-pressing a thirty-five-kilo weight, forty reps out of fifty finished.
It had been a week since the… dungeon incident and Qrow had taken to drilling her into the ground in an attempt to raise her stats without levelling up. Well, she levelled up once but that was from the skills.
Distance running for endurance, sprinting for speed, weightlifting for strength and stretches and acrobatics for dexterity. She had gained points several times in each of them and was gaining intelligence points during lessons.
[You have gained 1 point in Strength]
"Finally." She huffed finishing the last of her reps. "I think I need more weight." She told her Uncle as she placed the bar on the holder.
"Yeah, we'll up it to forty-five tomorrow." He agreed, removing the weights from the bar. "Next we're going to do some hand to hand and we're going to boost your healing."
"Umm, could we not?" She asked nervously, getting punched by her Uncle was not pleasant.
"Sorry Ruby, I want to get your skill, your shield and your healing as high as possible." He shook his head, looking slightly amused. "Don't worry, this hurts me as much as it hurts you?"
"Somehow I doubt that," Ruby muttered, getting a laugh from her Uncle as they moved out of the house to the clearing behind the house. If she was honest these sessions were boosting her fairly quickly. Her stats growing a fair amount in just a week and her skills had also skyrocketed from Qrow's methods.
Name: Ruby Rose
Level: 12
Hp: 160/160
Ap: 420/420
Sp: 892/1600
Stats
Strength (STR) 10
Dexterity (DEX) 12
Speed (SPD) 18
Intelligence (INT) 14
Wisdom (WIS) 20
Endurance (END) 16
Constitution (CON) 10
Charisma (CHR) 8
Luck (LCK) 9
Unspent Skill Points 19
She had also levelled up her skills several times. Her {Basic Brawling} had increased by 12 levels, her {Basic Auric Healing} by 9, her {Aura Shield} was up by 5 levels and her debuff had decreased so it only cost 85% extra aura per action. Her workouts had caused her {Trained Body} skill to level up 18 times which had helped her to level her {Observe} skill 7 times. Other than that they hadn't worked on her shooting, Qrow wanting to get a range of weapons together so she could decide on her preferred load out.
She had also created several other skills based around her classes; {Basic Mathematics}, {Basic Valean}, {Basic Biology} and {Basic Vale History}.
It was currently 7:05 AM and she had been training for nearly two hours now and they would be stopping at 7:30 so she could get ready for school, but until then she had to spar.
"Okay, we've worked on basic attacking and defending, now we're going to add a few more attacks, more specifically the four basic kicks," Qrow spoke, motioning for her to get into her stance. "Now the four basic kicks are the snap kick, the roundhouse, the side kick and the back kick."
Seeing her nod in understanding he continued, getting into a loose stance. "Now there are two types of snap kick, one with the front leg and one with the back leg. The front leg one is more defensive, it isn't very powerful but it is fast and is mainly used to create space between you and your opponent." He demonstrated the kick to her, his back leg sliding forward until it was just behind her front leg before he lifted his leg into a right angled chamber, he then slowly kicked forwards his toes pointing up so he was striking with the ball of his foot before reversing his motion and returning to his original stance. "Now you try it."
"Okay." She nodded before getting into her stance, it had considerably improved from her original stance against the beowolves. She slowly moved through the kick, her body almost guiding itself through the motion.
"Good. Now ten more slowly, followed by twenty fast kicks." Qrow nodded as she began to move through the kicks. "Aim for the solar plexus on your opponent… or the crotch, either or." He grinned at the incredulous look she shot him. "You'll learn that there is no such thing as honourable combat, outside of sparring or tournaments anyway. Against humans and faunas, well, most fights will be life and death, you have to take any advantages you can get."
"Okay…" She shook her head at the response before turning back and continuing her kicks. "Now for the fast ones." She nodded before blasting through the kicks.
"Good enough, for now at least." Qrow nodded, getting back in his stance. "Now the back leg snap kick is more powerful than the front leg and is more focused on how fluid you can make the movement, it's about how much energy you can transfer through the movement." He shifted his weight to his front leg before swiftly lifting his leg into a chamber before flicking it forward in the same way he did the other kick. "This is the one you use when you want to hurt them." He quickly did the kick again, full power this time, hitting a tree and causing the bark to splinter around his foot.
