RWBY: The D'arc Game of Life

by ThePlayer1Company

Jaune Arc has lived a quite normal life, sans his parents splitting up when he was 10. Regardless, he wants to be a Huntsman, a hero like his father! One day, he messes up in the best way possible, and a tiny splinter grows into a grand adventure, in which the blonde must play a dark game of life. Only time will tell the truth. RWBY/Gamer crossover

12. A Place in the Sun

8/29/16: Alright, starting ASAP after paying bills.

8/31/16: Going back and doing reviewer responses, current word count before doing it: 7.8k words

9/7/16: Hoping to get this done before the weekend, I'm on a good roll right now, TBCH. Wordcount update: ~16k

9/10/16: Finally done with the chapter and the final wordcount is 22.7k

chad001: yeah. As it's been stated multiple times, Luck increases "Fate". This can change your destiny to be something much greater than what it could be. Hell Marbel could, possibly (it's not happening because it doesn't fit my plans), dump all of her points into Luck and acquire one of the Maiden's powers. It's random what you get, and Jaune is bound to get good shit if he's optimistic and kind with Luck.

Remzal Von Enilli, ViktornovaMK2, and Ander warrior: The quest with the Grimm will reveal some new informations. Salem is still a Grimm, she doesn't have any Aura, at least not in this story. However, her origin is different. Dark Warrior works differently for Jaune than it does for Ruby, because of Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind. Common symptoms of it are pale skin, dark hair, and suppressed growth (for good people).

-names: Yang was the one who cleaned Ruby up from looking like she just vomited blood and cookies. She also changed her into her pajamas and got her nice and comfy set up on the couch. She only slept because she cried herself to sleep, holding onto Jaune closely. She has come to see him as a source of stability and help, so she was hoping he'd have an idea. Also, about Summer's death and leaving it open... yes, I totally meant to do that. It wasn't because I forgot to mention that they found the withered husk of her body that was left behind... totally didn't forget that at AAAALLLLLLLLLLL

CrimsonSylvan: Alright, I have a confession to make, sir. One, I use some of the skills from TGWP's stat benchmark skills list. Of course I won't use them all, or maybe even a quarter of all of them (because there's a LOT) but I have doctored a couple (Incredible Strength renamed from Heroic Strength, Amazing Grace and Iron Body are the same, and honestly I know I'd take a couple. Also, creating the skill is more than just giving it a name. I have to consider the skill's power level in comparison to other skills, I have to consider how powerful the skill is supposed to be for its level. Its progression, its leveling rate, and most importantly its usefulness. Jaune may not have the most use for a sizable amount of the functions of Alchemical Aura, but it's a gateway skill that allows him to do more.

Nexus Bladeguard: Hah! I was hoping someone would notice that, to be honest. Also about Jaune's cause... yeah~. His strongest beliefs are in forgiveness, redemption, and second chances, and he believes that everyone is entitled to one... except the Grimm, for the most part (the one he's converting is willingly doing it, so he's okay with it)

Guardian54: hehe, another vague concept I got from another story I was inspired by. I think my biggest advantage in writing a Gamer fic is that I've read a lot of them (about a dozen maybe, with most having Jaune as The Gamer) and I've received some pieces of inspiration from all of them. Aura construct weapons, some skill concepts, and the sense of scaling from TGWP. There's more parts too, but it's mostly in the background. I've always had my own ideas about his sisters, and am one of the people who support Full Big Bro Jaune all the way (meaning all his sisters are younger than him). I've also had my own ideas about Aura and Semblances and stuff too. I've also gotten some inspiration from some Ruby Gamer stories too. Will I ever fully copy something? I already have with Amazing Grace, but the story itself (and trust me, there IS a story, people) will remain entirely my own. Any similarities to other stories are just coincidences.

LuckyLynx741: Well, he'll get three skills that will help him socially. I won't spoil anything, but the initials of them are MotH, LotF, and BotL.

kewllewk: I'm glad we're past a lot of the old stuff. The Grimm is still open to everything, and you totally didn't give me an idea *shifty eyes*. Right now, Jaune is kinda preaching to himself "I have to be loyal, I have to be loyal, I have to be loyal." because a loyal man is what Yang deserves. Yang is only as open to a 3+ relationship as she can be convinced of. She has her loyalty-trust issues because of losing said two mothers, but it only ever comes out when her relationship feels threatened. She isn't a hyper-clingy psycho like some girls, but she's a bit more suspicious and clingy than what would be completely healthy.

MysticSpider: Or the Chaos Emeralds... SURPRISE! Suddenly we're referring to Sonic the Hedgehog! XD But not really, though. As for turquoise... *horrific realization* I've been calling Jaune's eyes and aura color 'azure' all this time... they're supposed to be cyan! I thought azure was the same-ish color as cyan! Shit! *frantic scribbling*

DUD3 RANDOM: He is. Jaune transformed into a Bull Faunus when he used the Beast's Blood skill with Adam's blood. I think I forgot to mention that, maybe...

Nerfhearder69: Though your name is glorious, your reasoning is not as much. Indeed he should (and will!) focus more on his physical stats. However, the reason he's been trailing behind on that is because the Wizard class is only usable when the total of his INT+WIS is greater than the total of his DEX+LUK. As of this pre-chapter author's notes, that is 218 vs 163. He has a lot of buffer space now, of course, and his time meditating has given him the focus and clarity of mind he needed to see to that. Another good bit of his regret over the Luck Dump of chapter 4 is that it made him unable to use Wizard. Now, however, he's over it and has accepted things, of course, and has moved onto bigger and better things.

I just want to take a moment to say "THANK YOU" to everyone who has supported me with your favorites, follows, and kind/funny/amazed reviews. Whenever I get the email that I've received a review, my heart swells with joy (and a bit of adrenaline). I love all of you and I'll continue doing my best to provide you with the best chapters I can give.

Story Arc 2: Playing Prometheus

Chapter 12: A Place in the Sun.

---

(Two weeks later, Eagle Mountain, Jaune POV)

Summon Elemental: Level 44 - 86

Elemental Aura: 18 - 37

-/\-

Ki Body: Level 26 - 50

Ki Breathing: Level 31 - 71

Power Stomp: 14 - 52

Skull Bash: 11 - 50

Crushing Grip: 6 - 48

Stampede: 31 - 60

Power Jump: 26 - 50

Load Bearer: 11 - 45

Heavy Hauler: 21 - 50

Hardened Chest: 21 - 48

Reinforced Bones: 9 - 51

Adamant Foil: 10 - 48

Radiant Mane: 10 - 50

-/\-

Mana Shield: 11 - 40

Stone Skin: 22 - 50

Metal Skin: 25 - 50

Beast's Blood: 4 - 11

-/\-

Awaken Aura: 12 - 56

Soul-forge Restoration: 36 - 61

Rejuvenating Breath: 5 - 42

-/\-

Mana Barrage: 36 - 61

Energy Bolt: 41 - 86

Energy Arrow: 30 - 70

Cannonball: 21 - 66

Fireball: 10 - 31

Water Gun: 24 - 48

Wind Burst: 36 - 51

Volt Orb: 33 - 60

Stone Shot: 21 - 51

Vorpal Sword: 26 - 41

Gaster Blaster: 20 - 40

Physical Resistance: 20 - 25

Magic Resistance: 12 - 20

-/\-

Incredible Strength: 11 - 20

Amazing Grace: 6 - 10

Iron Body: 25 - 30

Mana Affinity: 40 - 50

Wizard's Pool: 6 - 18

Battlemage: 10 - 20

Nature Affinity: 46 - 60

Magic Doodle: 1 - 14

Wizard's Stream: 1 - 16

Aurora: 10 - 16

-/\-

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Three Claws"

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Teardrop Scales"

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Sweeping Stride"

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Scathing Eyes"

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Winged Flight"

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Shocking Steps"

Meditating with the elements and Qing Long's Azure Dragon Style has taught you the skill "Azure Dragon's Chilled Armament"

-/\-

Max HP: 16,600 - 17,400
Max AP: 48,000 - 62,500
Max SP: 23,000 - 24,100

STR: 60 - 64
DEX: 53 - 56
VIT: 70 - 76

-/\-

INT: 101 - 105
WIS: 107 - 110

Stat Points: 152 - 145

-/\-

You have received the recurring status effect "Natural Growth"!

The interaction of increases in testosterone, growth hormones, and Gamer's Body has increased your STR and DEX by 4, and your VIT by 2!

Your height has increased by 0.5 inches! (x3)

Your penis size has increased by 0.5 inches!

-/\-

I sighed and ignored the last section of my profile, where the information of that last notification was. Instead, I focused on my new height of 6'1" and the fact that I'd spent a few stat points to boost my INT and WIS. I had been close to the next boost in base APR, and I could use a little more base AP gain from INT, so I just threw down a few points. My physical stats had risen as a result of not only my growth, but also the effects of Ki and the elemental effects boosting my body for so long. Ironically I'd gotten stronger, faster, and tougher while sitting mostly still for two whole weeks. My legs weren't stiff, but I had the desire to stretch them out anyways.

For the first time in half a month, I stood up. I saw Marbel off to the side jump in surprise and spin around, only to relax and wipe her sweaty brow, "Holy shit, Jaune, you nearly made me piss myself!" she exclaimed indignantly.

I smirked and walked over, ruffling her hair a little, "Hey come on, I told you all that it'd be two weeks. Don't tell me you three lost track of the days?"

"No, at least Yang didn't. She's actually been counting them on her calendar. So, how'd you do?"

I told her all the details about my boosts in levels, and even realized that all of the EXP I'd gotten from my skills leveling up at brought me pretty close to my next level. I checked my scroll and found that it was nearly noon on a friday. I looked at Marbel with my eyebrow raised, "Shouldn't you be in school?" I asked flatly.

"Is it so bad that I wanted to visit my best friend and be here in case he woke up?"

"Well it is when it's taking you out of school." I said with a deadpanned look, "Anyways, since you're already here, is Blake up yet?"

"I already told her what I told you. No matter what, I'd be here for when you woke up. I'm surprised your legs still work when you haven't even stood up for two whole weeks."

I shrugged, "Gamer's Body, they weren't even stiff. Let's see, I'm also six-one now, and fifteen pounds heavier than before." I smirked, "Now then, let's see how you've all done." I checked Marbel's profile first, focusing only on the main bits.

-/\-

Name: Marbel Mayston
Class: Rogue - Rogue v2

HP: 7500 - 9200
AP: 6300 - 9000
SP: 9500 - 12,000

Strength: 30 - 41
Dexterity: 40 - 52
Vitality: 43 - 53
Intelligence: 30 - 50
Wisdom: 50 - 51
Luck: 50
Charisma: 40 - 48

Stat Points: 103 - 90

Age: 15
Birthday: May 16th
Race: Human
Height: 5'4.5" - 5'5"
Weight: 100 - 130
Build: Growing Young Girl - Teenage Girl
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Brown / Forest Green - Vivid Forest Green / Youthful Pale - Light Tan
Bra Size: B - BB

-/\-

I sighed lightly as I took the last piece of info into account, "Did you spend any of those thirteen points on CHA?"

She shook her head, "Nope, all my CHA was legitly gained when I started going through the status effect 'Natural Growth'. I spent all those points on INT."

I took a minute to observe her. Gone was the soft, almost plush form of a civilian girl, now her figure was more sleek, slimmed despite her weight increase. Her stomach was flatter and her waist was noticeably thinner, though her hips were wider. Her legs were a good bit thicker, as well as more toned. Her muscles were a lot more defined now, as well, and it showed even more with her lighter build. She had gone from a geeky schoolgirl to a fine young huntress-in-training. Even her skin had taken on some healthy, lively coloration from her work outside exercising with not only the axe, but the weight-suit I'd made for her. Though she wasn't quite full-figured like Yang or Blake, she was eye-catching.

Of course, I didn't let myself get caught, "You look great, you're even growing out your hair." I chuckled a bit, running a few fingers through the longer locks. She used to keep her hair about chin-length, but it'd gained a good half-inch or so in length. I found it quite cute.

I saw levels in Flirtation come in and ceased my actions. I wasn't even flirting, dammit! Still, she was blushing pretty hard, "Uh, th-thanks. I figured a change in style was in order since I was changing my lifestyle, and all that." she changed into the outfit she'd saved, named 'Normal Outfit'.

I saw her clothing shift from her workout gear to a black leather jacket with the sleeves rolled halfway up her forearms. Under it was a pink t-shirt with the words 'ROCK STAR' slapped the front in darker pink like they were painted on, taking two lines. Her white shorts had been replaced with capri pants, slip-on red shoes by green shoes that covered a few inches of her legs. What was most notable was that now she wore a sterling silver necklace with an Earth Dust crystal hanging from it. I pointed at it and she gasped lightly, "Oh right, I went to a Hunter jeweler and got it made. Thankfully they didn't ID me, or do a background check, I just showed them my weapon and my muscles as proof and I was cleared. The best part about it is that I can just poke a hole down a crystal and replace the one I have now. Earth Dust works best with my semblance, which I've been training as much as I can."

"Yeah. Funny how it turns out Luck helped you on that... why'd you increase Luck anyways?" I asked curiously, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well I figured that we might not have hope, even if you had tons of AP still, it seemed like that many Grimm was overwhelming. I increased my Luck to help us get out of that situation alive." she said solemnly, and I paused.

