Sorry, this ended up a lot shorter than I was initially planning but I found a good ending point so It sort of petered out there. Next Chapter will be at least 8 thousand words without fail.
Chapter 2: A dance where none dare tread
A few things became apparent to Jaune as he blurred across the deck, cutting down yet another nevermore as it attempted to kill a group of hapless civilians.
The first was how much of a pain it was to fight flying opponents without a ranged weapon of some type.
The second was how grateful he was that gamer's mind apparently nulled motion sickness, seeing as it was technically a mental thing.
The third was that he really needed to stop jinxing things.
His arrival at the port town had gone quite well, all considered. He'd had no problems getting inside the port town, and had even managed to get his hands on an actual boat ticket (thank god for automated ticket machines) as compared to his original plain of simply stowing away. It had even been easy enough getting on the boat, sticking just close enough to be considered by most to be part of a group rather than an unaccompanied 10-year-old while far enough away not to draw said group's attention to him. Sticking to a rather out of the way portion of the deck and suppressing his presence somewhat Jaune hadn't arisen even the slightest suspicion from the boats crew or other passengers. In fact, it had gone so well that Jaune allowed himself to relax, convinced of the fact that nothing was going to go wrong about this portion of the journey to Mistral.
If the 2 points of luck paired with yet another snarky comment from his semblance wasn't damning enough, then the fact that a mere twenty minutes afterwards the boat had been attack by Grimm was.
Considering they were about 90 miles across the 130-mile-wide channel separating the two continents, Jaune had been caught completely flatfooted by the fact that they were being attacked by a flock of Nevermores of all things. Unfortunately, so had the boat's crew. Nevermores rarely crossed above large expanses of water for multiple reasons including their inability to swim and the fact that even Grimm didn't possess infinite stamina and required time to rest. In fact, Nevermores rarely strayed more than 10 miles from the coast, something that had clearly gone into consideration regarding the boats defenses, if the severely lacking presence of anything remotely classified as anti-air weaponry was anything to go by. While there were a handful of guards on board they were mostly only trained as far as operating the boat's weaponry, something heavily specialized for dealing with aquatic Grimm.
This left Jaune stuck in the position of running around like a maniac trying to fend off several dozen Nevermores while protecting the other passengers as they struggled to get below deck. His only saving grace was the fact that most of the Nevermores were rather young, the largest only reaching a wingspan of a bit less than 2 dozen feet, and were thus generally quite stupid. Rather than collectively hanging back and shooting at the boat with quills from where he couldn't reach them, most of the Nevermores closed in, attempting to peck people's insides out and leaving themselves within Jaune's range. Most, Jaune reminded himself, as he hauled a panicking man more than twice his age out of the way of several razor-sharp quills, not sparing a second to watch them embed themselves easily in the wooden deck as he shot off again.
If he wasn't a runaway with no political sway whatsoever he would be having words with whatever idiot had decided anti-air weaponry were unnecessary on a rather massive passenger boat. 'If I would even have to,' Jaune mused as he dashed up a wall, kicking off and coming down on top of a nevermore as it tried to tear some rich looking guy's head off as he cowered on the ground. Sinking Crocea Mors into the creature's back, he yanked the bird sideways as it died and started to fall, before kicking off it and onto yet another nevermore; choosing his next target even as he prevented the random passenger from being crushed by a dead nevermore, 'seems like some of these people are the type to make huge fuss about something like this after all' Jaune noted, finishing his thought.
Jumping away from a flurry of quills Jaune grimaced slightly as a few impacted painfully on his shoulder. To allow himself to protect the other passengers he had been forced to forgo his shield to keep his other hand available, and while that would be remedied once the remaining passengers had escaped below deck, he still had no method of targeting the Nevermores hanging in the distance taking potshots at him. As the number of Nevermores continued dropping and the remaining civilians evacuated below decks Jaune found a solution to his issue.
The fact that this same solution fell firmly under the category of 'insane' was completely lost on Jaune.
