A/N (20240220): TBH, Night Impermanence, even short reviews are great! Pointing out just a single part you like is awesome, as when a chapter is out the only thing I know is what I get from Path. For all I know, the only people in the world who enjoyed the chapter are me and Path!
Great Advisor & Beta: Pathalen
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
Jaune stood on the branches of a tall tree, watching the slumbering figure of the largest Grimm he'd seen yet beneath him at the bottom of a sheer cliff.
When Jaune had reappeared in RWBY:Online that night amid the Emerald Forest, he had taken a big sigh of relief. He wasn't certain yet what he wanted to do with this world, especially while the matter of Hastur AKA past-Jaune still hung in the background. His next actions, on the other hand, would still be the same as before this whole experience.
Get stronger. Should he wish to impose his will upon the world as a player, he needed to become a better huntsman. And so, remembering that he had received quite a number of skills in Eden of Roses, he took his time to analyze and figure out the intricate yet absolutely insane system the gods had made up.
Now, he knew he should probably rejoin with the others and ask Ruby for help again. However, he had spent the hours before bed with Ren and Nora, and could be on what one can call a 'study high'. His heart was brimming with satisfaction of a job well done and his mind was totally in the zone.
Therefore, he wanted to see what he could do by his own actual efforts.
Having spent the past few hours training & reconfiguring his skills, he leapt off his roost and dove down at the Grimm with a glowing fist, invigorated.
This Grimm monster was a sort of humongous scorpion. More heavily armored than the Ursa and twice as large, it was equipped with pincers and a tail tipped with a golden stinger.
Maybe I can cut off the tail and use it as a weapon?
Jaune had also made sure to check out its Echoes entry.
[Echoes of Death Stalker]
Age: Delta
Class: Anti-Bunker
Strong, crushing attacks.
Poison spray.
Static defenses not recommended.
This helped him plan out how exactly he wanted to defeat it, using the power of information. Unlike the Ursa, it seems the Death Stalker focused more on close quarters destruction, so keeping distance from its claws seemed like the right idea. Considering Jaune's own resources and lack of a mortar like Cardin's team or the lack of an overpowered, endgame character like Ruby, Jaune had to make do.
His plan was to kill it in one blow, by relying on the stealth bonus.
…No one had ever accused Jaune of having good plans.
His fist smashed into the bone plate atop the Death Stalker's head, visibly cracking it. The blow wasn't enough to shatter it though.
The Grimm was very much still alive.
At least I confirmed there is a stealth bonus, though far from a 1-hit KO.
The eyes of the Grimm opened up, going cross-eyed and locking onto Jaune.
"Hi." Jaune waved.
It threw its head back with a force large enough to shatter steel. A normal human would have died from the mere act, their organs splattering against their own bones. But Jaune just found himself launched into space like Team Rocket blasting off again.
Or he would have been, if it wasn't for one of his newly unlocked skills from Eden of Roses:
[Back]
[Skill]: Basic Fortitude
Lv 1
Description: Reduces knockback.
Instead, he merely flew a dozen meters in the air and slammed into the side of the cliff. Bouncing off, he landed in the forest a short distance away.
Jaune sat up from the small impact crater he'd made in the vegetation, shaking his head. Something caught his eye, and he saw a cave about the size of an average human at the bottom of the cliff face. He took note of it in case he ever needed a hiding spot.
Then, he leapt to a nearby tree and started climbing it with all his monkeying abilities, aiming to get the drop on the creature again. He had immense defense after all and all the time in the world.
This was plan B, named: repeatedly-sneak-attack, death-from-climbing-trees-and-a-thousand-scratches.
Unfortunately, he immediately bailed when he heard the creature blast through the forest at his last known location. Instead, he went for plan C.
Tearing trees aside and bursting into view, the scorpion roared its challenge. Several tons of muscle, sinew, and bone fell upon Jaune as it threw all its might into a hammering claw aimed to flatten him. Jaune, in response, threw his own fist back.
The two collided with a thunderous clap.
The scorpion's claw held strong, but Jaune was sent skidding back. Not far though, just a few feet, due to his other skill:
[Back]
[Skill]: Gaia's Might
Lv 1
Description: Reduces knockback while standing on solid ground.
He now could confirm that Basic Fortitude and Gaia's Might stacked, with how little he had moved this time. And they were just level 1!
"Hey Animus, how's my Aura?" He called.
"Your Aura is down from 96% to 95%." His phone replied. A full night's sleep had regenerated his Aura to full, even if he'd burnt some on a few small fights up to this one.
Yeah, you ain't winning this, idiot. Jaune grinned at the Death Stalker. The power of a good night's sleep compels me! He threw himself back into the fight, meeting the second claw with his other fist. Once again, they were both repelled, leaving shredded flora in their wake.
