Ephemeral Dream
Summary: Jaune Arc isn't strong, smart, or skilled. Even so, he dreams of a future in which he is a Huntsman. He dreams of friendship, combat, and love. But every dreamer must wake. "Not yet…" He whispered, tears of blood streaking down his cheeks. "I can't let this dream end… Until I've turned it to reality." Gamer Jaune!
Warnings: Crossovers, strong and smart Jaune, later quite OP. Possible Harem.
III: In Need of a Weapon
After my beat down of Cardin, the class went smoothly. Everyone finished up their spars and then, while the people without aura played basketball, Tai instructed us on basic hand-to-hand combat. I didn't get any skills out of it, though I wasn't too surprised about that.
Honestly, I was grateful. If I ended up with too many skills too soon, I'd have no time to actually master the skills I did have. I had enough skills that I needed to work on as was, there was no need for me to get even more just yet.
As a bonus for the beat down I gave him, Cardin was now going out of his way to avoid me in the locker rooms once we changed back into our uniforms. I was fine with it; Cardin was kind of an ass anyway.
As I changed my clothes, I willed my status menu to appear. Since I'd levelled up, it meant I had six more stat points to spend. I didn't hesitate putting three of those points into intelligence, and as well as two into sense, and one into luck.
Sense wasn't a skill I was used to in games but it seemed dead useful and worth investing in. Luck was also not to be underestimated. It was why I slapped my last stat for the level up in there.
From this point on, however, I'd be a bit more careful with my stat points since the game seemed to hand out stats for clearing quests, as evident by the fact one of my rewards for my day with Ruby would be three points in dexterity.
I waited outside of the changing rooms for Yang and Ruby, so we could eat lunch together. And, as I waited, I thought about the last friend I had in school outside of the two.
Admittedly, outside of Yang and Ruby, I didn't really have any friends. There were plenty of people with whom I would have liked to be friends but… I just didn't have the courage to approach them. I guess that's why I ended up befriending so many of them in my dreams.
The only friend I had outside of them was a faunus girl called Hikage. She was a snake faunus, her feature being her slit yellow eyes. She also had green hair and a body that could give Yang a run for her money.
Hikage was an orphan, nobody really knew what happened to her parents. She was just found on the doorstep of an orphanage one day in a basket, with a blanket that had her name on it. She was adopted at six by a nice woman called Hinata, and things seemed to look up for her… Until Hinata was killed when a peaceful faunus protest rally turned violent when Hikage was 10.
Hikage went back to the orphanage after that, and she displayed very little emotion from then on. It would be more accurate to say she'd seemed like she'd forgotten how to properly feel emotions all together.
I met her in my last year of primary school, shortly after the incident when her mother died. We, unbelievably, became fast friends. My family was a bit concerned by her lack of emotion, but they came to like her well enough and she was accepted.
And then… Came the day they all told me to stop being a Huntsman. I think, of all of them, Hikage's words had hurt the most when she told me to give up. At the time, I felt like a knife had been twisted in my stomach by her. I had slowly helped her start to feel emotions again, to start to move on from her mother's death, and then she'd gone and told me to give up my dream.
Of course, now I could think rationally and realise that when my parents spoke to her, they had likely mentioned my chances of dying were high and she couldn't bear to see me die like Hinata had.
"I love my parents, but some things are just too cruel to use against people…" I muttered to myself.
I didn't care if I was insulted or hurt, I was used to it. Both in the real world, and in my dreams. But to use Hikage's past and indirectly bring up her mother's death and use it to turn her against me? That was too far.
I loved my parents, but I wouldn't forgive them for that.
"… aune. Jaune!"
I shook my head, snapping my eyes to Ruby. "Huh?"
"You okay?" She asked me, and I saw Yang standing behind her looking at me concerned. "We've been here for a couple minutes, but you looked like you'd completely zoned out."
"Ah, sorry," I shook my head again. "Was thinking…" I looked at them. "… Where's Hikage?"
Both girls grew silent, and I felt as if something crawled up my throat.
Apparently Ruby noticed my expression because she flailed her arms. "Oh no, it's not like that! It's just…" Ruby hesitated.
"It's just what?"
"She's…" Yang gulped. "Jaune, I'm not going to sugar coat this at all. She doesn't believe she did anything wrong. She 100% believes that she did what she did for your sake, and nothing Ruby has said to her over the years has changed her mind, at all."
