I could see Neo's eyes wide, frantic, but not looking towards me. No, she was changing her trajectory and moving backwards, sailing through the air at such a slow speed that I was standing before she touched the ground again. This new dust…
"Observe"
Acceleration Dust (Lesser)
Accelerates natural processes. Useful for growing food, scientific experiments, and creating the perfect slow-cooked ribs in minutes.
Oh-
Now I knew what to do.
My shout point went where it went, and my mind never once thought that what I was about to do would be a bad idea.
"Tiik!"
The world shattered around me.
When I said that the world shattered around me, I don't mean literally. I mean, it sure seemed literal at first but as the train crumpled and we kept moving forwards, I imagined we had hit something of a wall, and this rolling tin can couldn't take the hit. I had a brief moment to hope that all of the bombs had been detached beforehand, before I managed to alight a foot on a moving piece of metal and push towards Neo.
Her eyes widened even further at something behind me, and with a wave of her parasol that was still quick to my Accelerated eye, she vanished. I glanced over my shoulder to see a small red rift, of a size no bigger than my fist, close into nothing. Still, the train continued to crash and I continued my travel forwards. With a punch, I obliterated the door, then lowered a shoulder. Thanks to this new Gamer ability, I could use another shout before I was fully ready to at the cost of some HP, leading me to pull out a favourite.
"Wuld!"
With that charge - in slowed time and while accelerated - I managed to storm through the majority of the train. My HP fell by about a third, and I felt exhausted, but I wasn't quite done yet. My AP began to rise again as I ran out of dust to keep the Factory going, but the Acceleration Bar was nearly full and depleting slowly so I wasn't worried about running out of time.
Then my Slow Time shout wore off, and with my momentum retained I went flying through the train and through the wall it hit and took a shit-tonne of AP and HP damage. I was lucky I had managed to take the hit to my AP because if it had gone straight through, it would have dropped my HP well below zero. As it was, I had about a fifth of my HP left and my AP had been drained, leaving me without much to work with.
Shaking off the disorientation as I climbed to my feet, I glanced around. I had landed within a town, probably part of the Mountain Gle- Civilians.
I glanced back at the wall in horror as the raising sounds of screeching Grimm began to pour out of the hole. I watched as a chunk of ice flew through the hole and shattered against the street, spilling Blake, Ruby, and Weiss out. I had a brief second to try to shake them awake. Observe told me they were alive; They were just low on HP and knocked out.
I wasn't doing much better.
I grit my teeth and pulled out my weapon, shifting it into rifle form. These guns were truly useful to have, weak as they were, for the simple fact that they didn't use aura. I wanted my AP back as quickly as possible. My HP was thankfully shooting up much faster than it should, which I had to assume was due to the Acceleration increasing my body's natural healing speed along with the rest..
That helped, when a pack of beowolves and some odd looking two-armed Lizard things came crawling out of the hole.
LVL27
Creeper
LVL29
Creeper
"Oh, shit." I muttered, "You guys are kinda tough eh?"
Then a Deathstalker came crawling out and I actually felt a bit worried.
Mentally pushing through my menus, I managed to grab my scroll and dial with one hand while the other operated my gun. It typically required two hands due to the weight, though that wasn't true with Aura activated. Currently mine wasn't, as I tried to regain my AP as soon as possible. Luckily, I had some help with my solution.
Namely, the fact that with gravity's effects, the barrel of my weapon fell at such a miniscule rate that I was able to use the recoil to keep it steady. With time so slow to me, and not 50m between myself and the opening, I was able to pick off the whole pack of beowolves and land a couple of shots on the creeper before Ren picked up the phone. I deactivated my Aura, and time sped up but I was able to speak at a normal pace.
Ducking under a beowolf, I managed to parry two lightning-fast strikes from the deathstalker before a blocked claw-strike sent me sliding backwards. The tail darted forwards and was knocked back by an explosive shot. I slid another couple of feet backwards, before something solid stopped my motion and pulled me straight.
"You owe me one!" Yang exclaimed with a wink, before launching forward with a shot from her gauntlets.
"Ren, we need help. Follow the gunshots, call Richard, he should be in the air still." I wished I could have given him an actual location but even with my mini-map, I had no idea where I was other than 'Streets of Vale'.
"Wha-" I had already disconnected the call by the time Ren began protesting. Taking stock of the situation, Yang seemed to be the only one up and about but her Aura had to be dangerously low. Still, she fought with wild abandon. A planted foot, an overhand strike. A light dance back from a stinger, a smirk. She shed blows, allowing them to glance off of her as her eyes glowed brighter and her hair started waving around of its own accord.
I had to bring my attention closer as the creepers still appeared to be closing on me. The shots from my rifle weren't doing much against their dark skin. I needed more power, but you can't enhance a gun using my skills - can I?
I pulled the blue potion from my inventory, glaring at it for a brief moment before popping the cork and downing it. The mixture burned and bubbled as it met my mouth, but I kept swallowing and swallowing until the whole thing was gone and I felt like I was going to throw up for a moment, before the Gamer's Body took care of that for me. My AP, on top of its previous regeneration, was almost full after that.
I went through the motions of activating the aura enhancement and felt it cover my weapon. This was good, but already common enough to do by this point so rather than let the skill activate, I continued. This time, I caught onto the threads that entered the weapon and pushed them deeper, willing a certain amount of permanence into the action. The threads bucked and weaved, trying to form their typical structures, but I pushed and with a click, the lines straightened into a latticework of barely felt strands of soul, seeming slight but I knew at my core that this technique would imbue my weapon with great power.
A new skill has been created! What would you like to name this skill?
A rush of knowledge as I realized precisely what it is that I had created, and a furious smile split my face. I could see all around us as various Hunters and Huntresses showed up to fight back the horde of Grimm, and I spared a thought for why or how or for what reason this Roman Torchwick fellow wanted to destroy Vale, before shrugging it off. Motives were only relevant to the solution if you didn't plan on the option of violence, and with my power? Violence was in my blood. Now, it went a little deeper. I brought a word from my home forth, and a word from now back, and had my skill.
