A few years ago, I promised to do a Luck-based Gamer challenge, with a matching Omaka for Shirou's Life Is A Game. Finally, I'm paying that back with interest, with two being currently planned, not including the Omaka. Also note, I didn't use the same system as Shirou's Life Is A Game, since that would actually be very powerful in a world where Grimm are basically pure energy.

Also, special thanks to Random O' Panda and Juane Arc, who inspired this in his attempts to write a Jaune focusing on Charisma, and went through and revised this chapter respectively.

In any case, the explanation is fairly simple. This story revolves around Jaune's The Gamer power, and his own personal Luck. He doesn't have nearly as much personal power as some of his fellow students though, and won't be very powerful for most of the story. Even at the end, I wouldn't have him win against any of the main cast, besides maybe Lie Ren, or Nora. His main power is Luck though, and mixing that Luck into his Cannon short-term plans. I also believe I accidentally wrote him far too smart though.

I also went to great lengths to insure that this Jaune wouldn't be more powerful than he should be, deliberately weakening his power to where he outright can't train his Luck, and has trouble training anything else at all. He's also stuck with the main storyline, where Ruby should be the main character. That means he's likely to end the series as an unimportant character, and only maybe help in important situations, like in this story. His power, however, does depend on your definition of luck, and so may be very powerful in any situation, if you decide that luck runs the world so completely.

Version one.

They say that Jaune's Grimm fur coat became something of a legend around Beacon. The way it almost seemed to move, as if it were alive. But that was impossible, they thought. Even the youngest and most foolish among them was smart enough to know that Grimm disintegrated entirely after they were killed, after all. Perhaps the growing white on the coat was just the fur drying out.

When Aura was unlocked, the Semblance was immediately activated, but it generally had very small passive effects. For most people that means finding a spoon moved half an inch into your hand, or finding a second wind slightly before their body physically gives them one. For Jaune Arc, his was slightly more uniform strength. Considering he didn't fight any packs of Grimm, and it didn't really help him with running away from the Deathstalker, it didn't really help him.

The screens annoyed him though, despite not being clearly visible, they were just enough to cover his sight somewhat, and that could cause a great mistake when running for one's life, or fighting. He didn't really know they were there, not in truth, but the discoloration made his body more agitated, trying to detect some injury that would cause the screens to be there.

He blocked Deathstalker's claw with his shield, doing his best to deflect the blow, despite it pushing him back, and swung his sword into the hard chitin plates on the claw, forcing it back, more than doing damage. He didn't have the strength to block without putting in his whole body, so he couldn't try to return the strike, but his partner-Pyrrha, his mind reminded him- was already moving. Jumped up behind him, she smoothly and swiftly stabbed the reflected claw with her own, much greater ability, even making a decent crack in the bony plate. With both claws now pushed away from the main body, courtesy almost entirely of Pyrrha, Ren was free to attack the main body, though he decided to take out the tail after the Deathstalker attacked him with it.

If his Semblance was fully activated, Jaune would have noticed this, and probably capitalized on it before anything truly bad happened. Instead, distracted by the fight, he didn't even notice what Ren was doing. He brought up his shield once more when the Deathstalker crossed it, an action which forced both him and Pyrrha back, though he was the only one that lost their footing. He forced himself up though, keenly aware from the pain in his shield arm, and slight numbness thereof that he they couldn't continue like how they were. Pyrrha and Nora were doing damage, sure, but it was almost insignificant Even worse, least three of them were required to keep the Deathstalker back, and the other boy was already out, with himself following shortly after.

Of course, most of this thought was instinctual, understanding the situation at a glance without actually taking the time to decipher the best possible solution. His actual conscious was oddly blank. Instead, he focused on the stinger of the Deathstalker, the massive unarmored limb that Ren had damaged so much. Somehow, he knew what to do, as if everything clicked, mathematically or otherwise. "Pyrrha!" he shouted. He hoped he wouldn't have to explain, and somehow Pyrrha understood in a moment, working together instantly. It was uncanny, but very much welcome.

At some point she had lost her spear, but she still managed to cut the stinger off by throwing her shield, which returned to her like a boomerang. The stinger, cut off from the Deathstalker, fell onto the Grimm, sharp enough to pierce without much problem; embedding itself a few inches into durable bone. Which, now that he wasn't desperately defending his life, gave him an idea"Nora!" he shouted, turning to look at her. Apparently he wasn't the only one with the idea, as Nora's seriousness showed. "Now!"

"Heads up!" She yelled, rushing forwards. He turned to run himself, preparing to deflect any possible blows, but Pyrrha had read into Nora's words something he hadn't, adding a much-appreciated step into his overly simple and obvious plan. With Pyrrha and Nora working together to put her up in the air, the blow would be undoubtedly destructive. So long as she managed to even clip the Deathstalker it'd probably crack the armor enough for them to do serious damage. He stopped dead in his tracks, unsure of what to do himself, but ready to jump in wherever he was actually needed. His orange haired classmate surprised him, however, when she managed to hit the stinger dead on, and with enough force to break the solid stone bridge they were fighting on.

