The Name of the Game

by literalsin

A man from Earth wakes up to find himself stuck in the body of a fictional teenage boy with an ability that turns his life into a video game and foreknowledge of events to come. What could possibly go wrong? A take on the RWBY/Gamer crossover niche with an SI twist, a focus on world and character building, and fleshing out some of the details RT missed. Rated 'M' for a reason.

16. Taming the Beast

The Name of the Game

a RWBY/The Gamer crossover, SI.

Arc 4: Bad Blood

Chapter 16: Taming the Beast

---

The back door to The Club squeaked open and the unshaven, burly form of Hei stared at me through bloodshot eyes. His clothes were rumpled, his shirt hanging closed only by the grace of two buttons and untucked from his slacks, and his jacket was missing entirely. His hair was an unwashed mess and he smelled like liquor, body odor, cheap perfume, and sex.

"You look like shit," I deadpanned, before wrinkling my nose. "Smell like it, too."

"Hn," the man grunted, squinting against the late afternoon light and gesturing me inside. He closed and locked the door behind us then lead me up to the second floor, to his office. Door locked and blinds drawn, Hei collapsed into the leather office chair situated behind his desk. Swiveling the chair, he reached for a steaming pot of fresh coffee and a mug. He shot me a questioning look, waving the pot once, and I shook my head. Different world or not, different taste buds or not, I couldn't stand the stuff—it seemed Jaune and I had that in common. He shrugged, replacing the pot in the machine. Picking up a container, he poured what looked like a cup of sugar into his coffee before stirring it, then proceeded to down half of it in one go before topping the mug off from the pot and adding more sugar.

"Are you living out of your office?" I wondered aloud.

Hei shrugged, cracking a yawn. "I'd say only on days ending in 'y,' but I'd be lying. Weekends, mostly, when this place gets busiest."

A soft snort drew my attention to a lump laying on the fold out bed tucked away in the corner, strands of blond peaking out from under the blanket. For a moment, I felt a brief flash of jealous anger before tamping it back down. "That wouldn't happen to be my sister under there, would it?"

"Which one?" Hei snarked, sipping at his coffee as his brain-to-mouth filter failed to engage.

I turned an unamused look on him. "Any of them."

"No," he drawled. "Those days are long past and not coming back." He stretched out in his chair, heaving out a tired sigh. "You know, kid, jealousy doesn't get you anywhere in this world." I threw him a confused look and he rolled his eyes. "Please. I'm an information broker. Have some respect." When I said nothing after a moment, he added, "Though, to be fair, I've known about your sister's thing for a few years now. Of anyone you're seeing, she's the least likely to stray—especially for me, of all people."

"You got that from the twins?" I wondered, sitting back in my chair and crossing my arms as I thought it over.

Hei shook his head. "They've been surprisingly tight-lipped when it comes to goings-on surrounding you. I've let them stay on, keeping access to my network, despite the fact that they really only work for me in name only now, mostly because you and I are not in competition."

"And because it would annoy me, which would in turn annoy my sister."

"That, too," he allowed, taking another long pull from his cup before sitting it down. "So, let's cut the bullshit, shall we? Tell me, what did you drag me out of bed at the ass-crack of three for?"

"Sleep," I cast, tossing a negligent wave at the bed and feeling the spell settle before reaching into my side pouch and pulling out a folder—specifically, the case files I'd stolen from the police—and dropping it on his desk.

"Nice trick," Hei grunted, clearly unamused but unwilling to raise a stink over it. He pulled the files over and opened them, flipping through their contents and wincing as he came across the photographs. "Okay, so some street trash got offed by a couple of grimm. So what?"

"Keep reading," I deadpanned. He shrugged and turned back to the files. Unable to let my curiosity go, I stood and made my way over to the hideaway bed, taking a look at the face of the woman there and causing the text of a name and level to pop up over her head—rather, it had always been there, just hidden by the angle she was laying at. Not Joan, or any other Arc really—no one of any import, aside from the fact that she bore a vague passing resemblance to the Eldest Deadly Sister. 'Not quite as over it as you want people to believe,' I mused, my mind now at ease over the subject though I felt some measure of pity for the man.

The self-proclaimed information broker chuckled, the hint of a smirk in his tone. "Told you so. That does tell me something about you, though. You're like me—too curious for your own good. This folder is a pretty good example of that. Have you talked to Joan about this?"

Moving back to my chair, I dropped down in it and rolled my eyes. "What do you think?"

"I think she told you to drop it, and then called me and threatened to put my nuts in a vice if she found out I let you go anywhere near it," he grinned. "So, why are you so hell bent on this thing?"

"Other than the fact that it'll mean Joan pulping your nuts if she finds out?" I smirked, and he shot me an annoyed look. Sighing, I thought over the best way to answer that without giving away too much information. Finally, I settled on, "Because it's my responsibility. You see the same thing I do, there. The Jackals are moving back into town and something is tracking them down and killing them."

Shaking his head, Hei flipped another page and continued reading. "Sounds like someone's doing the city a favor."

Something about the way he said that set off little alarms in my head. "Something, you mean?" He shrugged and I stood, leaning over the desk and snatching the papers away to level a glare at him, which he matched with a look of cool indifference. "You know what I'm chasing, then. Who I'm chasing."

"I don't know what you're talking about, kid," Hei rumbled in quiet warning, emphasizing the supposed age difference between us—to absolutely no effect, given I was actually older than him. There was grudging respect there for a moment when he realized I wasn't going to back down and he quietly added, "But if I did, I'd urge you to drop it and let the dead rest in peace. There are more things in heaven and earth, Jaune, than dreamt of in your philosophy."

I blinked, easing back from the desk as I turned that over in my head. 'That's… Hamlet? The Bard made it to Remnant? That aside to deal with later, if I recall correctly, that scene was after Horatio had just seen a ghost…'

"Kids these days, no respect for the classics," Hei sighed. "Though, that one's pretty rare… from way, way before the war, so I suppose it's fair if you haven't read it. There are probably all of three copies of that left in the world, as far as I know."

It had been a while, but I dredged up the memory. "'O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.' I've read it. Don't remember most of it, but I remember enough. So, Hei, what is a grudge exactly?"

The man across the desk from me jerked slightly in his seat before fixing me with a flat stare. After several long moments, his answer came only reluctantly, "It depends. Sometimes, they're an amalgamation of recently fallen grimm hell bent on killing the Hunter or Hunters that slew them in the first place. Other times, they're a not-quite malicious spirit similar to a grimm, usually bent on revenge. The second type aren't seen often and no one likes talking about them because no one likes the idea that there is a possibility, no matter how slim, that they or their loved ones may potentially not stay dead. The fact that both of these are named the same is not coincidence—it's so that young, impressionable, prospective Hunters don't accidentally discover something that would turn them off of becoming a Hunter. The first type are a fairly well-documented phenomena while the second are not, and mostly taught about by word of mouth—usually on hunts after graduation, where the real cherry popping of Hunter life takes place. Then there's the fact that no one can quite agree on what grimm are exactly, so there's some argument over what a grudge is as well."

Hei leaned back in his chair, taking a moment to sip his coffee while he seemed to debate whether to add more. Finally, he shrugged and continued. "The argument seems split along religious lines, for the most part: pretty much anyone who believes in something follows the school of thought that they're somehow tied to the dead, while the atheists insist that it isn't the case. As with most arguments between believers and non-believers, lack of information on both sides tends to stalemate the argument. Interestingly enough, it seems to also boil down to an argument between Hunters and civilians—seeing as pretty much anyone with an awakened Aura has a greater sense of the world around us and will tell you that, while they may not believe in one particular pantheon, they know there's something. You'd think that having someone tell you they can feel the world around them would be proof enough of that, but for a lot of people it's an inversion of 'seeing is believing.' They can't see it for themselves, so they can't believe."

'Yeah, except I've got enough evidence to the contrary to put some pretty big holes in that argument. At least, the Grimm debate.' As Hei had said, being able to sense the world around me had begun calling some things into question. I wasn't about to go attributing explainable phenomena to some invisible, divine cosmic being… but at least here, I couldn't deny the existence of some sort of supernatural or spiritual world, when I interacted with it on a regular basis. I nodded, pacing a short circuit around the chair before asking, "What happens if a grudge of the second type fulfills its task?"

"Depends," Hei shrugged, turning away to make another cup of coffee and likely give his hands something to do. "Details are sketchy. Sometimes, they become just like any other grimm—a mindless killing machine. Other times… they find peace. Like I said, they're rare and mostly word of mouth, so finding anything concrete is difficult at best. The only reason I know as much as I do is because I went digging, after."