Aura Enchantment (Active) Cost: 100AP
Through extensive study and training, you have developed a method to give a weapon an aura of its own, for a limited time. Due to the nature of this skill, usage will remove the Awakened Weapon title when used on such a weapon.
Duration: 0.5 seconds
Effect: Varies
Intensity: 5
If it went deeper within myself, to the point where the acceleration dust still rode in my body and affected how I viewed the world, there is absolutely no reason I can't do the same with my weapon. So I did. I pushed the aura deep, deep within, feeling the machine in strange ways I was unable to describe. Small bits of clear, light materials were interspersed, but eventually I found what I was looking for: the small magazine that held my rounds. I remembered from my time with Ruby in the Foundry that the best place to put dust on a gun is in the receiver. I didn't have dust, but maybe something in the receiver itself could do the same thing?
Something took hold.
Weapon Enchantment Available!
Options:
-Aura
-Acceleration
I let it slip, fading away. As soon as I saw the pop up, I wanted to test something new, so I started funneling the aura into my boots as if it were a sword. This was significantly more difficult, though I was well aware of how various different pieces of armour could be enchanted. I was no mage - I laughed darkly at the thought now as I quite literally did magic - but I did learn about them, for I had to fight them often. Thus, my first attempt was at the boots. Boots held the most life-changing minor enchantments, and were easy to enchant from what I heard. My skill could not even be compared to the long rituals done with mechanical precision at a proper enchanter's table but I didn't need it to compare, I just needed it to work.
The difficulty here was that my clothing already had some semblance of aura flowing through them, and I would need to either remove the standard protection of aura to get a separate effect, or find a way to mesh the two together. I didn't have the time for the first, so I went for the second.
The thing is, Hunters tend to dress to stand out. Whether it's something like Pyrrha and her Imperial get-up, or Nora with all her pink, the point is that Hunters look unique. Part of that is to make them look larger than life, despite the darker reason of being able to pick out their bodies among tides of Grimm. Due to this, one of the first 'bad habits' they try to strip you of in Beacon is keeping your Aura skin tight. It uses more energy to cover your clothing, but when you are a hero and your uniform can impart confidence or worry upon those around you, you spend the energy so that panicking masses don't draw a tide of Grimm to drown you.
Part of why this was so difficult - beyond the two creepers slowly barreling towards me - was the fact that I had to adjust a known technique on the fly in the middle of a battlefield, but then adjust it again for the fact that I was now using a form of Lesser dust and that I wanted a different effect.
I received a brand new screen for my efforts.
Skill Evolution not recommended, Skill level is too low. Continue?
YES/NO
I tapped yes, anyways, then all of a sudden my aura shut off. Completely. Including the effects from the acceleration dust.
I was launched bodily by one of the Creepers to slam against the wall of a nearby building. Thinking back on when Jeremy and Hal had blown me through the front window of Gales Guns and Gun Accessories, this barely hurt. It certainly didn't drop my HP so much, likely due to my absolutely insane VIT. It was over 100, when I activated all my skills and my aura. Thus I hit the brick with an application of Featherweight to ensure I didn't get buried in a collapsing building, dropped to the ground, and activated my new skill. Rather, my newly evolved skill.
Aura Enchantment II(Active) Cost: 500AP
Through extensive study and training, you have developed a method to give a weapon an aura of its own, for a limited time. Due to the nature of this skill, usage will remove the Awakened Weapon title when used on such a weapon. Through continuous experimentation and mastery, you can now apply these effects to armour.
WARNING: DUE TO PREMATURE SKILL EVOLUTION, RECEIVE 10% XP ON SKILL UNTIL LEVEL 50
Duration: 0.5 seconds
Effect: Varies
Intensity: 5
With the Acceleration Dust colouring my aura, I activated my skill on my armour and blanched as my AP dropped to just above half. From the duration of this skill, and my own AP level, I could literally only use it for a second. I realized within a fraction of a second that I absolutely should not have evolved that skill yet. If duration goes up with skill level, this skill might not even be worth training if I need to blow all of my AP just for a 1 second effect.
That being said, Acceleration Dust was likely the best option for this particular technique, as the world around me slowed. Not like it did before, in the train, and not like my Slow Time Shout. This was different. There is usually a mugginess, a haze and thickness to the air when one steps outside the normal bounds of time. This was absent, and I appreciated it greatly as I bounded forwards, already realizing that I would need to use the second application of the skill before I even reached them. I did have enough AP for one more thing, though, and I activated my Aura Enchantment I skill on the rifle form of my weapon, forgoing the Dust Factory and pushing for straight enhancement. The bullets flew forth glowing with a faint, white aura, and where they did nothing before, I watched one of the creepers stumble back as each round exploded like a firecracker on its face in slow motion.
I shifted my weapon to spear, threw, then shield charged at the other. I was lucky that my weapons came along when I accelerated or I wouldn't have had the time to shift it so soon. The first creeper, still stumbling back from the shots, took the spear right to the face, and I internally cheered as I had never been particularly good at throwing weapons, especially not in a fight of this speed. As the first creeper fell to the ground and began to dissolve, the second was pushed back by my shield charge. I tossed up my shield, which began spinning slowly as soon as it left my hand, and I was able to grab the spear, shove it into the shield's slot, and shift the whole thing to a battle-axe form. With my last tenth of a second, I swung to execute the beast. As I began the downwards swing at its neck, my Enchantment ended.
I still had enough AP left from the second of regeneration, so I spent it on a Power Strike and the creeper had just enough time to turn its eye to see where I had moved to before my blade chopped clean through its lumpy, misshapen neck. It bounced twice as it rolled away. I looked around for my next target, hoping to find some weaker monsters to take out with my Mastery skills while I built up AP again. It didn't seem as low as my calculations had accounted for though, and seeing as all of the Grimm were tied up in battle with combatants that far out levelled me, I took a moment to investigate.
