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

16. Like the Rainbow, spread across the sky

2/27/2017 at 10:50 AM: Alright, I'm awake and ready to start up ASAP. I'll have to cut this short in a bit, though, because I have stuff to do, but I'll at least slap down a few words.

2/28/2017 at 8:18 AM: Well, most of yesterday was dedicated to disappointment in myself, and classtime. Sadly, not a very untypical monday. Oh well, at least I got some stuff put down, and some background things updated.

3/4/2017 at 9:43 PM: Well... I've mostly either been working, dicking around, or doing college stuff for the past few days, so honestly I've not got much excuse. Still, I have 13.8k words written, so that's good! I'm looking to post within the next two weeks, if I'm being completely honest, so hopefully I'll be done by then!

3/6/2017 at 1:59 AM: What happened? Where did the last two days go? IDEFK dude, I did nothing. Well... I saw John Wick Chapter 2 a few days ago, and I cannot stop listening to the OST. Halp, pls, I want to get out.

3/7/2017 at 1:30 PM: I've decided to not go through the entirety of the Vacuo leg of the tour journey, but rather a good halfway more, due to how many events are going to be taking place. The pacing just calls for it, I don't want to chapter to be gargantuan and take a long-ass time.

3/8/2017 at 1:18 PM: My life, where watching less than 2 hours of content takes more than 3 hours because my internet likes to bug out sometimes. My computer is kidna crapping out, tbch, but that might be because it's windows 10.

3/9/2017 at 4:27 AM: Randomly decided to save. Current wordcount is 20.1k words.

3/9/2017 at 4:12 PM: Small quick update, since I'm about to go to my last class for the week. Finished a thing I thought I would struggle with, but I think it came out pretty damn cool ^w^. Word count as of this update: about 22.8k

3/10/2017 at 2:23 PM: dammit I just spent way too long writing when I have important things to do! Wordcount as of right now is about 24.6k, I'm going to go run errands before it's too late to do them.

3/11/2017 at 2:55 AM: well, I did a lot of stuff today, but most importantly I'm now up to 26k words. I'll be done soon, and I'm on Spring Break now, so if things are super lucky, I might actually finish the chapter after this one within the next 10 days, or at least get a massive amount of it done.

3/12/2017 at 12:57 AM: I passed out last night, but haven't properly slept since about midnight. I should probably sleep, but I feel like I should also finish the chapter and get to work on that supplementary book. Current word count: about 30.1k, and at least a thousand more words away from finishing this chapter, but also really tired too. I'm going to go to sleep, then wake up later, get my bearings, and just finish this chapter out finally.

3/15/2017 at 3:43 AM: Well... I don't know where the last three days went, but it was not a useful place. I've finally finished at least. Final wordcount is about 38.2k words, so that's a TON. I hope I did well on this chapter.

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Reviewer Responses:

Noble the Unknown Primordial: well, Jaune's ability to punch above his weight class in that regard is because he kept most-all his levels from his skills prior to the future point where he'd have gained the New Game Plus skill. With all of those passives and boosts, including a level 99 Aurora passive (yes, Aura's boost is 100%, Aurora's boost will eventually stack up to 300%) he's five times as powerful as he 'should' be with those stats, but of course he has those reset bars and that can be a massive hindrance even when he's accidentally made sure he has so much wiggle and breathing room. Now, though, in that omake, he of course now has 212k AP and doesn't need to worry pretty much at all about that for a while, at least until he sees some of the OTHER changes.

Jack905: I made the announcement at the beginning of the last chapter, that there was 3-5 more chapters in this story arc, then a story arc that runs through the summer, and THEN they start Beacon. Pay attention Mr. Jackaroni and Cheese!

uriil: You can read about it in the new supplementary materials I'll have posted sometime before this chapter comes out, if you haven't already.

XerzoLOTCN: Ah, okay. If you're referring to Sclatesh, then no, it is not like Renji's sword from Bleach (I had to look that up btw, that should tell you it wasn't inspired by it). At best, THAT sword would be made from a Grimm's spinal column. The Sclatesh is made out of, like, arm or leg bones, carved down into a shortsword shape. Also, thank you for explaining tracks. It wouldn't really help negate an effect like THAT, because the Aura Confusion status that breaking the skill causes, scales up to Jaune's power level. Increasing his VIT would help, though, or creating a shielding barrier that mitigates/stops a physical attack before it can hit his body. 'Breaking' the skill basically equates to 'getting your breath knocked out', which when performed and the person is connecting their SOUL to their breathing? Yeah... major damage.

Yes, yes, the new skills are very shiny and pretty and awesome. It's all lovely, and I HAD to include I.D. at SOME point, it wouldn't be a proper Gamer story without it! This being a multi-day event should have been obvious, seeing as how it's a music tour. Music tours tend to last a while. The White Fang is very sneaky and very bad. You could compare the Vacuan White Fang to something like a small but highly efficient SWAT-type team, while the Valean White Fang are a large group of people and are more a standard quantity/quality ratio, while the Mistralian White Fang are like the Templars from Assassin's Creed, I guess. There's a ton of them, and none of them are even somewhat exceptional, just fresh recruits given a mask, a uniform, and a gun. Hmmmmm... that gives me an idea for the omake for this chapter, actually!

Yes, Yang's semblance is awesome in this, and the new past of course has its effects on people, and bonding is good, ^w^. The disease's symptoms could be compared to a mix of a stroke and ALS, AKA Lou Gehrig's Disease, which if you aren't aware (there was like a whole internet trend on it) the latter essentially is your body losing all musculoskeletal nerve function, leaving you more and more paralyzed until either (this is just me extrapolating on those effects) you can't breathe anymore, you can't eat and starve to death, or your heart stops. It's very sad and Kronelassen is very bad and should feel bad for being so evil. Winter used to be good, but kinda isn't anymore. The good old days were called so because they WERE good, up until the whole 'losing my brother and mother' thing they both went through.

Yeah, the masseuse's offer was a joke that I felt I couldn't NOT have, but Jaune is taken, and by a much better woman who would give him a happy ending on a whole 'nother league, hehehe ^w^ ... but yeah, no other girls until the official harem.

Yes, it was a dream. He went to sleep and right after, a mysterious scene started playing out. The skill is called "Night Omen" and is NOT future sight! He gets nightmares that are targeted towards specific thoughts and things in his brain, or dreams based on similar, but positive versions of those things.

Yeah, I decided that that would be a bit better focus for an omake like that, the effects it has on the things that we as players don't take into account, because we just think 'oh we can just do it over again' or something like that. Anyways, you write big, long, juicy reviews, and responding to them takes a lot longer than I'd like to, but it's worth it. I hope you keep reading, friendo, ^WWW^

Plasma Dragon 312: No, the omake is not canon to the story. I mostly make them to provide some extra entertainment and show an idea that occurs to me, but for obvious reasons cannot be in the story (well, except the one thing about John and Taiyang going on a binge and doing some drunk shenanigans)

Catacus: Yes this is an AU.

zen-aku the spirit of the wolf: okay like... are you reading the same fic I'm writing? Seriously, I'm starting to doubt you even read half of what the chapter says. I'll repeat what I just said in the line above: THIS IS AN AU NOW. Velvet is not the strongest on her team, but she is the most versatile. Her canon semblance and weapon are not present as they are in canon. IN THIS WORLD, MYYYYYYY WOOOOORRRRRRLD, Weiss' brother is named Rengir (his name is actually a mix of Regen and Rein, which are Remnant-ian pseudo-german words for Pure Rain). Her father's name is Raureif, which means hoarfrost (the frost that forms on plants). Her mother's name is Juliette and she is dead.

"no they are not, mercury and emerald don't work for adam or even listen to him it was on cinders order, if tukson dies it's not because adam ordered is a weapon literally called snake sword."

What are you even trying to say here? I never said anything about Mercury or Emerald listening to Adam, that wasn't even a thing that crossed my mind. I didn't mention Tukson either. A weapon literally called snake sword?

Look, Zen-aku, sir/madam, I seriously think you should try to have as clear a mind as possible when writing reviews, because honestly you just look stupid when you write these things and half of it is explained by the fact that this is an AU, and the other half is something that didn't even happen anywhere in the story. On the off chance that you're confused on how an illusionist is in the Vacuan White Fang... it was built up by the General that Adam appointed. Naranja might appear aloof, but he is very serious, smart, and efficient. His troops are well-chosen and highly trained for their missions in spreading the word that the faunus will not be stepped on like trash.

Either that, or stop getting drunk before reading fanfics.

A Guest that made me laugh, to be completely honest: Yeah, that sucks for Mabel. MaRbel will be sure to send, like, some flowers or something, even though she doesn't know that person. :P

Team NovaStorm: I'm gonna be honestly, when I first read your name, it was like 4:40 or something in the morning and I'd woken up sweaty and disoriented because it was too hot in my house (it's damn spring and these bitches put the heat on overnight) and I thought your name was Texas NewStar, which made me laugh. As for your assumptions... it's not completely incorrect, but you've a lack of stand for your claims to sit on. I tend to make things into nice even sets, since I'm OCD like that. I would either use subtractive, subtractive-pigment, or additive. In the subtractive system, the three primary colors are Magenta, Yellow, and Cyan. Magenta and Yellow make Red, Magenta and Cyan make Blue, Yellow and Cyan make Green, and all mix together to make Black (this system is used in some printers, technically speaking). In the subtractive pigment system, the three primary colors are Red, Yellow, and Blue. Red and Yellow make Orange, Red and Blue make Purple, Yellow and Blue make Green, and all mix together to make Black (this system can be seen when using paint). In the additive system, the three primary colors are Red, Green, and Blue. Red and Green make Yellow, Red and Blue make Magenta, Green and Blue make Cyan, and all mix together to make White (this is what happens with light).

So, to be clear, the colors are a bit confusing if you don't know which system is being used. For Yang, I'll say that (SPOILER REDACTED)

Dark Durian: Well, the 'dream' will be talked about in this chapter, friend, don't you worry about that. Also, I'd have 3 sequels if I made a story for each of the prospective omakes I've written

Flametusk: Oh, it's coming, hehehehehehe (it's not coming, not yet).

sorry-.-no-names: harem confirmed, yes. How could I NOT go right into the action? This isn't Dragon Ball, this is D'Arc Game of Life! It is exactly what Skyler described. Yep, IDs. The actual symbol was something from a game, or at least part of it was, the trident was a big part of it, but you should be aware that it isn't an Arc Family relic he just got a copy of and then destroyed for knowledge. He indeed is protective of his people.

Weiss indeed has more backstory revealed, at least some of it. More will be revealed later on. It affects her only if she thinks about it too hard, and she isn't keen on doing that much anytime soon.

Marbel is indeed worried about exactly what she should be worrying about. She's a civilian, she wasn't bred to be a fighter like Ruby or Yang, wasn't destined for greatness like Pyrrha or Jaune, wasn't groomed for excellence like Weiss, wasn't brought up to be strong like Blake, wasn't forced to be strong by circumstance like Nora and Ren, or anything like that. She was a civilian through and through, with an easy life and a weak constitution. Friendship and duty has helped her grow stronger, but she has to find it within herself to be strong in a way that was once simply impossible.

Fundamental Factor W is, as the chapter said, his extremely heightened mental ability being allowed to exude the rule of mind over matter. Understanding how things operate, and the ability to simply know how to do it, allows him to overcome the normal setbacks and obstacles like adjusting to making hand motions, or rewiring his reflexes to be able to perform the actions. It makes him more able to learn things quickly. You'll see in this chapter.

Lightning and Air make Thunder, Thunder is just sound caused by lightning. Metal includes any metal, though I chose brass because of brass instruments. It is definitely more of a sound elemental, but the degree of control is much greater than just making sounds, thus why he called it a Music elemental.

I did not think about that line, "you giant burning mood ring!". Yang's other three colors are not what one might expect. (SPOOOIIILLLLEEERRR) They're yellow, orange, and purple... though I think I said that in the last chapter, maybe. You and another person have theorized on the purple flames, and you two are close, but no cigars will be handed out, because you're not quite there.

Yeah. I once (read: in the past but not currently) had a friend whose respect for me was low at best, all because I was younger than him by like... 6 years. It wasn't fun, and he and another older guy fucked off from my group. I'm glad they're gone. The second-in-command needs to get his head out of his ass, or it will be forcefully pulled out to make room for Jaune's size 13 boot. Either that, or he'll just get fired.

Yeah, lots of money, but the problem is that the value of the lien is less than that of the dollar. Still, a million lien is a million lien.

Yes, the bunny slippers, and Weiss is the one wearing them. They're actually Jaune's, but are a couple sizes smaller than his feet, but they can stretch a bit, so he's fine with them, but Weiss wanted comfy footwear, and she didn't feel like wearing Ruby's sandals, so she wore the bunny slippers... also she likes blue.

Pierce Specialty soup mostly is about potatoes, beans, and meat, with various other veggies mixed in. Quinn Specialty sandwiches were as described. They're both just a family recipe, but Blake calls it the 'specialty', mostly because it's the best thing she can make, and the second best thing is a fuckton less good. Mostly, however, they're recipes that were passed from mother to daughter.

Yes, just by focusing on what the person was doing (and also denying the 'happy ending'), he learned what he should do if he gives a massage.

Garnet spoke through the voice chat, not the text boxes. she can't read, and also is a she.

The dream sequence was a dream sequence. Funny thing, if I didn't dick around for days at a time, I could have gotten the chapter out probably at least a week earlier. Right now, I'm going to slog through youtube until I'm done, then start typing as much as possible. I will update the development log when possible.

---

ANNOUNCEMENT: Check out "The D'Arc Game of Life Supplementary Handbook" for insight into Jaune, his friends, and more.

Alright then, let's get started.

Story Arc 2: Playing Prometheus

Chapter 16: Like the Rainbow, spread across the sky

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You suffered from an "Ominous Nightmare"! What could it mean?

You did not recover any HP, AP, or SP.

#*# %*& (glitched eye-fucking text) increased Luck by 1!

So far, not the BEST wakeup call I've had in my time

Rubbing my eyes clear, I swung my legs out of bed and planted my feet on the floor, dismissing the notifications, when a new notification popped up.

SYSTEM UPDATE: The Fundamental Factor of Wisdom has caused many updates.

Suddenly, I was flooded with new notifications.

SYSTEM UPDATE: Some previously unresolved numbers have been adjusted.

Many skills have received many levels!

By raising "Unarmed Skill" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Unarmed Proficiency"!

By raising "Sword Skill" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Sword Proficiency"!

By raising "Power Strike" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Power Burst"!

By raising "Double Strike" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Triple Strike"!

By raising "Whirlwind Strike" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Cyclone Strike"!

You have gained the skill "Rushing Strike"!

"Rushing Strike"s level increased by 50!

"Aura of Intimidation"s level increased by 20!

"Aura of Killer Intent"s level increased by 20!

By raising all Boxing skills to level 25, you have achieved the title "Punching Rookie"!

By raising all Boxing skills to level 50, you have achieved the title "Seasoned Slugger"!

By raising all Boxing skills to level 75, you have achieved the title "Rising Star Boxer"!

By raising all Boxing skills to level 99, you have achieved the title "Star Boxer"!

You have earned the skill "Boxing Champion"

You have gained skills related to Smithing!

By raising "Humming" to level 99, you have gained the skill "The Hummer"

By raising "Singing" to level 99, you have gained the skill "The Singer"

The synergy of Humming, Unarmed Skill, your elemental affinities, Wisdom, and Meditation, has created the title "The Mountain Monk"!

The synergy of Vorpal Sword, your mastery of the various forms of Strikes, magical defenses, physical prowess, WIS, and VIT, has created the class "Magic Knight"!

Ah, now it made sense. The urge to sleep had been so that The Game and my mind had time to sort out some things that should have been present already, driven by my Fundamental Factor of Wisdom. Flexing my hands, I also came to the conclusion that my hypothesis was correct; The combination of my massive mental capabilities, Gamer's Mind, and Gamer's Body, made it exceptionally easy to rewire my reflexes, despite my relative lack in DEX. In essence, with a lot of these skills that relied on learning and adapting to the forms needed, my abilities allowed me to impose the rule of 'mind over matter' and learn them at insane speeds.

My understanding was the key that unlocked these doors to power.

Humming at the addition of the new strike-type skill, I looked at it and found my answer. I'd thought about such a skill, a converse ability to Far Strike, which projected your attack to a distant target, and this allowed me to project myself towards a distant target to attack them. Reaching the distance as opposed to going the distance, though obviously not quite as direct a comparison as the Quantity vs Quality of my Double Strike vs Power Strike.

As it seemed, though, the prestige Power Burst seemed to grant the best of both worlds. Although the damage boost was lowered, I could tell that it would outstrip its predecessor simply by being able to provide boosted damage throughout several attacks. Triple Strike, however, seemed lackluster in comparison, and just a few usages of it with my fists towards the wall had already netted me as many levels. What was the progression there?

I'd noticed that as well, seeing more examples of prestiged skills, I'd found that there was more than just growth to those skills.

If the prestiged skills were purely a growth from one level to the next, then why have them at all? Why stop when I could simply just keep raising the previous skills to even higher levels? The skills stopped at level 99, but why? It wasn't just growth, there clearly was room to improve, honing my power further and further, until, for example, with Power Strike, a mere 30 AP or 50 SP could net me more than just 300% attack damage. Four hundred percent, five hundred percent, six hundred, seven hundred, a thousand, two thousand, ten thousand!

But no, it stopped at 300%, and prestiged into Power Burst. Why?

Well, the MVP of today was shaping up to be The Fundamental Factor of Wisdom, and it made another play in helping me understand.

The Prestige wasn't just moving from one level to another. I'd understood it on a basic level before, but now it was clear as crystal.

Prestiging a skill evolved it, metamorphosed it, changed it into something that was beyond simply punching harder or glowing brighter. It wasn't just the next step, it was the next checkpoint, the next benchmark in growth, when sheer mastery led to something more.

Power Burst allowed me to maintain the effects of Power Strike over the course of several attacks, clinging to that energy for a period of time and utilizing it for more than a mere moment.

Aurora may have had much the same effects as Aura, but it added the two features of letting me spend more AP to boost a spell's power, which attributed to the growing mass that had contributed half of its necessary levels, and its sheer power of expression was able to dispel some negative status effects, owing to its growing strength and my control over it that had contributed the other half of its necessary levels.

The Boxing Champion skills added a boost to attack speed for the punches, and reflex for the blocks, owing to the mastery of the technique of boxing allowing me to do the maneuvers faster. I don't know what the third tier would be, but it seemed like it would probably have a third factor added. Made enough sense.

Sprint was almost, ALMOST like Triple Strike, but I could certainly feel the difference between Run and Sprint, a difference that was not present between Double and Triple Strike. Honestly, I was probably looking into this too hard, it might have simply been another step towards a greater skill that had yet to be revealed. I'd train later, right now I needed to make some food for the girls before the call is made that we're heading to the next town.

Plus, I had to mull over that dream.

... (a bit later) ...

Amidst the sizzle of bacon, I thought back to the dream.

It was full of imagery, but quite fuzzy at times. The Gamer seemed to be present within that man's soul, and 500 years of war? Damn, I couldn't even think of having to survive and live with something like a fucking WAR going on for a year, much less five hundred!

But... perhaps, then, that was the hint.

That man was a faunus, I could feel it in his tail and ears and claws, with a cyan Aura. He could roar and slash and move like lightning and strike like thunder and... and it was incredible.

There were small hints hidden in the thoughts and feelings that I could sense from him, things that were hard to pick up on in the moment, but were obvious in hindsight.

They names were hidden behind bursts of glitched sound that hurt my ears to listen to, but what I COULD hear, and see, gave it all away.

King of War, Star Ever Shining, Beast Undying. These would be titles gained by someone who was a master of combat, someone who had massive amounts of Aura, and someone who seemed immortal. Surviving five hundred years living in a war certainly gave credit to that belief.

It was me.

Or at least, a version of me that the future could hold. My power didn't let me see into the future, since the future changed all the fucking time, but it let me look at some possibilities, I'd figured. It just made sense.

Were Yang and I going to get married and have a honeymoon at a ski resort? Probably. Maybe not. It's uncertain, but possible.

Was Yang going to die to a horde of Grimm? More than likely not, I wouldn't allow it within any measure of reason, at least, but it was possible.

Was my father going to get murdered and Vale burned to ash? It was unlikely, since I'd be there as much as possible to protect him and everyone, but it was still possible.

Was I going to end up alone after my friends and family all died of old age, whilst I was cursed to live forever and fight a war in my grief? Was I going to end up finding someone who reminded me of my young and unknowing self because he looked very much the same? Was I going to teach a very strong faunus man a fighting style I developed?

Would my blonde friend live for two centuries?

Would I find love again, only to have it ripped away when my wife and child are killed?

Would I end up killing the descendant of my child and only know after the blow was struck, but before the life faded from their eyes?

Would I lose my sense of self so much that I abandoned my identity as Jaune Arc and took up some name I currently can't even think of?

Would I be doomed to die because some sort of god-killing spear or something tore an irreparable hole in my soul and I would wither away and die?

Would I be immortalized with that story as my legacy?

Most likely not, probably might, it was a monumental stretch of logic and planning forward.

But it was still fucking possible.

The 'Ominous Nightmare' was little more than that, I could conclude. Something ominous that, much like the effects of Aura Confusion, grew in scale and complexity with my increased power in the case of Aura Confusion, or INT and WIS in the case of the dream. I hadn't seen an ominous nightmare before, but all the evidence pointed towards it being just another, larger scale nightmare based on a possibility that my overactive mind thought of. I could also probably figure that they'd end with me either dying or about to die, too, since what was more ominous that seeing your own death?

I sighed, then combined my elementals to create Mystimunja, a mistress of Thunder. With a rumble, shortly followed by adding Crocea Mors to the mix to create four personalized chimes of alarms, I woke the others up, noting that Weiss had stayed the night in our suite. It made things a tad easier, I supposed.

