Expect me back so soon?

[A Day Later]

Jaune and Ruby crowded around the smelter, pouring the last of their ingots. The Paladin carefully handling the cauldron, tipping just enough to slowly fill the mould below. Ruby was shovelling coal at a rate sufficient to keep the flames constant and not too hot. This process taking up the better half of the day after classes had ended.

Another three ingots later, and the two were able to look upon their work sweaty and hot from standing next to a furnace. In total, the team gathered what they guessed were about four hundred pounds of silver ore. Unfortunately, the retrieval was about nine per cent of the total weight. The rest was either copper, lead, or other nonmetallic minerals.

So, they only got about seven five-pound ingots of nearly pure silver, which was actually a lot. Jaune only used a half a pound making Ira Rubrum, so there was plenty to work with if they wanted to start on a project. The copper and lead were in equal amounts of about forty pounds each. However, the lead was the only thing they could use. Copper was only a currency or sometimes used in manufacturing, which neither teens took part in.

"Could we try to make copper coins," Ruby suggested, not knowing what else to do about it.

"Ms Rose, banish the thought," someone shouted from outside. Not a moment later, Professor Ozpin opened the door to the smithing hut. The man was followed by Professor Goodwitch holding a board to write on. "The kingdom takes exception to counterfeiters... Usually, by hanging them if caught. So, I would recommend a different path." He paused for a moment. "Perhaps... I would go with trading it for the value of the metal. Lien is merely the currency form, many merchants will accept the metal if need be."

"Didn't know that..."

"Yes, not everyone is aware counterfeiting, you would be surprised," Ozpin agreed, walking up to the table. "But Ms Schnee informed me of what you recovered, is this all of the refined ore?"

"Yeah, the quality isn't too bad, but most of it was underwater," Jaune explained, handing over a single ingot.

That was the worst part of the project. It got to the point Jaune was having to submerge himself and reach around for whatever chunk of rock he'd broken off. They called it quits when most of the ore was gone, and the horses were too loaded up to even carry the team. This led them to have to walk all the way back to Vale.

"I see, I will make a note of that then," Goodwitch said, jotting it down quickly.

"I'm sure the treasury will be delighted to hear about this discovery regardless," Ozpin expressed, setting the lead bar he'd been inspecting down. "I will have them organise some professional miners and master engineer to inspect the cave personally. They need to see if the mine is still structurally sound before we even consider a large project."

Well, luckily, we took care of that vampire... Would have sucked if they ran into her.

"So, is that all, Professor," Ruby asked, trying to see whatever other business they had in store for the group.

"Yes, Ms Rose, however, I will inform you if a task such as this comes to my attention," Ozpin replied, nodding to both teens. "Next time, I will make it a proper quest, even if you are also searching for materials." With that, he and Goodwitch both left the hut, shutting the door behind them.

Both of the teens breathed a sigh of relief as they vanished. The pressure of being in their presence made their nerves stand on end. Especially with them suddenly showing up out of the blue, not warning them before their arrival.

"Okay, any ideas for what to do next," Jaune asked, going to pick up some of the loose debris scattered all over the floor.

He had some ideas but wanted Ruby to lead in case she had something cooked up. Although, that left her getting shot in the chest by Jaune, so that might have been a bad idea. Regardless, Jaune stood by his decision and waited for an answer.

"Do you want to try making another sword," she suggested with a raised eyebrow. "We need to make the steel core, so we can use Tubal Cain's Hammer for that."

"Yeah, I can try out my infusion spell when we get done too," Jaune added on, going to grab some of the steel bars he'd collected. "I want to try smelting down Ira Rubrum while we work out the steel though, there might be some silver I can get off of it if we keep the temperature low enough."

"Okay, I'll work on heating up the steel, you do that," Ruby dictated putting some gloves and a pair of goggles on. She grabbed the high-quality steel ingot that Jaune managed to salvage and began working the forge up to an appropriate temperature.

Jaune himself started breaking down his old sword. Just like the last time he reforged Crocea Mors, the boy used a chisel and hammer to snap the blade into pieces small enough to fit in the cauldron. The smelter was still holding the temperature they used to melt the silver, so Jaune threw them right in and worked the flames up using the bellows.

Okay, that's gonna be a few hours, so I need to figure out the infusion spell then...