It didn't take me long to find the culprit. One of my skills was missing, Aura Affinity to be exact. It was one of the bonus skills I got related to my WIS increase, and it was incredibly useful. In fact, it was still active in effect, but the skill was gone. I flipped through some more screens and found that it had moved over to the 'Perks' page.
I blinked at that. It was a skill, then became a perk? Can I do that with other skills?
I began thinking, meditating almost, on what had transpired since I had last seen it as a skill, but I couldn't think of anything too significant. I thought of my other skills, realizing that many were quite passive and my good skills had so far come from skill books. I then wondered what dungeons might be around, for me to level and loot from. I then realized that pretty much involved going to Jak's team, unless I endangered my own team and Richard besides. I considered gathering us all up and setting off into the wilds alone to build our own kingdoms, with real people instead of the Academies. The thought held merit, in my eyes, but the Grimm made it all but impossible.
I shook my head with resolution. No, I would not run. Advancing in a different direction is not retreat, it is strategy, and bits and pieces of a strategy started coming together. It was too soon and hectic to continue thinking along those lines, so I returned myself to the present, happy that my brief stint of meditation was uninterrupted. Better yet, I had AP to work with. Unfortunately, the Grimm had been defeated and Glynda was putting the wall back together with her mind.
I paused at that. Here I was seeing the biggest display of magical power, technique, and skill of my entire life, and all I could think about was an internal sigh that she was way too beautiful and not nearly severe enough to be a mage. I instead took stock of who was present. The members of team RWBY were getting to their feet, helped up by Yang who was guarding what looked like a hurt shoulder. She must have ran out of aura at some point during the fight, the fact that she was still standing - and not just that, but helping her team to do the same - was more than a little bit impressive.
I chuckled. "Yang's Reputation with Torga has most definitely gone up."
Reputation with Richard Mavis decreased!
My eyes shot to that. What does Rich have to complain about? I'd muted most of the reputation notifications since that television program came out and every person and their dog started forming opinions of me, but had found a filter to let select people through. I pulled out my scroll as the regular police started showing up, myself being given a wide berth. It took a fumble or two, but I eventually got Richard on the line.
"You!"
"Yep." I replied, noting that he seemed angry.
"You absolute, Grade-A, top tier, cutting edge imbecile! You're the product of a fucking experiment and you do nothing but hurt people around you, you stupid fucking piece of shit! Fuck you, fuck your stupid fucking team of children, fuck your entire life, this one and the past one, and fuck your whore of a mother!" He hung up.
Good thing, too. I was about to test if the Voice worked through phone calls. Either way, I knew where his apartment was and made my way to the rooftops to begin making my way over.
Mid leap with Flamethrower burning full power from my hands and Featherweight keeping me off the ground, I felt a tug on the back of my neck, then all of a sudden I was slamming into the roof of an apartment filled with fire.
There was another tug, an odd feeling of deja vu, and I was sitting on my own motherfucking couch again. My apartment, thankfully, was not filled with fire.
"The fuck." I said to express my discontent. I knew from the second that itchy tingle hit that I was being kidnapped again, but I figured if those assholes brought me somewhere inside I could at least 'accidentally' burn the place.
"Hey there, newbie!" Jak grinned from where he stood on my coffee table with mud covered boots that slowly dripped detritus onto my stained cherrywood. He glanced down, then back up with a challenge. I met his eyes but made no notice.
"The. Fuck." I repeated, though this time it was more of a discontented question than an expression.
"He's gonna yell at us if we don't tell him." Rassa deadpanned from the side of the room, but it immediately shifted the tone. I hadn't even decided which shout to use but given that that was my biggest trump card, I was definitely going to try to use it to escape. Jak raised a hand, snapped, and the sounds of an inhabited world fell away. No vehicles making their way at dangerous speeds through the streets, no hum of the climate control, no dogs barking… it was odd, and unsettling.
"There. Now it doesn't matter how loud he is." Jak smirked, crossing his arms, before Arthur whacked him across the back of the head with his gauntlet. It made a loud metallic clang that I would not expect from the impact of steel on flesh.
"I still don't know why I go along with this bullshit. Do you have no empathy at all?" Arthur turned him aside to whisper, but he was all but shouting.
"I do, actually, I just evolved it prematurely and so now it's a little stunted. That's why I keep Rassa around."
"Are you ever going to train it better?" Arthur's voice dropped lower, and Jak pulled away without resistance.
"Why would I? Everything I get from Empathy, I get somewhere else! Know what people are feeling? I'm smart enough to just read their thoughts and figure it out, and that's when my godly insight check fails. Sense life in your vicinity? I quite literally have a sense life spell that's so basic I once enchanted a pencil to cast it at will, just to see if I could! And no offense Rassa, but without the precognition it is kind of worthless." Jak explained, as if talking about his choices for lunch.
Rassa clearly took offense to this, but retreated further into herself when Jak turned towards her. He smirked once more.
"To stop being an asshole." Arthur panned, though not with any heart.
"Eh, I know who I am and you love me for it. So! Newbie. I hear you went on a little field trip?"
I set my jaw, to which he rolled his eyes. "Look, newbie, if you wanna play the strong and silent type, then that's perfectly fine. Beats an edgelord RP choice any day. But when your entire schtick is that you can yell your soul into the world, maybe don't go strong and silent? As it is, now I know that the second your lips split, I should have Mirian increase the probability of you sneezing every time you try to use your fancy words. Infact, go ahead and do that now, if you wouldn't mind?"
I felt the tingle at the back of my neck disappear, and breathed a sigh of relief. I'm not entirely sure how her power worked, but if I had to guess, I would say my odds just got better.
