A/N: I'll try to make a chapter a week, at least (I'll aim for two). Thanks for the reviews; they make me reflect on my writing and write a better story, that we'll all enjoy more.

Also, I've read a couple of comments about how this Jaune is different (They are almost all positive), but I thought I would explain why.

I believe that each success and failure build a person-I think everyone can relate to this- and in cannon, Jaune succeeded, that would reinforce his naivety and carelessness (I could write an essay about this, but I don't like overexplaining things).

Here, he failed terribly, he is traumatized and is seeing the world in a different light and has to change to achieve his goal.

The Price Of Progress

Jaune sat at the table in the break room, looking at a video in his scroll.

There was an overhead view of a huntsman surrounded by a pack of beowolfs, most of them had a bone mask, and one had bone-plating around his body. Jaune knew that if he was in the same position, he would be dead within seconds.

But for the Huntsman, Amaranth, it was nothing but a joke. The man had a smirk on his face as he talked in a mocking voice to the strongest of the pack, "Who's a big bad Beowolf?"

The bone-plated Beowolf charged, and Jaune had a hard time keeping his eye on it, as it moved towards the Huntsman. But Amaranth had no problem, the Huntsman sidestepped the Grimm, crashed towards a few Beowolfs.

The redheaded Huntsman turned to the Beowolf and said as it crashed as if it was talking to a puppy, "You are, yes, you are."

Amaranth made no effort to draw the sword attached to his hip when four masked Beowolfs attacked his back.

He ducked and rolled behind all of the Beowolfs and did a sideways kick to the one in the first left, making the masked beowolfs crash into each other as they fell to the floor.

They weren't any Beowolfs standing on his back anymore, only in front and to the sides of him. Though the ones in front and to the right were crushing and struggling with each other, leaving only the ones on the left side to charge at Amaranth.

Amaranth said in a baby voice at the four Beowolfs as they charged at him, "Aww, you want in on this playdate?"

The Huntsman moved to the side, and now only two beowolfs were in the range of attacking him, but they were attacking from opposing sides.

Amaranth, instead of retreating, ducked his head low, evading both claws, and threw an uppercut to the Beowolf on the right.

It instantly dissipated.

Amaranth had already moved to his next target and threw a right hook, destroying the other Beowolf.

The other two Masked Beowolfs were already charging towards Amaranth, but they were pushed aside by a blur of white and black.

Jaune only saw Amaranth duck his head, and red slash appeared in the Bone-plated Beowolf as it passed the Huntsman.

It dissipated moments after.

But the rest of the Masked Beowolfs were charging as if they were a raging river towards the Huntsman.

Amaranth charged with his now drawn sword, Jaune could see it was a gladius, a sword almost a meter long with a circle at the end of the hilt.

He saw the huntsman stab and kick the first Beowolf towards the rest of the Beowolfs charging at him, they collapsed into one another as the first one dissipated.

The Huntsman took this chance to finish four Masked Beowolfs scrambling on the floor, leaving only four that were too far away for him to finish off and were already on their feet.

Jaune heard him talking in a teasing tone, but he tuned it out as the Beowolfs charged again towards Amaranth, once more acting as a pack and surrounded him again.

Amaranth went to meet the one in the upper right and slashed the beowolf before it could attack him and turned around with the momentum of his slash.

Now three Beowolfs were charging at him, two from the sides and from the front.

He met the one from the right side and easily dodged the attack, and a red flash appeared once again, this time decapitating the Beowolf.

There were only two Masked Bewowolfs left, one was a meter in front of the other one Jaune could see Amaranth taking advantage of that, as he moved forward, using a Beowolf as a shield as he was slashed at it.

This time the slash didn't go through its entire torso, it got stuck in chest, and he used his foot to kick him towards the other Masked Beowolf, and before they could get on his feet, Amaranth stabbed them both through their chest and nailed his sword in the ground.

Suddenly the sword appeared in its sheath, and Amaranth said with a smile to the camera, "Well, that's the demonstration: let's analyze it on the studio!"

Amaranth grabbed the camera from the side, and the world was spinning a bit, and the video made a transition with a caricature Amaranth winking at the viewer.

Then it showed a small room, and he sat at a chair with a red shirt and sweatpants instead of his huntsman gear.

Amaranth then said in a dismissing tone, "First things, first." He then showed a toothy smile to the camera and said, "Yeah, I know, I am awesome."

Jaune could only roll his eyes, he only felt his awe of the Huntsman diminish when he said that, but the man quickly got to business, as he said, "Let's see if you get why I am awesome."