[The next morning]

The remnants of Ira Rubrum were tossed to the side, finally having been stripped of all the usable materials. What remained was a few chunks of silver that Jaune could make use of in the market like Ozpin said. It would buy him maybe a bushel of arrows or tools he could use.

I wonder if I could get away with melting down silver coins... We had to do that when Weiss and I brought that gold back from our Task. Pretty much all of that was gold plated copper.

Jaune turned back to Ruby. She was still working the sword into shape, having mostly gotten the form right. Jaune had to step in to make sure the work was done properly, but everything seemed all right. He could actually feel the steel holding together better with the new hammer. Jaune felt like he could take the blade as it stood now, chop some stone and wouldn't break it.

When she's done with that, I'll have to finish up the blade.

Ruby didn't quite know the whole refinement process, but she had the metalworking down. It helped now they were at the same level, so any weapons made were going to be quality. If the stats weren't to Jaune's liking, he could always work the blade a little more and get it to where he wanted. Ruby didn't have the proficiency in smithing that he did, so it may be needed.

However, now Jaune was playing around with his spell. The boy felt like he had it working after a few hours of reading through it. Meaning he could actually cast the spell and there would be magic moving around to rearrange itself to Jaune's will.

Time to try it out...

He looked around for something to use, but there was nothing he really wanted to experiment with. Anything too valuable would be a waste on the first try, and most of the stuff he had was going to be used for other projects. As Jaune picked through the small pile of weapons and armour he had on hand, there was an iron dagger stuck into a sheath. It was going to be the worst thing readily available, so it would work just fine.

Mmmmm, okay, what should I use?

Jaune reached into his bag and pulled out some materials he'd been collecting. Inside, was a few drowner teeth, claws and scales from his hunts. Jaune did grab some items off the draugr like gems and metals. Something he'd gathered recently was fangs from a catar, a beastly vampire.

Try the drowner claws, they're easier to find...

Jaune held the dagger and claw up beside one another, and cast the spell. A blue light enveloped both, charging each item with energy and degrading their structure. After a few seconds, the claw turned to ash in his hand, leaving the dagger in his left.

That's all...

Jaune swung the dagger around to get a feel for any differences. Looking at the stats, there wasn't any meaningful change either. Maybe he was looking at the wrong qualities, and the dagger wouldn't function with the new material without that?

However, as Jaune contemplated what he needed to do next, the dagger began to shake violently in his hand. It was almost enough to rip the blade from his hand had he not grabbed onto it with both. Without a thought, Jaune ran over to a nearby water barrel and threw the lid open before tossing the dagger inside. He was barely able to press the lid back down and dive away before a loud explosion came from within.

The force of this explosive was enough to throw the lid back off, and a column of water with it. This geyser collided with the ceiling and the backsplash went everywhere inside the shop. Jaune was the first to get it, becoming completely soaked from head to toe. Ruby, who was almost unaware of what was happening until the explosion, got knocked flat by the wall of water.

"So, that's what the spell meant..."

Jaune stood up and surveyed the damage. Most of it was due to water, so nothing was lost. The forge had been put out, but that wasn't an issue. The barrel had contained the initial explosion with help from the water. Looking inside, metal fragments were lining every inch of the interior. Anything larger and the barrel would have broken open at the sides.

Suddenly, the door flew open, and Weiss charged inside. Dreizehn followed close behind, sniffing around the room. Weiss did not look too pleased, finding the two members of her team in this state.

"What was that," Weiss shouted, stomping over to Jaune. Her face red out what Jaune guessed was anger. "What were the two of you doing?!"

"I was working on the sword," Ruby answered, raising on hand into the air to draw attention to herself. "Then Jaune blew something up, and I nearly drowned!"

Weiss turned to him, looking for an answer into her inquisition. She crossed her arms and gave him her usually angry death glare, demanding he just spill the beans right to her.

"It was the infusion spell," Jaune confessed, going to rub the back of his head. "Didn't go according to plan..."

Weiss let out a huff of air, shaking her head simultaneously. "You could have at least come to me for help instead of messing around with stuff you have no idea how to work with," she scolded angrily. "You're lucky the barrel seemed to have taken the entire explosion, or the two of you would be in trouble!"

Kinda figured that out on my own...

