Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.
I can easily admit that I'm currently really confused. No less than a few moments ago I was fighting and losing to a beowolf. Then I was being held onto quite forcefully by an understandingly terrified Nora. Now I'm rolling down a very steep hill with said girl in my arms unconscious and a really sharp pain in one of my thighs. Finding it very difficult to stop our speeding descent down this hill we find ourselves on. There seems to be something else rolling along right beside us a few feet away. If I had to guess, Ren and his mother are stuck in the same tumbling descent as we are.
Hearing rushing water from the direction we are rolling, a sense of dread takes over my body. From a few yards back, I could see the other group had gotten caught in a large bush, halting their descent. With nothing near for me to stop or slow our speed, I adjusted my shield, still attached to my arm, the best I could to protect Nora's back and worried about our speeding approach to the cliff's edge and water.
The first thought that came to mind when we found ourselves submerged in the water at the bottom of the hill we were on was that it was remarkably warm given how late it currently was. After surfacing, the second was rushing as the current swept us down the river at astonishing speed. All I could do was hold onto Nora, keep our heads above water and hope the few [Holy Lights] I alternated between the both of us would keep us alive until the waters calmed.
Not too far down the river the rapids slowed and with some strenuous effort I was able to get us to shore. While discovering the pain in my leg was caused by my sword I had just realized I was no longer holding onto. My best guess would be that during our abrupt locational change it ended up fortunately but painfully in my leg while I was holding onto Nora during our descent down and over the cliff we were at. After a quick tug along with a definitely not girlish shriek and a [holy light], I was as good as new.
I wish I could say the same about Nora. I looked at the still unconscious girl, who was shivering uncontrollably for some reason, the water was comfortably warm and even though it's late in the evening, the temperature is perfectly fine… my coat. Looking at the still too large gray coat, no matter what this thing keeps the wearer from getting too warm or cold. Quickly removing my soaked backpack then coat. The freezing coldness of the wet clothing I was wearing finally registered on my skin. Sitting the small girl up and putting the coat on her she finally stopped shivering. Letting out a relieved sigh and looking her over with an [observe].
Nora
Race: Human
Level 12
HP – 340/340
AP – 0/680
VIT – 34
STR – 21
DEX – 28
INT – 18
WIS – 17
CHA – 28
LUK – 34
"What the hell!'' I say a bit too loudly. She went up like ten levels, how? Noticing the new set of values under her hp. She has aura now, well had aura she's currently completely out. Was that what the whole glowing thing was about. Did she unlock her aura and semblance? Is that what moved us out here but wasn't her semblance lightning absorption or something similar. Isn't semblances linked to the soul? How would hers be different now? "Index what's going on?"
Semblances could be considered a manifestation of one's soul but souls are quite complex and should not be so casually linked to just a single possible manifestation. Strong physical or emotional events can trigger the activation of a semblance, change the event a different part of the soul could manifest.
That makes sense, I guess. What triggered her semblance originally didn't happen, and now she can teleport, which seems kinda broken. But why did her level shoot up?
Having aura is a massive increase in parameter over a regular civilian, therefore, the increase in level.
Ah ok, wait I had my aura unlocked why didn't I get the free level boost?
All gamers are required to start at level one any preexisting bonuses are negated.
I feel gypped, cheated and robbed. All that grinding I did and she passed me in level in an instant. Thanks to her we made it out of that alive so I'm not really mad at her but it still kinda stings my pride.
Looking around the annoyingly familiar sight of random trees and bushes in the dark forest then looking up at the shattered moon our only source of light. "So where are we now anyways?"
Your location is a random forest in anima.
Not this again.
[Quest: Lost and not so Alone]
Objective - Find your way out of this forest and to civilization with Nora.
Reward - 1000 EXP
I sit back down near Nora feeling incredibly uncomfortable in my soaked clothes. I remove my scarf seeing that it's only causing my neck to be even colder. I then remove and wring out the excess water from my shirt while seeing if I can see anything nearby in the darkness.
"Shouldn't I be able to see in the dark don't faunus have night vision?"
That is a common trait among mammalian faunus.
You are an aquatic faunas, specifically a shark faunus.
There are many sharks that can see quite well in low light, you are just not one of them.
"Well that sucks.'' I reply while draining the water from my shoes.
However, your vision is excellent while in water.
"That's nice, but not helpful in my current situation." I snark as I put on my no longer waterlogged sneakers. Looking back down at Nora who now looks to be comfortably sleeping in my coat. Well it's probably best to just stay here until she wakes up. I could try to carry her but if we come across any grimm I doubt I could fight them off in a dark forest with an unconscious girl in my arms.
Grabbing my pack and checking the contents inside. Wet and mushy bread, completely soaked sleeping bag, crushed fruit and previously dried but now damp strips of meat. I should have put all of this in my inventory. Well, at least my canteen is fine, so I throw it into my inventory along with everything else except the backpack, sword, and shield.
We are going to be here a while. I might as well check my stats. I know I leveled a few times since this whole thing started.