Already having ample coffee and tea ready, I checked their statuses as they made their way towards the dining table like a horde of zombies.

My father had slept like a rock, and seemed relaxed and waking up fairly quickly. The others would catch up soon enough.

Blake seemed to be nodding back off even as she walked, her ears drooping in tiredness. I figured she probably had a little trouble sleeping.

Weiss, however, clearly had a lot more trouble sleeping, seeing as there were faint tear stains connecting her red-tinted eyes to her jawline. A quick scan told me she'd had a nightmare.

Marbel seemed to be currently trying to get her higher thinking activated, rolling her joints and patting the side of her head with the heel of her hand.

I chuckled softly, sighing and serving the drinks to the appropriate parties, tea to Blake and my dad, coffee to Marbel and Weiss, with some extra cream and sugar in Weiss' to give it a nicer taste and hopefully cheer her up.

"So, we're waiting for the first ca-" I stopped when my scroll went off. The scheduling manager had made the first call, "Alright, luckily we don't have to worry too much about time restraints, since breakfast is served-" I telekinetically dished out the plates, "-and we have an hour to get to the airport for our scheduled flight. That means an hour for breakfast, bathing, and dressing, then Weiss has a signing at noon after a tad more sleep, I'd prescribe, and the concert is starts at 6, so that's plenty of time for more training."

With a mumbled cacophony of agreements, I smiled and sat down with them, making idle chit-chat while we ate. We would be heading straight to the airport for an hour of flight, and I was contemplating the prospect of personally taking them all the hotel under the cover of Illusion Dimension. Honestly, it was a lot safer than a convoy.

However, what would that look like from an outside perspective? We'd disappear, and then reappear in front of the hotel. I'd been lucky slipping out of view as a single person in a crowd, but we'd stick out like a sore thumb if I scaled that up to a full convoy.

With a sigh, I ultimately decided that a modicum of safety wasn't worth the social cost.

With that notion dealt with, I recalled last night. At some point, which was when it was morning in Vale, Yang had woken up. With her still half-asleep brain vulnerable, I had affectionately teased her about how adorable she looked when she slept. Her blush was worth the protests and losing my view of her for the time being. If I was correct in my assumption, then we'd end up getting onto the dustjet about the time Signal let out for the day.

Jaune W: Hey, good morning/afternoon, sunshine. :W

Yang W: Hey! Geez, what took you so long? :W

Jaune W: The distortion of perceived time due to massive geological distances :W

Yang W: ... wut? :W

Jaune W: Time zones. Remember? :W

Yang W: Oh shit! I almost forgot. Damn, and I was feeling upset because I thought you were ignoring me :W

Jaune W: How could I willingly ignore someone as lovely as you? :W

Yang W: Yeah yeah, anyways, I'm soooooo boooooorrrrred. :W

Jaune W: odd, I thought history was fairly interesting :W

Yang W: Learning about ruined cities and old dead dudes isn't my idea of a fun time. Hanging out with a young, alive dude is more my style. :W

Jaune W: Sadly I'm pretty much on the other side of the continent. :W

Yang W: I know, and that's what sucks. :W

Jaune W: Don't worry, I'll be back in a week, and who knows? I was thinking about dropping Marbel and Blake off and taking you and Ruby on the Mistral leg of our journey. How does that sound? :W

Yang W: It sounds awesome, but finals are coming up, and I don't think my dad would approve of me taking them early and going on a essentially a working vacation. :W

Jaune W: I could either challenge him, or call in a favor from Headmaster Ozpin. I might be able to get such a relatively small favor :W

Yang W: You know the headmaster? Oh my god YES. Please, I want to see Mistral, I heard it's so pretty! :W

Jaune W: I'll see what I can do, babygirl. For now, though, we gotta get ready to fly. :W

Yang W: Alright. Rubes and I were gonna check out the mountains, train on some Grimm there. :W

I hummed curiously, then excused myself to go to my room, checking Ruby's profile, Jaune W: Be careful. Speaking of Ruby, though, how's she been? :W

-/\-

Name: Ruby Rose
Title: Little Red Fighting Hood
Level: 62 -} 64
Class: Reaper
Nickname: Rosie

HP: 8000 -} 9100
AP: 20,000 -} 21,000
SP: 11,000 -} 13,000

Strength: 40 -} 42 (+12%) = 47.04
Dexterity: 91 -} 92 (+217%) = 291.64
Vitality: 50 -} 51 (+12%) = 57.12
Intelligence: 100 (+88%) = 188
Wisdom: 40 (+65%) = 66
Luck: 25
Charisma: 82

Stat Points: 20 -} 30

Age: 15
Birthday: November 11th
Race: Human
Height: 5'1 -} 5'2
Weight: 110 -} 113
Build: Svelte Adorable -} Svelte Graceful
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Black with Crimson Highlights / Silver / Pale
Cup Size: BB

Aura's level: 55 -} 72

-/\-

Yang W: She's been using The Game to train her little ass off. I got this skill, and it's been helping me heal her up after she practically draws blood just doing weight training. :W

Jaune W: Yeesh, she's working hard as hell then. What skill did you get? :W

Yang W: I'm... not entirely sure why I got it, but... this is it. :W

She sent me a private text message containing pretty much everything on the skill. Staring at it, I hummed in curiosity, then smiled, Jaune W: Well, it seems like some kind of in-born indication that you're a good person. :W

Yang W: I wasn't born with it. The Game said I was blessed with it. :W

I blinked, pausing in my magically enhanced shower, during which I'd leveled Dishwashing of all things, and found that at level 50, it allowed me to substitute soap for my Aura. At that same time, I'd found Crocea Mors, Pluviteus, and Juristimunja combining into what could be described only as a 'chemical cleansing' elemental. The newly named Saniset adjusted to the frequency of Dishwashing, and soon I found the water bubbling on my skin, carrying dried sweat and filth away with it.

Jaune W: I'd make an angel line if I wasn't confused by this. :W

Yang W: I think the Game gave it to me. :W

Jaune W: Then... that would mean that The Game gives skills to my allies, not just me. Maybe, as a part of you, it's related to LUK? :W

Yang W: Luck is the 'story of my life' stat, you said, so... what, then? It's a part of the story of my life to be generous? :W

Jaune W: Heh, you were already generous enough to give a guy like me your love :W

Yang W: This isn't the time for sweet-talking, Jaune. :W

Jaune W: Well, I don't see the issue. You got a free skill that's helped you help your sister and will, some day soon, help you help all your friends too. :W

Yang W: It's... it can't be that simple. It's... it can't JUST be because it's part of who I am, can it? :W

Jaune W: Even if it isn't, that has to be the biggest reason. Relax, Sun Angel, it's a good thing, isn't it? :W

Yang W: I... I guess it is. :W

I heard her sigh, then after a few more seconds, I suddenly saw her Luck shoot up by ten points.

Yang W: Well, I guess that was the answer then, because I just got a notification that accepting part of my 'enhanced destiny' increased my Luck by 10. :W

Jaune W: Huh. Well, I guess being part of The Game has allowed you to walk a newer, better path in life. :W

Yang W: Heh, yeah, I guess so. :W I could sense her smile across our whispers, W: If I'm going to be honest, no matter how crazy it is, it's too great to give up. I wouldn't want to go back to the way things were before for anything in the world. :W

I felt my heart swell, and the urge to run all the way to Vale just to give Yang a hug and a kiss whispered at the edges of my mind. Sadly, no matter how sweet and heartfelt her words were, I had a job to do, Jaune W: Heh, goddamn do I love you, babygirl. The second we land in Vale for refueling, I'm going to hug you SO hard :W

Yang W: I'll be looking forward to it, my sweet knightlight. :W

I hummed, then smiled at that little nickname, Jaune W: Heh, is that a new nickname? :W

Yang W: Hm~... yeah. I figured you could use a new one. :W

You have gained the nickname "Knightlight"!

Jaune W: Heh, thank you. I'll cherish it. :W

I checked the info on it, and was surprised to find that it was apparently the 'ultimate final level' in Yang's nicknames for me. I equipped it a moment later, not wanting to waste this precious gift.

If what I'd seen from my dream self was true, then the emotional weapon and armor that was the bond between two hearts, was an extremely powerful and invaluable one.

Looking over my other new things, I found that Magic Knight gave me a boost to HPR and APR, as well as +50% to my effective VIT, INT, and WIS. My melee and ranged Magic Attack Damage also got increased, though by smaller measures than the classes that were dedicated to those types of spells. Ultimately, while Wizard was useful for the boosted APR, I quickly realized that it was also inhibiting me due to the -70% penalty to Physical Attack Damage.

With a sigh, I swapped them out, feeling the shift of power as strength entered my muscles. It didn't feel like getting stronger, though, as the class didn't give a boost to my effective Strength. Rather, it was more like my muscles had been starved of energy, and now they'd finally been fed.

Grinning in delight, I looked over my titles, and swapped out Wizard of the Elements, which while cool, I hadn't really been using its unique skill of imbuing raw aura attacks with an element, and Druidic Proficiency was essentially a skill that gave me the Ease of Casting boost, and as for the boost to my Elemental Buffs effects, I need only switch over when the buffs were starting to run out.

The title that took its place was Star Boxer, for the boost in effective STR. When meditating, which I'd found would now be far more effective with the right preparation, I would switch to The Mountain Monk title and Monk v4 class, which would give a total 60% increase in the efficiency of my meditation.

Thinking on it once more, I knew that meditation granted 1 additional Max AP for every 5 minutes of meditation. The monk boosts, however, reduced the time needed by 60%, bringing it down to just 2 minutes. That granted a total 720 AP if I meditated from midnight to midnight the next day. It was just another rock on the heap, but if I meditated for the next three months until Beacon began, then I'd get nearly 65k Max AP.

The biggest problem with Meditation, and it wasn't one that could be fixed easily, was that it took massive amounts of uninterrupted time to produce results that I would find acceptable. Just one thousand Max AP would take over thirty-three hours, a bit over a day and three-eighths. During that time, however, I needed to eat and drink, and I don't think my friends would be willing to wait a whole day without training, and you bet your ass I'd be there if it was possible.

However, a clarity had come over me, and I'd realized soon after I began thinking about it, that the results I wanted were easily done in the grand scheme of things. I could get two weeks of meditation in easily, over the course of all the time we had. The other major hurdle besides time, however, was convenience. I needed to stay almost absolutely still for meditation to work, and with how much moving around I'd have to do for all of this contract stuff, I needed to plot out a way to utilize my free time.

The biggest source of free time was at night, since I didn't need to sleep, and nothing would be going on for that period of time. Given the loose amount of say, eight hours a night, from eleven to seven, over the course of 34 more days, I'd have enough time to get about eight thousand more Max AP purely through meditation.

It was a good haul, if I was going to be honest.

I grinned as I finalized the plans in my head, and a tiny bit more entered at the orderliness of my effective STR coming out to a nice even 500 with my passive boosts. Technically, the 110% increase was from an active Ki Body, but I kept it active all the time, so it pretty much was passive.

Stepping out of the shower and steaming the water away with Xibuviteus, I sighed, dressed, and exited the bathroom.

Time to get started on the day.

---

(An hour or so later, Jaune POV)

I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders, "Alright, again."

Marbel and Blake glanced at each other, then nodded and surged towards me with their weapons drawn.

I reflexively threw up a High Guard with my left arm, my bracer and skill's power blocking Marbel's shortsword as she blasted towards me with her semblance. Pushing her back, I swung my right foot in a high kick whilst spinning around, catching her up the gut and sending her rolling along the ground, "That was predictable. You can't just come from exact opposite directions like that. You're being unobstructive, but you aren't complimenting each other's atta-AH!" I was struck by Marbel's sword cutting into my lower back. With a slight bit of remorse, I spun to grab her arm, but she lunged away from me with her retreating move, "Better. The two halves need not be consecutive, and strike an enemy when they aren't paying attention." as I spoke, I spun around and caught Gambol Shroud's katana blade between my fists, "But make sure you don't give them enough time to recover and expect something. Most enemies won't be able to think as fast as me, but you can never be too sure. Reflexes may also drive them to move without thought, so be careful. It's a careful balance you have to maintain." I punctuated my sentence by headbutting Blake, then punching her in the stomach, "Don't let yourself be anticipated." a roundhouse kick connected to Marbel's face, throwing her off balance and sending her flying away, "And that includes not being predictable."

A trio of bullets pinged off my Mana Shield, and I spun around only to receive a pair of slashes, one at my stomach and one at my legs. I was satisfied with Blake's recovery after the stomach slash had been thrown off about halfway through by a Right Low Guard

I heard Marbel approach from behind, and spun around to block her high slash, only to be surprised when she flipped over my head and her image was replaced with Blake's.

A pair of blades pierced my stomach from both the front and back side, both girls grinning as their combo attack worked. Retracting their blades, I motioned for them to stop, my wounds healing pretty much instantly, "Very good, very good! A combo attack, and a damn deadly one at that. I wasn't expecting you to flip over my head like that, Marbs. Clever, veeerrrryyy clever." my smile beamed brightly.

"Complimenting Offense"s level increased by 2!

I had gained the skill after starting to direct Marbel and Blake to work together in attacking me. It was relatively simple, despite the concept. It allowed me to be a better tactician, and direct them in fighting together more efficiently. They listened to my orders better, their stats got a boost, and it increased my effective WIS when active.

Marbel beamed back, "Thanks. After a certain point in the training, I realized I was able to do more than just an overhead vertical slash. I'm glad it worked on the first try, at least."

"Those damn guards you keep doing are very, VERY annoying." Blake complained, pouting while rubbing her stomach lightly.

Healing them both of the damage I caused, I smirked at her, "You need to remember that even beef isn't brainless. The Champion Boxer skills denote the growth of technique as well as strength and speed. I added metal bracers and was instantly able to deflect blade attacks with instant adjustments to my normal blocking maneuvers. In essence, a piece of equipment let me improvise better."

She let out a low groan, "Take them off. In fact, if you're going to be honing your boxing skills, then you should probably be dressed for the part, in just trunks, shoes, and a pair of gloves. Your bare fists hurt... a LOT."

I chuckled, "I'm pretty sure that putting four inches of padding on them won't change much."

"I'm also sure that kicks aren't allowed in boxing." Marbel said as she rubbed her jaw, "That shit hurts too. All your attacks hurt."

I patted her cheek with several bursts of ten-times-powered Soulforges, "Yeah, but that's to be expected when Strength scales by some unseen margin. Technically, with my various boosts, a kick with 5% strength should have about 43.4 STR behind it, which if every point in Strength meant 10 damage like I remember it doing back when I first started, then that would mean it would deal 434 damage. With my damage boosts, which should... huh, only Incredible Strength was increasing my damage... and it equates back to 868, the original maximum STR calculation. However, despite that being what the math says, it did over twice that." I sighed, "The math behind it is hard to figure out. I can hit with literal tons of force with only 80 STR. I shudder to think what kind of effective physical damage people who focus on it can dish out." and that brought my thoughts to Taiyang Xiao Long, the main obstacle in my path as far as Yang and Ruby were concerned.

He was being compliant right now, but how long would that really last? It would probably only take one bruise too many to send him back into relentlessly hating me for inspiring his daughters to go out and get themselves hurt. I had a feeling that saying it was for training wouldn't fly with him. Despite being very smart, he was driven by his emotions far more than his logic.

That was something I was familiar with, but I was actively trying to fix that problem with myself.

Marbel pouted at me, "Well, what if I just put all of my points into Strength? I bet I'd beat you then."

I rubbed my face briefly, doing the math in only a few seconds, "That would make your effective Strength about 260 or so, given your boosts from your Aura and Semblance. Still less than half of my effective Strength. Then again, I have more modifiers and the auric resources to run them all."

She sighed, "Yeah yeah, wave your skills around, just don't get a dick skill and start waving THAT around. Are we done with combat fluidity?"

I checked the time, "Yeah, I'd say we're done. You two should start meditating. Here in a little while, I need to get Weiss ready and we need to go to that signing thing, and by the time we get back, it'll have been enough time for you two to have gotten... about 50 Max AP. Blake, today is going to be when you get an Elemental. Inverse to what I assumed for a normal person's soul, having an Elemental makes your soul stronger, not weaker. With my increasing understanding, I think you semblance relates more to the three elements Lightning, Earth, and Metal. It might sound odd, especially given your Elemental Affinity layout, but that DOES explain why your semblance is so weak." seriously, it was level 5!

She quirked her lips at me, "Shouldn't I start the process before you and Weiss get back? The signing is at noon, and the concert starts at 6. I don't want to have to wake up from summoning and Elemental and immediately have to get dressed and start my security duties."

Thinking on it, I hummed, "True. I'll set up the circle, then when you get the fiftieth additional Max AP, immediately perform the ritual. That should leave you with about half an hour to get yourself settled before we head to the concert.

She nodded, her shoulders slumping, "Tonight is going to be busy, isn't it?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Sorry about that. Look on the bright side, though. The sooner you get one, the sooner you can start with more specialized training, and even before then, just what you'll pick up by experimenting would make you a much better fighter." I smiled invitingly at her.

Blake let out a small humming sound, then her eyes drifted shut as she sighed, "I suppose you have a point. It's just one night, and like you said, the Vacuan White Fang aren't acting yet. Given what I know about their process, it will be at least two more days before they do something."

Humming, I began marking out the circle on the floor, "I see... the schedule says that at that time, we should be either entering or exiting Bai'Jian. Knowing their intelligence, they'll either strike late at night, or in the wee hours of the morning. Whether it's before or after the concert is a mystery." I gestured for the two of them to sit, and I let them start reaching out, connecting to the planet like I usually did.

Marbel spoke up, "They might pass it on to the Mistral Fang, rather than risk their guys here."

I stood, facing them, and started focusing on Schwarza's power, "I doubt they'd trust such a quantity-over-quality group like them. They're far too professional." I let my Elemental bring out the steel cylinder, and after a few attempts, I found myself moving towards it, only to get tripped up and send tumbling to the floor, cracking my neck on the edge of the barrel.

Marbel made to stand, but I stood up faster, "I'm alright, just a little hard to move the individual elements when my elementals are combined like this." I gestured for her to continue meditating, then checked the two notifications I'd gotten.

Manipulating the element of Gravity has created the skill "Superweight Field"

Manipulating the element of Electromagnetism has created the skill "Magnetic Pounce"

The former was an instant boon, allowing me to increase the force of gravity on an area. It only cost me 300 AP/m for every cubic meter, and I quickly found that covering the area barely an inch around my body in all directions was just barely a tenth of that.

The latter had to be increased in power to be of much use right now. My Stone and Metal Skin skills increased my weight by a lot, but of course it wasn't as much as the steel barrel, not even close. I weighed maybe 330 lbs with both of those skills as they were, which was equal to about 150 kg. The steel cylinder's dimensions gave it a mass of about 2150 kg.

I got an idea, and after quickly getting Weiss up, I slipped into an I.D. and exited by breaking through the roof.

... (A bit later) ...

I stood in the middle of the sunlit desert, at least ten mile of sand in every direction, and I focused.

One by one, my skills began flowing in, my Aurora burning with unhidden glory as I piled on the pounds. My steel training suit previously weighed about three tons, but with all of that weight distributed over my entire body, it was easy to move around and do everything I usually did.

With a suddenness, I took a sweeping stride like Qing Long once had.

Steel buckled and broke as it moved with my body, only to flow to fill in the space again, this time better articulate.

A jab, a hook, an uppercut, five from each arm, each time the steel broke as I hardened it and made it brittle, then shattered it with my movements.

It was almost like getting comfortable in bed, but instead of cotton, I was manipulating hard steel to form around my body better. Such awkward and forced movements like the ones I'd previously made my range of motion were replaced with sleek, well-articulated plates, joints, and axis.

I dropped I.D. and dug into the ground, plowing through sand, soon stone, and tumbling through the air as I happened upon a cave. Landing with an axe kick, I angered a Deathstalker. Not giving it time to argue, Vorpal Sword began carving into its back plates while a combination of Energy Bolt, Energy Arrow, and various shot-type spells annihilated its stinger.

"Not this time, you chittering bitch." I stomped with Power Stomp, harder and harder and harder, until eventually my foot broke through and a loud CRUNCH signaled that its back plates were weakened enough that they'd broken, its own armor made to impale it. I held out my hand and a massive flow of Ash Sparks filled the wound while Telekinesis began ripping off its armor.

I think it might have been sadistic, cooking it alive with the spell, but I needed those skill levels.

After burning it within a quarter of its HP, I washed the sparks away and began pelting it with high-speed gravel, using Razor Wind in conjunction to shear off its legs and pincers. Feeling my body burning with delight, I charged my hands with Zapping Arcs and slammed them both down with a combination of that and Shocking Steps.

Electricity lit up the cave, and for a split second I swore I could sense something from the Deathstalker.

It happened three more times as the electricity overrode its functions and eventually started frying its innards, I felt... something.

The lightning surged more intensely around my hands and, experimentally, I called upon Skotomorphosis.

Before it died, I felt its energy flowing into me. Finishing it off with a haymaker Right Hook to where I assumed its brain might have been, I leaped off of it and created a full-body mirror in front of myself with several swift motions.

I watched and flexed as the color black overtook my skin. Removing all of my clothes, I watched human skin become glossed over and replaced by a black carapace, off-white plates covering it in several places. A tail sprung up from my backside, long and flexible despite its armoring, capped with a long, almost lance-like stinger. It stretched and retracted, and I smiled with a few small clacks of my new mandibles. I didn't have fingers, more like bladed mitts. My cyan aura darkened a few shades, but Aurora soon broke through, banishing the spindly limbs, bulky torso, and vile carapace. I allowed the stinger tail to stay, however, as I thought it looked pretty cool.