It was true, her getting her semblance gave us a little push, AND a little break that we needed to get our scattered offense and defense together and kill the Mantleus. I grimaced as I thought back to how it had used its great STR to break through the ice I'd trapped it in. Maybe if I'd focused more on making the ice harder instead of just keeping its fire down, I'd have held it down and not nearly gotten torn to pieces. Regardless, now I had sixteen spare charges to give to my elementals, I would be much better equipped to use them effectively.

"Well, I'm glad it got you your semblance. I guess it isn't all bad." that still didn't mean I would up it. Only if the situation truly called for it, really, "So, I guess it's time to play catch-up." I mused as I turned around, sensing Blake moving out the front of the fortress.

It was kinda pretty, I supposed. I'd made it with a lot of usage of Roimontagne, and some help from Crocea Mors. It had a gate and walls thirty feet high. I'd had to harvest some trees to make room, of course getting Marbel to chop all the logs up. She'd actually done it all, the little trooper. Those logs now fueled fireplaces in the fortress that kept the place warm at night. I'd worked around lacking some sort of 'glass elemental' by using Xiburichu to fire glass from suspended sand. It had to be polished a LOT before its clarity could be seen, but it was worth it to get windows in the place. Heavy stone bricks and mortar made up the entire place, and I was proud to say I'd made a castle. In fact, it was even called Château de Celeste, proclaimed by bold letters 'carved' into the stone wall above the gate. Under that was a quote I'd thought of.

A new dawn rises. You may rise again with us, and take your place in the sun.

I was hoping to turn this place into a proper kingdom. I was talking walls, a population, a council, laws, agriculture, infrastructure, the whole nine yards! Sadly I couldn't do all of that on just this mountain, but I could do a lot here. I could set the foundations like I had with my skills.

I looked at the circle of Aura-awoken grass I'd made. The clearing had about a hundred thousand square feet in it. In two weeks, casting one Awaken Aura per minute, I'd awoken 1260 of those square feet. I was tempted to boost my INT or my WIS by a bit more, to boost my APR to the next thousand, since now Awaken Aura only cost me a thousand Aura a pop. With my current rate of regeneration, I could cast it exactly thirty-three times a minute and completely match my APR. If I did that for one full day, I'd end up with almost three-thousand more square feet of grass awoken. Keeping that up, however, would take a bit over a month of constant usage. Every minute of the day dedicated to thirty-three Awaken Auras. Of course I would speed up as time went on, since Wizard's Pool and Wizard's Stream would expand my Max AP and APR for me, and the cost of the skill would go down.

However, there were more pressing matters to attend to. I smiled and pulled both Blake and Marbel into a hug as the former approached, "Nearly forgot. Hehe, you girls are great, you know that?" I let them go and smiled, taking in Blake's appearance and changes.

-/\-

Name: Blake Belladonna
Level: 40 - 41

Hit Points: 3700 - 6000
Aura Points: 7000 - 11,000
Stamina Points: 9100 - 10,500

Strength: 24 - 34
Dexterity: 78 - 80
Vitality: 27 - 40
Intelligence: 60 - 65
Wisdom: 50 - 55
Luck: 13 - 28
Charisma: 75 - 79

Stat Points: 40 - 30

Age: 17
Birthday: February 14th
Race: Faunus (Cat)
Height: 5'5
Weight: 120 - 125
Build: Svelte Modelesque Ninja
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Black / Amber - Brilliant Amber / Pale - Normal Caucasian
Bra Size: C

-/\-

I hummed, "Did you up your Luck? Is that why you're missing fifteen points?" I asked, honestly curious. I wasn't judging, just asking.

Blake blushed a bit, "It seemed terribly low, so I increased it to give myself a boost." she had caught on that I wasn't judging her, but it seemed she was a bit embarrassed at being called out on it.

I brushed it off with a wave of my hand, "Fair enough, Blakey. So, hmmm..." I took in her appearance.

She had cut her hair, which was now only shoulder-length. She had replaced her cloth tailcoat with a thigh-length black leather jacket, gray fur lining the neck. Her white shirt had been replaced with a light blue one made of 'armor-weave', a very literally-named material that provided an armor value to clothes made of it. She'd chosen blue because it didn't fit with her previous color scheme, and she needed to disguise herself when in town. Her soft, creamy hands were now covered by thin black leather gloves. Her shorts and leggings had been replaced with a pair of black slacks that had a... I rubbed my eyes to make sure I didn't misread that. They had a 'buttcape' built into them, lined with light gray fur. Her shoes were much the same, but now a little tougher-made. The biggest connection anyone could make between her now, and the Blake she was before, was that she was a woman of the same hair color, similar height, and similar figure. Her muscles had become more defined and her figure had filled out a bit too, thanks to Yang's cooking. I was about to speak when I noticed two strings of a necklace around her neck, "What's the necklace?" she pulled it out to reveal a charm of her nightshade blossom, and I sighed, "Please keep that hidden."

"I already know. Still, it feels special to me. I feel like I actually have something, y'know? It's a pride thing. Getting back on track, did you get everything you needed out of your training?" she asked, curious.

"Not exactly everything I wanted, or really much of anything I'd been going for, but a promise is a promise. I told you all about the quest with that Vulcyrie, right?"

She nodded, "Yes. It's still a bit shocking, even after thinking about it in twelve days. You're sure it can be done?"

"So far, my semblance hasn't given me any quest that couldn't be completed." I said with a shrug, "So, how's that Luck treating you?"

Blake shrugged, "I guess you never know how much it affects you until it actually affects you. I killed a fly on the first swing of the swatter." she said with another shrug, "Does that count for anything?"

I shrugged back, "I wouldn't say so, but The Game is weird. Maybe, maybe not, I can't tell." I looked at Marbel, then at Blake, "So, you two hungry?"

Just then, Marbel's stomach growled loudly, and her entire face reddened, "Starving, more like it."

I looked at our ninja and she put a hand to her stomach, trying to hide the light growl it gave, "I could eat."

I smiled, "Alright, I think a light lunch with you two, then I'll collect Ruby and Yang and we'll all go out to a nice fancy dinner." I checked the time, then decided to focus and spend a couple of minutes drawing out a few lines of awoken grass while the girls thought of what they felt like eating.

After a while, Blake cut to the chase, "Seafood. I feel like seafood." I rolled my eyes as I finished the last of sixteen two-foot lines.

"Figures. Alright, come on, hop in." I boosted Mystral with ten charges and formed the invisible jet, giving both roguish girls some room to ride along with me.

When we were all settled, I took off, just going ahead and boosting Mystral with all sixteen spare charges, bringing her level up to seventeen. For an elemental, that was enough to make us move at close to two-hundred miles per hour.

That was plenty.

---

(A couple of hours later, in the forest, Jaune POV)

I sighed as I killed another Beowolf. With every Grimm in my sense range gone for now, I set about doing something that I should have done a while ago.

I pulled out my scroll and made the call, "Bard, come in, this is Alpha. Do you read me?"

Beady blue eyes greeted me, "Ah, Adam, hey~. I heard what happened with the kitten, bloody bugger me, right?" information floated in front of my eyes thanks to Gamer's Sight.

Sierra Elise
Title: Honoring fallen temples with blades
Level: 74

I sighed internally, remembering Adam's mannerisms and feelings, or lack thereof, "Yes. I'm over it, though. So, how are things going?"

The woman giggled, "Calling just to talk? My my, I think your wayward heart is leading you right to be doorstep, Alpha~." she drew the last word out lecherously and I suppressed a shudder.

Instead of shuddering like Jaune Arc would, I grunted like Adam Taurus would, "I'm not calling for pleasantries. You know what I mean, Sierra."

"Fine, fine, ya git. Things are well, actually avoided any turnovers this month, so far, jolly good show on my part I'd say. What about with you?" she looked at me sympathetically, "I know you two were close."

I snorted, "I said I'm OVER IT. Keep up the work with no turnovers. You keep pulling risky business like you do and you endanger not only every faunus life in Mistral, but also every goddamn chance we have in Mistral. If you have even twenty people die by the end of the month, I'm going to replace you." I knew better than to say 'let'. She didn't 'let' them die, she purposefully made risky missions that painted the Mistralian White Fang as ambitious, but ultimately ineffective. Meanwhile they were probably sitting on more Dust and other resources than they knew what to do with.

I certainly knew what to do with them. I was currently looking for any of a few certain materials, quite famous in fantasy RPG settings. Any of them would be incredibly useful materials to upgrade Crocea Mors with, aside from using normal titanium.

Mithril, the gray glitter. Light as a feather, yet hard as a dragon's scales. It could be beaten like copper and polished like glass, and just a small shirt of it was worth more than everything in The Shire. At least, that was the claim made by Tolkien.

Orihalcum, the mountain copper. Its exact properties were unknown, but the common list was being super strong, magic resistant, and highly conductive of electricity.

Adamantium, the diamond alloy. Super strong, depicted as silver in color, hard as diamond and a lot more durable and resilient than diamond due to its metallic properties. What better way to bless the future Arcs than to give them a sharpened strip of adamantium to cut through Grimm with?

Hihi'irokane, the flame-colored metal. Ironically, it was the most realistic of the metals, despite having the most unbelievable property of being conductive to spiritual energy, as well as generating heat and being ultra-strong like most high-grade fantasy metals. Still, the spiritual conductivity was something that could be attributed to its Vacuan origins. It was the most realistic because it was probably just a special form of Fire Dust Alloy, imbued with the blacksmith's aura through some means. Vacuans were known for being very spiritual, after all, so it wasn't too much of a stretch.

If I wanted any of them, however, I'd have to take my new skills and put them to the test against Grimm in the outer lands. If video games have taught me anything, and The Game has confirmed any of it, it's that drops are given appropriately. You can't kill a thousand, or even a million Beowolves and expect to get a super strong sword or dagger or armor. In the end, all you'd have gotten was a lot of wasted time and effort, and a metric assload of trash loot.

If I wanted Mithril, I would probably need to fight a draconic Grimm or a high-level avian Grimm, because of the whole 'light as a feather, hard as a dragon's scales' hint. Orihalcum would be gathered from mountainous Grimm, and more than likely from things stronger than Vulcyries. Adamantium, on the other hand, would be deep underground where diamonds are, and probably (assuming the game had a sense of humor) dropped from wolverine-like Grimm. Hihi'irokane would be found in Vacuo's deserts.

Since it was still Crocea Mors, I'd have to alter the orange metals to be golden in color, or possibly even make them silver. Mithril would be ideal, since it was a sword, and swinging it fast and hard would be really useful. Even if only for the edge, it would be incredibly useful.

"Yeesh, harsh much. You really DO care, don't you?" she giggled and grinned teasingly.

I deadpanned at her, "You're throwing away lives for crumbs of gain. I appreciate your psychological approach, but the facts are straight and you're diminishing our forces. After the end of this month, I'll leave you be, but twenty people, Sierra. Less than twenty people in two weeks. Surely you can manage that, general?" I added her title for dramatic effect, reminding her of the expectations placed on her.

She stuttered a bit, then flushed in either frustration or guilt, "Y-yes sir! I can manage that."

"Good. Dismissed." I ended the call and decided to push myself. I had things to do, and I had a sneaking suspicion that if I piled together all of my speed buffs, not only my Skills but my Ninja Class and my Title 'A Quarter-Mile at a Time', which when combined...

I ran and the air grew hot around me. I cut loose and moved with all of my DEX, every boost I had, and everything. I had about a 1406% increase to Movement Speed with speed boosting buff, equipment, and parameter all piled together, which gave me a speed of-

Reaching extreme speeds on land and achieving a new benchmark has granted you the title "The 8-mile-stone Runner."

I equipped the title and found myself moving even faster. Turning on Driving Simulator mode clocked my speed at about 697 MPH. I was pushing boundaries and I knew it. It wasn't the highest speed in history, not even close, but it was high for me. I considered blowing off everything to grind levels for Sprint, but if I continued pushing my speed, I'd level up my DEX, and my DEX and LUK together needed to be lower than 226, or I'd lose the ability to use Wizard v3. For some reason, it was those two stats that opposed INT and WIS, not STR and VIT. It was... weird.

I considered that as I cut back on the speed and changed back to normal, but kept the brown and red hair for a bit. I cut to a Hunter Travel street and began making my way towards the docks. Ruby and Yang would be arriving soon-ish, so I knew I needed to meet them there.

A flash of white and blue entered my field of vision and I swung my arm with my extreme reflexes and stuck the object into my inventory. I kept on my path and slowed down until I came to a gentle stop at the naval docks. Sitting on a bench and considering boosting their boat with Pluviteus' power over water, I shook my head and pulled out the thing that had nearly hit me in the face. It was a poster, and I unfurled it to read the contents.

IN VALE NOW!

Weiss Schnee, the White Songbird

"The End Before Summer" Tour!

Come see the White Songbird singing in Vale City Orchestral Theater

Wed. April 15th at 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM

Thurs. April 16th at 8:00 PM to 10:30 PM

Fri. April 17th at 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM

If you want to follow the tour after Friday, her tour will be moving to Vacuo next!

She will be playing in Ranok City on Sun. April 19th at 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Savor her sweet songs before their gone!

The poster showed the diminutive young woman with her hands clasped over her chest, a pair of white neon angel wings and a blue neon halo giving her an angelic motif. The right side of her face was showing as she seemed to be singing with her eyes closed and her head tilted upwards. From her mouth came notes and some birds were flying around the stream of music bars.