"Great. Now, I'll ask again: So! Newbie." This time that part was said with venom and undercurrent, and a part of me shuddered. It wasn't a nickname, it was a reminder. "I hear you went on a little field trip?"
"Yes." I answered. Sure, I'll talk, but I'll make it annoying.
"Fine then!" Jak threw up his arms. "Be a spoilsport! I had jokes, puns, dramatic moments and everything planned out but if you won't play along then-" He tapped me on the shoulder, and my eyes rolled back.
Jak strolled into Ozpin's office as if he owned the place. For his part, Ozpin finished his sip of coffee and continued to know more than everyone around him.
"Kill the kid." Jak said easily and casually, sitting down into an ornate throne that materialized just before he would have fallen.
"I assume you know you will need to be more specific than that?" Ozpin was taking this all well in stride.
"Torga. Jaune Arc. Dragonborn. He needs to die, and quickly, before it is too late and we can't anymore."
Ozpin paused. "You aren't one to ask others for things, Jak. You're one to do them yourself. Why are you really here?"
"You called me up here!" Jak responded with mild indignation.
"Yes, well, I had heard you kidnapped one of my students and he has been conspicuously absent from his classes."
"He won't need classes in like a month, it's a waste of time!"
"It's abundantly clear he is not planning to improve his intelligence. Do not make the mistake of thinking he is you."
"Duh! That's why you either need to brainwash or kill him! And turns out, his power protects him from mental effects so that leaves only one other option."
Ozpin pondered. "Does it?"
Jak stood from his throne, the gaudy furniture disappearing as soon as it was not needed. Or wanted, one could guess. "Yes, Ozpin. Without any shadow of a doubt. I will make you choose, like I warned you back in my senior year. You can keep all of this-" The Dungeonmaster spread his arms wide, gesturing vaguely. "And dirty your hands with a boy who doesn't belong here, or you can take a stand and watch it all come crumbling down."
Ozpin sipped from his cup. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary."
Jak rolled his eyes. "Out with it then. What perspective shattering secret do you have for me this time?"
Ozpin sighed, then set down his cup. Jak flinched as if struck, a reaction he chided himself for, but the feeling in his gut was sinking deeper and deeper. Only one occasion causes Ozpin to abandon his image, and-
"Remnant's days are numbered." the Professor sighed. "Our Kingdoms sit on the world's last accessible dust deposits, and when we run out…. There will be no great exodus. No civilization after. That will be the end, for all of humanity, Forever." Ozpin was staring out the window over a bustling city, full of lights and laughter.
"I can find more." Jak offered weakly. "I can go to the land of Grimm, there's untold levels of dust there!"
"You may be able to, Mr. Turner, but how much dust could you bring back? Assuming you attuned to three different storage devices, you could carry approximately… almost a tonne of dust? Atlas goes through that in an hour. How long does it take you to get to Grimm?"
"We could set up a train lin-"
"Ocean. Leviathans. Krakens."
"Air fleet?"
"Why don't I just tell you how we solve the problem?"
Jak paused, waiting. Ozpin played his games, but Jak was the Gamer. He could always win a game.
"We don't." Ozpin said with a mirthful smile. "The very man you came into this office to destroy will become our salvation."
He pulled up a screen and played a short series of clips. My discussion with my team under the tree, during the second initiation. My conversation with Professor Oobleck, about my home. Then finally, a short clip of me bursting out of the wall of the city, followed shortly after by a crumpled train. My aura was shot through in acceleration dust at the time. However, Ozpin paused, and zoomed the image in on my hands. In one, wind, and in the other, electricity.
Jak chuckled. Jak laughed. Jak legitimately fell on the floor laughing, and it took him over a minute to recover.
"Yea, we'll be fine. You want him back at school then?"
Oz nodded, the same carefully constructed face being worn now as when Jak had walked in. "That would be for the best."
I gasped as I came back to myself. It was disorienting, but the Gamer's Mind quickly shut that down and I was able to think.
"Did you pull the 'I tell him what happened' skill on him?" Arthur was glaring at Jak, who shrugged.
"What? It's faster than talking and he didn't know how to dodge it."
I tuned them out for a moment and thought about the implications of what I just saw, if it were actually true. Dust - their form of soul gems, or the closest analogue - was running out. From what I had learned before leaving classes, Dust was what allowed mankind to go from roaming tribes avoiding Grimm to actually fighting them back and forming cities. I scoffed.
It was difficult, it was dangerous, but on my first day here I killed one of the Beowolves. No aura, no Dust, nothing but determination and skill. If they lost dust, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Not for the Nords, at least. No, if all magic and aura and esoteric effect faded from the world, Nords would rise to rule.
The further implication is that Jak wanted me dead.
"Why?" I asked, turning my gaze to him. I still sat on my own couch but with everyone else standing, they clearly felt there was an intimidation factor at play here. Rassa and Mirian seemed to be fine looking over the balcony out the window, but Arthur had moved back towards the door, and I realized they were blocking my exits.
Jak crossed his arms, bunching the robes up so I could see slightly pale blue glowing boots on his feet. "Why what? Why did I want to kill you, why do I find your broken-ass dust ability hilarious, or why was Ozpin drinking cold coffee?"
"Well, why do you think you could kill me?"
Arthur spoke up. "Look, Torga. I get you're not as young as you look, but your body is and your semblance is still new. Even Rassa could tie you in knots before you had a chance to blink, and she's most definitely a support type. You might even have a chance against me, if we grind you up to my level. But Jak? Well, why don't you show him?"
"No!" Jak shouted, uncharacteristically. "No. I wish I had spent my points differently, and I spent them how I did because someone showed me something cool. I can definitely do that cool thing, but I wish I had done it for my own reasons. He's not on my shit list anymore, which means he can use the Jakkins Turner Guide from the Dungeonmaster! First step, don't spend your fucking points. Next step, stop fighting shit so high above your level, and stop sharing the xp. Finally, skills and abilities trump level every day. For instance, I have a skill that bypasses all defense. The attack power is low, but the enemy cannot avoid it and cannot defend against it. I could be a level 20 Fighter-Barbarian, and still die before ever getting close because someone like me could just bypass their aura and defense to cut their heart open. No matter how strong they get, they can't do that."