His tone there clearly said what it was he wanted to happen. I couldn't blame him, considering the creature we were talking about had once been his teammate. "You're suggesting I just let her run around killing people? Even if they are pieces of shit, and I'm not debating that, you've just told me there's a good chance she'll start killing other people once she's done," I argued, gesturing at the files on the desk. "Look at their bodies, Hei. Look at their faces. Does that look like something capable of finding peace?"

"I would like to think so," Hei murmured, before adding softly, "She deserves better than this."

Looking into the eyes of the man across from me, I thought I saw something there—regret, perhaps—but it was gone before I could identify it. I refrained from commenting on it and instead nodded in agreement. "She does, but let's be real here. In an ideal world, she never would've died to begin with—but we don't live in an ideal world. So, the way I see it is you've got a few options for how this plays out. You can let me deal with it and I'll make a judgment call when the time comes. Or, you can call Joan and Noir and deal with it yourselves—but we both know that would break their hearts, and I don't think you could bring yourself to do it either. You couldn't pull the trigger if it turned out she was beyond help. That, and we both know you've lost a step or two since graduation," I pointed out, and the bear of a man shot me an annoyed glare but didn't refute my point. The level difference between himself and Joan was proof enough of that, at least as far as my Semblance was concerned. "The third option is to ignore it—either she'll stop and find peace, or she won't, and she'll go on to kill innocent people. Those will be on your head, Hei, and mine. And in the end, it'll be some other Hunter who takes her down. So, which is it? Make the call, Hei."

"You know, I think I am beginning to dislike you," Hei sighed, but dug out his scroll. "I'll call you when I have something. Now, get lost."

I turned to leave, and as I did so, I caught him mutter, "Stubborn, just like your sister."

He couldn't know I'd always been this stubborn—once I set my mind to something, I wouldn't be swayed from seeing it through outside of the situation changing. It was something that had gotten me in trouble for years, but I couldn't see myself stopping now.

---

I knocked at the door and waited, idly rubbing off the decades old paint that had flecked off and adhered to my knuckles. I heard footsteps approaching and the door opened a crack—enough for me to see the chain lock holding it in place inside. "Yeah, what the fuck do you want?"

"Well, my good sir, I come bearing good news! The day of salvation is at hand and I bring you word of our lord and savior, lady Jenova," I announced, a smile stretching across my face as I waved a book at the door.

"I don't have time for this bullshit," the big man grunted, attempting to pull the door closed.

My hand snapped out and I caught the edge of the door. "Now that's not nice." Giving the door a yank, it flew open, breaking the chain and slamming into the wall of the hallway. I threw the book into his face and planted my booted foot into the large man's sternum, sending him flying back into a group of three of his companions who had risen to see what the fuss was about and sending all three sprawling to the floor. Stepping fully through the doorway, I thew a quick "Sleep" their way before moving through the run down apartment and taking out two others.

"Right, then," I mused, dragging the other two bodies into the main area. Kicking the largest of them over onto his back, I dismissed Sleep over him and slapped him with a full round of Forget, Confuse, Charm, and Dominate. "Where's your boss? I know he's in town setting up shop again."

"He's staying over in the Industrial District," the large mook answered, rattling off the address.

Feeding the address into my map, I grinned when it provided a waypoint. "Okay, here's what you're going to do. Wake up your friends there and tell them the boss wants you to meet him at this address," I ordered, giving him an address for what I knew to be an old, run down park near the waterfront, near to where the other murders had taken place. "Be there within the hour."

"Yes, sir," he agreed, moving to attempt to wake his comrades. Leaving the apartment, I dismissed the Sleep spell over them, hit them with Forget and Confuse, made my way outside, and from there across town.

Junior had been hesitant at first, but the cops' own case file containing all the photos of the dead gangsters had gone a long way towards convincing him, however. It hadn't taken him but a few calls to determine where the Jackals were intending to set up shop again, looking to move into my territory in the wake of Roman's arrest. Hei hadn't been able to get me the leader's location, but he had been able to get me the location of one of the last few lieutenants left alive—and that was all I really needed.

Following my waypoint, I dropped to the ground outside the building it had lead me to—an old, abandoned warehouse. 'How cliché is that? Seriously, you may as well advertise.'

Shaking my head, I threw on Invisibility and slipped inside via one of the upper windows. My glasses helpfully highlighted everyone wandering around the large, mostly open space and in the office on the upper floor. It seemed this guy had become paranoid, after so many of his men had wound up dead—not that I could blame him. It just wasn't going to help him, in this instance. There were eight men below and two in the office, in addition to a man seated at a desk there whom I assumed to be the boss. Sighing, I began casting. "Sleep, Sleep, Sleep…"

Eight guards down, I made my way up to the office and kicked in the door, throwing another instance of Sleep at the trio seated around the desk. Once they went down, I hit the man behind the desk with a Confuse/Charm/Dominate combo before waking him up. "Are you the boss?"

"That I am." Jackson Black, 'the Jackal,' level 15 answered. He was a fairly large man, Caucasian, with unkempt long black hair hanging about his head and a beard—barrel chested and wide, a bit overweight but still dangerous given all the muscle. Well, dangerous to a civilian, at any rate. There was a weapon nearby—what looked like some sort of cherry red and black ax/gun/guitar combo—but I doubt he had used it in a while. It was a Hunter's weapon, but he was clearly not a Hunter—even a retired or washed out one. Likely something he'd had built for show, then. "The Jackals are mine."

"Great. Are these men all new, or were they with you when you killed that girl here, last year?"

He hummed, thinking it over a moment. "All of the men here are new. There are a few around who worked for me then, but most of them are dead. Something's been picking them off."

"Call them. Send them to the old park on the south end of the Industrial District, now," I ordered, then took a seat and waited. Boredom set in quickly, however, so I made my way over and picked up the weapon before retaking my seat, giving it a look over. It was heavy in my hands, clearly intended to be wielded with both hands. The guitar portion was a four string electric guitar. I didn't know a damn thing about playing an instrument, but I'd seen enough music videos to recognize the design as a fairly common rounded one for electric guitars back on Earth. The ax blade appeared to be retractable, so the guitar was actual functional and not simply design aesthetics, and the gun portion seemed to be some sort of select-fire rifle. I had to admit, for being a murderer, the man had good taste. 'Yeah, I'm keeping this. It's mine now.'

Once he'd finished making calls, I decided my curiosity wouldn't let me get away without asking. "So, what exactly did you do to that girl? What's the story there?"

"You really want to know?" he asked, and I nodded. Sitting back in his chair, he sighed, shaking his head. "To be honest, it's something I regret allowing to happen. This life, it changes you. Not everyone can handle that. When you run a gang like I do, things can spiral out of control quickly. Sometimes, you're in absolute control. Other times, you have to let the men have their fun or they will turn on you. I don't know exactly how it happened, but some idiot making a delivery got himself made good when he attacked that girl. Well, my boys couldn't stand for that. They figured out she was a Hunter and figured out a way to take her down without getting killed in the process. Did you know there's stuff out there that will completely screw up your ability to use Aura—to the point where, for a while, even the strongest Hunter would be reduced to being as weak as the rest of us normal humans? There are these little mushrooms that only grow near where grimm make their nests. They're expensive as fuck because obviously no one wants to go around grimm to get them unless they're crazy fuckers. Well, you can buy them dried and crushed on the black market, so apparently someone's making a living out of it. After that, you can use them to make all sorts of tools to take down a Hunter—liquid, gas, smoke. You get the idea. The boys got their hands on some and took her by surprise, then brought her back to our hideout. Well, I couldn't just let her go unpunished—a life for a life, you know? I just didn't think they'd… pass her around like they did, taking turns with her. When I killed that girl, it was a mercy killing. I looked down into her eyes and there was nothing left there. I've killed people, yeah, and I've hurt more than a few. I'd never seen anyone just broken until then."