Sadly, his knew his manliness took yet another nosedive for the day, as he felt himself let out a troubled scream as he was launched through the air ungracefully. Landing painfully on his back, too pained to move at the moment.

With Nora's hammer breaking the ground beneath the Deathstalker, it began falling, and before the dying Grimm could even try to save itself, Nora fired off her weapon once more, launching herself off the Grimm, and pushing it forward into the ravine to an absolute death. A low roar from the nearby Giant Nevermore forced their attention to Team Ruby, and made sure they all stood up. Unknown to them, however, Jaune's Semblance was working in full bloom. Indeed, as the ancient Deathstalker died at least, Jaune's reality-warping Semblance turned the thick plates of the beast into a kite shield, and the very stinger that ultimately killed it into a spear that created and injected poison into anyone stabbed with it. Both of which would ultimately be weaker than any copper weapon.

...Time Skip...

Jaune became aware of the screens popping up around him three days after his Aura was unlocked. They were faint, sure, but very much something that he noticed. After a small panic, and consequently a talk with his worried team, he finally discovered his Semblance, giving full use to him, one that would grow with time, as he himself grew. It was surprisingly handy, actually, a growth-type Semblance, one that seemed to focus on increasing his physical powers. It wasn't as immediately useful, from what Pyrrha said, as the ability to control fire or shoot laser beams, but Pyrrha assured him it would give him a serious edge in raw strength, one that should increase with time and effort. Considering he hadn't even known what a Semblance was this morning, this was amazing.

He still wasn't quite sure what all it did, but he found that it seemed to be trying describing who he was, and after Nora dragged him off to train with her to test it out, the tutorial told him he was able to train his Stat points, which might be how he got levels, since he currently has a total of ninety two Stat points right now, and he was level 18, which may or may not have mean he got a level every five Stat points. Though, the Exp bar below him made him doubt that quite a bit. Combined with the stated fact that Luck cannot be trained, and he was inclined think it was something else. After all, what sort of game would give him a Stat he couldn't possibly increase? Any good game designer would know to substitute it with something else, or not have it on the list at all. If Luck couldn't be increased, the obvious thing to do would be to put Charisma in Luck's place, or separate another Stat in two.

From what Luck said, it governed how much the world itself helped him, item drops, and it had a positive effect on his leadership; by making his actions mean more. As he was appointed team leader by Ozpin, and the Stat couldn't be trained through normal means, it only seemed natural that he spend any points he got on his Luck score, at least until he was unable to increase his other scores naturally.

Jaune waited for a moment, a bit sad that none of his exercising, planning, or hopefully wise thinking hadn't given him even a single Stat point. Though, considering how he had less than a hundred at the age of seventeen, he supposed training any of them would probably take a significant amount of time. Sure enough, after three whole days of contemplating and planning the most optimal plans for his growth and progress in Beacon, he was able to get a single additional Stat Point in WIS.

...Time Skip...

It took about two weeks for him to get adequately comfortable with using his Semblance. He had made quite a few discoveries about his new power, and he now had a shocking ninety five Stat points. Perhaps it was his Semblance, or perhaps he was even less prepared than he thought he was, but he had actually managed to get a shocking amount of strength since he had unlocked his Semblance. Had he been gaining speed at his current rate, he would have had his current power again almost every year. Even though his ability likely followed the actual laws of physics, eventually slowing down his growth as he got closer and closer to his peak physical condition, that would just mean that he should have gained all of his points with even less effort than he current had to!

Though, it also stands to reason that he shouldn't have been able to easily reach his current points as a child, due to having a smaller and younger body.

Another thing he had found out is that he got Exp for doing challenges, such as lifting heavy weights or doing some of Doctor Oobleck's homework. It wasn't the fastest Exp, but it certainly seemed like he should be well above his current level if he gained even proportional Exp for what he was currently doing. Though, taking into account how he tended to slack off all summer, and schoolwork wasn't even close to as hard as his current Beacon homework. He had expected it would certainly be hard, but it seemed like being a Huntermen required you to be a genius, and strong enough to lift mountains.

Still, it was because of the aforementioned Exp, and through experience of playing hours and hours of video games, that he thought of his current idea. He hadn't tested it, and he certainly didn't want to face the danger of Grimm alone, he had asked his entire team to come with him. Luckily, it wasn't hard to convince them to join him at all. Which was good, since all of them were much higher level than he was, and he wasn't confident that he wouldn't stupidly stumble into another Deathstalker, like the one that took all of them to fight during Initiation.

