I don't have much to say. So let's just jump into my responses to Reviews/Comments.
(Responses to Reviews/Comments)
Unnamed Guest: Can I what? I don't get it.
(Guest) Duke: I have most of the worlds that Jolyne is going to head off to set up already. Though I will consider it if it fits into what I plan on doing with this story. I can't promise anything. Not to mention that I have not played/watched the game, but I will make an active effort to at least check it out.
(Quotev) Unlucky Chan: The arrow is most definitely a reference to JJBA.
Sand The Sand: Thank you for thinking my story is cool!
And now, we shall begin.
xxXXxxXXxx
[Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu]
There were plenty of things that Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, heir to the Kuzuryu Clan, had seen throughout his sixteen years of life that not many others would say that they had the chance to see. And for good reason, too. Not many people were heirs to famous—or in this case, infamous—Yakuza clans known for their sheer brutality, their control over illegal goods, and the surprising care that they have for their communities.
But just because being an heir to a Yakuza clan sounds cool, in reality, it is anything but. It is a life filled with danger. A life that not many people would consider worth living. But for Fuyuhiko, it was the only way of life for him.
He had lived through and seen many, many things. Things which include, but weren't limited to:
Assassination attempts that had been brought against him and his family by either government agents or rival Yakuza who wanted them dead. Bombings both carried out by The Kuzuryu Clan on rival Yakuza or bombings completely unrelated to him and his family's "business" on the public at large. People of his clan killing themselves by committing seppuku due to failing a task he or his father assigned them to complete; though that only happened if the task was monumental enough. Normally it would be the loss of a finger, but that in itself wasn't exactly good to see for a teen his age. And to top the disturbing sundae that he had built for himself off, he had seen torture, both to traitors in the Kuzuryu Clan or onto those who were caught spying on them, usually thanks to Pekoyama sniffing them out with relative ease.
In other words, he had seen a lot of things that a teen his age should've never seen, and yet he did, and he saw it as normal. Being a Yakuza heir meant that whoever the heir was, or would be, saw a lot of things that a normal person shouldn't. However, despite seeing stuff like that, Fuyuhiko saw himself as an everyday member of society with a gritty background. He also considered himself a no-nonsense type of person. It's why he barely put up with his so-called classmates. People who were supposed to be equal to him in terms of life experience.
That was so obviously horseshit that it made his blood boil. People like Mahiru dared to call him unsophisticated because he was a "thug." Hiyoko acted tough so that she could hide her inner self-doubt and self-hatred, something that Fuyuhiko could somewhat relate to. Then there were utter retards like Gundham Tanaka, who was a full-blown Chunibyo who genuinely believed half the shit he spewed out of his mouth. It was funny for a bit, but that was it. After the first few days, it just became repetitive, annoying, and even sometimes ear-grating.
He would admit that Yukizome-Sensei was doing her best to bridge some sort of bond between the class, but when it came to him, he knew that he could NEVER relate to any of them, nor become friends with them. Pigs would have to shit gold and sprout wings before THAT happened.
He exclusively cared about those he cared about. Not a single soul more. That list was short, and only contained a handful of people. The only person he gave a rat's ass about in Class 77 - B, outside of Pekoyama, was Chiaki Nanami because at least she TRIED to understand him even then it was through strange but oddly suiting gaming metaphors. The rest of his class either looked down on him or dismissed him.
Fuyuhiko would also admit that he was a bit of an asshole. His outwardly cruel and sometimes even pessimistic nature was done to push people away. He didn't want to create any sort of bond with anyone he didn't have to. His trust was already spread thin as it was, so why spread it more?
To put it into perspective, his trust was spread SO thin that a gentle breeze could snap it. If someone so much as threw a rock at his forehead or looked at him the wrong way, that would be enough to get on his bad side.
Normally that would entail the person getting a swift punch to the gut, told to fuck off and he would leave it at that. He wasn't prone to inane shows of aggression unless he was in a particularly bad mood. That's when teeth would be getting pulled. Forcefully. Luckily for others and for himself, those days usually only happened when he was at the estate.
But if someone wanted to really set him off, they'd have to do something worthy enough to get more than just himself involved.
That was when yesterday happened.
His sister, Natsumi Kuzuryu, was attacked by some Reserve Course bitch that dared to lay their hands on her. Granted, Natsumi started the fight, and that right there should've been enough to dismiss it outright like most of the fights his brash sister would get into. However, it deviated almost immediately to unforgivable when he found out that she was almost killed, and had the possibility of being crippled from the waist down.
That made his blood boil enough to send assassins after the person who did it. He knew who it was thanks to Pekoyama, who had been looking out for Natsumi. Had his bodyguard not been there to watch over his sister, then the culprit wouldn't have been found for an extra day or two.