Jaune narrowed his eyes.
The claws, despite taking both of his punches charged with lv 1 Basic Strength - grabbed during his training - did nothing.
Before fighting the Death Stalker, Jaune had the obvious sense to fight weaker enemies. Against Beowolves, his lv 1 abilities were able to decimate them pretty easily, as long as he hit. Ursa's, on the other hand, could take multiple hits, but at least received visual injuries. This Death Stalker's claws, however, seemed undamaged.
Despite being technically able to keep fighting this way until he lost too much Aura or the scorpion showed signs of damage, one very important thing prevented him from doing so: he knew there was a good chance he would get too bored to continue.
Jaune's eyes were drawn to the palm-sized cracks on the bone plates of the scorpion's back that he had made at the start of the fight.
If I use my ultimate skill there… then I'd probably win.
Yes, Jaune finally had received an especially good skill, other than Sprint.
While he considered his options, he stayed with the Death Stalker, matching blow for blow. To the Death Stalker's possible surprise - it wasn't like Jaune could read its facial expressions - every blow that connected seemed to move Jaune less and less.
[Back]
[Skill]: Spicy Pretzel
Lv 1
Description: For every consecutive knockback within 7 seconds, double knockback resistance.
Who would have thought Spicy Pretzel would be an actual good skill. He thought. With knockback being reduced to near zero, his fight with the Grimm became more like an incredibly aggressive game of patty-cake. No matter what the Grimm did with its claws, Jaune countered with a fist bump back and it could not move Jaune one single inch at this point.
Hmmm, standing here, I realize, that I have a number of pretty strong options. I can tilt my body to 'Sprint' into the sky, then using my mastery of junior high trigonometry I can perfectly land myself on its back. Then, I charge up my ultimate skill, and I win.
He continued playing patty-cake with the Grimm, this time also countering attacks that came from the sides as the Grimm tried different angles. Thunderous blows smashed into uncaring light.
"Hey Animus, how's my Aura?"
"Your Aura is at 74%."
Oh shit. I forgot I still take the damage!
Re-establishing his focus, decided to go through with his plan. He finally moved, stepping aside to weave aside another claw strike. The breaking of the pattern caused the scorpion to over-extend, allowing Jaune a moment to shout 'Sprint!' and blasting himself into the air. However, the scorpion was still able to react fast enough to strike a glancing blow, sending Jaune into a somersault before he smashed face first onto the creature's back. Scrambling, he grabbed what he could as the Grimm tried once again to shake him off.
Then he realized the Grimm's movements barely shifted him.
Holy shit Spicy Pretzel, you are actually a spicy AF skill!
He stood up. At this point, the scorpion was shaking furiously with no avail. This was not to mention that technically Jaune was being moved, if the ground and surrounding environment was used as reference. However, if using the Grimm as reference, then Jaune was stuck to it almost as if he was part of the Grimm itself.
This made… his vision… Do interesting things. Okay, I got to finish this before I puke.
Raising a hand, he activated his ultimate skill as a swirl of white light gathered around his fingers.
Now, which ultimate skill was it?
At the very start of his training earlier, when he had opened his Aura Skills for the first time after Eden of Roses, a window had popped up.
[System]: Choose your role:
[Tank] [Damage] [Support]
Yes. There were classes - roles - in this game.
Not to mention, there were Aura Skills attached specifically to each role tree - with only early skills available for viewing. Investigating each tree after fifteen minutes spent wrestling with the UI, Jaune determined from the limited information that 'Support' was definitely out for him. While he didn't have anything against the skills themselves, passive healing and some crowd-control felt like 'meh' to him. Not to mention he played very little support in League or any other game, preferring Damage and going Tank if the meta favored the latter.
Seeing his current stats, Jaune's first thought was to go into the Tank subtree to hopefully make better use of his ridiculous durability. However, it was during his careful exploration of the possible skills that he had realized that this game was kind of very strangely balanced.
Aura was both the hit points and the mana pool.
Wasn't Jaune shocked.
A little experimentation and careful recording of his 'AP' made him almost certain it was short for Aura Points, leaving the meaning of 'HP' still in the dark like before. However, the real breakthrough was when he had realized that his Active skills actually cost AP. For example, every cast of Sprint, even if he didn't hit anything, cost a sliver of AP.
Holy shit, he had thought then, Does that mean I took even less damage yesterday than I had thought, and actually merely spent it on casting Sprint?!
Now, why did this matter? Simple.
The 'Damage' role had caster spells. Spells like Fireball, Thunderbolt, and other classic fantasy tropes, all of which depended on AP to cast. And Jaune, well, he had boatloads of AP, more than he could spend.