I raised an eyebrow. "Do you think it would work on me? You know about my body."
"Of course it would work! Why wouldn't it work?" He glared at me for a moment, sighed, then snapped his fingers. I felt a spreading warmth in my chest for the briefest of instances, and my HP bar shot down to around a ¼.
"Ow." I replied, trying my best to not say much. And trying not to think much. Trying to be completely blank, actually.
"Huh, so it doesn't work…." Jak raised his fingers to snap again, and I had to speak.
"Yes it does! You just took out ¾ of my HP and I would very much appreciate it if you don't do it again."
He rolled his eyes, then made to snap again, when a glowing gauntlet covered his hand. "He doesn't get death saving throws, Jak. Once his HP hits zero, that's game over. This isn't a tabletop, where you can just bring us back from the dead if we fall in battle. This is an action video game, and he has the shitty luck of no quicksaving. No checkpoints. He's doing an Ironman run of Grimm Nights 13 with the Eternal Night and Deadly Combat mods enabled."
Arthur apparently said something in that mess of words that Jak actually resonated with, and he quickly started thinking. "Did you-"
"Yes, I already shocked him. Yes, it worked and he got Lightning Resistance out of it."
"Perfect! Say, Torga, how would you like to increase your defences before you head back to school?"
"He feels like you're roping him into voluntary torture and intends to run as soon as possible." Rassa chimed in from the side of the room. Jak frowned.
"It isn't torture to help someone build skills, it's called boosting. Really? You're a tough guy right? I'll just burn you a few times, ice you, bury you, all the basic stuff. That way you can at least start on the skills!"
"I'm going back to Beacon?" I moved the conversation forwards.
Mirian waved from her corner. "Whenever I feel like it's probable, yep."
"Can I increase the probability any way?" I asked her
"Idiot, you can't have my semblance even if there was a way you could us- oh." She flushed for a moment, realizing what I was asking. "Yea, satisfy Jak or get Arthur to beat him up."
I looked expectantly to Arthur, who shifted his helmet back over his head and joined the women by the window. I glanced at Jak, who was wiggling his eyebrows at me with a small ball of flame over one hand and a spinning clump of mud over the other. "Don't you have your own skills to work on?"
He waved his hand, causing the mud to splatter against the wall. Mirian groaned and did something, and the wall was clean. Jak did not notice as another glod of mud began hovering over his hand. "I'm max level. Can't get any more feats or ASI's. I've got an eye out for magic items, but I'm largely as strong as I'm going to get. In fact, that's part of why you get to live!"
"About that…" I responded slowly as he added a ball of ice and began to juggle the three, none ever actually touching his hands. "Why did you want to kill me in the first place?"
"Easy. If you chose a mage hunting class or feat, and built yourself around it, you would turn into the one being I can't defeat. I was going to kill you so that never happened. Ozpin found out you can mix Dust types without using Fusion Dust, so we decided you can live. Might call in a favour from time to time, but you're going to be going back to Hunter training. After I boost your defense stats."
"My Vitality is the highest in this room, save for Arthur." I responded, and his face went back to thinking for just the briefest of moments.
"Can you see our levels?"
I gulped, that being the only reason I hadn't attempted escape yet. "No."
"Can you see our stats?"
"...No."
"How do you know you have the highest Vitality then? Mine runs off Constitution, and I'm sitting pretty at 17/20."
"...I don't know if I have a maximum, but it's currently at around 150 with aura. I can regenerate from near death to perfect health in about… ten to fifteen minutes?"
Miriam let out a low whistle. "No wonder you held up so well last time. It's been bugging me, but I guess if you're healing faster than the probability matrix can self compensate… Yea, I say we stop antagonizing this guy."
Jak dropped his elemental juggling and let the various balls fall to the floor of my apartment, yet again making a mess. He whirled around to Miriam. "What, you're scared of him already? He's got a few more years before he's even close to our combat rating, and even if he wa-"
"Rassa?" Miriam asked, staring into Jak's eyes.
"Miriam is not afraid of him, though she does fe-"
"That's good enough." Miriam gave her an angry glare, then looked back to the man with the pointy hat. "See, Jak? Just because he's not a NPC doesn't make him an enemy. Imagine if- and I know this is hard, having dumped all your Charisma-"
"Hey!" Jak protested. "It made perfect sense! My Character Sheet ability means that wherever my soul is, my body is, and CHA based effects are contested by willpower. I don't need willpower if I can just teleport back from a banishment, or put on a resistance ring, or just fucking Wish it better again."
The room flinched at the sound of the word Wish, and I almost felt like they weren't talking about fancy.
"Having dumped all your Charisma, you won't be good at it, but with maxed out intelligence, you should understand how useful he would be as an ally. Maybe, just maybe, we call him next time instead of just kidnapping him?"
"His first instinct upon finding himself somewhere new is to kill everything around him. The rage I felt, the fury…" Rassa shuddered in her spot curled under a blanket in a chair by the window. She looked over to me for the first time since I arrived. "I sense your sorrow, your pain, your anguish, your fury, and your hope. I can sense them, even when your own mind won't let you feel them. Yet over everything else, is fear. For what do you fear?"
I started. I hadn't felt afraid since I got here. The closest I got was when Jeremy almost killed me at Gale's Guns, but I moved past that quickly. Ah. I know. "Is there any way to scatter a soul so thoroughly it is destroyed?"
"No." Rassa, Mirian, and Arthur all spoke immediately, while Jak said "depends who you are."
They looked between each other for a moment, then Jak waved Arthur forward.