But why was Pekoyama watching over Natsumi? Well, she had a track record of getting expelled from schools due to her… volatile nature, normally resulting in her beating up the person closest to her in the first few HOURS of going there. It had gotten so bad that all public and private schools, sans Hopes Peak, refused to take her.
Apparently, the reason why she attacked the person who nearly killed her was that she called them a Gaijin, they snapped back, and then a fight ensued.
It was only her second week at Hopes Peak and she was already causing issues. Not a good start, but not one worthy of being almost crippled.
What made it worse was that it happened faster than any of them could've reacted. Not even Pekoyama. That alone made him raise an eyebrow, while also making him sweat just a little bit. If that person had been faster than Pekoyama, then that meant that whoever they were now going to have to track down was a good fighter and that they wouldn't go down without a fight.
Pekoyama said that the wounds were caused by some sort of blade hidden in the person's blood that caused the damage to Natsumi. Once again, eyebrows were raised not just by him, but by his whole family at the debrief that his father ordered.
It sounded illogical. But then again, stuff like that happened constantly. Oritama Shingiyo existed and he had inserted retractable swords into his arms using some sort of tech that was embedded into his body, so it was possible. People had strange talents, what else was there to say? Perhaps this person was an undercover assassin?
Whatever the case might have been, the person they were up against had to have been good. So good in fact that they could slink weapons into their own blood and still have the ability to control them from a distance. Invisible strings came to his mind when he heard that initially, though it was still slightly hard to believe.
And then, not even 24 hours later, he learned that the person who had attacked and almost killed his sister would be joining his class. He couldn't tell if that was stupid, bold, or perhaps both. He now also had a name. Jolyne Brooks. That was most definitely an out-of-country name. Her talent was unknown, at first. When she came into the room, she said that rather than say it, she'd show it. Then, she proceeded to ask for a knife.
This was where he thought he'd get to see how she inserted a weapon in her blood—just like Pekoyama said she saw. So, he decided to pass up his own knife once Yukizome asked Pekoyama to give this Jolyne person a weapon.
What happened next came straight out of a movie. That was the only way he could've described it.
Jolyne stabbed her hand on one of the desks closest to the class. Not only did she just stab herself, but she also stabbed right through her hand, and she didn't even flinch once. That showed her insane levels of pain tolerance seeing as she didn't flinch after doing THAT to herself. After that, he noticed that a few people had looked just about ready to puke. But then it just got worse.
She showed the wound to everyone, just to make sure that they all got to see it in its disgusting, revolting, hideous glory. By far, that had been one of the craziest displays of power he had seen in a long while. Had it stopped there, he would've been impressed, but not scared. Once again, Oritama Shingiyo was someone that he knew, so he had seen arguably worse.
But of course, it didn't stop there. It kept going. And from there, his whole worldview had been shattered.
The blood from her wound that had fallen to the floor a good three feet from her began to ripple. At first, he thought it was a small Earthquake. Seeing as they were in Japan, and seeing as those happened a lot, he was going to dismiss it. But then it moved, and it moved back toward Jolyne, as did more blood that had come straight from the palm of her hand and in her arm.
The blood then proceeded to coat Jolyne's arm and form into what he could only describe as a gauntlet that some fictitious demonic knight might have had on a suit of armour. The blood had also developed some sort of metallic quality seeing as when she rubbed her then dagger-like claws together, they created the same sound that metal would when being rubbed together.
That was when she dropped the name of her talent.
She was The Ultimate Mage.
Not magician.
Not VX-artist.
But a Mage.
An honest to God, true to form, Mage. Someone who could manipulate magic. Magic that was said to not exist. Magic that COULDN'T exist. But as it was now made apparent to him, was real. And she was The Ultimate Mage. It took him a few moments to let that sink in. If she was The Ultimate Mage, then that meant that there were others like her. Others that probably kept to themselves rather than show the world their talent.
She had also been the one to have attacked and almost killed Natsumi.
The same person who just showed that she could manipulate blood.
The same person who just showed her insane pain tolerance.
The same person who glared daggers at him and sent the silent message that if he so much as moved the wrong way he would die.
And that was why he now believed it was more important than ever to have her killed. And killed now. She would no doubt become a threat later, so why wait for that threat to become stronger when he could just kill her now and be done with it? He already had five assassins—professional assassins—out to get her head and bring it back to him.
Yes, she had magic, and yes, she was a mage, but a bullet always beat slow to build up anything, be it spells, knife throws, or punches. And if they somehow failed, he would have every prolific member of The Kuzuryu Clan go after her. But that was only a backup plan. For the time being, he would have to wait for the assassins to come back to him when they got their job finished.
And with the class panicking and freaking out, he quietly slipped out of class to go somewhere that the mage didn't know about… just in case she came after him. One could never be too careful, after all. If there was anything Fuyuhiko was, it was careful. One wrong move against an opponent of that calibre and he would be, as the Italians coined: Swiming with the fishes.