Ruby didn't even need prompting as she moved into her stance and began kicking the air, moving through the kick ten times slowly. "Remember, the fluidity of the kick is the most important part, it's to transfer the energy of the wind up into the kick." Qrow reminded her before she started blasting out twenty of the kicks. "Keep your guard up, don't let it drop during the kick."
[Your {Basic Brawling} skill has increased by 1]
"Not the time game." She mumbled continuing with the kicks, her form improving slightly with the pop-up. She had a lot more to do.
-LINE-BREAK-
"I'm now giving you your schedules, these will change around March when you begin aura training." Ruby's father spoke as he moved around her year group, passing out sheets of paper to each student. He stopped and passed a sheet of paper to her that had obviously been separated out from the others, hers having her name on it while the rest had generic schedules.
"Why is hers different to ours?" The boy behind her blurted out, pointing at Ruby.
[Signal Academy Student]
Rhodey Nevis - Lvl 2
He was one of the weaker members of the class but was definitely one of the most obnoxious, he seemed to take the fact that she was the daughter of one teacher and the niece of another personally. He was always giving her glares throughout the previous week and it didn't appear that it was changing anytime soon.
"Ruby is currently apprenticing under Professor Branwen, it means she has a slightly different schedule to you all," Taiyang replied, not even looking up from his task.
"More like she's getting special treatment." He grumbled, getting a few nods in agreement.
"If you want to start training at 5 am and finish at 8 pm be my guest." She hissed back at him, causing the boy to poke his tongue out at her.
"Is there something the two of you want to share with the class?" Her father asked, smirking as Rhodey clammed up and Ruby stared forwards. "Okay, now you all have maths with Ms Flamiel first. I'm sure you know where to go by now. Ruby, can you stay behind, I need to discuss your schedule with you."
The class reluctantly filed out of the room, some of the students giving Ruby a small glare for the perceived favouritism. Rhodey even 'accidently' kicked her as he walked past her, it wasn't a hard kick, not even hard enough to activate her aura shield but the sentiment was there. Soon enough the room had emptied leaving only Ruby and her father in the room. "You don't appear to be getting along with your class." It was a statement, not a question.
"They don't like that I'm getting special treatment." She admitted, before cutting off her father as he attempted to speak. "I know that it's not because I'm your daughter, that it's because I have a weird semblance, but they don't know that and Uncle Qrow wants to keep quiet about it."
"What is your semblance anyway? Your Uncle refuses to say anything." Taiyang asked, obviously fishing for information.
"He told me not to tell anyone, even you and Yang," Ruby admitted looking at the floor dejectedly.
"Yeah, I understand that." He sighed, running a hand through his short hair. "Say what you will about your Uncle but he only hides things when they really do need to be hidden, otherwise he's pretty much an open book."
"A drunk open book," Ruby added with a giggle before focusing on her father intently. "So did you actually have anything to say about my schedule or was that just an excuse?"
Perking up he shook away any humour in his face, quickly slamming down into his teacher persona. "Right, your schedule." He nodded before pulling a copy of her schedule out of the stack on his desk. "If you look at your schedule there is an extracurricular class every day for you, from four until five. There is a piece of list attached telling you which classes you'll be going to on each day across a two week period. You have a first aid class on the Monday and Wednesday of both weeks, with a basic weapon maintenance class on the Tuesday of the first week…"
From there he proceeded to list all the classes she would be taking, including survival skills, karate, kendo and, for some reason, cooking. Fridays were set aside for 'combat training' and Ruby had a small feeling of dread at that, she already did a lot of combat training in her morning workout, what made this hour so special?
"The only other thing is that between three and four you are to go to observe the final combat class of the day. Qrow insisted on it for some reason but I'm not about to argue that point, he usually has a reason." Taiyang hummed at the final sentence, glancing briefly at the clock before gaining a worried look, quickly writing on a piece of paper and handing it to her. "That's everything, you should get to Ms Flamiel's class. See you at fourth period." He hurried her out of the door, causing her to almost barge into the class that was waiting to enter the room. "Alright class, find your seats."
