As he moved calmly through the vibrant and colorful streets of Mistral, Jaune took a moment to acknowledge the fact that breaking into the main city of one of the four kingdoms as an unaccompanied 10-year-old with no identification whatsoever had been so easy for him that it wasn't even worth considering it an accomplishment, especially since even now, nearly 3 months later, he was still completely unnoticed. Of course, considering his «Subversive Arts» skill was now sitting at an impressive level 54 he supposed it was more a matter of him being preposterously good at stealth even by the standards of an elite agent.
For all that Jaune should have been confused or uncertain in regards to the source of his inhuman growth, even with his trait, the reasons behind it had come to him naturally. After the initial overload from his ascendance to a higher tier of aura manipulation had subsided and he no longer felt like his body was surging with an unnatural amount of energy, Jaune found himself innately understanding his semblance a bit more vividly. While most of its functions were pretty cut and dry, the method and specifics of how it functioned were starting to become clear. His gamer semblance appeared to have manifested based around some form of causality manipulation; it's nature appeared to be that of a semblance that interfered with, adjusted, and even outright defied things like fate or the conventional laws of cause and effect, at least in regards to Jaune specifically. If an attack pierced a person's aura and hit them normally they would be injured, in Jaune's case, his semblance would manipulate the outcome, shifting the effect from him being injured to his health dropping.
His insane skill growth rate was yet another result of this manipulation of cause and effect. While most people wouldn't progress linearly, having to practice techniques again and again until they perfected them and then needing to train regularly so their skill wouldn't drop, Jaune only had to reach a certain level of proficiency for a short period of time to maintain a skill at that level. His semblance's skill system worked with an odd logic, simultaneously applying a dual cause-effect relationship for his skill's level and his ability in that skill. Because his ability was equivalent to level 50, the skill's level was 50, because his skill's level was 50, his ability was at least equivalent to the level 50 skill. It had a somewhat horrifying degree of synergy with his «Of a different Breed» trait. While many hunter's might have moments during life or death situations where they momentarily exceed their limits and pull off something normally beyond them, for Jaune, rather than this momentarily heightened skill fading, it would become permanent. Meeting the condition of have ability to a certain degree (even if only for a few moments) he would acquire a skill level equivalent to that degree of ability and hence have ability equivalent to it.
To put it bluntly, Jaune was about as good at something as the best he'd ever been at it, even if that level would have normally been something akin to a 1 in 100000, in-the-zone, miracle. Of course, this only applied if the skill sufficiently passed the threshold of a level. Momentarily getting to the equivalent of a 99% progress rate towards the next level wouldn't stick, he had to reach the next level for the effects to perpetuate. For Jaune, whose go to training situation involved pushing himself to the absolute limit, this ability was outright bullshit.
In regards to his frankly unfeasible growth in physical strength and intelligence, his semblance basically fudged the cause-effect of 'because he was too young, he couldn't yet develop to be this strong' to 'because he was this strong, it must have been possible for him to become as such' it was the same way he acquired points from something like leveling up, rather than a normal person's 'they had grown this much so they've reached this level' Jaune was treated as 'having reached this level he must have grown this much'. Experience was acquired from overturning however much presence or importance an opponent had in the world, from its significance, so to speak. Since he had overturned a creature with a destiny this potent, he grew this much.
It was somewhat ironic that his semblance proved the existence of things like fate and destiny in the form of rather blatantly flicking them off and telling them to go fuck themselves.
It might seem like an outrageously overpowered semblance (and in some ways, it was, technically being an expression of freaking omnipotence, however limited his version was) but by manipulating causality and destiny his semblance simultaneously made him uniquely vulnerable to it. Because of his semblance's function to twist destiny, he was extremely vulnerable to those with a destiny much more significant than his as twisting their destinies even slightly would require vase amounts of power. Destiny in this case didn't mean potential future actions, but rather actions something or someone had already performed. Every single known S-rank hunter was more than 500 years old, and that meant that they had been building up their destiny -perhaps better stated as the 'weight' of their existence- for just as long. This meant that a playful slap on the back from an S-rank hunter that would typically barely even sting might very well be capable of dealing tens of thousands of points of damage to Jaune's health in stark defiance of the degree of the 'attack'. The fact that this also applied to his aura shield was not a comforting thought. His flesh alone, after the depletion of his health, was immune to this weakness.
It fit quite well in regards to video game logic, really, considering how in an RPG a level 90 character shooting you in the foot with an arrow would deal more damage than a level 5 nailing you in the eye with one.
The next most dangerous thing to Jaune in the long run would be other people's titles. Best he could tell he was the only person who (sometimes) had a listed bonus for the benefits his titles provided, other people with titles had some vague (but often potent) benefit from them based on how strongly it was reflected in their existence and how potent said existence was. Bluntly speaking, someone with an assassin title could be capable of performing a surprise attack dealing ungodly amounts of damage to Jaune, in defiance of what their stats might suggest, due the weight of their existence as an assassin.
The only way past this was to build up his own destiny, either by growing stronger, becoming famous, infamous, or even by interfering and interacting with people with strong destinies. Like the title system, this was, contrary to the rest of his semblance's system, extremely vague and annoying. It was like one of those cheesy tropes that gave heroes the ability to somehow cut down the villain in one strike despite said villain being stronger and faster, except in this case the hero (him, hopefully) had a destiny that was probably several dozens of times weaker than the villains did, for now at least.
Of course, there was good news and agonizing news in regards to increasing the strength of his destiny. The good news was that he'd gotten another title, the agonizing news was that he'd gotten another title.
«Legendary Nevermore Knight» (Heroic Alias): You are the Legendary Nevermore Knight, Hero and agent of justice whose name lies shrouded in mystery! As a true hero, you will answer the call to defend the weak and innocent no matter the personal risk, ruling the land and conquering the skies to defeat the forces of darkness!
Due to this title's status as a heroic alias, title development to the point of acquiring its full effects without equipping the title is impossible. Additionally, due to its status as an alter ego, events that are extremely significant to you as «Jaune Arc» rather than as the «Legendary Nevermore Knight» prevent the usage of this title. Title may not be equipped or unequipped unless no one is observing you and you are not in combat. Due to its extremely potent nature, the strain of equipping this title for prolonged periods of time will cause both physical and spiritual fatigue, leading to temporarily decreased levels of aura control, healing rate, aura regeneration, and certain semblance functions. Strain increases at higher Fame levels.
Overall Fame: somewhat famous (76/400)
Mistral: Well-known (44/100 fame)
Vale: sparse rumors (12/100 fame)
Atlas: sparse rumors (7/100 fame)
Vacuo: sparse rumors (13/100 fame)
At your current fame level this skill passively grants a flat bonus of 38 (76 while title is equipped) points to all stats, increases the Charisma modifier by 19% (38% while title is equipped), enhances the effects of all covert skills by 38% (76% while title is equipped) towards actions primarily relating to hiding or concealing the connection between you and your heroic identity and increases quality of all one-liners and cool poses by 38% (78% while title is equipped).
While this title is equipped the weight of your existence is that of «Jaune Arc» and the «Legendary Nevermore Knight» combined rather than only that of «Jaune Arc». The unique skill «Legendary Nevermore Knight» receives an additional 50% effect correction (boosting its potency to that of a god-tier skill) and a 50% boost to proficiency growth rate. All other skills that can be clearly related to the «Legendary Nevermore Knight» (such as «Advanced Sword Mastery») receive a 20% boost to effect correction and proficiency growth rate.