Opening the skill's details, I called upon a few more transformations at the same time. Ursa Gigantus fur blossomed along my arms, chest, and legs. Longhorn Inquisprint horns sprouted from my head. Vulcyrie Mantleus wings unfolded from my back, flames now wreathing my wrists and ankles. King Taijutsu scales covered my skin in most places, armoring my open spots.

I looked like an abomination, to be completely honest.

Calling upon the murderous and violent biology of 5 Grimm simultaneously has unlocked the class "Abomination"!

"Oh fuck off. Don't start doing that shit again." I memorized the formation, humming softly, then let Aurora burn away the corruption, "I don't want to go back to that." sighing, I put my outfit back on and started destroying everything in the cave, pulling ores from the stone.

I watched with an odd curiosity as Crocea Mors clawed his way up into exist as a metal syrup solidified into his body, except instead of all at once like normally, it was from his outstretched arms downwards. His head surfaced and he quickly forced his torso up, then his feet broke free and he leaped into the air.

Xiburichu intersected his path and set his skin alight, melting it and forming a sludge-like man of hot steel. His melted face tore open and fire roared from inside, willpower and endurance making my Forge elemental.

Mystral roared back, tackling into the sludge beast's chest. Metal cooled and forming gleaming silvery steel scales on a humanoid frame. Red hot metal wing bones spread from its back, the membranes made of sheets of flame. Steam and smoke escaped every crack and crease in its body as the red and orange light of incandescent metal glowed between the lines

Roimontagne sat atop a throne of blackened stone, and I told him exactly what to do.

With a clap of his hands, his kingdom of the cave shattered into hundreds of millions of pieces.

A swirling mass of ores surged towards Lumiron, the Refinery elemental. Steam, smoke, and other gases billowed into the air as the ores were melted down, purified, and solidified into blocks.

When I decided it was time to stop, he had gathered a total of twelve tons of iron and soon-purified iron pyrite, seven tons of aluminum, three tons of copper, one ton of titanium, five hundred pounds of silver, and fifty pounds of gold rested in large fifty-pound blocks, each different metal stacked neatly into pyramid formations.

The aluminum, copper, titanium, silver, and gold all went into my inventory. I stared at the iron, then relieved my APR by unsummoning Xiburichu, leaving Crocea Myst as an elemental of dry rust. The rust then flaked away and Mystral disappeared. Roimontagne nodded and his sludge-beast form collapsed as life exited the now un-glowing eyes.

Crocea Mors nodded to me, and I noted a slight texture of facial hair starting to grow on his face. Touching my own face, I realized it was simply a mirror of my own growth.

His hand was thrust forward, and my iron heavy plates were soon loaded up with more condensed iron. Three tons became four, four became six, six became ten and at that point I made him stop, feeling a great strain on my body. Finding myself able to bear it, I had him place the other five tons slowly onto it. I waited, and stopped him at twelve tons, "That's enough... for now, at least."

Removing the armor, I dismissed Crocea Mors and recollected the barrel. Roimontagne's influence sealed the cave back up after I leaped back up to the surface, slipping into an ID after the coast was clear.

Standing under the cyan-tinted sky, I looked out the slightly muted colors of my Illusion Dimension, appreciating the beauty of the desert and the occasional cactus or rock formation.

After I got my fill, I began destroying all of that natural beauty with my spells.

... (On the run) ...

Swinging a two-ton sword was far different from lifting two tons of weight. I'd used about fifty pounds of condensed titanium to empower Crocea Mors, using the light, strong metal to replace the simple steel, never removing the runes, hihirokane, gold, or anything else. I could feel it singing in my other hand, crying out almost.

My soothing aura covered it, quelling its cries. I had an idea of what it was about.

There was a philosophical problem that went as follows: Captain Theseus has a ship. He loves this ship, and makes sure that every part of it is in top condition. If a board starts to rot, it is replaced, if a sail tears, it's replaced, if a hook rusts, it's replaced. Eventually, however, the entire ship's parts are replaced. Is the ship still the same ship that Captain Theseus loved? Or is it a different ship?

A spin on the question had come nearly a year later. Say instead of piece by piece, Captain Theseus replaced all the boards, then replaced all the hooks, the replaced all the sails, and the ropes, and so on. Is the boat still the same boat, even when so much of it has changed? Now suppose someone took those used ship parts and built a new ship. Is the ship in Captain Theseus' possession the original ship, or is the new ship built from all the old parts the original ship?

I'd had a theory in mind relating to Crocea Mors. It had been used for centuries, long before even my great great grandfather used it in war, before my grandfather used it in the color war, in fact I believe it might have even dated back to one of the old Kings of Mistral.

The man in question was none other than King Arthur. He ruled alongside his two royal advisors, Merlin the Wise, and John the Strong.

If I focused very, VERY hard, I could recall my experience in the summoning process of Crocea the elemental. I remembered him being coated with something. It was known that King Arthur had a sword said to be blessed by the gods, coated with gold.

I'd asked my father and he'd admitted that he hadn't brushed up on his history of our family in quite a long while. However, it was accepted among the Arcs that King Arthur may have had some relation to us.

That thought brought up some odd feelings. There was a whole gaggle of Arcs living in Chateau d'Or Lune, or the Castle of the Golden Moon. The Arc family purchased it from the Mistrali council. It was said to be the original castle of King Arthur of Mistral.

*scratch scratch*

Ugh. For some reason, thinking on the topic this much had made my brain start to itch. It felt like the irritating buzz of knowing something, having it on the tip of your tongue, but unable to recall it. Unfortunately, this feeling reached deeper, as though the information reached throughout my entire mouth, making me want to cough and scratch my tongue and chew on the insides of my cheeks.

I forcibly dismissed the thoughts, instead going back to just the past, to King Arthur. Five years into his rule, Merlin the Wise died to a mysterious illness, and shortly after, John the Strong had a falling out with the king. Left with just himself and his son, he eventually grew restless and yet exhausted. He wished to be active, but nothing interested him. The stories say that he eventually went on a rampage, killing Grimm by the hundreds and raving about 'a war in heaven'. He died dishonored by all but his family.

It made me wonder what the modern family thought of him.

Personally, I saw his tale as tragic. A man stripped of all friends, left alone in a position where loneliness affects the lives of everyone. Nobody attempted to help him, everyone assumed he was so strong that he never needed help.

I shook away the morbid thoughts, moving to a lighter topic.

Well, thirteen tons wasn't light at all, to be completely honest, but running around with that on my body was easier than running around with those thoughts on my mind.

A Vulcyrie Mantleus, summoning into the ID, was running across from me, dodging my spells on occasion.

I put an end to its dodging ways with fifty Gaster Blasters.

A very tiny amount of EXP, as to be expected, but it gave me the normal amount of EXP for my skills.

Speaking of which... the new Deathstalker was already completely dismembered.

And I was punching it to death.

By raising all Champion Boxer skills to level 25, you have achieved the title "Big Star Boxer"!

By raising Triple Strike to level 99, you have earned the skill "Combo-Count Attacks"

I hummed and paused in my assault, looking at the skill. Suddenly, the progression made sense.

-/\-

Combo-Count Attacks (Active) Level: 1, Exp: 24.53%, Cost: 600 SP
The ability to push oneself to extreme attacking speeds. Having mastered utilizing bursts of two and three attacks, the user is able to lash out very quickly and efficiently in order to land many blows in very rapid succession. With time and mastery, the user may deliver death with dozens of strikes in mere moments.

Base Damage: 100%
Attack Speed: 250%
Each consecutive blow landed deals 10% less damage than the last.

-/\-

The first two skills were to train my reflexes to be better able to make quick bursts of multiple attacks, and this skill would help link many bursts together. It granted me a boost in Attack Speed to compensate for the increased number of attacks.

I activated it and delivered ten punches in rapid succession, seeing the combo counter appear. Taking a second to recharge, I activated it again.

Again, again, and again.

Until it was done.

Extreme exercise of your muscles has increased your STR by 2!

Pushing yourself to move despite incredible encumbrance has increased your DEX by 3!

Withstanding tremendous physical strain has increased your VIT by 2!

I didn't stop either, adding another ton of weight, putting myself under crushing gravity, I willing put myself under such strain for a single purpose.

If I was fast, if I was tough, if I was strong, then I could put myself between my enemies and my friends, and I could protect them.

I continued, not stopping for more than a moment.

I would fight.

I would endure.

I would protect.

I wouldn't let myself become what my nightmares predicted... I'd be better than him.

I would win.

---

(A few hours later, Jaune POV)

I gently pushed someone back with telekinesis as they got a little too close for Weiss' comfort. Did these idiots not understand that there were snipers on the lookout?

Of course they didn't. We didn't want to cause a panic, of course, we just wanted Weiss to sign some covers, the occasional t-shirt, it wasn't too bad.

Well... except for the drunk guy I had to knock out, but it was either knock him out or he whipped out his dick in the middle of the store we were located at.

Weiss, understandably, didn't judge me for it.

I announced that this we'd not be taking any more people, and within fifteen minutes, we were ready to go.

I silently instructed the snipers to leave, and hid my glare at an observing White Fang member under an illusion.

Zooming my vision in, I caught their name, level, and information.

Nayro Skyus
Title: A Shooting Star leaping through the Sky.
Level: 66

She was more simple, had a semblance that involved changing her personal gravity, which she used to enhance her jumps and lunges. Her faunus type was 'serval', which I found was a large cat that had long legs and a small face. I chuckled softly, imagining Yang's reaction to one of them, since she liked cats, and these ones seemed especially adorable.

Nayro's weapon was named Falling Meteor, and was a relatively simple rocket launching spear. It had a small automatic rifle in the haft, enough to pepper the ground in case she might not be able to simply blow her enemy's face off.

Her title seemed to come from the fact that her Aura had grown large enough to prestige into Aurora. The other members seemed to be of a higher caliber, but most were just a couple of steps below that point.

Constant diligence was great and all, unless it was being used by the enemy, in which case it was annoying.

Sending a few messages to Naranja, I found that he was, as Blake predicted, planning on attacking in two day's time, before 'those dirty humans' were leaving Bai'Jian. I approved and told him to go as soon as possible, then messaged Marbel via chat that we were heading back to the hotel. She confirmed that Blake was out cold, her current state being 'meditating', and I used Xiburichu and Juristimunja to help the limo move faster and be more fuel efficient, just because I could.

"So... question." I looked at Weiss while swirling a glass of the chilled wine my father had procured, "Why do you need to do signings?"

"People love it, the tiny amount of charge covers the meager cost of setup, but they don't know that. They know that they'll get my signature on something, and that makes them happy. I've... noticed your expression, when looking at some of these people. It's the same one I once had. My sister explained it quite well." she cleared her throat, taking a sip of the wine, and shooting me a cheeky smirk, "The people are stupid because ignorance is bliss. They don't know that some of what they do is wrong, and while it's stressful for us, it keeps the Grimm away."

I hummed softly, "He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." I recalled.

"Yeah, that sums it up quite nicely. You're full of wise sayings, aren't you?" she smiled at me, getting her own glass of wine.

"Uh, *ahem* yes. Yes I am, sometimes." I mentally sighed. Thank you, Assassin's Creed.

Hmm... that was a thought.

With a nod between us, I opened the dividing window between us and the driver, calling to him, "Jeeves? I'll call you Jeeves. Jeeves, I'm going to teleport Weiss and myself back to the hotel. I trust you to keep driving like we're still here, okay?"

He nodded, "Alright, sir. I trust you."

I nodded back, "Of course, Jeeves." I turned to Weiss, smiling, "Are you ready, Miss Schnee?"

She nodded, though had an eyebrow raised, "Of course, Mister Arc."

I gathered some light together, and... brought us into an I.D.

I felt the air, and counted the seconds down until the lack of drivers caused the various on the road to slow down, and we rear-ended the limo in front of us. A swift usage of Lampio made sure our glasses were sealed so we didn't spill our wine, "Alright. Shall, we?" I unsealed the glasses and practically threw the liquid down my throat.

Weiss did the same, then changed to her combat outfit as I did the same. Light shined from our bodies as I casually peeled the roof off the bulletproof limo and jumped out.

A surge of destructive urges filled me as I called upon Roimontagne's power.

Cracks spread through the wall of the building next to me, and I cast both Haste and Regeneration on Weiss, "Alright... Weiss? You know the path to the hotel?"

She nodded, sensing I wanted to race as she crouched a bit lower, switching her shoes out for something a little better for running in, "So, we're racing then?"

I chuckled, grinning in mischievous delight, "We're racing against the city."

Her next words were drowned out by the snap of both my fingers and most the supporting structure of the building next to us. She watched it list slightly, then begin to tip over in our direction. I laughed at her squeak of panic, then followed her as she made all due haste towards the hotel.

We ran as building after building became prey to the same fate, magic-induced collapse. Thunderous crashes boomed through the air as we raced against the trail of destruction that followed our path. Unfortunately, my pace was far slower than Weiss', due to me now wearing the fifteen tons of training armor I had. The ground rumbled beneath us as the buildings all simply broke, crashing down and practically getting thrown onto the streets by Roimontagne, and eventually my luck with my slower pace ran out.

Over a dozen tons of stone and glass crashed down upon me, scratching against my defenses and impeding my movements. With uppercuts and vertical jabs, I broke through the stone and surged more energy into my Ki skills to outrun the next falling building, feeling part of my skull cave in before I tumbled forwards. Gamer's Body imposed its rule over my biology, and I stood again, struggling to catch up to the unencumbered Weiss.

I heard her laughing in exhilaration, and pushed myself to keep up with her.

By raising "Sprint" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Furious Pace"!

I felt my speed increase slightly more, and slowly caught up to Weiss, hearing her loud, joyous laughter from the adrenaline. Maybe she knew I wouldn't let her get hurt.

I playfully shot a burst of gravel at her, "Hey! Stop laughing! You should be screaming in terror, you could get crushed if you aren't fast enough!"

She turned her head towards me as we rounded a corner, "It's exciting, isn't it? Thank you, Jaune!"

I didn't quite understand why she was thanking me, "Thanks for what?"

She just smiled, "Hah... you know, that's what I was thinking about too. Thank you for that too."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Are you thanking me for trying to crush you under collapsed buildings?"

"No you idiot! You don't even get it, and that honestly makes it better." she grinned and I saw the glow of her aura cover her.

The hotel was at the end of the street, straight ahead. If we continued running, we'd hit the front doors. I summoned a group of Gaster Blasters to assist Roimontagne in bringing down the massive building, "Tell me what you mean!"

Weiss didn't look particularly threatened by a thirty-story building that was slowly tilting towards a slow, but earth-shaking fall straight for her, "This is another example! God, how can you be so dumb?" her grin denied harshness from being imparted by her words, "You're such an opposite to all I've experienced before. A sweet smile and a pulling proposition, only to be disappointed, pulled too far, and stabbed in the back, but you're nothing like that! You're rough, blunt, and rugged. You push, but you don't force things, and behind your exterior of strength and stubborn willpower, your heart is true and pure, and you want nothing but the best from your friends, something I also feel!" she continued to grin, her Aura glowing brighter, "You want to help everyone, not hurt them, something I find myself admiring. Even in your harshest, you always make sure not to hurt any of us, it's very kind and sweet!"

I grimaced internally as I realized she was right. Already I was calculating where I would have Roimontagne reduce the strength of the stone wall to that of a tortilla chip, and she looked to have a plan of her own, "If you don't do something, you'll be crushed!"

She saw through my words, but opened her profile, "Don't worry, Jaune. I won't disappoint you!" she looked at her profile, her slender fingers tapping some points into place.

I reached out to her as she confirmed her selection, and then...

---

(One second later, Weiss' POV)

I confirmed my selection, feeling the changes take place.

Dexterity: 67 -} 70 (+84%) = 128.8
Vitality: 32 -} 40 (+43%) = 57.2
Intelligence: 83 -} 90 (+124%) = 201.6

Stat Points: 40 -} 22

Hit Points: 5000/5000
Aura Points: 26,000/26,000
Stamina Points: 8000/8000

I felt a bubbling in my soul, like ice being boiled away, and warmth filled my chest. It felt almost exactly like when I'd first gotten my Aura unlocked, but it was different in a very large way.

And that was that it felt VERY large. I breathed louder, heavier, harder, feeling like my chest would burst open.

Instead, a great warmth spread through my body, and finally it burst free, shining outwards and filling me with vigor.

By raising "Aura" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Aurora"!

I felt my Aura reaching out like a corona, protecting me and burning like a bonfire compared to what previously felt like a large candle.

Suddenly, my knees buckled as tons of stone crashed down on me, but Aurora wrapped around me like a barrier, keeping me safe. A slight ache spread through my head, originating from where the stone hit me. Still, it felt fragile and weak compared to my new light.

Looking at Jaune, I felt the surges of the elemental buffs filling me, and I focused on my new power...

I am a Schnee, and a Schnee is groomed to be perfect. A perfect diplomat, businessperson, Dust expert, public speaker. I have to dress perfectly, be a perfect lady and neither uncross my legs nor spread my arms, appear calm, cool, and collected in my posture. Cold and judgemental, I'm supposed to be, willing to trade fairness for profit, to maintain my lifestyle.

I was supposed to be pampered, pretty, a delicate flower whose fragility is only outshone by her beauty.

A scar? Schnees have no scars, and no scar need be seen by anyone who doesn't know about my training incident, what my father called an absolute failure. It took a miracle to convince him to let me try again.

I was expected to be nothing less than the epitome of poise, grace, and elegance.

And I was absolutely NOT supposed to partake in, or even THINK about rampant destruction...

...

...

...Sadly for all of my previous training... it was just SO MUCH FUCKING FUN!

Myrtenaster was swung with high levels of velocity and confidence, blades of wind-augmented and metal-augmented projected energy slashing through now-vertical floors as I ran.

Jaune ran beside me, relying not on accurate blade techniques, but rather his raw strength, durability, and momentum to surpass the integrity of the floor. It worked, luckily for him, and he kept moving with hardly any loss in speed. I continued swinging my quickly tiring arms, and eventually we reached the first floor, the overturned and smashed lobby. I focused my energy into Myrtenaster and drew a hole in the floor, using one of my glyphs to make sure it went all the way through.

It was almost funny, how I left a gigantic hole in the floor, and Jaune left a Jaune-sized hole, though the edges broke off as well. We reached the final leg of our journey, jumping down the elevator shaft and reaching the room.

I formed a glyph on the ground ahead of myself, jumping off of it high into the air, before falling gracefully through the air, aimed directly at the elevator shaft.

Jaune simply ran to the edge and slipped down, plummeting with extreme. A crashing sound echoed from below, and I ended up landing in his arms.

He smiled at me, "I'm glad you're okay." the words were simple, and very very honest. It made me smile.

I was breathing more heavily than yesterday, simply because of the change in situations. Outrunning a collapsing city?

It shouldn't have been fun, but the huntress in me called out to the challenge.

We walked through the elevator doors, which peeled aside like tin cans, and entered.

Suddenly, the world shifted, and I felt Eismeer whimper inside my soul. I was set on my feet, and immediately I dropped to one knee, summoning the small wolf and petting him, not minding the cold water droplets that clung to my skin.

I looked up and saw Marbel looking at me expectantly, "Is there something wrong?"

---

(One second later, Jaune POV)

Training your muscles to move against greater resistance has increased your STR by a total of 2!

Pushing your body to move faster despite extreme encumbrance and resistance has increased your DEX by a total of 2!

Withstanding extreme strain on your entire body and surviving has increased your VIT by a total of 4!

I felt the new surge of power, not only a higher amount of HP and SP, the two breaking 40k and 60k respectively, but I was more focused on Marbel's look.

"So, you got Aurora?" she asked curiously, "What's it like?"

Weiss instantly got a look of awe, "It's so warm and invigorating. At first, it felt like my Aura was being unlocked all over again, then I felt strength and speed and mental capabilities, I was able to cut through the floors with ease, after not collapsing from breaking through the wall." she grinned brightly, looking over at me, then back to Marbel.

Marbel let out a low chuckle, "Sounds pretty awesome. I'm just six and a half thousand from getting there myself. Greedy smartass Jaune already passed it like 6 times over." she pouted at me, but her gaze held no negativity.

I laughed and pointed at myself, "What? I didn't do anything except play The Game! You're taking this outta context, Marbs!"

"Context, shmontext. Now hand over the AP and nobody gets hurt." she held her hand out like she was mugging me, her other hand pointed at me with a gun gesture.

I opened my hand forward, "Alright, here's 5 AP, coming right at ya." I shot a single Energy Bolt at her.

It burst on her chest, making her cough in a flash of pain, "Ow! Too literal." she rubbed her chest and glared at me.

I chuckled, "Come on, Marbs. We've played enough competitive games that you should have known I'd do something like that." I laughed and grinned playfully at her.

She didn't respond out loud, but I heard her mumble, "I really should have."

Weiss laughed with me for a few seconds, still high on adrenaline, and I gave her a few minutes to calm down from that and recover her SP with Regeneration.

Marbel shot me a glare, "Anyways, Blake is leveled enough, I think we could squeeze in some training without her... also she's unconscious."

I rolled my shoulders, "Alright, fair enough. I need to hone some of my other skills. Honestly, I think we'd do best to train our skills some more, leave stats to exercises for a bit." I smiled at them, then formed Vorpal Sword in my hand, gazing at the gleaming, shining cyan blade. I decided to turn my thoughts of the hour to this subject.

Vorpal was such an odd word. The sound 'vorp' was sometimes used to describe the sound of a teleportation. Vorpal also somewhat sound like 'verbal', which fit since it was often the subjective sword of epic tales. Many swords were called a 'vorpal sword', to be fair. In some translations, though, it was also called a 'vosbal sword'. It might have been one of the countless 'misunderstanding translations', perhaps 'voice of the bold', but it also sounded similar to 'gospel', which were religious songs.

I messaged my father to make sure nobody came in and killed Blake while she was asleep, and then we all slipped into an ID. About ten seconds later, there was a great crashing of stone, followed by the sounds of digging. Bursting through the ceiling, an Elder Deathstalker gnashed at us with its pincers.

