A/N: I liked your reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
The Price Of Self-Worth
Jaune woke up feeling great, his mind wasn't foggy, as it usually was when he woke up, he was ready for whatever life threw at him.
That was until he rolled over his bed.
It was as if lightning hit him; it rapidly shocked him as the pain spread, and he grit his teeth and decided to sit on his bed, and after a few moments, did it manage to fade away.
'So last night wasn't a bad dream?'
He resisted his urge to drop his back onto the bed and told himself, 'it wasn't that bad..'
'Yeah, it was.'
But he decided it was something he needed to experience, and it would have happened sooner or later.
Jaune just wished it didn't take most of his money away.
At least he got his aura and Semblance out of it.
Remembering once more that aura could heal him, he decided to try once again.
With that last thought, he focused on his aura once more, and he finally felt the ball of warm water spike towards his back, but it felt slow as if he was trying to move dense mud instead of 'water.'
After what felt like an hour, the spike of aura reached his back, and he controlled it to expand his back.
Now, like a river, aura traveled from his center through the spike connecting to his back and expanding, and eventually, he felt as if a million ants were covering it.
Only when the numb feeling stop did he lose focus, and the aura receded to his center.
Excited, he moved towards the mirror that hung on the wall, took his shirt off, and turned around.
Jaune felt relief as seeing the wounds close only leaving pink skin behind and some blood he hadn't properly cleaned up.
He turned around once again and saw that the bruises had cleared a bit, but still lingered.
He had to wonder if it was because he used his aura, resulting in some of it leaking towards his chest or that having his aura unlocked boosted his regeneration.
But first, he had to check if he had been hallucinating before he fell asleep. Jaune sat on a chair that was in front of the desk and focused on his aura, the thought of the blue screen that showed up before.
It lingered right above the desk.
[Semblance in use: Passive: Improve Sleep Quality: Doesn't reduce the amount of time slept.]
[Price: For 24 hours temporarily loses 1% of Aura reserves.]
[Time: 16:44]
It also had the [List of predetermined semblances], but this time right next to it was [Semblances used].
That seemed useful so he could keep using the same Semblance, and without having to worry, he would slightly change it into something he didn't want because of how he wrote it.
He decided to check the other semblances, and he once again saw the [List of predetermined semblances] and set it to [Price: High to Low].
He saw the same list as before, but this time he clicked on [Checkpoint].
[Checkpoint]
[User returns to when he accepted the Semblance upon death.]
[User's bad luck increases exponentially with time spent alive.]
[Semblance becomes permanent]
[Accept]
[Decline]
It was scary and straightforward at the same time.
Only an insane person would take this.
Bad luck that increased exponentially, wouldn't that mean the universe itself would work against him to kill him?
Jaune can't even stand having a few cuts on his back, so there was no way he could die- who knows how many times?- repeatedly and not go insane.
And wasn't there going to be a point that no matter what happened, he would die as if his bad luck would get bad enough that a god came down to kill him.
What was he going to do about that?
Just return to that point and die in an endless loop.
And what did [Semblance becomes permanent] mean?
As he thought about that, a blue box appeared in front of him explaining to him.
[User is unable to use another semblance than the one selected.]
Jaune was hoping that it was the opposite case, where he would still be able to use his Semblance to have multiple at a time, but that didn't seem possible.
But it made sense that it was that the case because the price he was paying was unique to the Semblance he was obtaining, the price just became permanent as did the Semblance.
He went back to see the third Semblance with the highest price.
[The Gamer]
[User's life becomes a classic RPG.]
[User can level up, raise his stats, get items from monsters, use a space to store items, learn abilities from books, and use equipment to enhance his skills.]
[User has six months left to live.]
[Semblance becomes permanent.]
[Accept]
[Decline]
Jaune immediately declined; there was no point.
It was almost a guarantee that he would get into Beacon with this ability, not because of the description, but because of the price, he would sacrifice sixty to seventy years of his life, so there was no way he wouldn't get into Beacon.
To immediately die two months later.
He wouldn't even get past half a semester, so there was no way he would become a huntsman.
He might not even go on a mission.
That defeated the whole purpose.
Not to mention, he didn't want to die so soon.
He guessed the other semblances followed the same ideas like the ones before.
Where "death' was involved in some way or another and where the Semblance was permanent.