Blinking at how quickly she was shooed out the door she sighed before moving onto her next class, dreading whatever her Uncle had planned for her training.
-Line-Break-
The clashing of weapons and the racket of gunfire were sounds Ruby believed she would always enjoy, the smell of dust smoke in the air also helped to make her feel welcome in her current scenario. She was sitting in on the seventh year's combat class, watching as they fought in their paired free for all.
All the pairs had greatly improved in their teamwork. Reno was using the speed of his strikes to open up opportunities for Rude to begin dealing damage. Clarisse was using her spear and shield to act as a wall between Medea and their opponents, allowing the dust caster to create a multitude of elemental attacks.
Mei and Tracey were using Tracey's semblance to their full advantage, blinking around the battlefield and attacking from odd angles with the chakram and SMGs. Jeanne and Poppy were using the ferocity of Jeanne's sword attacks to break the guards of opponents as they could, allowing Poppy to unload her assault rifle into them.
Sollise and Rick were doing the worst by far, Rick slow and heavy style, using a tower shield and a mace, was completely at odds with Sollise's fast, agile and hard-hitting style, leaving the pair acting more as two individuals to Qrow's annoyance. "Sollise! Rick!" Qrow barked down at the melee from his position next to her. "You're partners, act like it." Rick sighed at that, glancing dejectedly at Sollise as he weaved through the various conflicts, completely untouched. "That kid." He shook his head before focusing on the rest of the fight.
"What's up with Sollise?" She asked, watching as Reno was smacked in the face by Sollise's spear before Rude stepped forward to defend him, curiously Sollise's faunas ears shifted as she asked her question, the boy glancing at her briefly before slamming his spear into Rude's stomach and using it to flip the more muscular boy and slam him into the ground.
"Sollise is far above his class. I would put him at the level of a third year at Beacon, he can, and has, defeated the entire class without getting so much as a graze." Qrow admitted as he Sollise swung his spear around and into the side of Rude, sending the boy careening into his brother, removing them both from the fight. "Unfortunately this has left him without any peer, he loves combat but he can't get any challenge, he's gotten arrogant and I doubt that he see's much worth in working with anyone in this class. It's probably his greatest failing."
Sollise scowled, obviously having listened to Qrow's assessment. His attacks turning slightly more ferocious as he began trying to attack Medea. "Well I can kind of understand, you were the one who told me that sometimes the best teamwork was knowing when to get out of the way," Ruby admitted, shrinking in on herself when her Uncle turned to look at her.
"That is true, I did say that to you but this is a different scenario entirely." He admitted. "After this year he'll be heading off to one of the Academies. There he will be placed in a team, and the entire team will be judged together. His inability to work with others will not only get his team a failing grade in any of the Academies, it'll also get people killed out in the field." He pulled out his hip flask as he mulled over his next words, obviously knowing that Sollise was listening in. "Sollise has what it takes to be one of those, once in a generation fighters, but if he can't learn to work with others he'll learn that the world is nowhere near as forgiving as Patch would make it seem." He took a long draught of his flask before continuing. "He doesn't realise that 17 years ago I was in the same position as he was, hell you'll be in the same position as him soon enough. If he doesn't dampen his ego, he'll be chewed up and spat out by one of the monsters of the world... and I'm not talking about the Grimm."
They were silent after that declaration, Sollise had begun attacking with a much greater ferocity than before and he swiftly defeated the other pairs, Rick managing to hold out long enough for Sollise to whittle down the pairs. "All right take a rest guys," Qrow ordered before turning to Sollise. "You, take a lap, you need to cool down." The wolf-hound faunas grumbled slightly before beginning to leave the room to begin his lap of the school. "Ruby, take a lap with him, you might as well get some training in today," Qrow said, glancing at the girl who nodded, making her way down to the door and the boy who was waiting for her.
'What's this on about? He isn't doing it to train me, that much is obvious.' Ruby thought as she approached Sollise, who grunted and tipped his head in the direction of the door. 'He said I'll be in the same position as Sollise soon enough, is that why?'