I had to admit, she was beautiful in a way I could appreciate. If I didn't have Yang, I'd probably fantasize about Weiss. Still, she was lacking in several departments, but...

(Information outdated)

Weiss Schnee
Title: The Frostbitten Princess of the Broken Kingdom
Level: 27

Age: 16
Birthday: January 15th
Race: Human
Height: 4'9
Weight: 87
Build: Delicate Slender
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Snow White / Crystal Blue / Pale White
Bra Size: N/A

I stared at the info I was able to get. This image was outdated, of course. I don't know HOW outdated, but it's outdated. That title... god almighty it made me want to hug this girl until she felt better about everything. She seemed like she'd be very sad about things. If I was lucky, maybe I could get a conversation with her. I couldn't see any stats from just the poster, but she was level twenty-seven, which implied that she had a good bit of training, or at least a lucky semblance. My mom's semblance was responsible for at least thirty of her levels. I remembered that... she was even stronger and tougher than I was. Her DEX was over a hundred, if I remembered correctly. With my boosts, I was sure that I'd easily beat her in a fight, but there was one fact that confused me over everything else.

She wasn't a hunter. She had been against the Hunter lifestyle. Why did she have such incredible base stats?

It didn't make a lot of sense... except for one explanation.

Time away made the heart grow fonder, and maybe she'd grown to understand the necessity of Hunters and their lifestyle. I wouldn't say she would do any missions, but she'd trained for years and years with an Aura. Maybe it was just her Luck, but she'd been pretty beefy in stats. I don't know for how long or how hard she trained, but she must have been going for a long while. Still, no matter how fond she was for my father's company, they wouldn't get over their problems without help.

I sighed lowly, then stood when I felt the water shift around the docked boat. I put away the poster and stood up, jogging over towards the boat.

I didn't get a chance to even pass onto the dock as my girlfriend slammed into me at high speed. With my weight and DEX, I kept my balance and hugged her back as she nearly slammed her lips into mine. I wrapped my arms around her lower back as she was now being held with her feet dangling in the air, lightly tapping against my shinguards.

I smiled against her lips as we shared the moment. I faintly heard a grumble over the bit of conversation we'd sparked and slowly broke the kiss, "I missed you too, Sun Angel." I smirked at her and lifted her higher up, now holding her over my shoulder and keeping her steady by grabbing ahold of her legs. She flailed a bit but my strength kept her steady, "Sup Rubes." I smiled at the younger sister as I quickly used Gamer's Sight to take in the changes to two had gone through.

-/\-

Yang Xiao Long
Title: Hotter and Brighter than the Summer Sun
Level: 41 - 48
Nickname: Sunflower - Sun Angel

Hit Points: 7350 - 16,000
Aura Points: 5800 - 11,000
Stamina Points: 8500 - 21,000

Strength: 71 - 76
Dexterity: 40 - 46
Vitality: 53 - 70
Intelligence: 32 - 45
Wisdom: 30 - 50
Luck: 18 - 30
Charisma: 72 - 83

Stat Points: 25 - 10

Age: 17
Birthday: December 12th
Race: Human
Height: 5'7 - 5'7.5
Weight: 145 - 155
Build: Medium Athletic - Med-Heavy Athletic
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Golden Blonde / Bright Lilac Purple - Brilliant Lilac Purple / Light Tan
Cup Size: E

-/\-

Jaune C: Yang, you're missing fifty points. What'd you spend them on? :C

Yang C: 11 in VIT, 10 in INT, 17 in WIS, and 12 in LUK. Everything else was natural. N-now... a-are you gonna put me down, o-or just keep grabbing my ass? I d-don't mind it... b-but... :C she seemed embarrassed, and much to my own embarrassment I realized that my hand had slipped upwards, now grabbing a handful of the warm, tender flesh.

Honestly... I didn't want to let go, it felt glorious and I was tempted to grab it more, but Ruby was literally two feet away and unknowingly awaiting my examination. I squeezed a little harder to savor it as I pulled her back forward and set her on her feet. Then, in a surprise maneuver, I used my great flexibility and speed to spin around and pick her up again, though this time I was giving her a piggyback ride, Jaune C: Sorry 'bout that. It was an accident. Now then, let's see about the flower. :C I chuckled lightly as I used Gamer's Sight on Ruby.

-/\-

Name: Ruby Rose
Title: The Swift Red Rider
Level: 40 - 50
Class: Reaper
Nickname: Rosie

HP: 700 - 3000
AP: 2500 - 6500
SP: 900 - 5000

Strength: 30 - 37
Dexterity: 84 - 90
Vitality: 32 - 40
Intelligence: 42 - 50
Wisdom: 18 - 30
Luck: 15 - 25
Charisma: 55 - 60

Stat Points: 0 - 27

Age: 15
Birthday: November 11th
Race: Human
Height: 5'1
Weight: 90 - 110
Build: Slim Adorable - Svelte Adorable
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Black with Crimson Highlights / Silver / Pale
Cup Size: BB

Status Effects: Darkened Warrior (High), Silver Eyed Warrior (Low)

Active Quests: To Outshine the Sun (Only Ruby), Share in the Moonlight (Only Ruby)

-/\-

Quest: To Outshine the Sun
Description: Yang's coddling has gone on far enough! Prove you're big enough and strong enough to fend for yourself as an adult instead of having to be protected!
Objective: Prove you're big and strong enough to not need coddling.
-Grow to a height of 5'6"+
-Grow to a weight of 140lbs+
-Grow to a cup size of CC+
-Increase STR to 45+
-Increase DEX to 100+
-Increase VIT to 50+
-Increase INT to 50+ (Complete)
-Increase WIS to 40+
-Increase LUK to 25+ (Complete)
-Increase CHA to 75+

Reward for Success: A healthy increase to confidence, pride, and self esteem, end Yang's coddling, mitigate Taiyang's coddling, ?

Penalty for Failure: small increase to confidence, pride, and self-esteem, Yang and Taiyang's coddling continues unaffected, ?

Time Limit: Until you stop experiencing the occasional status effect "Natural Growth"

-/\-

Quest: Share in the Moonlight
Description: Your friendship with The Gamer is great, but a chance at being the one true love was stolen away. Still, you can share in the moonlight and receive love to grow.
Objective: Get a kiss from Jaune.

Reward for Success: +? CHA (Based on Gamer's Mind), Increased Closeness to Jaune, Increased confidence and self-respect

Penalty for Failure: Reduced mental fortitude, decreased closeness with Yang, decreased confidence and self-respect

Time Limit: Until Yang finds out

-/\-

I stared at Ruby for a good long while, because of those quests, then cleared my throat, Jaune C: Nice work, Rosie. How'd you get 10 levels so fast? I hope you two didn't take risks. :C

Ruby C: We risked it and we got the biscuits, or as they call them here in Vale, cookies~! :C she pulled a cookie out of the inventory and began nibbling on it.

I quickly checked and found that she had packed nearly ten spaces with various types of cookies in various packages. I shot her a lecturing look and she blushed, quickly swallowing her cookie and licking away the crumbs around her mouth.

I took a minute to observe their outfits. Ruby was still wearing her cloak, no surprise since it was her most precious possession. Instead of her usual blouse and puffy combat skirt, she had on a more casual, red and black plaid, flannel button-up. Black skinny jeans covered her legs, but she kept her normal boots on. Honestly, with her tomboyish hobbies and likes, it fit her well.

Yang was wearing her usual outfit, but had switched her orange scarf for a blue one and wore a slightly longer buttcape.

I felt a kiss on my cheek and two soft round squishes on my back as Yang settled in fully. I chuckled a bit, moving us off to the side and out of the center of attention, Jaune C: Right, well don't clog the inventory with cookies. We need it for loot. Let's see... :C I found that they'd gathered about half a million lien from looting the various Grimm they'd slain. I smiled at the nice big seven-digit number I had, then looked at them both, C: So what'd you kill? :C

Ruby C: Big bad Beowolves, and we took a little trip last weekend down more south. We fought some Mudbulls and some Mudbull Pepruses. :C

Yang C: Big frogs, and the greater forms had poison. We had to bail but we got these levels. :C

Ruby C: Oh hey, that just reminded me! I got you a present, Jaune! :C

She pulled out a poorly-wrapped box, to which I gave a soft laugh of happiness. I decided to throw her a bone and dropped five points into my INT sneakily, then took the present, "Let's see here." I cut the ribbons with Preyend and opened the box, removing the object inside.

Tockasprath
Description: A short-barreled shotgun formed from the mouth and toxin glands of a Mudbull Peprus. It is of good quality and fine condition. Though it is lighter than most shotguns, it still packs a heavy punch. Beware of recoil!

Type: Short-barrel Shotgun
Damage: 250 (+0% from Shotgun Skill, totaling 250)
Rate of Fire: 45 RPM (+0% from Shotgun Skill, totaling 45)
Effective Range: 15m (+0 from Shotgun Skill, totaling 15)
Capacity: 6 (+0 from Shotgun Skill, totaling 6)

Functions;
Channel 150 Aura into the gun to add +50% poison damage to next shot

I chuckled, "It's... a shotgun. Nice."

Ruby blushed a bit at my lack of cheering, "I uh... I polished and cleaned it for you... plus you don't have a non-magic ranged weapon, so this could be it. You and sis could even share shotgun shells! I checked, it fires 12g shells." she said with a smile.

Well, I WAS giving her a boost for free, so I smiled brightly, "Well if THAT'S the case, then I think this'll be PERFECT, Rubes. Thank you so much." I gave a brotherly smile and kissed her forehead softly.

I thanked the gods that I had turned off inter-member messaging, because seconds later Ruby got a quest complete notification. I saw her CHA shoot up from 60 to 82 as she hastily moved to hide it. It seemed to have given her 1 point for every 10 INT and WIS I had. 221, 22 points, it made sense.

Next was my concerns, Jaune W: Rubes... why did you have that quest, and why do you have a quest to grow up more? :W

Ruby W: I... I... I'm tired of feeling so small and childish! I'm fifteen years old but Yang and dad act like I'm five! I wanna prove I'm just as mature and capable as every other aspiring Huntress-in-training! :W

Jaune W: I see... and increasing your bra size will help? :W

The petite girl blushed furiously at that, Ruby W: Grown women have boobies so if I need to appear grown then I need to have boobies too! :W

I hummed at the logic. It held some weight. Though she wasn't the wisest before, she DID have a lot of INT, Jaune W: Fair enough. I want to help all of my friends, so if you need help with the physical stats, I can help you. For the mental stats... I think summoning an Elemental increases your WIS. You're already completed three of the ten objectives. You have plenty of time. Relax~. You'll be fine. :W I ruffled her hair affectionately as Yang poked me in the neck. I turned back to look at her, "What is it, Sun Angel?"

"You said we'd all go out to eat together, now come on~. I'm starving~." she half-whined, hugging me tighter as I stood up straight.

I chuckled, "Huh, Ruby your little sister is pretty childish." I heard Yang let out a sound of complaint, only for it to be cut off as I swung her around and kissed her soft, warm lips with a happy smile, "But damn is she beautiful. Can I keep her?"

Ruby giggled, relaxing greatly, "Nope! She's my sister and she's not allowed to be anyone else's!" she chimed with a cheerful grin.

"Damn, well I guess I'll just have to kidnap her then." holding my girlfriend like a doll, I turned tail and ran off with a laugh.

The reaper laughed as well and began to give chase, "Hey! Get back here with my sister!" she said in mock-anger, the three of us laughing so much that anyone who heard us would think we were children playing a game.

In a small way, I kinda did feel like a kid again, playing with my little sisters...

I stifled the surge of sadness and kept running, promising ten times over that I'd visit them all sometime soon.

I kept my promises, no matter what.

---

(A few hours later, Eagle Mountain, Jaune POV)

I laid the blanket over the napping Yang with a smile. She'd been worn out by all of the fun we'd all had together. I'd gotten Blake a nice hat and some hair-dye to help cover her identity, and the five of us had gone out and enjoyed the fun that Vale City had to offer. I chuckled softly at Yang's current appearance. On a whim, I'd taken them across the channel on an Elemental-driven boat to North Gravelstone Pier. It was a fun fairgrounds and I had to say that I loved the feeling it had.

Right now, at age 17, Yang Xiao Long was currently taking a nap with two stuffed tiger toys. One was a tiger with a sea-captain's hat, the other had a trucker's hat. She'd named them Captain Clawsy and Furball Frank, even gave them little backstories. It was adorable to listen to, her inner child coming out to shine. Given how much of a childhood she'd been deprived of, it made sense in a sad way. I was determined to let her live out all of those little dreams she had. I'd even gotten a quest for it, Burning the Little Candle.

Right now, however, I had a different quest to attend to.

Between each step, my head raised a few more inches off the ground. Ebony feathers sprouted from my slowly darkening skin. I removed my clothes to avoid them stretching out or getting damaged by the bony spikes that began breaking through my skin, claws jutting from my fingers and a mask growing out of my face. I gave my wings an experimental flap, finding them to be satisfactory. I smiled internally as my underling landed in front of me, "Hello friend man." I said with a friendly tone.

He seemed a bit less jovial, "Master, hello." he knelt before me respectfully, "I have created a name."

I put a hand on his shoulder, "Do not kneel, brother. Before new master, you not need to kneel." speaking like they do actively hurt the speech parts of my brain, "We are friends. Friends like we to others, but more." I smiled a bit, "Now then, get up and tell me name."