Thankfully, he knew exactly where Jolyne was going to be. Meaning he could tell one of the Assassins within the school where Jolyne was. Taking a burner cellphone out of his pocket, he dialled a number that he knew fairly well, and put the cellphone up to his ear whilst he walked into the men's washroom which had currently been empty.
"Juzonsuke, your target is on the fifth floor. Make quick work of her. Heads up, she's got some sort of supernatural ability. Don't allow her the chance to use it."
And with that, Fuyuhiko hung up the phone, tossed it on the ground then stomped on it, breaking the device before shovelling it into the trash disposal chute the school had. "Like my grandfather said. One can never be too careful. Pops always told me I looked a great deal like him. Perhaps it's time I start acting like him."
[Jolyne Brooks]
Much to Jolyne's glee, her Ultimate Lab looked exactly as she envisioned it to, if not a little bit excessive. The room itself was large, easily triple the size of her in-school dorm room. The walls were a darker shade of purple with several bookshelves lining the walls, each bookcase being filled to the brim with books of various shapes and sizes.
A glance was enough to show that all of the books on the shelves were based on the paranormal. There were books like various studies of the undead, the Necronomicon, books on how to perform rituals of various varieties, as well as tips and tricks about being a junior wizard or witch. All of the books were published by regular people or by cultists who believed in that kind of stuff. Surprisingly enough there were different variations of the Holy Bible from Christianity. She also could've sworn that she saw the Japanese translation of the Quran.
There were some books based on differing accounts of witnessing magical encounters with other wizards, to accounts of seeing ghosts or demons. If she were to sum up what was on the shelves in her Ultimate lab she would describe it like this: Occult-like material mixed in with some theology-based books. If anyone who was an active believer in any of those religions saw half the crap on those bookshelves mixed with their holy books, they'd probably try and linch her.
They weren't EXACTLY what she wanted, but then again the magical world wasn't a thing here, and those who did "study" it weren't able to get their books published. After all, what publishing company would bother trying to publish a book about something fictional that was perposed to be real?
It would've been convenient to her, but only to her. Well, maybe not ONLY to her. Gundham would also benefit from it seeing as he had tapped into some form of mana, though only barely. At first, she thought that magic didn't exist in this world and that she would be the only one who could use it. But with Gundham showing that he could in fact use spells, even if his Mana wasn't high enough to cast something meaningful, it still showed her that more people than just her could use magic.
"Still though, that in of itself is impressive. Harnessing any form of Mana for someone not assisted by a God or a God's disciple must be incredibly difficult."
With that thought, Jolyne continued to look around the room. There was a mirror over to her immediate left with etchings in it. The mirror itself gave off this strange feeling, something she'd have to look into in a moment. The floors were carpeted with a nice red carpet, and there had been a few other shelves with assorted materials that looked like something out of a voodoo shop.
The dual-haired teen approached the shelf over to the right and picked up what appeared to be a shrunken head. A look of disgust appeared on her face as she placed it back on the shelf, shaking her head. "Not exactly what I had in mind…" the teen muttered, giving the room another sweeping glance before humming to herself.
The rest of the room could be summed up to be your typical classroom. There was a window off to the left that gave her an admittedly nice view of the city beyond the school campus. There was an island countertop with a sink to wash her hands along with a few other things like beakers or whatever. And there was a door that led to what she had to assume was a storage closet.
"Pretty good for something put together on short notice. Not to mention it's nice and quiet… I might be able to work in peace," Jolyne said, looking back at the mirror. "Now, time to figure out why you're calling out to me."
As the dual-haired teen made her way close to the reflective object, an information box appeared next to her.
[Mirrors are often known as gateways into other realities! This mirror is exactly that! Think of it as your training ground where you can go AWOL with your spells without causing collateral damage! Do keep in mind that only YOU can use it. If you want others to hop into this little pocket dimension, you unfortunatly cannot do that. Step right on through to see what the world beyond the mirror looks like!]
As the little box disappeared, Jolyne's eyes widened. This changed everything! A part of her was a little worried about how she was going to practice her magic without being caught or seen by outside authorities, but this made her no longer need to worry about that. Now that she had this mirror, If there was ever a time she ever needed to know more about a certain spell, she could easily train here with it and not have to worry about property damage!
Putting a hand on the mirror, the glass seemingly began to bend and ripple like water. It felt like water, too. As her fingers passed through it, she got an almost tingly sensation flow through her body; like the mirror was begging her to step forward and enter into a world of infinite possibilities. Without much further convincing, Jolyne took a step into the mirror.
The pull of the mirror was strong. It was almost comparable to that of a vacuum cleaner had she been a piece of dirt or garbage scattered about on the floor. Once her foot crossed over, the rest of her body did the same. Upon entering the new realm, she was greeted with flat rocky terrain. The space around it was just that, space. There were what appeared to be stars gleaming overhead, staring her down like a thousand tiny eyes.