Pyrrha seemed perfectly content and used to hunting down Grimm, "For practice." she said, and after he told her he was trying out his Semblance she was eager to help him out. When he asked Nora, he found that she actually liked playing around and hunting Grimm, and she was more than happy to use the excuse of helping him to do so, dragging Ren along the way. In his futile efforts to properly ask his male teammate for help, he found that he had already decided to go when Nora had agreed, as much as he appreciated being formally asked. Using their reactions as a base, Jaune made a mental note to ask Ren for his voice on matters more often, since it seemed he appreciated the gesture.

Of course, there was one problem for his current plan; namely that nobody was sure if students were allowed to kill the nearby Grimm. Such a question was easily solved though, even if they had only thought of the problem after they had already gotten ready to go hunting. That was why, when they spotted Proffesor Ozpin on their way to ask Professor Port, Jaune gulped and asked.

"Professor Ozpin," he started, "we were wondering if students were allowed to go out and hunt some of the Grimm of the surrounding areas." he said, his voice a bit too mute and unstable for his liking. It sounded nice though, and he had managed to say it all correctly, since it was almost no different than what he was planning to ask Professor Port. The wizened old wizard eyed them calmly, taking a sip of his drink, which somehow managed to reflect the light of his glasses, giving the headmaster an intimidating, yet still approachable air.. After a long, pregnant pause, the professor answered. "You are allowed to hunt the Grimm in the Emerald Forest, though I would advise against straying too far from the school."

The response relieved Jaune to no end, and Pyrrha seemed rather relieved as well. For their part though, Nora and Ren seemed almost unconcerned. Perhaps Jaune sighed too early though, as the Ozpin eyed him calmly. "Might I ask why you want to hunt the Grimm?" he asked. Jaune froze, his mind blanking out for a moment, before the cool and calm presence of Ozpin rebooted his thought. It's not like telling Ozpin will hurt anything. his mind told him, And it might actually help me if he knew. he reasoned. After a moment, and another to nod to himself, he answered completely honestly. "I'm trying to test out an aspect of my Semblance on the Grimm," he explained, "and I wanted my team around in case anything bad happens." he said.

The headmaster eyed them coolly, "Are you not confident in your strength?" he asked, not actually cold at all. Jaune felt like he'd break under the pressure any second, but he nervously tried to explain himself as best he could. "I'm not confident I could handle a Deathstalker like we fought in Initiation, at least not by myself." he answered honestly, "Especially if I just spent half an hour fighting Beowolves, or get lost and attacked in my sleep." He lied, doing his best to raise as valid points as he could.

The headmaster stared at him blankly for a moment, before nodding. For some reason though, Jaune felt like the old man saw right through his lie. Jaune could only smile; feeling relieved that the professor had let his lie go unchallenged.

...Time Skip...

A week of constantly hunting Grimm had given Jaune a lot. After the first day of having his team help him he discovered three things. The first was that killing Grimm did indeed give Exp, though it took many times longer to level up than any game character he had ever played as. In the full week of killing Grimm whenever he could, he had yet to gain a full level. The second thing he had learned was that, like most game characters, his opponents dropped items. He hadn't really expected them not to, but Pyrrha and Ren were both surprised that Grimm left loot, saying that Grimm normally completely dissolved into nothing after being killed. The third was that he actually was strong enough to kill the nearby Grimm. With his Aura protecting as a shield, something he had only somewhat known before, and his strength just enough to cut through the weakest of the Grimm, he could kill the weaker Grimm somewhat easily.

So long as he was careful, he could even kill a pack or two of Beowolves decently safely. Though, he certainly needed to work on his swordsmanship and strength if he wanted to do much better. Pyrrha was good enough that she ended their first night without losing even a tenth of her Mp, not getting hit even once in the entire night. Meanwhile he had less than half his Aura left, and Ren had already lost a fourth, despite taking a break at some point.

Still, the items Grimm dropped actually confused him a little. What did he do with Grimm Mask Shards, or Beowolf Claws? Originally he thought Grimm Flesh was suppose to be a cooking ingredient, something he'd never use, but it actually gave the poison Status Effect. Perhaps cooking it would yield better results, but there was no way he was going to do anything of the sort. But even if Grimm Mask Shards made a full Grimm Mask, what use was that? Would it give some awesome resistances, act as normal battle armor, or would it have some sort of magical effect?

He at least saw some purpose for the various bits of white plates some of the stronger Grimm dropped. Those white plates and spikes Grimm had were hard to cut through, and he imagined they'd make decent armor. On the opposite end of the spectrum, what use was Grimm Fur Tuffs? Would they combine into something useful? Did his Semblance think he would make them into yarn? Was he suppose to ask some elderly grandmother to knit him a sweater of Grimm fur?

He had to manually carry all his gains as well, which made amassing anything serious rather difficult. Currently he was storing everything in a draw he had cleared his clothes from, but after a full week of going out every night it was becoming rather hard to store. Not every Grimm dropped anything, but the draw was rather small and even a few dozen shards of the Grimm plating was large enough to fill it up completely. He was letting his mind wander right now, tired from his day of training and his everyday round of killing Grimm.

