I don't own RWBY.

After that successful fight against both zombies and goblins, things kinda fell into a precarious routine.

Key word: precarious.

Wake up. Eat goblin rations.

Go kill some goblins to farm goblin rations, and various loot.

We each needed at least one goblin ration per day to function properly and keep going, but it was not enough to stay healthy. We had slowly grown accustomed to the feeling of hunger.

Food was our biggest issue, by far. We could not face the trolls to reach the teacher's room on the second floor, and going outside was simply too risky. Too many bad things could happen.

First off, if we were gone too long, there was a risk of goblins ambushing our base and securing the fifth floor as part of their territory. The obvious solution to that was to leave two people behind to guard the base. But then, we'd be taking far more risks by splitting up our forces. In the case of fighting zombies outside, or fighting goblins inside, it was obviously far safer to fight with all members of the group.

There was also the possibility of getting stuck outside in another building... and lose access to our renewable food source, allowing the goblins to proliferate. Then, we would simply starve to death... if we weren't bitten or killed first.

And also, we could be spotted by the horde... And even if we ran back to our building, the horde would then have its attention focused on our building and surround it, enter it... This was the biggest risk.

No, it was a bad idea to go outside now. Not when everyone could still die from one goblin. It was too soon. I needed the three others to become stronger so they could hold this place down.

But food was dire... It was tough.

However, because of the goblins being humanoids intelligent enough to use weapons similar to humans, they dropped many items that we could use. And so, we had stockpiled a number of weapons and potions.

We even managed to kill the goblin shaman. Though, another one took its place.

The creature had ventured to the floor below with an escort of six goblins. An arrow to the head from Ebony was all it took to kill him.

And so, we looted its staff.

Goblin Shaman Fire Staff
A staff crafted by a goblin shaman to wield his magic better.
Goblin magic is typically aligned Red, and as such, this staff boosts fire magic.
Effect: +5 Red Magic(locked), +5 Fire Affinity(locked)
[The Gamer]: +10 Red Magic (locked)

A weird item. [Red Magic]. I did not know what the fuck the stat was about, but it was obviously locked to us mere humans, so we couldn't use the staff. It was a 'racial' stat. Even with [The Gamer] skill I was helpless.

Oh well. Goblins had magic, humans had Aura. I wasn't too worried about it, to be honest. If it was just about shooting fireballs, okay, it could be deadly, but Huntsmen could do something similar with dust.

Though, Sylvia, for some reason, kept trying to use the staff in her spare time, but she had no success whatsoever.

"I-I will try harder…"

"Why?" I asked her, "It's clearly useless. You're just waving it around like a monkey."

The tiny girl pouted at me. "I'm the weakest… I… I want to become stronger…"

"I could spar with you." I offered.

"..." She bit her lip, staring at me, unsure.

Was she still a little scared of me? Man, first impressions were everything.

"... OK." She eventually nodded, "But I'll still use the staff as a weapon."

"You'd be better off with a mop or a broom." I pointed out, "At least you get a bonus to stats with those."

"I-I know." She flushed. "I just... I wanna keep trying to use this staff... Maybe something will happen."

"All right." I shrugged, "We'll see how it turns out."

Like that, I started sparring with her. Well, the other two followed our example, and so, everyone started sparring with everyone.

She started gaining [Familiarity] with the item, but it was still useless. Maybe at 100% familiarity she would get something? Well, it would slow down the process if we started using it too, so we let her do her thing.

Other items we came across, though, were flasks of elixir. When someone got injured, I always fed one potion to them, and the three of them started to make jokes about that.

"Nurse Mauve" and "Nurse Arc" became our nicknames. Even though Sylvia actually knew much, much more than us in the medical field. The little girl was a bit of a know-it-all like that.

Eventually, though, I managed to unlock the [Healing Affinity] stat. I didn't know much about what it did, or how to train it, but a new stat was always good.

Even though I had finally unlocked the stat, I still continued to help Ebony with the nursing. Even though she did a much better job than me.

This was a conscious decision from me. To work on myself. To get used to showing that I could… care, for other people.

As part of our daily routine, we also made sure to kill any zombie that made it upstairs. Carefully, without letting them touch us. We had learned to fear zombies much more than goblins, simply because we could not heal a zombie bite. Though goblins were smart... They could also be exceptionally dumb, too. it varied from goblin to goblin, we supposed.