"Cmon, I'll show you the route." Sollise almost growled, he certainly didn't seem happy about the situation either. He padded out of the room, his walk reminding her of a predator stalking his prey.
His body was tall, lithe, streamlined almost, he was definitely muscular but it was tightly packed muscle as opposed to large muscle. His hair was black, but it had an almost blue tinge to it, his wolfhound ears being a slightly lighter shade allowing the blue to be seen more clearly. His eyes were a deep red, similar to her Uncle's but much more vibrant.
He was wearing a brown leather vest with two pauldrons, leaving his arms bare to the world, he was also wearing a pair of leather trousers, matching his vest, on his feet her wore a pair of plate metal boots covering up to his shins in armour. He also had a pair of bracers on his wrists, stretching back to his elbows across the back of his arms. His spear was surprisingly made of solid metal, unlike the mechashift weaponry she was used to. It must have been heavy, but the amount of damage he was causing in one swing made much more sense.
"Your Uncle's a jerk." He said, snapping her from her reverie. They were now outside the school, by a pair of trees planted three feet apart, almost like a start line.
"Yeah, he's very good at that." She agreed, nodding. "But he knows what he's talking about, he wouldn't have gotten where he is if he didn't."
"What, a teacher at a small time school on a tiny island? So amazing." He scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"You do know that this is his second job?" Ruby defended her Uncle. "He actually spends most of his time hunting... alone."
"If he hunts alone, then why does he give me so much shit about it?" He spat, his eyes trying to cow her.
"I don't fully know, I think it has something to do with his sister," She shrugged her shoulders. "You'll have to ask him about it," She hesitated a bit before continuing. "He gives you a hard time because he wants you to do amazingly, he does the same to me as well."
He grunted in response, obviously not caring anymore as he began jogging away, Ruby following along nervously. The rest of the jog was done in silence, the only noise being their feet pounding on the tarmac as they moved onto one of the many paths surrounding the school. Eventually, they ended the jog by passing through the two trees where they started. Ruby was panting from the long jog, her Sp dropping below 200 by the time they had finished.
"You should work on your endurance, you'll never win a fight if you tire out so easily." The boy spoke as they finished, looking at her panting next to him. Before she could acknowledge him, he had begun walking back into the school.
"What does Uncle Qrow want from me?" She sighed, watching the boy disappear. "{Inventory}." She pulled a can of [People Like Grape Soda] out, downing it as quickly as possible, allowing her to regain some of her lost Sp, before throwing the can into her inventory again. "I'd better get in before he gets annoyed."
She sighed before making her way back into the school, ready for the rest of her training for the day.
-LINE-BREAK-
"I'm Dr Vejovis and I will be taking this first aid class." The man announced to the group assembled before him. The group was small, only having ten people in the entire class but Ruby still felt out of place. The group consisted of three fourth years, three fifth years, two sixth years, Ruby and Jeanne Noir from seventh year, Ruby was by far the youngest.
It was her first of the extracurricular classes she had to do, this one the most obviously useful of them all. They were in the school's infirmary, the room containing 10 beds surrounded by privacy screens and a number of cabinets, each full of different supplies.
"Now the art of healing without aura is a skill that is vitally important to all Hunters and Huntresses, unfortunately most seem to underestimate that fact, believing that their aura will always heal them." The Dr. began, glancing at the group. "There are some injuries that aura will not help with; broken bones, deep cuts and dislocations to name a few. Healing others is also an important consideration, very few people can heal others with aura, meaning that physical first aid is necessary."
"Over the next three months I will teach you how to identify injuries, how to relocate dislocations, how to splint a broken bone and how to clean, stitch and bandage a deep wound." He turned to one of the drawers, pulling out a pot of ointment. "I'll then spend the three months after that teaching you how to create ointments, poultices and disinfectants from the various plants found in the area."
"Now I want you all to pair off." He told them, watching as the friends tried to pair up.