Despite possessing intelligence in no way inferior to most 17-year old's, Jaune was still a 10-year-old (on top of being an Arc, some others would note), and while experience and common sense might have indicated something as being completely crazy, Jaune, somewhat lacking in both, looked only at whether or not it would, in theory, work. As the last of the passengers made it below deck Jaune came to a conclusion only someone who put increasingly small amounts of value on the concepts of common sense and conventional self-preservation would come to. Sheathing his blade, Jaune sprinted up the side of a wall and come down on top of one of the few remaining Nevermores hovering at deck level.
Wrapping his arms around its neck Jaune yanked upwards, forcing the bird to ascend with him on top of it, rising into the sky even as he inadvertently catapulted himself into legend. His legs secured around the large bird with one hand gripping it's feathers Jaune drew Crocea Mors before using all his strength to force the bird sideways leaning and gripping with his legs in order to dodge a barrage of feathers as he neared the remaining nevermore. Inverting himself to the ground Jaune swung his blade downwards towards one the Nevermores as he flew past it, easily tearing through it's wing and leaving it to spiraling downwards to its death.
With his first opponent felled, Jaune felt a surge of confidence and, hefting his blade, soared forth with absolute certainty, using with nothing but instinct and raw brute force to direct his unwilling mount though the sky hundreds of feet above the water even as the remaining Nevermores attempted to murder him. One by one they fell, the question of who would be victorious being answered with every bird he felled, and as the last of the opposing Grimm fell only one question remained to the hero who soared unrivaled in the skies.
"Wait…" the would-be hero murmured with a cold sweat, ignoring the cheers of the passengers now hundreds of feet below him and the repeated complaints of his temporary mount as he did so, "How the fuck do I land this thing?" he asked as his 'partner' continued futilely attempting to murder him "…. Oops"
As the knight and his steed soared majestically towards the horizon, the passengers of the boat engraved the moment into their hearts and the stories they would later spark a legend, of a knight whose true name remained shrouded in mystery. A hero, they would say, whose strength of will bent even the creatures of darkness to his holy task. A fearless knight who stood as a beacon against the dark.
If the passengers of the boat had been close enough to see and hear their hero's words as he passed beyond the horizon, that legend would have been a bit less impressive, if downright hilarious.
"SSHIIITTT! How the hell do I land this thing!" Jaune panicked, his distraction giving the enraged Nevermore the opportunity to try and barrel roll Jaune off it's back as it flew towards land. "the spiiiinninnng! stop the spiiiiiinning! I'm gonna puk-barg" Jaune groaned, the intense flying causing his motion sickness to come back with a vengeance as he vomited mid-barrel roll onto the back of the nevermore, leaving the bird to squawk with indignity "Why the hell is my motion sickness overwhelming Gamer's, urg, mind" Jaune groaned even as he forced the now vomit stained Nevermore to fly straight, lest his motion sickness somehow manage to overpower his semblance yet again.
Looking around, our young hero found his unanswered questions rising to two.
"Wait…. Where'd the boat go?" the vomit-stained would-be hero asked his mount, ignoring its continued attempts to dislodge him.
"Squawk!" the Nevermore shot back unhelpfully.
Jaune blinked "…."
"Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!" the Nevermore continued protesting.
"….."
"Squawk! Squawk! Sqau-" the bird was cut off as Jaune smacked it on the back of the head.
"Shut up! You're not helping!" the vomit-stained hero(?) shot back.
2 hours, 94 miles, and one rather painful crash-landing later, Jaune found himself firmly on the continent of Mistral proclaiming his eternal love for solid ground (except for that one mountain. Screw that mountain!)
Shaking himself Jaune looked around at the various popups that had appeared with the 'tragic' death of his not-so-noble steed, which coincided with combat officially ending.
37 Nevermores (average level 32) have been slain: 98,050 Experience has been gained:
(530*37) base *5 (trait modifier) = 98,050)
Congratulations! You are now level 56! You have 20 attribute points to spend!
Skill Advanced bladed weapon mastery has increase to level 34!
Skill Defensive arts mastery has increased to level 35!
Skill Subversive arts has increase to level 45!
Dexterity has increase by 2!
Aura mastery is now level 17!
Aura shield subskill is now level 7!