At your current level of spiritual and physical strength, it is possible to cope with the strain of equipping this title at its current fame level for around 30 minutes before beginning to accrue negative effects and endure for roughly 2 hours before title is automatically unequipped (regardless of the circumstance) to prevent spiritual immolation.
Pushing down the increasingly strong urge to go find a dark corner to go die in, Jaune once again thanked whatever deities he could think of that the title could not be changed during combat, meaning that he didn't have to equip it permanently to avoid technically having a way out in a battle and hence interfering with his growth rate. Once his alternating session of internal screaming and boundless relief that it wasn't worse passed, Jaune took a moment to lament what had already become his deepest, darkest secret and its increasingly prominent existence in Mistral (and -horrifyingly- the rest of remnant).
His desire to not be revealed as the person who had killed the Nuckelavee in Kuroyuri had technically been fulfilled, there was no known connection between said event and Jaune Arc after all, but it had also technically not been fulfilled. The common story in regards to said incident was that the mysterious individual known as the Legendary Nevermore Knight had appeared when all hope was lost and slew the beast with a single mighty strike before disappearing to wipe out any remaining Grimm in the area. The other groups of survivors from Kuroyuri had barely seen glimpses of Jaune, meaning the vague description of the Legendary Nevermore knight probably fit with what they'd seen, and seeing as the group Jaune had traveled with had agreed with those rumors to conceal his identity, the story had been quickly accepted.
He should be happy there wasn't even a whisper of the name Jaune Arc but it was just so freaking embarrassing. If it wasn't for Gamer's mind his face would have been red for the last 3 months straight. It didn't make any sense; he'd done 2 things any B-rank hunter could've done easily and yet somehow his humiliating alter ego was more famous than most A-rank hunters were! It was horrible and was only getting worse after the CCT had finally been repaired.
Quickly jumping on that line of thought in a futile attempt to escape reality, Jaune focused on what he'd heard as to why the CCT had taken so long to be fixed. While it normally should have been up and running at full capacity nearly 3 weeks before the attack on Kuroyuri, a day before its scheduled restoration to 100% operating efficiency the headmaster of Haven academy had noticed a larger developing issue within the system. According to Headmaster Lionheart's interview on the topic, full activation of the CCT at that time would've caused the whole network to crash for an even longer amount of time. He'd also informed the public that it was only possible for it to be fixed as quickly as it was thanks to the hard work of some renown scientist. While the scientist's full name escaped Jaune at the moment he remembered it being Wat-something-or-other, not that it mattered.
Anyway, the CCT was back online and communication had been fully reestablished throughout Mistral and Jaune was now free to make use of his free (stolen) Wi-Fi to research potential leads regarding his opponents. Or he would be free to use it if he hadn't quickly become aware that doing so would likely bring him nothing but a group of government agents swarming him due to one little detail he hadn't really counted on. The fact that, for all intents and purposes, black dust did not exist. Not a single book, dust store, weapon shop, or anything else save perhaps the Dust net (which he had deliberately refrained from using in this regard) mentioned even a single peep about black dust. The linchpin of his investigation and one of his only leads apparently didn't exist.
Of course, considering the fact that white dust hadn't 'existed' until it and the decades of research on it by all 4 kingdoms was revealed in the middle of the Great war as each kingdom tried to one up the others, Jaune was fairly certain It was both real and classified out the ass. The biggest hint to this was how thorough its nonexistence was, there was no reference to it, even in fiction books or fairy tales, like someone was trying so hard to erase its existence they inadvertently made it downright suspicious for anyone actually looking into it. While he was hesitant to try looking it up on his own scroll, Jaune had already managed to swipe a couple of scrolls from some of Mistrals numerous criminals and was readying himself to use them to browse the web for information relating to Black dust, not that he'd find any there.
His real plan was to observe said stolen scroll and anything observing or tracking it with another stolen scroll. Seeing as research on black dust was likely monitored, and said monitors were likely related to whatever group was researching black dust, all he had to do was track the computers tracking the stolen scroll and then use said group as a method of tracking down the actual researcher dealing with the substance. Knowing the properties, availability, and other information surrounding black dust would drastically increase his ability to hunt down both the potential bomb and the group that intended to create and use it.
This would be a lot harder (even with his level 54 skill) if computer security in the kingdoms didn't suck beyond belief. As the last human war was before computers had become mainstream and humanity's primary opponent -the Grimm- had literally no method of using computers Jaune supposed it was inevitable that computer security was a considerably low priority for the 4 kingdoms. Considering the Grimm had a sentient leader that was probably something Jaune would have to fix in the future, but for now he had to leave it be so he could take advantage of it.
It was slightly awkward for Jaune that the first intelligent and organized opponent he was deliberately facing was the government of Mistral, rather than the numerous low lives and criminal organizations he'd believed would be his opponents on arrival. This awkwardness was probably one of the reasons he'd taken a rather roundabout way to acquire the scrolls he'd need for his little scheme. Rather than buying or stealing one from a store Jaune had spent the last few months beating up thugs and criminals and stealing their scrolls to try and find one advanced enough to perform the necessary roll. His -initially casual- attempted to break down and tinker with one of the numerous cheap scrolls he'd stolen had even netted him a useful skill that had ended up inspiring him to look more into the potential uses for skills he had previously disregarded.
His actions and the ensuing spam of new skills and tier ups had revealed that even once a skill had fusion evolved in one direction, that didn't mean that skill couldn't let other skills evolve using its unevolved variant. Case in point, his sewing skills, already part of a unique skill, had still been able to provide the basis for another skill to evolve with it, cumulating in turning «leather working» into an Expert tier skill call «Light Armor Creation» without effecting his unique skill. Between his crafting shenanigans and his other activities, the end result of the last few weeks was both pleasant and slightly scary: Pleasant because of how useful it was and scary because of how many skills he'd inadvertently cultivated preventing his mother and sisters from destroying their house.
His tinkering had ended up evolving together with a part of the «Indestructible master of housework» skill, namely his familiarity with repairing appliances and furniture to give him the «Advanced Engineering» skill.
Advanced Engineering lv 35 (advanced tier skill): The ability to create, repair, improve and repurpose mundane and mechanized items ranging from wagons to computers. This skill also grants the ability to understand structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Trying to use some leather and cloth he'd purchased to make himself a rough set of armor after finding out armor in his size was custom order only (impossible for a runaway) had led to yet another evolution thanks to his housework abilities, this time relating to sewing, to give him the «Light Armor Creation» skill.
Light Armor creation Lv 42 (Expert tier skill): The ability to make protective clothing using lightweight materials with a focus on minimal interference with movement in exchange for lower degrees of protection.
Performing first aid on the various thugs he'd beaten up had granted him the «First Aid» skill, right up until level 20 when it spontaneously evolved with his cooking ability and «poison resistance» skill to give him a stupidly high level and extremely edgy skill called «Plague doctor»
Plague doctor lv 57 (Expert tier skill): Due to your extensive experience with cooking, being forced to eat your mother and sisters' cooking (poison) and your knowledge of first aid you have the ability to identify, resist, cure, and create numerous types of poisons and medicines. You are also capable of treating most types of injuries.
Upon reaching level 40 his «Observe» skill had used both his basic stealth abilities and 3-dimensional movement skills and evolved into the «Advanced reconnaissance» skill. Which not only stretched the level at which he could view other's statuses but also granted him the ability to look at the quality and effects of their equipment to a certain level whereas before he'd been restricted viewing his own or otherwise unequipped items.