A few of them where:
[The Phoenix],
[Where the User would have nine lives, but each time he died he would lose memories, permanently lose ten percent of his aura reserves, and his emotions would grow numb.]
[Semblance becomes permanent.]
[Accept]
[Decline]
[The Perfect Death]
[The User would revive if he died under certain conditions, where he would have no aura left, unable to move and think, where he was pushed to his limit and would die from an external source.]
[The User would also grow stronger if he came back to life, his mind, body, and aura would grow progressively stronger for each death.]
[User will become addicted to death. The User will fall deeper into his addiction each time he dies.]
[Semblance becomes permanent.]
[Accept]
[Decline]
Jaune could see they were complete opposites; one would make him weaker for each time he died, and the other would make him stronger each time he died.
But both options lead to one result.
He would become a psychopath and then die.
In the first case, he would lose himself piece by piece and lose the emotions and memories that define him and eventually become a shell of himself that didn't care about anything or anyone.
In the second case, he would become addicted to death and actively look for it and eventually die because he didn't fulfill the conditions. However, this would only happen if he managed to die a few times and happened to meet those conditions.
There was no way he would accept any semblance that had any relation to death, that was just a one-way road to become insane and die.
Which would go against the whole, 'I want to be a huntsman 'thing.
He continued going down until the names of the semblances lost any relation to death.
After a few moments, he saw a few and clicked on the first one.
[Accelerated Growth]
[User may use aura to accelerate his learning of knowledge or skills. It may also be used to promote muscle growth.]
[User has twenty years left to live.]
[Semblance becomes permanent.]
[Accept]
[Decline]
This time he hesitated, twenty years was a long time, he would be able to become a huntsman, go on missions, save people, maybe get married, and have kids.
With this Semblance, he would succeed in whatever he would put his mind on; he would never fail again.
He would be able to prove everyone wrong.
For the rest of his life, he would be someone people would admire.
It was tempting, but in the end, he shook his head and decided that he could still look in other semblances that enhanced learning.
He spent half an hour scouring through the [List of predetermined semblances.] and had been able to put a filter, [Filter: Show: Enhance Learning or Growth].
Eventually, he figured out that every Semblance reduced his lifespan and became permanent, he guessed it made sense as enhanced learning was just a way of saving time, making sense the price would be time as well.
He had finally set his sights on a semblance:
[The Prodigy of Combat]
[User may be able to use aura to learn combat-related skills such as swordsmanship marksmanship and dust usage.]
[User has an easier time learning Aura-related skills.]
[User has thirty years to live.]
[Semblance becomes permanent]
[Accept]
[Decline]
This Semblance was tempting him, it would help him grow strong and would let him live a relatively long life, dying at forty-seven could still be considered dying early, but it would be worth it if it let him accomplish his dreams.
Besides, many Hunters didn't even reach their fifties, and there was no way of telling if he would as well.
It would make sense to accept as soon as possible so he would be able to start training right now, he didn't have a lot of time, and he needed every second to catch up to people that already had years of training.
But still, he hesitated.
Jaune knew it was because of what he learned yesterday.
He needed to believe in himself.
If he accepted this Semblance, it would mean trading the representation of himself, his Semblance, into something else.
In a way, it was selling his soul.
If he accepted he would lose a part of himself and he asked himself:
'If I accept, will I be proud of my accomplishments?'
No. Never.
It was accepting that even the representation of his soul was just something to be traded away.
If that happened, what wouldn't he sell to get his dream?
He would never value himself again.
Even if other people did.
He suddenly realized his Semblance, as he has only seen the top list, and every single Semblance so far had mentioned that the Semblance he chose would become permanent.
That meant that his Semblance was also part of the price he was paying.
That seemed to put things into perspective; he was also destroying any capacity of developing any kind of confidence.
As there would always be a voice in his head that said, 'Remember, this semblance isn't yours, everything you have accomplished was because you sold your soul.'
With that thought, he [Declined] [The Prodigy of Combat].
He went back to filters and erased [Filter: Show: Enhance Learning or Growth] and added another one, [Filter: Don't show: Permanent Semblances].
He would become a Huntsman with his Semblance even if his Semblance granted him others.
He scratched his head as this was confusing him but eventually settled in promising, 'I'll never sell away my semblance.'
And an Arc never goes back on his word.
Once again, a blue window appeared with [List of predetermined semblances], but this time it was completely different; all of the names were grayed out.