"I see," I murmured, not feeling the need to ask for more detail. My mind could fill in the blanks. He was weak-willed and had barely been holding onto his gang, and any challenges to his authority couldn't be allowed to stand. His men had wanted to get some back for one of their own and he hadn't been able to order them not to without jeopardizing his own position. It didn't change what I was going to do, but it did leave me feeling far less conflicted over it. They were all scum, after all. I ordered him to take his car and head for the park himself before I left, stashing my new toy into Inventory and taking the quick route there. Maybe, when I found some time to play around with it and wasn't quite so busy, I could teach myself how to play it. There were bound to be skill books for that sort of thing. It would be something fun to do in my spare time, assuming I could find some spare time…

I had chosen that particular park for several reasons, but one was more obvious than the rest as I glided down for a landing. The entire thing was barren and flat. There were no trees, no shrubs, no bushes—just wide, open land for half a block on either side. At some point, it had all been cut down. It was just a barren lot now—a park in name only, on city directories. There was no cover, nowhere to hide. Nothing could sneak up without me seeing it coming. It was an absolutely horrible place to set up a counter-ambush against an apex predator—most would see it for the trap it was and avoid it. The difference here was, whatever she was now, Sanguine wasn't a wild animal—there was still intelligence there, and will. She wanted these people dead and here they were, all gathered together in one convenient location. I hoped she wouldn't be able to pass the opportunity up—that she would walk into the trap willingly, if it meant getting to kill everyone she was after in one fell swoop.

Aside from the fact that it pretty much screamed 'trap,' I'd done my best to make it an actual trap on short notice. Even with it as dark as it was, I was mildly surprised none of the mooks present had yet noticed the freshly disturbed earth at their feet, or the piece of plywood covered only by an inch or so of dirt. On the underside of that piece of plywood was scrawled a seal I thought I'd try my hand at—a trap field, armed with a mid-grade Ice Blue Dust crystal. From the description, detonating the trap should freeze everything within its range in place aside from the caster—this was my backup plan, in the event it turned out that what was left of Sanguine decided to make a meal out of me.

As I watched, more cars slowly arrived and parked across from the empty lot the park had become, more men getting out and making their way onto the field. I counted sixteen by the time the boss pulled up. As he crossed the lot towards the men, who had begun talking amongst themselves and trying to figure out what was going on, I moved close to him and asked, "Is this all of them?"

Jackal stopped and surveyed the bunch before nodding, quietly answering, "All that are not dead."

"Great," I muttered, giving him an order to keep them occupied. From here out, it was a waiting game. Glancing at my HUD clock, I sighed before opening my menus and looking around. Since the last update, I hadn't had a chance to go over everything with a fine toothed comb, and with some time to kill I could keep one eye out for Sanguine while I read. Besides, so long as they didn't leave, Jackal's goons should be a decent early warning system. If all else failed, I'd know she was there the moment the screaming started.

A little over two and a half hours of standing around in the dark and listening to Jackal's men bitch passed before anything happened. I noticed it first—or rather, my detection skills did. I followed where they pointed me and spotted a nearly invisible form slowly stalking about the edge of the abandoned park. It circled around, taking in those gathered, mismatched bright blue and green eyes shining in the moonlight. There was a commotion behind me as someone noticed the eyes and alerted the rest, and they began drawing weapons. Shaking my head, I called up mana and cast Bind—earth and grass suddenly sprouting up from below to alternately impale feet, legs, and calves with sharp spikes of rock or bind hands and feet with creeping vines, wound tightly together. I began casting Silence just to shut up the ones screaming and crying over being wounded.

Smelling blood and sensing an opportunity, the creature that had once been a Faunus Huntress stalked closer and I was able to make out more of its form. 'How did I ever mistake you for a grimm?' I wondered, taking her in. She looked like nothing less than an apex predator—lithe, muscle densely packed on her small frame, but with a human level of intelligence behind her eyes. I could see it in the way she took in the spell holding them in place and the way she constantly looked for some hidden threat. She looked like a very darkly colored panther—a jaguar, specifically. Well, if a panther wore a grimm-like mask over its eyes and under its jaws—the only real sign she was anything other than an ordinary great cat. I say grimm-like because it lacked the familiar red markings common to almost all grimm masks.

She stopped several yards away from the bound and silent gang, pacing back and forth restlessly. I waited until she was facing me before dropping Invisibility. She froze, mismatched eyes locking onto me and a quiet growl starting deep in her throat. "Easy there," I soothed quietly, holding my hands up palms out and keeping still. The creature before me turned and paced away several steps, never taking her eyes off of me as she evaluated me as a threat. "You remember, don't you? When you were still a person? That's you isn't it, Sanguine?"

The pacing and agitated switch to her tail stopped and those eyes locked with mine. "Yeah, I thought so. And I bet you have a good idea who I am, too—you can smell it." I was taking a calculated risk with that guess—that either Jaune had met her before at some point, or that I smelled enough like Joan for her to figure it out.

I lowered my hands slowly and when she made no reaction, I carefully crossed the distance between myself and Jackal. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked him down hard, dragging him to his knees—which must have been absolutely excruciating given that he was one of the ones impaled by stone spikes through a foot and a calf. Silenced as he was, I didn't have to listen to any mewling, crying, or begging—I didn't know if I would be able to follow through with this if I could actually hear him. On a personal level, I had no vendetta against these people. They were scum, murderers and rapists, yes—but I wasn't the injured party, nor had I known her personally, so I took no enjoyment from what I planned to do nor did I feel any sort of self-righteous sense of 'justice' at killing bad men. As far as I was concerned, it was something that needed to be done and that was it. Maybe, once it was done, I could go home and tell my sisters that their friend, teammate, and lover was at peace—one way or another.

"This is what kept you around, isn't it? You're angry, and I don't blame you for wanting to kill them for what was done to you. Well," I gestured around us, towards the men struggling to get free now that they realized what was going on. There was a gunshot from behind me and a red-tinted Dust round spanged off my Aura, briefly illuminating it. I sighed and silently cast A.T. Field behind me. The first round was quickly followed by more as the man firing emptied his magazine into my shield, the gun clicking dry a moment later. "As I was saying. Here they are. All the men still alive who were with the Jackals at the time of your murder, along with the man himself. Yours, to do with as you see fit."

Removing my hand from Jackal's hair, I gave him one last shove forward and stepped back to wait and watch. The spirit stalked forward, stopping once she was face to face with the kneeling man. I couldn't see his face, but I could tell he was trying to say something as she leaned in closer, sniffing once before opening her mouth. Her jaws unhinged, lower jaw coming to rest under his chin while the two large fangs at her upper jaw settled against the top of his skull. There was a crunch as she flexed her jaw and his flailing stopped as he went mostly still, aside from the occasional twitch. I stood still and watched as she moved on to the next man in line, dragged him down to her level, and did the same before moving on to the next.

There was no violence, no brutality or disfigurement, just a single bite to end it before moving on. I wondered why the first few had been so different. Was it because they fought back? Or was it because I was here, now? Either way, I suspected I'd never have an answer. No, the question gnawing at my mind was, 'what next.' Would she be satisfied with this and… what? Move on? Or would it only make her more powerful, more dangerous, and harder to put down if I had to? Either way, I didn't have long to wait.

The grudge finished with the last man there, one final crunch echoing across the empty lot the park had become, before it turned and stalked back towards me, pausing several feet away. The A.T. Field I'd put up earlier remained behind me, but I was intimately aware of the barrier and ready to put it between us at a moment's notice. Mismatched green and blue eyes regarded me for a long moment before I finally sighed, quietly. "You're not going to just go away, or pass on in peace or whatever, are you?"

In answer, the grudge crouched low for a moment before springing forward and sprinting towards me. The hexagonal barrier swung around between us and I laid a hand on my sword in preparation to draw. She closed to within a yard before pouncing up from the ground, front legs extended to bring me down. Below and around us, ice exploded up out of the ground—but instead of being impeded, she used a pair of the many ice spikes rising from the ground as springboards, attempting to get around my shield, which rotated to follow her.

A moment before her paws would hit my A.T. Field, I drew aiming for her neck. To my absolute surprise, she passed through my shield, while the blade of my sword passed harmlessly through the space her neck should have occupied. An instant later, her weight slammed into me and sent me to the ground as the area around us exploded into thick, black smoke and I felt myself covered in black blood and bits of fur—the usual leftovers from any messy grimm kill. The smoke and gore I ignored in favor of feeling something move past my armor and inside me, lodging somewhere in my chest. It wasn't the claws I'd been expecting, however, as I felt a sudden burning cold in my chest, followed by severe lethargy. I felt like I'd just run ten miles back on Earth, before I'd had the sort of stamina I did now.

Catching motion, my eyes tracked to the upper left corner of my HUD, where my MP appeared to be draining rapidly. 'Not an attack,' I realized quickly, already feeling my thoughts becoming sluggish. 'Possession? If so, Gamer's Mind should have kicked in by now. Option three, then.'

Having some idea what might happen next, I quickly drew my scroll and hit speed dial. Two rings later, Neo's voice greeted me. I cut her off before she could say much, however. "Need your help. The old park on the south side of the Industrial District, near the river. You might want to hurry, before someone notices the bodies and calls the cops. I… think I'm going to pass out now."