Advanced reconnaissance lv 40 (Expert tier skill): Between your extreme skill at concealment and high level of mobility you have become capable of scouting out opponents with incredible efficiency and accuracy, even being capable of determining the potency of their equipment. You can observe the level, status and certain traits of everyone 60 levels or less above your character level. You may view the effects of other individual's equipped gear rare rank and below. Gear you yourself created can be viewed regardless of rank.
Additionally, his constant stints in the night and otherwise near complete darkness had led to his «Superior eyesight» skill leveling up and then evolving with his «observe» skill into the skill «Preternatural eyesight».
Preternatural eyesight (Passive/Active) lv 38 (Expert tier skill): Despite being human your natural eyesight is better than most Faunus, even without Aura infusion. You can see clearly with drastically reduced amounts of light, see significantly beyond the normal light spectrum of what most humans can see and can see with incredible clarity. Passively reduces light required for clear vision by 52%, increases the spectrum of visible light by 52%, and increases the clarity and detail of your eyesight by 52%. When active, allows for vision in complete darkness, increases the spectrum of visible light by 104%, increases the clarity and detail of your eyesight by 104%, and makes it easier to perceive rapid movements. When active Irises glow and aura is expended over time.
Of all his new skills «Preternatural Eyesight» honestly took the longest to get used to, particularly when it was active. Having recorded a short video of himself to see what it looked like, Jaune was somewhat unnerved by his own appearance. It was unfortunate but the active state of the skill was pretty risky in regards to stealth, seeing as his Irises glowed an unearthly blue that left momentary trails of light if he moved. It was both badass and intimidating as hell in addition to being incredibly potent in combat. Having purchased and modified a mask slightly resembling a Wolf, Jaune had tracked down a rather large gathering of criminals and attacked to test the skill. The active effects of «Preternatural Eyesight» proving to both allowing him to scare the shit out of his opponents and predict their moves with heightened ease. When synced up with his «Flash step» skill (which had finally reached level 2) his evasive abilities had sky rocketed.
Jaune had never been so glad he had a ridiculous quantity of aura, seeing as the skill's active state burned through nearly 25 points of aura per second of activation, around 1500 points a minute, not even counting the considerable cost of using «Flash step» which he pegged at around 100 points per use at the moment. Considering his in-combat regeneration rate of aura was a measly 200 points per minute, perpetual use of either and particularly both skills cut his effective combat time sharply.
While his skill progression was nice, he'd only managed to level up 11 times in the last 3 months despite the countless criminals and gangsters he'd beaten up. Granted most of his opponents hadn't exactly been all that good, but with the number of people he'd beaten up he was somewhat disappointed with the outcome, especially considering most of his experience gains had come from the handful of relatively competent people he'd actually fought. While he'd avoided targeting more prominent street gangs and criminal groups, the ones he had targeted were a lot weaker than he'd thought they'd be. At level 92 he had around 31000 points of aura, meaning using «Preternatural eyesight» alone would burn through his entire reserves in around 20 minutes. It was honestly the first time Jaune had felt he didn't have enough aura, a stark turnaround from his previous state of tremendous excess.
Despite the limits on his newfound abilities and his somewhat disappointing progress at leveling up Jaune was overall quite content with his gains since he'd arrived in mistral, largely due to the equipment he'd made, purchased, and otherwise 'acquired'. While his civilian clothes and hoody apparently didn't count as equipment and hence provide no bonuses, armor actually appeared to have a number of useful benefits, even if it ended up revealing the startling revelation that inanimate objects could apparently have titles. There was also the fact that his equipment display seemed to have quietly updated itself at some point (probably when his aura manipulation had ranked up) and was now displayed in a completely different manner than it previously had.
«Demonic Eyes» Onyx Wolf mask (rare)
Appearance: Black with red engravings, this mask appears the same as any other festival mask, save for the fact that light doesn't seem to reflect off it as well as it should.
Description: While at first glance this Wolf mask appears no different from one sold at a mundane stall during a festival, it has been customized and altered heavily, granting it surprisingly high defensive capabilities. Reputably worn by an all-seeing demon, this particular mask is at the center of a growing urban legend in Haven's underworld of an ephemeral demon that appears from nowhere to destroy everything in its path, leavings its victims alive but binding their souls to eternal torment in hell when they die unless they repent and make up for their wrongdoings.
Armor type: Mask (light armor)
Physical defense rating: D+ (C-)
Dust magic defense rating: D+ (C-)
? defense rating: D+ (C-)
Mobility enhancement: E- (E)
Special traits:
«Demonic eyes» (C): The urban legend surrounding this mask has enhanced its performance slightly. Increases defensive ability from all type of damage to at least D+ rating. When used in conjunction with the «Preternatural Eyesight» skill all defense ratings increase by 2 degrees and the rank of mobility enhancement is increased by 1 degree. While equipped, slightly decreases aura cost of the «Preternatural Eyes» skill.
Mask of the ephemeral demon (D+): Slightly boosts stealth abilities while worn. Previously defeated opponents have their stats dropped by 10% while fighting this mask's wearer.
«Death March» Onyx Combat boots (rare)
Appearance: A pair of black combat boots created with a completely utilitarian design.
Description: A pair of combat boots created by one that willingly walks with death. Forgoes comfort and aesthetic appeal in favor of maximizing traction and balance.
Armor type: Boots (light armor)
Physical defense rating: D-
Dust magic defense rating: D-
? defense rating: D-
Mobility enhancement: D+ (?)
Special traits
«Death March» (C): Negates reduction to movement speed due to injuries during combat, increases degree of mobility enhancement based on how severely injured the wearer is.
«Death's grip» Black leather gauntlets (rare)
Appearance: A pair of black gauntlets made of dark cloth and leather that has an appearance slightly similar to Grimm flesh.
Description: A set of gauntlets created by one that willingly walks hand in hand with death. Forgoes comfort and aesthetic appeal in favor of maximizing grip and protective value.
Armor type: gloves/ armguards (light armor)
Physical defense rating: D+
Dust magic defense rating: D+
? defense rating: D+
Mobility enhancement: E- (C)
Special traits
«Death's grip» (D+): In battles where the wearer's life is a stake, drastically increase strength of the wielder's grip on their weapon, making it much harder to disarm them. Mobility enhancement increased to C for movements such as climbing or crawling.
«Death's embrace» black leather body armor (rare)
Appearance: While at first glance this dark colored apparel appears little difference from civilian clothes, closer inspection reveals its nature as surprisingly strong combat armor. Covers torso and legs.
Description: Body armor created by one that flourishes in death's pallid hold. Forgoes comfort and aesthetic appeal in favor of maximizing protective value and minimizing the obstruction of movements.
Armor type: full body armor (light armor)
Physical defense rating: C- (?)
Dust magic defense rating: C- (?)
? defense rating: C- (?)
Mobility obstruction: E+ (E-)
Mobility enhancement: E- (C-)
Special traits
«Death's embrace» (C+): Enhances defensive properties the closer the wearer is to death. If the wearer is at least severely injured Mobility obstruction is nullified (set to E- rating) and Mobility enhancement is increased to C- rating.
Utility (D+): Adds 8 inventory quick slots
Based on his facemask, Jaune figured there was some truth to the belief that objects eventually gained sentience over the course of time, especially considering he was all but certain Crocea Mors had 'spoken' to him in his fight with the Nuckelavee. His current hunch was that prolonged exposure to aura left an imprint on an object eventually leading to a form of intelligence.