Candidus Murus blocked one of the pincers, while the other struck a protective glyph that Weiss threw up in a second. Her body glowed with Aura, while Marbel climbed onto the beast's back, avoiding its tail.

I chuckled and slashed a great rift into its face with Cyclone Strike.

-/\-

Cyclone Strike (Active) Level: 6, Exp: 24.64%, Cost: 890 SP, 295 AP
A powerful attack performed by spinning around rapidly, using spiral motion and Aura augmented with the element of Air in order to taking advantage of torque and carry force along multiple targets many times over in rapid succession. Warning: Not for the weak of stomach!

Hits all targets immediately surrounding the user.
24% chance to hit targets up to 5 feet past the user's melee reach.
Stacks with all buffs
Base Damage: 180%
Number of Spins per use: 18

-/\-

The sheer speed and force of my blade cutting through its bone armor was enough to daze it. Honestly, I'm pretty sure most things would be dazed if you hacked off half their face. Cloudy, sickly yellow liquid oozed from the wound, thick and heavy from the lower water content. Marbel was currently holding onto its tail, just behind the stinger, carving it off with her shortsword. Honestly, thinking about it, I needed to help her make something better. Upgrading your equipment as you grew as a hunter was an important thing to do. My father had described it as being 'like a rite of passage' when he gave up Crocea Mors and Candidus Murus, moving on to using Midnight Tide and Titan's Levee. He'd taken a massive step in his career, moving on from being solely what the family defined him as, and becoming more of his own person.

While not quite as dramatic a change, Marbel could still use an upgrade. I'd do something after we took down the next few enemies.

I saw Weiss focusing, and an oval-shaped glyph formed on Myrtenaster's blade, shortly followed by several slashes of searing flames. I hummed curiously, the noted that she'd developed a skill called 'Dust Slash'. Interesting to say the least.

Vorpal Sword wouldn't be receiving any such boosts, just good old fashioned 'hit them more, and harder'. Power Burst helped to offset the reducing damage of Combo-Count Attacks, even though the latter currently allowed me to do about 12 attacks, while the former only boosted 6.

I lopped off the Deathstalker's pincer on my side, before leaving the girls to handle it, surging several meters to the side as I turned my attention to the two new challengers

Vulcyrie Mantleus
Title: Damned Master of the Mountain
Level: 78

Miraganger
Title: Hopeful Dreams under the Deadly Sun
Level: 84

One with two broken wings, but no cloak, and wielding a spear, the other with a sword stolen from a fallen soldier. Granted, they looked a tad cleaner than the real ones had held, but it was to be expected for what were basically copies made by my power.

A flurry of slashes and thrust fell down upon me, and I snapped my shield into place to block most of them, getting struck where my armor didn't quite cover. My movements, honestly, were kinda slow, only the usage of Blade Mode allowing me to block like I did. Well... that, and the increased size of Candidus Murus. More surface between me and attacks meant it was easier to block stuff, after all.

Suddenly, as I deflected a spear thrust and cut the weapon in half, simultaneously blocking a sword slash, I felt the surge of power flow through my system.

By raising "Shield Skill" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Shield Proficiency"!

Blocking a pair of flaming punches, followed by three slashes, and hacking off the Vulcyrie's arms, I grinned and laughed at them, Vorpal Sword cutting the Miraganger's sword in half, then into a quarter, then cutting its hand off.

The two were pushed apart by a very brief Bullrush, then cut into pieces by Cyclone Strike.

Heh, that was something I liked about a sword. It meant a lot to the human race. It was a symbol of our might, not just in our brawn, but in our brain.

Swordplay wasn't just a fighting style, it was practically an art form. The sword was something that had to be known to be wielded properly. You had to have wisdom to use a sword, and power, and definitely courage.

A sword wields no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage.

Swords were more than just that, they were symbols of order, and power. Two crossed swords behind a shield, with a helmet over it, was the traditional symbol of an army. An army was more than just a collection of fighters, it was an organized group that fought together. They fought for the same cause, even though a hundred soldiers might give you a hundred different reasons for what they fought for on a personal level.

A sword was a symbol of sophistication, of mentality, of knowing what you're doing. An axe was a tool for chopping wood, a hammer a tool for striking metal or stone. It may have happened that these weapons were useful in hitting an enemy really hard, but a sword was... different.

A sword, much larger than a knife, was made specifically for battle. It was made with the purpose in mind that it would draw blood and take lives. It was a sophisticated weapon, for a brighter type of fighter.

The cruciform sword was popularized by Saint Nicholas Charismus, who also established other big things, like Sainthood, the status that suggests a person is of such a great level of power and fame that they may have been blessed by the gods. He also became the father of what would later be called Christmas, due to his story of great generosity even in the position of an ancient king. He made people happy, and was also where the word 'Charisma' came from. Of course, time metamorphosed his name into the much simpler Santa Claus, but hey, stories are stories.

The cross-form, or cruciform sword, was also held in his hand, and it came to also be a symbol of generosity, mercy, and love. Yeah, a sword became a symbol for mercy and love. Stories, man, I tell ya.

Stories... the word Vorpal came back to mind, as an army of beowolves flooded into the room through the massive hole in the ceiling, descending on the recovering Marbel and Weiss, who had successfully killed the Deathstalker without getting hurt.

I joined in, but the thoughts didn't stop flowing through my mind, almost seeming to slow for dramatic effect.

Vorpal... verbal, gospel, a combination of the two? Taking letters alternatingly from the two words, you'd make the word vorpal. Had I cracked the code? The truth of the vorpal sword?

Ha... I felt the itch of new skill levels start forming in my arms, as Fundamental Factor W helped me to grow as I understood.

The truth of the Vorpal Sword, of the sword of the verbal gospel, of the sword found in all of the legendary stories...

The truth... was what you made of it.

By raising "Vorpal Sword" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Excalibur"!

Hmmm?

---

(Hours later, Jaune POV)

My paranoia must have been acting up, I swear it must have. Jeeves, not the limo driver, but my second in command, was even more vitriolic tonight. Funny, that I'd unlocked a skill based on some sideways concept of 'truth', and the hierarchy of the security team was being upset by a lie.

-/\-

Excalibur (Active) (prestiged from Vorpal Sword) Level: 1, Exp: 0.00%, Cost: 1200 AP
The ancient sword of the great King Arthur, both an excellent knight and a powerful wizard, having learned from the great Merlin the Wise. Though Merlin's diseased mind and heart led him to slowly destroy the sword Excalibur by carving, ever deeper, new formulae of magical channeling and power across its form, he never knew the greatest truth: That the sword Excalibur was not one sword, but rather a force born of King Arthur's soul. The legends say that Merlin died to the purified light of his own creation, and that any sword King Arthur wielded would bear the power of Excalibur.

Base Damage: 500%
Defense Penetration: 500
Not Affected by the Sword Proficiency branch.
Charge Time: 20.0 seconds

-/\-

In modernese, Excalibur was King Arthur's semblance, not his physical sword. It had, like the majority of other skills, metamorphosed instead of simply grew. The problem was that I couldn't quite tell how, only that it had changed in more than numbers. The truth of that particular matter seemed to be presented to me behind a thick wall of frosted glass, so that I knew the truth was there, that it existed, but I didn't know what it was.

"Quit staring off into space, captain." I heard my second in command jab, and I sighed.

"I'm not staring off into space, I was composing my plans further in my mind. You'd do best not to underestimate me." I could have sworn I'd dealt with his insubordination already.

The truth was that I actually had been. Blake's condition following getting a Lightning elemental was best described as 'kinda like a twitchy ragdoll'. Her movements were normally fluid and loose, but it seemed like they'd become so loose that they dangled and were tugged through the air, like a puppet. I could tell she was trying her best not to let it show, but the clenching of her fists, the uncomfortable look as one of her biceps slightly spasmed under her skin, she was tense. The power was still settling, something I'd somehow forgotten was a condition for normal people's souls. Her thoughts, soul, and body all seemed to have something inhibiting their connection.

Regardless, she still kept control over herself, despite Raidinger's electrical interference.

But her twitchiness, however, was not for the reason I'd be twitchy.

Naranja was here, again, as was Lucen, and two more people.

Xavia Fargrad
Title: Scathing Eyes stronger than Stone
Level: 71

Her semblance, plain and simple, was a form of x-ray vision. Her weapon, Nightcrawler, was hard to see, mostly because it was actually invisible. A crystal of white Dust at the pommel of the long chokuto projected a field of energy that rendered the weapon untouchable by the visible light spectrum. Her eyes, hands, and soul could still feel it, though, and anything that stained it might be outside of the invisibility field. She looked like a normal old robed woman, but her age was far too young for her look. Lucen's work, no doubt. She and the other newcomer had very similar visors under their illusions. Xavia's visor featured two pairs of reddish eye-lenses that acted as cybernetically operated telescopic sights.

Navio Warchester
Title: A Blue Streak staining with Red
Level: 82

For Navio, who could maintain Mach 3 speeds for a relatively extended period of time (about three to four minutes, depending on outside conditions) with his current power level, his visor granted him thermal vision, x-ray vision, and scanning sights. His weapon, Bloodlash, was something I immediately wanted for myself. A system using 'inert' magnetic, water, and earth dust crystals, combined with a high level of aura control, allowed him to utilize a pair of gauntlets that projected three diamond-strong, razor-sharp 'wires' that could entangle and cut foes to pieces.

Now, while fatally efficient against Grimm, it usually wasn't the most effective against human targets, because of Aura, but it was still dangerous.

Want want want want waaaaaaant.

I heard the second in command cough next to me, and I pat him on the back, "Anything the matter, Jeeves?"

He looked displeased by the physical contact, "Are you even paying attention to the monitors?"

I looked more closely and quickly found what he was referring to, a guard that was sound asleep. I sighed, and spoke into the headset, "Left side, bald guy, wake the fuck up!" I called to him, then used Mystimunja's power to create a loud noise next to him. He jolted awake and spoke up, "Apologies, sir, I-"

I groaned, "If the job is truly that boring to you, you're free to quit and go get a good night's sleep back home, while you can still afford it." if the second in command was going to be a toughass about my demeanor, I'd show him I could take care of business.

Instead, the man looked incredulous, "You can't fire Krim, he's our best man!"

"Can't I? I'm the owner of the contract. I'm the head of security, I can fire a slacking employee." I glared at the second in command.

I heard Krim speak up, "Ah, sir, please no, you must understand. I was awake one second, and waking up the next."

I stopped. That... didn't quite sound right. I spun and dashed out the door, "I need to make sure." I said ominously, pushing the door open with telekinesis and Schwarza bent light around me to make me invisible. Between one step and the next, I was suddenly running on solid air, and soon found my culprit.

Lima Temvun, from the Vacuan White Fang. A rattlesnake faunus whose semblance allowed him to create sounds that induced mental status effects. I sighed at his usage of a janitor's outfit for a disguise.

I watched him for a few minutes, sending the message that I was handling the situation myself while examining his movements. At his current slow pace, he'd reach the monitoring room by the end of the concert, when we'd all normally expect the janitor to come by and clean stuff up. Clever, very clever. Nobody questioned his slow pace, for he was disguised as an old man. His thick jacket hid the small bulge caused by his small rattle tail, as well as his weapon.

Branching Dogma, a spear that could mechashift between having one, two, three, four, or five different point, with two and three being for spearing people, four having a lightning dust crystal give it taser-like power, and five allowing him to shoot small bolts of lightning by using four points around a central spire that acted as the focus. It was currently in its small transport form, but his DEX and skills told me he could pull it out and run someone through in just a couple of seconds.

God, but it was tempting to pull him into an ID and obliterate his face. It would be so easy too, just a minute or so, maybe wait for him to notice, put on a creepy illusion, summon an ominously staring Gaster Blaster...

But... not right now. The risks this presented were considerable, but the Vacuan White Fang, as I'd been seeing more and more, was a well-oiled machine. It would not take very long to notice that one of their scouting members had been killed.

Would they act out of anger? Accelerate their plans? Try to kill us all in our sleep? It was a risk. They wanted it to be known very quickly that the Schnee heiress had been killed, but not so instantly that they couldn't escape with their lives.

I sighed heavily, and returned to the monitoring room, letting my invisibility drop, "I checked my suspicions, and it was nothing." I turned on the receiver, "Krim, try to stay awake for the duration of the concert. You should try to get properly rested before we start these things, problems might pop up if the guards are asleep on the job." I instructed, trying my best to convince everyone it was just a random mistake and not a coordinated effort from the White Fang.

"Ah, of course. Sorry, sir. I'll do my best." he saluted the camera with a serious expression.

Dammit, holding two groups with conflicting interests in balance, with just my wits and quick thinking, was going to give me a migraine.

I sighed heavily, cupping my face in my hand, and breathed a single long, slow breath.

Under the cover of an illusion, I summoned Schwarza and Mystral, instructing the two to check nearby buildings for additional Fang members. Waiting for a long while, and feeling the second in command glaring daggers into the side of my head, I sighed.

"Is there a problem, Jeeves?" I asked as I turned to face him, my eyes burning with disdain for his bad attitude.

His expression twisted into a mixture of disbelief, disgust, and anger, "Do you just not care for procedure?"

I raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry?"

"No, you're not sorry, don't even say that in questioning. You run off randomly and return even more randomly. You ignore my suggestions, and most of what the rest of the team says. You've shown no regard for the standard procedure! Do you just not care that there is a proper way to do this?" his face was red with anger.

I simply stared at him, feeling something within myself twist, and I spoke with great calmness, "There haven't been any problems, I can assure you of that. My 'disappearances' are to make sure things are going smoothly. If the team reported a problem, I'd show my concern and attention just as any other security authority would. You haven't made any suggestions, and your idea of 'procedure' isn't perfect. If you keep acting out like this, and projecting your childish disdain onto me, then I'm going to have to fire you."

He looked taken aback, as if my words had metaphorically slapped him in the face so hard that it reached his physical body. His aura flared in anger, but he backed off when my expression fell from calm to deadpanned, and I showed him which of us had the bigger aura, along with a friendly reminder about Gaster Blaster.

He didn't complain again.

I sensed something, or rather someone, on a nearby rooftop. His power... well...

Prasino Monatas
Title: Standing in Ashes, Speaking to Ghosts.
Level: 78

He was... odd. I couldn't tell anything from where I stood, but he looked quite dangerous.

... (about two hours later) ...

The ghastly skull floated next to him for the rest of the night, only leaving when he left to return to the hotel. I messaged the girls to stay put while I dealt with the 'janitor'.

He pushed open the door, and I simply stared at the screens, looking only to show I was aware of my surroundings, "Oh, sorry, I was just looking over the footage again. You're very slow, old man." I chuckled at him.

He shook his head, "Not very nice, young man." he said in a convincing elderly voice, chuckling a little, "These old bones can't go as fast as you youngin's."

I smiled, almost, ALMOST getting convinced, "I'll clear out right after I log and lock the footage up."

He didn't even flinch, but I swore I saw his eyes bulge slightly when I said that. It was... a little concerning. Was he not here for the footage, then?

I hummed, then did as I said I would, watching him out of the corner of my eye the entire time. He was just... sweeping.

Sighing internally, I left the room, deciding that delaying him further would only draw suspicion. The last thing I wanted was them catching on that I knew more than I should.

My footsteps echoed through the emptying halls. It was hard to think that just ten minutes ago, this building was packed to bursting with people and noisier than a freight train. Now, it was almost hauntingly empty.

My heavy steps echoed through the hall, drowning out the quietened ones of the illusion-hiding Lucen and Prasino. Glancing at him with Gamer's Sight, I found his stats and semblance. He seemed to be primarily focused on INT and STR. His semblance was something odd. He could read the imprints of Aura people left behind to create an image of past events. He could also apparently take enough imprints and form them into a splinter of power he could graft onto his soul, which had granted him telekinesis.

Well... it's a good thing the sheer power of my Aura had probably bleached that entire room with the color of my soul. Plus... his semblance could only copy one power, and he'd already gotten the one, and invested a lot of time and effort into it. Even if he DID try to copy my power, I'm pretty sure his soul would collapse under the strain. It's... kind of a power that needs an exceptionally powerful soul.

I would trust him to be smart enough to quash his curiosity for the sake of safety.

With a sigh, I cracked open the door to Weiss' dressing room, knocking, "I hope y'all are decent." I called out, keeping my eyes closed.

Marbel called back, "No, don't come in, we decided to have an underwear party because you were taking so long." her tone and laughter were enough to assure me they were all fine.

"Aw damn, I love underwear parties, can I join?" I laughed as I opened the door, holding my jacket in my hand like I was already getting undressed, "Damn, why do you lie to me like this, Marbs? I thought we were friends~!" I cried out dramatically, bringing the four of us, plus my dad who was waiting by the back door, into an ID.

I relished Blake and Weiss' laughter, the two having already started to get used to our humor, and Weiss spoke first, "I'm afraid I'd need to bill you for all of your money if my underwear got damaged." it was a brave and bold attempt at a joke.

Blake laughed, at least, "What, are they covered in diamonds?"

Weiss scoffed, speaking in a mock snobbish voice, "Oh don't be so boorish, they're carved from diamonds themselves, solid crystals."

Marbel giggled, "Wow, must have been small diamonds, then." Weiss went beet red while Blake and I hissed from the burn that was delivered.

Weiss stood up, "Well, perhaps with my Aurora, I'll grow much faster, in fact I may even outgrow Yang."

I laughed at that, then spoke up in warning, "If you do, Yang will grill you until you tell her how you did it, probably literally."

We all shared a laugh like dumb teenagers, and I felt my heart swell with joy. After this stressful and annoying night, I could use a laugh.

I gestured for them to follow me as we walked through the now starkly empty halls of the ID'd building. With no worries, we went at a casual pace, just laughing until we got it all out of our systems.

I casually opened the wall with Roinmontagne, pulling the stone away and making it fall perfectly around the girls. My dad was standing on the other side of the still-standing door frame. I chuckled, walking over to the door and knocking on it, "Knock knock."

My dad sighed from the other side, "Who's there?"

I smirked, "A rack."

He hummed, "A rack who?"

I chuckled, "A raccoon, it's eating all the trash."

He opened the door, "Don't worry son, I'll save your comic book collection!" he laughed and gave me a clap on the shoulder, "Come on, let's just get through this creepy illusion dimension of yours."

I hummed as a thought came to mind, "Actually, this would be a nice time for training. I already sent the messages through that I'd discovered a new technique and would be using it to transport Weiss to the hotel. We stop by for a few to show Weiss is back, then have a quick meal to fuel up, and start training time." I grinned, then pulled several nearby cars towards me, making them conglomerate into one massive chunk of metal, then setting the remains alight with Xiburichu, followed by extinguishing it with Pluviteus. I sighed, noting the tiny amount of EXP the acts got me, "Let's get going, I was just checking something." focusing on speed, I led the way towards the hotel, donning my 15 tons of armor as I did.

Another night of grinding it was, then.

---

(About an hour later, John POV)

I grunted as I pushed back against the fourth Miraganger Star, which seemed adamant on trying to kill me even after getting a building dropped on it.

I was close, tantalizingly close to that next level. It was almost unfair, but that was just life.

Life wasn't fair. Not everyone was made equally, which was true from the outermost features, all the way down to one's soul. It was just a sad fact of life, some people had larger, more powerful souls than others, some had smaller, less powerful souls. Some had souls that lacked in one area almost entirely, as I saw Blake's aura had given her what could almost be considered a bare minimum for an active Strength boost, starting at 0 and increasing by 1% every 10 levels.

While not having the sheer mental power my son now had, I had experience and smarts of my own. It was a sad fact that was hard to accept.

Life wasn't fair, it didn't care about being fair, and it didn't change no matter how much you complained and, sometimes, no matter how much you tried to change it.

It brought tears to many eyes, and torn even more hearts to pieces. Why? Why couldn't you succeed?

Life just didn't deal you a very good hand.

Who knows, truly? My son's power had the ability to affect someone's Luck. Was it able to change someone down to their very soul?

It certainly felt like. My soul had something in it that it didn't before, it didn't feel much different, but... something was in there, making me stronger.

It was like my soul was a light bulb and got plugged into a Factory Ton Generator, and simultaneously forced you to be able to stand the power influx. It was... odd.

The fifth Miraganger Star lost its head as I found myself realizing that these things weren't exactly the toughest things to kill, at least for someone with such strength. I wanted to kill REAL Grimm, get the proper amount of EXP I needed in order to get that level.

With a grunt, I simply kicked a Deathstalker's stinger aside, cutting its two pincers off. It felt... liberating, being able to go all out like this. It was an exceedingly rare opportunity that Hunters got, mostly because we had to worry about collateral.

All of this 'collateral' was fake anyways, so I had no worries.

I heard Jaune call for us to make our way to the desert, which was a tad confusing, but I shrugged it off. Technically, he was the boss, and I wasn't so caught up with shoving my head up my ass to ignore his decisions just because he was my son.

I cut a swathe through an army of Beowolves that poured from the stoneworks. It barely slowed us down at all, and got a microscopic amount of EXP, but it was something at least.

And enough bricks would eventually build a city.

... (Thirty minutes later) ...

Sand crunched under my feet as Jaune flew by, body alight with his Aurora, and I felt the world shift as the illusion dimension thing fell apart. I watched my son tear through a Deathstalker with fire crackling and hissing all around him. I saw what he'd apparently sensed in the distance.

An oasis, and just twenty or so feet past it was a small house with a garden of fruits and vegetables, even a sleeping camel inside a small stable.

It was... weird, "I don't get it. What's wrong?" I spoke up, and Jaune only smirked.

"I saw this on the way over, seems they didn't learn the first time." he chuckled, then his sand dragon rose from the ground and let our a ground-shaking roar.

Sand was blasted away from the nearby dunes, revealing the tall, dark figures of Miragangers. I shook my head, "Of course." and charged forwards.