We also tried to unlock some skills by repeating actions.

And boy did I unlock some skills!

[Short Blade Mastery]. [Long Blade Mastery]. [Spear Mastery]. [Short Blunt Mastery]. [Long Blunt Mastery]. [Shield Mastery]. All unlocked by using specific types of weapons.

Their effects were similar to [Spear Mastery]. Except, where Spear Mastery boosted Strength and Dexterity by 5%,

[Short Blade Mastery] boosted Agility and Dexterity by 5%,

[Long Blade Mastery] boosted Agility and Strength by 5%,

[Short Blunt Mastery] boosted Vitality and Dexterity by 5%,

[Long Blunt Mastery] boosted Vitality and Strength by 5%,

[Shield Mastery] boosted Vitality by 8%.

In addition to those, of course, there may be other types of weapon mastery skills that I hadn't unlocked yet. For example, I wasn't sure if axes were considered as long blades, or if they had their own [Axe Mastery] skill. The goblins, apparently, never used axes, and so I never got my hands on one.

So my choice of weapon would come down to which stats I wanted to buff…?

No, there had to be more to it. Different weapons had different use cases. But I was too ignorant to know them.

The easiest weapon to use was probably the spear… Which meant it would be the fastest to level up, too. But something told me that if I focused on Spear Mastery, I would regret it.

There was a simple reason for that. Spears were two-handed weapons. And it was much better for me to use one handed weapons : just so I can equip one in each hand to benefit from the bonuses of The Gamer twice. Though, that was assuming two-handed weapons would give similar buffs to one handed ones, and not double the stats.

Short Blades were useful in close combat, and I had the [Short Blade Throw] skill waiting to be learnt, too. But they lacked range, which could spell my death against zombies...

Hmm... What if I used a dagger in one hand, and a sword in the other? Would both skills be enabled?

If so, that would probably be my choice. I would need to test it. Since I was a drummer, I could handle coordinating my hands pretty easily, event though I was far from being ambidextrous. It would be a bit of a learning curve, but it was probably worth the effort. It should not be too hard to figure out, even without a teacher.

Because of [The Gamer] skill, I learned these skills a lot faster and easier than the other three. I supposed the effect that negated requirements played a role in that. For that reason, I started being seen as some kind of genius by the three others, and they always referred to me or asked me my opinion when it came to the… the…

"The System," Steele said. "The Gaming System."

"Sure." I shrugged, "Let's go with that."

They asked me my opinions about things related to the 'System'. Because of my [Identify] skill that was quickly increasing, I did have an advantage when it came to extra knowledge, and so I was able to answer some of them.

We also did some physical training to grind stats. While it wasn't possible to unlock new stats, it was possible to grind stats that were already unlocked.

Strength, Vitality, and Agility were the most straightforward stats to train.

On this occasion, we all unlocked a skill called [Physical Conditioning], which increased XP gained in physical stats by 5% per level.

When I trained physically like this, I changed my title to something else. Simply because it decreased all my stats by ten, and a lower stat was easier to train, naturally.

I thought about training Physical Resistance... But, well, I wasn't a masochist. Just a though of getting hit around like a bitch made my blood boil. I would probably snap at the one who hit me.

As for Poison Resistance, I did drink a few flasks of poison. After reaching 34, it stopped increasing.

Dexterity was harder to train as a physical stat. But with some effort, I was able to increase it. To my disappointment, the bonus from my title didn't count towards the stat requirement of skill shards. But with [The Gamer] skill leveling up as well, I was able to decrease the stat requirement further, and became able to consume the [Short Blade Throw] skill shard.

After consuming the shard and using the skill a little bit, I also got the passive [Throwing] skill almost instantly. It seemed like training [Short Blade Throw] gave a little XP to [Throwing] and [Short Blade Mastery] as well.

Another skill that I managed to learn was [Archery Mastery], all thanks to Ebony.

"There you go," Ebony breathed in my ear as she adjusted my grip on the bow. She was guiding my arms from behind me, and I didn't know if she did it on purpose, but I could feel her chest pressing on my back. Thankfully, I had gotten a new shirt from a zombie, so I wasn't topless anymore, and with my Willpower, I did not lose focus, no matter how hyper aware I was of her.