Regarding his hunt for a firearm, while he'd been unable to find something even close to approaching Crocea Mors in regards to quality, he had grabbed a decent enough firearm to act as a stopgap until he found something better or -failing that- otherwise managed to upgrade said firearm enough that it would remain useable against stronger opponents. While the quality of the weapon was mediocre Jaune was quite fond of the type of weapon it was, even if most people might consider it slightly outdated.
A semi-automatic rifle, somewhat closer to an assault rifle than a repeater rifle, but still incapable of automatic firing. To most people, it provided neither the overwhelming torrent of fire of an automatic weapon nor the extreme per shot power of a sniper rifle or a shotgun, but to Jaune it was a perfect middle ground. Conventionally speaking, hunters gravitated towards high power or high rate of fire weapons, largely due to the constraints and restrictions of aura infusion. Users of high powered weapons fire a small number of shots with large amounts of aura infused into each. On the other hand, users of high rate of fire weapons used only a small amount of aura per round but fired off more shots. In his short time shooting, Jaune's personal preference had quickly become a moderate number of shots with a moderate to high amount of aura infused in each shot.
While Jaune's preferred method might seem the most potent at first glance (because it was, damage wise) it is also much more expensive, aura wise. An example scenario of this might follow as such: there are 3 hunters, one with a high power low shot count firing pattern (hunter A), one with a low power high shot count firing pattern (hunter B), and one with a moderate power moderate shot count firing pattern (Hunter C). Over the course of a minute, Hunter A fires 10 times using 100 points of aura per shot, Hunter B fires 100 times using 10 point of aura per shot, and hunter C fires 50 times using 50 points of aura per shot: in this case hunter A and hunter B both use 1000 points of aura but hunter C uses 2500 points of aura.
Seeing as hunters use both melee and ranged combat in conjunction almost without exception, Hunter C's method would generally be considered inefficient considering it more than halves effective combat time and hence hampers both melee damage dealing (which is generally much more significant than ranged damage) and leaves a hunter in a position of possessing a weapon with neither necessary rate of fire for crowd control against hordes of weaker Grimm nor the necessary stopping power to harm heavily armored or simply more durable Grimm without expending vastly greater amounts of aura per shot to make up for the gun's insufficient power.
The reason why Jaune gravitated towards this apparently flawed style was because he was largely exempt from the general weaknesses of this shooting style. His Immense aura reserves meant he could cope with the higher aura cost, his possession of a health bar meant he was less reliant on aura for defense, and his combat style and movement skills gave him an extreme affinity towards fighting large quantities of weaker foes in melee to make up for an ability to do so in ranged combat. There was also the fact that his final opponents would be human, meaning that their defensive abilities would be aura based and could be worn down regardless of stopping power, unlike the pure physical defenses of Grimm. While it was true that hunters cultivated inhumanly durable bodies under the effects of aura, it was only to the level where an A-rank hunter might be immune to bullets and projectiles with a weak or nonexistent aura infusion affect without their aura shield.
Remodeled Militär 913 (Uncommon)
Appearance: Roughly 3 feet in length with a grayscale coloration, loaded with a 12-round magazine with a conventional iron sight. This Rifle has a standard nylon harness attached for hands free carrying. Currently equipped with a common silencer.
Description: A new take on an old firearm. The initial design is that of the Militär 913 produced by the kingdom of Atlas (then Mantle) shortly before the beginning of the Great war. This version is likely a modern remake, considering the body structure is made of primarily modern era synthetic materials, leaving it a rather uniform gray in coloration but otherwise maintaining the original structure and internal functions of the weapon. Despite its reliability and solid performance, its weapon type's lack of popularity with Aura users left it primarily in the hands of auraless soldiers or otherwise those that had their auras unlocked but possessed no official training in its use.
Weapon type: Firearm (Semi-automatic Rifle)
Durability: B
Base attack: C-
Base Armor piercing: D
Base rate of fire: B-
Base effective range: C
DEX handling scaling: C+
Ranged mastery general scaling: C
Aura infusion efficiency: B
At the moment, he could only take 8 spare mags from his inventory during combat, thanks to his equipment adding what were referred to as inventory quick slots. It was unfortunate but they only appeared to work with supporting gear, ammo and the like, and didn't function with weapons.
Switching topics back towards his possibly sentient sword, constant aura infusions into Crocea Mors over the last few months had seen in regaining a sort of majesty once more, although it remained silent still. But while it hadn't 'spoken' to him again, it had done something rather creepy after he realized he wouldn't be able to use his shield in the city due to the little fact that it had his family logo smack dab in the center of it while deployed. The shield (then in sheathe form) had heated up momentarily and when Jaune had opened It up he'd found, miraculously, that the extremely blatant Arc family logo on the shield had apparently vanished, leaving it appearing as nothing more than an unmarked white shield.
Additionally, the status of his weapon had changed at some point, either due to him momentarily 'awakening' his weapon, revealing its true power (or at least more of it) or his increased observation skills letting him see more of said true power.
Crocea Mors (Epic)
Appearance: A pristine white shield with the Arc family crest (currently hidden) overlaid on the center of the shield, in its alternate form the shield looks like a relatively normal -if high quality- sheathe. The shield is paired with a masterfully crafted longsword that has no signs of damage or wear despite Crocea Mors incredibly long history of combat. Both pieces seem to possess an almost alien majesty in their appearance, which is heightened the more aura is contained within the blade.
Description: An ancient armament that puts even master crafted weapons and armor to shame, having been in the possession of the Arc family since the beginning of recorded history (approximately 1000 years ago, after the fall of the old kingdoms) this weapon is a famous symbol of the Arc family. Despite appearing as being a normal if almost unbelievably high quality weapon, it appears there is something more to this Arc family heirloom….
Weapon Type: Sword and shield-sheathe combo
Sword
Durability: Indestructible
Base attack: D++
DEX attack rate scaling: S+
STR attack scaling: S+
Sword mastery general scaling: S+
Luck critical attack scaling: A+
Aura channeling efficiency: S+
Aura capacity: SSS++
?: ?
?: ?
Special traits:
Grimmsbane (A) : +50% armor penetration and damage to all Grimm
Arc family Legacy (A) : -80% total attack damage when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, the sword has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences.
Aura Over-limit (E- - to SSS++): Releases aura stored within the blade to unleash an attack of overwhelming power, if the weapons wielder is not experienced enough to control the overwhelming flow of aura all aura within blade will be expended in this attack. If the quantity of aura within the blade is too high for the wielder to control this attack can cause physical and spiritual backlash ranging from minor strain to fatal recoil (both physically and spiritually). Current wielder limit without sustaining permanent physical or spiritual damage is C++ ranked over-limit
Aura resonance (SSS): The more aura is stored within Crocea Mors the higher its base attributes are and the more of its special traits are unlocked.
User strengthening (D): Passively increases the attributes of the wielder, increases in rank based on stored aura. At current rank +40 to all stats.
Shield-sheathe
Durability: Indestructible
DEX parrying scaling: S+
STR stability scaling: S+
INT soul magic defense scaling: S+
Shield mastery general scaling: S+
Special attributes:
Unfaltering (A): Completely nullifies physical damage on successful blocks
Arc family legacy (A): Becomes extremely unwieldy and difficult to use when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, this sheathe-shield combo has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences.
Aura resonance (SSS): The more aura is stored within Crocea Mors the higher its base attributes are and the more of its special traits are unlocked.