The first one met my surprise charge with a surprise of its own, a large revolver aimed right at my head. Titan's Levee blocked the shot, and I countered by stabbing my sword through its skull, tearing it free and following up fluidly with a decapitation.

The girls moved in with their less effective offensives, but they handled the right side while I took the left.

Well... until the Miragangers disappeared, and I sensed a prickle on the back of my neck.

Spinning around, I swung my sword and cleaved through the hammer and arms of a Miraganger Star. It screeched in my face, but I just laughed, grabbing its face.

"Shut your disgusting mouth, swamp-breath." I focused my Aura into my arms and put my other hand up, jamming my fists into its eyes. It continued to shriek until I broke its skull open on either side, leaving just the front, top, and back. I pushed it away, then drew my sword and delivered three swift swings, slicing its head off in many pieces. I delivered a shield bash to knock it back, watching it dissolve into a plume of smoke and its illusion disappear.

I saw some loot drop from its dissolved corpse, and grinned as I saw the notification I'd been waiting to see since I started 'playing the game'.

Your level has increased by one!

Going through extreme exercise has increased your STR by 4!

Loosening up and going through extreme exercise to make yourself more flexible and speedy has increased your DEX by 5!

Enduring monumental damage and strain has increased your VIT by 1!

I felt a surge of power inside my chest, blooming throughout my entire body as the power took hold. It was... hard to describe.

At least the numbers told me what happened.

-/\-

Name: Johnathan Arc
Title: The Ninth Moon to Illuminate the Night
Level: 109 -} 110

Hit Points: 157,000 -} 162,000
Aura Points: 205,000 -} 210,000
Stamina Points: 263,000 -} 270,000

Strength: 181 -} 185 (+380%) = 888
Dexterity: 140 -} 145 (+255%) = 514.75
Vitality: 224 -} 225 (+380%) = 1080
Intelligence: 132 (+255%) = 468.6
Wisdom: 110 (+380%) = 528
Luck: 80
Charisma: 93

Stat Points: 0 -} 5

-/\-

I laughed in joy, looking at Jaune and the others, "I finally leveled up!" I grinned at them, already thinking on what to use my points for. I had plenty of physical ability, so increasing my mental stats seemed to be the answer.

Jaune chuckled, "Well, looks like you did it, dad. Heh, I'm proud of you." he smirked at me, turning my own words against me.

I chuckled back, "Shut up, I'm prouder of you, son." and I was, I really was.

I put the points into INT and saw my Max AP jump up by another one thousand. Feeling my mind grow sharper and a bit more focused, I grinned, "Upping my stats feels good."

The others laughed at my expense. They didn't understand how denied I had felt, going so long without getting any levels. Finally getting one, it was almost like a rite of passage. I looked at them, noting that Weiss had already leveled up again, probably because those Miragangers were about thirty-five levels above her.

Jaune floated in the air, humming, "Let's take a quick break, I want to try something." his body began to glow as he floated towards the oasis pool.

I waited, standing guard and watching whatever this new trick was.

---

(One second later, Jaune's POV)

I levitated in the air, gathering my Elementals together, focusing hard. My Aurora glowed brightly around me, and the moment my foot touched the surface of the now perfectly circular oasis pool, the surface froze over.

Standing in the center, I focused with all of my mental power, and surges of power blasted through my body.

"Reparative Claying" level increased by 1!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Fire and Air, you have created the skill "Explosive Heat"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Fire and Earth, you have creating the skill "Flaring Lava"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Fire and Water, you have creating the skill "Washing Steam"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Fire and Lightning, you have creating the skill "Searing Aura"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Fire and Metal, you have creating the skill "Invigorating Forge"!

My body glowed with bright flames as I took the final step myself, leaving the ice untouched as I let the elements fill my soul even more... just...

...a little...

...more...

Suddenly, I felt something inside myself open up...

And all of my perception poured into the hole...

---

Light...

A brilliant rainbow of light...

Divided, only to by woven.

It is brought around again.

Poured into a circle.

My head pounded like a drum's beat, resonating throughout my entire being with every single breath.

I opened my eyes to see myself once again standing in an infinite darkness, feeling like a tree, mighty and tall.

I felt something shudder in the space, and I reached up, way up, and... touched the sky.

My fingerprints left marks of cyan on the darkness. Their individual shapes melted and pulled themselves together into tiny, uniform points of light on the blackness.

I hardly knew why I did this, but I did it. It felt... like the right thing to do.

With a sky marked with light, I turned my eyes downwards, towards the ground...

The six arms of the six-pointed star inside the massive ritual circle all lit up, one by one. I was once again awash in the light at my feet.

I felt my soul burgeoning inside myself, my body threatening to tear open as those splinters of power pushed and grew and thickened...

Crocea Mors, my metal elemental, formed at the end of the purple arm. He looked like myself, maybe given another year of growth. In his hand, he held Crocea Mors, the sword. A truth entered my head, and it saddened me. I sighed, and turned to the next elemental I'd summoned.

Xiburichu flared to life at the end of the red arm. He stood as he had before: short, muscular, with skin like sheets of flame stitched into a perfect human shape. A thin smattering of reddish-gold fire imitated hair on his head. His body was surrounded by a corona of golden flames, and his azure burning eyes popped out in the middle of the red flames that wrapped around them on his smooth face. He nodded as smoke rose from his form.

Mystral pulled together from a swirling of wind, forming into her small dragon self. Her form was faint, hollow in the center, with azure wisps of wind, some tinged gold, some tinged purple, forming her lean body. Two frosty horns sprouted on her head, on either side of a mane of lavender clouds. Her wings were tinged yellow, lightning faintly arcing between bones of wispy clouding. Wind surrounded her, a visible tempest of distorted air.

Roimontagne climbed out of the ground, his eyes glowing as azure crystals. His bald head was, as always, adorned with a tiny diamond and two tiny sapphires in a triangular pattern, on the frontwards crest of a crown-like carving. His body was still rough and rocky, its formation muscular, but bulky and stocky. His base was simply were he melded into the ground. Cracks began to form all over his body as he seemed to 'sweat', almost.

Pluviteus formed next, a river of water flowing straight upwards from his spot. His concave eyes and mouth opened up, tiny stars of azure light glowing in the former. Slicked-back hair made of orange seaweed grew from his head, as his thin, river-like body formed two buff arms with huge forearms and hands. The water completely left the ground as his fluctuating body floated a little higher, his ghost-like 'tail' dripping water. His head became cloudy, all of a sudden.

Juristimunja struck upwards, forming fully in just a second. The tips of her buzzing form were white, fading to a yellowish hue nearer her torso, which then faded to an azurish yellow hue near the beating heart on her chest. Her head formed as a ball of lightning, with six long, wriggling arcs of lightning represented hair, which floated and lashed in the air behind her, coming together halfway down their length like a ponytail. Three azure eyes opened on her face, and a thin smiling mouth followed. She grinned at me, her body glowing brighter, her heart beating faster, and I saw the truth.

Together, they all stood, and spoke in their order, "We grow, as you do." "We fight by your side." "We bend the world to your will." "We grant you even more power." "We protect your life." "We help you grow, as you help us."

The sky and ground suddenly lit up, showing me a plain of grass and dirt.

The distance between us grew from six to twelve feet, the entire circle scaling to fit the new distance.

They all began to glow... and then change.

Once more, they spoke in order, "Metal reforged, aided by friends." "Fire blazing, leaving only ash." "Wind blowing, pushed by ambition." "Earth rumbling, becoming ever stronger." "Water flowing, coaxing out life." "Lightning striking, bringing forth change."

Crocea Mors suddenly started to come undone, an unearthly roar of wind escaping him as his body began to glow purple. But... he was metal, he would endure. He stood his ground with a mighty stomp as smooth skin began coalescing up his leg. He stomped his other foot, his other leg doing the same, the flowing liquefied metal suddenly drawn into a new shape. It reached his hips, and continued upwards, showing his skin was now hued with gold. His arms formed, thick and strong, then his head. A shock of golden hair on the top, trailing down to a thick stubble along his jawline. If he had a matte finish, he'd honestly almost look like a real human. His eyes formed from the liquid, turning to white gold and showing cobalt irises and black pupils, and he stood fully up at a height of 6'6".

His stance relaxed as Crocea Mors the sword floated in front of him. Suddenly, it pressed against his golden steel chest, sinking in as though the surface were liquid. Out of almost nowhere, he let out a shriek like a train's whistle filtered through human vocal chords, and metal flowed inwards seemingly from nowhere. Shining golden plates of armor, relatively thin, adhering close to his skin, formed. Tall boots that trailed and articulated up to his thighs, full gauntlets that trailed and articulated up his arms to his biceps. A golden chestplate formed, pouring out from his pecs and abs and wrapping around his torso, with flared shoulderguards, ab plates, and a metal skirt. Suddenly, sheets of blue flowed down the spaces between his shoulderguards and gauntlets, and his metal skirt and boots, filling the space with what almost looked like cloth. Runes formed on his plates, very similar to the ones on Crocea the sword's blade.

Finally, two strips of leather were thrust out from his neck, stretching to either side and laying over the tops of his shoulderguards. Suddenly, they surged and stretched down his back, creating a long leather cape that was blue on the inside and white on the outside. He showed his strength by simultaneously kneeling and thrusting his arms out and backwards, causing a great gust of wind to flutter his cape, blades of wind cutting the grass for hundreds of feet. He then thrust his hand forward, Crocea the sword jutting out from his arm and sliding into his hand's grasp. He smiled at me, his transformation complete as he took his available charges.

Crocea Mors
Title: Metal Soul, Yellow Death Knight.
Level: 15

Suddenly, to his side, Xiburichu flared up brightly. I watched as the grass surrounding him turned to ash, swirling on the updraft of heat. Flames flared at his legs and they grew into a pool of fire, his legs becoming one long tail as his muscular human body flared brighter and lost cohesion, becoming a broad, recognizably masculine body with a wide mouth and cyan eyes ringed by red flames.

His pool of fire grew a tad wider as his tail melded down into it, as though her were a phantom leaving a trail of ashes instead of ectoplasm. Ashes swirled in the air and suddenly thrust inwards, becoming consumed by the flames. He laughed a deep, bellowing laugh as thick gouts of flame and smoke started pouring from his mouth and skin. He grinned as his flame pool grew to be six feet wide, his body stretching up to be about 6'8"

Finally, the ashes came back out, coalescing into craggy volcanic stones that formed armoring spikes on his shoulders and hands, creating claws on which his flaming fingers could focus. His back grew three rows of slightly larger spikes, which I could see only as he doubled over. He reared up, throwing his head back as a flaming roar flew from his massive maw, and all the fire of it coalesced into a ball that was then thrust at the ground, burning the grass for over a thousand feet behind him. He relaxed his stands, grinning at me and taking his available charges.

Xiburichu
Title: Fire Soul, Ashen Western Sunrise.
Level: 15

Across from him, Mystral roared with the sound of wind, and I turned to see her start to expand. She grew and grew and grew, going from three feet long to about eight feet long. She was still hollow in the middle, but her faint azure scales filled in a tad more, maybe only a couple of millimeters, but when applied to every single scale on her body, she became a lot more visible. Still dotted around were scales tinged gold or purple, and the occasional slightly darker scale. Her frosty horns and cloudy mane formed, followed by the faint lightning buzzing on her now much larger dragon wings.

Suddenly, a faint belly of yellow colored scales formed on her underside, trailing all the way down to her tail, which now seemed to have a more definite form, ending in a small curling hook shape. Her eyes brightened and her frosty horns grew thicker, as suddenly her cloudy mane was punched through by a powerful wind, turning the previously puffy balls of cloud into large wispy ones, looking a lot more like hair. Her lightning wings grew more visible, points on her wing bones now acting as foci where lightning arced between. Ten arcs of lightning marked each space where a membrane should have been.

Finally, with a large flap of her wings, Mystral took flight, gracefully looping around with her slender body and breathing great clouds of wind and frost, turning back and creating a thick frost over a massive area of several hundred feet. She landed and sat down with a smile, taking her available charges.

Mystral
Title: Air Soul, Eastern Cold Wind
Level: 15

Then, next to Xiburichu, Roimontagne began to move his arms rapidly. He threw punches in the air as more mass drew into his burgeoning body. Uppercuts were thrust into an invisible foe as he began to make small bursts of movement around backwards, his body trembling as he did so. Reasserting himself as the tallest, I watched as he grew to about seven feet tall, his body cracking heavily and his three tiny crown gems glowing brightly.

Suddenly, one last crack spread down his body, and he stopped, facing me. He punched one thick, beefy fist into his palm, and the earth around him rumbled. The cracks spread more and more, until at last his body began to break. Crumbling away was the thick, bulky, almost fat body of a cobbled-together rocky sludge-beast, now his limbs were relatively smoother, made of only a few thick sheets of stone. I saw thin veins of green crystal mark his now robust and (very literally) chiseled abs, as well as his joints. His head thinned out, stripped of excess mass and forming a more humanoid one, this time with a thick mat of dirt acting as hair. His azure eyes glowed brighter, and his lower body bulged.

Finally, he then began to stand up from the ground, leaving behind the sludge-like gravel base and replace it wit two thick, powerful legs capped with broad feet. He performed several more motions with his new body, feeling the freedom and not so much jumping as tossing himself up into the air. His 'crown' grew too, the gems doubling in size and three more sapphires forming, making a row of five with the diamond now above the middle one, with two rubies forming between the two rows and recreating the triangular crown shape. He smiled, far stronger, even more so when he took his available charges.

Roimontagne
Title: Earth Soul, Great Mountain Tosser
Level: 15

Across from him, Pluviteus surges and flows in his spot, letting out a watery battlecry as he suddenly threw out a dozen punches, each attack flowing past the next and tossing droplets of water into the air, where they hung suspended. He continued to do this until a massive dome had formed around him. He moved with wide, flexible, dramatic motions, letting out another watery battlecry.

Then, all at once, he burst outwards, filling that massive dome of water out. It began flowing backwards, as if being launched by some unseen force across some imperceptible distance. His previous humanoid battlecry was replaced with that of a great beast as a surging pool of water formed on the floor. The rest of the water seemed to almost impossibly compress down into a figure about nine feet tall, with massive, thick muscles and long flowing hair of orange seaweed. I watched it surge as light filled its chest, the surface of the water seeming to eternally flow upwards and backwards, as though some unknown wind was always blowing against him.

Finally, I watched as a thick foam began to form on his head and the backs of his hands. Steam rose from the foam as it formed, eventually boiling it all away to leave behind a smooth, open-faced helmet made from salty ice. The same happened on his thick, beefy hands, plates for the water to cling to, and he punched the ground, a wave of water flooding the field for nearly a thousand feet behind himself. He let out another bellowing battlecry, and took his available charges.

Pluviteus
Title: Water Soul, Orange Oceanic Rain
Level: 15

I looked towards Juristimunja, who just nodded, and her body lengthened from 6'7" to about eleven feet even. Her entire body swelled with more energy and voltage, and she didn't waste any time in beginning to change.

Suddenly, her limbs and torso all split in two, then split in two again, forming eight legs, eight arms, and four bodies. Her head split into three pieces that grew to be normal sized. Then, the lighting all began to curl and twist and combine, two thick skeletal arms formed, ending with large hands that had four claws. The legs braided together and forming into a single surging, wriggling tail that trailed down and connected to the ground. The four bodies separated, three of them breaking in half and forming six ribs around a central spine that connected all the body parts together.

Finally, the three heads poured into streaks, forming an almost draconic head, with several long, almost bramble-like teeth, and two columns of three eyes formed, one on either side of its face. The third head fell down and melded into the spine, and I watched as sinew-like arcs of electrical energy connected all of the limbs together. Her 'heart' reformed in her chest finally, with three small triangles marked on it. She pulled herself together mostly, and lightning struck down from the sky, scorching the earth for a few hundred feet. She took in a breath, her electrical body wriggling lightly, and breathed a cloud of sparks as she took her available charges.

Juristimunja
Title: Lightning Soul, True Storm Raging
Level: 15

All around me they stood and floated, their power flowing into me in massive waves, so massive I was almost overwhelmed.

But I wasn't... I stood my ground, enacted my will, breathed my promise, flexed my strength, flowed with motion, and simply changed.

The hexagon of life.

Purple, Metal.

Red, Fire.

Green, Air.

Orange, Earth.

Blue, Water.

Yellow, Lightning.

These six colors, the rainbow.

The rainbow that blesses life.

And that rainbow is yours to command, master.

You wield the reins over all the elements.

I am Crocea Mors and I am Metal.

I am Xiburichu and I am Fire.

I am Mystral and I am Air.

I am Roimontagne and I am Earth.

I am Pluviteus and I am Water.

I am Juristimunja and I am Lightning.

You and us.

We and you.

We are all one.

I am Jaune Arc and I am Human.

My endurance is infinite.

My willpower is infinite.

My breath is infinite.

My strength is infinite.

My life is infinite.

My energy is infinite.

I am colored completely.

The rainbow branches out from my soul.

My soul... is eternal.

And it is colored with all the powers of the world.

I am Jaune Arc.

I am Crocea Mors.

I am Xiburichu.

I am Mystral.

I am Roimontagne.

I am Pluviteus.

I am Juristimunja.

I am... one.

---

By raising "Summon Elemental" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Summon Elemental (v2)"!

Your elementals have evolved from "Basic Elementals" to "Lesser Elementals"!

You have earned the title "Adept Wizard of the Elements"!

You have unlocked the class "Elementalist v2"!

Well... that was... wow.

I felt my soul inflame with massively increased power. Not only had my elemental affinities increased from +10 to +25, I gained 4 elemental summon charges from the prestige, putting me at a nice even 30, which explained what I saw in my head. Now, just like Incredible Strength, I felt that I was able to surpass my previous limits with ease.

I didn't gain any insight into new elements, sadly, but the power boost I received was enough to make me shudder, not only from the overwhelming power, but also from delight. I checked the new form of the skill, finding it to be nearly identical to the previous version, except I had the boosted numbers. One thing that was a tad odd was that the first version, in the Tier 1 skills folder, was completely grayed out, as if it had evolved into this new skill and there was no going back to those old times.

"Well... you probably just saw that I prestiged Summon Elemental." I chuckled heartily and looked at them all.

Marbel nodded, "A-hah, yeah, and probably everyone in a fifty mile radius. Your Aurora activated and turned rainbow colored."

I let out a small sound of confusion, then realized how bad that may have been. We'd moved at least 100 miles away from the city, but that didn't mean much if I basically sent a massive glowing beacon through the sky.

Sensing my distress, my father spoke up, "The chances that anything was seen are very slim. So... what does it feel like?"

I thrust my arm and launched eight Fireballs in just a second, checking my new title. It was much the same as the previous version, with predictable boosts, only now I could also imbue a skill that already had a single elemental alignment with a secondary one. The new class was just a straight upgrade of the previous version.

-Elementalist v2 (prestige from Basic to Lesser elementals): +15 to ALL Elemental Affinities, +200% APR, -30% AP Cost of elemental skills, +100% Ease of Casting elemental skills.

I grinned, "Oh yeah, things are getting awesome now." I chuckled, moving my hand down.

We all were brought into an ID, and I summoned my elementals once more. With a powerful shine of Aura, I watched them form in the air. Steel, stone, and water each bloomed from their respective cores of light, forming almost from nothing but energy. Stilll, though Crocea used the barrel, Roimontagne used the ground, and while Pluviteus had a harder time with the dry desert air, he used it to help.

Marbel looked up, all the way up at the now towering Roimontagne, and let out a squeak.

Weiss looked questioningly at the hulking form of Pluviteus, tilting her head to the side, "That doesn't look like water on its head and hands."

"It's compressed salt." I answered, looking at my dad about to question Xiburichu's stone-like spikes, "And he has compressed ash."

Blake stood in front of Juristimunja, slightly shaking. She summoned her own elemental, which looked like a rough outline of a large housecat made of lavender lightning. I chuckled, smiling.

My father next looked at Crocea Mors, staring oddly, "Is that the handle wrapping acting as a cape?"

Crocea Mors nodded, "Yes, it is. Expanded by magic to fit the dimensions, of course, but it is." he thrust his hand out and a copy of Crocea the sword jutted out from it, falling into his grasp, "Care for a duel, old friend?"

Him shaking his head was all it took to make me laugh. Honestly, I must have been riding a high, because I was unable to stop smiling and laughing.

One by one, I unsummoned them all except for Roimontagne, saving on my AP. I chuckled, then created a small spot on his back where I could lay and practice what I wished to while he smashed things.

I'd already formed all five dual-element buffs that involved Fire, as well as two that involve Earth and/or Water, but I wanted to get the other ones, see what new powers could be found in the combinations.

Calling out the order that we'd take some time to focus on just skills, I willed the ID to spawn Lizalgrunts at a fairly decent rate, enough to give the others plenty to fight while I developed my buffs.

I had the five fire buffs, which were Heat, Lava, Steam, Plasma, and Forge, and two of the Earth buffs, Clay (or Mud) and Lava had Earth in it. I was currently missing Sand, Crystal, and Ore.

So I focused on them, then the buffs for Metal, then Lightning, then Water, then Air.

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Earth and Air, you have created the skill "Grating Sands"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Earth and Lightning, you have created the skill "Voltaic Crystals"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Earth and Metal, you have created the skill "Bronze Veins"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Metal and Air, you have created the skill "Magical Rust"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Metal and Water, you have created the skill "Arcane Polish"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Metal and Lightning, you have created the skill "Magnetic Amperage"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Lightning and Air, you have created the skill "Thunderous Motion"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Lightning and Water, you have created the skill "Storming Energy"!

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Water and Air, you have created the skill "Frozen Light"!

Air ended up looping back around to Heat, so that took care of itself. I selected a few of the buffs, namely Searing Aura, Voltaic Crystals, Magnetic Amperage, and Storming Energy, because they all granted an APR boost. Just for fun, I also put on Thunderous Motions, completing the set of Lightning buffs.