[Spatial Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Gravity Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Elemental Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Aura Amplification(Unavailable)]
[Fire Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Ice Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Lightning Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Wind Manipulation(Unavailable)]
[Earth Manipulation(Unavailable)]
He only had one response.
'What.'
After being shocked for a minute, he processed what he was reading.
Each one of them looked insanely overpowered, but he couldn't use any of them. It was the first time he looked at a semblance that was (Unavailable); he was incredibly curious as to why he couldn't pay for them. He clicked in '[Spatial manipulation].'
[Spatial Maniputalion]
[User gains the ability to control space.]
[Price: ?]
[Requirements:]
[Must have Unlocked one of these:]
[Teleport, Phasing...]
[Must have Unlocked one of these:]
[Portals, Ultimate Pierce, Permanent Passageway...]
[Must have Unlocked one these:]
[Domain, Territory, Palace...]
[Must complete these actions while using a semblance of the 'Space' category:]
[?]
[?]
[?]
[Time: 24:00]
[User cannot trade for this Semblance.]
He was once again shocked at the requirements and realized that it seemed like overpowered Semblance, but he already feared the 'Price.'
But what poked his curiosity was the [Requirements].
Jaune assumed his Semblance was fair, it wasn't like he could ask around 'How much is this semblance worth?' and he also believed it would do organize it like this with a reason.
He quickly imagined what would happen if he suddenly obtained [Spatial Maniputalion].
It wasn't pretty.
The ability to manipulate space but no control over it seemed a recipe for disaster for himself and the people around him.
Would he accidentally teleport himself towards another place in Remnant?
...Or another dimension?
It could also fail to teleport altogether and leaving parts of himself across two points in space.
It was kind of giving a rocket launcher to a toddler.
It wouldn't end well.
So the purpose was to give him experience using a similar but less powerful semblance.
Kind of like using a wooden sword to practice swordsmanship, the same principles could be applied, but one had less of a chance of hurting the User.
But he could look at it by another angle as well; his Semblance was a shop.
So the requirements were basically like permits.
It was like the SDC only selling to certified shops that could handle the dust.
They needed the permits to have the right to buy dust, to make sure they knew how to handle it.
They needed the permits to have the right to buy dust, to make sure they didn't blow themselves up.
He was kind of curious about the other semblances listed on the [Requirements], so with that thought, he pressed on [Teleport].
It was similar to [Spatial Manipulation], he couldn't know the price, and there were other semblances he needed to unlock first and actions he needed to do before he could unlock it.
Still, it also held an option that said, [It's a requirement for the following Semblances: Spatial Manipulation].
Still, there were many more semblances that could be used to unlock [Teleport] than the ones in [Spatial Manipulation].
He clicked one at random that was called [Swap] and did the same thing again with one of the Semblances shown below it.
He didn't know how many semblances he saw, but eventually, they weren't even related to space, like [Instant Acceleration].
But he couldn't even use that one, so he continued the same process as before until he found one.
[Lesser Speed]
[User may use aura to increase the speed of their movements by a small amount.]
[Doesn't affect reflexes or the speed at which his aura moves.]
[Price: For 24 hours temporarily loses 5% of Aura reserves. Uses up to 5% of the User's aura per minute.]
[It's a requirement for the following Semblances: Speed, Reflexes…]
[Time: 24:00]
[Accept]
[Decline]
Jaune sighed; he finally reached the end of the rabbit hole.
He figured out that it was a skill tree.
The semblances at the beginning where the 'trunk' of the tree. As he went further and further, the powers grew more specific as if they were branches.
Though that didn't mean the ones in the trunk where the most useful, as they would have higher prices and their cost of using them would be higher.
Jaune could see it was an exchange of potential and power as [Spatial Manipulation] has a lot more possibilities than [Teleport], and the same comparison could be made with [Lesser Speed].
He leaned forward with his elbows in the desk he held his face with both hands and let out a rather heavy sigh.
Jaune felt tired now that he had an idea of how his Semblance worked.
He felt it was a long time since he had used this amount of brainpower.
He then felt a furious growl from his stomach and decided to have breakfast.
He took a glance at a clock that was on the nightstand and corrected himself.
He was going to have lunch.
He stood up, opened the mini-fridge, grabbed his leftovers from last night, and left the room.
After absentmindedly having lunch, he returned to his room.
He grabbed his backpack from a closet, fished out a notebook and pen from one of its pockets, and sat at the desk.