So eventually, I was able to learn it. I was very proud of that one, even though I hadn't managed to learn [Prepared Shot] yet, and I still hadn't unlocked the Accuracy stat.

[Skill: Archery Mastery (Passive)]
Rank: Common
Level: Beginner Level 1
Effects: Better and more efficient use of bows. +5% Dexterity and Accuracy(locked) when using bows. +5% arrow velocity. +10% Familiarity with bows.

"Thanks," I nodded at her, "I think I'll be able to train it on my own now."

"You already got the skill?" She raised her eyebrows at me, "Wow... Okay then. I though it would take a lot longer."

"It's only at the Beginner Level." I said, "Nothing compared to you."

"Yeah, mine is Advanced level 8." Ebony said, and I let out an appreciative whistle, raising my eyebrows at her. "Thanks! You know, I wanted to become a cop. So I also learned to aim a gun." She continued. "Too bad we don't have one around."

"…Right." I nodded nervously.

I had kept Caitlyn's gun a secret, hidden carefully behind a box in one of the shelves. I would not reveal it unless absolutely necessary.

"Still, bows are good enough..." She said, "And teaching you actually got me a [Teaching] skill, that lets me boosts someone else's XP until they reach my level tier."

"Level tier...?" I frowned, "So, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced?"

"Probably," She nodded along. "So... I could continue to teach you until you reach Advanced level. You'll improve faster that way," She suggested, before smirking, "Of course, it would have to be one on one… Just the two of us." She wriggled her eyebrows at me.

"Huh? Why?" I asked bluntly, "Are you that thirsty?"

"Well! Yes, but that's not why!" She giggled, apparently delighted that I had fallen into her trap, "It's just a restriction of the [Teaching] skill. Only one student for now!"

Of course it was a restriction of the [Teaching] skill, Shean, you fucking dumbass. I resisted the urge to face-palm, and simply hummed instead, shooting another arrow and missing my target once again.

Her offer was tempting. And not just because of the experience boost.

"All right. Ain't gonna pass up on that." I simply grunted at her.

"I thought not…" she smiled, squeezing my shoulder. "Let's do this again sometime then. I'm too… tired… to keep going right now." She sighed, raising a hand to her stomach. "Fuck, I am so hungry…"

"…Sorry. We're not ready to face the trolls or the horde yet," I said.

"Yeah... I understand." She forced a smile on her face, "Even though I'm used to hunting animals with my big sis, I'm not ready to hunt something that huge."

"Your big sis, huh. Just how many sisters do you have?"

"Six! And one bro."

"Seven siblings...! Wow. And I thought one was already hell..." I sighed. It exhausted me just thinking about it. "You gotta show me pictures. And introduce me to the hot ones. Except the bro, of course."

She snorted and slapped her ass with a saucy smile. "You're already introduced to the hottest one. What more do you want?"

"The hottest one...?" I raised a skeptical eyebrow at her, "I'll be the judge of that."

"Hmph! All right, if you really want to see, I've got some pictures on my scroll."

I paused my bow shooting, and looked at her taking her scroll out of her pocket and turning it on.

Huh, she was actually going to do it? All right, then.

We sat on a nearby table, and she leaned towards me, showing me her screen.

On it, was displayed the picture of eight young children on a red sofa.

"So, from youngest to oldest. This is Pia and Lia, the twins," Ebony pointed at two girls with ponytails who were making grimaces at the camera. "Little pests. Love doing pranks. They're friends with Sylvia. The boy in the middle is Jaune..."

"Uh. Why is he holding a sign that says 'HELP' ?" I asked.

"Ahah..." Ebony laughed awkwardly, "He was the only boy, so he got a lot of attention from all of us girls."

"...He's got ponytails." I observed.

"Maybe a little too much attention!" She admitted with a giggle, and pointed to another blonde girl whose head was upside down the couch. "This one is me. The funniest around, even back then."

"What, because you're upside down?" I grinned mockingly, "Hilarious. You're so funny."

"...And this is Azure," She ignored me and pointed to a girl whose eyes were hidden behind giant glasses. "She's a bit of a know-it-all. Kinda like Sylvia, but much, much nerdier."

"Sylvia isn't so bad," I said without thinking.