Then the man was replaced with a title, 'Fighting against groups of Grimm: Beowolfs," and he appeared in a small square in the bottom right corner.

Amaranth then said, "For the fight in this video, I only used aura to protect my self and to cover my weapon. So nothing advanced."

He then continued talking, "Anyway, this is what you should do if you are physically weaker than the Grimm you are facing, and they are attacking you in a group."

Another line appeared in the video in a red slash, 'Use their numbers against them.'

A replay appeared of the video, though it was a montage of Grimm colliding with each other.

Then Amaranth said, "They are many ways of doing this, but the main concept is: Positioning." A video appeared of Amaranth moving to the right causing the Beowolfs to crash into each other.

Amaranth continued explaining, "Use the Beowolfs as a shield, make them collide with each other as they charge you, that will slow them down and let you deal with less at the same time."

Amaranth continued, "You can also use the environment to do this: let's say I was on a forest filled with trees, you could use the trees as obstacles."

The redheaded took a break, and a video appeared of him kicking the Beowolfs into each other, "You can also do this, sometimes a Grimm is better of alive so they can slow down the group hunting you."

Another title appeared in a red flash, 'Things to look out for.'

Amaranth then said in a cautious tone, "Of course there's a downside to this, it could cause you to have blind spots and make you underestimate how many Grimm are charging towards you. It may also leave your backside open, and other Grimm may come to the area you are fighting."

Jaune then heard, "That's the end of this video, let's continue this series of essential skills of a Huntsman; If you liked the video don't forget to like, subs-"

Jaune just clicked away, he had heard that enough times.

Jaune thought about the most important thing he was looking for: Skill.

He had no prior combat training, and he was aiming towards Beacon; that was as if a toddler that just learned the numbers was trying to rush his way to Calculus.

There was a reason why people started combat training as earliest as possible because, like any other skill, it required years of effort.

He knew, there was no such thing as an instinctual fighter, no one was born ready to fight, instinct was born out of the experience, slowly some skills became instinctual as they trained.

It was the same with math or other subjects; there was no person ready to do calculus level problems without studying basic math first.

But there were ways around it, Jaune was sure of it.

The first option was to circumvent the need for skill, well not entirely. It would be like using a calculator, he needed a tool that lowered the skill needed.

There was no reason for him to use Crocea Mors, he could buy a gun and learn to shoot. After all, it was much easier to aim and press a trigger than to swing a sword. Also, there was much more room for error as there was a greater distance, and he would have more time to react.

There was an obvious flaw in that plan: he had no money. That had been a recurring problem that he had met in Vale.

The only way around it was to sell his family's sword, but that wasn't something he was willing to do because even if he found it surrounded by dirt in the attic, it wasn't his.

Besides, there was no guarantee it would be enough for a gun, it would also drain his money as he would have to buy ammunition to practice, and he doubted his salary as a waiter would be enough to cover it.

But Jaune already knew this, so he had chosen the second option: to accelerate his training rate.

Jaune knew that combat schools were the safe choice for training people because they would train from children, and they would take every precaution to instill control on their abilities and skills.

They would also make sure they wouldn't leave any lasting damage as they trained, not only physically but also mentally. Because of that, combat schools weren't a fast way to gain skills compared to other options.

But there were other ways to train; after all, there was no correct way, just the one that fitted the user the most; and right now, he would have to look for a training method that wasn't safe.

He knew where he would have to look; The Public Library, he was sure there was a training method for soldiers in there that would be able to force him to grow.

Sure it would hurt, he was sure he would change, but that was his goal even if he didn't enter Beacon.

He checked the time, and his break was ending, he needed to get back to work.

Jaune had just finished cleaning the tables in his sections and was heading towards the bar, and as he approached, he heard Azure's voice behind him, "Jaune, we need to talk."

He immediately recognized that voice, it only meant one thing; he was in trouble. He turned around, said a bit dejectedly as he knew what was to come, "Sure."

She took him towards a place in the back of the restaurant where there was no staff around.

She had her arms crossed in front of her, and she could see her furrowed brows as she stood in silence, and after a moment of silence he spoke nervously, "So, what-"

But he was immediately interrupted by Azure, "You didn't do anything wrong." He quickly released a sigh of relief.

Azure continued as her posture relaxed, and her arms dropped to her side "But, you could have been."

Jaune looked at her in confusion and asked, "What do you mean?"

