The Grimm That Could Chapter 2, a rwby fanfic

D. . , I read on what you said, looked back on the chapter and realized that I missed something fundamental from the whole system process, that should make the whole Aura awakening part a little more understandable? I feel really dumb for leaving out such an important part of the whole thing so thanks for picking up on it. xoxoxo

Deathclaws1v - Thanks :)

Boring.

That was one word to describe how I felt as I was leveling up my Observe and Grimm Mastery skills.

I could constantly hear the pings and see the various notifications of skills being leveled up as I stalked the various animals of the woods. Hares, Rabbits, Wolves, you name it and I'd have already stalked it for several minutes before I simply turned away to test my skills on other prey. My intelligence was a boon and also a curse in this regard, it simply HAD to be kept busy in some way or the other, but at least I was leveling up my skills whilst doing so.

This was when I found a lone Beowolf within the forest. I used "Observe" and focused morose on the writing floating above it's head.

A Simple Beowolf

HP: 250/250

[Regular Grimm]

Lv 11

Ah. Something else popped up as well.

[Quest Created - First Blood]

A lone Beowolf. Kill it and make it your first official hunt of the night.

Success: 2000XP, 100 Lien.

Failure: Loss in Pride.

A Hunt!

My mind acknowledged the rewards and 2000XP for killing a single Grimm? I was already creeping up on it before I knew it, inadvertently creating a new skill along the way named "Sneak", which I could already imagine the implications of.

But wait a minute. Killing one of my own kind? A Beowolf? Was I ready to cross that bridge so soon after my uh.. very recent awakening?

[Would you do it for a level up. Free of charge?]

Wait. Hm. Actually...

Yes. Yes I would.

I was about fifty feet away from it and I began my slow approach as the notification disappeared from my view. For now, I decided to use my "Stealth" skill to see just how well it'd improve my... well, stealthy capabilities! I was nearing around thirty feet and the Grimm still had no idea that I was on it's tail, and it likely never would have if I was paying closer attention to the ground around me. But I didn't, and it showcased itself with the self echoing crunch of a stick underneath my paws.

Fuck.

It immediately snapped it's head and looked at me with its two gleaming, sharp red eyes.

I stopped completely dead in my tracks, waiting for the Beowolf to do something first. Thirty seconds. A minute. Two minutes?

Wait a minute.

How do I even know what a minute is? Is this due to the huge increase in Intelligence I received? But surely I would need some sort of reference or some sort of base level of knowledge to even understand it, right? Is whatever that blue box thing is still modifying my mind? How much has it already changed? Do I even resemble a Grimm anymore?

[For acknowledging your own reality and the absurdity of the situation at hand, you have gained 1 INT and WIS. Keep it going!]

Curse you mysterious transparent blue box!

Nevertheless, I looked back onto the main event taking place in front of me. It stood there, unmoving, unrelenting, it was like it was frozen in place, the only indicator of life being the dim red gleam of it's unwavering eyes.

I began to slowly edge my way forwards towards the Beowolf and I took notice of its appearance more closely this time. It was definitely not an Alpha, nowhere close in terms of it's size, claws, or even its bone spikes protruding from it's back. I took note that it had just started to develop it's own defense as well, the inklings of a bone face plate were there, but they were still unfinished and in its own infancy state. With the bone plate only covering the top of it's head and just barely layering over it's eyes as well.

And yet, it was still larger and more imposing then I was.

Great.

It then released something akin to a growl and actually ran and leaped towards where I was. I was prepared however, using my smaller stature to my own advantage. I ducked towards the side, all the while reaching out with my claws towards one of its unprotected limbs to try and take off some of its HP already.

And it worked... into making it even more angry at me.

Even though I could feel my claws being embedded into one of the Beowolf's legs, I could tell that it didn't pierce the hide, not even close.

I immediately backed away as fast as I possibly could, hoping to make some distance before it decides to charge my way again. It turned back from it's leap with a very distinct snarl of pure hate and anger that only creeped me out a little. I realized after that first encounter that using my claws wasn't a very effective method at this moment, they were simply too dull to cut into the hide of this Beowolf. I started running through various scenarios in my head. What could I do? What could I use?

Then all of a sudden. Eureka!

I positioned myself so that I would be in direct sight of the Beowolf, and as expected, it charged straight at me with no semblance of intelligence, just a red hot, flaming desire to turn me back into dust.