Weiss stomped over to the spellbook and opened it up, reading the contents. It took only a few minutes for her to read through the important bits. Ruby and Jaune were already back to forging the sword by the time she finished.

"So, you saw the dagger and your material glow before the latter decomposed," Weiss asked, looking back up from the book.

"Yeah, it's what the spellbook said would happen," Jaune answered, pounding a piece of the sword back into shape. Once the section was corrected, Jaune handed it back to Ruby.

He made sure to read all the parts before and after the directions. Everything in that spellbook pointed to there being no issues as long as you followed the steps to the letter. Of course, the warning in the spell was quite obvious about the quality of materials you used.

"Then the weapon seems to be too weak," she noted, jotting down a note or two. "I would try moving up to a sword next and see what happens then..."

Round two then...

"All right, just hang out on the other side of the forge in case this doesn't work," Jaune warned, setting the barrel up in case he needed to throw a sword in there. Weiss complied, hiding behind Ruby who already grabbed a shield and was crouched behind it.

Jaune dug through some more weapons and found a cheaper steel sword. It was something a lower class mercenary would have used as sidearm if their spear got broken. Luckily, the steel was total garbage that Jaune was not going to bother melting down. The carbon content was too low, and there were way too many contaminants in the metal. Jaune could have broken this with one of his hands had he punched it hard enough.

Grabbing one more drowner claw, Jaune cast the spell again and the two objects fused precisely as he'd done prior. Without hesitation, Jaune threw it into the barrel and shut the lid before diving behind the forge to protect himself if the sword exploded. Waiting a few minutes, everyone decided to crawl out from where they were hiding to check if everything worked out properly.

Let's see what I cooked up...

Popping off the lid, Jaune reached inside and pulled out the sword. Nothing had changed structurally, but there felt like some added magic in the blade. It was a minimal amount of energy, nowhere near his sword or necklace, but it was there.

Mariner's Steel Sword:

Greater proficiency when used in aquatic environments.

That's cool...

"So, it worked," Ruby asked investigating the sword on her own. Jaune nodded to her as she traced her fingers along the steel. "I still can't see the perk." She tossed the blade back onto the pile.

What can we use next?

"I think we can try some armour next time, or try to make some bullets and enchant them too," Jaune suggested, going back to digging through the armour pile for something.

If he could get his hands on some more exotic materials, maybe he could confer a fire resistance to his armour or something like that? A good generalised protection buff would make sure he could survive everything life threw at him, especially if the group wanted to go hunt bigger prey. Wyverns were still a plentiful beast all over Remnant along with gryphons, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

"We should wait before building something too expensive," Weiss recommended, picking up some scraps of steel. "Experimenting on arrows or small knives would be a better first step." She picked up a steel bar. "However, now that you mention bullets, I think we could make them out of lead if we can cast them properly. They'd be easy to melt down over a fire, so we can make ammunition out in the field."

"How would we do that," Ruby asked curiously, raising an eyebrow. "Like a mould or something?"

"Precisely," Weiss agreed, snapping her fingers and pointing at Ruby. "We could make one or possibly ask an artisan to do that for us."

"It would be easy for me to do," Jaune added on. "It's the same principle as casting ingots. I'll just need some time to get the shapes right. A steel mould would be the best choice right now."

We would have to use something like animal fat to grease up the mould, so the lead doesn't stick. I could reshape some tools or just carve one out of a steel block...

"Good," Weiss nearly chirped excitedly. "Then if you both want to work on getting those prepared, I will gather some of my own materials for us to use."

...

"Come on, Blake, I want to show you something," Ruby said, dragging the Assassin back to the shop. The Reaper had one of her hands and was nearly pulling the girl off her feet.

Ren, Nora, and Yang were just behind her. They followed along just to see what was going on. Ruby didn't mind since they would be pretty intrigued by what they had been working on since this morning. If they wanted some stuff made, then it would be good money too.

Coming back to the smithing shop, the sounds of a hammer shaping steel could be heard from the inside. Ruby opened the door to find Jaune working on shaping the last few bits of his new sword up. The blade was already at a point where he could sharpen it and use it as an ordinary sword, but he wanted to make sure everything was perfect before he decided to plate it.