"We don't know much about souls. I'm likely the world's leading expert, and if you asked me what a soul is at its most basic level, I would tell you that I don't know." He held up a hand to forestall a question, and I oddly felt like he was slipping into a script. "However, we have experimented and quantified, without the outlier of semblances, what exactly a soul is capable of. The soul is your will, your being, everything that makes you who you are; Or rather, you are everything you are because of the shape, colour and size of your soul."
"You use this to exert your will on the world. Whether that takes the form of protecting your body, amplifying your strength and speed, or eventually in the form of a Semblance, it's well accepted that every living being has a soul. It is also well accepted within the community that no two souls are alike, and therefore no two souls are equal. Jak here is lucky enough to have a power that sorts the strong souls from the weak, into what he calls PC's and NPC's. The rest of us make do with learning about people."
"What does this have to do with my question?" I asked. Pieces were beginning to click, but I needed something else for the big picture. I already knew souls were material objects, else how would we be able to trap them for our use?
"Well, here's the thing. Save for extreme circumstances, the soul is at once the same and separate from your body. If someone were to destroy your body, your soul would pass on to the next life. If someone were to destroy your soul…. Well we really have no clue. Yet, no matter what happens to the body, the soul remains whole, and moves on as a whole. There are no documented instances of a living being lacking a soul, of a soul being damaged, or of a soul being split or portioned in any way. It can be trapped, redirected, forced into a new body, but not destroyed."
"Well, I won't say I hate it, but I have to be the bearer of bad news." I took a breath, then continued. "Your research is correct, but primitive."
Arthur's face plate lit up red. "You little shit, you wouldn't know the scientific process if it bit you in the ass and then wrote an 80 page paper about it."
"I mean no offense. You have discovered things that took us centuries. However, I can tell you immediately that a captured soul can be split, enchanted, or used as a power source for another enchanted item. We were not as proficient in the art of using the soul for war as you, but soul gems were relatively common."
"...Soul gems?" Jak pondered, lifting a hand to rub at his smooth chin. Now that I realized, I never really figured out what he looked like beyond the clothes. Every time I looked at his eyes, they were a different colour, or even shape. His form shifted between blinks, but some part of me said 'just accept it'. My Gamer's Mind, now that I had recognized the effect, shut it down, and I saw a man about my size with curly brown hair and hazel eyes, light scruff on his face and a deep scar across his throat.
"Yes, soul gems. If you are carrying a soul gem and link a living creature to it using a soul-trap enchanted weapon, or the Soul Trap spell itself, when that creature dies, its soul is absorbed into the gem for further use."
"That's barbaric." Mirian spat. "The amount of comic book villains that want to 'collect all the souls' so they can become a 'Super-Hunter' is ridiculous. You're lying."
"I am not." I answered. It was odd, with every passing moment I was feeling more… like myself.
"Prove it." She challenged me.
"No. I didn't agree with the usage of soul gems. I bought those of common quality or lower, and gave every Black soul gem to the Vigilants of Stendarr, occupied or not. I heard of an artifact that could purify and release a soul from a gem, but typically they were consumed to power various effects. Slightly similar to how you use dust, if more limited."
"Nobody has to die to use Dust, though." Mirian answered, as if it were so simple.
"Don't they?" I remembered an excerpt from one of the few interesting moments of the history class I had barely paid attention to. The Faunus Rights Revolution. SDC company towns. Menagerie. "I'd imagine the Faunus disagree."
"You don't know half of what the Faunus have been through, so you look pretty dumb making analogies." Mirian countered.
"Fine. Tell me nobody has ever died collecting Dust." I riposted
She threw up her hands. "It isn't the same! We need Dust!"
I shrugged.
"We don't kill people every time we need to recharge the batteries!"
"Neither do we? I mean, on rare occasions a human soul does get captured and used, though that typically falls under necromancy and is therefore punishable by death in Skyrim. The exception is the 500 Companions clause. Elven souls are forfeit should they step on our land, though only the Aldmeri. The Bosmer and Dunmer are alright. Oh, and if someone tries to murder you with dishonour, you can capture their soul. In fact, most Jarl's wear jewellery fashioned of Black Soul Gem, usually holding the soul of the last assassin that failed to kill them."
Arthur cut in. "You said common. Are there other qualities? What are the differences?" He looked like he wanted to ask more, but didn't want to push. I realized I had information, if only of a hypothetical nature, and-
Reputation with Arthur Polendina went up!
Huh. He didn't strike me as the scholarly type, more of… a knight, or a rich noble playing knight.
"Quality goes from Petty to Grand. A petty soul gem won't hold much more than a fox, or a wolf. A Grand soul gem could, in theory, contain the immortal soul of a dragon. I never got to test that, as I'm the only one who can absorb the soul of a dragon and half of my battles with them are chipping away the soul enough where it can be absorbed by me. Usually, my power takes priority over the Soul Trap spell. Grand Soul Gems can also hold Deadra, Dragon Priests, and even up to and including Mammoths."
"And do they react in a physical manner when the soul is absorbed?" Arthur was looking off to the side where half of his helmet had sprung up somehow. With his eye movement, I figured he was reading something.
"Typically, yes. They acquire a faint shine when charged with a soul. And yes, the big ones shine brighter."
"Finally, you said that those potions you received, they were from your homeland? From Skyrim?"
"...yes." I answered after a pause, having figured out where he was going with this.
He snapped his fingers. "Good. Want to go fuck up the Forever Fall again?"
"Will I have to carry you out this time?" I retorted, sensing the mood in the room lighten. Apparently something about my explanation of soul gems put them at ease.
He actually pouted. "I didn't know there would be sleep spores, and everything else down there was chicken shit so I didn't bother with my helmet. I'd blitz the whole thing myself if you wanted to watch, but I don't know how your dungeon works. Do they have recharge times?"