He needed to plan what he needed to do.
So he wrote his list of priorities.
1. Get a job that paid at least six hundred liens a month.
He needed at least six hundred liens a month just to be safe, though he had already rent this month as it was the condition of paying the first month up-front he still needed to pay four hundred and fifty liens next month for rent, and he could make do with one hundred and fifty liens for food.
He had thought of ways of making money with his Semblance, but there was no easy way of doing that, as he couldn't copy money, as the kingdom would have measures against that a long time ago, besides, it was illegal.
He had thought of using a semblance that could predict the future to invest in the stock market, but it wasn't possible that a semblance like that was in the 'branches' of his skill tree, or it would be a permanent semblance.
That left him with "Art", but he wasn't creative and he was sure that Semblance couldn't make him more creative.
So he could only stick to the safe route, to take a job.
2. Figure out a training/study schedule.
He also needed to research and plan an effective way of training. He knew there was a reason why people started training in their early teens or earlier- despite the apparent drawbacks of superpowered teenagers- and find a way around it, maybe with his Semblance?
He suppressed memories of some of his older sisters crushing through walls of their home during his childhood and continued his line of thought.
He needed to study as well, as the entrance exam of Beacon included an academic portion besides a practical. The subjects tested were broad, they were: Law, Math, History, Grimm, and Dust.
Three of those subjects were new or approached from a different point than he was used to, after all, the education he received in his village was more practical and required a lot more doing than thinking.
3. Change scrolls.
He didn't know if the guys that scammed him had bugged or hacked his scroll in some way when he was unconscious.
He certainly wouldn't put it beneath them, and he had no idea how to check for either of those possibilities. Chances were they didn't do it, but he would do it for peace of mind.
4. Make another bank account.
He needed to make another account, one his family wouldn't know about so they couldn't use to track him.
He knew they wouldn't try anytime soon as he left a letter saying he couldn't stay with them anymore because of his father and wanted to see the world.
He felt a bit conflicted when he thought of that letter, his sisters would give his father a hard time, but he couldn't write that he was running away to become a huntsman as they would frantically search for him.
He could write letters without a return address to stall for time, but they would eventually hunt him down, as they had no way of contacting him, where they would most likely ask the bank where his transactions were coming.
Thankfully the only thing he had tried to pay with his bank account in Vale had been with the criminals, and he was pretty sure they made that transaction untraceable- not that he had thought of that when he was transferring the money.
The other transactions had been in Mistral, where he withdrew cash, but he used it to pay a one-way ticket to Vale, rent, and some groceries and he wasn't sure it would last him till the end of the month, but getting a job that led him through the month shouldn't be that hard.
He could go a step further and change his last name, but that seemed excessive and would hurt his family in the long-term.
Besides, despite what some of the people in the village said, he was an Arc, and there were some lines he wouldn't cross.
He needed to look for a job, so he looked for his scroll.
He froze as he realized that he needed to change his scroll to make sure they didn't track him or something.
After scouring through his entire room, he realized it was in the horrible smelling pants he rapidly searched its pockets and fished it out and threw the pants to a corner of the room before they ruined his sense of smell.
Even the scroll was stinking.
Jaune rapidly clicked the factory reset option and considered his options; maybe he could get he should keep it.
It would be doubtful that they bugged or hacked it.
He knew he was paranoid.
But an image of garbage piled in an alleyway and the blood-soaked towel laying on the floor changed his mind.
There was no reason to risk it.
The problem was that he needed to trade or sell it, hopefully quickly, but he couldn't search for it in his scroll; maybe they would trace it back him.
He paced around his room, trying to thinking of ideas, but eventually, he realized where he was.
Pharos Combat School dormitory, as it was summer vacation, the combat school rented the dormitory that was outside of its campus for different people.
He remembered a group would often hang out in the common room.
They did know a place that bought and sold used scrolls, though it's primary business was just repairing them, and it was relatively close.
He didn't make the same mistake as last time and chose to bargain with the employee at the counter; he managed to get a scroll that was more or less the same but of a less known brand and around fifty liens.
He was pretty sure the guy would still make a big profit because he had let out a small smile on his face when he left the store, but he couldn't back out on the deal when he was already leaving.
He sat on his desk and looked through jobs on his scroll.
Jaune had thought the interview over the scroll had gone well; apparently, it didn't, as he heard over his scroll, "Kid if you are going to lie, at least make it believable."