"… What…?" I couldn't believe it. Not even a bit of regret? She didn't believe she'd done anything wrong?
"I'm sorry," Ruby said quietly.
"… Well then…" I breathed out. "There is only one thing I can do."
"What's that?"
"I'll prove her wrong."
[Quest: Prove Them Wrong]
Two years of solitude have passed, but Hikage does not believe she did anything wrong by berating your dream. Now, it is time for you to train, rise up, and show her she was wrong.
Objectives: Beat Hikage in a spar
OR
Reach Level 20
Reward 1 (Objective 1): 30 Stat Points, Dagger Mastery Skill, New Questline Unlocked, Hikage Apologises
Reward 2 (Objective 2): 20 Stat Points, 1 Perk Point, Hikage Apologises
Failure: Bonds Questline Locked until Beacon, further relationships with Hikage locked until Beacon, Family does not support your dream
Time Limit: 6 Months
Note: It is possible to claim both rewards, but you only have one chance. To obtain both rewards, you must reach Level 20 and then challenge Hikage to a spar. If you lose the spar, the Quest will end if you are Level 20 or above.
Do you want to accept this quest?
Yes
I blinked in surprise at yet another Quest Dialogue box, the second one today. I'd already planned to prove Hikage wrong, but it seemed the System was telling me how' to go about doing that. With a firm nod, I mentally selected 'Yes.' There wasn't a no option anyway, so I had no choice, but I would have chosen yes anyway.
"Come on," I told them, trying for a smile. "Let's go and eat lunch. As an apology for bringing down the mood, I'll let you both have a pork ball from my lunch!"
"Hell yeah!" Yang fist pumped. "I love pork balls!"
I gave them both a smile, and we began our trek to the cafeteria.
"So," Ruby spoke up. "What are the plans for Saturday?"
"I figured we can meet up for lunch, and then go from there," Jaune replied.
"Sounds good!" She nodded. "What about after that?"
"I'll leave our plans up to you."
"Awesome!"
"Woah, woah," Yang cut in. "What are you two talking about?"
"Ruby and I are going out on Saturday," I told Yang. "Since we haven't hung out in two years, I thought it'd be nice if we could spend a day just chilling."
"… So, you're going on a date?"
"No!" Ruby exclaimed, and I saw her face turning red. "W- We aren't going on a date, it's just as friends!"
"Which restaurant are you going to go to?" Yang asked with a wry grin.
"None of your business," I cut in firmly. "Yang, Ruby and I went out all the time back then. We're just further rekindling our friendship, that's all. Now stop embarrassing her and attempting to embarrass me."
Yang pouted as we made to the mess hall. "Party pooper."
"I will crap all over your party when you start teasing," I rolled my eyes. Yang's teasing was unbearable sometimes, and she didn't really have an idea of when to stop. She usually only stopped, from what I recalled, when Ruby was about to tear up from embarrassment. I was hoping she'd changed in the time I'd been ignoring her, but I had my doubts.
I led the pair of them over to a table, pulling out my lunch jar and setting it on the table, opening it up and starting to take out the small compartments with my food in them.
"What's that?" Yang asked as she plopped into place opposite me.
"It's a Lunch Jar," I told her. "It's specifically made to retain the heat of the food. You cook something in the morning, put it in the jar, and it should still be warm when you take it out later. That way I can have a warm meal for lunch instead of a cold one. It can keep food at a nice warm temperature for up to nine hours. Works with cold food too, keeping it nice and cold for around sixteen or so."
"Oh… That's cool," she nodded. "How much was it?"
"Uh… I think like, 34 Lien?" I responded. "It was pretty expensive."
Yang's eyes widened. "That much!? Why would you spend that much!?"
"… Because I wanted a warm homemade lunch," I told her. "Anyway…" I removed a compartment holding three pork balls. "There. One for both of you, and leave the last one."
"Awesome!" Yang cheered, taking her pork ball, and taking a bite out of it as Ruby grabbed hers.
[Through a special action, you have obtained the skill 'Charisma.']
Wait what?
"Oh my god…" Yang said, her gaze glazed over as she licked her lips. "Jaune, who made that?"
… I had a bad feeling. A terrible, awful feeling.
I ignored it, because I'm an idiot.
"I did," I told her. "Why?"
She stared at me with… W- Was that hunger? "Marry me."
"What- Yang!" Ruby squawked in shock.