"What?! Jaune!"

I watched my MP hit 0 before my knees gave out and I fell over backwards. My hand went slack around the scroll and I let my head loll back against the dry grass, cold as it was now that the ice that had run over it had shattered. The world swam, then went black.

---

"Who are you?"

My thoughts were fuzzy, hazy in that quality that comes with dreams. The voice was unfamiliar, and yet somehow it was. It felt close—as close as my own thoughts, even.

"Pull yourself together and focus. I'm borrowing your brain for this since I can barely string two coherent thoughts together by myself at the moment and it's taking a lot of effort, so I would appreciate some sort of response. Who are you?"

There was a sense of desperation there, and urgency, with an undercurrent annoyance and frustration. Sluggishly, I answered, "Jaune Arc."

"No, you're not. What part of 'I'm in your brain' was difficult to comprehend? I see your thoughts, your memories, I see you. You are not Jaune."

It took a moment for me to process that, but when I finally did I felt a brief jolt of shock and something like adrenaline, and I became more aware. I knew I was dreaming now, in that state of lucid dreaming so rarely experienced and rarely ever remembered. "If you see all of that, why bother asking? Seems to me like you're wasting your time." Well, it seemed I was awake enough for snark. "But to answer your question, Sanguine—I assume that's who you are, right?"

"Yes," she answered, or at least an impression of her voice if she was using my own brain… and wasn't that a disturbing thought?

"John. Though, given current circumstances, it may as well be 'Jaune.'" I thought back on my old life, but couldn't for the life of me remember my last name. That should probably have bothered me, but I was coming to accept those sorts of gaps as normal. I attempted to look around, only now realizing that I appeared to be nowhere—a literal formless void. No ground, no sky, floor, ceiling, light, or dark—I couldn't even perceive my own body.

"Why are you here?" A smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth and she must have sensed my coming answer, as I got the impression of a sigh. "On Remnant, wearing my teammate's little brother's body like a meat suit—or do you know?"

I shrugged, I think—it was hard to tell. "Fuck if I know. I'd tell you to look for yourself while you're poking around in my head, but let me guess, you can't get much in the way of details doing what you're doing can you?"

"No," she admitted, reluctance clear in her tone.

"Well, let me tell you this, then. I didn't come here intentionally—couldn't have, since as far as I knew before waking up in this crazy place it wasn't possible and this entire world was fictional." I knew my frustration at not knowing was surely showing through at this point, but I didn't really care. "Nor do I remember what I was really doing before I found myself here—so I've got no idea if I died where I come from and somehow… I don't know, transmigrated or Quantum Leaped or something. For all I know, I could be in a hospital bed in a coma dreaming you up. I've given up on figuring that one out, because as far as I can tell there is no way to answer that question to my satisfaction. I do know that now that I'm here I've grown attached to the place. I like it here and I want to stay, so I'm treating it as real until I get some sort of input to the contrary. I like the people and I want to see them live their lives and be happy, as sappy as that sounds. That answer good enough for you?"

She huffed a quiet chuckle. "Yeah. I can work with that." She went silent for a moment, seeming to gather her resolve before pressing onward. "I don't want to die again. I know things can never really be like they were, but anything is better than that. And I don't want to become a mindless killing machine, either. It's been there, this whole time, a slowly building anger at everyone, everything, the world itself… I don't want that. When I'm with you, like this, that's not there. I feel almost like a person again. May I stay with you, here? Lend me your strength, help me keep my sanity and what few scraps I have left of something approaching my humanity, and I will fight for you."

"Humanity? But you were a Faunus," I pointed out in as innocent a tone as I could muster. I was nitpicking, and she knew it.

I had the sudden impression that if she could swat me, she would have. "I am attempting to be serious here. Please stop being an ass for two minutes."

I snorted. "Sorry, no can do. It's a permanent state of being. If you're going to be hanging around, you'd best get used to it."

There was a momentary pause before she asked, voice full of trepidation, "Is that a yes?"

"It's a yes," I confirmed.

There was relief in her voice when next she spoke. "Then I leave myself in your care. Where you go I shall walk by your side, 'till the day we both die." She heaved a quiet sigh and I felt something relaxing, though I couldn't tell if the feeling was from me or her. "I won't be able to do this again any time soon, I think. I… I am trusting you to take care of me while I cannot take care of myself. Please don't disappoint me."

I wanted to tell her that everything would be okay, but I could already feel the dream slipping away and my mind drifting deeper into sleep…

---

I think I dreamed, but when I finally woke up remembering it was like trying to hold onto smoke. 'Odd. I normally remember my dreams.'

I felt warm and full and content for what felt like the first time in forever. At the same time, I felt exhausted and starving, and somehow colder. A pair of arms squeezed tight around my chest and I realized that I was somehow feeling two sets of senses—the first from my body, the second from a source I couldn't identify. Not feeling particularly inclined to figure it out at the moment, I focused on more immediate needs—specifically, food. Opening my eyes, I looked down to see who it was that currently had me trapped and my Semblance began dutifully playing out notices.

You have completed the hidden quest Taming the Beast! You gain 20,000 EXP!

You have learned the skill Summon Spirit! Spirits you have contracts with appear on the Spirits tab of the Character Menu and Spirits section of the Journal—from there, you can view their stats, alignment, spirit specific quests, equipment, and so forth.

You have unlocked the quest Spirits Within! Seek out and treat with other spirits willing to lend you their aid. Rewards: EXP to be determined per spirit contracted, summonable spirits useful in and outside of combat.

You have unlocked the grand quest The Soul of the World. You have learned how to summon lesser spirits, now you must seek out the spirits that embody the elements themselves! Rewards: EXP to be determined per great spirit contracted, the ability to manipulate the elements beyond the capability of Dust and Aura alone.

The system has been updated. Would you like to view the Change Log?

Closing various windows, I hummed in thought as I took it all in. It seemed that chasing down Sanguine had gotten me the ability to contract and summon spirits. Lesser spirits, as opposed to… greater spirits? Elemental spirits? Traditional summons, at any rate. This sounded more like… some games' ability to summon battle pets, really. Maybe a bit more, but that was what it sounded like it boiled down to. Which implied that summoning elemental spirits was a much bigger deal than simply summoning some elemental construct for combat… Well, that would be a nice change from every other game with a summoning mechanic I'd ever played. Aside from that, I had to wonder what had incurred a system update so soon after a major update. I'd learned my lesson the first time, so I opened the change log.

Change Log: The Gamer Semblance v. 1.5.2

1. Updated UI to add party member and summon portraits when applicable.

2. Updated UI to add Spirit Meter. Check the Help section for details.

3. Updated map to properly display icons for important characters.

3.a. Adjusted threshold for others qualifying as 'important' characters.

4. Updated UI to add mob and character alignment icon beside name.

4.a. Observe now reports karma gains from mobs/characters.

Well, that was… uselessly vague, on the second part. As for the third, I had noticed that neither Cinder nor Emerald had displayed before—was this a correction to that oversight, or was it something else? Would important but unfriendly, even hostile, people show up on my map, or would it hide them from me? I'd kind of assumed that was the case when neither of those two showed up, but now I was not so sure—after all, why would my Semblance hide potential enemies from me, especially important ones? Sure, it happened in video games all the time, but regardless of how my Semblance treated the world, it was not a game.

Sighing in annoyance, I put it aside for a moment to disengage myself from Neo's grip and roll out of bed. I stumbled into the kitchen, flipping on the lights and digging through the cabinets until I found a box of cereal, followed by milk from the fridge. A glance at my HUD clock showed it to be early morning, Thursday—I'd been out for almost a full 24 hours and still felt like I could use eight hours of sleep. With a tired groan, I sat down at the bar and dug into my cereal while pulling up the help section to see what the hell this spirit meter thing was, before it somehow came back to bite me in the ass.

Spirit Meter: a meter which provides a numerical value for how much energy the Gamer Semblance has available. Everything from the Quest system, to the HUD, to the ability to absorb skill books and create new skills uses spirit energy. 'Experience points' are nothing but a numerical value given to the amount of this energy harvested from enemies either during combat or after defeating them, or collected from friendly targets upon the completion of quests. Half of all spirit energy collected goes directly to fueling the Gamer Semblance, while the other half is used to increase the player's skill level, stats, and power—the more spirit the player collects, the stronger the player becomes, the more spirit the player becomes capable of collecting.