"Look at you defending your girl." She grinned, nudging my shoulder, "A couple days ago, you couldn't stand her!"

"...With reason," I grunted back, glaring at her.

She rolled her eyes at me. "You're a stubborn one, aren't you? Next one... This is Clem." She pointed at a girl with short hair and freckles, "Big sis Clementine. A bit of a tomboy... She's the one that took me hunting. She taught me a lot of things."

"She's missing a tooth."

"Very good observation, Shean. " She glared at me coldly, "Well spotted. You got other ones like that?"

"Uh..." I blinked, "Sorry."

"...Then we have Saphroon." She continued, and smirked at me, "She got married last month, so you won't have much of a chance with her."

"Why are all the good ones taken?" I complained, making her giggle.

"You're the worst. Such a hick." She chuckled, "And lastly..." She pointed at the only adult in the picture, a gorgeous woman with a red shirt and a loving smile that was patting Jaune on the head, "This is Scarlet. She's basically our secondary mom."

"Goddamn." I raised my eyebrows, impressed, "I guess she's taken, too?"

"She's actually single at the moment."

"That's weird..." I frowned, "She's looks so hot."

"Don't even think about it. She's too old for you." She glared, smacking my shoulder. "She's almost twice your age. She doesn't need another heartbreak."

"But you're already taken. And this one is already taken."

"Pia and Lia are single," Ebony pointed out, grinning widely.

"...Why does it feel like you're throwing me to a pair of wolves?" I asked, and Ebony shrugged back at me innocently, "Besides, I'm not into children."

"Dude! They're the same age as you!" She laughed.

"Not mentally, they're not. And they didn't make my heart skip a beat just by looking at them." I shook my head, looking at the oldest sibling again, "Nah. Scarlet has got it going on."

"She's literally my Mom 2.0, dude." She narrowed her eyes at me, "That's weird."

"That just it! She's great. I love it." I said, and grinned at her when she glared at me, "Relax, ok? I'm kidding. I know she's too old for me; but still, I wish her all the best. I was basically Dad 2.0 for my brother for a long time, you know. So, her taking care of seven kids? She's got my respect."

And my heart... But Ebony would get angry, so I left it at that.

"That's all good then. Your brother..." Ebony mused, "You got a picture of him? Is he a cutie?"

"Uh, no, my scroll is still on the second floor chilling with the trolls. Sorry."

"What's his name?"

"Carl. He's nine. He is, in fact, a cutie. He's not a big guy like me. He almost doesn't remember our actual dad... And my step-dad isn't... the best. So I kinda became the guy he looked at all the time." I sighed at the depressing thought. "It's... tough. I'm not the best role model."

"Oh, Shean. I'm sure you are good enough." Ebony said, wrapping her arm around my shoulder.

...When did this turn into me talking about that? I don't like this. I should change the subject.

"What happened to your dad?" Ebony asked with a gentle voice, "If... you don't mind me asking..."

"..." I hesitated for a moment, quite reluctant. "He... died." I said eventually.

"...How?"

"In a car crash." I answered stiffly. "It happened on my tenth birthday."

"Oh... That must suck. I'm so sorry."

"..."

We fell into a silence. Did she expect me to open up about that?

I was not going to talk. For what? To seek her pity or her sympathy? Fuck that shit.

Grrrrrowwll...

"Ah. Not me this time!" Ebony grinned at me.

"Stupid stomach." I sighed.

Nice one, stomach, I thought.

"Hey, you know, you probably have it worse than us." Ebony chuckled, "I mean, I'm sure you need a lot to feed this giant body of yours."

"I'm not gonna eat more than my share." I stated, glaring at her.

"I know. It's just…" She shook her head, "I don't know how you do it. I already have so little energy… every single day…"

"…"

The hunger. It was weakening us. It was going to kill us.

But so would leaving the building, and the teacher's break room may have food, but it also had trolls sleeping in it.

We needed to grow stronger before leaving.

And so, to get stronger, I continued learning Archery with Ebony.

Just the two of us, like she said.

The mood got quite... intimate sometimes, so, I genuinely wondered if something sexual would happen.

However, it seemed like even with all the flirting, she was not going to make a move. She had a boyfriend after all.

Good for her. Respect. However, it was a little confusing for me, not gonna lie. Mixed signals. I didn't understand.