I was pretty stunned too, my cheeks felt like they were burning and I looked away.
"You can't marry him," Ruby said firmly.
"But Rubes, his food is so good!" She whined. "Just eat your pork ball and you'll see!"
Ruby looked doubtful, before taking a bite out of her pork ball.
[Charisma has levelled up by one.]
Ruby looked at me with the same gaze Yang had in her eyes.
I could only gulp.
~~Ephemeral Dream~~
I managed to convince the girls to not try and get me to marry them by promising to make a bit more food for them to enjoy from then on.
On the plus side, I discovered the System had an alarm system that would help remind me of important events. Apparently, the promise to make food counted. It also confirmed for me that my sisters weren't serious when they asked me to marry them, which was a huge relief to find out they hadn't been serious.
Classes went on slowly through the day, to the point I tuned out and took the notes more absentmindedly as I began to make my plans for the short term.
I was currently half way through my second year at Signal. That gave me 6 months to reach level twenty. If I wanted to do that, I would need to start the classic game trope that was grinding. And the best way to do that was to fight mobs.
In other words, I had to fight Grimm.
Which meant I needed weapons. I may have aura, but that was mostly a shield. I needed weapons, be it gauntlets, a sword, anything.
But where was I going to get that?
I mean, I could borrow Crocea Mors from the basement, but I didn't want to do something like that. Crocea Mors was a family treasure, to take it for any reason- no matter what it was- would be… Wrong. It would be so wrong of me to dare do something like that.
But how was I going to get a weapon then?
I had no money, no weapon, and no way to…
Gradation Air.
The answer hit me like a truck.
Gradation Air was the answer! At the moment, yes, it was useless to me as it could only create hollow copies of objects… But if I trained it up, that could change! It could create real replicas rather than fake one!
I quickly brought up my stats page and my skill page. Currently, my MP was sitting at 430. And Gradation Air cost me 10 MP per use. That meant I could use it forty-three times a day. Surely, I could get some good levels with that. Though I would have to wait until late at night before doing so, just in case I needed MP for the rest of the day.
Yes! I could work with this!
Clearly the game thought so too.
[Quest: Projection]
You desire to grow stronger, but you have no weapon with which to fight. But you have found a solution, now all you can do is stick with it and gather the weapons you'll need to get stronger.
Objective: Get Gradation Air to Level 50.
Reward: Gradation Air evolves into 'Projection' Skill, 1,000 EXP, +10 Intelligence
Failure: Forever unable to use 'Projection,' must wait until Beacon to use a proper weapon.
Bonus Objective: Get Projection to Level 100 in 2 weeks.
Bonus Reward: Revealed upon clearing bonus objective.
Time Limit: 1 Month
Upon reaching level 50, you will automatically clear the quest and obtain the 'Projection' Skill. The Timer will then automatically change to 2 weeks for the player to clear the bonus objective. (This means that, if the player doesn't reach level 50 in Gradation Air until right at the end of the time limit, the quest will then extend to 2 weeks from the moment the player reaches level 50 and obtains the 'Projection' skill.)
Do you want to accept this quest?
Yes/No
I stared at the screen in front of me. That was a pretty hefty reward, and the bonus objective- while tough- certainly didn't seem impossible to me.
What also stuck out to me was the fact that I could say no. This was the first quest I'd been given that I could say no to, which meant this was more like a side quest than a main quest like the other two quests seemed to me. It meant that, while I didn't need to do this quest, the system was telling me that doing this quest would make my life easier in the long-term.
With that in mind, I accepted. Of course, I did! This might be my only chance of getting weapons that I could use before Beacon and the quest made it all too obvious; I wasn't going to be getting one until or right before I started attending. It was a no brainer!
If there was anything that I'd learned from playing games, it was that you should complete any and all side quests. They gave you the crazy good stuff that would make late game much easier than if you hadn't done them. Be it just the extra experience, the weapons you could get that would make fights easier for a short while, side quests were the place to go!
School passed by faster than I expected. I enjoyed a chat with Ruby and Yang on the way home, promising to make them something tomorrow, before I broke off from them and headed to my house.
"I'm home!" I called out as I made my way inside.
"Welcome home!" I heard Saphron's voice call out, stepping out to meet me in the hall. "How was school?"
"It was fine," I told her as I took my shoes off. "Managed to make up with Ruby and Yang. Ruby and I are going to hang out on Saturday."