[Welcome to the Pocket Training Dimension! Here, you will be able to train with your spells, earn EXP, and defeat waves of enemies of your choosing! Don't fret, if you die here, you will simply respawn after a few seconds, seeing as this is Daimen's realm. However, for each respawn, you'll have to spend some of your hard-earned Yen to do so. Don't take on a challenge unless you believe you can complete it.]
Jolyne's eyes widened. "Earn EXP? I mean, if this'll make me strong enough to contend with the others in this universe, I wouldn't mind it all that much. Hell, if it means I don't have to kill anyone unnecessarily, I'll do it in a heartbeat! Though I don't like that I have to spend money to respawn, I guess it makes sense seeing as it would make me have to think…. Damnit. That's the last thing I wanted to do!"
As Jolyne finished that thought, another box appeared to her left.
[To introduce you to this little pocket dimension that you now have at your disposal, let's test your might against this little tutorial!]
As that box disappeared, another shorter and smaller box appeared directly in front of her face.
[Hoard Mode!]
[Would you like to begin Wave 1?]
[Difficulty Set: I'm Too Young To Die!]
[Y/N]
The dual-haired teen looked down at the box and tapped the letter Y, indicating that she wanted to begin the trial. As soon as that happened, a rotting, decaying hand sprouted up from the ground, and out came what appeared to be a person, though their body looked like it had been introduced to a bunch of bullet holes, a chainsaw, and maybe even a flame thrower.
They had blood dripping from their mouth, a dead, almost feral look in their eyes, along with several rips and tears in their skin. Some bones and even small portions of muscle were visible to the naked eye, making the creature's appearance just that much more disturbing to one with a less than sturdy stomach. Floating above its head was a health bar, and a name.
[Lv. 1 – Zombie (Weak) – HP: 5]
Jolyne felt a wave of repulsion course through her body at the sight of the undead creature. zombies always gave her the heebie-jeebies no matter the form they came in. Luckily, the zombie had low health. Seeing as there were no other enemies nearby, she charged forward at the zombie, who raised its arms.
Once the teen got within grabbing distance of the zombie, she ducked to the left to avoid its swipe, and then, with a hard right hook, she slammed the zombie in the face and knocked it to the ground, dealing 10 points of damage to the undead creature. The creature began to fade from existence, leaving nothing but a small pool of blood in its wake.
Once the creature was defeated, a bar appeared next to her.
[EXP Earned: 50!]
"Fifty EXP?! For just one zombie!?" Jolyne exclaimed, eyes wide with surprise as a larger text box appeared next to her.
[Congratulations on defeating your first Undead! As you can see, killing them gives you a pretty hefty reward! But don't get too complacent! The more you level up, the less EXP you'll receive from facing off against these things. Keep this in mind when you start mowing these creatures down! However, increasing the difficulty also increases the rewards you will get! Some enemies will also drop important materials later on. Now that I've explained all that I have to, I shall leave you with your grinding. A quick side note! To prevent you from becoming too powerful, you may only do one gauntlet a day. This includes difficulties. You cannot hop from one difficulty to the next one on the same day, so make your choice wisely! Once you've completed a gauntlet, you're done! With that, happy slaying!]
When the text box disappeared, another quickly took its place. It simply asked her to start the next round, and she accepted it without hesitation. As soon as she did that, two zombies came out from the ground a good distance away from her.
Without so much as thinking about it twice, Jolyne dashed forward and slammed her fist into the zombie on the right, a rush of adrenaline coming over her as her fist knocked the zombie to the floor, its head splitting into several chunks once it hit the floor as killing it awarded her another 50 exp. Once the EXP had been rewarded to her, the zombie's corpse disappeared in a disintegrating fashion. The zombie off to her left went to swipe at her, but it had been too slow, and as such Jolyne was able to catch its attack with her right hand.
With a quick turn, she bent the zombie's left arm forward, taking it out of its socket as the zombie let out a pained grunt. Using its free arm, it was able to claw at Jolyne's skin, leaving a deep gash in her upper left arm. Jolyne grit her teeth as a small bubble appeared out of the corner of her vision.
[Status effect: Bleeding – Lasts 20 seconds. Deals 4 damage every 2 seconds]
Jolyne cursed to herself. However, this gave her a chance to use her blood magic. As such, she had her blood converge with her arm to create Bear Claw, sapping 30 of her 45 mana as the construct formed around her bleeding arm. Once constructed, Jolyne turned around to face the zombie and stabbed it through the chest, dealing over 25 damage to it, making the zombie drop dead to the ground as it disintegrated into nothingness, giving Jolyne another 50 EXP. As soon as the zombie died, another pop-up appeared next to her.
[Would you like to start the final wave? (BOSS FIGHT)]
[Difficulty Set: I'm Too Young To Die!]