Hmm… Could it be that I was the only one thinking about this? Was this much flirting actually common for adults, even when they were already in a couple?

Stupid teenage hormones.

Another thing we did during our routine, was expanding our base's layout.

As part of our physical conditioning, we started barricading various entrances. We secured the entire fifth floor and the rooftop as part of our base. We left half of the fourth floor to the goblins, and regularly came down to the third floor to fight them, as they seemed to patrol that floor quite frequently.

We could have probably wiped out the goblins if we wanted, honestly. But we couldn't.

Our only source of food, the goblin rations, came from the goblins. It was simply impossible to completely kill them without finding another renewable source of food first. Besides, I wasn't even sure how to disable a spawn point in the first place.

However, something that helped us greatly was a title that we all unlocked.

Title: - Goblin Slayer -
Description: Obtained after killing 30 goblins. You are used to hunt goblins.
Effect: +20% damage to goblins, -20% damage from goblins, +20% loot from goblins.

"We are goblinkind, heirs to the mountain empires of chieftains past.
Rest is death to us, and arson is our call to war."

Ominous…

"That is so metal," Steele grinned for some reason. "Roll the dice!"

"What?" The two girls and I blinked at him, confused.

"Uh… nothing." He laughed sheepishly.

"Could they be from other worlds?" Sylvia wondered, eyes wide with curiosity, "From somewhere else? Another planet or dimension?"

"Maybe." I shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"But it's interesting!" Sylvia insisted.

"What's interesting is finding new, funny ways to kill goblins." I replied. "Next time, I suggest luring a troll into their barricade. The chaos would be fun to watch."

She had nothing to say to that.

No sense of humor whatsoever, that girl.

Anyway. I had thought I would never find a title better than [The First Player]. But [Goblin Slayer] was worth using simply because of the added chance of looting goblin rations. The bonus to damage and damage reduction against goblins was welcome as well, considering they were the only ones we were fighting.

Since we had secured the entirety of the fifth floor, we could have gone for a bit of privacy and set up private rooms, or at least, a room for the guys and a room for the girls. However, that never happened. No one had suggested it. Though nobody wanted to say it – least of all me – we had grown closer and relied on each other to quench our loneliness.

Sleeping together on our hammock was much better, especially since we all had nightmares sometimes; not just me. It was also much safer if we got attacked during the night.

Sometimes we did nothing with the rest of our day. We just relaxed. We couldn't work too much because of the lack of food, and there were only so many goblins spawning per day, so we did our best to have fun and find an escape from this reality. The hunger made us lazy.

Often, an explosion would happen outside in the courtyard. Yet the horde remained as numerous.

This, we came to realize, was simply because the monsters kept spawning and getting bitten by other zombies.

There was a good chance that a bunch of monster spawn points were getting spawn-killed, or rather, spawn-bitten, which increased the number of zombies in the horde.

As such, the proportion of human and Faunus zombies became less and less, while the proportion of monsters increased more and more.

Very soon, we would no longer be dealing with human and Faunus zombies sneaking into our building. We would have to adapt and face new, unknown zombie monsters.

And as our diet was so hard on us, we had much less energy to spare every day.

I also noticed, that I had a big problem that the others didn't have.

"Shean? Are you okay?" Steele asked.

"I'm fine…" I panted, exhausted. I could barely breathe.

"Your asthma…" Sylvia observed, "You should take your medicine."

"No…" I grunted, turning away.

Unlike food, my medicine was not renewable… I could not waste it. I had to save it, at least enough to not be bothered by it when we would fight the boss.

I coughed, wheezing.

The dust. The corpses. The lack of a clean environment. The goblin rations that weren't made for human stomachs. Even with all the windows of the floor opened to let the air flow in and out, it accumulated to trigger my condition.

"Come here." Ebony said, grabbing me and forcing me to lay down.

You are being Nursed by Ebony Arc.
Effects: +8 Vitality, +160% Heal Rate, as long as the [Nursing] skill is active.
[The Gamer]: +8 Vitality, +8 Willpower, +8 all Resistances(2), as long as the [Nursing] skill is active.

I didn't protest. I was so weak I was almost falling passing out.

However, we had already killed goblins today. It was useless to waste medicine when time was all I needed to get better.