Spirits, as the name implies, consist of and subsist on spirit energy. Spirits require spirit energy to exist—without it, they would cease to exist. Where before, the player could have gone weeks, if not months between quests or hunting enemies for spirit without problems, with the addition of summonable spirits draining collected spirit energy the player must now actively hunt enemies or complete quests in order to keep from running out of spirit energy. As spirit energy runs out, the Gamer Semblance will cease to function properly. Should all spirit reserves be exhausted, player death cannot be ruled out. For more details on spirit energy and spirits themselves, check the 'Lore' section of the Journal.

Good news: I had more insight into how my Semblance worked. Bad news: I'd found a new and interesting way to potentially die. I could check my journal later, but for the moment I just wanted to go back to bed. That thought in mind, I finished off the last of my cereal and went to curl up with Neo again. I wondered for a moment where the twins were, and a check of my map showed them to be in the building on a lower floor—downstairs, in their mother's home then. Well, so long as they weren't sitting around the apartment waiting for me to wake up or something. I'd feel kind of guilty if that were the case. Pulling Neo's small, shapely, and nude form into my arms, I closed my eyes and slept.

I finally woke up around noon to the smell of someone using my kitchen to cook something that left my mouth watering. Neo was nowhere in sight, but a check of my minimap showed her and the twins in the kitchen. Slipping out of bed, I made my way into the kitchen after equipping a set of casual clothes—I'd have to see about a shower, at some point. Stepping into the kitchen, I was immediately swamped by the girls and bombarded with questions. 'Well, shit, they were worried about me this whole time.'

"I'm fine now," I assured them, taking a seat at the table, where a plate quickly appeared in front of me as the girls seated themselves.

"So, what happened? What killed all those people?" asked Neo, curiosity and worry still evident in her expression.

I took a moment to sample the food in front of me—what looked like some kind of pasta dish, with huge meatballs—before answering. "Remember that thing that got away when we cleaned out the apartment complex?" I asked the twins, and they nodded. "Yeah, that."

The girls listened as I explained what I knew of the situation, leaving out a few of the gorier details here and there that no one really needed to hear. As I finished, I noticed a pall seemed to have fallen over the mood at the table, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. If there had been any doubts before as to the possibility of their loved ones coming back as grimm, or grimm-like creatures, those doubts had been utterly destroyed given the proof I had. Pushing my empty plate away slightly, I sat back and regarded the trio of girls carefully. Melanie appeared introspective, lost in her thoughts, and more than a little upset. Her sister seemed to accept it, but was likewise not too pleased at the news. Neo… Neo looked up from her thoughts and met my eyes for a moment before shrugging. "It's not something you want to hear, but hey, what can you do about it?"

"Find them," Melanie spoke up, before I could answer. "Maybe… I mean, obviously you'll need to use this one as a test case to find out what happens and what's possible. Until we know that, the only thing we can really do is put out some feelers and try to track down other cases and get there before the Hunters do. At least then there's a chance they won't necessarily have to be put down, if Jaune can… what did you call it? Contract them—right?"

"Yes, however, there's a problem with that," I countered softly. "Just taking on Sanguine left me drained. Even if we found one, I don't believe I'd be able to take on another for a while at least. As it stands, I'm going to need to do some serious hunting to get back to where I was according to what my Semblance is telling me. Ideally, if we did try it, I'd want to build up a bit of a surplus of energy beforehand, so that I'm not as wiped out after."

Nodding from where she sat beside her sister, Miltia sent me a grin. "So, more grinding then. That means you can take the time to try teaching us skills."

I rolled my eyes, but nodded agreement. "You're really enthusiastic about that."

"Absolutely," Miltia agreed. "Who doesn't want more power? Besides, there are some skills we should all probably learn. Shields and healing, for instance. Aura's great for healing our own wounds, but if someone runs out and can't heal themselves…"

"Fair enough. We can start… Monday? What's my schedule looking like?" I jokingly asked.

Humming in thought, Miltia pulled out her scroll and began tapping away for a moment. "Today's Thursday, so… you owe Neo a date tonight or tomorrow?" she asked, directing the question at the ice cream themed girl.

Neo hummed in thought a moment before turning to ask me, "Do you need more time to rest, or will you be okay for tonight?"

"I feel fine," I assured her, grinning. "Tonight is okay."

"Okay," Miltia agreed, noting it down. "You said Cinder wants you to start gathering up Dust and resources. How did you want to go about that?"

"Visibly," I deadpanned. "I was thinking we could hit the Dust stores in Vale twice over—once in Instant Dungeons and again in the real world, that way we gain a large stockpile for ourselves while at the same time creating visible evidence that we're doing what she wants. Not just that, but if we use the Red Hand's men, we could hit multiple targets back to back. Hit one out in the open, move on to the next one and snatch everything covertly while cops and Hunters in the area are still worrying about the first one. If the Red Hand men get apprehended, we've lost nothing. Also, what are the rules on that? What sort of legal authority does a Hunter have?"

Miltia and Melanie traded a look before Melanie motioned Miltia to proceed. "It depends on the rank of the Hunter and the situation in question, really. A Hunter in training could legally detain someone in the commission of a crime such as a robbery and it would carry more legal weight than, say, a citizen's arrest and also testify as a witness and their testimony would likewise carry similar weight to that of a police officer. A full-fledged Hunter can do all of that in addition to investigating and pursuing criminals where ever they may be, so long as they are working in cooperation with local authorities. Local authorities have jurisdiction but Hunters can act anywhere. They have legal authority to hunt fugitives, transport high profile prisoners across national lines, that sort of thing. They're supposed to turn over any criminals they catch to the appropriate authorities, so they have no real power with regards to non-violent suspects beyond apprehension and detainment until the locals take custody."

'So, federal-level jurisdiction. Sounds similar to the Marshal Service. Or maybe INTERPOL, depending on how you look at it.'

"When it comes to armed conflict, however, every Hunter has the right and responsibility to intervene. Trainees are supposed to fight to subdue hostiles in those situations, but… well, the life of the Hunter comes before the life of the criminal in this instance and no court is going to prosecute a Hunter in training who accidentally killed someone endangering the lives of others. Full-fledged Hunters are pretty much licensed to kill, in that regard. Most will try to subdue someone first, but there are a few who won't bother with that courtesy—and if you manage to hurt or kill a Hunter, all bets are off and a KOS order will be issued. Kill On Sight. In other words, try to avoid them," Miltia shrugged, and I got the feeling this was something they had long ago come to terms with. She gestured towards her sister, drawing my eyes to Melanie.

"There are seven shops selling Dust in Vale," Melanie provided, having taken out her own scroll while her sister was explaining. "Wouldn't we be better off hitting a Schnee train carrying a shipment to be distributed?"

I thought about that a minute, going over my options. A train-load of Dust was a hard target to pass up, but more importantly I had an idea of when the next shipment was coming in—next week, unless I missed my guess—and who would be on it. Going to Forever Fall to pull a train job would give me a legitimate excuse to potentially meet Blake, assuming she was still on the train by the time we got there. Still, as far as I knew, there were only two options for taking that train: with Blake and Adam Taurus still on it, along with a small army of Schnee robots… or after Blake had separated the cars, in which case I was unsure whether it still had Dust on it or not. I didn't particularly want to deal with Adam—I had no idea of his level, but unless I missed my guess it was high, and his skill was nothing to scoff at. After Blake separated them, then.

Either way, I didn't have an exact date so I'd need the twins to figure that out. In the meantime, there was no real point in not doing both. At least if I did that, then we'd have something to show for our efforts aside from an empty train. So, I asked, "Why can't we do both? We could start hitting the local shops tomorrow and you can figure out when the next shipment is due to come in and we'll hit it in transit."

"So, crime tomorrow night," Miltia surmised, and I nodded.

"Pen yourself in for Saturday night," I told her, and she beamed a smile.

As she did so, she reminded me of something I had left on the back burner for the last few days, "Also, you're going to have to do something about the White Fox at some point."

"Right. Yeah, I'll probably need to see about stepping in to foil a few of my own robberies." Humming in thought, I looked to Neo as an idea formed. "Think you can manage to create an illusion of me that could simulate me fighting someone?"

Neo shrugged, pointing to the table where miniature versions myself and her appeared, and began exchanging blows. "Sure, so long as someone doesn't hit it. Otherwise," she reached out and flicked the illusion with a finger and they both shattered. "Why?"

I pointed at the illusion on the table—which had reformed and a miniature Neo had hooked a miniature version of myself behind the ankle with her parasol, pulled my mini-me to the ground, and was currently in the process of sitting on his face. "Because I need to be in two places at once. I need to legitimize the Fox as a threat to Cinder's operations so she'll waste energy chasing down that particular ghost, and at the same time I have to prove I'm essentially above suspicion on that front."