Ruby was really happy with how their work was turning out. Of course, she wasn't on the level of Jaune or Alexandre yet, but she was getting closer to making her own gear. The next step in their grand scheme was to make some armour for her to wear. With the enchantments and other modifications they were coming up with, this gear would be better than whatever was on the market right now.

"You guys brought everyone?" Jaune set his sword down on the anvil and welcomed the others in.

"Yeah, we wanted to see what Ruby was working on," Ren said, poking around at some of the armour Jaune was working on melting down.

"Woah, what is this stuff," Nora asked curiously as she poked around at some of the monster bits and alchemical materials.

The workshop turned into a small herbarium like the magic shop was. Books were scattered all over the place alongside pieces of monsters they'd previously killed. A bunch of the stuff was collected by Jaune and either preserved or tucked away for later use. Most of it looked pretty gross if you didn't have a tolerance for monster guts.

"So, what did you want to show me," Blake asked, taking her hand back from Ruby.

"Okay, give me one of your arrows," Ruby asked. Blake complied, handing it over to the girl.

Ruby ran off to the other side of the room and retrieved something from Weiss. A small vial of liquid was the item in question. The white ooze sloshed around in the vessel like syrup.

"Ectoplasm, Jaune, use this."

The boy uncorked the vial and spread some of the ectoplasm over the head of the arrow. He cast his infusion spell and the material fused with the metal. As an extra precaution, he dipped the arrow in the water bucket and waited a few moments for an explosion.

"Yes, it worked," Ruby cheered, grabbing the arrow and handing it back over to Blake. She zipped over to the opposite side of the room and grabbed a breastplate, strapping it to a log they found.

"Okay, Blake, shoot this breastplate," she commanded, pointing to the armour.

The Faunus grabbed her bow and nocked the arrow. Drawing it back to its fullest, she loosed the missile. In a fraction of a second, the head pierced the armour and lodged itself deep in the wood.

Yes!

Ruby picked up the log and examined the damage to the armour. The arrow had cleanly cut through the steel like paper. There was no resistance at all when an ordinary arrow would have just bounced right off.

What if we tried this against some stronger metal? This stuff is pretty weak right now, but better armour can block spells or enchantments if they're not powerful enough. The only way to get over that is to make some better arrows.

"It went through," Blake said in astonishment. The girl went over to the broken breastplate and examined it herself. She pulled the arrow out and studied it herself before tucking it back into her quiver. Turning to them, she asked, "How many of these can you make?"

Uhhhh...

Ruby scrambled among their materials and found what was left of their ectoplasm. Weiss collected maybe four and a half jars in total. Each was about a pint in total, and they used barely any on the arrow they just made.

"We can make a lot," Ruby answered unspecifically. "But we're going to need some for experiments, so what about five right now?"

She's gonna want to keep some of her arrows normal. Those upgraded ones are just for special occasions. You want to use the regular stuff on regular baddies.

"How much?"

Ruby looked to Jaune and Weiss for help. They didn't pay for these materials, so she didn't have a reasonable price in her head. Maybe looking at the prices back in the magic shop would be a good idea in the future—also, a great excuse to hang out with Jaune and Weiss outside of work or school.

"Well, we killed some wraiths for the ectoplasm, so I would say fifteen Lien per arrow," Jaune proposed carefully. "On condition that you tell other archers or Thief classes about them."

"Deal," Blake replied immediately, going for some arrows. "I'll come back for them tomorrow, and I'll pay."

Yay, people are buying our stuff!

Ruby felt a twinge of happiness well up in her chest. If they kept this up, they might not have to worry about money as often. That meant the group could just go on quests for farming up experience or just to meet their quotas. But that meant having to sell a lot of gear. A house wasn't going to be in their sights if they were selling enchanted arrows for only fifteen Lien. They needed to make some high-quality items that would sell for a thousand Lien or more to make it really worth it.

"What about you guys," Ruby asked, gesturing over to Ren and Nora. "Do you want to try upgrading something?"

"Uhhh, yeah, it looks really cool, but..." Nora rubbed the back of her head. "Are you able to take the enchantment off?"

Good question...

"We haven't tried that out yet," Jaune replied, shrugging his shoulders. "If you guys have a ranged weapon you aren't afraid of losing, we could do that. But I would say keep your regular gear normal."

"That's what I was thinking," Ren agreed, looking through some of the monster parts. "We could try to make some poisons, so we aren't stuck with enchantments."