Idly, he began trying to organize the mess inside the drawer, separating the Beowolf Mask Shards from the Plate Shards by storing them in his hand. He'd probably also separate the Grimm Fur Tuffs from the Grimm Flesh later as well.

But seriously, what was he suppose to do with these things? It wasn't like Grimm even dropped them very often, and he wasn't about to see if he could forge Grimm plates into armor, even if he actually had permission to do do. Who knew what sort of foul affects wearing Grimm could have! Of course, there was also the fact that most Grimm plating was still weaker than modern armor or weapons, making any forging he did with it effectively useless. Perhaps he should try to go mining or something? Many RPG had some alternate things you could do to get you money. Perhaps if he mined Dust he'd get something extra? If that was the case, his Semblance had already prepared him a back-up job if he really did get kicked out of Beacon!

Though, he heard that miners didn't have the best lives, and were generally underpaid.

Actually, what was he thinking? That entire line of questioning was out of the question! He couldn't even think of dropping out of Beacon, and there was no way he'd turn away from being a Huntsmen. With a Semblance like his, there was no way he even could. It woke him up with a screen every morning, and had worked its way into his everyday life. If he became a shopkeeper or a miner it would haunt him to the end of his days.

A sudden light in his hands brought his attention back to the shards of Mask Shards. The Beowolf Mask Shards he had been picking up were small, maybe as big as a segment of his fingers. He could fit a lot in his hand, but by the time he looked down he felt that he only had one object, one object easily as big as his palm. The original shards were small and pointed, one of those diamond shapes he saw on cards a lot. Opening his hand now, there was one shard, curving inwards a little, with sharp enough points to cut.

Jaune blinked, trying to process what just happened, and really wishing he had kept track of how many Grimm Mask Shards he had had. Or even just counted the ones in his hand.

...Time Skip...

Two months of training really showed how slowly his Stats increased, and more than proved that his Stat growth slowed down. He had gotten two points of Dex through his relatively small amount of training in it, and he had only gotten a single point in End, despite spending most of his personal training time on that. He had gotten three full Levels though, which means he was closing the gap between him and Pyrrha. Now she only had about fifty Stat Points over him! Actually, trying to cheer himself on like that only made him feel worse.

Today he had tried something different though. He had found previously that putting a hundred Beowolf Mask Shards together made a Beowolf Mask, which had no real supernatural powers, besides being fairly good armor, and cool to look at. He also knew that he could turn Grimm Plate Shards into Grimm Plates, either by combining ten, or one hundred. He also knew that combining Grimm Fur Tuffs created the higher level Grimm Fur, which were sometimes dropped by Ursa, the few he's managed to kill. A hundred Grimm Fur made Grimm Leather, an item he assumed even more powerful Grimm would drop, and that he had only been able to make a few of. But, he had been able to figure out that various combinations of items made much different things.

He could cook Grimm Flesh into Grimm Steak, currently the only food he'd found that actually had a healing Status Effect, even if he'd never eat it. He'd been able to find that adding Grimm Plate Shards together in a line, rather than clumping them all together, it made a Grimm Bone Spike (Lowest). The one he made was the smallest he'd ever actually seen, and his Semblance told him he could make much larger ones, somehow or another.

But did that mean he could make more useful items? Perhaps if he sewed a bunch of the Beowolf Fur together he could make a fur coat. He knew that it was at least as strong as normal cloth, so it might make for some pretty good clothing, so long as it didn't curse him or something. Or perhaps he could make some armor from the Grimm Plates, something useful perhaps? He wasn't going to replace his current armor and weaponry with bony plating, since it was weaker and all, but he'd be fine with adding unto it.

Inspired by the drawings and diagrams of Grimm in Professor Port's classroom, Jaune began to draw out his idea.

It was with those thoughts that he began his little experiment. He didn't have the knowledge to properly make armor, so he ignored that for now. Instead, he just took the absolute basic knowledge that he did have, and worked with that. Namely, he tried designing a sword. Swords were a universal weapon for more than one reason. Not only were they incredibly easy to use, since even the most untrained fighter would know how to slash or stab, but they were also remarkably easy to make. All you needed was a handle, a hand guard, and a blade.

With his ability to turn Grimm Shards into Grimm Spikes, making a sword was easy. All he really had to do was line up enough Grimm Plate Shards to make the blade, or line up the spikes he'd be turning into the blade themselves. He wasn't quite sure about the hand guard, but he felt like a Grimm Plate, a line of Beowolf claws, or even just two Grimm Spikes. He didn't want to have to prepare that much, and lining up Beowolf claws seemed like a nightmare, so he just put in a single Grimm Plate. The last part was a handle, but he thought that putting a few Grimm Bone Spikes in a circle would probably do it.