Applying all six distinctly Lightning-based buffs has granted you the status effect "Blood of the Storm"!

With a grin, I launched myself over a hundred feet into the air, levitating myself twice as easily with my 50% decreased inertia from Thunderous Motions. I grinned and began to fire dozens of spells towards the legions of Ursa. I pushed my aura into the air around myself with Aura infusion, focusing on casting Mana Barrage from it.

Unfortunately, it left holes in the suffused Aura after a few spells, but I noticed its level rocketing upwards. With a grunt, I continued pushing Aura and manifesting spells until a breakthrough came about.

By raising "Mana Barrage" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Magical Bombardment"!

It was... exactly what I wanted. I was now able to, for only 3000 AP per minute, fire spells in midair. I no longer needed my hands, so long as the origin point was within 2 meters of my body.

Experimentally, I willed twenty lightning bolts into existence. They conjured up, taking only a second to cast, before screaming forth with full power. I switched to Fireballs, launching four every second for five seconds, then switched to Wrecking Ball, then Tornado, then Stalagmite Strike, then Crashing Wave, then Energy Orb. It worked for all of them, and that's what made me grin.

I formed a platform of solid air above myself, flipping around and kicking off of it, thundering my way down to the ground where I tackled a newly formed Miraganger. I buffed myself with all of the Earth buffs and literally ripped it to pieces, grinning as its vile ichor was denied getting splattered on my face by a field of telekinesis. It screeched in pain, but I silenced it by ripping its head off.

A quiet laugh bubbled up from my throat, as I kicked off of its dissolving body, flying into the air again. Thunderous Motions allowed me to thrust myself to and fro in the battlefield with greater ease, by not only giving me a Strength boost (but conversely, a Vitality decrease), but also decreasing my inertia by half, doubling the knockback of my physical attacks, and increasing the effectiveness of powered movement.

I laughed a little louder, practically dancing across the battlefield while swinging Crocea Mors and Excalibur, slowly churning out levels for the respective skills they used.

Tonight, was going to be fun.

---

(The next morning, Jaune POV)

To be fair, I was far too caught up in battle to check the time. We'd stayed out far too late and now it was only my father and I awake. He'd explained that after a training exercise like THAT, he probably wouldn't sleep for two days. Really, I didn't blame him.

Still, Luck was on my side in that the girls would have been long-since awake by the time anything started. The results of the training were also pretty fantastic.

Marbel gained 1 point in VIT and 2 in DEX, as well as getting a 'Body Training' bonus that increased her Max HP and SP each by 1000.

Blake gained 2 points in VIT and 1 in WIS, as well as a similar training boost that increased her Max HP and Max SP, but not nearly as much as Marbel.

Weiss gained 3 points in STR, 1 in VIT, as well as 3 CHA for what amounted to 'fitness beauty', and on top of all that, she also received the same 'Body Training' bonus that the other two did, with equal numbers to Marbel.

I noted that my quest to help her now highlighted the line describing her stats before May 1st, and the most she had to do for the next two months was increase her STR, DEX, and CHA. That would be easy.

I ran a hand through my hair, breathing a sigh while focusing back on my meditation. I had, as I planned, temporarily switched my class and title to Monk v4 and The Mountain Monk, humming and meditating for the duration of the flight, then switching back when I sensed we were about to land.

I set up an illusion, have explained to the security team that I'd discovered my semblance was not telekinesis, but rather conjuring, which explained the 'dragons'.

I then ordered a securing of the penthouse while my dad and I did a 'super secret transport' of the lady Schnee and my 'teammates'.

Said transport was going into an ID and walking them there, holding them on a platform of telekinesis while Mystral kept them soundproofed and warm, Roimontagne and Crocea Mors going about wrecking the city around us, the former with his power over stone, and the latter with just his sheer strength. Watching the destruction was almost beautiful, in a way. Then, I ordered them to put the city back together again, watching the property damage almost flow in reverse, stone melding back together, metal frames untwisting and tempering and hardening into place. I eventually found that by just adding a touch of heat with Xiburichu, my levels for the two blacksmith skills shot up like crazy.

By raising "Heat Treatment" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Diamond Alloy"!

By raising "Tempering" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Plastic Alloy"!

Like fucking crazy.

I brought out my combat armor, Crocea the sword, and Candidus Murus, then basically drained my entire AP stock empowering them.

Feeling them heavy in my hand, having added a hundred more pounds of titanium to Crocea Mors and the remains of my stock of White Alloy to Candidus Murus, I smiled, letting a calming haze settle over my mind before it cleared, leaving me feeling stronger.

You have discovered a new ability of the weapon "Crocea Mors"!

You have discovered a new ability of the weapon "Candidus Murus"!

I checked them, smiling as I looked at my reflection on Crocea Mors' blade, finding it to be the older, wild-haired face of the new Crocea the elemental, and found that the new sensation of strength was the two new abilities, Knight's Oath of Sword, and Knight's Oath of Shield.

Sword gave me a 50% Effective STR boost, 25% DEX boost, and 75% VIT boost. At the same time, Shield gave me 25% STR, 50% DEX, and 75% VIT boosts, granting me a total of +75% Effective STR, +75% Effective DEX, and +150% Effective VIT while wielding both.

I sighed softly, feeling a resonance from the two. I'd increased them both to the maximum level of power I could at the moment, which set the offense and defense at 2500 and 2000. If I had better materials, I could do so much more, but I didn't. I needed mithril or adamantium if I wanted to get better than titanium. My desire had been completely renewed after I'd gotten the hihirokane. Before, it had begun to wane as I saw that most drops I'd gotten were fairly normal 'RPG items' to find: weapons, armor, even a couple of potions based on the Grimm's capabilities, but nothing overly spectacular. The rare drops didn't count since they were also armor, but... *sigh* before I'd found the hihirokane, I'd not found anything that didn't make sense.

With a sigh, I let Animakinetic Flow kick in while Mystral kept the girls in peaceful silence, even with the city collapsing from a stampede of Longhorns charging through, getting mowed down by my spells with Magical Bombardment.

Life was... strange, sometimes. At least nobody woke the girls up.

---

(Late that night, Jaune POV)

Jaune W: I swear, babygirl, if that guy makes one more snipe at me, I'm fucking him up. :W

Yang W: Jeez, Jaune, I know the guy's a shit-talker but he isn't worth the effort. :W

Jaune W: When did you start advocating pacifism? :W

Yang W: Oh trust me, if I was you, I'd have already fired and kicked his ass out the door so hard I'd lose a boot up his charred colon, but you kinda have a big deal security team to worry about. Anyways, what was the profit for tonight's show? :W

Jaune W: About 300k, plus Weiss did an interview before the show, so that's a nice little bonus. Tomorrow I've arranged for her to do several advertisements in the capital, then we have the concert, then we move just an hour or two after because we have to be ready in the morning for some interviews and stuff in the next town over. :W

Yang W: Damn, sounds like heavy stuff. You think you can do it? :W

Jaune W: I'm 4 days in and I haven't lost my mind, so I think I'm good for the rest of the tour. :W

Yang W: That's good, I don't want you to come back insane, you might bite me or something. :W

Jaune W: And you're saying you wouldn't like a little love-nibble? Honestly, babygirl, I can't want to see you, and hug you close and feel your body against mine. It's a good deal of what's keeping me going here, another lot of the reason is the money. :W

Yang W: Fortune, women, and fame, sounds like a typical dream. :W

Jaune W: Heh, I'm not looking too much for fame, just money and my woman. I hope you haven't been siphoning my funds. :W

Yang W: No, of course not! And ignore the new shoes! :W

We both burst into laughter at the same time the building next to me burst into flames. I knew she wasn't, just because she wasn't that kind of person. I also knew that the comedy club to my left was made of wood to look more inviting.

Sadly, it now looked like a nightmare, flames roaring inside.

I'd noticed it in Xiburichu's actions, as well as those of Roimontagne, Crocea Mors, and the others.

Not only had the skill grown on two fronts, and my elementals themselves evolved from Basic to Lesser (which implied a 'Normal' and 'Greater' rank), they'd also grown internally, evidenced also by their change in titles and behaviors.

Before, and I'd tried this, I'd told them to go do what they wished. They mostly just hung around me and moved some stuff of their element around. Now, it was clear their 'minds' had expanded to accommodate for some modicum of personality.

Xiburichu seemed to be sadistic, enjoying burning down the comedy club and torching the wooden guts of many buildings we'd gone through. He almost looked like he liked seeing himself in the flames, spreading his power across as much area as possible.

Roimontagne seemed prideful, not only with his stature as the largest elemental, but also with how he seemed to beam as he toppled buildings and collapsed roads. The way he smiled told me that making things able to be seen over was a joy for him.

Crocea Mors seemed challenging, using his fists and blade to break things that got in his way, as well as taking to chopping through Grimm like a hot sword through butter. He let out gonging battlecries as he challenged foes both grimm and imaginary.

Pluviteus, in contrast, seemed as curious about the land as some people were about the ocean, or space. I found him looking into windows, seeing rooms and feeling them out before flooding and destroying them.

Mystral seemed to like gathering things, having pulled rubble and broken wood and even metal scraps and money from a destroyed bank. She especially loved large things as she tried to take whole pieces or furniture or large chunks of walls and floors.

Juristimunja seemed to be at the same time mindless and yet also the most intelligent. I sensed her gleefully fry computers and short-circuit traffic lights. Power lines melted and some structures either burned or burst from the sheer energy being thrown around.

It was kinda nice, letting my elementals go and enjoy a bit of destruction. It had saddened me before that they, who I considered very close friends, had little mind to them, but now they seemed to be discovering themselves. I could tell it wasn't enough to form a full personality, only a fraction of one, but letting them have thoughts and feelings was wonderful.

I almost felt like a dad, or a great big brother.

A great...

I sucked in a sharp breath, the flash of emotion bringing my elementals all rushing back towards me, as if concerned.

I raised a hand and waved it off, "I'm fine, everyone, really. Just a bad memory. Continue."

It was proof of their lack of mentality that they took my words as absolute truth and went back to their previous actions without the slightest hesitation.

Well... it was good for some things, I guess.

Sighing, I telekinetically floated into the air and began bombarding an army of longhorns with my Blast spells. When they'd all leveled by an acceptable amount, I began firing off my Bolts, determined to bring them all to level 99.

By raising "Energy Bolt" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Energy Rocket"!

By raising "Energy Arrow" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Energy Missile"!

By raising "Cannonball" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Missile"!

By raising "Fireball" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Flareball"!

By raising "Water Gun" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Water Pulse"!

By raising "Wind Burst" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Wind Blast"!

By raising "Volt Orb" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Shock Orb"!

By raising "Stone Shot" to level 99, you have earned the skill "Stalactite Shot"!

I grinned, reading the descriptions of the new skills. Energy Rocket accelerated along its flight path, and could reach farther. Energy Missile had a massive range, but didn't seem to have much evolution, but its base damage and number of missiles lowered, thought it had started out with 'Automatic Missiles'. Missile dealt extra damage based on 50% of how much defense was penetrated, so if the enemy had 100 defense, and it penetrated 30 of that, then it would deal an extra 15 damage.

Flareball burnt the area of its explosion for five seconds, dealing extra damage over time. Water Pulse added a DEX debuff, presumably from the shocking force of its impact. Wind Blast seemed to be a straight growth, though I could tell it was significantly stronger. Shock Orb's DEX debuff would double in power if the enemy's VIT was below a certain threshold, which was currently 50. Stalactite Shot had a 50% chance to launch two shots instead of one.

Coming off of them, I switched to my Shots, power-leveling them for a while, until I grew bored entirely.

With a groan, I called my elementals back after they'd cleared the final wave of Grimm, and drew my hands together, "I'm going to try combining you guys, okay?" I explained briefly, getting a chorus of approval before moving in several patterns.

Crocea Mors jumped high and sunk into Roimontagne's skin, several pulses of magic causing him to become less whole as he became a bit more squat, and dozens of iron, lead, and nickel spikes jutted out from his skin, forming protective armor, sharp claws, and even large teeth. Xiburichu then flew down his mouth, and fire poured from every crack and orifice he had, forming a glowing red-hot giant that held a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other, uniformly-arranged cobblestone acting as armor in some places. Just like with my other skills, some of the elemental combinations were simply growths rather than metamorphoses, which is why Forgero was a 'super forge' elemental, and why Qing was a thunderstorm elemental.

Speaking of, the now more massive ice dragon that formed seemed to be colored with both the faint azure of the opaque ice, and the occasional purple or yellow-tinted scale dotted around, as well as the golden underbelly. Pluvistral roared out a cloud of thick frost, before Juristimunja conducted herself along it and into the dragon's mouth. The scales suddenly caught fire for a brief moment, while the body broke into pieces. However, whereas before the lightning acted entirely as the joints and the shape of the dragon was mostly lost, at least half of the scales seemed to retain their shape and lightning acted as the sinew and tendons that acted between the joints. Her eyes blazed with lightning and the rage of the thunderstorm, and a mist of condensed vapors formed around her.

With a pair of motions, I split one piece off of both of them, leaving the isolated Xiburichu and Pluviteus, then switched them over.

Suddenly, Crocea Montagne began to tear open, the wounds pouring out water, until his form lost solidity and rearranged into a golem of clay, with metal plates forming over his body as armor, thick and strong and marked with clay runes, wielding a massive shield over half as tall as he was, and a scaled-up hanbo staff of all things, replacing the thick iron rod he'd used before. Taking on a ruddy hue as his power solidified, he stood between me and a trio of deathstalkers, as well as pair of owanshees.

He moved almost automatically, three minds forming into something new. He swung his massive staff low and simply batted the deathstalkers aside, then raised his shield high. A sheet of purple magic projected outwards, blocking the swooping maneuver of the owanshees before he simply batted them down out of the sky, notably making sure they were away from me.

Meanwhile, at my back, I felt a painful heat begin to pour off of the other combination. I turned the watch the process.

Thunder, Heat, Plasma, three powers compressing into one, not just the constituent parts of Air, Fire, and Lightning. A faint, dragon-shaped cloud of azure light formed, marked with the occasional arc of lightning or flash of fire. An invisible wave of air distortion struck me as I removed my clothing, laying myself bare.

I felt the heat, unbearable heat, heat on the lowest level, seeing a faint hue of light blue in the air. Then, suddenly, I felt my blood boiling in my veins and my muscles being cooked, and my skin began to redden, blister, and peel away, boiled blood leaving with frothy, excited bubbles.

WARNING! Gamer's Body is being taxed! If overcome, you will receive the following status effects: Skin Cancer.

Heh, well, I called off the attack, not wanting to damage myself too deeply. I suddenly felt the cold sting of Granlero's power of Protection heal the damage, my blood cooling, my proteins renaturing, my skin flaking off as new skin formed within seconds. My body was fully restored in a total of six seconds, and I focused on Granlero's power, willing it to enhance my body.

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Metal, Earth, and Water, you have created the skill "Guardian's Vigor"!

Smiling, I split them up again, then switched Roimontagne and Mystral's places.

Suddenly, Crocea Pluvis' form, which was previously an offensively shiny male silhouette, filled with green energy. Noxious fumes escaped a perfect spiderweb of cracks as his skin shifted into a slender, four-legged, four-armed humanoid. Steel chitin plates covered with tiny spines formed over the surface, and six almost melted-through eyes and a fang-filled mouth tore open and leaked green fluid. A segmented tail ending with a wicked spike shot out from his backside, and his four hands formed six fingers tipped with thin, knife-like claws. Tokyrus, my Poison elemental, screeched like a whistle, droplets of toxic green fluid flying from his mouth.

It reached out and picked up a flailing Cavaliscera, and I watched as its struggles grew weaker as patches of green formed on its skin, until it slumped down lifelessly, dissolving into smoke.

Crocea Mors strength, Pluviteus' curiosity, and Mystral's greed, they'd combined in a rather poor way to make Tokyrus, lacking a lot of mental functions and bent on destruction.

On the other side, thick formations of tempered quartz formed two feet, and clear topaz formed legs, arms, and a torso, all reminiscent of Roimontagne's new form, but a foot shorter. Angular sheets of deep blue, tempered sapphire formed a relatively thin, but durable armor over his body. His head formed from yellow topaz with onyx framed goggles that had emerald and diamond lenses, and a sort of 'hair' formed from squirming wisps of fire. Buzzing gouts of flame marked his joints and surrounded his fists as they formed from clear diamonds. Saprumerc, as I'd called him, lashed out with quickness and punched a hole in one of the nearby buildings that hadn't been toppled by Roimontagne's careless destruction driven by a desire to be the tallest thing, or Crocea Mors' ever-challenging spirit.

He suddenly started walking, then went to running, then sprinting, and finally he leaped into the sky and clotheslined a giant nevermore, breaking its wings with a karate chop and sending it plummeting into the ground.

Tokyrus on the other hand was content with taking down Ursas, Boarbatusks, and other various medium-sized Grimm with just his claw slashes and potent poison.

Humming, I pulled out the Poison dust crystal I'd gotten in Cinder's offer long ago, and focused my Aura into it, casting Soulforge Restoration and memorizing the pattern. Just like with casting spells and combining the elements, understanding the combined patterns of mana that made the elements grew exponentially. Combining two elements had been four times more difficult than casting one, and combining three elements was nine times more difficult than THAT. Still, though, I managed it.

By weaving the elements together and enhancing yourself with Metal, Air, and Water, you have created the skill "Aura Stain"!

I looked at the skill, and realized what it meant. I was able to make 'marks' with my aura, in fact the skill actually described that it was like an ink. It seemed so insignificant, especially since it had a base power of 1%, but it could be overcharged with Aurora, and could be used...

Humming, I brought to mind my last school report, which seemed like it was years ago when it was actually barely five weeks ago. Sighing heavily at the memory, I brought out a blank piece of paper and held my hand over it.

Like magic, in fact quite literally with magic, the words appeared on the paper in a dark azure color.

Grinning at the implications, I began throwing liquefied Aura everywhere, painting the area with dulled light.

I unsummoned my elementals, watching the steel and crystal frames of their bodies disintegrate into nothingness. When they were gone, I began running through the city, launching my new Flareball spell and watching the flames turn to liquid and stain the area in red-colored liquid aura. Blue colored the spatters of several Water Pulses, while Stalactite shot melted into orange and brown. A spectrum of green marked where Wind Blast hit, followed by rubble and purple spraying out from the impact point of a Missile. Shock Orb left a smoking patch of dark yellow. Energy Rocket burst with high velocity impact, and I saw Energy Missile also burst on impact, though it was rather small even when compared to the lower levels of Energy Bolt.

Still, they all dealt significant damage, and I was leaving a trail of various shades of azure and yellow from applying it to Azure Dragon of the East. It was... well, it was certainly keeping up with my insane Aura regeneration, painting the city with Aura Stains, especially with how expensive the skill was.

-/\-

Azure Dragon of the East (Active) Level: 6, Exp: 23.55%, Cost: 5000 AP
The penultimate technique created by Qing Long. With the various shapes of a dragon inscribed into his soul, he was able to use this power to connect all of the pieces into a glorious whole, unleashing his soul as a force of massive power and compensation, the strong ethereal body inside being evoked to protect the frail physical body outside.

When active, Three Claws, Teardrop Scales, Sweeping Stride and Winged Flight are automatically activated at no extra cost.
When active, Chilly Breath, Scathing Eyes, and Shocking Steps may be cast freely.
When active, Chilled Armament may be cast at no cost, or create a weapon of the user's choice at the cost of 5 AP per gram of ice.

Increases Max HP by 30% when active. (25)
Increases Effective VIT by 53% when active. (50)
Increases Effective INT by 55% when active. (50)
Increases Effective WIS by 55% when active. (50)
Costs an additional 24,500 AP every 10 seconds. (25,000)

-/\-

I was hardly able to keep it up, only by dialing back some of my other skills to base level, especially since AD of the East cost me 147k AP every minute, and my current limit was actually a bit over 200k, nearly 225k with Magic Knight equipped. Given that I'd been running all my Ki Skills at 10x power constantly, costing me 60k per minute, I was... well, it was certainly an issue with something like THIS running.

Still, I was able to spread Ice-aligned and Lightning-aligned Aura all over the road.

When I reached the city wall, I stopped, dropping AD of the East and instead having Roimontagne create a pillar of stone under my feet. Standing steady on top of it, I raised myself up to an altitude where I could see the entire city.

I saw legions of Beowolves, Ursa, Cavaliscera, and Longhorns all charging towards my pillar, running over where my Aura Stains lay thick and heavy on the road.

I paused for dramatic effect, then snapped my fingers.

At my will, the Aura Stains all activated, raw aura bursting forth with force and energy, Earth creating spikes of stone, Fire creating plumes of flames, Water creating powerful sprays, Air creating powerful updrafts, Metal shooting out shrapnel, Ice creating entrapping crystals, Lightning shocking any who happened to be nearby.

The stragglers soon found their end at the hands, or rather the lasers, of a dozen Gaster Blasters that chased them down. Grinning, I leaped into the air and came down fist-first, drilling my way through the stone pillar until I reached the ground.

Gaster Blaster's level increased by 1!

Physical Resistance's level increased by 1!

It was a good night.

---

(The next evening, Jaune POV)

It was not a good night.

"I swear, with how you've been so fucking flippant and ignorant of the way things are done, I'm surprised we haven't found Miss Schnee choking to death on her own goddamn blood thus far!" the second-in-command was chewing me out because they caught Weiss, Blake, Marbel, and I sharing a drink in her dressing room, and I took the blame. Really, she'd wanted to make a toast to friendship, and who was I to deny something like that? "Seriously, if she showed up drunk on stage then do you know the kind of PR backlash that would cause? No, of COURSE you fucking don't! I swear you Hunters are all the same, you just throw your weight around and don't give a shit about who's affected by your actions! Back when I-"

I stood up, towering over him even though we were nearly the same height, "Nobody, not just me, but nobody here gives a single fraction of a shit about when you were a lil boy going about begging your mommy and daddy for coins to go squander on candy and toys! It doesn't matter what happened 'back when' you were ANYTHING! What matters is that we do our fucking jobs which, to be frank, I've been doing five times more than you have, and you've been ignoring in favor of getting on my case every five fucking seconds!" I squared my shoulders, "Now the way I, as the manager and head of security of this whole operation, see it, you have two options: You stand down and calm your whiny titty-baby bitching and moaning about how I'm working a higher position than you at half your age, or you keep getting on my nerves and I give you a going-away gift of an all-expense paid trip to the fucking hospital!"