"We would need to practice a bit, so I can accurately mimic the way you fight as each, but that shouldn't be a problem," Neo agreed, watching her illusion with a slowly widening grin. "We could do that tonight, if you want. After my movie."

"Sure," I chuckled. "Anything else?" There were shakes of the head all around. "Okay then, a few hours every day for leveling and attempting to train skills and we can figure out other stuff as it comes up. In the meantime, I want a shower, and then I need to sit down and finish up my computer work."

---

"You're sure about this?" I asked Neo later that night, as we stood on top of a building inside an Instant Dungeon—where I had just finished up a couple of spars with her, as both Shiro and the Fox, so she could get a grasp on my preferred techniques for each disguise.

Below us, the city appeared to sprawl out in all directions, but much changed from the Vale we knew. I had been playing with environmental settings for my Instant Dungeon skill and the changes were more than a little amazing. The air was more humid, thick with the scent of forest and plant matter. The buildings that still stood were crumbling, overgrown with trees, grass, and vines. The streets were choked with tall grass, which swayed in the breeze, disturbed occasionally by the husk of an old car. There were no lights, aside from the occasional light of a fire—which I was certain had not been lit by either humans or faunus. Out in the distance, I could hear animal calls, along with the occasional call of some unseen grimm. All in all, it looked like some moonlit post-apocalyptic scene out of a movie or game.

"Yeah," Neo agreed, pulling me out of my momentary inspection of our surroundings. "Teach me something easy to get and I can spend a while practicing while you go down there and kill stuff. We both know you need to. Besides, it'll give you a chance to figure out that summoning thing."

She looked serious and a bit enthusiastic really, so I gave up trying to dissuade her from spending even more of her date night in training. I took a moment to open my menu and equip my new title, Field Instructor, which granted bonuses to teaching others skills and granted a significant experience gain bonus to anyone in my party who was lower level than myself—especially during combat, which seemed kind of counter-intuitive, but if it worked then I wouldn't argue. "Okay, then," I nodded, sending her a party invite. "Let's start with something useful and easy: passive skills and buffs. Do you know how to meditate?"

The short girl shook her head. "Not really, no."

"Great, that should actually make this easier, since you won't have to unlearn anything. Close your eyes," I instructed, wondering how best to explain how to do what I did. "Focus on your breathing—that's the easiest place to start, I suppose. Breathe in slowly, breathe out slowly—find a rhythm that's comfortable for you." I waited a few moments, watching her under Observe as she visibly calmed. "You can feel your heartbeat now, can't you?" She nodded. "Good. Now, what do you hear?"

"My breath and my pulse in my ears. Your voice, the sound of your breathing… It's slow, very quiet." She went quiet for a moment, tilting her head slightly before continuing. "Bats above us, flapping, chirping. Bird at… my 10 o'clock, a few yards out. A pack of some kind of canines, about half a kilometer to my 6—don't think they're grimm."

"Coyotes," I answered the unspoken question. "Now, just listen, relax, and try to focus both on yourself and the world around you. Slowly bring up your Aura a bit and you should start feeling something that feels like another Aura pressing against it from all sides. Breathe in, and when you do let it in. It kind of feels like trying to breathe underwater at first, I know, but you get used to it. When it feels like you can't hold any more, breathe out and release the excess. After that, it should just be repetition." I couldn't really explain it any better. I knew there were alternative methods to meditation, but I really only knew how to teach what I used. The biggest differences came with Aura, and the way it interacted with the world of Remnant. I hadn't actually done any of the Aura interaction when I'd first created the Meditation skill—no, I figured out that's what I was doing unconsciously only recently. It accounted for a lot, such as the regen effects, if the person doing the meditating was tapping into the energy of Remnant itself. It didn't seem to matter that I was unsure how well I'd explained it, however, as after a few minutes Neo's eyes opened and focused somewhere in the middle distance. "What is it?"

A huge grin stretched across her face and she reached out to tap at the air in front of her—closing a skill creation window, I assumed. She turned and twirled around the roof of the building, spinning her parasol and laughing quietly. "Wow. I feel… stronger, and my mind feels sharper. You feel like this all the time?"

"I'm used to it," I shrugged. "Was it a 20% bonus, going up 3% per level?"

"Yep," Neo beamed. "As a passive! And I get 100% regen for HP and MP when it's active." A thought occurred and she asked, "Can you use it while you do other stuff?"

Smirking, I nodded. "If you can split your attention, yeah. So if you were to, say, focus on keeping your Aura up full time while meditating you could level both at the same time. Speaking of, for my next trick: activate your Aura and focus on sort of pulling it inward to reinforce your body—make yourself stronger, faster, more durable." With a nod, Neo closed her eyes and did just that, a bright pink nimbus of Aura glowing around her body. "While you're doing that, try to focus on picking out individual Aura around you—well, we're in a barrier so I suppose mine is the only one you should be able to see well inside it. With the way I had you learn Meditation, it should be fairly easy to learn either Perception or Detect Aura, if not both. Anyway, I'm going to go down below now. Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine. If you're worried, set up telepathy and I'll let you know if something comes along," she suggested, not opening her eyes. "Once you leave the roof, I'll even put up a veil so nothing sees me." She paused for a second, before giggling. "Oh god, I could keep that up all day now. This is so awesome!"

"And as far as I'm aware, leaving it on like that should let you level it," I pointed out, to which she giggled and threw her arms around me in a hug. I quickly cast Telepathy and placed her back on her feet. "Okay, I'll be back in a few. If you get the other skills down, why don't you work on Spinning Mana Arrow for a while?"

"Sure, sure," she agreed, plopping down into a cross-legged position and smoothing out her skirt. "Go on, shoo!"

I rolled my eyes before turning towards the edge of the roof. Opening my menu, I equipped my glasses and the world washed green with night-vision. I was currently wearing my normal armor, as opposed to my 'Shiro' disguise—I needed the practice with my new gear, to be honest. Certainly, my stealth equipment would be better suited to the current environment, but I couldn't always rely on it—nor could I always rely on Invisibility to get me through situations where I needed to be sneaky. So it was that I hopped off the roof and into a nearby tree, landing in the upper branches and swiftly moving towards a cluster of red dots highlighted on my minimap—visible, but this high up and in the dark odds were good nothing would spot me. The only things that would really give me away were my shield and sword, with their lighted tracery—I'd have to do something about that. I couldn't have my gear giving me away at a crucial moment. 'Maybe if I switch Dust types?' I mused, coming into visual range of my quarry.

Deciding I could figure that out later, I focused on the group of mobs below and allowed my glasses to zoom in. 'Goblins? And something larger… Troll? Well, I suppose the Mad Max look and the guns are fitting for an overrun urban environment.'

Turning my attention inwards, I found that new place where I was connected to something else—a mind and spirit other than my own. I felt the spell activate and the air on the branch in front of me darkened momentarily before a large, familiar feline form coalesced and on the left side of my HUD, a new portrait appeared displaying Sanguine's image, HP, and MP below that of Neo. The great cat took a moment to stretch, claws flexing and silently shredding the tree limb under her before she turned a tight circle on the branch and bumped the top of her head into my chest. I was surprised when a quest notification popped up.

You have unlocked the quest The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

Now that you have gained a summonable spirit, you are responsible for its fate. A spirit's alignment is determined both by that of its summoner and the actions its summoner has it undertake. The more evil actions you and your spirit companion undertake, the more negative karma your spirit will accrue, the more monstrous it will become. Conversely, the more good actions you and your spirit perform, the more positive karma your spirit will accrue, the more human-like it will become. Unstoppable killing machine or true companion, the choice is yours. Advance your summon through the karmic ranks from its current position of Specter to either Demon or Eidolon. The ranking system goes, from most negative to most positive: Demon, Grudge, Specter, Phantasm, Eidolon. For more details on Karma, check the Journal.

Rewards: Either karma outcome: increased closeness with your summon, skills and abilities unique to that summon's karma. Negative karma: title – Diabolist. Positive Karma: title – Exorcist.

I reread that twice before it truly sank in. I would have slammed my finger on the 'accept' button, but there was no button to accept or to decline it—nor was there a fail condition. That likely meant this was going to happen, one way or another, and I couldn't avoid at least some outcome. 'There is a karmic system. Who judges it? No, not important. Actually important: I can advance spirits through it to make them 'more human-like.''