I got what I wanted eventually, as it dove over my head and I ducked underneath the mass of Grimm, time seemed to slow down and I saw my opportunity. The neck. As the Grimm crashed into the nearby shrubbery, dazed and confused, I jumped with everything I possibly had towards my goal. I opened my jaws and had my prey perfectly slotted within the fangs of my jaws and I used the highest level skill I had. "Bite".

I could already hear the grim (get it?) sounds of skin tearing, of flesh ripping apart, of tendons and bone being ground into dust as my jaws sunk in as I repeatedly used Bite on the Beowolf's neck. It whined and growled even louder, it was writhing on the floor underneath me, trying to escape the iron grip that I had over it's neck but to no avail, kicking and trying to use it's claws to tear myself off of him. I could feel my HP slowly drain and a dark mist had started to drag itself out from the scars on my back. I too felt a warm, blanket of something drag its way towards the damage I suffered, laying over it till the pain was dulled. Still, I couldn't let him go! Not at such a perfect opportunity! As the Grimm beneath started losing strength, as it started weakly whimpering beneath the grasp of my jaws and the whiffs of a dark, permeating black smoke started to be emitted throughout the creatures body, I used Bite one more time, crushing the remnants of whatever resistance it had left in it and sealing it's fate forever as nothing but smoke in the wind.

[You killed Regular Beowolf Lv. 11]

[You gained 2000XP!]

[For using your intelligence to come up with a surprisingly good plan of action, you gained an additional 2 INT!]

[First Blood Quest Completed!]

You have now killed your first Grimm. The first of many.

Rewards:

-2000 XP

-100 Lien

-Skill Book

[You Leveled up Twice!]

[Stealth has Leveled up Twice!]

[Bite Mastery has Leveled up 3x!]

[New skill: "Rend" was created.]

[Rend Mastery Leveled up!]

[You gained 1 Biomass!]

Two levels, I forgot that this quest gave me an additional level and so much XP along with it. I needed to check my skill points and see what I could currently invest in, but first. What was this... Biomass that I gained from killing the Beowolf?

A new notification came into view.

[You now have 1 Biomass! Biomass can be spent to modify aspects of your physical, monstrous form!]

Monstrous form? Screw you, floating blue box!

[Would you like to see the body improvement that are currently available for purchase?]

Absolutely!

[Body improvements available to purchase are:

Fangs +1: Toughen your fangs and improve their ability to pierce;

Legs +1: Improve your agility;

Eyes +1: Improve your eyesight;

Claws +1: Sharpen your claws and improve their ability to deal mundane damage;

Hide +1: Harden your hide to improve resistance to mundane damage;

Nose +1: Increase sensitivity to air current, scent and negative emotions;

Bone Plating +1: Develop the Bone Plates around your body to improve resistance to all kinds of damage.]

[These are all the body modifications that are available to you at this point in time. As your level increases and you stock up on more Biomass, more improvement paths will be made available to you, including ones that are a lot more... drastic in their nature and appearance.]

My eyes were already glowing with possibility.

Lets bring up our Status as well.

"Status".

Name: ?

Class: The Gamer

Race: Grimm (Soul)

Level: 12 (Next Level: 0/5000)

Title: None

Bounty: 0 Lien

HP: 438/515

MP: 160/180

STR: 32.5 [Base 25 + 7.5(30%)]

VIT: 20.8 [Base 16 + 4.8(30%)]

DEX: 13 [Base 10 + 3(30%)]

INT: 24.7 [Base 19 + 5.7(30%)]

WIS: 7.8 [Base 6 +1.8(30%)]

LUK: 15

Elemental Affinity: None

Skill Points: 15

Biomass: 1

Lien: 100

Status Affects: None

These are a lot of options! I'm gonna have to think logically here.

Being able to run faster would help me escape my enemies more, but after tonight, would it not make more sense to simply start killing a lot more to increase my level and... wait..., how did I even receive Biomass in the first place?

[Biomass is collected when you kill anything! To Grimm, to Humans, to all different walks of life. All harbor Biomass for you to utilize as you wish in your future.]

Huh. Thanks floating blue box. Sometimes, I guess you aren't a complete and total nightmare.

I must prioritize my survival however. I can only improve and grow here if I can survive. Putting all my stat points into one category would only be suicide, If I put them all into strength and I come up against a being I can't defeat then it'll be over straight away. Improving my dexterity will be a dead end if I run into something that's faster than I am as well. Without information, how am I supposed to know what creatures I can fight and how fast any of them are?