Defense strengthening (D): Passively enhances all defensive armaments and skills being used by Crocea Mors' wielder, increases in rank based on stored aura. At current rank +10% effect to all defensive skills and gear.
Of course, considering the rather prominent fuck you of his weapon not only becoming epic ranked instead of legendary but also having a special attribute ranked at SSS++ Jaune had spent a fair amount of time pandering through his menu until his semblance decided to throw him a bone and explain what the fucking hell that meant. With both an actual rarity chart and an explanation as to the potency of various weapon stats Jaune was now more knowledgeable… if now mildly terrified that a full powered Aura over-limit with Crocea Mors could possibly split a fucking continent.
Rarity ranks:
Shoddy - Common - Uncommon - Rare - Exceptional - Mastercraft - Legendary - Epic - Transient - Godly - Phantasmal
Equipment attribute rankings:
E- to E++: near 0 stat, all but unusable, trash equipment stat
D- to D++ : low, basic equipment stats
C- to C++: mediocre, decent equipment stat
B- to B++: high, exceptional equipment stat
A- to A++: very high, First class equipment stat
S- to S++: Extremely high, Super-first class equipment stat
SS- to SS++: Monstrously high, Peerless equipment stat
SSS- to SSS++: Impossibly high, equipment stat exceeds what should be physically possible, anti-continent grade for attack stats.
While Jaune imagine pulling off such an attack would probably require aura somewhere in the range of hundreds of billions of points (and would undoubtedly kill whoever used said attack) it was still kind of a wtf moment when he learned his family's heirloom had the potential to be a WMD far surpassing anything the four kingdoms had at their disposal.
Mildly unnerving implications as to the nature and extent of his family heirloom's ability aside, Jaune was moving into the last portions of his preparations for tracking down the government agency involved with Black dust, namely, setting up a 'kill zone' so to speak, even if he'd specifically designed it to be non-lethal. While he was safe from his own scroll being tracked electronically the stolen scroll would have its location triangulated quite quickly, assuming his hunch worked, and seeing as he would be using the scroll at the time he'd probably have at least a few government agents on him by the time he'd finished getting what he needed, especially considering they wouldn't have a method of checking on him remotely (considering he'd have removed all nearby cameras).
While research done by a regular civilian wouldn't warrant such a response, research done from a heavily modified scroll owned by a thug that had possibly reported it stolen from an area without a method of checking its user was probably enough to warrant a bit of attention. From removing nearby cameras to setting up and mapping out various escape routes and nonlethal traps Jaune had spent the last week turning an abandoned construction site in an equally unpopulated city block on Mistrals outskirts into a nigh perfect battleground for him. Seeing as a 10-year-old buying massive quantities of stuff was suspicious in its own right, let alone if said stuff was soon after found used in traps against government agents, Jaune had 'acquired' basically everything in the same way he'd acquired the spare scrolls.
With all the time he'd spent painstakingly tracking down what he needed and appropriating it from various less than savory individuals, Jaune's current opinion on such actions could be succinctly explain as such: 'God damn, I wish I had auto-loot'.
Were it completed, Jaune assumed the building he was using would have been an office building of some type, but with only the bare frame of the building and a sparse handful of floors and walls completed it was like the world's most over the top jungle gym for someone like Jaune, and an absolute nightmare for anyone without 3-dimensional movement proficiency, even without the traps Jaune had installed. The fact that trapping was yet another skill that fell under the umbrella of his «Subversive Arts» skill was frankly just rubbing it in.
Even with all this, Jaune understood he was banking on no hunter level combatants above high D rank appearing, something he was actually confident about. Between the surge in individualism after the great war (forcibly stimulated in Mistral, as part of the losing side) and the difficulty of making hunters C rank and above to things they didn't want to very few high-level combatants ended up in the more clandestine part of government service. After all, if you're an individual possessing enough power to plow through hordes of Grimm who's going to want to go through the trouble to live a life where you have to hide everything about yourself and live in the shadows. For most people, rank C and above meant fame and fortune, yet another reason as to why the covert agencies of the kingdoms seemed to suck so badly.
Jaune's current level might be considered scraping the bottom of C-rank prowess, meaning he was through the relatively easy to pass lower rankings and into the realm of annoying power inflation. He estimated he'd had to roughly double his stats to reach the very bottom of B-rank physically, to say nothing of skill levels, meaning an experienced C-rank hunter would still be able to smack him around with ease and a B-rank could probably one-shot him, meaning if one showed up he'd have to resort to running like a little bitch, unfortunately.
Due to accepting reality, you have gained 1 point of Int and Wis.
"Oh, fuck off." Jaune mumbled even as he arrived back at his nearly finished 'kill-zone' having navigated back towards the sparsely populated area of mistral as the sun began to fall behind the horizon. Moving to finish the last of his traps, Jaune checked his equipment one last time before night fell, donning his mask with a practiced motion and steeling himself for the task ahead.
With one last once over on the hacking software he put together on the stolen scrolls Jaune exhaled once and typed black dust into the search engine. Barely 10 seconds later the second scroll picked up someone else trying to get information on the first scroll to no initial success. While it wasn't meant to actually stop someone from tracking the scroll, Jaune had thrown in a bit of anti-tracking and a few anti-virus programs into the first scroll, fairly shoddy in nature but hopefully enough to draw attention to said scroll so he could have an easier avenue for his own hacking.
5 minutes in and whoever was on the other side still hadn't cracked through the first layer of his little firewall while Jaune had already passed a few levels of clearance through theirs'. A surprisingly good outcome honestly, he was fairly certain they didn't realize they were being hacked back and his own scroll clearly wasn't considered much of a priority, judging by the mediocre at best hacker working against it. The organization clearly hadn't considered someone might try and hack them in response considering how weak their firewalls were, the most difficult part was honestly making extra sure they didn't realize he was hacking them, going brute force style and he'd probably be able to break through in 10 minutes at most.
25 minutes later and Jaune was already halfway done downloading everything related through black dust, at which point his opponent finally managed to triangulate his scroll's location. It was honestly shocking that it'd taken them a half hour to get through it all, but Jaune figured that was a result of the shoddy firewalls he'd put up being low priority, something better would've probably diverted more resources and manpower and get torn down much faster. Considering how much more information he had found than what he'd been expecting he still need around 15 more minutes before he could cut the connection and move, meaning the response to his search would probably reach him before he could leave unfortunately.
Well considering how low a priority hack it was they probably won't send much, fortunately.
? headquarters
"We're through! Triangulating now!" a man yelled in relief.
"Finally, what the hell kind of firewalls were those?" another man yelled as he slumped in his chair.
"No clue, but I'm sending a priority 1 response to the location of that scroll." A third man, clearly the highest ranking, responded glancing around the room "20 D-rank combatants, some of the best of the black ops division, they even have a squad leader nearing peak D-rank."
"You sure we can't get them support from a few C-rank huntsmen?"
"Yeah let me just call up that one C-rank guy still in black ops, now what's his name? Oh, right Michael mc-doesn't-exist!" the commanding officer shot back scathingly, shamelessly stealing a line from a certain abridged series as the author super casually pushed the blame onto a single scene character.