"Just throw your health drinks at them, Renny," Nora jested.

Oooofff!

"Are they really that bad?"

Ruby had heard tale of Ren's concoctions. Pyrrha was barely able to choke one down but supposedly felt better immediately after. Yang and Sun were less than able as their accomplished Spartan.

"Yuck," Nora uttered for emphasis, sticking her tongue out in disgust. "Worse than health potions!"

"We understand, Nora," Weiss agreed from the other side of the room, not taking her eyes off the spellbook in front of her. "Jaune's potions are just as bad."

"Hey, they work, don't they?!"

Ruby laughed at the boy's whine. Weiss still had not let up about how horrid his potion-making skills were. But, he was right. They did work well. Just none of them tasted like they should have, so it was more preferable to go without if one was wounded or short on magicka.

"Don't worry, Jaune," Ren consoled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know your pain. They won't be complaining when our potions and health drinks save the day..."

"But what about poisons," Blake asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the original subject. "I don't mix my own, so I wouldn't know anything about that."

Someone else who doesn't know alchemy... Glad Ren's around, or we would be screwed.

"Anything, using certain mushrooms or poisonous plants is best," Ren explained, picking up a container with teeth inside of it. "Vampire fangs work really nicely too. Though, I think there are books on alchemical properties in the library. It might be best to start from there before we make anything. If there are specific poisons we want, it would be good to know the ingredients."

"We could ask. Dr Oobleck," Ruby suggested. "He might know where to gather the stuff or find an alchemist selling ingredients."

If you wanted to know anything about history or alchemy, Dr Oobleck was the man. That's if you could follow his speech in class or even in regular conversation. Ruby had the worst time in his class and had to copy Weiss' notes most of the time.

"Just start up our joint weapon enchanting and alchemy venture at this rate," Jaune jested, picking up his sword and examining it for flaws.

"That's actually not a bad idea..." Ren said, cupping his chin.

[Jaune]

Eventually, Blake, Ren, and Nora left for the day and the trio got back to work. The Assassin gave five of her arrows to Jaune and some Lien for the one already made. They quickly produced some more of the wraith's arrows, leaving the rest of the afternoon open for whatever. Ruby and Jaune mainly spent that time putting together some more enchanted weapons or working on Ruby's armour.

Her lamellar chest plate was coming along well. From among the pile of leftover metal and armour, there were several lamellar pieces already premade. Two shoulder pads and a chest piece meant for a larger male. Jaune stripped the armour of their scales and cut down whatever was left to fit Ruby. The leather wasn't hardened, so he was able to make adjustments without harming the base.

"That actually fits her nicely," Weiss complimented, becoming the third party to their work. "Is it supposed to be that form-fitting?"

The armour at this point moulded itself around Ruby's body snuggly. Several adjustable straps made sure the fit was tight, and nothing would move around and get caught on anything. However, without the scales overtop, it was rather revealing without showing anything off under her shirt.

"Yeah, you don't want loose armour," Jaune explained, undoing the straps while Ruby had her arms propped up. "If it moves around when you're running, and you can't fix it during a fight. Having your armour properly fitted makes it comfortable to wear too."

Taking it off, Jaune tossed the chest piece onto the table. It was mostly finished at this point. Only requiring the steel plates to be hit with the enchanted hammer, and then sewn back on. Jaune was just glad he didn't have to make all of them for this piece. Someone else already did all the hard work for once.

"But, I say we call it a day," Jaune expressed, grabbing some of his stuff and tossing it into a bag. "I want to get some training in with the lance."

He'd been neglecting that weapon for a while now. Jaune hadn't actually used it since the wraith quest. More out of fear of his armour getting sliced through than anything else. His chest plate still had the scars from where he repaired it.

"Then I'm going to find Yang and get a gambeson and some chainmail in town," Ruby said, bolting off in a cloud of rose petals.

"I will remain here," Weiss said, sitting back down at the table. "I can read without having to listen to anybody else."

Okay... Time to go to the coliseum...

Jaune strapped his sword to his side and made for the arena. It wasn't a far jog, so he didn't mind the run. This served as a warm-up for when the real training began. His lance required the use of the entire body to wield it effectively.