He flinched, big mistake, "You wouldn't dare! You wouldn't dare you little pu-" he was cut off as my open palm rocketed across his face, cracking his jaw and sending him to the floor.

"I wouldn't WHAT, Dillan? I wouldn't dare FUCKING WHAT?" I stood over him, waiting for him to make a move. I'd used his actual name on purpose, to emphasize how serious I was.

He laid there cradling his jaw, "You wouldn't dare fuck with someone who could ruin you like I can."

I chuckled, "Ruin me, eh? Ruin me? Are you so fucking STUPID that you're actually threatening a man who can beat your head in so hard you forget what your own fucking name is! Then I'll call you fucking Jeeves all the live-long day!" I was red in the face, I could tell from the heat building in my ears, "Do you want that, jackass?" I picked him up by the collar roughly, making sure to jostle and shake him around a little, "You fucking want that?"

He spit in my face, "Fuck off you meat-headed asshole."

I sincerely contemplated crushing his face in my fist, but settled on looking at the head communications officer, who was standing to speak, "I know what to do, don't worry." I threw Dillan against the wall hard enough to send waves of pain through him, "You're fucking fired, hand over your headset, pack your shit, and go the fuck home you ignorant, self-righteous jackass."

"You fucking hypocrite..." he reached up and pulled off his microphone and tossed it at me, stumbling past me, "Fucking going to kill a man for pointing out your mistakes, piece of shit, fuck you and fuck all the rest of you too!" he pushed through the door and stumbled away.

I shook my head, "Calling me a hypocrite is ignorant too. Not even going to ask for context to the scene before shouting at me." I looked at the others, who looked like they were relieved that Dillan was gone, "For everyone's information, we weren't getting drunk right before the show, we were sharing a toast of friendship."

The head communications officer got a slight smile, "That's nice." he turned away from his scroll to look at me, "You know, you held back a great deal. If I were you, I'd throw the prick on the ground and punch his face in for being a constant annoyance." he rolled his eyes, "Worked with the guy for a year and never knew he was so insecure with himself he'd resort to rampant bitching when he didn't get designated like the old boss would'a done. At least you knocked him down a peg, maybe."

"Maybe. Thanks, Rudy." I pat the man on the shoulder, "Alright, we've dealt with the problem, people, so let's get back to work! Now that that bastard isn't distracting us anymore, we might actually get something done." I shared a hearty laugh with a couple of people, most of the others only gave a slight chuckle before slipping back into work mode.

I sighed and watched the screens, as well as focusing and seeing through Schwarza's eyes, which now allowed me to see things normally by simply adjusting her vision to the visible light spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. I was learning a lot about science through my elementals, much to my surprise, and it was kinda fun, since I was able to use these things to my advantage.

Well... even in a massive crowd, and I mean MASSIVE, I found it not too difficult to locate the White Fang... when having the ability to look anywhere and pick out individuals, as well as having my Gamer's Sight, it was pretty easy to do it.

Lima Temvun
Title: Toxic Sounds sicken the Mind
Level: 71

Lucen Mirros
Title: There are worlds up above, there are worlds inside
Level: 86

Greyna Vakanz
Title: From nowhere comes the Storm
Level: 75

Nayro Skyus
Title: A Shooting Star leaping through the Sky.
Level: 69

Xavia Fargrad
Title: Scathing Eyes stronger than Stone
Level: 72

Navio Warchester
Title: A Blue Streak staining with Red
Level: 82

Jade Halberry
Title: Through Wind and Rain and Snow, He finds them
Level: 78

Aeron Black
Title: Abandoned in his own Devices
Level: 68

Kroma Black
Title: Lost in Incandescent Radiance
Level: 78

Nai'Lan Black
Title: Guarded by Unbreaking Will
Level: 74

Prasino Monatas
Title: Standing in Ashes, Speaking to Ghosts.
Level: 78

Naranja Tamas
Title: The Sun-bleached Grin that Hunts through the Night.
Level: 92

The entirety of the Vacuan White Fang was present. Were they going to attack during the fucking concert? Seeing through their illusions, I sensed no weapons or armor, though Nai'Lan's semblance could harden and reinforce certain materials to be stronger than steel, and despite their assorted, random, unorganized, casual outfits, each of them had high-quality materials in their clothing and with just half her AP, Nai'Lan could essentially armor them all enough to block blades and bullets.

I checked into Aeron, Kroma, and Nai'Lan's last names, since I found it odd that three people with such a name existed in such close proximity. The story was rather simple: They had no names, so the government gave them a standard one. Black, to signify their past was shrouded in mystery. The names had stuck because none of them really cared to change them.

Nayro and Lima had gained a couple levels between them in the past couple of days. Nayro was a tad physically weak compared to the others, but had strong jumping capabilities, and it was easily explained since she was the youngest among them, and the most recent addition. Still, despite that, she was solidly built, and could definitely take a few hits.

Xavia had broken a milestone in her own capabilities, resulting in a level. It seems they were all fresh out of training for 'the big day'. I sighed and excused myself to the bathroom, slipping into invisibility once I was out in the empty hallway.

I pulled out Adam's scroll and checked the messages, finding two new ones.

Naranja: Hey bossman! We're all ready for tonight. We're going to hit that Schnee bitch when she least expects it! You still investigating or are you done and going to leave now? Is it too much to ask you to join us?

(Unknown Number): I was informed of this number through your lieutenant. I plan on staying in touch to pass on orders, am I understood? -C

Sighing, I rapidly tapped out replies, noting that the third message had come ten hours ago.

Adam: I'm done with my investigation, and I'm not risking myself like you are with fighting those damned Hunters. I hope you're ready for the fights of your lives.

Naranja: We are, sir. Even if it kills us, killing the Schnee Heiress will be a huge blow to the SDC

I sighed again. These people... they were truly willing to die for their cause. That... was almost respectable. I had no desire to let them see their cause through, but they'd come to pass on with their ancestors able to say 'they did their best, were brave, and fought for what they believed in'.

Adam: Right. I've been investigating the new head of security. He's a powerful telekinetic, he could take on four of you with ease.

Naranja: Let's see. 1.5 each, that's 4.5 from the Schnee bitch, the faunus traitor, and the little brunette. The Huntsman could probably take on 3 of us, that's 7.5, and the blonde boy takes on 4, that's 11.5 There's twelve of us, so one of us will make it out at least halfway alive. We have little room for error, but we'll make you and all of the White Fang proud, bossman.

Adam: It would make me prouder if you waited until she wasn't so guarded. Charging in like a blind fool is just going to kill you all.

Naranja: That's a risk I'm willing to take, boss. Anything for the cause, am I right?

I sighed yet again. This was a bit ridiculous. I couldn't just tell them to stop, because that isn't what Adam would do, he'd want them to kill Weiss no matter what, even if it meant their deaths, but I was trying to play things a little softer.

Adam: You're right. Fine then, proceed. I was just concerned. I told Sierra that she wasn't allowed to turn over any corpses this week. It would damage our reputation in Mistral even further. We don't need to lose our foothold because of stupid mistakes.

Naranja: Ah, you've finally grown a bit more of a brain, boss. Glad for that! Don't worry, we've trained hard. Even if they're as strong as you say, I'm sure we'll work out a way to deal with them. They don't even know we're coming, so we'll probably get 1 or 2 survivors out of having the element of surprise.

Adam: Right, I nearly forgot about that. Still, be careful, Jaune Arc is very skilled, as is his father. If you don't focus on taking them down first then you'll never get to Schnee. Really, I suggest you bide your time, continue training, and wait for a better opportunity.

Naranja: I...
Naranja: No, you know what? You're right, sir. We should wait until later. You're sure that the blonde guy is able to take down 4 of us?

Adam: I don't think I would be able to take him on in a one on one matchup.

Naranja: Damn. Alright, sir, we'll pull back. It will be a major loss, not getting a chance to execute Schnee.

Adam: I know it will. Trust me, I want her dead even more than you do, but we can't throw our lives away like that when they'd be better spent getting stronger so we can destroy our enemies.

Naranja: Understood, sir. I'll make sure the others get the message.

I breathed a sigh of relief, content that I'd saved everyone's lives. Honestly, Naranja didn't seem like an overly bad guy. He was disciplined and professional, but he was directing his energy towards a bad cause. The others were groomed for duty, but... it was sad, almost.

I didn't count on the girls' abilities to simply overpower their enemies, which already didn't work on several types Grimm, would work on these thinking, trained, Aura-wielding, semblance-having soldiers. I sighed again, waiting for them to all leave. One by one, they randomly found excuses to leave, leaving after random intervals of time from the last person, between thirty seconds and five minutes.

The first person to leave was Lima, followed by Greyna. I caught the info on the others' semblances and faunus types. Jade was a wolf faunus who could see trails of Aura. It was with a different frequency and degree of ability as Prasino, as the latter could read what the marks left behind, while the former could see the marks with extreme precision. Therefore, technically, if he'd been the one to scan the room from a couple nights ago, he'd find thick layers of my Aura residue, and under that would be what the others left behind. Jade also had skills pertaining to using clawed weapons.

Aeron seemed to be able to manipulate machinery with heat or radiation, I wasn't entirely sure until I read that he can receive radio signals through his aura. He seemed to be skilled in setting up traps too, so that was something to watch out for.

Kroma had the ability to form extremely intense flames that were incorporated into what her skills suggested to be a sniper spear, given her power of Aura Suffusion, oddly enough, as well as Weapon Channeling. For me, that ability was just classified under a general Aura Channeling skill, so that wasn't too weird.

Nai'Lan I'd already scanned and found her able to reinforce and harden materials. Apparently, she was able to incorporate that into a warhammer that was also able to act as a scythe, given the proportions of the two skills.

Prasino's weapon besides telekinesis appeared to be twin swords, given his skill in a Dual Wielding martial arts style and his sword proficiency.

Honestly, though, if it came down to a fight between telekinetic swordsmen, I think I'd win that fight, especially with three skills I'd developed last night.

-/\-

Invisibility (Active) Level: 10, Exp: 24.56%, Cost: 8910
A skill combining the powers of three elements into an incredibly more powerful effect. By combining Metal, Earth, and Lightning, and attuning the power to Electromagnetism, you are able to create a protective field that bends visible light around you.

Become invisible.
Aura's glow may still be visible.
Duration: 31 minutes

-/\-

Enhanced Weight (Active) Level: 4, Exp: 24.56%, Cost: 8970
A skill combining the powers of three elements into an incredibly more powerful effect. By combining Metal, Earth, and Lightning, and attuning the power to Gravity, you are able to increase your personal gravity to make yourself heavier.

Your weight increases by 18 lbs.
Increases Effective STR by 14% to compensate.
Increases Effective VIT by 25% to compensate.
Duration: 30 minutes.

-/\-

Blinking (Active) Level: 6, Exp: 24.56%, Cost: 8950
A skill combining the powers of three elements into an incredibly more powerful effect. By combining Metal, Earth, and Lightning, and attuning the power to Dimension, you are able to render yourself not completely whole in one completely shaped volume.

Alters your physical appearance with flashing after-images and other visually distorting effects.
Grants space-distorting evasion against attacks.
You are unable to be hit 21% of the time, unless incoming attacks are made with Lightning, Magnetic, or sufficiently massive weapons.
Melee attacks you deal have a 49% chance to miss due to your ethereality.
Reduces effective VIT by 48%
Duration: 30 minutes

-/\

It had taken significant additional leveling of Mana Sketch, but I'd managed it and was able to manipulate the ratios of elements to allow my Gravity/Electromagnetism elemental to have power over dimensions, which made it easier to cast Illusion Dimension. It wasn't exactly based on the four dimensions of length, width, depth, and time, but rather on locations in space, as I found it also helped ease the casting of Teleport.

After nearly twenty minutes, they'd all left except for Naranja, who still sat there. I watched his expression shift slightly, watching Weiss. I silently urged him to leave, 'Please, just leave, it's not worth it. Just go! Leave! LEAVE! RUN FOR YOUR FUCKING LIFE YOU IDIOT!'

He set down his popcorn, which I STILL questioned where he got every single night, stood up, and made to leave. I sighed in relief, "Well, looks like the coast is clear."

Grant nodded, "Yeah. No suspicious individuals as far as our floor watchers have seen. Sad to see some people leaving the show early, but we already got their money, so it's only a shame for them." he chuckled, "So uh... hey boss, seeing as you've fired the old second-in-command, that position is open now, right?"

I glanced at him, "Prove you're capable and I may consider promoting you. Bribing me won't work, nor will favoritism." I grunted lightly, "Keep in mind that the promotion will make your job harder, not easier."

He nodded, "Understood, sir." turning away, he walked back to his station.

I sighed yet again, a sound that I was sure could now be counted as a significant part of my vocabulary, and went back to watching everything, calling Schwarza back to me, as well as reverting to her spiritual form.

Well, we still had a job to do, even if we'd be doing nothing.

Sitting in a chair of telekinetic force, I focused on the monitors and anything that might pop up on them.

Listening to the music, and watching the screens, I felt confident we'd get through this without any problems.

---

(Five or so minutes later, Naranja's POV)

I groaned. Dammit, the boss was right. We might have our semblances and training, but compared to the power of Hunters, and especially a telekinetic? Even if I sent Prasino after him, that battle would probably cause a lot of collateral.

I'd caught sight of the blonde kid, and not only was he jacked, he had very wise and attentive eyes. To say he was probably wise beyond his years was about the same as saying that the desert was probably lacking in vegetation.

Sure, there were cacti, sandweeds, and the occasional patches of grass and fruiting trees around oases, but for 95-99% of the time, you were absolutely right.

I sent a message to the others that I'd get a drink, ordering Lucen and Navio to accompany me.

With effortless ease, we all ended up on the same path, the distances between us closing every second by our varies paces. They'd both already switched clothes and makeup, allowing Lucen to disguise myself and our faces with much greater ease. No use straining his Aura levels unnecessarily when we were able to plant hidden caches all over the city.

We'd worked in this kingdom for years, myself for over twelve, already being part of a stealthy cell before. There was plenty of time when you were strong enough to bypass normal time-eating methods. I've been able to jump to the roof of a two-story building for nearly nine years now.

I pushed open the door to the bar, I did a scan of the room with my semblance and a cough. Doors to the bathrooms on the far wall, windows on the right wall made of only glass, left wall had metal bars on the other side, not wide enough to squeeze through quick enough. Right wall windows easily within jumping height. The grid of support beams in the room weren't thick enough to protect the full body, but enough to cover the head and spine if you keep still enough.

Lucen had already walked towards a booth on the right side of the tavern, while Navio took a seat at a table with a pair of ladies, and started the chat them up, keeping one hand on his comm receiver. I walked towards the bar, a big dumb smile on my face.

I sat down on a barstool one seat away from the nearest patron, "Excuse me, good sir, can I get an Amaryllis Nectar? Shaken, please." I smiled at him as he poured the liquid into the tumbler, shook it, and poured it into a wine glass. I looked to my left, seeing the haggard, suited man to my side. I could smell his angry heat and stressed sweat. I raised my glass to him, "Hey, buddy." I caught his attention, "A toast to shitty jobs. May they drive us to drink more." I chuckled.

He looked at me with a slightly glazed expression, then smiled half-heartedly and clinked his glass against mine, "Heh, I hear that, bud." he took a long swig of his glass of what I could smell was a weak gin and tonic, "Fucking prick of a boss fired me." he groaned as the alcohol burned a trail down his throat.

I sighed, "Damn, sounds shitty, man. You wanna talk about it? The name's Cyril by the way, what's yours?"

He looked at my fully, scanning my face a couple of times, "Yeah, I need someone to rant to about that childish bastard. The name's Dillan, nice'ta meet you." he held out his hand for a handshake.

I suppressed my delight, "Nice to meet you, Dillan. I'm all ears, man, tell me about it." I looked at the bartender, "Hey, bartender, another gin and tonic for my friend here." I put a hand on his shoulder, lifting my other arm up and pointing a finger towards his head.

Well... hacking and observation and dossiers were fantastic and all, but nothing really beat true insider knowledge.

---

(Hours later, Jaune POV)

I meditated, focusing on the airship as we took off. Crocea Mors stood across from me, doing the same. Whereas before, doing this felt like I had a 'grasp' equal to about a thousand magical fingers, it now felt like two and half thousand with the same level of effort put in. I had a far better grasp over my own power, thanks to helping my friends grow.

With a grunt, I let it go, then focused on Xiburichu and the flames used to keep the ship afloat (along with the flapping of its wings). I switched back to Crocea Mors again, feeling out the ship again, judging its weight, moving it up an inch, then down an inch, though the effort needed to do that was a little extreme.

I unsummoned Crocea Mors after I'd gotten the next level in Summon Elemental v2, grunting and focusing on the sky.

I could barely keep meditation going while making small hand gestures, so when I'd gotten a message on my scroll, I just dropped it, opening my eyes and pulling out my scroll while my dad walked in. I was about to look at him, when I noticed the name on the message.

"Hey son, we should probably call lights ou-"

"Hold on, dad. I need to see this." I opened the message, and I felt my blood run cold from the surge of fear and panic that ran through me.

Naranja: Hey boss! Listen, I know you said not to attack the Schnee, but we found out some amazing info! The second-in-command got fired early on in the concert, and I found him when I went to get a few bevs.
Naranja: All I had to do was water him up some more and his lips got looser than Shade's dress code! Turns out, the leader of the security isn't a Huntsman like we thought, but just a Huntsman-in-training, like his two lady-friends. Not only that, but he's not a telekinetic, he's a conjurer! And an idiot who thinks strength is the answer to everything.
Naranja: I think Prasino will be able to deal with that if it comes up, but not only that, something even better! The ENTIRE security team travels on a different ship from the Schnee bitch!
Naranja: I know you said to wait for a better opportunity, but this is technically already a better opportunity! We're about to take off and intercept the bitch's ship. We should be able to get in, take her out, and get out before anyone on the other ship can even get close enough to try to maneuver onto the ship!
Naranja: If on the off chance one of us dies tonight, then please know that it was an honor to serve in the White Fang under you, sir.

He had then sent a picture of himself in a helmet, saluting to the camera.

"Fuck. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!" I looked out the window. We were maybe only a couple of miles away from the city, and I could see with faunus nightvision a dozen flying motorcycle-shaped contraptions all headed for the other ship, "Dad, the Vacuan White Fang are currently flying towards Weiss' ship." was all I had to say.

I grabbed his shoulder and teleported several times, forcing Aura Suffusion to move quickly enough to allow me to grab everyone and teleport to the other ship.

Weiss jumped in surprise as we appeared in her room, and she covered her bare chest.

I looked away, "Marbel, stick by Weiss. Weiss, the Vacuan White Fang is fast approaching the ship, get dressed and get ready to fight. They're here for you and you alone, so stay safe. Blake, you need to stealth through the hallways. Avoid Xavia Fargrad, Jade Halberry, Prasino Monatas, and their leader Naranja Tamas. They each have ways to bypass your stealth."

I turned to Marbel, "Marbel, you and Weiss need to move if someone finds you. Be wary of Kroma Black and Aeron Black. The former can create incredibly power flames, the latter can manipulate machinery."

I looked at my dad, "Dad, you're in charge of finding their two illusionists. Lima Temvun can induce hallucinations with sound. I'm counting on the Arc's strong mind to do you well. Lucen Mirros can create highly detailed illusions. If you see someone who looks like me, but isn't glowing cyan, then just kill them, because it's not me. Blake will be keeping on the ceiling, so that's how you'll know it's her... if anyone looks like you, then beat the shit out of them for being that fucking stupid." I nodded and smiled, "Use the party chat for any and all communications, okay? We don't need to give them any chances to get the drop on us. Be quick and use any advantage you have, they're all extremely skilled, they've been training day-in-day-out for a number of years now. They have incredible reflexes, weapon proficiency, and pain tolerance, so be careful, alright?"

Blake sighed, "Well, this won't be very easy, will it?"

I shook my head, "No, but then again it's easier than it should be, since we're anticipating it. We should move quickly, we probably have less than a minute before they reach the first line of defense."

Everyone nodded, and my dad and Blake both quickly made their way to more strategic positions in the ship. I drew Crocea Mors and engaged Blinking, and was about to leave when Marbel spoke up.

"Wait, Jaune! Two things: Is that Blinking?" she pointed at my jittering and warping physical appearance.

I nodded, "Yeah, it is." I glanced back at her, seeing her and Weiss now in their combat clothing, "What was the second thing?"

She coughed lightly, "You said first line of defense? What is that?"

I smiled broadly, "Oh, just a knight and a beast." I chuckled and made my way out of the room and towards the center of the ship.

I ignored Marbel's call for more answers and shut the door telekinetically.

---

(A minute later, outside the airship, at the rear, Third Person POV)

Naranja nodded to Aeron, the gesture almost lost as the wind whipped at their eyes, "Do it!" he called out over the tiny tempest forming in the wake of the airship's path.

Aeron nodded back, his aura glowing a bright electronic green and yellow, and they all watched as he willed the port door to open by activating the lock release. After the cabin pressure was balanced, they were allowed them to enter. Parking their sky bikes and activating the compression mechanisms that reduced their size to about a fourth of normal, they checked their weapons once more, locked and loaded, secured their bikes down, and made to proceed, with Aeron taking point.