Rain
Level – 10
Class – Paladin Lvl 10/100 [17%]
Race – Faunus(Shark)
HP – 260 [26 per minute]
MP – 260 [26 per minute]
AP – 520 [26 per minute]
STR – 26
VIT – 26
DEX – 10
INT – 26
WIS – 26
CHA – 26
LCK – 10
Stat points – 10
Passive selection available
Spreading the ten available stat points between the five stats I previously focused on. I look down at the blinking section of text at the bottom of the screen.
"Index what is this passive selection thing?"
Every ten levels in a class you get to choose at passive effect from a list of available skills.
Ah yes, it's quite obvious given the name, well ok lets see what available.
[First Avenger] (Passive)
[Avenger's Shield] can bounce off up to 3 additional targets before returning to you.
[Infusion of Light] (Passive)
For every offensive paladin ability you use reduce the MP cost of the next heal ability by 25% can stack up to 4 times
For every healing paladin ability you use reduce the MP cost of the next offensive ability by 25% can stack up to 4 times
[Fires of Justice] (Passive)
Any light based offensive ability has a 20% chance to burn the target for 5% of its maximum HP. Proc chance is lowered by 2% for each level the target is above the user.
These are all pretty good. I can bounce my shield around more or a free heal every four [Crusader Strikes] with my current set of skills or possibly burn something for a percent of its max health. But the higher level I get the more mana I will have making [Infusion of light] less useful later on unless I get some really expensive healing skills later. [Fires of Justice] adds a chance to do health percentage but it wont work on anything ten levels above me which somewhat defeats the purpose. Most things around my level I can kill in a few hits anyway. [First avenger] just seems like the better choice. A permanent increase to how many things I can hit with my shield and possibly stun really isn't much of a choice here.
Passive gained
[First Avenger] (Passive)
Letting out a sigh. "I really shouldn't hold onto stat points and stuff like this if that beowulf was stronger I might not have survived long enough for Nora to get us out of there."
Speaking of said girl, she started to stir from her slumber. Sitting up and looking around bleary eyed she let a small yawn then continued taking in her surrounding stopping when our eyes met.
"Oh, hey Rain." she says obviously still half asleep.
"Hey Nora." I reply with a small smirk waiting for her to catch up to our current situation.
She looks back off in a random direction then immediately jumps up. "Where are we?" she asked frantically looking around then down at herself. "And why am I all wet?"
"Our location is a random forest in Anima, and your clothes are all wet because not too long ago we came out of that river" I reply pointing to the moving body of water that is a few yards away from us.
"Why were we in the river and now this forest." Then a look of realization comes across her face "What about all the grimm and the big wolf one that hit you." she practically shouts while leaning down checking over my body.
"Nora calm down we're both fine thanks to you, we got away from the grimm I'll tell you what happened but first you need to calm down." I say pulling her to the ground beside me. "First how much do you remember?"
"I remember we were running and then you were fighting a group of grimm and then the wolf one attacked us but you stopped it and then..." Her face scrunches up as she tries to remember what happened after.
"It's alright, you don't have to remember what happened after that...'' I reassure her and carry on from there. "After the beowolf knocked me away, you had grabbed onto me and started glowing."
"Yeah, I was all pink and stuff." She cut me off, recalling her last few moments before she fell unconscious.
"Yeah, you were glowing then teleported us out of the village." Her eyes widened at the revelation.
"I teleported?" she says while standing, interrupting me again.
"Yes you did" I tell the surprised girl, pulling her back to her seat. "You teleported us, Ren and his mother out of the village and to a cliff that led to that river."
She looks around. "Where are they, the boy and his mom?" she asks.
I lost track of them on the hill. They're probably back there, but I'm not sure.
"So how was I able to teleport?" she says looking at the palms of her now raised hands "Can I do it again?"
"Probably, if I were to guess it's your semblance. It seems to have unlocked when we were in trouble back there."
After self-inspecting herself, she looked back at me. "But I didn't even have aura."
"Well now you do, I can tell." I tell her as she looks back at her hands.
She clenches her fist and looks at me with furrowed brows, "How do I activate it?"
Moving her raised fist back into her lap, I inform her "I wouldn't recommend trying to use it now, because your aura hasn't really recovered much from when you used it before."
She pouts a little most likely due to not being able to use her new power yet.
"So what do we do now?" she asked, holding the oversized coat she was wearing. She looked down, just noticing that she had it on. "Why am I wearing your coat?" she asked.
"For now we sit and rest we shouldn't try moving through this forest while it's this dark and you have my coat because you were freezing when we got out of the river and it was keeping you warm."
Her eyes cast over me in my still damp clothes, and she began removing my coat. "Here I am not cold at all I am fine" she immediately stops speaking and begins shivering once she has taken it off.
"That coat is... let's say special. It will keep you warm even in the middle of the night in wet clothes." I tell her while putting it back round her shoulders, her shivering halting.
She looked at my clothes again "But your clothes are just as wet as mine and the air just felt so cold."