"Not that I know of. Rassa, would you like to join us?" I asked. I didn't particularly understand why, but there was a kinship there, I could feel it.
"Oho?" Jak interjected. "You already took my tank, you can't have my cleric!"
"Why not?" Rassa said quickly. She seemed like she regretted asking soon after, and a part of my heart started roiling up at the implications.
"No problem." I ignored Rassa for a moment. "Figured it would beat sitting around being your lie-detector, but if you really need her."
"I don't need anyone at all. I just appreciate being able to see the future. If for, instance, someone like you is going to do something stupid, she can warn me I'm about to get fucking furious so I can pop into a dungeon and not take out half the city in my venting. It's truly selfless of me."
"Sure. I guess I'm glad you don't appreciate Arthur." Turning to Rassa, I made certain to make direct eye contact and held it for a moment before speaking. "Well, you know where to find me. Sometimes. Actually, I guess I have to stop saying that now. I'm still willing to bet you could find me, though." She nodded, eyes wide with anticipation. She likely felt the emotions before my Gamer's Mind had the chance to dull them.
Where I felt a dull, muted anger at seeing a situation of someone who's too scared to leave, she felt my ice cold fury, likely not knowing the reason. The more I saw her around these people, the more it became clear.
"Well, have a good night then." I stood from the couch. "Arthur, I'm going to make my own way to Forever Fall. You're quick, can I let you know when I'm 10 minutes out?"
He shook his head. "Nope, no can do dragon boy. I leave for Atlas within 10 hours, which means I'm going to follow you around, we'll speed run your responsibilities, then fly through the Forever Fall Temple. Twice, if it doesn't need the recharge time. I'm hoping that somewhere on that loot table is one of those soul gems you're so adamant will change everything, and I want to bring one to my lab."
I ran my hands over my face and through my hair that I still hadn't gotten around to cutting. "Another all-night then. Wonderful. Hey Mirian?"
She hummed. By this point she was reading some sort of illustrated novel.
"Do you think next time you teleport me, could you call first? Or just increase the odds of me enjoying it?"
She didn't look up. "Remember how you almost threw up, and it hurt really bad when I moved you the first time?"
It clicked, and had I actually been the age of this body, I would have blushed furiously. As it were, I nodded. "Fair. Then, I guess you will all be going?"
Took me another 10 minutes to get everyone out, though through it all Rassa kept trying to catch my eye, so I kept giving it to her with unspoken nods to her and glares at others. She seems to get that I get it.
She tried once more to attempt to come with Arthur and I, but Jak had excuses at every turn that would have made the situation develop had we questioned… and quite frankly I still remember the feeling of my heart being cut to ribbons at a snap of his finger. I was not eager to contest myself against him. I asked Arthur to keep his distance, he scoffed, and I was on my way.
It took me another 5 to make my way across the rooftops to Richard's building, where he sat alone, saving me the trouble of going in. I landed on the roof behind him with a clattering roll, dusting myself off.
He took a swig from a bottle of beer and looked out over the setting sun, the city beneath still hectic and the small plumes of smoke mostly extinguished. "Most heroes try to land a little bit quieter." Richard spat, which made me halt. This was not an hot rage, but a cold loathing.
What in Oblivion happened to him?
"I'm not a hero." I took a spot beside him on the blocky piece of machinery. I saw his hands tighten around the bottle, and he took another aggressive swig.
"You've got that one right." He answered. His hands shook for a moment, and he pulled a cardboard box out of a pocket. Within 10 seconds, he was puffing on some sort of herbal roll that smelled like…
"Is that tobacco?" I asked, hesitantly. He was clearly upset, but he still tossed the package into my lap. It took me closer to a minute and I couldn't find whatever method he used to light the stick, so I prepared one of my fingers to fire a small flamethrower when Richard plucked the rolled herbs from my lips, handing his own already lit stick over. I inhaled deeply on it, puzzled when the taste felt off. Examining the stick, I saw some sort of barrier between the inhalation and the herbs. Tearing the weak paper away, I inhaled once more, with the proper harsh tingle of tobacco.
"You're so fucking weird, Torga. Can't even smoke like a normal person." Richard shook his head.
I nodded, and inhaled off the tobacco again. I couldn't feel the light-headedness, couldn't feel my body react, but it tasted something of home and for that I was grateful.
"Your friends came to my house." Richard said, after having finished off his beer. Another 3 empty bottles sat beside him, and he cracked the fifth. With a moment's pause, he handed me one. Tasted much more of grain than mead did, and it had some bubbles in it that made me belch, but it was a passable drink.
"My team?" I asked, trying to be certain. Either it was Juniper, or Jak and his party. The first I could deal with, the second…. Well.
He nodded, and I let out an internal sigh of relief.
"They wanted to know where you went." Richard continued. "They figured 'hey, after that last talk where we promised we wouldn't leave each other behind, there's no way he left us behind, is there?' But you did. You made your own choice, you didn't think about anyone else, and now you made me sound like my fucking sister." He takes a last drag of his 'smoke' and threw the butt off the edge of the roof.
Then he stood. "So, I get to lie. I get to lie to that humble young man Lie Ren and tell him why his only male friend he's ever had can't be reached. I have the pleasure of lying to Ms Nora Valkyrie, the woman who could crush my entire house by accident, and tell her that her team leader had important business to take care of. And when the too smart for her own good, three time Mistral Tournament Champion asked me: 'Richard, please. If ever you were to do anything for us, please just tell us where he is.' You know what I told them?"
I felt guilty, briefly, before my power tore that from me. I recognized my decisions and why I made them, though I did not once consider the other, outside aspects. I was adventuring as if I was a boy again, matching the mood around me and acting how I would to get what I needed. Looking back, though… By the gods had I been an immature child. Sometimes the emotions come on so quick, so stro-
I burst out laughing. It was a true laugh, deep and resounding, one that I could not have held back if I tried, and I did not try for the sheer ridiculity of the situation would not let me. I could feel the Gamer's mind taking hold, over and over, but each time the thought was hilarious enough again that it was futile. I did manage to gasp out what had me in hysterics, and Richard joined me, almost more uproariously.