He stood up, his full height about 7'2 to my 10'5, but I wouldn't let it inhibit anything, "Right. Master, my name will be... Sky Razor."

"Sky Razor? How did you think of that?"

"I have been teaching myself to read human symbols. It hard but I managed." he showed me a can and pointed to the name on the weathered label, "Razor."

I read the text, which clearly said 'EnJOE', some kind of ready-to-eat canned meat, "You cannot read right. I will help you read, friend. For now, name needs work. Humans have names similar, but different. I can help you now, friend. Sit." I sat meditation style, encouraging him to sit as well.

Together we sat, and he looked at me with pleading, "What difference, master?"

"They make things more... pretty. Beauty is human sin." I picked a flower and showed it to him, "Flower their names to blossom out. Grace over speed. They also make their names refer to colors. That is what makes a human name."

"Colors? Then... as with fire brothers, color not black to imitate light. I am child of mountain and sky, and I will make fire rise to destroy with my fake light, like fire brothers do. I will be..." he stopped, "I..." he paused, then leaned to the side and stared behind me, "Who that? Intruder?"

I shook my head, "No. She is friend of master. She has a lot of light, makes master feel light too." I smiled internally, "She is good. She not attack, you not attack, understood?"

He seemed to contemplate that, "She... she look like sun."

"She is like sun. She has power of fire too." I said with a smile through my beak.

"She make master happy, then. I will make master happy with success. I choose to be Sky Fire, she of fake light warrior like master is." he... she? I guess technically I'd just assumed she was a man since they all had masculine figures.

Well, he could be a woman if he wanted, then. I guess that if it was like some of the soulful or holy things in games I've played, then her changes would have to be voluntary, "Alright. If you'll be a woman, then maybe you should have a little prettier of a name. How about... Skyler? Skyler Fire, woman who shall have this light one day. For personal use, though, I will call you Razor, since you want to raze things."

He-, She... I had to get used to thinking of her as a woman. I shook my head lightly and looked at her with a friendly gaze, "I accept this all, master. "

"Don't call me master, I have a name too. Call me Jaune Arc, Skyler Fire."

She blinked, then nodded, "Okay then, Jaune Arc. Call me Skyler Fire. We family, brother and sister of fake light."

I chuckled, "If we're family, as humans, then we should have the same last name... how about we call you Skyler Arcfire? Is that what you wish to choose?"

She gave a bird-like purr of thought, then seemed to smile, "I wish. I choose to be Skyler Arcfire."

Just then, some of the text in her profile shifted, glitching out a bit, then it righted itself.

Name: Skyler Arcfire
Title: Inspired Lancer of the Mountain
Level: 48
Class: Lancer
Nickname: Razor

INT: 26 - 28
WIS: 30 - 32
LUK: 15 - 18
CHA: ? - 12

That confirmed it. It had to be willing changes that she made, not just me telling her what to change. That made sense, since her... 'soul' wouldn't change if she didn't actually accept the changes properly.

Well... that made things interesting... and I had an idea.

It was worth a shot, so I typed in the words and hit the buttons.

Her eyes shot wide open as she saw the window pop up in front of her.

PARTY INVITE!

You have been invited to Jaune Arc's Party "Light of the Mountain"

You will be brought into The Game with this action.

[Accept] [Decline]

She stared at the window, "What does it say?"

Well, seemed like lessons would start now, "Alright, let me help you with this, like a friend does. Don't worry, Skyler, I'll teach you everything you need to know."

So I began to teach her.

---

(A couple of hours later, Jaune POV)

I heard Yang starting to shift around, and cleared my throat, "That will be everything for now, Skyler. For now, return to our people, and do not tell any friends or brothers about this, understood?"

She nodded, "Yes master. I promise."

As she flew away, I looked at the results of hours of lessons on reading, grammar, and even a couple of lessons on how to properly hold a pencil. Tomorrow, I'd teach her a lot more, but for right now, I had a more important girl to attend to.

-/\-

Name: Skyler Arcfire
Title: Inspired Lancer of the Mountain - Enlightened Lancer of the Mountain
Level: 48
Class: Lancer
Nickname: Razor

Hit Points: 10000/10000
Stamina Points: 15000/15000

Strength: 74
Dexterity: 72
Vitality: 55
Intelligence: 28 - 46
Wisdom: 32 - 48
Luck: 18
Charisma: 12

Age: 26
Birthday: ? - April 15th
Race: Vulcyrie Spireus
Height: 7'2
Weight: 200
Build: Lean Muscular
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Black / Burning Red / Crimson

Corruption: 100.00% - 87.36%

-/\-

It was a significant change. Right now I had to slowly whittle down her Grimm ideals and replace them with human ideals.

I conjured up the AP to cast a Soulforge Restoration that was a thousand times stronger than normal. I felt my body split in half and I saw the skin of my Mantleus form peel off of my wet, naked human body. The liquid was washed away with some water from Pluviteus, followed by a quick fire-air drying. I sighed and put on a fresh set of clothes, then walked over to the adorably napping Yang, who had started to settle down again.

I bent down and kissed her forehead, then gently shook her shoulder, "Hey, come on goldilocks, don't go all sleeping beauty on me." I chuckled and saw her smile as she stirred. Bleary lilac eyes opened and looked into mine, "You wanna know something amazing? You're so beautiful that you made a Grimm want to be a woman." I saw her rub her eyes, a curious hum escaping her lips.

"How did that even happen... wait... did you see that Vulcyrie thing?" she asked as she yawned softly, the blanket falling off of her chest and her new little tigers falling to the ground.

I caught them and set them down in her lap, "Yeah. She decided, with a little help from me, that she wanted to be named Skyler Razefire." I chuckled, "Yeah I know, it sounds like exactly the kind of name a Grimm would come up with if they were told what human naming conventions were." I helped her stand up, putting the bundle of blanket and plushies in the inventory with a thought, "She's also learning how to read english. At first she though the word 'Enjoe' was 'Razor'."

Yang giggled at that, stretching out with a yawn. She reached her arms over her head as she bent her back, which made her 'assets' perk up more. I couldn't help but look for a few seconds. Gamer's Mind be damned, I was a teenage boy with a beautiful girlfriend who had 100% approved any ogling of her I could do. There were a few reasons for it. Not only did it make her feel more beautiful to be admired, and boost her surprisingly fragile confidence, I had a suspicion it was also a ploy to maintain my loyalty. After all, if I was looking at her, I wouldn't be looking at other girls.

She smirked at me, then lifted her breasts with her hands, making them jiggle several times. I blushed a bit more and looked at her face, "Stop that."

"Stop what?" she asked innocently, giggling like a schoolgirl as she manually jiggled her bouncy breasts a few more times.

"Stop THIS." I said, moving my hands to force hers to stop. Unfortunately, she had happened to move her hands away at that same moment. We both stared at each other as my hands came to rest on her chest.

Yang let out a soft, breathless sigh of a moan as my fingers slightly sank into the almost cloudy-soft flesh, "Uuuuuuhhhhhhh..." she drawled mindlessly as we stared at each other, a bright shade of pink invading her sun-kissed face.

I hummed, taking a moment to lightly squeeze them before moving my hands away, "Stop jiggling yourself. I swear you do it enough without thinking." I grabbed her shoulders and lightly shook her toned frame, resulting in her massive breasts bouncing and jiggling around for about five full seconds, "So don't do it more, because seriously they bounce so much that I'd almost think you weren't... wait a second..." I slowly trailed off as the realization dawned on me.

She blushed harder, a vivid red coloring her cheeks as her expression twisted into one of great embarrassment, "D-don't say it... yes... have once, never will again, too uncomfortable..."

Yang Xiao Long, my beautiful and illustrious girlfriend... did not wear bras. I didn't know exactly how to feel about that, so I just... didn't. I forced the thoughts out of my head to save us both the embarrassment.

Training yourself to resist the calls of Lust has sharpened your mind and increased your INT by 2!

"R-right. Well, I can't say that I don't approve, but I also can't say that I approve either. I don't feel strongly one way or the other. It's your choice, Yang, and I will support your decision no matter what it is." I smiled reassuringly at her as I pulled Bumblebee out of the Inventory and set it down, "Come on, let's get you heading home."

Lilac eyes met my azures. She seemed flustered in a strange way, but nodded her head and got onto Bumblebee behind me. When her arms were fully wrapped around me, I revved the engine and took off.

The cool evening air blew past our heads as I drove at a relaxed pace down the dirt road. I had found that my skill allowed me to replace normal fuel with Aura aligned with the fire and water elements. It had been very difficult before, but now with Xibuviteus being a thing, I could do it easily. I could add a total of nearly thirty two miles to the gallon to this thing. That was a lot for a CAR, much less a MOTORCYCLE. Of course I couldn't completely replace fuel with Aura, but it was a major increase nonetheless.

...

The sun was setting off to the side, which I pointed out to Yang so she wouldn't miss it. I slowed our speed a lot, not only to give myself more time to further reinforce the dirt road into stronger, more hard-packed dirt, but also to let her see the sunset for longer before we passed into the city limits.

I saw bright lights ahead on the wall, which concerned me. Yang didn't seem to notice them, her head too snuggled into my broad back to see forwards. Honestly, the less she stressed about this, the better. Still, though, it was best to warn her, "Something isn't right with the walls." I said just over the gentle howl of the wind, "Don't worry, I'll figure this out."

She nodded against my back, Yang W: Alright. Is there any trouble? :W

I squinted and focused Magic Eyes towards the gate. Several guards were present, wearing the deep brown and red of the Vale Military. Typical, really, since they were in charge of guarding the walls.

I slowed to a rolling stop just twenty feet in front of the wall, standing up slightly, "Hello there, sirs." I greeted in a casual, but respectful tone. The two men on the ground shone their flashlights on me, which made me have to squint before my eyes quickly adjusted to the Mag-light brightness, "Is there any problem?"

The one on the left spoke up in a gruff tone, "Show us your ID and keep calm, sir. You're not in trouble but we need to ask you some questions." I complied and showed my kingdom-issued ID. Any citizens above the age of thirteen had to get one, and they were cheap to make, so there wasn't any excuse except for you not wanting to be known, "The past four weekly security reviews have shown a few thousands percent increase in the usage of this kingdom gateway." the soldier paused as a third man entered the scene from one of the personnel doors off to the side. He held up a scroll where I could see while the two soldiers lowered their flashlights to let me see it. It was playing a video of compiled clips of me, Yang, Marbel, Blake, and Ruby entering and exiting through this gate, "Ninety-nine percent of travel has been done by a group of four or five individuals. We have identified three of them. You sir, Jaune Arc, as well as Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose. All children of well-known hunters. Again, you're not in trouble, we just want to ask a few questions. Who are these people?" the video playing man paused and showed two still images of Blake in biker gear and Marbel in very similar biker gear, "We have reason to believe these are two different people."

The soldier on the right finished looking over my ID and handed it back, "This ID expired on the third of the month. We'll let you off with a warning this time, but this will go on record. We suggest going to get a new one as soon as you can, and before any traveling."

I nodded politely and stuffed it back into my wallet as I spoke up, "Those two are my friends, Marbel and Blake. They're good people, I can vouch for them. We've recently decided to start going out and taking in the sweet aura of nature." I smiled naturally, "It's great, and everyone's wanting to do it nowadays. So uh... yeah." I shrugged and gave them an 'I dunno' look, "Is that all you wanted?"

The two armed guards looked at each other, then looked at me, "I suppose it is. Tch, damn kids and their fads, raising kingdom security concerns." I didn't know if it was Charisma or Luck that got me out of this without an interrogation, "If there's any trouble you cause, you can be damn sure we're greeting you with handcuffs and armed transport straight to the station next time."

"Kinky." I chuckled like a joking idiot, Acting letting me not throw up in my mouth for making that joke.

The soldiers turned away and scoffed, leaving us alone, "Damn kids nowadays and their indecency." the doors slammed closed and the gate slid up. I turned the keys and revved Bumblebee's engine, then started up again.

As we drove onto the paved roads, I felt Yang's eyes on me, "What?"

"You don't... ACTUALLY think that's kinky, do you?" she sounded grossed out, to which I chuckled.

"Oh GOD no. I just said that to make them leave us alone faster. Plus it was just a joke anyways. If anything I'd have to put handcuffs on YOU to take you to jail because you're violating the law." I smirked, though she couldn't see it.

Yang leaned up to my ear, "What law is that, exactly?" she asked, curiosity in her tone.

I made sure there was nothing to pay attention to ahead, then spoke up, "The law of adorableness. You're too adorable and so yer goin' to jail~." I turned my head and kissed her on one blushing cheek, smiling as she retreated behind my back, flustered and smiling.

"You're a dingus, you know that?" she said jokingly, giggling with girlish glee.

I smiled brightly, "But I'm YOUR dingus, Sun Angel." I chuckled happily.

Whether dingus or knight in shining armor, I'd be hers for as long as I could.

---

(A few more hours later, after some purchases. Downtown Vale, Jaune POV)

Yang may have had school tomorrow, but I didn't. I also had a desire to try my luck with something.

I wanted to increase my Poison Resistance, but I wasn't too keen on getting something to hit me with poison, so I chose the next best thing.

Alcohol, and lots of it. It was poisonous to some degree, indeed. By how much? I didn't know, which was why I'd come to a dance club. Some fancy-ish joint named The Glass Cottage.

One quick study with Gamer's Sight told me what I needed to say to get past security. A few words about needing a place to get a drink and blow off some steam, combined with Charisma, and I was inside and walking straight to the bar.