Suddenly, though, the cargo door closed behind them despite nobody pressing the button for it. Suspicious, they aimed towards the door that led deeper into the ship. Surprisingly, something broke a hole in the ceiling, landing with a very loud clank of metal on metal and sending up a light cloud dust everywhere.

Waving it away with one hand, Prasino hissed, a few scales flaring out on his neck as he looked at the counter-intruder, "Who are YOU~?" he demanded in a demented voice.

The man stood up, brushing himself off. He had tan skin and bright golden hair, with cobalt eyes full of a challenging spirit. He wore gold-colored armor marked with what looked like runes or something, blue underarmor visible where the plates didn't cover. What seemed stupidly impractical, however, was his long cape, blue on the inside, white on the outside. He grinned at all of them, and something seemed off about his pearlescent white teeth shining in the light, "Well, hello there villains. It seems you've come aboard our ship without permission." he reached to his hip and drew out a fancy sword and a heater shield with a reinforced rim and that odd double-crescent symbol on that Jaune Arc's chestplate.

Xavia stepped forwards, "Stand aside, you annoying knight, we're here for the Schnee, and you're outnumbered twelve to one."

The knight made a show of counting all of them, then grinned, "Actually, I believe it's twelve to two, or six to one."

Navio spat on the floor, "Fuck you! I'm already tired of this bullshit!" he lunged forwards, activating his semblance.

However, before he could reach the knight, all of the lights in the cargo bay simultaneously exploded into a massive shower of electrical sparks, which all zipped towards a single point. Quick as lightning, long bars of electricity formed and branched and flared out and formed a horrendous figure of what looked like to be a draconic skeleton.

Navio was hit with a powerful zap of lightning and his collapsed body skidded along the ground and out of the room through the open door, which then closed again.

The knight grinned, brandishing his sword and using it to point at the eleven soldiers, "Well, that makes eleven to two, then."

The group spaced out slightly, ready to unload their ranged attacks at the mysterious and seemingly cocky knight.

Crocea Mors only grinned, looking at the soldiers with nothing but confidence, "So..."

Juristimunja roared and left to go make sure Navio couldn't overwhelm the others with his extreme speed. Left alone, Crocea only smiled wider.

"... who's up next?"

---

Oh boy! Damn, man, I wasn't planning on wasting the time I did on this. I seriously need to train myself to be more disciplined, or at least more focused and prioritizing.

Damn, this was quite the chapter! I wasn't planning on it being THIS long, it just kinda happened. At least it's all fairly good, I hope. I've written a lot of this chapter late in the night/early in the morning, so it's probably not the best in the world.

Please leave a review telling me what you thought. As always, I'll answer questions in the next chapter just like I did my best to do this chapter.

We didn't do the entirety of the Vacuan leg of Weiss' music tour, but honestly this chapter needed to have certain information present, and after I realized about halfway in that I wasn't going to fit ALL of that into this chapter, so... yeah.

Next chapter will finish up Vacuo, have a bit of Vale, and get them moving to Mistral, if all goes well.

I'm on spring break, so I'll at least have a chance to get a ton of that chapter done really fast, so yaaaay~! ^w^

I hope you all had a good read, now please enjoy this omake... actually, I've got an idea.

From now on, I'll sprinkle in plausible story stuff on the omakes. Normal nonsense and impossible stuff will be called Omakes, but this new brand of plausible things will be marked as DLC.

---

DLC: A Knight is not Our Name.

---

(One week after the events of this chapter, Jaune POV)

Honestly, for all that Mistral claimed to be a bastion of culture and creativity, the current town we were in was a massive disappointment.

It was just called 'Nice'.

And it looked like the last three towns.

Like... what the fuck, Mistral?

Currently, we were on the border of the Paris and Rome regions, just enjoying a little time off while my dad guarded Weiss during our promotional deals to rake in more cash. It was beautiful, as Mistral usually was. Not a lot of industry was present, so the sky was very clear and clean.

I had my hands in my pockets, wearing my full garb- cape, armor, and all -as I just took a casual stroll, thankful for the relief in duty for a little while. I hadn't had many daylight hours to myself in the past week, so this was a welcome opportunity.

I sensed something as I turned down a less populated street, however. Something ominous, something that felt like I was being watched. I slowed my pace and the feeling didn't pass. How was something evading the direction of my Sense Danger?

I felt out with Mystral, sensing a person in a nearby alleyway. I pulled her back and cast Invisibility on myself, crossing where the alleyway intersected with the street.

What I wasn't expecting was a large hook to reach out and yank me into the alleyway. I went down, but fell into a roll, flipping back onto my feet and reaching for my sword and shield.

The man was even faster than me, pinning me against the wall with his arm on my neck, nearly knocking my breath out and breaking Ki Breathing. I looked at him with anger as he snarled at me quietly.

"What exactly are you trying to do, you fucking idiot?" he demanded, "Displaying the crest so openly, the authorities will catch you for sure." he flicked his wrist, a long dagger extending from the heel of his hand all the way to my throat.

I willed Crocea Mors to bear, pushing the man's aura out of his blade and bending it away from my throat, glaring at him with righteous anger, "Who the hell are YOU, asshole?" I verbally lashed, upping my strength boosts and easily bending his arm away from me, now holding him back by his arms. The wind caught his hood and pulled it back, and I hit him with Gamer's Sight.

Acier Arc
Title: The Lunar Disciple whose Heart was kissed by Steel.
Level: 98

His blonde hair and steel-blue eyes glared at me, but he quickly pulled his hood back up, "Idiot! You show my face and SO many things will be compromised." he flipped his body up and kicked off my chest, breaking my hold on his arms and allowing him a moment to look at his ruined blade, "Fucking dammit, this thing will be impossible to hide."

I stared at him, "Why attack a member of the family, Acier?" his name meant Steel, and I could see he must have pumped it often, because his body was wrapped in layers of lean, dense muscle, "Why are YOU being so stupid?"

He looked up from his blade to glare at me, "What is your name, cousin?" he released his other blade and pointed it at me.

This time, I simply pushed it back into the gauntlet under his sleeve, "Jaune Arc."

He went wide-eyed, staring at me in shock and horror. He pulled his scroll out and dialed a number, getting an answer in a second, "Familia, aye, Puce, listen, the Monolith Line has returned."

A voice nearly shrieked in surprise from the other end, before they called out to someone else in the room and the line went dead. Acier looked at me, "Come, come, you've not met the others, have you? At Chateau d'Or Lune?" The Castle of the Golden Moon, the home of my extended family.

I shook my head, "No, I've not. So... is this the standard family greeting, or-?"

He cut my off, "Shhhh, close your jacket. Come, come." he tapped a part of his robe as he closed it, and I watched part of it gain markings, a rope belt becoming visible. When it was done, he looked like a Mistralian priest. He lowered his head and brought his hood up, "Follow me. Tell me, is your father here?" his tone was cautious.

I nodded, following him. If he tried anything, he'd be dead, so I didn't worry, "Yes, he is, is that a problem?"

"It may be." he said quietly as we started heading in a direction I could sense was as directly north as this crooked road could lead, "He left on unpleasant terms. We forgive him, as is only natural, but he may not be so inclined. He has not returned since he was a young man of seventeen."

"When he went to Beacon?" I asked, willing Mystral to keep our conversation unheard by anyone besides ourselves.

"Exactly the day. He took Crocea Mors as well, our family's relic." he sighed heavily, "I only wish it has not failed him."

I smiled, drawing the sword, "It didn't fail him, nor has it failed me." I showed him the upgrades I'd made to it.

He gasped, panicking, "Gah! You fool, put that away before someone sees it-"

"STOP!" a voice called out, "Stop where you are!" an armored guard rushed towards us, barreling down the street despite his heavy armor.

Brasero Talcus
Title: An Angry Torch fighting the Shadows
Level: 76

Acier winced, then quickly drew up my hood before the guard was able to get a clear look at my face. I was quick to realize what was probably going on.

Oh fucking hell...

My fist shot forward and caught the man's heavy sword aimed for my head, "You're best off letting this go and walking away, Brasero." I dented the edge of his sword with my bare hand.

He growled in anger, "Shut up, dirty assassin." he punched towards my gut, but Candidus Murus blocked it.

I pushed him back, only for Acier to launch into a flurry of attacks that looked to be failing to truly penetrate it. I conjured up Dawn Breaker, my hardlight hammer, and shouted, "Knees!"

Acier dropped to his knees just in time for the heavy strike to shatter a hole in the brutishly strong man's now hard, but brittle chestplate. Excalibur lashed out an instant later and cut the man's sword in half like it was made of butter, right as Acier caught himself and pushed forward, knocking Brasero back and breaking his greaves with his fists.

I sensed the man's scroll loading something, and immediately stopped it with Juristimunja, forcing the machine to turn off. I stabbed forward, catching the man in the chest, running him through in a non-vital area.

Acier realized the opportunity and stabbed upwards, his blade penetrating the man's heart.

Falling off of our blades several seconds later, when his Aura gave out, the man hit the ground slowly as Acier lowered him gently.

I watched as a wallet magically fell out of Brasero's pocket, and quickly caught his soul as it made to leave his body and fade to nothingness.

All the while, I was internally facepalming so hard that I'd thrust my palm through my skull. My family wasn't one of knights, we were assassins, like from the game.

In fact, we might have made the game just to get some money... goddammit!

Groaning, I looked at my cousin, and he technically was my cousin, just an older one.

Acier looked back at me, "Whatever you did, cousin, it was fantastic. None of us have been able to get through this bastard's armor before, and he's been a real pain in our asses." he smiled at me, "Come, the family will be happy to hear this."

I nodded, "I'd be, if I was in their position. So... you called me the 'Monolith Line' before, why is that?"

He raised an eyebrow, then seemed to realize that I'd had no reason to know what that meant, and he nodded, "Ah, yes, just a moment. I'll explain after we move this body."

Rain fell and washed away the blood as telekinesis picked up the body and moved it into a dark alley, blacking out the man's shiny armor and covering him in dirt, "Alright, it's moved, now talk."

He went wide-eyed at the display of power, then raised his hood and gestured for me to follow, "Though we are assassins, the Monolith Line, your family line, is the truest and purest blood of the Arc family. The first-born son of the first-born son of the first-born son, all the way up to the beginning of our line. The Knights who show their light so as to blind our enemies to the actions of the Assassins."

I examined his stat build, he had decent VIT, great STR, and incredible DEX, just what I'd expect from an assassin's stat build, except probably with more STR and VIT than expected, "I see... so I'm either a tank, or a glorified piece of bait."

"Both are vital parts of our style, don't ever doubt that. Come, come." his grayish-yellow aura glowed and bent light around us to turn us invisible. I cast the buff on myself as we took to the Rogue's Highway out towards the north.

'I swear, if the Chateau d'Or Lune is just the Masyaf, I'm going to be pissed!'

... (an hour of running later) ...

'I'm pissed!'

We made our way through a carved-out tunnel through a mountain. Despite our difference in Base DEX, my many boosts helped me keep up with him, especially Furious Pace and Blade Mode.

Acier chuckled heartily as we exited out to see a castle on a mesa in the middle of a river filled with long, jagged, deadly stone spikes. I could see someone down there moving a body off of one, then looked at Acier, "So, there a bridge?"

He chuckled, "Of course not, cousin, that would make it too easy for anyone trying to attack us."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh yes, because the complete ring of mountains around it was SO ineffective."

"Even a tiny tunnel through a mountain can allow an army through if they line up single-file. Give them no advantage, and take care for our own. If I'm not of mistake, Saffron gave birth yesterday." I realized he might not have been the most skilled in english. While he was certainly fluent in it, it wasn't his first language. He kneeled down, his Aura glowing on a runic circle beneath our feet, and he leaped into the air towards the castle.

I hummed curiously, then focused my aura onto the rune.

You received the status effect "Featherfall"!

'Interesting...'

I Power Jumped, flying high into the air as I followed Acier. We landed at nearly the same time, and I caught him wince slightly, one hand coming up to his chest.

Concern welled up inside me, especially given his title, "Are you okay, cousin?" I waved off the concern of two robe-wearing people that came bearing assault rifles, which is when I noticed the area we'd landed in, a sort of 'docking bay' for the jumpers. The two relaxed, then went wide-eyed and began messaging through.

Acier recovered after a few more seconds, "Yes, I'm fine. Sometimes I get phantom pains after a rough landing." he stood up and looked at the already messaging guards, "Co'alla, Brent, I'd prefer we don't stir them up until we actually reach the castle."

The woman nodded, "Of course, Acier. My apologies."

Brent looked at me, "So... you were telling the truth, and here I thought this was your greatest deception yet, Acier." he chuckled, and I saw that he was quite old, old enough to not be named after a color.

I looked at Acier as we made our way past the small, but thick portcullis, while noting the thunder-pulse cannons pointed at each 'dock', which would blow just about anyone off and into the deadly spikes below. Getting back to the concern at hand, I asked him, "Phantom pains?"

It seemed Arc-brand honesty was more brutal out east, because he answered, "I survived getting stabbed in the aorta. My semblance, a form of magnetism, allowed me to direct bloodflow as normal while they patched it up. I discovered, during that time, that I was perhaps the toughest among us. The others have incredible respect for me, I just wish the younglings didn't go through that brief phase where they thought knives to the chest would help them get stronger."

As we made our way up, I realized the sheer size of this mesa, as it was at least twenty minutes of walking up winding pathways and past subterranean farms before we came out into a small town. I heard children playing, I heard meat sizzling at an open grill nearby, and my stomach growled. I hadn't eaten in over sixteen hours, and my food meter was getting low.

Noticing my hunger, and the grill nearby, Acier smiled and chuckled, "Don't worry, cousin. It's okay to have a meal here. You're family, and we take care of our own." he directed us towards the grill, where a middle-aged man with a torso that suggested his workout routine and his love of alcohol were at war. His yellowish-orange hair flicked a little as he turned towards us.

His bright blue eyes went wide when he saw me, "Ah, hungry, fellows?" he smiled and plated up some meat and vegetables, along with two long rolls of bread. We broke the bread together, as I guessed Acier wanted, and ate heartily.

The man, whose name was Fioro, smiled at me, "So... if I'm not mistaken, then... sharp jaw, brilliant royal-blue eyes, golden locks, strong structure, broad frame... yes, it's true, the." he stood up and pointed at me, "You're Jaune Arc, latest of the Monolith Line." his voice was quiet as the low rumbling of campfire.

I nodded, "Yes." and received a bow in return.

"It's wonderful to meet you at last, Jaune Arc." he smiled, "Consider this meal on the house." he gestured to us, then poured us both a glass of whiskey, the family brand. He left it on the counter and I examined the label. The name was Two Gold Moons' Glows and it had a blue silhouette of a man and a woman standing in front of the full moon, facing away from each other and leaning dangerously far forward, but holding hands to keep each other steady, the space between them shaped like a heart. A similar bottle of a much harder liquor was labeled Two Gold Moons' Embrace, sneaking a taste, I found that the 'embrace' part was supposed to mean 'kissed in the mouth by a wrecking ball'. I grunted and set it back, playing it off like I just had a small cough.

Acier looked at me, "You just did an illusion. You're not a telekinetic?"

I shook my head, "No, a conjurer, and an expert with Dust." I smiled, polishing off my plate with four or five good passes. Fioro was incredibly skilled, the meat had a slight crispness to it, but was succulent and delicious. I felt a tug on my cape right a mere seconds before turning around. I looked down and saw a group of small children all looking at me in awe. I smiled a little. Kids were alright, "Well, hey there chil'rens." I accidentally let my accent slip through as I stepped off the stool, watching them make a circle around me.

"Isth it true?" one girl with bright orange hair and a missing front tooth asked, "Are you the Monolith persthon?"

I chuckled and leaned down, patting her head, "I am."

A boy with purple mixed into his pale blond hair jumped up, "Hey! If you're the knight, then will you distract Old Man Charles while I get some chocolates for us?"

I shook my head, "Sorry kiddo, but I'm not allowed to do something like that. Don't try to steal his chocolates, that's bad."

A boy with grayish-blonde hair spoke up next, "Can you suplex me?"

Acier turned around, "Aimant! Son, what have I told you? Father was very lucky, luckier than anyone else. You won't be."

The boy lowered his head, "Sorry father."

Acier picked him up, "You're forgiven, but don't do that again. Jaune is only visiting, and he'd hate to leave behind a poor image, like one of a man who broke a child's neck." he set his son on the stool next to him, "Fioro, my boy is obviously going crazy from hunger. Can you help."

Fioro nodded, preparing a dish while I walked away with about twenty little shadows.

... (after they got out of Acier's earshot) ...

I was assaulted with many questions, and did my best to answer them. Suddenly, getting in front of me, a shy green-haired girl spoke up with her own question, "Is it true you're s'posed to have about five girlfriends?"

I blinked, "What? What do you mean?"

"Daddy says that the Monolith Line peoples have between three and seven girlfriends so that lots of baby Arcs are made." she said simply, "I did my maths and in the middle of three and seven is five, s-so I said 'about five'." she blushed and looked away, more embarrassed by explaining her thought process than by her question or where it stemmed from.

I felt a slight blush rise. About five? Yang, Ruby, Marbel, Blake, and Weiss. That was five right there... dammit, why do so many things seem to be urging me towards polyamory?

I shook my head, "No. I have one girlfriend. She's very beautiful, and I don't think I need another." I looked ahead, "Listen, children, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have things to attend to, I'll be sure to meet up with you all later, okay?" I resisted their adorable begging faces and looked to see Acier catching up with us, "I'm sorry. I promise I'll even play with you all later, for now Acier is taking me to see the leader."

They all nodded, and scampered off while Acier caught up to me, each of them expertly weaving past him as he jogged towards me, "Hey. I see the kids have already taken a liking to you."

I nodded, "Yeah. I think I'm a natural." smiling, I followed him as we jogged our way up the town and to the castle.

Acier chuckled, "Well, it's a notable trait that on top of being very strong, tough, and bright, they're remarkably good with bonding with people, and caring for children. I'm guessing you must have multiple siblings?"

I sighed, "Y-yeah. Six blood sisters, plus an adopted seventh. I loved them, but... my mother's ideals and my father's pride clashed, and they've been separated for seven years now. I haven't seen my sisters in so long, but I've never forgotten their names." I let out a lower, more pained sigh, "It's... not easy, but after my current mission, I'm going to visit them ASAP."

He nodded, "Good. You're a good man, Jaune. I'd hate to see that shine inside you get dulled by this cruel world. It's sad to hear the problems of your father, it's... very unpleasant. I wish you the best." he and I scaled the wall of the castle, running along the roof, and dropping down into a hallway. He led me to an office not far from our position, and I followed in close pursuit. It was almost surprising that nobody made to stop us, rather they simply gave us a wide berth. I suppose this was probably something quite normal to them, given their lifestyles.

We ended up at an office at the back end of the building. Acier straightened up and knocked on the door. There was a pause, then an elderly voice spoke from within, "You may enter."

Opening the door and stepping inside, we were greeted with the sight of a gray-haired man sitting at a desk, wearing a fancy gray hooded robe with complex designs woven onto it with Dust Threads imbued with Metal dust of all things. He looked up at us and smiled warmly.

I used Gamer's Sight on him, and immediately wanted to scream in frustration.

Ezio Ditore-Arc
Title: By Law and Rule, Honored under the Golden Moon
Level: 104

I grit my teeth and let my anger loose, "OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!"

He raised an eyebrow, then looked at Acier, "I think he may have played our games."

---

Hehehehe, well this is what a DLC looks like. I'll go back and change the one omake to say DLC and put a note on it too.

Well... I hope I did this all very well.

Here's the stat dump.

-/\/\/\/\-

Jaune Arc
Title: Big Star Boxer
Level: 72
Class: Magic Knight
Nickname: Knightlight

HP: 42,500/42,500
AP: 152,000/152,000
SP: 63,000/63,000

Strength: 86 (+265%) (+110%) (+75%) (+100%) = 559
Dexterity: 78 (+265%) (+110%) (+75%) = 429
Vitality: 90 (+265%) (+110%) (+75%) (+50%) = 540
Intelligence: 143 (+5) (+265%) (+50%) = 614.2
Wisdom: 166 (+5) (+265%) (+50%) = 709.65
Luck: 116
Charisma: 80

Stat Points: 130

Age: 17
Birthday: November 20th
Race: Human
Height: 6'1
Weight: 245
Build: Med-Heavy Athletic
Hair/Eyes/Skin: Golden Blonde / Brilliant Azure / Medium Tan

-/\/\/\/\-

Well, that's everything in the chapter, then.

As you could probably guess, the next chapter will start with the "boss gauntlet run" that is the Vacuan White Fang. I'll do my best to make them seem like an actual threat, because as it was mentioned, they are extremely skilled, probably enough to match up to a fully trained huntsman. There's a dozen of them, too, each with their own Auras and semblances... I've not mapped out every single detail, since I don't need to list them, but I've got a general idea of them, which equates to "this person is stronger than Blake, but not as strong as Marbel" or "this person is faster than Weiss, but not as fast as Blake" or "this person is tougher than all three girls, but not as tough as Jaune or John".

Then, after that, and some drama, we go to the rest of the Vacuan leg of the journey, and some stuff with the pink partners (guess who guess who~) and then we go to Vale for a bit, and the chapter should probably end as they're heading towards Mistral.

The next couple of chapters after that, however, should go through the entirety of Mistral, followed by a chapter full of fights.

I hope I've built up your anticipation with those teasers. I hope you all loved this chapter. I hope you all love the next few chapters. I hope you all are just full of love.

Make sure to check out the supplementary information handbook (or whatever I'm gonna call it), which I'm going to post after I post this chapter.

Make sure to leave a review on this chapter, it's just plain courteous, and gives me feedback on what I'm doing well/poorly on.

Also, official announcement: I'm looking for someone who can make a cover picture for the story, possibly, or maybe could link me to one, if possible. PM me if you have something.

This is Player 1 signing off, see ya later ^w^