Working his way through the popups he nodded lightly, expending his attribute points idly. As he reached the last popup and began reading it Jaune froze, his eye twitching slightly.
New skill acquired! «Grimm riding» skill acquired! For being the first person stupid enough to discover this skill, Grimm riding standard tier skill has ranked up into Unique tier skill «Legendary Nevermore Knight» and has received a massive experience bonus! Skill «Legendary Nevermore Knight» is now level 46!
Legendary Nevermore Knight lv 46: (unique level skill): You are the Legendary Nevermore Knight who sits upon his noble (and vomit stained) steed and soars through the heavens, bringing death to all Grimm who dare to challenge your rule of the skies (Or, in the case of your current steed, severe discomfort and shame). Skill allows the effective riding of many species of Grimm but is more effective with flying Grimm. At its current level this skill also provides a 23% decrease to the effects of airsickness while riding air-born Grimm. Current skill level does not encompass proper landings.
Jaune simply stood there, unmoving as he continued twitching for close to 10 minutes before a group of around half a dozen Beowolves wandered into the clearing, likely having been drawn from nearby by Jaune's sheer level of aggravation at his smartass of a semblance.
"Level 46 unique tier skill…. and it doesn't encompass landing? Are you fucking kidding me! And what the hell is that description!" he roared before he turned to face the now slightly hesitating pack of Beowolves. "… thanks for coming you all" his tone changed suddenly as he addressed the Beowolves with a warm smile "I really need to work off some steam at this point" he chirped, drawing his sword and promptly bum rushing the now more-than-slightly unnerved Grimm.
Watching the dissolving corpses of the Beowolves around him, Jaune found himself with mixed feelings. While he had initially approached the fight energetically as an opportunity to work off his aggravation, he soon found himself losing most of his motivation and quickly growing bored. His experience gain after the fight confirmed what he'd already expected.
6 Beowolves (average level 24) have been slain, 1,560 Experience has been gained:
(520*6) base *.5 (trait malus) = 1,560)
On one hand, there was the fact that he'd grown strong enough that fighting 6 Beowolves (all stronger than the one he'd nearly died against the night he ran away) at the same time was no longer enough to count as a threat to him, even a direct hit failing to so much as pierce his aura shield. On the other, it was further proof of the fact that the Grimm more prominent in populated areas would not be nearly enough for him to reach the level of strength he needed to attain. It was standard procedure to ensure that the Grimm in or near populated areas were limited to those at or below D-rank.
It simply wasn't possible for the kingdom's hunters to wipe out every single Grimm in an area (especially considering they would soon repopulate) meaning the allocation of hunters was prioritized towards coping with Grimm C-rank and above or otherwise of higher grade species. While it wasn't a problem for Jaune quite yet, seeing as most Beowolves fell within the E-rank category, it had become apparent that even sticking on the relative outskirts of civilization was not going to be enough, even if it was the best option at this point. Although the solution might seem simple enough it wasn't nearly as easy as becoming as strong as was efficient near the kingdoms before moving on to slightly more dangerous areas. This is largely because there are no slightly more dangerous areas.
As the son of 2 high ranking hunters with 7 sisters all following in the same career path Jaune knew a lot of things that most authorities tried (with great success, as it happens) to keep on the downlow from civilians. Namely the fact that the ranking system for Grimm was deliberately designed to paint an inaccurate image to civilians, although this was largely for their own good. A battle between a hunter and a Grimm of the same rank rarely results in an equal fight, despite what most people are led to believe. For example, while Jaune pegged his combat strength at around peak E-rank he was fully capable of fighting dozens of Nevermores and Beowolves. While the combat strength of a Grimm increases as it ages, Beowolves and Nevermores around the age of the ones he fought would be considered middling E-rank. In all honesty Jaune was probably capable of fighting 2 or 3 lower level D-rank Grimm at this point, despite being E-rank.