As soon as he had finished talking Ruby was grabbed by the shoulder and pulled back, causing her to stumble and almost fall. Fortunately she was stabilised by the same force that pulled her off balance, the fairly strong hand of Jeanne Noir. "You should work on your balance." Her voice was light, almost chime-like. She gave Ruby a small wink, showing that she was obviously joking. Jeanne was a blonde haired girl, her hair going down to her just below her butt, tied into a big braid, ended with a white bow. She had sparkling blue eyes that were framed by her plate metal crown.
Her clothing was a full plate metal sleeveless tunic, stopping in the middle of her thighs, she also had a pair of plate metal boots sitting up to her knees and a pair of gauntlets going up to her elbows, the outfit was completed by a white and blue half skirt that only covered her rear.
"Does everyone have a partner?" The Dr. asked, nodding briefly after looking around the group and finding everyone paired off. "Good, now these will be your partners for the next six months, you will practice your non-invasive techniques on each other. These will be your bandaging, applying splints to limbs and massages to relieve strains. Get used to each other because you're now stuck together."
What followed was the first of many lectures on identifying injuries, specifically how to tell when a wound will require stitching. They stood in silence as the Dr. activated and used holographic displays to point out the various methods of telling when a wound was deep enough to require stitches and even when additional treatment was required in cases where veins or arteries were punctured.
All in all it was a lecture that covered all the basic knowledge needed on the subject but not in any great detail. Still it was enough for Ruby's semblance.
[Due to your medical knowledge you have created the {First Aid} skill.]
[Your {First Aid} skill has levelled up by 5]
{First Aid} (Lvl 6, 25.00 EXP) [Active]
[You can manually heal yourself and others without aura]
[You have gained 1 level. You are now level 13]
[You have 19 stat points to spend]
A level up was always welcome, she supposed. The stat points would have to wait to be spent at a later date though, she was due to meet up with her Uncle for a snack before moving onto her final training session, 2 and a half hours of physical training to finish off the night. She hoped she actually got some stat ups today.
-LINE-BREAK-
It was just before eight o'clock and she was nearly done with her training for the day. She supposed that she should be feeling, mentally, a lot more tired than she currently was, but the game was keeping her mind as fresh as a daisy. The same couldn't be said for her body.
[87/1600 Sp]
She was near the point of collapse. Her Uncle seemed to know exactly how much she could take and when she needed a break, she guessed that it was some unconscious form of the {Observe} ability. But she was nearing the end of her training so she would be getting some food before having an early night.
She was just finishing the last exercises in a pyramid shuttle run, an exercise where you perform exercises of a steadily increasing amount as you run to various points. This time she was doing burpees, a variation of a squat thrust.
[Due to you pushing your limits you gain 1 End]
[Your {Trained Body} skill has levelled up by 1]
'That was helpful.' She thought as her Sp increased by 100, bringing her out of, what she called, critical exhaustion. She took a long breath as finished the exercise, the action bringing her body back down to her normal Sp expenditure.
"Did you get any level ups?" Qrow asked, throwing a bottle of water at her.
"I levelled up in my {Trained Body} skill and I gained a point in endurance." She listed off as she popped the water open, enjoying the additional 50 Sp, putting her above 200 again.
"Meaning we're almost done for today." Qrow nodded before making a fist. "You know what to do." Sighing she dropped the empty bottle into her inventory again before boosting her {Aura Shield} until it would absorb all damage dealt to her. It was almost instantaneous, one moment Qrow was standing in front of the girl, his fist cocked, then it was buried in her stomach, her aura completely depleted and her Hp sitting at a measly 10.
[Your {Aura Shield} ability has levelled up by 1]
[Due to repeatedly taking physical blows you have gained 1 Con]
A measly 27 Hp then.
"This is the bit of training I hate the most." She groaned, collapsing to her knees as Qrow pulled back.
"You may hate it, but it's the best way to level up your shield and healing." Qrow shrugged, waiting for her to regain her composure. "How long will it take you to heal?" He asked as she stood back up, still clutching her stomach.
"Um, it'll take about 37 minutes to get enough aura back and about 7 minutes to heal, but I can do that while still regening." She calculated, the equations coming easily to her.
"So about three quarters of an hour?" He hummed, looking at his watch. "Taiyang's holding your dinner until half past so you need to get your aura back before then to get the most out of the training." He paused in thought before looking intently at Ruby. "Have you gained any wisdom since the dungeon incident?"