[Y/N]
Jolyne bit her lip in contemplation. "A Boss fight, huh? It's probably a zombie-based boss if this had anything to prove. I wonder just how much EXP I'll earn for this?" The dual-haired teen asked herself as she accepted the challenge.
As soon as she accepted the challenge, a massive burly arm exploded out of the ground. It was covered in scars and dried up blood from the lower arm up, and cutting it off was a remnant of a black suit. The rest of the creature came up, and as it did, Jolyne saw the boss in its full glory. It stood at a height of 8 feet. One of its eyes was missing, and around its neck was a belt. Its jaw was slack, revealing hideous yellow and black teeth. It had several cuts and gashes across its body, and It wore a torn-up black suit, and on its head were faint remains of hair. Above its head was its name, level, and hp count.
[Lv. 5 – Zombie Brute Maxis – HP: 250/250]
Jolyne splayed out the claws on her Bear Claw in a taunting jester. Maxis let out a guttural roar loud enough to shake the ground, and then, it charged forward, shaking the ground as it ran. The dual-haired teen side-stepped the charge to her right, but was caught off guard as Maxis seemingly anticipated the dodge, outstretching its right arm and close lining Jolyne, knocking her back and against an invisible wall, dealing 10 points of damage to her.
Jolyne spat up a small bit of blood from biting her lip, wiping her mouth as she narrowed her eyes. "An invisible wall… good to know I won't go flying out of the arena if I get hit like that again… not that I'll allow it," Jolyne thought as she stood tall, glaring down at the brute. "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT!"
As if it was ready to answer, Maxis let out yet another loud shout and Maxis lunged forward, winding back a punch, though Jolyne was able to this time successfully side-step the attack, stabbing her Bear Claw into Maxis' side, dealing 25 damage to the brute.
Jolyne then jumped back to avoid a predictable ground slam, then took advantage of the fact that Maxis' hands were stuck in the ground, slashing Maxis' left arm and cutting it down from its bicep, dealing a critical 75 damage to the boss.
The boss let out another guttural roar, though this time it was one of pain as it jumped back to the center of the arena. Its singular bulging eye stared down at Jolyne with what she had to assume was contempt.
"100 health down, 150 to go!" Jolyne exclaimed, taking in a deep breath. She needed to get into a little bit better shape if she was going to get into any more fights, especially ones like this one.
Maxis let out an angry roar as it charged forward once again. Jolyne side-stepped to the left seeing as there was no arm to close-line her with. Taking advantage of it being stunned after Maxis rammed himself into the invisible wall, Jolyne stabbed it in the back of the neck with Bear Claw, digging into its skin as her claws came out from the other end, dealing a massive critical hit, doing 25 damage to the creature.
Maxis tried everything in its power to pry her off of itself, but with one strong lift, exerting nearly half of her stamina bar in the process, Jolyne ripped Maxis' head right off of its shoulders, sending the head flying behind her and landing the final blow. She dealt 125 damage to the boss after luckily finding its weak spot and dealing massive damage to the undead, ultimately ending its life as its body came crashing down to the ground with a mighty thud.
A sense of relief washed over Jolyne as her health bar replenished the missing 10 HP she had lost from the fight. Out of the corner of her eye, a bar appeared next to her, and next to that was a bigger box.
[EXP Earned for killing Zombie Brute Maxis: 150!]
[Zombie Hoard: I'm Too Young To Die – Beaten]
[Rewards: 1250 EXP, 1000 Yen, 1 Spell Token!]
[Please come back in 24 hours to do another Hoard Battle!]
[Congratulations on completing your first hoard mode! Keep in mind what I said earlier, and you'll be able to level up super fast in no time at all! Thus, this concludes the tutorial for the Pocket Training Dimension! Happy grinding!]
Jolyne couldn't believe what it was she was seeing. Her stats screen opened up, and what she saw made her eyes widen twice the size they already were before.
LEVEL UP! LEVEL INCREASED FROM LV. 2 TO LV. 4!
[Name: Jolyne Brooks: Ultimate Mage – Age: 16 – Class: Renegade – Level: 4 – Faction: World Ender/Remnants of Despair – Race: Human]
Stats:
HP: 125
Stamina: 125
Mana: 84
Atk: 13
Mg Atk: 45
Def: 13
Mg Def: 45
Endurance: 13
Int: 5
Crit: 2
Crit Def: 2
Mg Crit: 5
Charisma: 5
Faith: 0
Luck: 0
Karma: 50 (Evil), 1 (Neutral), 2 (Good)
HP Regen: 1.2 per second
Stamina Regen: 1.2 per second
Mana Regen: 3 per second
Currency: 16,000 Yen
Class Bonus: Deal Extra Damage to those who sided with the Future Foundation and other Ultimate Students.