The whole, losing all but their entire huntsman corps thing during the great war and responding recruitment campaign had led to extreme pride for those who were, or were otherwise training to be, huntsman. Good for recruitment, but unfortunately bad for convincing the more competent ones to agree to hide their identities and status as huntsman to enter black ops. While most kingdoms had a dozen or so C ranks and maybe a few B-ranks (hell Vale was rumored to have a bloody A-rank) as part of their special forces, Mistral was currently greatly understaffed in regards to high level clandestine agents, something that was a noticeable sore point for those in command.
Trying to force it (even with C-rank combatants) was never not going to blow up in Mistrals face. 'Oh sure! Let's force this guy who's going to be handling state secrets and performing vital cover-ups to do this one job that involves him having to give up everything he's ever known, have no friends, and even being declared legally dead to his family, it'll be great!' was a pretty good summation of how that was going to turn out.
"I don't like this." Someone murmured "It's the middle of the night and we've got no idea who we're up against."
"I know, but if the specifics of Black Dust gets out, its going to be a shit storm of epic proportions, even if other kingdoms are probably already researching it secret. It doesn't take an egghead to know that shit is way more effective against hunters than it is Grimm, let the public learn that and then throw in the fact that people won't have trouble thinking the Mistralean government is still holding, and acting on, a grudge regarding our hunter corps and we're in for a political nightmare."
The room's other occupants had no response to this.
"Looks like I have guests" Jaune mused quietly, glancing down at the scroll in front of him "about 10 minutes to go huh?" he smiled behind his mask "Looks like I'll have to go keep them company then" the boy murmured even as he left the small room, slipping into the shadows.
«Jace Ollen Lv89»
«Rio Sel lv 81»
«Kerry Kent lv 76»
Alongside those three Jaune spotted 17 others that were roughly around the same level as the 2 lower level agents outside the building. While the level 89 guy was the strongest and appeared to be in command, the remaining agents we all Solid D-rank, something that hinted towards a surprisingly elite special forces division under Mistral's control, if this was the response to such a minor thing. If they could throw these kinds of task forces around Jaune was going to have to be careful not to draw to much of their ire in any traceable way.
Unfortunately, (for them) there didn't appear to be any Faunus in the group, meaning their visibly was comparable to Jaune's own in the same way an NPC soldier's was to Big Boss's, hell in this lighting Jaune figured he might actually be able to pull off the cardboard box trick… well if he had a cardboard box anyway. Still, in a head on, fair fight Jaune would lose badly, but the moment a stealth force was at the level of only being able to win if the opponent showed themselves and fought a straight up fight it was already a decided match.
As if to prove this, one of the operatives chose that moment to stumble into one of Jaune's traps, its concealment combined with low levels of light causing the man to walk right into it. In a fraction of a second the man was covered in a viscous liquid and hauled upwards by his leg in an upgraded version of the classic snare trap leaving him 50 feet in the air hanging by his leg as the rest of the operatives froze and took up combat positions.
While normally even a D-rank hunter could easily get out of a trap like that, the trap's victim quickly fell limp as the viscous liquid covering his body took effect, the high-potency tranquilizer knocking him out with ease.
Unfortunately, after the first trap there was no way he could count on them simply falling into them without trouble, as they would take the time to watch their step if they could, which simply meant he couldn't give them the chance. Silently dropping down into a blind spot Jaune proceeded to -stealthily- smack the back of one of the operatives head with the still sheathed Crocea Mors, managing to do the same to a second operative before the sound of the first dropping like a sack of bricks alerted the rest.
"We've got hostiles!" one of them roared in the most generic alert phrase ever even as Jaune bolted from his current location into another part of the abandoned building. The operatives attempted to follow him, entering the building without issue only to get caught in a nightmare only held back from being a deathtrap by its owner's design. Flashbangs triggered by tripwires, faulty floors, snare traps, nets, and more hunter grade tranquilizer than they could shake a stick at all while being hounded from a distance, the dull thud of silenced gunfire the only hint to their aura enhanced senses that one of them was about to get nailed with a bullet infused with just enough aura to bruise and knock them off balance without piercing their aura shields.
…When we fought on the lower floors he was above us, bullets crashing into limbs, buckets of high end tranquilizers dropping from above, covering the ground with a slippery sludge even when it missed and quickly leaving those splattered by it hazy and incapable of remaining attentive. When we fought on the top floors he was below us grabbing people through various gaps and openings in the floor and yanking them downwards to the lower floors in painful but ultimately nonlethal falls that left several of our number on their backs gasping for breath only to be soaked in tranquilizer before they could recover. When we fought on the middle floors he was everywhere, above and below, left and right, behind us, in front of us, yet when we turned to attack he was already gone even as we dropped like flies.
What followed would best be described as a hopeless and one sided thrashing, as we found ourselves attempting to fight in a trap infested maze of a building, being picked off one after another by what felt like an Invisible Shadow. In a matter of minutes only 3 of us were left as we somehow managed to get outside into a portion of the abandoned construction site that was little more than the most basic foundations. There was nowhere for him to hide, no place to have readied a trap, and yet we stood with our backs to each other in a triangle shape, desperately searching the surroundings for something that might as well have not existed. It was at that point that a solid thud drew our attention towards one side and for a moment we saw nothing, before our eyes locked onto the figure standing nonchalantly and staring at us from perhaps a dozen feet away.
Ice shot down our spines alongside the realization that it had taken us several seconds to notice somewhat standing in out in the open. Even once we saw him it was like our eyes kept trying to gloss over him, like we had to pay extra attention just to keep seeing where he was.
The figure's mask was like a black hole, noticeably darker than even the dimly construction site we stood in as a pair of baleful blue eyes stared through the mask at us, glowing with an ethereal light that caused the figure's eyes to seem to dominate the room. Looking into those eyes made it easy to keep track of him, but meeting his gaze was much easier said than done. Seemingly rather diminutive in the height, the figure that had torn through most the stealth corps like they were rank weaklings stood looking impassively at us for a moment, judging us and weighting our worth, before taking a step forward and beginning to approach as our hearts leapt into our throats.
The 3 of us clutched our weapons and prepared to die, forgoing any attempts at stealth and roaring out our last defiance, we the charged the figure with everything we had. Our best blows were warded off or evaded with ease, sometimes by mere inches as if to mock us, bullets were dodged, the figure seeming to move to evade them before the shot had even been fired. Anything that did hit seemed to do nothing, all while those baleful eyes watched us coldly. The other 2 were defeated in short order and soon after I too began to fall into unconsciousness. As darkness overtook my vision I found myself remembering a fiction novel I'd read not too long ago about a legendary infiltrator, and with this I realized who we'd been fighting, in essence, if not name.
"Shadow of Shadows…" A spy amongst spies, an agent amongst agents, a ghost to even ghosts.
We had never stood a chance from the very beginning.
But I still wonder… why did he leave us alive? And what did he want?
-Excerpt from Jace Ollis's field report on the unsuccessful operation *redacted* regarding *redacted*. Further information Classified, A-level clearance required.
Starring at the form of the last operative, now collapsed on the ground, Jaune stopped channeling aura into his eyes, the room growing darker as the active effects of his «preternatural eyesight» faded. Stumbling over to a wall Jaune collapsed heavily against it, letting out a heavy sigh.
"I got arrogant" he murmured "3 at once was probably pushing it a bit wasn't it." he continued glancing at the health and aura bars at the corner of his vision.
Health: 15%
Aura: 12%
"Preternatural eyesight burns through aura way too fast, I hope I'm not imagining the fact that the cost is going down as it levels" Jaune murmured pushing himself up and off the wall and moving to return to the sight of his stolen scroll "download should be done by now at least" he mumbled checking the various end of combat popups that had appeared in front of him.