As a Grimm reborn with intelligence that only an ancient can hope to achieve, I have to assume that whilst I am likely the smartest creature dwelling within these trees. I am also the weakest one here! Brains simply can't make up for simple brawn at the end of the day, especially within Grimm packs.

I have made my decision.

Select, Bone Plating +1 and input 10 Skill Points to STR.

[Would you like to purchase Bone Plating +1 and Input 10SP towards STR?]

Yes, please.

Immediately I can feel a maddening itch burst over the whole of my back, face, arms and knees like a thousand mosquito bites erupting all at once.

Don't do this to me, blue box! There's no possible way I can scratch all these itches at once!

Fortunately it doesn't last for very long. After a couple minutes, I can feel the itch recede. It's hard to tell if much has changed at first but then I realize. My head feels... heavier? I inspect my head, snout and jaw more specifically and I can feel the brittle encasement of bone layered across the top of my head and over my snout with none apparent on the underside of my jaws. Several inches worth of new boney lengths had appeared on my arms and shoulders, they looked... mostly dull? Waving my arms and shoulders around like a Grimm high on its blood-lust, I could immediately tell that whilst they looked intimidating towards any unsuspecting animal, they were still fragile, and in their infancy in terms of development. It'd require more Biomass in order to make these spikes look and feel like anything resembling an Alpha's. Likewise with the bone plating on my top of my head.

So this is body modification? One minute and boom, you've already been improved from before? This is unfair. Completely and utterly unfair. How many years of hunting and experience would I need normally to even improve myself a little bit? How long would it have taken me from before to even start developing all these additional improvements? It's not like most can choose anyway, most of a Grimm's strengths and appearance were all hard-wired into them since before they emerged into the world, otherwise, most Grimm would just be large mountains of bone, teeth and hatred once they became an Ancient. Or if they ever got there.

I have to get more of these points! With enough Biomass I may be able to overcome the other weaknesses that come with being a Grimm, and live with a little more security here in this forest!

Why would I select Bone Plating and Strength improvements first though?

Good Question!

If we assume that there is more Grimm lurking within these trees, then I'll eventually have to face off with a pack of Grimm that could vary between: Beowolves, Boarbatusks, Nevermores and maybe even Beringel's. If i'm unlucky enough. Just from that one fight with a single Beowolf, it had nearly knocked off a little under a hundred points from my HP pool, and there was bound to be more dangerous animals lurking in these woods then a single Beowolf after all. The Bone Plating improvements will help to reduce the damage inflicted from these types of Grimm and to also increase my survival chances for the foreseeable future.

As for the increase in Strength... It really sucks having my claws be considered nothing to even a regular Beowolf, one that wasn't even in its adulthood. Meanwhile, whilst I was pinning it down by the neck and crushing its windpipe, that Beowolf was having the time of its life clawing against the hide on my back, and it was working too! However I knew that this Grimm, like me, was an anomaly that I fully recognized. A single Grimm lurking on its own around an area is unusual to say the least. Grimm are a communal species, one Grimm on its own can usually do some level of damage but sooner or later, it dies out from something that it never fully expected. However Grimm in packs, tens or hundreds of Grimm can combine into something that is seriously strong, something that other, smaller packs in the area have to acknowledge that they're the top of the food chain.

What happens when I meet another pack in the forest? What happens when they perceive me as a threat to their existence?

I need to be stronger! I need to be sturdier!

I need to be smarter too. I know I can't just keep on investing all my efforts into simple strength and size. Intelligence will allow me to devise more strategies, see things more clearly and to better establish the most efficient ways to gather Skill Points and Biomass for the future. What about Dexterity? It works in my favor now due to my smaller size but as I grow bigger and bigger, simply dodging and evading my enemies will likely not be a possibility!

Okay.

I've been sitting here for a while at this point, with most of the notifications now spent there is no longer any reason to keep exploring.

I closed the system message and looked at where the Beowolf died. It left nothing other then a single Beowolf fang. Using "Observe", I could see that it was a crafting item apparently, but there was nothing else. I tilted my head at this. Grimm don't usually drop their fangs... do they? Maybe I'll find more in other kills.

The second I stepped out of the clearing I heard three howls directly to the right of me, it seemed some other Beowolves were walking around nearby and heard the commotion and saw me. They began their charge to me but this time I didn't stand around to see what their first attack was going to be. I already had a vague understanding from the previous encounter.