Title Bonus: As the Ultimate Mage, all of your magic stats (Mana, Mg Atk, Mg Def, Mg Crit) have doubled. However, your attack and Defense stats have lost 30% of their normal upgrade. (+3 instead of +5)
Exp till next level: 1500
Spells:
CHECK (Lv. 1/max): This allows the user to see the opponent's Level, Health, and a small tidbit of information about them.
Blood Control (Lv. 3/100) Gives the user total manipulation of Blood.
Construct Unlocked - Bear Claw: Bear Claw is a construct that can be formed at the shake of a hand, so long as you have an open wound, or if there is blood on the ground. When it is formed, any physical damage you do is doubled. You can form it on one hand, or both. To deactivate the construct, you must shake your hand again. To use this skill, you must consume 30 mana.
She had levelled up twice. Her level went from 2 to 4 thanks to ONE session of training. Not only did she level up, but Blood Control did as well. It didn't seem to change much due to the level up, though she did feel her Bear Claw get stronger just but having it out. Granted, if what The System said was true, then the EXP she earned from this would drop. Then again, this was "I'm Too Young To Die." What would the next difficulty bring her?
To say she was excited about the endless possibilities of what was to come now with this open to her was a complete understatement of the truth.
However, before she thought about the endless possibilities of the new Pocket Training Dimension, there was one thing that confused her. That something being whatever the hell this Spell Token was.
Opening her inventory, she brought out what appeared to be a Gacha Token, though red in colour rather than gold. The Token had a strange-looking design in the center resembling that of a DNA Helix with lightning bolts in the center. The Gacha Token looked like your typical 100 Yen coin, while this looked like something else entirely.
"Huh… well it looks good, but I wonder if…." Just before she was able to finish that thought process, a box appeared out of the corner of her vision, and so, she turned to face it.
[What you got in your hands right there is a Spell Token! It works the same way as a Gacha Token. Snap it in half and get a free spell to unlock! Duplicate spells give EXP to the spell that it is the copy of! Drop rates work differently in this compared to The Gacha Token, so please pay attention to the drop rates! Common Spell: 40.5%, Rare Spell: 35.5%, Epic Spell: 16.9%, Legendary Spell: 8%]
Jolyne waved away the text box as she looked down at the Spell Token. It seemed that it didn't have any Mythical Spells. That made sense, seeing as Spells worked differently than just getting a random item. If she were going to be honest she honestly didn't care what rarity of spell she got from this. She would be happy with a crappy common spell. She wouldn't mind having something new within her repertoire other than Blood Control. It would prove useful later on.
"Don't get me wrong, Blood Control is a good spell, but I need more variety than that. I can't be a one-trick pony, after all." Jolyne thought, tossing the Token up and down within her hand. The wound on her arm began to seal slowly, earning her intrigue. "That's probably because I'm in here. The System did say that I can't permanently die here. That also probably extends to any wounds I'll get here."
Deciding to get it over and done with, Jolyne began to snap the Token. As she did, the token glowed a bright purple, earning her interest. Basic colour coding allowed her to guess that whatever the Spell would be, it would be Epic at the bare minimum. Once the token snapped in half, a tornado of bright red and orange fire twirled around her right arm, making her eyes widen in surprise before the flames disappeared just as soon as they came!
[HellFire: Unlocked! (Lv. 1/75) – Allows the user to summon powerful blasts of fire at the cost of 2.5 Mana per second! Prolonged and over usage of Hellfire will damage the user's skin. Upon unlocking Hellfire, the user will be granted basic flame resistance as a trait.]
[Trait unlocked: Flame resistance – The user becomes resistant to fire-based attacks up to 500 degrees Celcius. Anything past that and the users' skin will be damaged, be it by the user's own attacks or not.]
Jolyne smirked, looking at her right arm, deactivating Bear Claw as it seeped back into her body through the nearly sealed wound, which sealed directly after the blood re-entered her body. An elemental-based attack? Now that was something she kinda hoped for. Though she kinda hated the downside, it seemed reasonable. She wasn't one to complain, however.
Fire was a very destructive ability. It didn't matter whether or not it damaged her or not. It was a fair trade-off. She wasn't going to moan or bitch because there was a downside. Hell, she had to damage herself to use Blood Control, unless there was blood—fresh blood—around her to use it with.
A part of her wanted to check out what her new HellFire spell did, however, she still had other things she wanted to get down, and so, therefore, she decided to leave The Pocket Training Dimension. The moment that thought appeared in her head, the mirror appeared out of thin air and hovered off the ground. Walking toward the magical object, she stepped through, and as soon as she did she was greeted by Jin Kirigiri of all people in her Ultimate Lab, scratching the back of his head as he looked around the room.
As soon as she turned to face her, his eyes widened as she stepped out of the mirror. "Oh, uh… may I ask what that was?" Kirigiri questioned as Jolyne smirked.