Azure then explained in her rough voice, "The father and daughter in table seventeen. You assumed they were father and daughter before they even told you."

He could feel that he was missing something that seemed entirely too apparent to Azure, "I'm sorry, but I don't see the problem."

Azure said and walked closer to him as she said, "Never assume, Jaune. What if they weren't father and daughter? What was another possibility?"

After a moment, something clicked in his mind as he said a bit scandalized, "There's no way they would have been dating, they had like thirty years between them!"

Azure said with a sigh, "Look, it's unlikely, but that could have been the case, it's a matter of time before you see something like that."

Azure then continued, "You are also kind of dense, so I don't think you'd be able to tell."

Jaune had no answer to that; after being in Vale for more than a week and working a job where he had to interact with a lot of people in little time, he could see some things were flying over his head that he wasn't picking upon.

After a moment of silence and trying to get the words to his tongue, did he just give up and sighs.

Then he just apologized, "I'm sorry, I'll be more careful."

She seemed uncomfortable before she grabbed his shoulder and started rushing him away from the room and said, "Don't worry, you'll get better at it." Then she said with conviction in her voice, "I'll make sure of it."

Jaune immediately remembered his sisters, where he had been in the same position, where he could only accept their help and move on.

His pride demanded that he had to decline her help, he had decided that he would never need anyone's help. But work demanded his attention, and he could only say softly, "Thanks" as he went to a table that was calling out to him.

Jaune sat at his desk and looked at the book in front of him, 'Creating a Weapon.' He had already read its introduction, and it was disturbing, but it was also so alluring.

Despite its title, it wasn't a book about weapon crafting, but how the Mantle military-trained some of its soldiers.

Not everyone, though, not to due lack of trying, but due to its side effects.

The majority of soldiers became unstable after a few months of training, they developed psychological issues and would become liabilities in combat or other activities.

It was simple, really; they broke those men.

But the Mantle military didn't give up, because of the results of those few that worked. They rapidly became strong, they followed orders to the letter and would be able to learn anything faster than other soldiers.

To call it a military training for those that succeeded wasn't correct, it was their way of life.

The book mentioned that each military had their preferred ideologies and values they had reflected that.

Vale valued teamwork, the people they trained with wouldn't leave them for the rest of their lives. If people died, they would never be replaced, you lived and died with no one else but your team, leading to brave acts from their groups and reckless assaults.

Mistral valued achievements; this leads to the soldiers wanting strength for their own greed for power and fame. Mistral soldiers didn't trust each other, but they compensated that with strength and numbers.

Vacuo only valued survival, their military training was just throwing them into a battlefield, and those that didn't die became soldiers, though the title didn't mean anything in Vacuo. This lead to unpredictable tactics as everyone had a different tactic for survival, it could have been simple strength, or cunning, or teamwork.

Finally, Mantle valued order above else, there had to be a perfect response from every soldier when an order was given at any point in time. This lead to calculated attacks and impressive response times when they were at defense, but only if they had prepared for the situation or had an officer in command.

But this method created by Mantle was made to cover those weaknesses. They wanted to create special operatives that wouldn't depend on other officers. They only had a clear objective they had to clear by themselves, set by the general himself.

Mantle also had another significant disadvantage, because they lived in Solitas, they didn't have a massive population like the rest of the kingdoms. Leaving outside the city of Mantle was many times harder than in other kingdoms, so their surrounding towns didn't have as many people to recruit for their armies.

So they wanted to have better quality in their soldiers.

Because of that, they created a military method with one value at its core: Adaptability.

This was discussed as the most valuable trait by Humankind and Faunuskind. Because of this, they can adapt their surroundings to themselves, survive even where Grimm cannot.

But it's also a weakness, if there's no threat people become complacent, they get lazy and eventually, they are in danger once again.

So the scientists in Mantle asked themselves: What if we systematically push people to their limits?

That leads to broken and psychotic people.

But they didn't give up, they tried again and again and perfected a training method.

Jaune sighed as he asked himself,' But at what cost?'

But the cold-hearted leaders of Mantle didn't care; after all, emotions was a sign of weakness for them and the war just a game of numbers to them, if the deaths would help perfect a training method that would create better soldiers, they had no problem with it.

But even then, the success rate was too low, so only willing people would be trained under this method; otherwise, it would have become their staple training method in the Mantle kingdom.

They usually where people who had lost something to war.

Their way of life. Their homes. Their family.

They wanted revenge on the enemy that had caused the war, and in this kingdom, the enemy was Vale and Vacuo.