20 Mistralean black ops agents (Average level 80) have been defeated, 600,000 Experience has been gained:
(20*3,000) base *5 (trait modifier) *2 (A glimpse of death) = 600,000
Congratulations! You are now level 102, you now have 50 attribute point to spend.
For passing the level 100 milestone a new skill or trait will be acquired based on prior actions!
Initializing…
Scanning records…
Registering prior parameters…
Skill acquisition complete! Advanced tier skill «Limit Cut» acquired! Skill «Limit Cut» is now level 10!
For passing the level 100 milestone you may now equip up to 2 titles at any given time.
«Subversive arts» is now level 56!
Aura sub-skill, «Aura shield» is now level 14!
Skill «Advanced bladed weapon mastery» is now level 40!
Skill «Defensive arts» is now level 41!
Skill «Preternatural eyesight» is now level 39!
Advanced tier skill «Overwhelming» has been acquired! Skill «Overwhelming» is now level 10!
Title «Shadow of Shadows» acquired!
Strength has increase by 3.
Agility has increase by 5.
Vitality has increased by 2.
Intelligence has increased by 2.
Wis has increase by 2.
Luck has increase by 2.
Jaune smiled lightly before dumping most of his newly acquired stat points into his Dexterity stat and then focusing on his new skills and titles.
Shadow of Shadows: You are the unquestioned master of stealth and covert actions. While equipped increases the effect of all covert type skills by 40% against other practitioners of clandestine arts. Passively increases the growth rate of covert skills by 20%.
Limit cut (Active) lv 10 (advanced tier skill): The ability to surpass one's normal limits for a short time in exchange for being rapidly exhausted. Increases all physical stats by 12.5% and increases stamina consumption by 287% while active. Overuse may cause minor health or (if health is depleted) muscle damage.
Overwhelming lv 10 (Advanced tier skill): Reduces damage received from opponents in panicked or otherwise disturbed emotional or mental states.
"Cool" Jaune murmured equipping his new title as he finally reached his destination, removing the flash drive he'd downloaded the server's information onto and stowing it into his inventory. With one last look around Jaune proceeded to perform a quick cleanup of anything that might connect this to him (or otherwise simply be useful) before he vanished into the night, leaving behind 20 unconscious black ops agents, all with decidedly less equipment on their persons than when they'd arrived.
"Just another day in the life..."
A/N 1
Finally, back with another chapter! This reveals a few of the more esoteric aspects of Jaune's semblance. While most people are content to just keep with the whole, it's a gamer semblance because plot, I wanted to go a bit more into how it functions rather than just leaving it as a 'because reasons' sort of thing. Granted casuality manipulation is still vague by nature, but Jaune will get a more precise view and understanding of his semblance as his aura mastery skill levels up and ranks up. Semblances are representations of a person soul, and I feel personal experiences can only change them minorly. In a world without video games Jaune's semblance may have manifested in a different way while still being centered around casuality manipulation. As I said in the first chapter, Jaune's semblance can't warp the laws of reality, instead what his semblance does is interfere with how reality reacts with Jaune.
Regarding equipment. Crocea Mors is bullshit but the issue is Jaune using one of its active abilities costs him (at least) a month's worth of aura change, meaning using short term powerful abilities lower the weapons stats and consistent bonuses in turn. Note that Jaune, Mr. my-aura-regenerates-in-minutes-faster-than-most-people-do-in-days, has been pouring nearly all his excess aura into Crocea Mors for the last 3 months to get that level of enhancement, and its only enough for one, maybe 2 attacks like the one he dished out on the Nuckelavee. Additionally, since he can't really control it at this point, he's basically emptying everything he has in 1 attack at this point, disregarding the physical and spiritual strain it would put on him. Crocea Mors is basically both Jaune's primary arms and his single use golden bullet. It gives him a chance against opponents normally far beyond him but if he misses said chance he's still screwed.
The Legend of the Legendary Nevermore Knight grows! While this title is equipped Jaune is a lot stronger, even if his stats don't technically change much, but the downsides of acting like a natural Chuunibyou while it is equipped causes Jaune far too much mental damage for extensive use (even disregarding the strain of using it) and the flamboyant tendencies Jaune adopts under the effects of this title are super bad for stealth. Fortunately for Jaune this title can't be changed during combat, meaning that it is impossible for him to equip it mid-battle and hence not doing so doesn't count as holding back during a fight. Of course, the potency of this title will often force Jaune to equip it prior to a particularly risky fight or tough mission, which will in turn increase the renown of the title in turn making it stronger in an infinite cycle that decades from now ends in Jaune being nigh invincible but still losing at life (i.e. if/when he's unmasked in a distant dark future).
Below is some more optional world building stuff because not everyone is a Gamer, another Grimm bestiary Entry, and then some more notes with spoilers for Canon and possibly other stuff. Also, for everyone else on remnant, Lol to Jaune's 'measly' in combat aura recovery rate of 200 points per minute.
A/N 1 End
Headmaster Ozpin's beginners guide to understanding hunters
Chapter 2: Ability classifications
While almost everyone knows the typical low E to high S general ranking classification for hunters few people know how this is derived as well as the scores and ranking for the various sub categories that help define a hunter's rank. Seeing as hunters have various specialties a B-rank hunter doesn't necessarily have B-rank strength, speed, or aura quantity. Glynda Goodwitch, for example, only had C-rank strength and speed at the time she became A-rank (2 decades ago) that was offset by her immense aura reserves and ability as a dust caster. Most hunter's abilities are gauged by the following 12 categories: Aura Quantity, Aura Control, resting Aura recovery rate, Semblance potency, Semblance Mastery, Strength, Speed, Endurance, Evasion, Close range combat proficiency, mid-range combat proficiency, and long range combat proficiency. Additional categories are added based on specializations, such as Dust mages having a Dust magic category affecting their overall ranking.
While most up to date and even the specifics of older specified rankings are private and classified, I have received permission from a recently minted B-rank hunter (21 years old at this time) to display her current rankings as of this moment. The hunter in question, Miss Mordred Arc, opted to do so as she hopes revealing her weaknesses will encourage her to fix them rather than let them lie with her recently acquired status as the youngest B-rank hunter in history.
Name: Mordred Arc
Gender: Female
Age (biological): 21 (18)
General Rank: B-
Combat type: Universal (proficient in anti-unit, anti-group, and anti-army combat)
Aura Quantity: A- (45,000)
Aura control: D+
Resting Aura recovery rate: C (9 per minute)
Semblance Potency: A-
Semblance mastery: D+
Strength: B
Speed: B
Endurance: B
Evasion: B-
Close quarters combat: A-
Mid-range combat: B-
Long-range combat: E-
Additional Categories
Rapid recovery: C
Survival skills: B-
Leadership (during battle): D (B+)
While most of these ranks cannot be numerically classified precisely, recent advances in technology have allowed for a rough quantification for aura reserves and aura regeneration rates outside of combat. Below are the relative degrees of mastery for skills based abilities alongside related aura quantity, with high (+) and low (-) representing the upper or bottom 3rd for that letter ranking.
E: Novice. Less than 2 thousand 'points' of aura. less than 1 point of Aura regenerate per minute.
D: Competent. 2-5 thousand 'points' of aura. 1-5 points of Aura regenerated per minute.
C: Skilled. 5-20 thousand 'points' of aura. 5-12 points of Aura regenerated per minute.