Lv. 9 Simple Beowolf

Lv. 10 Simple Beowolf

Their charge was much faster then I expected. The leading Beowolf swung its claws down, intending to slam me into the dirt so it's partners could tear and rip me apart, I wasn't having any of that. The claw slammed down onto the top of my newly formed bone plate armor, the reverb and feeling of my head being rattled had me dazed for a nanosecond before realizing where I was. Aw come on, It cracked as well? I just formed that piece! I swung down as hard as I could at the head of the Beowolf who tried to smash me, adding in a little bit of my MP into the mix.

As a result of my actions, I managed to create "Intense Strike", a skill that I... think I had at some point? It increases the critical hit chance of my strikes by thirteen percent and adds a near forty percent increase in damage at level one. It also increases the chance of inflicting status effects on enemies by twenty percent whenever I use my attacks. I felt in this moment... incredibly stupid. If I had unlocked this very obvious and very helpful skill before, I would have probably noticed that it existed at some point before this.

[By understanding the parts of your abilities better, you have gained a respective +1 to all stat groups.]

ALL STATS?!

The Beowolf I slammed my intense strike into died immediately, the increased strength combined with the penetration of my claws plus a good critical hit from the intense strike to the head made definite sure of that. I steadied myself back on my hind legs and rushed over to the other two, subconsciously releasing my "Intimidating" skill as well. I swung my fists down on the weaker one of the two, utilizing my Smash skill and crushing the Beowolf's skull near instantly, taking it out for the count and leaving only one remaining.

The last one made no effort to come near me, instead choosing to cower away under the shade of the nearby trees and back away from the resulting carnage. It didn't last long either. As it tried to back away further, I leaped towards it and clasped my claws around its skull, using my intense strike one last time to finish the fight as fast as possible.

[Intense Strike has gained a level!]

[Bite has gained a level!]

[Intimidate has gained a level!]

[Aura has gained a level!]

[Smash! Has gained a level!]

[Rend has gained a level!]

[You have gained 2 Biomass!]

[You have gained 2240XP!]

Hm. Resolving fights like this meant they ended quickly. And it looked like actual combat had increased my combat related skills much quicker then I ever expected. Look at all these levels!

I looked across the field and collected whatever dropped from their corpses. A few fangs, a couple pieces of Beowolf hide and various vials of random Dust. Why would Dust have dropped from Grimm though? Was my pack hiding some sort of secret area where they horded Dust?

I needed to test this out more...

[You have gained 3 levels!]

[Bite has gained 4 levels!]

[Sneak has risen by 5 levels!]

[Intense Strike has risen by 4 levels!]

[Aura has increased by 5 levels!]

[Rend has increased by 3 levels!]

[Smash! Has increased by 4 levels!]

[You have gained 6 Biomass]

I proceeded to go out and hunt more afterwards, and during my hunting period, I learned a couple more things. The first is that Grimm do not drop Lien. And I noticed that none gave me as much XP as my first encounter with that Beowolf did, was it just those blue boxes giving me a boost at the start to experiment with?

During this time, I killed a lot of Beowolves, it must have been fifty at least considering I got an "Novice Grimm Slayer" title. The past me would have likely recoiled and decided otherwise in regards to the contents of the title. Actually wait. Past me wouldn't even be able to read it. But now? I equipped that title immediately, making the whole hunting process a lot faster overall. I also managed to learn two different skills as well during this time, one called "Sense Danger" and the other named "Detect Life", two very useful skills that would likely help me a lot in my future hunts.

I also finally figured out the trick with Aura and how to utilize it, well, partly? I know now that to increase my Aura skill, I need to expend MP on literally anything. Defense, attack, basically the majority of my skill-set at this point, allowing me to level my Aura skill at a much faster rate then the other skills, likely because I used it so often.

The night soon rolled over into the dim lights of the morning, and with that I decided to spend the rest of my Biomass, ready to tackle the next day of hunting.

Two Biomass for my Bone Plating, a single piece of Biomass towards my Eyes and the rest went to my Hide.

Immediately, the mad, ravenous itching sensation consumes my whole body, capitulating me entirely, making me flop onto my back, rolling back and forth and just like that...

I pass out.

Thanks for all the early love, hope you like this chapter too. :3

Critiques are always accepted.

Final Stats for the end of the chapter:

Name: ?

Class: The Gamer

Race: Grimm (Soul)

Level: 15 (Next Level: 2480/5000)

Title: Novice Grimm Slayer