"Oh, like a date?"
"It's not a date!" I snapped, a warmth rushing to my cheeks. Yes, Ruby was an attractive young woman. Yes, she was fun to be around and a good person. But it didn't mean the two of us were going to be going on a date or anything!
Saphron only laughed at my expression, while I grumbled. "Well, I'm sure you'll have lots of fun on your date, Jaune."
"Shut up," I grumble, deciding it wasn't worth the energy to try and argue about it. "Call me down when it's time for dinner, I've got some homework to do."
"Okay," she nodded, I walked past her, going into the kitchen and grabbing a simple butter knife, before I headed up to my room.
I closed the door behind me firmly, sitting on my head and setting the knife on my bed. "Right… Time to get started…" I held my hand out, letting my magic circuits thrum with energy, a kiss and a city burning filling my mind. "Accelerate. [Gradation Air.]"
I felt a rush through my magic circuits, before I was suddenly holding a knife just like the one on my bed.
[Gradation Air has levelled up by 1.]
[Magecraft has levelled up by 1.]
[Magic Circuits Quality has levelled up by 1.]
I observed the butter knife carefully, before deciding to see if I could check its stats. I could.
[Butter Knife (Fake)]
[Type: Weapon]
[Class: E-]
[Attack: +0.5]
[Duration: 1 Year]
[A butter knife made through Gradation Air. It is worthless.]
Well that was blunt, but not inaccurate. I cast a look at my H.U.D, and saw my MP had gone down to 420. That meant I could only use Gradation Air forty-two more times today until-
Wait! Earlier I used three Black Dragon Attacks, so my MP should be lower, but it was at the maximum amount when I got home. Why was that?
Did my MP recharge on its own? If so, by how much? I really needed to know that; it would mean I could do this much more efficiently! For example, it meant I could do my 43 projections in the morning, then go to school and do everything that had to be done that day, and have recovered it by the time I got home to do another 43!
"Come on, games have a help menu, don't they?" I muttered aloud to myself. "Come on, there's got to be something... Options!" I tried.
I was surprised that it worked.
[Options]
Help
Sound
Cheats (Disabled)
Clock - Off
Mini-Map – Off
Current Quests
Okay, that was pretty useful. I immediately turned on the Clock and the Mini-Map, seeing them show up on my H.U.D. The clock was to the right of my status bar in the form of a digital clock, and the Mini-Map was in the top right of my vision. They were all partially see-through, so that they weren't obscuring my vision.
I then mentally selected 'Help.'
[What is your question?]
"Oh wow, I can ask?" I blinked. That was much more useful than games I'd known, you could just ask questions and get an answer. I wasn't going to look a gift in the horse's mouth though. "Okay then… What rate does my MP recover at?"
[The Player's MP recovers at a rate equal to their base Intelligence stat every five minutes. E.g. The Player's stat is at 20. The player recovers 20MP every five minutes. The player's recovery time is lowered by 30 seconds every 50 levels. This caps at 1-minute minimum wait time. The Player's HP also recovers in the same way, but using the player's base vitality.]
I stared.
The screen didn't disappear or change.
".. Holy crap, that's crazy good…" I said quietly to myself.
That was beyond good! My current intelligence stat was sitting at sixteen. That meant I recovered sixteen MP every five minutes. That meant, currently, I recovered 192 MP every hour! It also meant the more I invested in my intelligence, the more MP I recovered!
Intelligence and vitality just became two of the most important stats in the game to me. I'd, without a doubt, be investing a huge amount of my stat points into those two stats! If I'd known about that sooner, I'd have invested so much more into vitality already!
"Oh well," I sighed. "I guess I should have checked everything out fully before I started… It's my own fault, but at least I've learned for the future…"
I began to do math in my head. If I recovered 192 MP every hour, that meant it only took around two hours and fifteen minutes for me to be back at my max MP.
I saw the help menu floating there, and grew curious. "Do I need to sleep?"
[The player does not require sleep, though it is recommended they do as sleep explosively increases recovery. However, the player will suffer no negative repercussion if they do not sleep.]
"Fuck…" I breathed, my mind racing as the implications hit me.
If I didn't need to sleep, that changed a lot of things. After some quick math, I found out that, if my MP recovered every 2 hours and 15 minutes, that meant I could create a few more than 430 fake knives a day.
With that huge number, level fifty in Gradation Air would surely be no problem at all! Plus, it would increase my levels in my Magic Circuit Quality and my Magecraft!