Even then, will alone wasn't enough to go through this way of life. They became more than themselves; they purposely created split personalities for their soldiers.

Each of them had a ritual that would trigger them, were their only focus was their objective. Every aspect of themselves became a tool.

The pain was merely an inconvenience, everything and everyone became a tool for their objective.

But they also had a ritual that let them out of this state. Where their emotions became alive once again.

The book had only mentioned that most people that survived their training had no qualms about their unfeeling state; they just rationalized it 'Was necessary for my survival and objective.'

Jaune didn't want to think about how they were trained to ignore the harsh conditions of war.

Because the training method was just a highway to power and phycological disorders, it wasn't written in the book. Though the book did say it that Atlas most likely had it in their records but wouldn't share it with anyone.

Instead, it had a rough overview, there was nothing specific.

Even then, it was extreme: It said to form a ritual, it could be anything, running his hand through his hair, clenching his fist, but the more specific, the better.

Then the user would push himself through his limit, preferably with some sort that would eventually lead to extreme pain or could cause severe stress to the person.

The ritual had a purpose, it would prepare the mind and body to the stress it would go through, and eventually, it would help channel it. There was also another ritual for the user that he had to choose to relax the body, so it would be able to maximize their rest.

The user would also train mentally before and after their physical training, imagining how they could react in that situation.

This somehow also built muscle memory, as their studies showed that people that only imagined had similar progress than those who physically practiced.

But this also had another side-benefit. It would help train the user's mind, help him focus on his objective, and somewhat prevent panic when encountering stressful situations.

However, it also forced the user to rest, because you can't stress somebody for long enough without burning him out. Eventually, the lack of rest would make his training less efficient.

Another aspect relevant to the training was ambition. The user had to accomplish short term goals to be able to reach his long term objective.

In the end, Jaune decided he would try to train like this because it would be better than him doing something randomly; besides, he would already go through immense pain it would be helpful if he would channel it into something more productive.

Jaune decided that in two weeks, he would go outside the walls and hunt Grimm even if he wasn't ready. Though that didn't mean he would go unprepared, he would be careful, he would go slowly and never go too far outside the walls.

He would also choose a semblance that would help him, just as insurance though that would prevent his progress towards [Nightmare of Eternal Battles]; if things went well, he would choose [Shadow Fighting V2] next time to advance it.

He could also choose a semblance that could also advance by killing Grimm, so it wouldn't be a complete loss. Besides, it would be a semblance he would most likely use again, as he would choose something that would help him escape or strengthen him somehow.

With that decided he decided that he would study History for a few hours as it was one of the subjects, it would differ most from his education in the village, not because it described the same events differently, but focused on other things.

The History textbook focused heavily on the Great war and the kingdoms, his village was much more basic and would focus on the history of the village itself.

The other subject he was far behind was Dust, his village only taught him the basics of the basics compared to the textbook.

It was apparent why Dust was another weapon, so it would make sense for the students to have in-depth knowledge even if they didn't use it. They could encounter bandits or criminals that could use Dust, so it would be best to be prepared.

With that thought, Jaune took out his textbook, started reading and taking notes.

Jaune stood in the backyard of the dormitory, with a blue t-shirt, jeans, and Crocea Mors at his hip. He took a deep breath as he tried imagining fighting the illusions once again.

He could feel his body reacting to his imagination, he could feel chills on it whenever he imagined he moved. He also thought himself twitching whenever he believed a Beowolf striking him.

Eventually, his mind started to wonder about other things, about how he should train his Aura physique, how screwed he was in his knowledge about Dust and what he wanted to eat at night.

Each time, he took a deep breath and tried this 'image' training.

Finally, an alarm sounded, informing him that half an hour had passed. He grabbed his scroll to turn it off.

Jaune had to admit, image training was much harder than he thought it would be, his mind refused to focus and would always wonder. But with practice, his focus would get better.

Jaune then just shook his head and took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and started his ritual.

He gripped Crocea Mors by the hilt, feeling the rough sensation of its handle and tried to expand his senses, trying to explore every part of the sword. He felt his focus fluctuate, but didn't stop feeling the weight of the sword in his hand as he started unsheathing it.

Finally, he let out a breath as he gripped the sword in his right hand and opened his eyes.

He could feel his focus waver as he moved his aura to his brain and activated his semblance.

[Shadow Fighting V.2]

[User can create an illusion of simple enemies, may produce up to twenty, only seen by himself. The User will feel pain if the illusions strike him.]