"I-" I spat through bouts of laughter. "I think I'm going through puberty!"
It made sense. I was having mood swings, acting weirdly in different situations and feeling like it was normal, my inflated ego. I need to recenter myself into who and what Torga is. Now that I am aware, hopefully I can stop with the gaffs and start with some proper adventuring.
It was a solid 2 minutes before I managed to start reeling myself in, though I would take one look at Richard's red face and bulging eyes as he tried to not laugh, and that would send me rolling again. Eventually we laughed ourselves out. I had actually worked up a little sheen of sweat by that time, when a voice interrupted us.
"Are you two quite finished?"
I whirled my head around from my spot on the ground to see Pyrrha standing over me. I averted my gaze quickly - she wore a skirt for God's sakes- and pulled myself to my feet, holding out a hand for Richard who had also fallen off the block.
Richard was a man I could see becoming a battle brother. What I did on the ground, he could do tenfold from the sky. I helped him up before answering.
"I am. Don't know about the Flight Lieutenant, here."
She nodded. "Good. I'm not going to hit you but-"
Stars flashed briefly across my vision before the Gamer's Body nullified it. I felt my head snap to the side, and when I looked back, Lie Ren was standing there glaring at me. "Liar." He accused.
I nodded. "Yes. I did. I will not again."
"Lies." He replied, looking at me expectantly.
"Words don't mean shit, Ren. If I say it won't happen again, it won't happen again, and you don't need any proof other than watching it not happen again. If you don't believe me, I don't know why you came."
Another fist flew, but I caught this one. A mistake, as immediately after doing so he turned my arm in some odd grip and I found myself on the ground with him standing over me.
"You have a lot to learn, Torga."
I didn't resist from where I lay, though a pipe had bent beneath my back. I sincerely hoped it wasn't important to the running of the building. "I know. Can you help me?" I held out a hand for him to help me up, not wanting to bite on the aggression display. Mainly, because such things are for audiences of strangers and acquaintances, not close friends. However, being helped up was not what I was asking assistance for and Ren knew it, because he got a thoughtful look on his face.
Huh. That actually hurt a little.
"I thought we should just cut you loose, see if a failed team from last year had someone we could get to fill in." Pyrrha explained. "Ren thought it was a waste of time. Nora thought we should come and find you, beat you up, and threaten to do it again if you left us again. Ren thought it was a waste of energy. Ozpin suggested we just wait and see if you came back. You know what happened to them. You know what you did, when you left. Explain yourself."
"Puberty." She set her jaw and started appearing angry, so I held up a hand to forestall her. "No, I'm not saying that 'I'm just a kid and didn't know better' because objectively, that is not true. I simply have not had to deal with this many hormones in so long, and apparently it is something that my powers can't compensate for. I did not know I was going through my coming of age, and so I did not know to take the time to acquire surety in my decisions and actions. Most men in Skyrim have already mastered their bodies by this body's age. I did not even think to consider thinking of it, and for that, you have my regret."
She looked into my eyes, searching for something. Apparently, she found it, and took a shuddering breath. "Very well. Ren?"
He glared at me, though I noticed that not once has a reputation notification for Lie Ren appeared. A barely perceptible nod was all he gave. Pyrrha nodded with finality, pulled out her scroll, and sent me a file. It was a short 15 second clip of Nora eating an entire stack of pancakes in a display that almost had me feeling sick, then it cut to her in a… big bunny outfit?
"You suck lately Torgama-sensei! Figure it out!"
The video cut.
I waited for something to happen, but there was nothing. "Was…. was that it?"
Lie Ren shrugged - gods how I missed those expressive shrugs from the master himself - to express that Nora will be Nora. I shrugged back, which must have been the equivalent of a toddler screaming to him. He had the grace and dignity to help me up, though.
"Well, I think I've figured it out." I answered. "So, with all those plans you were telling me about… what did you end up going with?"
"We did it." Ren answered. "I get to punch you in the face, Pyrrha wanted an explanation, and Nora got pancakes."
"I also wanted to be here if you tried to fight!" I whipped my head around to the roof access door which was slightly ajar and an orange haired girl peeked out.
"I would've been done for." That was no lie. Against normal people, I could Shout them off the roof all day. Everyone here could just get back up in their own way, and I know on flat ground my team would pick me apart like a roast pig at a feast.
"Good!" Nora was with us. "It's much more fun hitting things with a fire breathing dragon boy than against him. Could you imagine?" I could, though it was a morbid thought and I pushed us further down the track.
"So… Ozpin is apparently letting me come back to Beacon."
I had many questions to answer, only a few of which I actually was able to provide said answers. Ozpin had apparently told the school, the show producers, and the Council ( I was surprised that they were involved but apparently a few have investment deals and sponsorships and commercial space for the show.
However, I was feeling good. Richard was not truly upset, not on his own behalf. I had been taking advantage of my team, using them as local mercenaries when in reality I could see them becoming powerful and renowned in their own rights. Hell, Pyrrha was a better warrior than I and most of the world knew it. I had made a resolution to treat them as a true team -as I had Lydia, or Mjoll, or Delphine. As I had Esbern, and as I had with Serana. Not as a troop, but as something approaching an equal.
The hardest part was admitting my fear - a true fear, not apprehension or battle anxiety - of the man known as Jakkins Turner. Not for his power, because every power has a weakness. Not for his connections, because every man has a secret. No, I was afraid of his mind, which moved and thought in ways I could not understand. If one is to defeat an opponent, one must first understand them, and something tells me that if I'm not careful, he'll understand me first.
It wasn't just me anymore, though.
Might keep going with this story. It's fun. Had a gf of 3 years. Cheated on me.
Lifes great.