Drawing the designs were fairly hard, and he almost felt the need to be a bit more artistic, putting in Beowolf Claws and spikes, maybe fill in gaps with Grimm Flesh, but trying to draw a weapon like that would kill him, and putting it together would take forever, not to mention how the weapon would likely fall apart the if he used it. As it was, even drawing out his plans in Professor Port's class, which was hours long, wasn't quite enough to reasonably figure everything out.

Still, he couldn't argue with the end result. Spurred by the lure of knowledge and power, Jaune had done everything to the absolute best of his abilities, creating a single Grimm Sword (Lowest). It's Stats were low, but he was actually pretty proud of it.

Grimm Sword (Lowest)

Attack: 9

Durability: 100/100

Abilities:

Self-Repairing

Growing

Compared to Crocea Mors, which had tens of thousands of durability, and had an Attack of 15, not actually that high for a weapon, it was trash. Still, this opened the door to a wave of new possibilities!

Not a second after he thought that, he was lifted up in the air, his weapons lifted from him. Looking over, Glynda Goodwitch seemed irritated, even downright angry at him. Even angry seemed to downplay it though; Professor Goodwitch looked murderous. "Where did you get this." she demanded, forceful, though it was nothing but a seething whisper. Jaune struggled for a second, waving his arms around his head while screaming. "Answer!" she demanded, this time more forceful and loud enough to shock him out of his panic. Staring into her eyes, and completely at her mercy, Jaune answered as plainly as he could. "I-I made it!" he shouted halfway through his frantic scramble.

Glynda stared at him, her eyes icy, reminding him just how much control she had over him at the moment. "How?" she demanded, as bits of dust, Dust, and some unknowable items began floating around him. As if to be even more intimidating, she squeezed him in, stopping him from moving at all, "My Semblance lets me do it!" he shouted. Her eyes narrowed, and Jaune was sure he'd have trouble trying to explain this.

...Time Skip...

It had been week since he'd had to explain what his Semblance did. Professor Goodwitch had dragged him up to Professor Ozpin, who actually seemed rather wary of Jaune's Semblance. Honestly, considering how weak these items were, Jaune wasn't sure why. Perhaps he'd find some amazingly powerful Grimm near the end of his career, and manage to get some super ingredients that were stronger than steel or something, but by that point he'd likely find it easier to just pay for someone to make him super-weapons.

Apparently word had spread out to the rest of the staff at Beacon though, as Professor Port had pulled him aside after class one day and asked quite plainly if he could make the professor a mannequin. It seemed that the old professor wanted to update the countless mannequins that donned the walls of his classroom using actual Grimm fur and Grimm flesh. Jaune was worried doing that might make a living Grimm head, which would try to eat him or something, but Professor Port silenced all of his concerns by offering money and free grades.

This made Jaune very eager to do the mad professor's work, as he was not doing too well in Professor Port's class, and having lower grades than Ruby was annoying him. Seeing Jaune's eagerness Professor Port made a sudden rule that he'd only put in two grades, but that was still quite a few points, even if the professor didn't really seem to realize how few grades he actually did.

That was what Jaune was doing now, having made up roughly half the difference between his original strength an Pyrrha, meaning he was starting to become more than a match for his classmates in battle, though he tended to do pretty badly in the spars themselves. He'd actually become pretty known for that fact.

In any case, that was what Jaune was doing now, trying to build a mannequin for Professor Port to make himself a free grade, with roughly seventy five percent of the work. Thus saying, that actually was quite a bit of time saved, especially since he normally wouldn't make any form of high grade at all. Still, the amount he'd learned just to try to do this was astounding, and a testimony to how difficult homework was, and just how far he'd go to avoid it. Indeed, learning to stitch was difficult, and having to piece every bit together while putting in barriers and then removing the to insure that the Grimm parts would mend together correctly was hard. He was fairly revealed when the Grimm finally curved into a proper head shape, since he didn't want to turn in two squares mushed together and call it a head.

He didn't think his free grade would survive that, and even if it did Professor Port would probably take points off for shabbiness.

Still, doing it this way was tiresome and tedious. It took so long, in fact, that even Pyrrha, his biggest supporter, had gone and left him alone to do this. It seemed his Semblance was somewhat helping him though, so he might have the weird mental schematics for it after it was done, making this a lot easier. Though, even if his Semblance let him do this in a hundredth the time next time he'd still have to gather the materials again. Even if he'd only do the head, it looked like it'd still take more than he made in a day, and he probably wouldn't be able to sell these for long. At least he actually had a use for Grimm Flesh now, since it was basically the only thing he hadn't had to use before.

He only had a few pieces left to add in when his Semblance suddenly clicked, and gave him a pop-up for completing his work. He huffed happily, thinking he could probably make another tonight if his Semblance was helping speed things along a second time. Though it'd probably be a pretty significant drop in resources, so he'd have to go hunt some Grimm later. Nodding to himself confidently, Jaune pressed the Yes button, and immediately began to regret his life decisions as his resources he'd gathered over months disappeared before his very eyes. Thankfully, it stopped after most of his gathered Grimm Fur was used up, and a good half of his Grimm Flesh. As much as he could gather in a full month, really.