This wasn't due to him being weird or different, it was a deliberate feature of the ranking system included to make humanities' protectors seem stronger. Most people at E-rank could manage dozens of E-rank Grimm just as most D-rank aura users could handle around 2 dozen D-rank Grimm. Jaune's father had explained to him that this was to promote the belief that this type of comparison extended beyond weaker Grimm all the way up to A-rank level Grimm, making people believe an A-rank hunter could match half a dozen A-rank Grimm without anyone in authority ever saying it directly. Looking back, it wasn't all that surprising that such a round-about method was used because that comparison wasn't true at all. Seeing as misinforming huntsmen would only lead to more deaths and trying to keep 2 separate classifications (one told to civilians and another to hunters) would only lead to outrage (which would only attract Grimm) when people realized their government was lying to them, regardless of the intention behind it, the remaining 3 officially recognized rankings for Grimm more accurately represented their strength.
A C-rank hunter could, at best, match 2 or 3 C-rank Grimm, while at B-rank it was pretty much even 1v1. Seeing as the concept of an S-rank Grimm wasn't recognized (as it would damage the idea that humanities' greatest protectors were all but invincible) A-rank basically encompassed anything too strong to be considered B-rank. This of course meant that many A-rank Grimm were fully capable of fighting evenly with an entire team of A-rank hunters, despite what the general public was led to believe.
This meant general practice for Grimm C-rank and above was to use hunters one rank above them, if possible: B-rank hunters for C-rank Grimm, A-rank Hunter's for B-rank Grimm, and either large numbers of A-ranks or an S-rank (if possible) for A-rank Grimm.
To keep up the illusion that Grimm were typically weaker than their equivalent, Kingdoms worked extremely hard to keep stronger Grimm outside their borders. This had the unfortunate side effect of Grimm presence and power sharply rising once beyond the operation range of the kingdoms. Sharply as in from mostly E and D ranks with the occasional C-rank to mostly C-ranks with some B-ranks nearly as soon as you left the outskirts of the kingdom into the true wilderness.
Although it wasn't something he could afford to agonize over in the present, it was nonetheless a worrying thought that he might become too strong for the area within the kingdom's borders before he became strong enough for the wildlands. While he could conceivably grow stronger through other methods (such as physical training) it would take time he didn't have, and risking it in the wilds far before he was ready would likely mean meeting an opponent that he would simply not stand a chance against.
His now inevitable stint into the wildlands shifted yet another problem from being a possible issue to being an avoidable one. Unsurprisingly, gathering information about a shadow organization was made even more impossible without people to connect it too. Entering the wilderness would undoubtedly mean a complete stop on any progress into tracking down Rook or whoever was behind the attack on Vale. This was yet another reason heading to mistral seemed like the best course of action, seeing as it would let him gather information and grow stronger simultaneously, before the two actions became mutually exclusive.
While Jaune supposed fighting and stealing from criminals in societies' underworld might be able to help tick off both goals later, he was certain there wasn't anything large scale and well connected enough to provide him with a constant source of experience and information.
"After all" Jaune mumbled to himself, removing himself from his thoughts and preparing to start traveling once more, "it's not like there are any super large scale organizations turned militant terrorist group with eyes and ears almost everywhere with a significant enough number of sympathizers I'd be hard to suppress is going to crop up in the next few years or anything."
For managing to foreshadow a future development so blatantly despite having no knowledge of it whatsoever your skill Oracle has increased to level 8!
You have gained 5 Luck!
Jaune blinked before closing the popups slowly with a blank expression on his face "Nope. Not dealing with that, just going to forget that ever happened. I have too much on my plate right now as it is without worrying about my semblance screwing with me." Jaune mumbled, attempting to convince himself that he, in fact, had an actual choice in the matter.
Unsurprisingly, he failed.
His little adventure with his short lived (he had made sure of it) partner had unfortunately left him with very little idea in regards to his exact location, even if he was confident he had made it to the Mistralean continent. While the Grimm presence suggested he was in or at least near a populated area Jaune now had no reference point with which to orient himself towards the nearest town. Fortunately, it wasn't that hard to use the location of the Sun to plot a way back towards the coast, after which he would be able to follow the coastline towards the town that had been his initial destination before he'd been forcibly sidetracked.