I gritted my teeth. This was my one weakness that I was ashamed of. And I couldn't even do anything about it. I would carry it for the rest of my life.

I looked at the others, powerless. Ebony looked worn out too. Sylvia was clearly very stressed. Steele was tired, and the usual light in his eyes had disappeared.

I was failing, I suddenly realized. Failing at being a leader. Failing at making things better. At surviving.

We couldn't continue like this. Tomorrow, we needed to act. Do something. Try to sneak past the trolls. Maybe I should go alone?

But I couldn't do anything now. I had to rest…

I needed a plan… For tomorrow…

A plan…

I'm tired…

"…"

Later.

"AaaaaAAaaah~~"

I woke up at the insanely loud noise that resonated through the entire school.

I coughed a little to clear my throat. "What's going on?" I asked Ebony, who had stayed by my side in my sleep.

"I… I don't know…" She looked around the room, uncertain.

"AaaAAah~~"

"What the hell?" I groaned, standing up.

"Aaaah… One two, one two."

I widened my eyes. Through the school's Public Address system, a guy was talking.

"Crrrk!" I winced again at the sound of someone tapping on the microphone. "Uh. Is this thing on?"

"It is!" Another voice, female, hissed.

"It is? Oh crap."

The guy coughed, embarrassed.

"O-oh my god…" Besides me, Ebony put her hands on her mouth, her eyes wet. Did she know the guy?

"So, um… Can anyone hear me properly? Mic test! Mic test! One-two one-two!"

As he was speaking, Steele and Sylvia rushed back to our base, eyes wide.

"Guys!"

"Shhhht!" Ebony hissed at them, and they sat down to listen.

"Huh… Sounds like you guys can hear me. Weird, cause I can't hear myself… Huh? The room is soundproof? Ooooh. That's a relief! Ahem."

"..."

"So, uh… Well, first of all, sorry for doing a broadcast all of a sudden. I probably scared you, huh. Or maybe I woke you up. Considering the circumstances, most of you must be on edge about what I'm about to say… But don't worry. This isn't a trick from the dungeon, or a serial-killer broadcasting, or god sending a message to announce another apocalypse. You all should know that first!"

"…The hell?" I muttered to myself, sitting down.

"Are we saved?" Steele asked.

"Probably not," Sylvia said.

"Next… I'm gonna ask you to not get your hopes up… Because the threat of the dungeon monsters is still there. We were able to seize control of this floor to access the broadcasting station of the school, but we're kind of held up in there at the moment. Monsters are surrounding us, up, down, left, right. We can't come to save you."

"Oh god…" Ebony cried silently next to me.

"…I'm sorry." The guy stated with a sympathetic voice.

"…"

"Where are you listening to my voice right now? Are you in the cafeteria? Are you in one of the main buildings? Are you in the gymnasium? Or the library? Maybe the dorms?"

"…"

"Maybe you've managed to barricade yourself and be safe. Ah, but I'm sure there are those who didn't manage to secure a room and are still out there sneaking around, too."

"…"

"Everyone must be anxious. I can understand what it's like to be afraid and wanting to curl up into a ball. I guess you're all thinking, 'who the hell is this random guy toying with a mic and playing with everyone's hopes?' "

"Pretty much," I groaned to myself.

"I'm… I'm nobody. Like everyone else, I'm being tossed around by the apocalypse, getting crushed under impossible odds, and I'm so scared my legs can't stop shaking."
"Yeah… I'm that kind of guy."
"Even the job of doing this broadcast… I accepted it reluctantly. I didn't want to do it. And honestly, I still think it's too much for me. There are others, much more qualified than me, to handle this."

His voice was trembling. He was clearly terrified.

The four of us exchanged a look of uncertainty.

Dude, if you were going to disappoint everyone, maybe you should stop talking…

"Yet, here I am, talking everyone. There are people in my group are much better than me, yet they still told me that I should be the one to do it. That I won't botch the job. But, can't you hear my voice? I'm not good with words, and I don't have a charisma stat. I'm nervous, weak and helpless."

"…"

"I don't know what I can do… I want to plug my ears, hide in a corner and wait for someone else to fix everything…"

"…"

I shook my head in disappointment, grimacing in disgust as I looked down at the floor. This guy was a wimp. How could you say something like that to the whole school? In this context? He was kicking them while they were already down… This guy was -

"… But since I can't run away… I'll fight! That's just the kind of guy I am."