Standing before him now, undoubtedly scratching the covers he had been forced to make his creation on, a Beowolf stared down at him. With pitch black fur, blue eyes, and a mask he himself had worn a few times for armor, bent back to fit over the Beowolf's snout. It had no plating on its body, which was good if Jaune had to fight it, but the claws and teeth of the Beowolf themselves were bone white, and they'd likely do some pretty seriously damage to his Aura if they ever struck him. Now that he really thought about it, why did he use white teeth? Why did he even have plated teeth? He was pretty sure that the teeth that he collected were black, since everything was so low-tier.

Besides the black fur and white claws and teeth, the Beowolf was a few inches shorter than him, but it was still taller than Ruby by a fair bit, which probably meant it was pretty weak for its kind. It had piercing blue eyes, and stood on its hind legs with a noticeable slouch. In a weird way, Jaune was actually fairly glad for the slouch, since he'd probably be too intimidated by the Grimm to do anything, since he didn't have his weapon.

In a moment, Jaune's eyes widened like saucers, frantically looking for a way to take the Grimm down without getting hurt. He didn't have Croacea Mors, the great and sturdy weapon that it was, and that made his options basically nonexistent. The Grimm was only Level ten, while he was Level 20, but he wasn't sure if he could take it out with his lack of experience in any form of combat other than with his sword. It's not like he was Ren, and he probably wasn't strong enough to do serious damage with a punch, which meant he'd likely have to punch dozens of times before it died, which in turn meant it'd have ample time to escape.

The Grimm stared at him, seeming to get ready for combat, but not moving.

It wasn't like he could just throw Aura at it either. Weiss' Glyph power was basically unrivaled, and without a Semblance that helped him with such things he'd likely have to rely on Dust until he at least got some amazing Skill to help him make one, like how Glynda was able to make hers somehow. He might also be able to win if the Grimm did lunge at him, by ducking down and surprising the Grimm when it landed with a flurry of punches, trying to knock out any teeth or whatever so that it wouldn't be able to bite him. He wasn't Lie Ren, but he was still fairly confident that he could increase his strength with his Aura enough to do some damage with each blow, despite his lack of experience. As far as possible weapons go, he could try bashing it with a chair or something, but he didn't really think that would work, since it'd probably break after three or four hits without his Aura. He supposed he also had the original Grimm Sword (Lowest) he had made, but-

Actually, that would solve all of his problems in this situation, since he just needs something to cleave through his foe, and he can just let the weak Beowolf chew on his arm instead of hitting his shield, since his Aura will protect him from any damage. While the Beowolf looked around frantically, he dove for his sword made from its fallen comrades, a different part of each of their bodies repurposed to slay their brethren. After landing a bit short however, hitting his head on the wooden cabinet and knocking off several of Ren's personal showerstuffs, Jaune turned towards his supposed foe.

Using his Semblance, and keeping an eye on the black Grimm, he read the beast's Stats.

Beowolf

The First

Lv: 10

Hp: 550

Str: 15

Dex: 15

End: 11

Int: 3

Wis: 2

Luck: 5

Doing that much damage didn't even seem to tax Crocea Mors, but he wasn't sure about this new weapon, not at all. Just to be careful, knowing full-well that he'd probably get hurt if his sword broke in any fight, he looked at his weapon's Stats, while keeping tabs on the blue-eyed Grimm.

Grimm Sword (Lowest)

Attack: 9

Durability: 110/110

Abilities:

Self-Repairing

Growing

He wasn't quite sure how durability worked, never daring to damage his blade on purpose, or test any weapon in combat other than Crocea Mors, but he had to rely on this. Hopefully a bit over five hundred Hp wouldn't put too much damage on the blade. He readied the blade, and stared into the Grimm's bright blue eyes, finally realizing that it wasn't trying to attack him.

Half an hour later, Pyrrha walked in and found that Jaune could make Grimm. A week after that, Jaune finally gave up and told Professor Port that he was unable to make the mad professor any mannequins.

...Time Skip...

Everyone was gearing up for the Vytal Festival when Jaune was finally able to get Cardin in a ring, by his challenge this time. The man had been a bully to far too many people, and now that Jaune had discovered higher-tier drops through some of the older Grimm, like the Ursa he had saved Cardin from in the Forever Fall, and his training had finally yielded him higher Stats, he was ready.