On the way, he passed by Yang and Ruby beginning to head into Vale. It was the late afternoon by this point, so everything was going to remain open for a while. Ruby didn't want to waste any time regardless because that armour was so close to being ready by this point. The added protection brought some relief to Jaune's mind, though. He could be reassured that Ruby would be able to take an arrow and brush it off.

"I wonder if Weiss would like some armour," Jaune said to himself. "She's got her spells and all that, but some metal or a gambeson would be a good second defence. Especially if she can barely take a punch to the face."

Jaune knew it would be a matter of time before he could clear the distance in their sparring matches and throw Weiss to the ground. Her magic would only do so much against someone so heavily armoured as Jaune was. For other enemies, they wouldn't hold back because they were fighting for their lives as much as she was. Getting impaled through the gut with an icicle might put the guy down, but he would try to take her with him.

Coming up to the arena, Jaune saw Blake was standing on the outside. She leaned against the building with arms crossed, and then stood up and headed inside when she saw him. Indeed, it piqued Jaune's interest to know what Blake was up to. Seeing each other once already, there was more than likely something she was waiting to tell him about. The Assassin only wanted to wait until he was alone for it.

Guess I'll follow her...

Going inside, Jaune found an empty room with nobody inside it. He looked around, trying to find where Blake had run off to but had no luck. When he spun back to keep going down the main hall, Blake was standing right in front of him, scaring the crap out of the boy.

"Agghhh," Jaune yelped, nearly dropping his stuff. "Jeez Blake, do we need to put a bell on you?! This is the second time!"

Can't hear her walking around half the time...

"You're not exactly one to talk," Blake retorted, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes. "I can barely hear you walking around, and I have a second set of ears."

"Well, yeah, I hunt, so walking around silently is kind of my thing, but what did you want," Jaune asked, getting back on track. "Kind of obvious you didn't want to talk about it when the others were around. Is it about your secret crush on Yang?"

That earned him a slug from Blake. A hard one at that. Jaune spent a few minutes trying to massage the knot out of his shoulder while Blake gave him a dry look.

"No, I do not have a crush on Yang," Blake started nonchalantly. Jaune's words not even coming close to eliciting a reaction. "I found something on my last quest and wanted your opinion on what to do about it."

"Cool, shoot!"

I wonder what she found...

"Okay," Blake began, pulling out a map and spread it across the floor. "So, Yang, Sun, and I were down south, tracking some bandits... We split up to cover more ground, and I found the entrance to some ruins." She pointed to the southern half of Sanus where the crypt was located.

"How big?"

"Massive, at least the size of a city," she explained, staring down at the map. "I think it might be bigger than Vale is now. But I don't know for sure. The parts I went into seemed to go on for miles. Way larger than ruins, we checked out for the Task."

That meant gold and lots of it. Probably too much to carry in a single go. If these were Valeans of the same period as the last crypt, then their coins would be similar as well. Lots of gold plated copper and jewels to go around, which would set up any adventurer for life if he could get a sliver of the total value.

"Were there any signs of people down there, like adventurers or tomb raiders," Jaune asked, turning the map in such a way he could see better. "I'm worried someone else might have gotten to the loot before we could. If this place is as big as you say, there might be multiple entrances."

There were a thousand years between the fall of this city and Blake stumbling upon it. Someone had to have gotten inside somehow and grabbed whatever they could. The probability was too high.

"No," Blake said with an uncharacteristic toothy smile. "The section I checked out had tons of draugr. Nobody's been down there. I snuck by them and went in pretty deep, and everything is untouched."

Oh shit...

"Blake, this is huge," Jaune expressed, cupping his mouth. The boy had shivers running up his spine and butterflies in his stomach at the thought. "Why are you telling me about this? You could be set for life if you kept this to yourself."

Her eyes narrowed slightly, gaging the boy's words and coming up with something to respond with. Jaune would have been afraid of offending her had she shown any outward sign of anger.

"I know you won't stab me in the back," she explained, rolling up the map. "You and Ruby also have no lack of ambition, so I know I can use both of you to make this work." Blake tucked the map away in her satchel. "But I know my limits, and this is way too big for me to handle. So, I need your help."

"Okay then," Jaune said excitedly, feeling big-headed at her words. The compliment genuinely made him jubilant. "This is your project, so your rules. But we need Weiss. If there are any magic traps down there or wards, she can break them."