"No, I haven't," Ruby admitted, shrugging slightly. "I gain wisdom by making intelligent observations and there haven't been many of those recently."
He chuckled briefly at the self-insult before posing his final question. "How many unspent skill points do you have?" Ruby stopped at that, shaking her head as she finally understood what he was getting at.
Opening her {Status Window} she quickly boosted her wisdom by 10 points, what happened next surprised her.
[Due to your growing wisdom you have gained the skill {Aura Wielder}]
{Aura Wielder} (Passive) [MAX]
[Your body begins regaining Aura at an enhanced rate. Ap regen is Wis/min]
That was double the previous rate, before she had gained half her wisdom per minute. Now she was regaining 30 Ap per minute as opposed to 10, tripling her regeneration from spending only 10 stat points. "I'm gonna be healed in like, a quarter of an hour." She said smiling at the new perk, it made things so much easier. Seeing her Uncle's inquisitive gaze she explained the new perk getting him to nod in thought.
"Go get washed up, heal as yourself back to full before dinner and try to level up your observe skill before bed." He said, giving his final orders for the day, glancing at his watch again. "I'm going to meet a friend, I'll be back by morning so you're still waking up at five." He told her beginning to move back towards the house. "I'll see you tomorrow, there'll even be a surprise for you."
"Wait? A surprise?" She almost yelped, running up to him. "What kind of surprise?"
"One you'll have to wait for." He was smirking at the disappointment that marred her excitement. "I'm heading off, remember to finish your training."
She nodded, standing at the door, watching him walk away into the woods that surrounded the house. Sighing she turned to the door, the cry of a crow being the only thing sounding after that. "I'm back!" She yelled into the house getting acknowledgments from her father and her sister. "I'm going to get a shower."
-Line-Break-
"Good evening Qrow." Ozpin said over his cup of coffee, he steam fogging his glasses momentarily. "I'm sorry I was unavailable over the last week, the first week of the year is always the most hectic."
"Yeah, well I've got some news you need to hear." Qrow replied from where he was leaning against the wall. "Privately." He confirmed getting Ozpin to put a combination into his computer's keyboard, shutting down all the cameras and microphones in the room.
"What have you discovered?" The headmaster asked, his face turning deadly serious.
"The first thing I should say is that this has nothing to do with Salem or The Maidens." The younger man began, causing Ozpin's face to lose some of the seriousness. "Do you remember my niece Ruby?"
"Yes, the daughter of Summer Rose... The silver eyed girl." He nodded adopting a thoughtful expression. "She hasn't unlocked them yet has she?"
"Not yet, no." Qrow let out a humourless chuckle. "She's only unlocked a semblance that can rewrite the rules of nature."
"What do you mean?" Ozpin had leaned forward at this, his fingers steepled in front of his mouth. Qrow's response was to pull something from his pocket, throwing it onto the desk in front of the man. It was a small red fang. "This can't be real."
"I thought that as well, but I had to accept that it was." He pulled out his flask, pouring some into the coffee that Ozpin had given him. "And that is only one tiny part of her semblance."
Ozpin moved the fang around in his fingers thoughtfully, the dark feeling the fang was giving off confirmed the authenticity of it, but that didn't explain the sheer impossibility of what he was holding. "What is her semblance?"
"It's called The Gamer." Qrow responded, snorting at the incredulous look that blossomed on Ozpin's face. "Ruby's semblance turns her life into a video game, she has stats, quests, skills and," He gestured to the fang for the last point. "Loot."
"Tell me everything you know." Ozpin threw the fang back to the man, retaking his steepled position.
Qrow nodded as he pocketed the fang before his eyes hardened. "Yeah, but in exchange I need everything you know about the Silver Eyed Warriors. Everything!"
-Chapter 4 End-
Authors note - Sorry it took so long, I had a few issues that delayed me from putting out the chapter.
How'd you guys like the chapter?
Please tell me what you think, I need the feedback so I can improve.
Still looking for a Beta, If anyone's interestd PM me.
See you next time.