[Price: For 24 hours, temporarily lose 5% of the User's aura reserve. Uses 2% of aura reserves per minute used.]

[Time left: 11:27]

He was reluctant, but he pushed through anyway, he had no idea what degree of pain he would feel, but he was going to found out soon.

Jaune ordered the semblance to activate, he only issued one Beowolf, he would gradually increment it as he defeated them, just like [Nightmare of Eternal Battles].

A newborn Beowolf manifested once again at the end of the clearing and instantly charged towards Jaune.

Jaune waited with his sword ready, and the moment the Beowolf ented his range, he took a step forward and did a downwards diagonal swing. The Beowolf didn't dodge and was cut from its left shoulder towards its right hip.

Jaune released his breath he was holding and felt relief and a bit of satisfaction. But he quickly reminded himself of the words of Amaranth. 'It isn't that hard beating a single Beowolf, their movements were mechanical and didn't have any self-preservation, it would change if he faced stronger ones.'

Before he activated his semblance once again, he remembered Amaranth's words, 'use their numbers against them.'

Though there was a problem with that, he couldn't really kick the Beowolfs, as they had no weight, and he would stumble even he put his weight behind it. So he could only use the Beowolfs against each other.

He again activated [Shadow Fighting V.2], and this time, two Beowolfs appeared at the end of the clearing. Both of them charged like the one before.

This time Jaune moved to the left when they reached halfway through the clearing, making a Beowolf reach him one before the other, instead of at the same time, the same way Amaranth did in his video.

He managed to swing his sword sideways, killing the first Beowolf, but before he could react, the other Beowolf clawed at his shoulder.

A cry of pain immediately left his mouth, and he lost grip on Crocea Mors. The pain wasn't fading away, it was digging deeper and clawing at his insides, he could feel it shocking his body, so he couldn't dodge the next beowolf strike, this time it was his neck.

The pain was getting worse, but it was helping focus on the enemy in front of him, he managed to roll out the way of the next attack, but it only made his pain worse.

It wasn't stopping, it was incomparable to the cuts he felt earlier in the week, but now he had an enemy forcing him to move, making him focus on anything but the pain.

Jaune ran away trying to force distance between the Beowolf and him, but once he felt pain in his back, he knew it was a mistake to take his eyes off his enemy.

The pain blinded him, and a cry left his mouth as he rolled in the ground. The fall only exasperated the burn on his shoulder and neck, but he had no option but to move as the Beowolf was in front of him, wanting to claw his insides once again.

He managed to roll out the way and managed to stand up. He could feel his body sending him mixed signals, it was telling him to move so that it won't make the pain any more agonizing, but it was also telling him to run away.

He instead listened to his mind, to move when the time was right. He could feel his fear when the Beowolf lunged at him once again, and he dodged earlier than he would've liked, but he took this chance, as the Beowolf stumbled, to run to his sword.

When he managed to grab his sword, he didn't turn around right away as he could feel frantic charge and growl of the Beowolf; instead, he ran towards a tree, grabbed the trunk, and forced his body onto it.

Right then, he put his sword to the side of the trunk, and after a moment, a cloud of darkness dispersed in the blade, and Jaune knew the Beowolf was dead.

But he wasn't relieved, the pain wasn't leaving his body; instead, it was getting worse, as the enemies disappeared and the adrenaline with it. He felt agony and was having trouble standing up, so he gripped his sword and the trunk of the tree as he examined his body; there was no blood.

He knew what he had to do, he deactivated his semblance, and the pain faded away slowly.

Only now had he noticed his uneven breath, cold sweat across his body, making his clothes cling to him, and trembling around his body.

He looked at his sword, it was a miracle he hadn't cut himself with all the shaking.

Jaune realized he almost went into shock because of all the pain. He took deep breaths to calm his body and mind as he leaned into the tree.

He didn't know what to feel, he was terrified and didn't want to go through that pain again. But, he never had felt so alive, he could feel the adrenaline when he slashed at the Beowolf when he ran away from it, and the satisfaction from killing it.

It was something he did by himself. He felt proud and somewhat hungry for more; he wanted to become better. He thought he wanted to do it again, despite the terrible pain he went through.

He declared the pain the price of progress.

It would wash away his weakness. Because of the pain, he felt he would never be so powerless that he would be thrown into the garbage. He would make people think twice about him.

He walked in the center of the clearing and activated [Shadow Fighting V.2] again, making two Beowolfs.

It wasn't long before his screams of pain rang through the night.