I plopped myself down and looked at the bartender, Acting like a guy who had come onto hard times, "Just gimme something hard." I slapped some Lien on the counter and stared at him with what I hoped was a mindless, or at least blank and beaten look in my eyes.

Hei Xiong
Title: The Little Black Bear
Level: 16

He was big, tall, and strong, but it was obvious his stats were built for a leader that helped keep his base safe, but mostly stayed away from the action. He gave me a semi-gentle look and began mixing something with whiskey, then slid it to me, "Tough times at home?"

I nodded, "Yeah, feel like I'm not even there." I chuckled lowly and took a long swig of the drink. With a PING and a flash, I saw a new bar appear.

SYSTEM UPDATE: Consuming alcohol has added "Drunkenness" mechanics. Most of these will be inhibited by Gamer's Mind, but beware the effects regardless! By default, your party members will be able to see the Drunkenness bar for their own inebriation level as well.

Enduring the effects of alcohol has created the skill "Alcohol Tolerance"!

Huh... I guess well-made alcohol counted as alcohol, while crappy alcohol like the kind served at that Redwater Bay place counted as poison. Well, it could still be a useful skill to level up. If I wasn't mistaken, then Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body should negate any forms of addiction. I checked for any form of instructions.

The order of the levels went Tipsy, Buzzed, Drunk, Smashed, and Shitfaced. Each one was measured on a linear multiplying scale, so if someone had a scale of ten, then to be Tipsy they'd have to drink ten 'booze points' of drinks, then another twenty to get 'buzzed', another thirty to get 'drunk', another forty to get 'smashed', and finally another fifty to get 'shitfaced'. I held back a small chuckle as I checked everyone's scales.

With Alcohol Tolerance at level 1, I had a 'status scale' of 30 points. It also added 15 from my VIT, which made sense. So to get Tipsy, I'd have to drink forty-five BP of alcohol. Of course, it was far ahead of the others. Blake had 20+8 from VIT, Ruby had 15+8 from VIT, Marbel had 10+10 from VIT, and Yang hilarious had a measly 5+2, due to a trait previously unseen called Vacuan Brew, basically stating that her Vacuan heritage inhibited her alcohol tolerance by a lot, and instead of every five points of VIT giving a one-point boost, it was every twenty-five. My heavy-weight strength girlfriend was a major lightweight with the bottle.

I looked at Junior, then took another long swig, "This is good stuff, really smooth." I smiled at him while adjusting the settings with my mind, making the bar automatically fade away when you were completely clean of alcohol.

He smirked, "When you come to The Glass Cottage, you can always expect a quality time." he said with a flourish of his hand.

I chuckled and, due to boredom, briefly considered how easy it would be to grab his head in my hands and crush it. Brushing away the empty thoughts of mindless murder, I turned away, down the rest of my glass, and moved down to the dance floor to cut a rug.

I looked around and smiled as I saw a subtle sign for the VIP area. Heading up, I looked around the room again and caught sight of someone in a booth near the door.

It was hard to tell at first, her red-white gradient hair and brilliant green eyes giving the illusion of someone of Mistralian blood, even though her facial features that didn't lend themselves to that lie. A spray-on tan colored her skin. She wore a dark purple shirt with 'PUNK' written on it in pink letters, under a gray casual blazer. A brown newsboy hat sat on her head, covering up what was probably messed-up roots. black fishnet stockings and heeled boots covered her legs.

Despite all of this, I was The Gamer, and my Sight peeled away the lies.

Weiss Schnee
Title: The Frostbitten Princess of the Broken Kingdom
Level: 31
Class: Regal Fencer
Nickname: Ice Queen

HP: 1500/2000
AP: 5624/13,000
SP: 1700/3500

Strength: 16 (+27%) = 20.32
Dexterity: 66 (+62%) = 106.92
Vitality: 22 (+32%) = 29.04
Intelligence: 72 (+100%) = 144
Wisdom: 34 (+92%) = 65.28
Luck: 12
Charisma: 46

Age: 17
Birthday: January 15th
Race: Human
Height: 4'11
Weight: 90
Build: Graceful Slender
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Snow White (dyed Red-White Gradient) / Crystal Blue (covered with green contacts) / Pale White (covered with a spray-on Medium Tan)
Bra Size: A

I was impressed at her ridiculous Drunk Status Scale score, a whopping 40 base, plus 11 from her genetic boost from VIT. She had two empty bottles of peach schnapps next to her, a few bottles of wine and scotch strewn across the table, and a bottle of vodka clasped in one hand. The fact that she was alone, and had already drank a fifth of the vodka, made me think she was nearing death's door with a major case of alcohol poisoning. Despite that, she still seemed to be in at least a small amount control over herself.

I was only briefly confused about why a famous singer would be in disguise drinking at some mid-high range bar. Thinking about it for barely a minute, the answer was pretty obvious. She liked to hit the bottle and the disguise was so that she wouldn't be recognized. I was sure that probably even just a fifth of vodka was much more than anyone tending to her would allow, given that she was supposed to be very high-class, and yet that was only the latest of her boozy conquests. I checked the time and found that she'd just gotten off from her show about... an hour ago.

Wow, she worked fast to get her fix. Still, her backstory painted a different picture than the apparent punk-loving girl in front of me.

Born and raised in White Castle, far to the north of Atlas, and so far north that it only received about an hour of sunlight a day. She had her older sister and a twin brother who had died at age 7 after falling deadly ill. She had been in grief over it, but it didn't affect her anymore, or at least not consciously. Because of that loss, she was more protective of those close to her, and rarely expected anything but the best from them. She hated wasted potential, and planned to become a Huntress to bring some honor back to her family name. I smiled at that. It was a noble goal, really, one I could empathize with in a way, except I was trying to maintain the honor, rather than restore it, with my Hunting efforts. In a strange way, we were very similar and could get along through our empathizing with each other's goals.

I slowly walked over to her, giving a friendly smile as I approached. When I was only a few feet away, she giggled at me, "Hello~." she greeted in a slightly flirty, quite drunk tone.

I chuckled and sat down across from her, taking the vodka and pouring myself a glass, "Hello miss. Are you alright? You looked lonely, in need of some company." I internally cringed as I realized I probably sounded like some sleazy pervert, and quickly added, "To make sure you're alright. I don't think I've ever seen a girl so small handle even just a fifth of vodka. Are you alright?" I asked in a concerned tone.

She giggled at me, and I remembered that not only was she acting the part of a punk girl, but also probably had a large portion of her mental faculties soaked in alcohol, "I'm fine, dude." she hiccuped, then began giggling like a schoolgirl, as if the sound of the hiccup was hilarious, "So what's a handsome man like you doing wanting to sit with little old me?" she asked with a coy smirk.

"Honestly, to make sure you weren't being held up by rigormortis. I can see you enjoy drinking quite a lot." I looked around at all the bottles and found a few shot glasses sitting near the back of the table.

Weiss continued to giggle, "I love booze, plain as that, big boy." she grinned and just laughed into her hand.

"Heh, well I can agree with THAT. It IS pretty good." I smiled, enjoying the sound of her laughter. Her voice might have been faked, but her laugh was gorgeous, if empty. I took a drink of my glass of vodka, grunting a bit as the burn of alcohol slid down my throat before Gamer's Body fixed it. Slamming back the rest of the glass with only a slight watering of my eyes, I grinned at her, "So besides the siren calls of booze, what brings you here, miss?"

Her face fell into one of teenaged torturedness, "Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDD~ work is hell." she slumped down onto the table, her hat shifting a bit, "I hate it. I hate who I have to be to do it. I wish I could be myself, but who *I* am isn't good enough for them." she groaned into the tabletop and her hand moved around a bit, feeling out for a non-empty bottle.

I frowned. I knew she was talking about her singing career, which was just sad. I figured that her prayer pose in the poster wasn't so much her being angelic as it was her pleading, "Well... work can be tough, trust me, I know. But, there's a saying that goes 'If your job is doing what you love, then you never work a day in your life', and I believe that's true. I love making things, whether it be making people smile and laugh, or making food. Even if it's not my dream job, just working as a waiter and a cook makes me feel pretty accomplished, even if there isn't really any glory or anything in it."

She looked at me, leaned in very close and personal. I could smell the thick scent of alcohol on her breath. She opened her mouth, took in a deep breath, and... licked my nose. She pulled back and giggled, "You're silly, man. Come this summer, I'm outta this job and I'm not going back. I'm planning on becoming a bitchin' awesome Huntress." she grinned at me.

I grinned back, "Well, I'm planning on becoming a bitchin' awesome Huntsman. Maybe we'll end up meeting each other at one of the schools. Which one are you going to?"

She sighed lightly, almost dreamily, "Beacon~. Best school in the world to get that training to become a Huntress. Sadly, I gotta do pre-training, which means this summer I'm going to be working my cute little ass off getting the rest of the way up to snuff."

"Why wait until the summer?" I knew why, but if I just understood with no explanation, she'd think something was up, "Why not start now?"

She sighed, "Because work is hell and I'm on a contract. The contract ends just before this summer. It's bullshit that I have to do so much, but musicians don't get time off, or they become irrelevant or something." she said sadly, resting her cheek on the cool tabletop.

"Oh? So you make music? You look like you'd be a great singer." I smiled at her, "Or maybe a dancer~?" I chuckled, fighting the urge to gag and slap myself. Was I going too far? I didn't want to be cheating on Yang, even if this was only words... wait... Jaune W: Hey Yang, are you awake? :W

I waited for several seconds, eventually getting a Yang W: Yeah? What's up. :W

Jaune W: I found another potential ally. The one and only Weiss Schnee. She's got a ton of Aura and a powerful semblance. Physical stats aren't really up to snuff, and she's short and basically so light I'd be able to lift her with less than 5% power and throw her into a wall so hard she'd die... but she's definitely got the starting stats of a powerful Mage-type fighter. :W

Yang W: ... :W

Jaune W: Yang? You there? :W

Yang W: ... is she prettier than me? :W

I paused as I internally stared at that message, Jaune W: What is up with you and thinking that other girls are prettier than you? A girl who's prettier than Yang Xiao Long? That's just a myth! Seriously, baby girl, I'm not trying to recruit Weiss because she's pretty, I'm trying to recruit her because she's got the makings of a good Mage-type fighter. :W

Yang W: I... I'm sorry, I just... it feels like you keep only recruiting girls and I feel like... like you're trying to replace me. :W

I almost got the urge to slap some sense into her, but I knew that wouldn't go over well. Still, the sheer urge told of my utter frustration, Jaune W: Nobody is trying to replace you, Yang! We all love you and I especially love you, even moreso than the others do, because I'm your boyfriend and you're my girlfriend. We both took a risk to jump off the edge and try to fly, and I'm giving it my all to keep the wind beneath our wings. My recruiting girls has nothing to do with my love of you diminishing, baby girl, absolutely nothing. :W

Yang W: I... I'm sorry. :W

Jaune W: You should be more confident in yourself. Confidence is beautiful, and you're already beautiful, so you should have tons of confidence. :W

Yang W: Teeheehee, alright, alright. I get what you mean~... *sigh~* I'm sorry, Jaune, I just... sometimes I feel like-:W

Jaune W: well stop feeling like that. I'm sure that whatever it is, if it's causing you this grief, it's not true. I'll be here for you, babe, for all our days. :W

I swore I heard a sniffle from her end, but it was hard to detect Yang W: Alright... I'm gonna head on to bed with a smile on my face. :W

Jaune W: I wouldn't want it any other way. :W

I blinked as I saw a hand waving in front of my face, "Uh... what?"

"I said I'm a singer. You zoned out, dude." she giggled at me.

I blinked again, "Er, right. Well, I can help you become stronger, miss. I have a particular set of skills in that department." I smiled at her, trying to eke out some more CHA for my words.

Apparently, it had worked, or I just was charming enough to convince her otherwise, because her eyes lit up, "That sounds incredible. Are you a tutor?"

"You... could call it that. I do more than a tutor, miss. I give you a means for massive improvement." I smirked at her, "Think of becoming about 25% stronger than you are right now... in an instant. Or about 25% tougher. Instant gratification, but with permanent effects." I chuckled as her eyes widened, a sparkle in them.

"Ah... assuming you're correct in your claims... why would you help me?" she asked skeptically.

I decided to trust Charisma and Luck, and I went out on a limb, "Because I understand your plight, Weiss. I come from a long line of strong Huntsmen, and I have a massive, heavy pair of shoes to fill. They're even bigger than my size 13s." I chuckled a bit, "It's a heavy motivation to carry, the obligation of family honor. I know the crushing weight you must be feeling. I always want to help you because I believe in happy endings. I'll always do what I can to make sure all our endings are happy. I know it might seem weird, but I can see your story, and it's really sad, so I wanna give that story a happy ending." I took a shuddering breath, "Because that's what heroes do. I'm going to be a hero and that means I have to help other heroes rise up. That means I have to fight monsters until they're not a threat anymore. That means I have to be selfless to make all our stories end happily. That means that I'll eventually have the make the ultimate sacrifice, too, and that... I'm scared, but I won't let fear control me. No true hero can let their fear control them."

QUESTS RECEIVED!

Quest: Nobody is on in 5 minutes.

Description: Weiss wishes to be a huntress, but cannot continue her training until her music contract has expired, which cuts her remaining training time very short. Use your powers to help her develop her skills and power before it's time to go to Beacon.