While the primary reason for this move was indeed to reorient himself he also had to make sure that no one had gotten a clear view of his face on the boat. If worst came to worst he might even have to delay his trip to Mistral for a while, if a widespread story of some random blonde kid matching his description fighting a horde of Nevermores reached home his family would turn Mistral from a relative safe-haven to a prime hunting ground during Jaune-hunting season. He really needed to pick up a disguise of some sort, or at least dye his hair black or something, before going into more populated areas.
Had Jaune known what he would find in that portside city, he would have fled to the ends of the planet without a second thought. For while his identity remained shrouded in mystery, something far worse than his family would follow him from that city, something he could neither fight nor ever truly escape from. For while the name Jaune Arc had little meaning to the residents of the city, it would become the birthplace of the 3 things: A legend, a secret, and a never-ending source of embarrassment for Jaune Arc.
-1 week later-
"…and so with a final mighty blow, the last of the Ancient Nevermores fell with a screech, leaving the mighty hero and his steed to rule the skies. Without pause, not waiting for praise or reward, The Nevermore Knight soared off into the sunset, unto the next battlefield. So ends the beginning of the Legend of the Legendary Nevermore knight, from where it may go from here, we shall just have to wait and see." The story teller finished reverently as a crowd of children (and adults) around him cheered and a single boy standing in the distance listening in was left with a single thought.
'What the actual fuck.' Jaune Arc wondered, dumbstruck, as he left the pavilion in a distinctly shell-shocked manner.
In the week it had taken for him to find his way to the portside town his ship had been bound for, the world seemed to have been turned on its head. While it was fortunate that the best shot of him was a grainy imaged taken from 2 hundred feet below as he fought the last of the Nevermores he was still stunned at how quickly the story had changed from reality. Sure he had expected some level of rumors regarding a him fighting off the Nevermores but he still was uncertain how a skirmish with a couple dozen young E-rank Nevermores had turned into a nigh legendary battle against nearly a hundred ancient Nevermores (High C almost low B-rank Grimm). He also wasn't sure how his(?) description had apparently been settled as a 6-foot-tall tanned heavily muscled man with luscious blonde hair and cerulean eyes.
For all his questions, there was 1 thing Jaune Arc was sure of…
"I am the Legendary Nevermore Knight" a 7 or so year old boy yelled from his place on top of a roof "Ruler of the skies" he declared holding a wood sword out with his declaration.
"Ha fool" another boy yelled from a taller rooftop "I am the true Legendary Nevermore Knight!"
"Get your commemorative Legendary Nevermore Knight souvenirs! Buy 1 get 1 free!" A merchant yelled loudly.
"This is so freaking embarrassing." Jaune arc moaned as he pulled up his hood and covered his red face with his hands, shame flooding through him.
Chapter 2: A dance where none dare tread: end
Starting from now this story will become known as the «Legend of the Legendary Nevermore Knight»! (it's a lie). I think I have a slight affinity towards giving my main characters a tendency to suffer from inadvertent Chuunibyou. A more lighthearted part of this story will be Jaune's steadfast efforts to prevent himself from being connected with the Legendary Nevermore Knight all while suffering in agonizing embarrassment as his unwanted (and humiliating) alter ego somehow becomes popular enough that it manages to spawn multiple book series, television shows, video games and even action figures. It's truly a cruel fate that by the time Jaune actually returns home, his twin sister will have become an avid fan of everything related to The legendary Nevermore Knight (unaware of his true identity) and rather than a healing experience of finally being home again Jaune will only find agony and never ending shame as his dark history is inadvertently thrown in his face again and again.
Basically, Jaune now has a completely Chuuni alternate identity, because humor is one of the two Genres in this story for a reason.
Onto more serious notes now.
There are a couple of things I forgot to mention previously regarding skill masteries and tier levels. Reaching higher tiers has varying levels of challenge for different people, depending on innate talent. For example, Jaune has an extremely high level of talent in regards to aura mastery requiring only aura reserves of at least 3000 and a level 20 basic skill to rank up to the advanced tier, as opposed to Mordred who has rather low talent with aura mastery: still stuck at the basic tier despite having aura reserves greater than 60,000 and a level 41 basic aura mastery skill.