I blinked, and raised my head again.

"Let me ask you something. Look around you, and find someone else. If you're alone… Well, you're in a bad situation. You need to find people. Someone else, anyone. When you're alone, you'll start coming up with stupid ideas."

"…"

"But if you're not alone, I want you to find someone else. And look at their face."

I looked around, and my eyes met Ebony's.

"Whose face do you see? Is it someone important to you? Or a stranger that you've spent the past few days with? Or maybe it's a friend."
"But, most likely, it's a wretched face."

One of my eyes twitched. I frowned as I took a really good look at Ebony's face. She had bag under her eyes, on the verge of tears. Her usually lustrous hair was a mess. And she had that wild expression. Like a cornered animal.

I wonder, what did I look like?

"A tired face. A haunted face. A face that's about to cry."

She was indeed about to start crying. I gave Ebony the best smile I could manage, trying to comfort her.

It probably came out awkward, but at a time like this, awkward was good enough.

"No… Perhaps... Perhaps, they are putting up a strong face, forcing themselves to smile to not worry the people around them."

"…"

All of a sudden, I felt my lips trembling. My smile dropped off my face. I took a deep breath.

"If they are… This is someone amazing. If it's someone you're close to, you should be proud of them."
"Regardless… Is this acceptable? This expression on their face?"
"Of course not! The world might have been changed by higher forces, but… I can't accept a world like this!"
"I've got family I cherish. And I cannot forgive whoever put that pained, sorrowful expression on their faces. I don't want you to force yourself to smile… Are you kidding me? Screw this! The smiles of my sisters should look much more happier than this…"

"J-jaune…" Ebony gasped silently, and I finally realized who we were listening to.

This was the ponytails brother that was holding the 'help' sign on the picture of the Arc siblings. Ebony's only brother, Jaune Arc.

"It'd be pathetic to give up here! I can't allow it! This new world we have been thrown into, we are going to change it! Change it for the better. Even if you are too weak to fight, you should know that the current state of things isn't right. You know what's right from wrong, don't you? You know that the expression on the face you're looking at… it is wrong! So we're going to make things right again!"

"…"

"I want to run away, but I can't. I want to cry, but I can't. This dungeon is tough, but I won't lose… I'll fight! I know I'm weak and stupid, but I'll still fight!"

"…"

"…So, fight! I will fight."
"…And I want you all to fight!"

"…"

"My name is Jaune Arc! I applied to Beacon next year, and I fully intend on becoming a Huntsman!"

Somehow, a rush of adrenaline surged in my body, and I almost wanted to stand up and cheer.

Steele and Sylvia did, raising their fists to the ceiling. "Let's gooo!"

"My group and I will do everything to beat the boss of this dungeon! So, please believe in us and fight on. Once we're done with it... We will rebuild."
"And Ebony, if you're out there…"

Ebony's head perked up.

"I want you to know that I'm OK. And that Pia and Lia are OK."

"We're OK, sis!" A female voice spoke up, emotional.

"Yes, we are OK."Another, pretty much the same voice, added. "We are thinking about you, sis."

"I hope you're not using this as an excuse to sleep around again!" The first voice added.

An emotional mix of giggling and crying came out of the speakers.

Ebony burst into tears.

"...And... I know you are OK too." Jaune Arc continued, "So I'll just say this… to you, Ebony, but also to everyone else. To every student and teacher still alive in this school."
"Survive. Fight on… And…"
"Leave the rest to me."

"Crrrk!"

The microphone went silent.

Ebony sobbed. When I raised my hand to pat her shoulder, she jumped on me and hugged me to death, bursting into tears again.

"They're alive!" She cried, "They're all alive...!"

I, too, couldn't help but smile, as I patted her on her back, and saw Steele and Sylvia hug each other.

Someone else was fighting to kill the dungeon's boss. Someone that wasn't throwing Faunus to the horde.

Someone who had a vision. Decent people that would help us. We were not alone. I was grateful. I felt revitalized.

My heart was filled with hope once again.

It had been twelve days since the start of the apocalypse.

Twelve days, stuck in this building, scared of the outside.

Tomorrow... We were going out.

However risky it might be.

Only 2 chapters this week. Next chapter: this Sunday.