"I'm fine", I point to my teeth and smile, revealing a better view of my teeth now that my scarf is off. "I'm a shark faunus so cold water doesn't bother me." It does, but she doesn't need to know that.
She squints at me with suspicion. Then like a scene that would fit perfectly in any comedy I let out a sneeze.
"See, you're not fine, here!" she says to me irritably.
Thinking she was handing the coat back, she surprised me by moving closer to me, then wrapping the coat around us both.
"There now we can both be warm" she says smugly.
Looking away from the increasingly smug girl next to me. "Yea I guess that works."
Wanting to change the topic of conversation "Hey Nora." she gives me a huh in reply. "When it gets more bright out we are going to try to find our way out of this forest but after that what are you going to do?"
She looks at her feet somberly in response to my question.
Maybe that was to bleak of a topic change. "You don't have to."
"What are you going to do?" she cuts off the withdrawal of my question with her own.
Looking up at our only source of light, the stars and shattered moon. What am I going to do? Normally gamers just level up, collect power and/or girls from different fandoms they like. I didn't even really clarify what things I would and wouldn't be able to do when I got this power. I just kinda jumped at the chance that was offered. Now I'm a ten year old that is lost in a forest in the middle of the night drenched to the bone. What are the requirements for getting into the next world? I have seven years until canon, so I'll be stuck here until then, I think. Index what do I need to do to get to the next world?
World jump requirements are currently hidden.
Feeling a headache already forming. I think I already know the answer, but why are they hidden and how do I unlock them?
Due to the senior gamers wanting to 'try something new', world jump requirements are hidden until you reach canon.
How am I supposed to know what to work towards over the next seven years if I don't know what my end goal is until canon starts?
Requesting further information.
Please hold.
…
I have been informed that the world jump requirements can, have and will change based on your action over the next several years.
So like what? If I become a huntsman and go to Beacon I could end up with different requirements then say if I went to the grimmlands and joined Salem's group?
Correct those are both viable options that will result in differing world jump requirements.
I'm not sure if I should be happy about that or not. On one hand I can mostly just do what I want and then make whatever adjustments I need in around seven years but on the other hand it's kinda annoying not having a clear goal in mind from the start. Well at least I don't have to worry about messing up so badly over the next few years that I'm stuck in this world forever.
Realizing Nora was still waiting on my answer, I turned back to her and said. "I have no idea."
She started off with a few chuckles that evolved into full blown laughter. "Y-y-you had s-such a serious f-face a ah M-moment ago bu-but I have n-no i-idea was the answer y-you came up with" she says while trying to get a hold on her laughter.
Shrugging "Well I don't, I kinda just ended up in this area while wandering around I guess I'll just go back to doing that for now."
Once she got herself under control she looked back at me seriously. "Can I go with you?"
I was kinda half expecting this, but I still give her a questioning look.
"I have nowhere to go. The village is probably gone now, and even if it were still there, I have no real reason to stay there." She looks down at her now still damp clothes "I'm sure you can guess that I didn't have a home back there, no home and no family."
I put my arm around the girl trying to comfort her as she tells me about herself.
"As far back as I can remember I lived in an orphanage."
"In Kuroyuri?" I question not seeing such a place in my short stay in the village, though it easily could have escaped my notice it's not like they would have a big sign saying 'orphanage here' on the building.
Shaking her head in answer to my question. "No, I was only there for about a month. Nagato is where I came from. The village wasn't big but it was nice even at the orphanage. Miss Yuki was the only one to take care of us there until she got really sick. She was taken to another village with better doctors, but she never came back. There was not much we could do on our own in the village and the others in the village couldn't spare much food for us. Some of the other kids wanted to go to Mistral thinking that the big city would be easier to survive than our little village so we left Nagato but we never made it there. The trip to Mistral was the first time we traveled so far out of Nagato, we didn't realize how far away it was from each other. We ran out of what little food we had saved for the trip after a few days. We ended up coming across a grimm only three of us were able to get away. What was left of our group came across Kuroyuri."
I was bewildered as Nora told me about the last two months of her life.
"So the others are still back in the village?" I ask.
Shaking her head. "No, I'm the only one left since a few weeks ago."
I sit there silently thinking over what she just told me.
"So can I?" she asks.
Recalling the question she asked me before she told me of the life she lived. "Yea, for as long as you want to." I say to her.
+20 Affection with Nora for letting her travel with you. [45/100]
Bringing up her past must have been exhausting and in response to my answer all she did was lie her head down on my shoulder and just drift off to sleep.
Author's notes: So yea I changed Nora's semblance. I always found it kinda lackluster in comparison to all the other main cast's like a worse version of Yang's so I unintentionally changed it to a different version of Raven's now that I think about it. I know she had the whole Thor theme going on with lighting, hammer and her last name and all but because of Rain's interference she is going to be somewhat different in character theme.
Also I can't believe this is almost at 500 followers and the reviews I've gotten have been really positive but if anyone has any constructive criticism, please let me know. I want to try to improve my writing with future chapters the best I can.