"Personal Pocket Dimension to train with my spells. I don't want to cause any property damage. I'm sure you understand," Jolyne replied as the Headmaster nodded, though with a confused look in his eyes. She couldn't blame him. Magic was a strange thing, and even though she had only been JUST introduced to it recently, and despite knowing a lot of it due to her past as a gamer and an in-depth fan of the Final Fantasy series, she too was still confused about certain things.
"I see… I appreciate that, Jolyne. Thank you. Although, I have to ask… do you know how much time has passed?" Jin asked as Jolyne raised an eyebrow. Now it was her turn to be confused.
"I don't know. Like… 20 minutes or something?" The dual-haired teen replied as the Headmaster drew out a short breath, muttering something to himself before looking at the mage. There was a tad bit of concern in his eyes as he looked at her, though nothing that she hadn't seen before. It wasn't a worrying amount of concern, but rather something more akin to a teacher being concerned that a student skipped a majority of that block's class.
"Jolyne, it's 3:30 PM. You've been in that… pocket dimension or whatever you want to call it for 8 hours. Yukizome searched the whole campus looking for you. She even enlisted Kuzuryu's help to search for you. We almost called the police to report you missing. If you would, please tell Yukizome where you've been. She is your teacher after all, as well as a nice woman. She might seem intimidating at first due to her boundless energy, but she cares. Sometimes a bit too much for her own good," Kirigiri replied, earning a wide-eyed expression from Jolyne.
"8 hours… seems like time works differently. If that was, what, 10 to 20 minutes ago, that means time is moving at least 300% faster in there than it is here. But whereas time actually seemed to affect these people, it didn't do so for me. That also means I have to read a hell of a lot more of IT than I wanted to today," Jolyne thought as a small frown made its way to her face, her eyes returning to a more neutral expression.
"I see… I'll go do that now," Jolyne said as she glanced over to Kirigiri. "Oh, and by the way…." Jolyne began as she flashed a small flame on the tip of her finger. "I was able to unlock a new spell. I hope that's enough to prove to you that I'm not just a one-trick pony, Headmaster."
Jolyne's statement earned a nod from Kirigiri, who gave her a faint smile. "That's good. Though do try to keep your magic to yourself and this school. The last thing we need is for the government to try to track you down to do experiments on you," the Headmaster said, a small chuckle leaving him as he turned to exit Jolyne's lab. "Keep up the good work, Jolyne. I have a feeling you'll bring hope to Japan, and potentially to the world beyond."
With that remark, he exited the Ultimate Lab, the dual-haired teen feeling a shiver run up her back. At the mention of the word hope, she felt a gross feeling form in her stomach. It probably had something to do with her faction being The Remnants of Despair. Whatever the case might've been, she needed to go find Yukizome.
But before she did that.
QUEST COMPLETE!
REWARDS HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED!
Jolyne looked over to the right of her as a small bar appeared in the corner of her vision. The 1000 EXP filled up the bar almost completely, leaving a small quarter of the bar unfilled. There was a number to the side of the bar that read 1000/1500.
She needed 500 more EXP to Level up again, and spending a day with Class 77 – B would fill that bar up and allow her to level up once again. That would put her halfway to being able to use The Mysterious Arrow. She REALLY wanted to see what she would unlock as a result of using it. Unfortunatly, she knew that only being Level 10 would mean that it would just BARELY work, and still run the risk of her dying. She could risk it once she got to that point, or level up just a little bit more.
"Whatever, not important. What is important, however, is checking out what this Gacha Token will give me." As Jolyne thought that she opened her inventory and grabbed The Gacha Token. As she began to break it, the coin glowed a bright grey light. Once it snapped open, a ring appeared in her hand. It was golden, and it had a red gem in the center of the ring. The ring had strange glyphs etched into it, but that was about it.
A small box appeared off to the rings right, giving it a small description.
[Ring of Fire: When worn, this small magical trinket will boost damage done by fire-based magic or attacks by 3%.]
"3% isn't much, but it's better than nothing," Jolyne said, sliding the ring onto her index finger. Immediately she felt the boost. To compare what she felt to something, it was kinda like having a wave of heat wash over you, but with the same energizing boost drinking a cup of coffee gave someone after just waking up.
Looking toward the sliding door that separated her Ultimate Lab from the hallway and the greater walls of Hope's Peak Academy, she let out a short sigh. "Now, time to go find Yukizome and report to where I've been."
Just as she was about to take a step in front of her door, she felt something smack up against the side of her head, knocking her into the wall over to her left and dealing 25 damage to her. A wave of disorientation washed over her as she slowly blinked, looking up to see the end of a gun barrel.
The gun in question was an M1911 fitted with a silencer. It was jet black, sleek like most modern guns were, and the person holding it made it look like a peashooter in comparison.