Instead of his normal white armor, often even taking off his awesome Grimm fur coat, he instead reversed his pattern. With a full Beowolf set, each part gathered carefully over the last month from countless Alpha Beowolf and Ursae Major, he had finally unlocked mystical powers. He may have only noticed it because the upgraded Beowolf Mask gave him +1 to Dex, but he was glad he did. The Beowolf Coat was as protective as his normal armor, without requiring him to take off his normal armor, though covering it up. His Beowolf Sword (Low), crafted by using Beowolf claws and a Beowolf Mask, had a full seventeen attack. His upgraded Beowolf Mask usually only gave +1 Dex, but with the full set in tow it actually gave +2. The pants didn't really do much, but they were slightly more durable than his jeans, and looked awesome when combined with the rest of the set.

His shoes didn't have to be changed, which was cool. He wasn't quite sure how he'd mark them if they were just black fur, and having anything else seemed really uncomfortable.

Before the set bonus, the set gave him +2 Dex, almost doubled his defense, spreading it all over his body instead of just certain areas, and made him look intimidating, so as to discourage attackers. The set bonus, however, was nothing to scoff at. Without knowing how powerful Stats were, or how hard they were to gain, one might think that the extra point of Dex, and a point of Str were almost useless, but it was very much different. Rather, with this he was now as strong as Weiss, and he might even have a chance against Yang, though he doubted it. Both would probably still win against him though, since Weiss could throw him out of the ring, and Yang would keep him on the defensive, with unpredictability enough to keep him from counteracting.

Against Cardin though? This would be more than enough. It was strategic, in a weird way. When he had discovered higher-tier items his first instinct was to take his team and hunt down the strongest Grimm they could manage, as to build some ultimate Grimm weapons and armors. The strongest thing they could reasonably hunt were Ursa, maybe getting into the realm of Creeps or King Taijitu. Instead, Jaune had hunted Beowolves after he realized something. Namely, he had trained himself as a proper swordsman. Using a shield and his End to be basically unmovable. A proper swordsman was a tank in battle, carrying wall of steel that nobody could get through.

The most effective strategy against himself was similarly simple then, he knew from personal experience. The most effective way was to move around his shield, and then stab at his Aura. Basically, Blake and Ruby were his kryptonite. This was because they were fast enough to avoid his shield, and agile enough that they could avoid his sloppy attack thereafter. There was another great method against him, though not quite so insurmountable. Namely, brute force. The realm of Cardin, Weiss, and Yang, these people were those that could force him back if he ever blocked, making his shield to almost no effect, and though the two strategies tended to move about equally well, the attacker would win if he was fundamentally stronger. That would be the case if Jaune didn't have any extra Stat points.

If he had made an Ursa set, not a Beowolf set, he could probably win against Cardin with the extra End the set would presumably give him. The Ursa filled his role, after all, taking massive amounts of damage and giving a fair share in return. But that method would insure that Jaune would take just as much damage as he dealt. Or, rather, he'd only do more proportionately, and he'd actually take much more damage. Besides that, the Tournament was designed so that combatants wouldn't kill each other, meaning his End Stat wouldn't actually take any damage for him. Instead, his Mp would take all the damage through his Aura.

So the Beowolf set actually did way more for him. See, Cardin's build and style had a weakness too, the same one as his own. By focusing on power first, he neglected speed of attack, and didn't improve his personal defense as much as he should have either. With three more Dex, he'd actually be much more equipped to doge or deflect Cardin's blows, and the extra point in Str made sure that his own attacks would do more damage to Cardin in return. With three more points in Dex, it was actually fairly reasonable that he could outright dodge Cardin's attacks, and it was possible that he could lash out in return for Cardin's advancement.

In short, through his Luck Stat, which was all he'd ever actually used his Level up Stat points to increase, he'd accidentally gotten the set far more equipped to beat Cardin down. Granted, the Ursa set would likely have given him another point of Str, but that would have been much less useful, in this situation, than the three extra Dex. Considering End, his highest Stat after Luck, would otherwise be given, it'd be less useful even if he did get another point from the set. Or, rather, since Grimm weapons and armor tended to grow, he'd likely get more usage from having his Beowolf set crafted first, than having an Ursa set crafted first. The Beowolf set made up for his weaknesses, while the Ursa set only increased his strengths, something almost useless when considering he had a growth Semblance.

Jaune smiled almost maliciously, a detail amplified by the glowing red eyes of his Beowolf Coat, as Cardin saw something he never wanted to see again, and Glynda became worried that her fears were coming true.

...Time Skip...

Vale had somehow fallen in one day. It was crazy, unthinkable even. Vale had walls strong enough for a Huntsmen to fail to burst through. While it probably couldn't stop the greatest of all Grimm, whatever they be, in a full charge, it could certainly stop every one he knew of, and probably stall whatever the giant elephant things walking outside the kingdom were. With cannons and enough Dust to explode mountains, Vale was built to be impenetrable several times over, by different legendary people throughout the ages, like the Last King of Vale himself.