Objective: Convince Weiss to join what the others have dubbed "The Golden Crusade" and finish her training at the seedling kingdom of Celeste.
-Convince Weiss to join The Game.
-Build up Celeste from a seedling kingdom to at least a fledgling kingdom.
-Help raise Weiss' stats to 20STR, 67DEX, 25VIT, 74INT, 40WIS, 20LUK, 50CHA before May 1st
-Help raise Weiss' stats to 25STR, 70DEX, 35VIT, 77INT, 44WIS, 25LUK, 60CHA before June 1st
-Help raise Weiss' stats to 30STR, 72DEX, 40VIT, 80INT, 48WIS, 30LUK, 65CHA before July 1st
-Help raise Weiss' stats to 35STR, 75DEX, 45VIT, 82INT, 50WIS, 35LUK, 70CHA before August 1st.
-Help Weiss apply and get accepted into Beacon.
-Help raise Weiss' stats to 38STR, 76DEX, 48VIT, 83INT, 52WIS, 40LUK, 72CHA before August 10th.

Reward for completion: 5000 EXP for every level Weiss gains, 10,000,000 lien, +50 Closeness with Weiss Schnee, possibly form connections with Atlas and the SDC, +5 CHA, +30% mastery of Leadership skill.

Penalty for failure: up to 100 EXP, up to 50,000 lien, up to -25 Closeness to Weiss Schnee, possible ire gained from Atlas and the SDC, possible lawsuits, possible hits being called on you. Possible death of Weiss Schnee.

Time Limit: 3 months and 2 weeks

I accepted it, smiling. I could get her INT and WIS up by a lot of points with just the Tutorial. Physical training would be easy, and her LUK, though I didn't like too much that it was on the list, could be upped to the needed level with just five levels and some possible gains based on... well, on being lucky I supposed.

I looked at the other window and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head.

Quest: A new era.

Description: You have sworn yourself full to a life of heroism. As a hero and the ultimate contender to take on the ultimate task, you must face the infinite darkness and cut it down to nothingness, bringing about a new age.

Objective: Destroy every single Grimm in the world.
-Destroy all Grimm (1644/1976+?)

Reward for completion: +999,999,999,999,999 EXP. Earn the title "Messiah of the Light". Begin a new era of time. Win The Game.

Penalty for failure: Death. Doom all of mankind to continue this fight without The Gamer on their side. ?

Time Limit: Until your death.

This... this was it. This was pretty much my entire life's work compressed into a single task. My god, all those sweet, curvaceous nines... that title. Beginning a new era? And... I could win this.

All I had to do was... literally kill every Grimm in the world. That was a lot easier said than done. It was estimated that there are dozens of trillions of Grimm in the world, at least. If that was even remotely true, then I'd need a lot of time and a lot more firepower than what I currently had.

I accepted it with a bated breath. It disappeared just like any other quest window, which I wasn't sure was reassuring or disconcerting. How nonchalant was my power? I didn't know, but things would be different now. I hadn't even killed two thousand Grimm yet and I'd nearly died twice now. How many levels were they all worth? What items, what skills, what all could I get from them? I didn't know.

I guess the only way to find out was to actually go out and kill them.

Right now, though... if I continued how I was, then eventually my DEX and LUK would outclass my INT and WIS in total value, and I'd lose Wizard again. I didn't want that, especially since I'd need DEX to move faster. I was tempted to do a point dump and split them evenly between the two stats, but that wasn't the smartest or wisest idea. I was the type of gamer to horde all my potions and such items until the big boss battles. It wasn't the best way to play, but a lack of caution had caused a lot of my problems thus far, so I was going to keep this up in case anything new arose.

"So... what do you say?" I asked finally, not sure how much time had passed as I shifted slightly, resting my hands on the table.

Weiss stared at me for a long time, looking deep into my eyes, "Your eyes..." she eventually muttered.

That... wasn't the reaction I was expecting, "My eyes?"

"They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, which is why Hunters have such powerful ones. Your eyes are so... brilliantly colored, and so deep too... almost enchanting with their gaze... such a pure shade too, it's lovely. They speak of power, of promise, of hope, of truth, of-" she suddenly went wide-eyed and shot to her feet, running off.

I followed, concerned, "Hey, what's the matter?" I called out to her.

She stopped in front of one of the many trashcans around the place and proceeded to let loose a stream of vomit into it. I cringed a bit and grabbed her hair, gently holding it back. She muttered a faint thanks before retching and letting out a second wave. I gently rubbed her back as I did for my sisters when they'd ever had stomach viruses, giving her a supercharged Soulforge with a Water Dust crystal in hand to help her feel better. She sighed and groaned as the last of it left her. The smell was abominable, and the liquid was mostly that, liquid. She had hardly eaten anything before coming here, it seemed. She had gained the status effects Fatigue, Famished, and Disgusted, "Ooooohhh~." she moaned in pain, "I accept your help. Please start by fixing this..."

I nodded and began surging more Soulforges into, taking a few moments to give her the six elemental buffs in case something was wrong with her soul too. Nothing else happened for her, to which I sighed in relief. I put the bottle of vodka into my inventory to save it, since it was a quality brand, and helped Weiss outside, using Soulforge on her with extreme rapidness, boosting Mana Barrage by spending more AP on it. It was fine with me, I'd have to cast the spell nearly a dozen times a second to counter my APR.

With concern for my Wizard class in the face of my eventual raising DEX, I mentally commanded the points to boost my mental stats a bit more, just enough to balance them.

Intelligence: 120 (+5) (+175%) = 343.75
Wisdom: 120 (+5) (+175%) = 343.75

Stat Points: 128

With a total of what should be 250, I could raise my DEX to 140 before it conflicted with my goals. However, at that point, I'd no doubt have INT and WIS near the 200 mark at least.

With all of mental stuff done with, I saw that Weiss' condition had improved drastically. I smiled as I steadied her, "You feel like you can walk on your own?"

She looked at me, then coughed lightly, taking a few steps, "I could walk before, thank you." she seemed to have more sense about her now, "Now then, just name your price for this training and we can get things settled." she said insistently, "I don't want to end up in Beacon ill-prepared. Assuming you're even telling the truth."

Okay, a LOT more sober... or she went from angry drunk to honest drunk in the process, and now I'd taken her back a step, "Just close your eyes and when I tell you to, say 'I accept'." I smirked.

She sighed, then closed her eyes, "Alright."

I smiled and created a new party to sort her into. I sent the invite and smiled, "Okay, say it."

---

(Weiss' POV)

I sighed, "I accept."

Suddenly, I felt like a Dust bomb went off inside my chest. It was like baleful flames burned my lungs and heart into crispy husks, then my flesh was torn apart and molten steel was poured into my ruined chest cavity. I nearly threw up again, or did I? It was hard to tell with the sense-blazing fire burning inside me.

All too soon, it ceased, but luckily so did my puking. I normally felt vile after throwing up, but this time that feeling was only a tiny candle of disgust that was blotted out by the bright sunlight of the warm, comforting feeling inside me. I took in a shuddering breath and took the glass of water that had been offered to me, swishing it around my mouth and spitting. I felt like a common harlot, throwing up in an alleyway. It wasn't until I had finished washing my mouth out that I realized something wasn't right. I looked at the glass of water in my hand and blinked, "Where did you get a glass of water?"

"From my inventory."

"Inventory? You're not a store." I looked towards him, the young man who I realized I didn't even know the name of, and blinked.

Welcome to The Game!

You have joined The Game in Jaune Arc's party "Warming Up"!

Would you like to view the tutorial?

A game? Oh god, THIS was his mysterious power, wasn't it? He gave people the power of those silly video games. I was tempted to leave, to turn and walk away right there, but... something in me told me to stay. I don't know what it was, but it was probably a thick brew of curiosity and pragmatism. I felt my stomach squirm uncomfortably at the thought of brews, which reminded me of alcohol. Ugh, the substance was SO good, but why did it have to backstab me?

I looked at... I assumed his name was Jaune. Why did the name Arc sound familiar? The thoughts were hazy as I looked down, steadying myself, "This is your promised power?"

He chuckled, "Trust me, I used to be lame and now I'm probably good enough to be handed a Hunting License, and that's after only a month. I think you'll do well here. You just have to follow the rules, alright?"

"I'm good with rules. Don't worry, if this... if this game... if this power, is as useful as you say, then I can figure things out and do excellently."

He started laughing at me, LAUGHING! "What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's not... it's just that reminded me of something hilarious I once heard, it's-" he paused under my glare, as he should have! What right does he have to do such a thing?

I continued glaring at him for a while, then realized that he had zoned out again.

---

It was over a decade ago, maybe exactly that long. I was still living with both parents. Things were alright back then, I think it was... things were... it's hard to focus. I feel like this is scattered everywhere.

A party, a masquerade. I remember meeting a young girl about my age there. She had seemed extremely sad, so I tried to cheer her up. I even let her play with my gameboy since I was being polite. She told me, "If this thing... if this game is as easy as you say, then I can figure things out and do excellently." she had said, and I watched as a few snow-white strands of hair slipped from her oversized hat as she focused on it.

She wasn't very good at it. Then again, not everyone was good at tetris.

I smiled, and though she was frustrated, I helped her out and she ended up happier than she had been.

I was happier too.

...

I remember a quiet promise of secrecy. I remember a storm of fists against me.

I remember my heart burning with determination as I fought people larger and tougher than me, but what they were not...

What they were not was courageous.

A spot of red as a tear prickled my eye. A cry of golden fury as I was blamed if only briefly. Defended by a girl of innocent silver eyes.

Lilac met a royal blue as we understood each other. Royal blue met silver and a smile was shared.

A spark of kindness igniting a warming, calming fire of friendship.

A small seed of kindness sprouting into a beautiful blossom of friendship.

It was lovely.

...

Alone for a while, just a little while, while the rest were out shopping. I came downstairs hungry, only to see a flash of darkness in the kitchen. I ran in and saw a young girl with golden eyes staring at me. She had an apple in each hand and a frightened look on her face.

She tensed and I cried out, "Wait!" that one word changed the entire situation.

We talked and she explained a hunger she had. A hunger for food and for help. A hunger for something better than what she had.

I felt bad for her, and though I couldn't fix her situation, I could help her in smaller ways. She was surprised by my kindness as I gave her a bag of food. To her it was incredible, but to me it was just some fruits and vegetables. She smiled and I felt proud.

I felt like a small hero, helping out someone in need.

...

Grief and despair, a sunless life I was leading. It wasn't fair. I was so young and had so much to live for, why was it being ripped away?

A conversation, smiles shared, I remembered an angel entering my life, a literal angel.

Short brown locks, deep green eyes, an angel costume, was it Halloween? It was, I think.

We talked and as a hero, I felt the need for a hero myself.

And I got one. A heroine filled with innocent joy at meeting a new friend.

It was such joy that reminded me of the light in my life and the happiness I had felt. Times were dark but light was aplenty in life.

Things would get better, I knew it, and they did.

They might have always gone bad... but they always did get better...

---

YOU HAVE REDISCOVERED A MEMORY CHUNK! (6/7)

You have rediscovered "Hero's Pride and Humility"!

Your mind has been tempered and reinforced against the siren calls of pride. Your INT has increased by 3!

+25 Closeness to Weiss Schnee! (Total: +50)

+25 Closeness to Ruby Rose! (Total: +93)

+N/A Closeness to Yang Xiao Long. (ERROR: Closeness already maximum!)

+25 Closeness to Blake Belladonna. (Total: +99)

+25 Closeness to Marbel Mayston (ERROR! Closeness has reached maximum!) (Total: +100)

Your relationship with Ruby has upgraded from "Really Good Friends" to "Unusually Close Friends (?)"!

Your relationship with Weiss has upgraded from "Tentative Allies" to "Friends"

Your relationship with Blake has upgraded from "Good Friends" to "Something worth more than Friends"

Your relationship with Marbel has upgraded from "More than Best Friends" to "Rock-solid Friendship"

I blinked, hearing a voice, "Hello~?" it was Weiss. Huh... I wasn't expecting that memory chunk, to be honest.

"Sorry about that, I just remembered something. How long was I out?"

"You just remembered somethi-How long were you ou-" she scoffed in disdain, "You zoned out so extremely that you can't even keep track of the time! You've been staring at me for about ten seconds now. It's really rather rude you know. What's also rude is " she practically lectured at me.

I sighed and booped her nose, "Calm down, I've had this quest for a while, with my memories, and so I've been rediscovering lost chunks of them. It's nothing too big, I just remembered a few things. We've met before at some kind of masquerade. You failed at playing tetris." I chuckled a bit, smiling at the memory. It was honestly kinda funny.

She blushed and stuttered, "I... oh my god you're right... I thought your name sounded familiar... you're that absolute dunce who made me get in trouble with the Hahns!" she pouted at me, which honestly just looked adorable.

Like water off a duck's back, I shrugged it off, "Eh, not like the Hahns actually matter in the grand scheme of things. We're Hunters, not tailors, we're not selling clothes to make our money, we're killing Grimm for that." I smiled and patter her on the head, "So don't worry about having to explain any mysterious charges. We pay with cold hard cash." I smiled, "Now then, if that's everything you were concerned about, we should get going. I think your people will be concerned where their starlet ran off to." I chuckled and picked her up, giving her a piggyback ride, "Now then, where are you staying?"

"Th-the Merlot..." she stuttered out, "Why are you doing this again? I haven't exactly been kind to you."