The person holding the gun was easily over 6 feet tall. He had short black hair, brown eyes, and a pale complexion. He wore a black suit and tie, and a pair of black shoes of the lace-up variety. His face wore a bored expression mixed with a hint of annoyance. Along with that was a cold, uncaring, jaded look in his eyes as he stared her down. As he clicked back the hammer of the gun, his expression unwavering, he spoke. "I would say nothing personal kid, but that'd be a lie."
Unconsciously, she activated CHECK, and what she saw didn't inspire much confidence.
Name: ?
Level: ?
HP: ?
Stamina: ?
Mana: 0
An assassin with not much information known about him.
The wave of disorientation faded, and once it did, she narrowed her eyes. She watched as the man's finger slowly pulled down on the trigger, and in that split second where his finger was about to fully push down, in a whip-like motion, she raised her hand and jutted out her palm facing the man, a wave of satisfaction rolling over her in the process.
Why you may ask? Because she was about to say something she had always wanted to say for years now. What made it better was that it was in a non-ironic sense, too.
"Fuego!"
A wave of unconcentrated fire blasted out from the palm of her hand, blanketing over the assassin like a jacket smothering a flame, and draining around 10 mana from use. The gunman began to panic and shot once, the stray bullet shooting into Jolyne's upper shoulder, dealing 55 points of damage. She recoiled and let a grunt of pain slip out, blood gushing from the exit wound. She was down 80 HP out of her 125, leaving her with 45 HP. She felt like crap, but that was to be expected seeing as she had lost so much health in such a short amount of time.
The gun dropped to the floor, now a smouldering pile of metal on the red carpeted floor, and the man in question fell backward, the fire sticking to him and him alone as it slowly began to die out. Once the fire was gone, all that was left was a charred, blistering corpse, black smoke rising off of the smouldering body.
She carefully approached the corpse, using Blood Control to make a scab where her wound had been so that she could regenerate health faster than drain it. Her head still spun from being smacked up against the head by what she had assumed to be the but of the now liquified gun. As she approached the body, Jolyne saw what remained of a business card.
Plucking the card out of her attacker's pocket, she grimaced. "The Kuzuryu Clan. This was one of the assassins that had been sent out to kill me. That was quick…." Jolyne muttered, looking over to the door as she watched it slide open. Kirigiri was there, his eyes wide as Jolyne's frown increased.
"What was—"
"An assassin. I guess word travels quickly around here," Jolyne interrupted, pocketing the card as she looked at the smouldering body. "I'm going to dispose of this, and please, don't say anything about this. The last thing I want is to get a bad reputation among the school's staff. That would just be sucky, especially on the first day of being an Ultimate."
The Headmaster grew a conflicted expression until a small sigh escaped his lips, narrowing his eyes at Jolyne before speaking. "I'll keep this between me and you. But please, try and leave the death and murder to a minimum. I'll look into… whoever this guy was. I'll have Mikan and the head doctor here take a look at the body but leave who did this as a mystery. You're my student and resident here at Hopes Peak. I'm interested in keeping you safe, and therefore I cannot allow myself to not do something while my student is being hunted by assassins. That would be irresponsible on my part."
Jolyne felt a wave of relief wash over her. She half expected to be reprimanded by Kirigiri, or worse, be reported to the police. With a small smile, Jolyne nodded. "Thank you, headmaster." With a nod in response, the man left the room, leaving the door open as Jolyne exited quickly behind him. Closing the sliding door shut, a small pop-up appeared out of the corner of her eye.
[Hit List – Part 1 – Progress: 20% complete]
"One assassin down, four more to go. Now, to find and talk to Yukizome… I don't want to worry the poor woman already." Jolyne thought as a part of her wondered how the assassin got into the room. If she had to guess, it probably had to do with the window. When the assassin was able to get into the room through the window, she didn't know. All she knew was that it was either before or after she exited the Training Pocket Dimension Mirror because otherwise, the assassin would've been dead before he even got the chance to break in.
It took a few moments, but the EXP bar showed up in the corner of her eye. 100 more EXP was added to the bar, closing her in on the next level up. It seemed that killing the assassins gave her 100 EXP each. "Not bad, but certainly not worth it. Then again, not dying seemed like a hell of a lot more better than whatever EXP reward there would be for killing those clowns."
Whatever the case might have been, she knew that this was only the first assassin that would be after her. There was no telling when the next one would strike.
For now, she had to go find a certain Chisa Yukizome.
-To Be Continued-
This was a bit longer than the last chapter, that much was obvious. There was a lot I wanted to add to this chapter, and I did exactly what I set out to do. Now that Jolyne has a new spell, it's only going to be up from here! We're now getting into the meat of the opening act for the Danganronpa universe. I hope you all will be willing to stick around. I have tons of plans, now more than ever.
Until next time, I shall see you all in the next one. Peace!
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