Even Beacon, as relatively new as it was, could theoretically hold off endless amounts of Grimm so long as Glynda and Port went around once a day and fixed the defenses, which was not difficult at all given Glynda's odd power to move things with her mind. So long as the invaders were the Grimm that actually surrounded the area, and students were put on guard-duty, Beacon was designed to hold forever with everything inside to house a new society if need be, from food enough to last years, to the possibility to grow food. None of which he would have known about at all if he hadn't been given an assignment to research the subject, [before going above and beyond the assignment after he thought of using his Semblance loot in a similar way. He still wanted to set up on a mountain or something, and experiment with ores and Dust. This would give him more than what he needed with the stone, which he could just keep in his inventory. His inventory was small but, it could hold a seemingly endless amounts of any single item type in any given slot.

Instead of graduating after four years and spending a year or two out in Grimmlands setting up shop, however, he was currently fighting the urge to kick himself. How had he let this happen? Granted, he'd had no idea it even could happen, and he knew nobody involved, and countless people were probably asking themselves the same thing right now, but how could he let this happen? He is a Huntsmen! An aspiring hero! He's dedicated himself to training and getting stupid levels of Luck! He was even wearing a set of Beowolf armor that left him almost as powerful as Pyrrha Nikos.

Okay, he was almost twenty Stat points behind her, but the Stats he actually favored were around the level of hers, with his Luck actually being higher.

He was letting out negative emotions now, but he was killing Grimm anyway. Pyrrha seemed set on going to fight the person responsible for this, and there was no way he wasn't going to join her. Perhaps if he'd been completely uninvolved he wouldn't have this act of bravery, of suicidal rage enough to think he'd fight someone who could probably backhand Glynda to death, win, and then slay a dragon. But, he wasn't uninvolved. Twice today alone he had failed to stop her plans. Once when he let Pyrrha fight Penny, and again when he, distracted, failed to guard Pyrrha during the power transfer.

He wasn't that smart, his Int wasn't actually very high, and he didn't quite understand things, but he knew what Pyrrha was going to do, and he knew what he had to do in return.

"I'm going to join you when you fight her." he grunted, his voice filled with a calm confidence that surprised him, and a cold undertone he didn't like at all. Pyrrha looked at him sadly, "Jaune... You can't." Jaune couldn't help but grunt, their negative emotions attracting Grimm as much as any dying man or woman. Let the Grimm come to them, it'd get them off of some student in need, or some civilian. Besides, Jaune wasn't taking any damage, and he'd probably need all the loot he could get. Maybe a few Skills and a new set of Grimm armor would turn this around? Maybe if he had thought to actually make a set of knight armor made of Grimm bone, maybe that'd turn the battle in their favor.

Jaune shook his head, "Pyrrha, I owe a lot to you. If it wasn't for you, I'd never have survived Initiation, and my Semblance would have been a joke." He cut a Beowolf in half, and thought to the original Grimm Sword he'd made, and wondered if it'd have been better against this person, since it ignored three points of Mp. He hadn't tested it at all, but maybe that'd mean his damage would go straight through, and he'd be able to kill her with papercut after papercut.

Pyrrha looked ready to break down, but steeled herself, walking towards him. He tried to ignore her actions, continuing to speak, unfiltered by thought, "But more than just that, you've been a great partner. You helped me train, you helped me with my Semblance, and you actually cared for me enough to get me as useful as I am. There's no way in The Brother's infested Remnant that I'm letting you do this alone." he spoke. He wasn't solemn, he wasn't livid, he wasn't calm, but he spoke with more power than his body possessed, and his words held more truth than his mind could ever realize. He spoke, and as a man he'd charge forward with the stubbornness of a thousand bulls to make it so.

Pyrrha seemed to appreciate the support, but she still looked conflicted. She couldn't do anything about it though, as Jaune, unknowingly and through his dumb luck, had built himself to never be pushed back. There was no way she was pushing him into the locker, and there was no way he wouldn't kill himself trying to get out if she did. He was joining the fight, despite how much she hated that.

I'm ending that here, since it's an open ending, and allows people to move in multiple directions. Maybe Jaune gets hit by the arrow, having high End, and manages to stall enough time for Ruby to come up and unleash her powers. Maybe he dies, and Pyrrha takes his place for Volume 4, saved by Jaune's luck protecting her instead of him. Maybe they, together, kill Cinder, though Beacon is lost far more permanently. The story is even fairly vague, as are the abilities, Stats, and Skills of everyone. I did try to keep Jaune fairly weak though, so feel free to set him up as a backround character, as a change in Semblance that doesn't take mainstage. Actually, it'd be refreshing to read a series where the power isn't overwhelmingly powerful, or the main character's special power.

Obviously, it you actually want to take this prompt and run with it, you can change the series it's based in to anything. It's not even a The Gamer I came up with myself, and it certainly isn't natural to the world. Feel free to make the story your own in any way possible. This was only made to raise awareness for the lack of Gamer stories that don't focus on wizard builds, after all.

Random Sentence: I'm considering making a story where all but the first and last chapters are told in dialogue by a character within the story, as foresight.