B: Master. 20-40 thousand points of Aura. 12-20 points of Aura regenerated per minute.
A: Grandmaster. 40-100 thousand points of Aura. 20-45 points of aura regenerated per minute.
S: Legendary. More than 100 thousand points of Aura. More than 45 points of aura regenerated per minute.
These categories and many more are compiled together to define a hunter's rank, so remember, just because a huntsman is B-rank does mean they are automatically better than anyone at a lower rank at everything, choosing the right person for the right job can make up the difference between victory and defeated on the battlefield.
A/N 2 Begins!
The above is how normal people rank and record the skills and ability of hunters after various examinations, tests, and other measures of aptitude. Aura is something I felt could be numerically measured with technology, something Jaune's semblance synced up to in regards to its own measurement of it, while skills and physical ability can only be vaguely gauged for the most part. While this may seem somewhat pointless due to Jaune's observe (now advanced reconnaissance) ability, not all the information he has on people will be derived from said skill and others will likely put together a record for his own abilities. And yes, Jaune's aura recovery rate is indeed already S+ ranked, percent recovery plus massively heightened max reserves be bullshit yo. Also weapon stats and hunter stats don't really match up in case you haven't realized.
And yes this is several years out of date from Mordred's other status sheet precisely so you can't try and figure out a precise point relation to the various stat ranks normal people use.
Professor Peter Port's Peerless Pamphlet Pertaining to the Proper Pursuit and Persecution of Prey.
Section 1: Low-class Grimm
Entry # 013: The Nevermore
Author's note: The most common species of airborne Grimm, the Nevermore's status as a Low-class Grimm has been contested by scientists and hunters for decades. While, like mid-class Grimm, the Nevermore is capable of feasibly reaching low B-rank combat prowess this process takes longer than it would in most Mid-class Grimm, taking upwards to 6 centuries for it to reach low B-rank. Like all Grimm, simply being considered low-class does not discredit its possible threat, even to fully fledged huntsman. In my youth, my hunter team and I found ourselves pinned in a cave by a flock of Nevermores as we fought off hordes of other Grimm species, unable to flee lest the Nevermores impale us as we attempted to pass the chokepoint at the cave's exit. In the end, as my teammates grew weary, I was force to battle all but alone for nearly 2 days straight until we'd slew all the remaining Grimm in the area and no more reinforcements could come to hinder us! But, once more, this is a story for another time.
Description: Ranging in size from the scale of a vending machine to that of a full-sized airship Nevermores resemble massive crows, fitting of their tendency to form massive flocks, or as hunters refer to them Murders of Nevermores much in the way a flock of crows is referred to as a murder of crows. Using both their vicious talons and their razor-sharp quills for close and long range combat respectively the Nevermore has one of the most varied effective combat range out of Grimm species, even compared to high-class Grimm. Their most powerful sense is their eyesight, don't count on a Nevermore not seeing you even if you are kilometers away seeing as they have incredibly sharp eyesight, beyond even the level of a Faunus with B-class aura based sensory enhancement on top of their naturally sharp eyesight. Fortunately, the rest of their senses are not as strong as their eyesight, with limitations similar to conventional avian species, meaning their hearing ability is sharpest between 1 kHz and 4 kHz, much higher than the frequency of human speech and even footsteps. Considering that, like normal birds, their ability to discriminate between frequencies is only ½ to 1/3 as good as a normal aura less human, any level of background noise makes it difficult for Nevermores to use their sense of hearing reliably in combat, especially considering they are as vulnerable to loud noises as aura less humans are. Add this to a rather weak sense of smell and a sense of touch dulled by their thick feathers and eyesight becomes a hunter's greatest concern when facing Nevermores.
Combat Strength: Having arguable the highest variable range of strength out of low-class Grimm Nevermores generally range from E-rank to low B-rank, although there have been a handful of low A-rank Nevermores spotted (and slain) in the past century, with evidence leading to suggest they had been alive for around 2 millennia. Born as fledglings at low E-rank, it takes a nevermore anywhere from 30 to 40 years to reach what is referred to as the standard level of a nevermore, by far the most commonly seen, sitting between mid and high E-rank strength. After this it takes an addition 50 to 60 years to become a seasoned (experienced mind you, not food) Nevermore with anywhere in the D-rank strata. At this point it takes it anywhere of 1 to 2 centuries to become and Elder nevermore (low to mid C-rank) and then another 2 to 3 centuries to be considered an Ancient Nevermore (High C to low B-rank). This means it theoretically takes a Nevermore 1400 years to go from low B-rank strength to low A-rank, vastly longer than most mid or high class Grimm and hence the reason Nevermores are still considered low class Grimm.
A/N 3 Begin!
Spoilers/potential spoilers ahead
Be warned ye foolish mortals
…..
Literally no one stopped reading, right?
…
Yeah, I thought so…...
To those of you didn't notice it, my reference to Headmaster Lionheart and Watts (whose name Jaune only vaguely remembered) is indeed an indication to those who are caught up with RWBY Canon that the CCT was deliberately kept below peak operating efficiency by Salem and her cohorts for the sake of the attack on Kuroyuri, which was intended to spread discontent throughout Mistral but despite months of planning somehow only managed to help further the career of an (unwilling) Sentai hero.
The way I see it (and how I will be treating it in this story) is that Watts isn't a well-known member of Salem's group, if only because in canon neither him nor Headmaster Lionheart saw any problem in the two of them meeting in an extremely public place filled with hunters (i.e. Lionheart's office in haven academy). Each of Salem's subordinates has their own roll: Cinder is an underworld manipulator, Tyrian is an Insane assassin, Hazel gives off the impression of being a more direct combatant or an enforcer type existence, and my view of Watts is that he is probably a more public figure, moving among the strata of upper class and influential individuals and working from there to further Salem's plans. He's the bad guy that only a handful of people (I.e. other bad guys) know is a villain and is primarily in the role of pushing stances and reforms that benefit Salem's agenda rather than actual criminal action. Whether this ends up being true in Canon or not, this is how I will be treating it for this story.
On a side note, Salem actually had a short Blue Screen of Death upon being told that the reason why the organized attack on Kuroyuri that slaughtered of 4/5ths of the settlement had actually mildly boosted the perceived safety of Mistral in the eyes of the average resident was because of the supposed appearance of a hero straight out of a second-rate cartoon. She then comes closer to a mental breakdown than she has in decades after realizing that she is the only member of her group present that realizes just how stupid the name Legendary Nevermore Knight is: Tyrian is oddly conflicted and thinks the name is super cool, Watts talks about the Legendary Nevermore Knight like a supervillain would their nemesis (despite Jaune being unaware of his existence and the two never having met), and Hazel starts acting like he's a stereotypical hotblooded rival of the main protagonist (Jaune) from an action anime (despite, once again, having never met him).
This all leaves Salem questioning her sanity as she watches her subordinates (who are now ignoring her completely) spend an inordinately large amount of time focusing on the (currently nonexistent, from a sane perspective) threat the Legendary Nevermore Knight represents. The fact that Tyrian is actually focusing intently only sends Salem further down the rabbit hole. After the meeting, the still shell-shocked Salem runs into a young Cinder (who was not present at the meeting as she had not yet taken a position in the higher ranks of the organization at this point) and begins to ask her what she thinks of the name Legendary Nevermore Knight before cutting herself off in fear of the response and instead choosing to delude herself that Cinder would obviously take her side in the matter and that SHE WASN'T CRAZY DAMN IT!
Edited: 12/18/17