"I can see your story, Weiss. It's not a happy one... but like I said, I'm a hero. Not all heroes wear capes, or carry swords or even ride into battle. A hero isn't always clad in shining plates of steel that protect their body as the strike down the creatures of darkness. A hero, sometimes, is just the person willing to help you when you're down. That's precisely why I decided to pick you up." I chuckled and shifted her slightly on my back, keeping a firm grip on her so as to not drop her.

I began to jog, considering using Azure Dragon's Winged Flight, buuuut...

Azure Dragon's Winged Flight (Active) Level: 8, Exp: 34.62%, Cost: 800 AP
A special technique made by Qing Long. By gathering aura around the back and conjuring together lightning and air, the user may sprout a pair of electrical wings to pull themselves into the sky.

Base Flight Speed: 135 mph
Damage from wings: 135%
Lightning Affinity Multiplier: 2.0x
Costs an additional 779 AP per minute

I could run faster than it, and at a push could fly on the wind faster with Mystral's help. Still, it was gaining a 15 mph boost every level, so if it was one of those skills I'd dubbed 'Two Percenters' (one of the stats of it started at 2% of the end total, gaining 1% for all of its levels, until it ended up at 100% at level 99), then I'd end up nearly going Mach 2 by the end of this skill's progression. Honestly, though, while it was a good skill, I had other means.

Still... advancing this skill would give me rapidly progressing flight speed and power... it was a tough choice, honestly.

There was a big difference between the four directional styles, and the counter of the Azure Dragon of the East, which lent more to what I could guess was a Rogue's build, was the White Tiger of the West, which lent more to what I could see was a Berserker's build. Running in and getting into the fray, tearing your opponents apart before they even have a chance to hurt you. It was based in the elements of Metal and Air. The two other styles, the Vermillion Bird of the South and the Black Turtle of the North, were based in Fire and Earth, and Earth and Metal respectively. Since the power of Magic Doodle had revealed to me that Ice was a combination of Air and Water, that meant that the Azure Dragon style was unique in that it was the only one to technically have three elements, as well as have Water or Lightning, which were absent in the other three styles. Since right now, Water was a source of healing spells, and Lightning was a source of speed buffs, I could understand the usefulness of the style.

I still had to keep my DEX relatively low compared to the infinite limit of my STR and VIT, since neither were limited except for needing to be higher than INT and WIS to unlock the Berserker class, though personally I felt it would be better to have a Knight class for that. Oh well, I couldn't control the Game, just influence it.

With a smile, I began to Sprint, Jaune W: Hold onto me, Weiss. This is gonna be fun~! :W I changed to Racing mode and saw my speed clocking in at just over 100 MPH. I heard Weiss' shriek pierce the calm night air, yet it was slowly blooming into a cheer of thrills. I smiled proudly and continued to carry her along my wild, speedy ride. I kept the wind at our backs and her cheers from traveling more than a few feet away, forcing the sound to stop on a wall of unmoving air, which stopped the sound like a void would. It saw limited use, but I felt it was still useful for moments like this, when sound needed to be kept at a minimum.

Weiss didn't seem to mind, instead too focused on enjoying the rush of the wind over her face and through her hair, dispelling the smell of vomit and replacing it with a simple scent of warmth city air. It seemed that a few hundred Soulforges had cleared her body and mind of the alcohol finally. Still, I figured it couldn't hurt to give her some more, even if it didn't seem to do anything. More EXP for the skill, after all.

Weiss W: Slow down you dunce! I'm going to get sick again at this rate! :W

Jaune W: You don't sound very sick, you sound happy. Plus, you don't have anymore alcohol in your body, so you shouldn't get sick. Tomorrow, I want you to meet me somewhere, okay? I want to teach you something. :W

Weiss W: So you'll actually be teaching me new skills as well? Not just dragging me along a free ride to power? :W

Jaune W: Weiss... looking at the big picture, where Grimm outnumber all of mankind by about a million to one... with those kinds of odds against us, any claim to power that doesn't hurt other people is something you can't pass up just because of pride. :W

Weiss W: ...I... I refuse to be so easily influenced by your high Charisma... but I DO see your point. I suppose, if I'm truly behind in physical fitness, then I should take what I can get. :W

Jaune W: You're already getting into a more gamer-y mindset! I'm so proud. :W I gave her a cheesy grin as I slowed my path, thanking these new quests for giving me the EXP needed to get Pathfinder to level 5.

Pathfinder (Passive) Level: 5, Exp: 1.42% (achieved for raising Wisdom above 100)
An ability held by some rare few with semblances related to information. Having been granted this skill, the user gains abilities that give them information usually impossible to perceive by others. More abilities are unlocked with increased skill level.

Grants the knowledge of Quest Sub-Objectives
Level 5: Unlocks the Minimap and Map Markers.

I had gained the ability to zoom in past 100% on Vale City, and simply looking up the location of the Merlot opened the location on my 'map', and allowed me to mark it. Sure enough, I had seen an ethereal path set out for me in a dashed line, and followed it.

Now, though, following those lines that stood out easily due to their color... the game calls the color 'azure' so much I almost would too, but it's definitely more a cyan color, just a bit bluer than normal. I guess it could be counted as azure in a way. Azure certainly sounded cooler than cyan.

Regardless, I was now in front of the fancy hotel, and smiled at Weiss, "Read the tutorial to its fullest, okay? If you can't read it all tonight, do so in the morning." I set her down on her feet after making sure she was okay to stand, then gave her another supercharged Soulforge to help out. I waited a bit for my AP to recover followed by a supercharged Regeneration if anything came up. A week of boosted HPR and SPR would be great for her, I figured, and I could manage it fairly easily.

With that done, I smiled at her and sent her on her way, "Stay safe. If you need anything, just ask me, okay? I can find you with this power."

"A-alright." she blushed, looking at her feet, then slowly raising her gaze up to my face, "When will we see each other in person again?"

"Hmmm... well, if I can get some more revenue, I can arrange a few things together, aaaaand... huh, yeah, that should work." I grinned, "Let's see, it's Wednesday. I'll be ready by Saturday, but try to slip away before then so I can help you train. I've currently got some things in the making, I'll tell you more about them later, when it's better timed. For right now, just relax and I'll inform you if any developments arise, okay?"

"O-okay... you seem rather busy for a teenager." she said with curious expression, tilting her head a bit, almost like a confused puppy, "I'll... I'll wait, okay? Don't be rude and leave a lady waiting, alright, Jaune?" her tone slipped back to one of what I could only describe as tsundere.

"Alright, alright, I won't. Talk to you tomorrow, Weiss. Goodnight." I turned and began to walk away, wings beginning to form on my back, "Sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite."

"B-b-b-bedbugs?" she sounded horrified, "W-w-w-what kind of bugs live in your bed?"

"Oh, uh... it's just an expression, mostly. But there ARE bugs that can get into your bed. It's especially likely in hotels, but don't worry, it's mostly just different species of-" I bought a moment to look up what her most feared type of bug was, and fought back a laugh and a smirk, "-spiders."

A moment passed, followed by another, and anoth-

Suddenly a shriek shattered the still, quiet night air, tearing through what I could almost be sure was the entire Vale City skyline.

Physical Resistance's level increased by 1!

---

(Later that night, Jaune POV)

I rubbed my ear a bit. I had sent Weiss over a hundred messages of apology, comfort, and reassurance, assuring her that I was just joking around and trying to get a reaction. I had lost some Closeness to her at first, but I gained back twice of what I lost with my efforts to make her feel better. She even began to laugh with me, even if it was only after a lot of coaxing.

Dammit, INT and WIS, you should have let me realize that was a bad idea! I guess when I don't stop to think, my increased thinking abilities don't help too much. Oh well, at least it had given us something to laugh at. I even told her my own feared bug... moths.

Blegh, just thinking about them made me want to throw up.

I walked into my home. Not Eagle Mountain or the developing Celeste, but rather the Arc Residence. The place smelled of beer of nachos. Damn... I guess dad's been feeling out of it without me being around. I found him collapsed naked on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket and-...

I'm just going to levitate him and not touch him, especially his right hand.

After setting him onto the clean floor, I set about cleaning the whole house. It was about halfway through running six loads of laundry that I found Sebastian in all this mess. He was dragging a shirt towards the closet that leads to the crawlspace, which got me curious.

He seemed to only ever steal shirts, leaving them to never be seen again. In fact, I'm surprised I haven't gotten a-

QUEST RECEIVED!

Quest: Topping off the Laundry Basket

Description: Sebastian has stolen shirts for years, and it's time to get them back!

Objective: Find all the shirts that Sebastian has stolen, wash them, and do something with them.
-Find all the stashes of shirts (0/9)
-Collect all the shirts (0/64)
-Wash all the shirts
-Do something with the shirts.

Reward: 10 EXP, 10 Lien, reduce Sebastian's morale, +20% mastery of the Laundry skill, conditional reward based on what you do with the shirts. ?

Penalty: -10 EXP, -100 Lien, Sebastian's morale and shirt-stealing reign continues unopposed. ?

I accepted the quest and proceeded to look around the house, my hand glowing with light as I used Jurist to dim the lights, charging her up to allow her to easily reduce the energy flow to the lightbulbs. With a frown, I found tiny marks where the little furry bastard had climbed up the wall. I found a small hole in the ceiling. I lifted myself and reached around in the space up there, considering trying to use Skotomorphosis to transform myself into a small Grimm, but decided against it. I filled the air of the space with my perception and felt out the shirts inside. Pulling them all out, I sighed, gathering my energy as I shifted my focus from Air to Water and Earth. Searching for the rest of them was easy, but filling the spaces back up was hard. Sebastian was a lean bastard and could make small holes.

I grabbed some plaster from the shed in the back yard with Roimontagne, finding another couple of shirts stuffed into a corner of the roof in the tiny building. How much time had the little guy put into this? I sighed and found him trying to mess with the washing machine, which had buzzed after the completion of the cycle. I smirked at him, then used the metal in his collar to drag him backwards, suspending him in the air. Oddly enough, he only seemed to glare at me blankly, not freak out like a normal animal.

'Then again, you're not a very normal animal, are you, you little shit?' I thought with a smirk as I moved from nearly hanging him to setting him on the dining room table. I kept him there as I found the second to last stash. I don't know how the quest knew how many stashes there were, OR how many shirts were hidden away inside them, but something was off, as I was missing only one stash and a dozen shirts. I sighed and thought back to a few minutes ago. Sebastian had been taking a shirt to the closet that held the trapdoor leading to the crawlspace.

With a heavy sigh at how reduced I'd become in only an hour, I opened the door, lifted up the trapdoor, and slipped under the house. With my elementals, it was easy to warm, dry, freshen, and illuminate the cool, damp, dank, dark area. I touched down onto dry, hard dirt, the dampness dismissed I could see everywhere under here, and I blinked as I saw a pile of shirts several feet from the trapdoor, and as warm air breathed life into the place, and a few well-placed spells earned me a few EXP from killing spiders and rats, I sensed a life signal coming from the pile, and with the gentleness of a feather, I shifted them aside. Something wiggled within the pile, until after a few more seconds, a tiny pair of golden eyes met my cyan ones.

A kitten
Title: Lonely and Cold in this Cruel World
Level: 1

She was very small, perhaps small enough to fit in only one of my hands. Her fur was white, with patches of orange and brown dotted about it. I sighed softly, seeing her fearful expression. I very gently reached out and petted her, trying to convey a sensation of warmth and comfort. It seemed to be working, as her eyes closed and she began purring softly. I picked her up gently, stuffing the shirts into my inventory with Auto-Loot, and slowly crawled back out into the house. I was concerned by the kitten's title, and sought to remedy that immediately.

After putting the last of the shirts in the washing machine, which partially completed the quest and boosted my mastery of Laundry, as well as making Sebastian look sad, I set down the kitten next to him.

I released the hold on the furry bastard and he immediately grabbed the kitten, sitting her between his forelegs and grooming her. I hummed, then prepared some food for the poor little thing. It hurt my heart that something so small and cute would be abandoned like that. Was it luck, or Luck that had driven me here at the exact time to get this quest, see Sebastian taking a shirt under the house, follow that knowledge, and find her?

Depending on which, was it her luck/Luck, or mine? I had to admit that she was adorable, and judging from the tiny numbers of her stats, she was fragile and innocent. I heated up a bottle of fortified formula, which my dad had in the house since he took veterinarian tasks often enough that he figured it would be easier to just have stuff on hand at home. It was Luck, I was sure, but I ignored the odd convenience.

I picked up the kitten, about to start feeding her, when I heard a knocking on the door. I sighed, getting up and holding her in my hand, much to Sebastian's frustration and meowed complaint, and went to the door. With Crocea the Elemental, I turned the knob and opened it.

I blinked in surprise at the visitor, "Qrow... I can honestly say this is unexpected."

The older man looked at the kitten and the bottle in my hands, then at my face, "Right. Same with you and a kitten. You didn't fuck that Blake girl, did you?"

I blanched, "N-NO! G-goddammit why would you even SAY that?" I swore Xiburichu may have actually set my face on fire with how much I was blushing. Blake was good-looking, and moderately trustworthy, and quite loyal, but dammit I'm with Yang! I'm staying loyal!

He chuckled, "To see you get flustered. Anyways, listen, there's been... an incident, and I figured you'd be the best equipped to handle it." he took out his flask and took a swig as I tried to get the kitten to latch onto the bottle.