A more accurate representation of skill tiers and mastery levels might be to compare the two to talent and experience respectively. The tier of a skill roughly represents talent while mastery level is simply how much experience someone has with something. While someone without talent in something could become very proficient in it with enough time (represented by a high level) genius's often reach levels nearly unattainable for other people. It's like comparing a normal but experienced mathematician to someone like Einstein: the mathematician is no doubt very good at what they do but in the end, they simply aren't at the same level as Einstein was (scaling for their relative time periods). A genius at something will naturally advance the tier ranking of their skills while those with less talent would struggle to do the same.
The blatant foreshadowing thing was referring towards the White Fang's shift into a violent organization, which I don't consider to be much of a spoiler considering it would be strange if Jaune didn't end up running into them while tearing through the criminal underworld for clues, although that's still several years (and presumably at least a dozen chapters) in the future, although I don't intend to leave the White Fang as a product containing 99% real mook juice. Seriously, how is it that that the White Fang accomplished anything when 99% of its members could probably have been mowed down by the dozens by someone like Cardin 'Scrub lord' Winchester? Hell, Canon Jaune is probably stronger than the average white fang member the moment he had his aura unlocked, with literally 0 training.
Also, for some reason, I am quite fond of the title: Cardin 'Scrub lord' Winchester, even if I don't particularly hate his character after he gets his head out of his ass post jaundice, something that is admittedly mostly head canon but whatever.
As for Jaune's now level 8 Oracle skill, what is now an 8% chance to receive an Oracle of a future tragedy essentially means that if something significant enough for someone to have an Oracle about it occurs in the future, Jaune has an 8% of receiving it. Of course, this means an 8% chance prior to it occurring, spread out from present day to just before the incident happens, hence why Jaune doesn't get an infinite spam of Oracles from events over the course of the next several thousand years. Rather than having a flat one time 8% chance once, it's more like a .01% (depending on the time scale) chance every day until the event occurs. Seeing as Oracle worthy events don't exactly occur daily (or more than once a decade at most, usually) leveling up this skill mostly serves a different purpose for later in the story, it's not going to bail Jaune out if he is about make a bad choice in attempting to stop Vale's destruction.
Someone mentioned that they thought it would be cool if oracles imparted some skills from those sending back the Oracle to Jaune, seeing as it's basically a collection of their thoughts and knowledge, but for a conventional Oracle that just won't work. It's a mess of hundreds of thousands of people's thoughts and experiences and for every one that is a master swordsman there is a hundred others that don't know the first thing about swordsmanship. That means for every correct aspect of a technique imparted Jaune would also be imparted with 100 incorrect or at least inferior aspects, and unless he could differentiate the two (implying he already knew the correct method in the first place) it would only hinder his progress if anything more than a bare outline of those memories remained.
Some of you might be wondering why the first Beowolf Jaune fought was indirectly mentioned to have the ability to pierce through his then 250-damage threshold aura shield and then severely reduced or outright deplete his 1000-point health bar but now Beowolves of a higher level can't even break past his 350-damage threshold aura shield. The reason behind this is that Jaune has an invisible defense stat calculated from his other attributes, with Vitality and Endurance raising defense against health damage and Intelligence and Wisdom raising defense regarding aura shield damage. A high aura shield level only means someone is capable of easily projecting a large portion of aura into their shield, not that that aura is used efficiently.
Jaune's high intelligence and wisdom attributes are his saving grace in regards to taking hits, seeing as his aura shield level is very low, even by signal student standards. This is because aura shield is counted as a combat skill, meaning he can only raise it by taking hits against opponents that are genuinely dangerous to him. On the other hand, Aura mastery is not considered a combat skill despite how much of a benefit it is in combat. Aura mastery is literally a person's connection and awareness of their spiritual-self being more akin to the process of attaining enlightenment than something solely for the sake of combat.
Final note for now, regarding the slowdown of aging, it isn't as easy to attain eternal youth as it might appear, considering the aging rate hits a pretty potent soft cap at 15% normal human rate so there isn't an abundance of random immortals running around remnant.