I cast a look down at the great cat currently regarding me with those luminous, mismatched eyes. "I promise, I will help you get back to something like normal." The cat nodded, slowly, before turning its eyes on the gathering of mobs below us. I focused on them again, and noticed something new—beside each monster's name was a small blue orb. Triggering Observe showed that killing each mob was worth a small handful of positive karma—between 5 and 10 each.

Dismissing that, I studied the layout of their camp and decided how to best approach it. Taking out my sword, I flipped it open and converted it to rifle mode, extending the barrel and adjusting the scope. Looking at Sanguine, I was about to cast Telepathy, when I realized something like it was already there—had been, the whole time. I had just been tuning it out because I thought the sensations were coming from Neo. Focusing on the feed more fully, I found myself staring down onto the camp in full color, from the tree branch a few feet from me. I could hear someone breathing beside me, along with the rustle and clank of armor down below and quiet grunting that passed as language for the goblins. My field of view turned and I found I was looking at myself.

Shaking my head, I pulled back from the feed and grinned. 'Oh, that could be very handy,' I chuckled. Focusing on what I wanted, I felt Sanguine acknowledge my directions before quietly slipping down from the tree and stalking around to the opposite side of the camp. While she did that, I opened my Inventory and equipped my suppressor onto my rifle's barrel slot, thankful I could just equip it instead of having to take it out and screw it on manually. Sighting in my target, I waited for Sanguine to move into position. Once she was ready, I gave the order and she struck, springing from the bushes and grabbing one of the goblins, dragging him into the dark. While the other goblins were still reacting, I squeezed the trigger and my rifle kicked quietly in my hands. Downrange, the troll's head exploded in a shower of gore and an explosion of fire.

I took two more of the goblins that way before switching over to the shorter barreled configuration and moving up through the trees. While Sanguine dragged them down and tore out throats or opened bellies, I switched my rifle over to burst fire and began emptying rounds into the ones that were beginning to get organized. They began firing wildly into the trees or at Sanguine, but blinded by their fire and muzzle flash as they were they would never see me and Sanguine's leopard form was simply too fast to hit, seeing as she didn't stay still long enough for them to draw a bead on her—that is, when she was in the open. Once she stepped back into the shadows, the great cat's dark form was all but invisible. It was over within a minute and I dropped down to look things over. A check of my HUD showed neither of us had taken damage in the short encounter. Then again, I hadn't gained much in the way of EXP either. I'd noticed that I was swiftly out-leveling the areas inside of Vale, and soon I likely wouldn't get any at all.

Looking around at the scattered drops, I rolled my eyes and folded up my weapon to stow it. "Okay, fuck it. Let's see what I can do about that."

I focused on the drops on the ground and moving them up through the air towards me, feeling Skill Creation kick in a moment later. I was rewarded with the skill Telekinesis, which allowed me to lift, catch, throw or otherwise manipulate an object or objects within a maximum range of 10 meters, up to a number of pounds equal to my INT modifier—both of which would go up as I leveled the skill. The only real downside was it was relatively MP intensive—MP use going up as I lifted heavier objects. At 10MP/lb/minute, lifting a 100lb object for a minute would cost 1000MP. A glance at my stats and I palmed my face—I could lift over half a ton, at the moment—for all of a minute, before I burned through about 80% of my MP.

However, being able to lift massive objects wasn't the be-all/end-all of telekinesis. In fact, it was one of the dumber ways of using it. No, the smarter uses for telekinesis involved putting large amounts of force on tiny objects. For instance, being able to pop blood vessels in someone's brain was pretty much the holy grail of assassination. The problem with that though was that I got the feeling that Aura wouldn't allow it, unless I also overpowered someone's Aura… which would, naturally, alert them that someone was trying to attack them somehow. Another clever application in the small-objects-large-force department was propelling tiny objects at speed. Or, one of the most infamous, the Darth Vader style Force Choke. Given how much force I could apply, it would probably be more like Force Decapitation for grimm, but there was no safe way to test that against humans. 'So many possibilities,' I mused, a smirk crossing my lips as I turned my mind towards all the other uses of the skill I'd seen in various media.

Well, it looked like I had another skill to practice with… though, that did remind me of something important. I had a Conjuration skill I hadn't even used yet, after all. I had eaten the book a while back and never gotten around to playing with it. Shaking my head, I opened my Inventory and directed a stream of drops into it—a few potions, a few thousand Lien, and some older model pre-Dust rifles and ammunition. A look at my map told me where the next group of mobs was, so I moved up into the trees and we moved off towards their location.

A little over an hour later, I flicked the blood off my sword and looked around the carnage around me—the basement level of what had been a parking garage, filled with an entire tribe of goblins, orcs, and trolls. All dead, now, as small spheres of metal scattered around the room began dissolving into light. Conjuration, as it turned out, was useful. I could create pretty much anything I could imagine, so long as I had mana for it. Of course, there were some limitations, such as duration and materials—Dust, for instance, could not be conjured… though, I had to wonder if that was a limitation on my part or that of my Semblance. Likewise, for some reason, I couldn't simply conjure gold—which made no damn sense, from a physics standpoint. I'd tried conjuring Lien directly, and while I'd produced a good deal of paper that looked similar to paper Lien, the printed text and images were fuzzy and inconsistent. I supposed I could try producing the other precious metals later, but there was little point—nothing I conjured was permanent, after all.

Combining Conjuration with Telekinesis, however, lead to some interesting results. For instance, if I called up fifty pounds of 00 steel buckshot—nothing more than 53.8 grain spheres of steel—and applied Telekinesis… well. The room around me was a bloody mess and the enemies there, before they dissolved into spirit-stuff, looked like they'd been run through a blender. Sure, I could've used something flashy like swords or knives—I could probably emulate half a dozen manga or anime off the top of my head that way—there was no point, here. Trash mobs simply weren't worth that much effort. The most interesting results had been summoning up shot of different elements on the periodic table—alkali metals, specifically. Pure potassium shot had lead to exploding heads and a few rather nasty bodies, but it was certainly something I would be keeping in mind for later abuse. I couldn't decide if I was looking forward to or dreading attempting the same with pure cesium or rubidium. It was bound to make a mess. Still, it was nice to know I could abuse some base physics for fun and profit.

Several alerts came up, each letting me know that the buffs I'd had running together full time for a while now—Aura, Reinforcement, Haste, and Reflex—had all just hit level 30. While it was a bit surprising that they had all leveled together like that, I was more surprised when I received a second notification.

Congratulations, your Aura skill has reached Level 30! You may now select an Aura Specialization.

Reading over the details, I hummed. 'I think I've found another piece of the whole 'Aura' puzzle.'

According to my Semblance, I had a few choices for how I wanted to proceed, which would effect how I leveled from now on. Not only would I receive bonuses to certain stats from Aura Specialization, the skill—or skill evolution, rather, as it was really just a higher level of the Aura skill—would also change how I gained stat points. For instance, if I selected 'Berserker' from the list of basic templates, I would gain large percentage bonuses to STR and VIT, and from now on I would earn points in those two stats more easily and more quickly than other stats, whose rate of growth appeared unchanged. 'Well, so far I've done well with the whole mage-rogue build. INT and CHA have been my most useful stats, with WIS coming in a close third. Skills and spells have made up the difference for the rest. With the right combination of spells and skills, I should be able to negate any real lack in stats. But let's see what other options there are…'

With that in mind, I dug through my choices until I found one that was similar to what I was looking for, but not quite there—an option listed simply as 'Caster.' I blinked, going back over my options once more before rolling my eyes. 'Of course, specializations named after the Fate classes.'

However, instead of confirming the choice, I looked over the rest of my options, until I found what I'd hoped for sitting at the bottom: 'Customize…' There, I was presented with a series of tabs: 'Stat Growth,' 'Skill Specialization,' 'Enhancements,' and 'Special Traits.' Under 'Stat Growth,' I found I could adjust how I gained stats manually—I could choose to focus on a single stat, or a few, or I could spread my growth evenly across all stats. At the moment, it seemed that growth was mostly even across the board—meaning, mostly unspecialized. There was some imbalance due to an odd number of stats to points allotted, however. The extra points were each in INT, WIS, and CHA so I theoretically already leaned towards a caster build. 'So I have ten overall points to spend here to determine how future stat points are gained… Ten points, seven stats—makes sense, if each point represents 10% of how stats are gained. Question is, is this points gain on top of what I'm getting, or is it my total skill point gain? If I dumped everything into INT, would nothing else level?'