"Can it wait for dawn, at least? I just found this kitten a little while ago and I haven't even cleaned it or fed it or named it or unlocked its Aura." I frowned at him, trying to convey my annoyance.

Qrow sighed, "It's brown and orange, name it Garnet and come on."

I looked down at the kitten, who had latched onto the bottle and gave a small wiggle of happiness, "Alright then, Garnet... Garnet the kitten." I smiled at her, "Now then, I guess I can keep her warm while we're walking to... wherever we're going."

I saw a tiny flash of silver as Qrow pulled out a set of keys. A quiet 'blip' sounded and I was surprised when a hovering airship appeared out of thin air above us, "Cloaking technology, if you're curious. I'm testing it for a friend. Now then, come on, we're going." he jumped up into the open doors of the nondescript gray ship.

I jumped up too, following after him. When we landed inside, he pulled the door closed effortlessly and turned to see my curious, bemused gaze. He didn't speak, and I continued feeding the kitten, "So where are we going?"

He slicked back his hair, a sly grin on his face, "Congratulations, kiddo. We're going to Beacon."

I stared at him, my expression blank. He didn't mind me as he got behind the pilot's seat and began flying the ship towards the emerald glow of Beacon's titular beacon in the far distance.

To my credit, it only took me about ten seconds to get back to my senses and speak up, "What?"

The only response I got was the slight echo of my question off the inner metal walls of the ship, the flight otherwise quiet as we soared through the sky with no evidence except a slight distortion of air around us.

---

Oh boy! We're heading into some serious stuff now. Jaune has officially made a pre-Beacon meeting of all the members of RWBY. Of course, unofficially, they haven't actually met yet, but they're all gathered together!

What could Qrow have in store for Jaune? Well if you've been paying attention to all of the scenes of this story, and also have watched Volume 3 closely, then you should know or at least have a very good clue as to what's about to happen.

As we've seen in this chapter, Jaune tends to procrastinate his quest-like tasks in favor of grinding EXP. He's gone ahead and leveled up some of his skills to major power, but had put off calling The Bard until after his grindfest. Of course, it hasn't been shown just yet, but in the next chapter he'll head back to the WF camp and receive the welcome-back he deserves (of course, it's going to be different from normal, since from their perspective, Adam has been missing for a little over two weeks after saying that he was going to talk to the Hunters about Cinder).

Also in the next chapter, depending on certain things, he may advance further in his quest to give Skyler a soul. In addition, he might be going to Vacuo alongside Weiss' tour, and you should be able to guess what THAT means~.

SPOILER: He'll be meeting Ren and Nora. THAT'S what that means.

For now, I just want to be done with this chapter, since it's taken nearly two weeks to get out due to things happening over the last weekend. I'm perfectly fine, in case you might have just gotten worried, I was just really busy.

Now then, Omake time~!

---

Omake: Gynocentric Problems.

---

Yang was not happy.

She had grinded levels with Jaune, trained closely with Jaune, and even had seventeen different types of kinky sex with Jaune.

She was loyal, friendly, kind, giving, exciting, fun, and beautiful beyond belief.

She wasn't the one to blame, it was Jaune's fault she was feeling this way.

Yang Xiao Long
Title: The Sun that burns away the Night
Level: 95
Class: Fiery Martial Master
Nickname: Sunflower

Hit Points: 16,000/16,000
Aura Points: 11,000/11,000
Stamina Points: 21,000/21,000

Strength: 162 (+300%) = 648
Dexterity: 130 (+90%) = 247
Vitality: 146 (+150%) = 365
Intelligence: 60 (+50%) = 90
Wisdom: 60 (+50%) = 90
Luck: 30
Charisma: 325

Stat Points: 0

Age: 18
Birthday: December 12th
Race: Human
Height: 6'0
Weight: 240
Build: Sexy, Medium-Muscled, Toned, and Voluptuous
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Glittering Golden Blonde / Dazzling Lilac Purple / Sexy Tan
Cup Size: G

Still, though... despite all of her efforts, she was still forced to behold this sight.

Nora hugged Jaune tightly, so tightly that it would have shattered a highway support strut, but Jaune was much tougher than that. Jaune, on the other hand, hugged back, and gave Nora a small kiss on the top of her head, "Happy birthday, Nora."

Right, right... right...

It was Nora's birthday, that was why he was being so affectionate with her. Nora herself was a very affectionate girl, which irked Yang to no end. The blonde brawler didn't want to feel this way, and she had expected the problem to stop after having reunited with her mother, but... it just wasn't to be. The feelings persisted, and she knew why.

Choices... so many choices. She and Jaune were both very very aware that it as legal AND encouraged for men to be polyamorous, due to the lack of men there were to impregnate women to make babies. Jaune hadn't shown any signs of wanting a second girlfriend, but he'd ground her father into the dirt with his superior array of skills and abilities. Taiyang Xiao Long now had a respectful fear of Jaune Arc.

And that alone made Yang fear for their relationship. What if Jaune wanted a second girlfriend? What would she do? She'd thought over it a million times, and she never got any closer to a conclusion.

It all came down to what she'd do in the moment. Would she accept their third member, or would she resist. If she resisted, would Jaune let her go to be with his new girlfriend(s), or stick by her? Would he try to make her compromise? Could she even resist the compromise? What if she turned out to like it? What if he had Ruby join? Would she have to date and kiss her own little sister? What would even be involved in such a relationship?

The storm of questions and crippling lack of answers made her feel dizzy, and it was only a nudge in the side from her darling little sister that brought her back to reality, "Hm? Hey sis. What's up?"

"You're thinking about you and Jaune and multiple girlfriends again, aren't you?" the not-so-little-anymore reaper nearly chimed with a smug smirk.

"W-what? N-no! That's crazy talk, sis. I'm not obsessed over it." she excused with a blush, looking away from the crimsonette.

Ruby pouted adorably. Even if she'd grown taller and curvier, she was still cute beyond belief, "Then why do you make the face you make when you're thinking about it almost constantly? I swear this is the fifth time today I've seen you making that face."

Yang sighed, "Look at him and Nora. I shouldn't be jealous because I have far more than anyone else has with him... and yet look at the world party list."

Ruby sighed too, opening it up.

There was Yang, Marbel, Blake, herself, Weiss, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, Kira his not-actually-adopted sister, Coco, Velvet, Skyler, that odd girl Neo, Professor Goodwitch, Penny, several female students from Haven and Shade, even Emerald and Cinder had joined after Jaune had forced them to accept reformation and they'd taken to it with surprising gusto.

That was just the thing. Except for Ren, Jaune had only recruited females to his parties.

Right now, he had a full two dozen females to look at and care about. The fact that Yang was the only one in his heart spoke volumes about his resolve, but the contents of his parties said otherwise.

"I'm sure he has his reasons, sis. If he wanted a second girlfriend, though... just assuming he did... would you accept them into the folds?"

Yang shook her head, "Yuck! Ruby don't word it like that. You make it sound like they'd fuck me."

To the credit of her increased maturity, Ruby barely blushed at all at the crude word and the implications, "You know what I mean, sis. Would you be able to embrace having a third person in your relationship?"

"I... I don't know... it would depend on who it is, I guess." that was one answer to cling to, at least, even if a half-formed one. It was still more stable than being tossed around in confusing and crashing waves of not knowing.

Ruby pressed on, seemingly driven by some unseen force, "What if it was Nora?"

"Nora's a good person. I think I could accept that decision."

Silver eyes gleamed, "What if it was Pyrrha?"

Yang crossed her arms under her massive breasts, which were miraculously still perky despite their humongous size, "Heh, P-money's so obvious with her adoration of Jaune that I don't think I could stand to crush her hopes over it. She's kind, honest, humble, caring, warm-hearted, and the exact kind of personality I could see myself allowing to join me in being Jaune's girlfriend... also she's pretty sexy, I have to admit, even if I'm straighter than a solar flare."

Ruby crossed her arms under her own breasts, which had grown to D-cups, "Alright... what about Weiss?"

Lilac eyes flickered to the purple gradient coloring the long white tresses of the former heiress. After raining death on Mr. Schnee and installing someone new and pure in his place, Jaune had freed Weiss from the responsibilities of bearing the weight of her family's name. Taking her mother's maiden name and a whole new approach to life, the reborn Weiss Pierce had joy and love shining from every orifice, sometimes literally, after she managed to prestige Aurora, just as Jaune had.

Yang could see herself letting such a person into her life like that, "Yeah... definitely..." she smiled fondly.

Ruby nodded firmly, "Alright then, now what about Blake?"

Blake... Yang thought about the faunus girl. She was loyal to Jaune and her greatest malice was aimed at injustice, inequality, and racism. Those were ideals Yang agreed needed to be minimized, if not outright eliminated in the world. The ravenette was a loyal friend and, after she'd gotten over her abandoning issues thanks to the friendship and love she'd been surrounded in, she swore herself to help out and stick by her friends to the very end. The two of them knew each other inside and out... literally, they'd witnessed each other naked and what was best described as 'partially eviscerated'. If it came down to trust and connection, Blake was queen, "Yes. I'd accept that fully."

Ruby took in a hesitant breath, fighting down the wave of embarrassment that threatened to take over, "Okay... what about me? What if he wanted me to join?"

Yang blinked, then looked at Ruby. Her mind had just labeled Blake as the queen of trust and connection, but if she was queen, then Ruby was a goddess. She took a small step back and looked her little sister up and down. 'Little' didn't exactly describe her anymore. She was now taller, fitter, curvier, and more beautiful than a vast majority of women in the world. Being a Huntress-in-training helped that, of course. In fact, being a Huntress-in-training, heartfelt suggestions and encouragement from the others, and letting her life be enhanced by The Game, were the entire reasons why such wondrous growth happened. She'd grown her hair out, lined her cloak with pure white fur, and overall looked almost like a more full-figured version of Summer in terms of height, weight, and figure.

Continuing her first thought, the two of them had a connection that extended past what most siblings could ever hope to have. They loved and trusted each other over anyone else, sometimes even their own selves. With a soft smile, the blonde pulled the crimsonette into a soft hug, "I think I could do that, sis. We love each other and I guess you joining me and Jaune would probably only broaden that. Juuuuust~... don't expect me to help you grow your breasts more, teeheehee." she smirked, feeling lighter and more free from the weight of her internal conflict.

"Well, THAT'S a relief." Ruby giggled and slipped out of Yang's grasp like a cloud of rose petals. Yang blinked and grasped at nothing as Ruby rematerialized a few feet away. The others that were still present, AKA her sister and the other four girls she'd just been asked about, had gathered together, all looking at her.

Jaune, who towered over all of them, suddenly hugged her from behind, resting his chin atop her head, "They said they've talked to you about some things, and they've talked to each other a lot... and then they brought it to me. They want to join us... they know you have your problems with trust, which is why they specifically said they wanted to join us. They want to join you and I in our relationship... spread the love, as people say."

Yang's lips quivered, her emotions conflicted. She didn't want to do this, didn't want Jaune to divide his love between her and five other women, but... the warmth in their looks, the cool calmness in his voice, the soothing hug he was giving her... it melted away her concerns and helped her think things through. She'd already said she would accept them all, but saying something and doing it were two wildly different things. If any love would be divided, then-

Jaune suddenly planted a soft kiss to the top of her head, and she practically felt her ahoge curl into a heart.

Division wasn't Jaune's style. It wasn't what he desired to do. If anything, his love would multiply to encompass all of them equally. It was clear that, even if there had already been limits, there was some measure of love and emotional connection they all shared. It might have been Charisma, or just their natures, but The Game had connected them all so deeply, communicating at the speed of thought through the chats.

They knew each other better than most could ever dream of.

With a single glistening tear running down her gorgeous face, she smiled, "I accept."

And then, with a cacophony of cheers of happiness, she was surrounded by love.

It felt right.

---

Well, that's everything for now. Next chapter will have a lil' in-story AU type of omake, so just wait and see how that one plays out, hehehehe~.

As for right now, even though it's not that bad, I sure do feel bad for taking longer than a week on this chapter. However, like I said, last weekend was busy and I didn't get too much time to work during the weekdays themselves, so that all contributed to the late release date. I'll see what I can do for the next chapter, though I can try to promise it won't take as long as this one did.

I've already said some of the things that will happen next chapter, so that's already covered... so I guess now it's time for the obligatory profile-dump and then a farewell/cya later.

-/\-

Jaune Arc
Title: Wizard of the Elements
Level: 58
Class: Wizard v3
Nickname: Mr. Player Man

HP: 18,000/18,000
AP: 70,000/70,000
SP: 25,000/25,000

Strength: 68 (+190%) = 197.2
Dexterity: 60 (+190%) = 174
Vitality: 78 (+190%) = 226.2
Intelligence: 123 (+5) (+190%) = 371.2
Wisdom: 120 (+5) (+190%) = 362.5
Luck: 110
Charisma: 80

Stat Points: 128

Age: 17
Birthday: November 20th
Race: Human
Height: 6'1
Weight: 210
Build: Medium Athletic
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Golden Blonde / Brilliant Azure / Medium Tan

-/\-

Fun fact: The raw stat value of a Level 58 person is 292 (since for non-gamers, all stats start at 1). Jaune's raw stat value is 639, meaning he has 2x a normal person's stat value, plus an extra 55!

*airhorns and MLG sounds blare out into the sky*

Alrighty then, now that that's taken care of, it's time to cap this chapter off.

This is Player 1 sighing off.

See ya next time~ ^w^