"Fine..."

"Good, just play nice and be the adult," he continued, grabbing his stuff off the ground. "I'll keep Weiss from antagonising you, but I need the same from you."

"Okay, just get her to come with, and I'll talk to Sun and Yang," Blake replied, turning and leaving the building.

Jaune did the same. Practice could wait, he needed to find Ren and Nora and bring them up to speed.

Okay, boys and girls! Time to kick off the first big quest!

Class: Paladin

"Gather 'round, Paladins!"

"There is a difference between the other classes and us! When those Knights and Chevaliers fled at first sight of monsters! You were the ones to take their place! You walked right up to those monsters and wrapped your hands around those fucker's necks! And you did not stop there! Killing everything in your way until there was nothing left!"

"That is the difference between them and us. Those bastards who were too busy keeping themselves in food and wool can keep all the glory and fame for themselves! Boasting about their deeds as if they sacrificed something!"

"We fight to keep the people safe! To keep the Drowners out of the latrines and Goblins from ploughing our milkmaids! Knowing that no other class has our virtue! Our dedication to our craft!"

Level Twenty Three

Strength 43 (+7)

Agility 23 (+4)

Defence 30 (+5)

Perception 35 (+6)

Constitution 42 (+7)

Intelligence 48 (+5)

Charisma 26 (+3)

Willpower 19 (+3)

...

Abilities

Arclight

A high-intensity explosion of light, equivalent to that of the sun. Burns the flesh of undead and magical entities. Momentarily blinds living and non-magical entities. Sudden magical intensity can cause affected to flee regardless of status.

Active Debuff:

Turn and Face The Sun!

Longinuslanze Testament

A most unholy weapon. Forged by our lord to answer to only one master. He who has the will to dominate such a blade.

It shall sunder any armour. It shall never miss its mark. It shall grow with your own strength. Its holy light searing all who stand to oppose it.

In turn, you shall become vulnerable to attacks whilst wielding this unholy relic. It shall challenge your mastery by forcing you to fight at your full strength.

Active Debuff:

Turn and Face The Sun!

White Hawk

This aethereal hawk shall be forever bound to you. As its master, only you may give direction to this bird of prey. Whether it be scouting the path ahead or distracting your enemies.

...

Passive: Magister's Lament

Your Passive is a double-edged sword. While you may proficiently cast magic beyond the limits of your Willpower. It is limited in other instances. Not being able to cast harmful offensive magic or any magic on yourself.

...

Miscellaneous Knowledge/Buffs/etc.

Monster Slayer

Spent years studying the various monsters of Remnant. Knows the different species and taxonomy of each known creature. Understands the weaknesses of most known monsters.

Armour and Weapons Smith

Worked a forge for his entire life. Jaune is able to judge the composition of metals, and know the condition of his weapons and armour.

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Gear:

Jaune's Breastplate

Level Seventeen

Materials: 2% Silicon, 0.60% Carbon, Remainder is Steel and Leather

Minimum Stat Requirements:

Strength: 32

Agility: 16

Defence: 22

Constitution: 30

Eagle's Armour

Level Twenty Eight

Materials: Unknown Alloy Ratio of Enchanted Steel and Corundom, Carbon Steel, and Leather

Minimum Stat Requirements:

Strength: 57

Agility: 25

Defence: 30

Constitution: 39

Buffs:

This specific alloy of steel and corundom is less dense than normal steel while just as hard. It has a strength to weight ratio similar to menachanite allowing the user to build a thicker armour without sacrificing for weight.

This armour was also specially built for you. The measurements fit your body exactly, allowing it to be worn as a second skin granting a tremendous degree of flexibility.

Necklace of the Bulwark

+25% Bonus to Constitution

Spells:

Infusion:

This spell grants one the ability to infuse the desired object with materials ordinarily unable to be bonded together. The strength of the unaltered item determines how much of an effect can be added to it.

Be warned that stressing the target with too powerful additives can result in the atomisation of the material and, possibly, a sudden explosive decomposition.

Telekinesis:

Casting this spell allows you to move objects with your mind. Within a visible range, anything you can levitate is dependent on your personal strength and willpower. Once, cast upon, the item is subject to your directions and will perform whatever manoeuvre you are capable of imagining.

Be warned that this spell drains magicka rapidly.