He heard the beeps signaling the end of the call.
He reacted, gripping his scroll in frustration, after a moment he let out a heavy sigh and leaned back in his chair, making it reach a balance with the two legs at the back.
He had spent all afternoon calling for jobs, and he had thought he hadn't done poorly.
But if everyone thought he was lying, then they probably weren't to call back as they said they would.
'Damn, people in Vale are paranoid.'
Maybe it was the same in all of the kingdoms, but he hadn't spent more than a few hours on Mistral, so he couldn't tell.
He leaned forward and let the chair fall forward with him and decided to continue looking for jobs; there had to be someone that would believe him.
After skimming a few he found another one he was interested in, being a waiter and the pay was pretty good, he would have a few hundred liens than he needed plus tips.
And he had a bit of experience as a waiter, as having to serve a family of ten involved moving a lot of dishes.
Though he wouldn't have any experience with the payment, it shouldn't be that hard.
With that thought, he called the number listed, and after a few beeps, a rough but feminine voice came through his scroll, "Hi?"
He tried his best at an even tone as he said, "Hello, I am Jaune Arc, and I am interested in the job open-"
He was interrupted by the woman on the other end of the scroll, "You have any experience as a waiter?"
He replied nervously as his hand scratched the back of his head, "Well, not exactly, I have experience in moving a lot of dishes, though."
The line went silent, and for a moment, he had thought that she had hung up until he heard a lot of shouting.
She finally spoke again in a resigned tone, "Do you at least have any work experience?"
This time he could at least speak confidently, "Yeah, I have worked a year and a half as a farmer."
He could hear her hum thoughtfully before she spoke, "And how old are you?"
This question was where the employers would doubt him, not his age, but his work experience as having a year and a half of work experience inside the city was abnormal for a seventeen-year-old.
After a moment of silence, he replied, "Seventeen."
He could almost hear her growl as she said, "You have any way of proving your work experience?"
He sighed and said, "No, I lived outside the kingdoms, and my village is outside of CCT range."
He heard her frustration as her voice moved further away from the scroll, though it didn't seem to be pointed at him, "It's all that assholes fault, why did he have to talk shit about my restaurant. He was freaking dumb as well, why would he talk shit a block away from the place he works?"
His instincts as a little brother went to work as he realized she needed to vent, so he said: "He should have been terrible to work with, right?"
She agreed instantly, "Yeah! That guy took way too many smoke breaks, and now and then, he would have snark comment about the cooks."
She didn't stop; she must have been pretty mad at that guy, "That little fucker, thinking he was hot shit for working at a fancy restaurant."
At that moment, he heard her curse and then spoke to him, "John Dark, right?"
He replied, correcting her, "Jaune Arc."
She just waved it off, "Whatever."
He just dropped it and heard her," You are darn lucky because I am fucking desperate. Come at five-thirty in the morning and don't worry about clothes. I'll see how you do for the day, and if you don't fuck it up, I'll hire you. Any questions?"
He was beyond excited as he stood up slamming his hand on the desk as the other held the scroll to his ear and he quickly responded, "No and than-"
He was cut off again as she said," Okay, Bye."
He stared blankly at the scroll on his hand as the call ended and laughed a bit.
He didn't care that she hung up on him as it wasn't like last time as she gave him the chance to prove himself.
He noted down the restaurant's address and searched how to get there in his notebook and finally let out a sigh of relief.
He had planned out his future and looked for jobs all day, he was exhausted, but he felt a sense of satisfaction that his hard work had paid off.
He still had to complete objectives two-Figure out a training/study schedule- and four- Make another bank account.
Though only the second objective was important right now.
He glanced at the clock by the nightstand and saw that it was already eight o'clock.
He needed to make dinner; he would see semblances that might help train as he cooked dinner.
He had been waiting for forty-five minutes outside the restaurant.
He checked again and again that this was the restaurant and even tried to call his employer, but she wouldn't respond.
It was only when, a woman with blue hair tied up in a ponytail with a hoodie and jeans that looked in her twenties showed up jawning in her hand, that he relaxed.
She waved at him and said, "Hey, John."
He forced his frustration deep inside him and showed a smile as he replied, "It's Jaune."
She just smirked as she opened the door to the restaurant.
A/N: I won't focus on his work, at most the conversations, as I cannot have a protagonist within a vacuum. Next chapter, he will practice and a focus on aura.