Going back a level and looking over the templates seemed to lean more towards the first theory—that this was for extra points distribution on top of what I was already getting. Thinking it over, I decided to prioritize INT, dropping five of my available points there. Three points went to CHA while two went to WIS. The way I figured it, I was prioritizing damage, followed by mental skills, followed by MP regen and meeting requirements for things like advanced summoning. That was pretty much what I had been doing so far, anyway. I confirmed that and moved on to the second tab, 'Skill Specialization.' The title itself was somewhat misleading, in that I wasn't picking a single skill to focus on, but rather a category of skills.

Skill categories were divided similarly to how I'd listed them for the girls: Attack, Defense, Healing, Stealth, Mental, Movement, Utility. I noticed there was a pattern there, too—seven stats, seven skill categories. Under each of those were branching options. Attack lead to Melee and Ranged. Below each of those was Single Target and Area of Effect, with more options below each grayed out. I found a small 'Help' section and began to RTFM.

'So, this will specialize skill growth, then. I can still level skills normally, but the family or families I choose will gain levels faster. Later on, I'll be able to choose more advanced options and… holy shit. Skill evolution is an official thing. Max a skill or hit a level threshold and it evolves into a higher level skill. Max out two or more compatible skills, combine them into one skill? Fuck yes! …But how does that work with Skill Creation, when I could theoretically just create the same skill? Bonuses, maybe? No, wait. I think I get it… This… sort of, kind of backdoors cutting my skills down. So, suppose I max out my 'walking' skills, then I could combine them into one 'walking' skill—that does what, I wonder? How does that help, on the front end? I suppose it would mean, with some things, less things to keep track of and less redundant skills. Beyond that, I'd really need testing to tell. Still, sounds awesome.'

Unlike with skill points, I could only select three fields to truly specialize in here—or focus on one, to the exclusion of all others. The first selection was obvious: Attack spells got priority—the faster I could kill things, the more likely I was to live through it. After that, came survivability—which meant either Healing or Defense. Defense was focused on mitigating damage—as opposed to not being there in the first place, which was Movement… Healing, on the other hand, was all about keeping myself and my teammates alive—direct heals, AOE heals, HOTs, health regeneration, and so forth.

Just to be sure I wasn't missing anything important, I went over the other options as well. Most of them were pretty much exactly what they said on the tin, thankfully. The only real surprise came with the Utility category, where it seemed Buffs had wound up, in addition to obvious choices like my detection skills such as Perception, Observe, Listen, and so on, in addition to Skill Creation itself. That was kind of annoying, but there wasn't much I could do about it. 'Priorities being what they are, Healing ranks higher than Defense, as it'll allow me to keep the people with me alive longer. Healers being more valuable than tanks, and all that.Also, so does the ability to run the fuck away from danger. So, Attack, Healing, and Movement.'

I moved on to the next tab, 'Enhancements.' Unfortunately, it was grayed out and when I selected it, I was greeted with a window telling me that this particular feature wouldn't become available until I hit my second evolution for Aura, at skill level 50. Seeing an opportunity to munchkin, I went back to Skill Specialization and dug around to figure out where the Aura skill itself was listed. No matter where I looked, however, I couldn't find it. By its very nature, Aura affected everything I did—every field of skills depended on Aura itself. Therefor… 'It's a Meta Skill.' I rolled my eyes, leaving my selections as they were and moving on.

Meta Skills were sort of like Hidden Skills, in that you couldn't always easily modify them or even see them in most instances. The biggest differences were the fact that meta skills tended to be lore—as in, it was there in the back story somewhere even if you didn't get a named skill for it—and scale. They tended to effect everything the character did. For example, a common Mage in World of Warcraft. That mage would have skill trees and such to progress as a character, and those were obvious skills—things the character could see and interact with. An example of a meta skill, in this instance, would be the character's ability to use magic itself—which was all there in the lore, somewhere—and from which the skill trees themselves were derived. Considering it was a game however, the practical skill was derived from several places: skill points, specializations, and available spells… but also the player's own ability to play the character effectively. At least in my case I could see the Aura skill and its level in my skill menu and could use it outright.

'Special Traits' turned out to be grayed out also—apparently, I would have to level the skill further and/or meet prerequisites in order to unlock whatever was available there. Unlike the Enhancements tab, I was offered no clues as to what those prerequisites may be. I shrugged, figuring my Semblance would likely tell me when I unlocked something there. I confirmed my choices and would have gone on to dig through my menus and see if anything else had changed…

My mind was drawn to something a bit more distracting, however. Focusing on my Telepathy feed from Neo, I shuddered momentarily at the sensations coming over the link. 'Really?' I sighed, closing my menus, putting away my sword and following Sanguine as we picked our way back upstairs and out of the lair. 'You know, there are other ways to get my attention aside from masturbating?'

I could feel her smirk as the ice cream themed girl sent me the view from her eyes, looking down as she continued what she was doing. 'Yes, but this was so much more amusing. Are you coming?'

'Not yet, but I bet you will soon,' I deadpanned, cutting that pun off at the knees.

The little menace sent me the impression of her sticking out her tongue. 'So, kill anything interesting?'

I snorted, stepping out into the moonlight and turning to look at Sanguine. The great cat evaporated into smoke and I felt that coldness return to my chest—a bit milder than it had been. Firing my line launcher, I lifted myself up and began hopping through the urban jungle towards the roof where I'd left Neo. 'Killed a goblin king. He dropped The One Ring and a short sword named Sting. The ring is +2 and grants Invisibility, but you have to roll a Will Save against mental corruption every time you look at it since it's semi-sentient. The sword is +1 and glows bright blue in the presence of orcs.'

'Ha ha. Ass,' she teased. 'Take me home. I want a shower, and I want to make love, and I want to cuddle.'

I didn't bother slowing down as I swooped down across the roof, picking up the short girl with Telekinesis and eliciting a shriek, followed by a shout for joy. It got her hand out of her panties, at least. The Illusion Barrier broke around us and I pulled us up onto one of the taller buildings. "Holy shit! Warn a girl next time you want to take her flying," Neo panted, her face flushed with excitement. "We were flying, right?"

"Telekinesis," I answered, stretching out a hand and levitating her a foot off the ground before setting her back down.

She blinked, frowning as she regarded me. "You do realize that's like one step away from flight, right?"

"Not really," I denied, lifting her up again and heading for the apartment. "I could probably throw myself pretty far, yeah, but it's not flight—even if I combined it with other skills. I tried to create a flight skill, turns out my INT isn't high enough yet." Well, no, that wasn't entirely accurate. My INT could be high enough, if I dumped my points into it, but I was holding off on that. I had gotten along fine without using them so far, after all—better to hold onto them in the event I needed to dump points into something later to meet requirements if I found myself in a bind.

"Awe, that sucks," Neo sighed. "Still, this is pretty cool. You can carry us all around now!"

Shooting her an amused look as the wind tossed her hair, I rolled my eyes. "Adrenaline junkie. I think you'd enjoy it more if I just got you your own line launcher."

Neo shrugged. "I wouldn't complain. It'd be fun, and they're useful. But I enjoy doing things like this with you—and so do the others. Well, okay, they don't enjoy this as much as I do…"

"So, how far did you get with those skills?" I asked, wanting to know how effective the skills would be.

The girl pulled up her Skills page and hummed. "Level 3 Meditation, level 2 Reinforcement, level 1 Aura Detection, Level 2 Perception, level 4 Spinning Mana Arrow. I noticed the buff from your title disappeared once you went out of range—about 50 meters."

Frowning, I thought it over—it made sense that if I wasn't there, whoever was learning from me wouldn't get any sort of advantages. "So's that why you decided to get my attention?"

Chuckling, Neo nodded. "Well, that and I really do want to go back to your place, have a shower, make love, and cuddle. Also, sleep."

I spotted the apartment coming up and circled around to sweep the rooftop before bringing us in for a landing. "I'm kind of surprised that this is really all you wanted for your date night."

Snorting, the girl leaned into my side as we made our way inside the building and into the apartment. "Well, for one thing, I'm not worried about trying to cram everything into one night. We'll have more, obviously. For another, I actually happen to enjoy simple things like this. I've never really dated before, and we're not exactly doing this in the right order anyway."

I picked the small girl up, her legs going around my waist as I carried her towards the master bath. "You mean you're not supposed to screw someone and then get to know them?"

"Ass," she rolled her eyes. "Not usually, no. But, hey, I'm not complaining. Now, shower."

'Eh, she's right. There's nothing wrong with just going out and having a good time—there's no point trying to turn figuring each other out into an interrogation, and especially not all in one night,' I admitted. Though, I made a mental note to try to ask things anyway, at some point.