"Wait…" I frowned lightly. "Surely the System would notice something like this… Why allow me such an obvious exploit?"
I hesitated, before I firmed myself up.
If the system wasn't going to deal with such an exploit, then I was going to abuse it for all it was worth. I wanted… No, I needed to get stronger. The System said the planet chose me. That must mean that I had some great task ahead of me I had to fulfil.
If that was the case, I wouldn't hold back. I would abuse every exploit, every bug, every damn thing I could in order to get as strong as possible.
My continued survival depended on it.
~~Ephemeral Dream~~
I didn't sleep that night.
I was up all night, creating fake butter knives with Gradation air. When my MP ran out, I occupied myself. Either with a book, a game, homework, anything I could think of in order to distract me until my MP recovered and I could keep going.
And… Well…
[Gradation Air (Active) – Rank D – Lv. 25]
[Magic Circuits Quality (Passive) – Rank D – Lv. 20]
[Magecraft (Passive) – Rank E – Lv. 10]
… It paid off.
It paid off in a way I'd never even thought it could! I may have had a lot of butter knives in my inventory now – three-hundred-and-one to be exact – but it was so worth it! If I managed to keep up this pace, I'd be at level fifty in Gradation air in only two more days, maybe four more at worst!
That in mind, I also had to account for the time I wouldn't be able to use Gradation Air while at school…
But could I?
It only took a couple of seconds to create something, and it was silent when I did so. If I held my hand under the table, I could even create things during class, then store them in my inventory.
I would probably have Gradation Air at level fifty by the time it was Saturday for mine and Ruby's day out!
I was giddy to begin, before I calmed down and continued to plan things out.
Once Magecraft hit level ten, it didn't go any higher. I think that was because Magecraft stopped progressing after a certain point once you reached a certain amount of mastery with a spell. To increase its level further, and get it above Rank E, I would have to practice other spells, or start creating other spells.
I looked through my skill list to find out which one I should work on. Reinforcement seemed like a fairly important one, but my eyes were drawn more to Structural Analysis. I didn't know why, but I couldn't help but feel like it had untapped potential. It said, at the moment, I could only use it through touch. But what if I got it to a high enough level? Could that change to only needing to see something?
In battle, something like that would be useful. To see someone's weapon or an object, and instantly know what it was, and how it worked.
Of course, this was only me guessing. It was a gamble, but I felt like the game wouldn't give me this skill unless it was potentially useful to me.
I decided that, as soon as I was done with Gradation Air that my next focus would be Structural Analysis.
It was fairly early in the morning now, around 8 or so, so I was going to go downstairs to cook breakfast and prepare my lunch… Before I hesitated as a thought rang through my mind.
I didn't want to take Crocea Mors, and I wouldn't dare do that to a family heirloom… But I wanted to see it. I wanted to understand it, and use Structural Analysis on it to see if I could gain a better understanding of the weapon.
I clenched my fist before I made my way into the basement, quieter than I ever remembered being able to be. I walked down step by step, turning the light on, and began to walk around and by the various boxes, covering my mouth so the dust wouldn't give me a coughing fit…
It didn't take long to find it. It was on a stand, the shield resting in front of it as if defending the blade from those unworthy.
Though it had been down here for many years, unpolished and not properly maintained, the blade nor shield had a single sign of rust on them. The blade still looked as sharp as the day it was forged, not a single chip on the blade.
I took step after step towards it, slowly reaching out… And pressing my fingers against the sword and shield. I took a deep breath… "[Structural Analysis.]"
I felt information rush into my mind, but it was only a small amount. A longsword and shield forged together from the same piece of metal; the shield modified to be able to shift into a sheath. The blade had taken countless lives during the Civil War, most of the lives being taken during the faunus rebellion where it cut down an entire army of faunus in just 3 hours.
Sadly, I could not see more than that. I couldn't tell what materials were used, or even who else had used it besides my Great-Great-Grandfather, as I know it was used by a few people sans him.
I pulled my hand away, staring at the blade and shield.
This… This was my legacy.
This was the legacy of the Arc Family… Just laid in a basement, to never be used again.
I couldn't help but feel sad for the sword. I was sad for the fact it would never see battle again, never would it be able to taste the glory of victory or the bitterness of defeat again.
It would lay here, forever.
I clenched my fist as I turned around and walked up.
I made a firm resolution at that time.
I would master Gradation Air.
I would master Projection.
I would master any and every skill I had.
I would increase my level like crazy, ascend to new heights that no huntsman ever reached, nor dared to try.
I swore… That I would become a legend…
… And I would defeat anybody who stood in my path.
[Charisma (Passive) – Rank E – Lv. 2]
A skill consisting of a person's charm as well as the natural talent to command or unify an army or country. Increases the ability of allies during group battles. Increases how others perceive the user's attractiveness.
Publish Date: 21st September 2020
Word Count: 4,687
Hey guys!
It's been awhile since I updated, huh?
For everyone wondering, don't worry, I'm fine. Lock down and the current state of the world didn't really affect me at all. The reason I've been so silent is cause I've been experiencing major forms of writer's block. The progress on just this chapter was slow.
I did have most of this chapter written out for awhile, but then I looked at some of the characters I had included, and decided I didn't want them in the story anymore- or at least not the way they were presently- so I took them out of it and had to re-write a HUGE section of the story. Once I got past that, however, I wrote the rest of the chapter in about 2-3 days after that.
For those wondering, Stacking the Deck and Gaming Alone are NOT discontinued, they are still being worked on, there's just writer's block there... Well, more the case of I don't want to have to open up Titan's curse and scroll down to the right page to make sure I get the detail's right for Gaming Alone, but I'll work past it eventually.
Now, to respond to some reviews!
Lighthopperhoop: What ruined Ruby for me as a character is pretty simple. I'm a roleplayer. Yes, roleplayer, blerg. Anyone who's gonna shit on me for that, shut up _ It's basically writing a story, but between two people. I enjoy it, get over it. But, anyway, I was roleplaying with this Ruby and it was just... Awful. She was really bad rper, ignored my hints, and flat out refused to stop doing something when I said it was making me uncomfortable. Now, logically, I know Ruby as a character isn't at fault for the shitty partner. But, because I don't know the person playing as her, the blame was shifted to Ruby. So I hated Ruby for awhile. Still kinda do. But I'm working past it slowly, hence why this chapter came out.
Josh Spicer: First off, love the name. Secondly, the way to describe that is both simple and complex. The way I picture it is that everybody has that small part of them that is a little bit racist. It's not something immediately obvious, but some people can't help but link stereotypes to races in some way that comes off as pretty racist. In Jaune's case, the Cardin in his dreams represented that. The Cardin disliked faunus because he was raised in a society- even a dream one- where Faunus are considered lower-class citizens and discriminated against. With a terrorist group like the white fang, it only increased his dislike of them and grew racist because of it. However, he respected power more than he disliked faunus. So, if Velvet had shown how strong she was, he would have left her be.
The actual Cardin in the real world is just simply a dick. He's not racist, he's just as asshole to anyone who he perceives as 'weaker' than he is, and does his best to avoid the 'big bads' who are much stronger than him.
TigerJacob: Keep in mind, everything that happened in Jaune's dreamscape was exactly that; a dream. The 'Fighting Style' he used was only what he envisioned as how Huntsmen fought. When compared to actual fighting styles, it is very sub par and childish. But, because he is young, his mind perceived it as 'cool' and 'badass.' In real life, Jaune has never used a proper sword in his life, and never developed a proper style either, so it would take a while to build up to something usable.
He will be uber OP, yes, but the driving force of the fic will be more focused on Jaune's mind, and how he uses and exploits the system to get stronger in the shortest possible amount of time. He also won't be completely OP immediately. He will still have tough fights, and will need to use his brain to figure out ways to win, or take leap of faiths and possible gambles that will still keep things tense. He won't be blatantly OP until the later chapters of the fic.
And, finally, there will be dungeons in the story. I won't explain the mechanics behind it for obvious reasons, but there will be dungeons in the story.
Now, I'm just going to answer the questions that everyone here is really asking themselves.
Yes, there are going to be more crossover characters than just the one I've introduced so far (Hikage is from the Senran Kagura games, if you are unaware. I don't recommend them, the games themselves kinda suck, but the characters and their backgrounds are interesting.)
Yes, Jaune will be obtaining quite a few more abilities from other shows as time goes on.
And, finally, yes. Jaune is going to summon a Servant. Though I promise you, none of you are going to guess who the servant is going to be.
Anyway, that's all from me for now guys! This is Ezras Hargrave, signing off!