I'm like a mage with… with… A zillion mana! No, a… a gazillion amount! Uhhh, a veritable fuckton! A cornucopia!
Jaune wondered if it was an error to make health a casting resource. Perhaps Light had been watching Castle in the Sky while writing the game.
Obviously, there was also one more problem with going Damage while his stats leaned towards tanking.
Damage scaling.
Suppose that he had low casting stats - though once again, he had no idea which ones they were - he could be trapped with the ability to cast a thousand fireballs, but each of them would have the power of a wet fart.
This problem was rendered mute when he found what could only be his ultimate spell surprisingly low on the skill tree. He immediately picked Damage after that, and acquired the skill too. Immediately after careful consideration of course - he wasn't making that mistake twice.
At the current moment, Jaune grinned at the creature. "You've helped me test out enough." He said. The Grimm tried throwing him off, but his stacks of Spicy Pretzel with its exponential scaling, proved too much even without the Gaia's Might skill. "Spell List: Op - blurghblurghblurgh."
The scorpion's stinger behind him, that hadn't been used for much till now, sprayed him with a green liquid that was most certainly poison.
The light around his raised hand disappeared.
He started choking and hacking, yet still kept a grip on the bone plates of the monster to not get thrown off.
Oh shit! How the hell does poison work with Aura? Am I breathing it in? He coughed, trying to wrap his mind around Aura perhaps keeping oxygen in and noxious substances out. Like, how would Aura even know?! Does my soul know chemistry better than I?!
His lungs weren't burning though, and much to his relief, the green goop slid off his Aura easily.
He tried again. "Spell List: Open - blurghblrugh!" He wiped off the poison with his hand. "Stop that!" He shouted at the stinger behind him.
It sprayed him in the face.
Alright, how does this 'voice activate skill system' even fucking work?! It needs to actually hear me say it, outside of my Aura?! Inside isn't fine?!
"You little - blurblurb - you little shit! Come back here!" He tried to reach backwards and grab it, but the Grimm took the chance of his loose handhold and finally made him slip off. He rolled onto the ground, quickly reacting to catch the stinger that the Grimm tried impaling him with. "Fuck y - ."
It spat more poison in his face.
Okay, I hate this enemy!
He made sure to stop himself from breathing in the liquid and did plan D, his last and final plan.
He ran.
Leaping over fallen trees and bushes, the scorpion gave chase. He dodged the sprays of toxic liquid, weaving around the vegetation, before he finally arrived at the cliff-side. Then, he dove into the human-size cave he had seen at the start of the battle, right at the nick-of-time as the stinger slammed into the cave entrance behind him.
Jaune almost fell over from the blast of air, having lost his Spicy Pretzel stacks.
Getting up, he blinked as the dust settled. The scorpion's stinger seemed to glow in the dark. From the struggles he could now hear and see, the stinger was stuck.
He grinned.
"Spell list: Open!" He raised his hand. The stinger still tried spraying, but it went over Jaune's head.
Light gathered around Jaune, swirling around him in a halo. The Grimm's struggling started getting more desperate despite not being able to see or understand what was happening, but Jaune cast out all other thoughts as he locked on his present, irrespective of his past or future. This was his moment.
Proof of his conviction to change - or at least, the start.
Around his hand, his Aura solidified and took form in the mortal world, crystalizing his very being into reality.
He took it, and with a running start, weaved between the streams of poison and brought his light to the Grimm. Leaping at the very end, he threw his arm back, and shouted:
"I cast Fist, bitch!"
[Back]
[Aura Spell]: Fist
Lv 1
Description: A wizard's last resort, it is stronger the more maximum Aura you have.
The Grimm was sundered, the blow exploding the stinger into smithereens. It screeched, and before Jaune could do anything…
It ran.
"Wait, you can't do that! You can't run away!" He paused. "That's my move!"
Jaune rushed out of the cave after it, but it literally leapt up the cliff and disappeared. "My XP!" He cried.
[System]: Gained 1200 XP
Level up!
Oh okay. Thanks Dark, the only possible person kind enough to give partial experience.
Now that he had a moment though, he almost stumbled. While his Aura had been perfectly fine taking all those hits, his body was not as fortunate. He took a moment to calm his racing heart, gasping a little for air.
Then a big grin appeared on his face.
I fucking did it! He wasn't bumbling around - mostly - and had actually participated as a huntsman. No Ruby to carry him to victory, no Pyrrha to steal all the glory that he couldn't even get.
Eat that, Light!
[Echoes]: Alpha Death Stalker UNLOCKED
Jaune paused. Hm?
He looked around, a little confused.
I don't see another enemy.
Boom!
Behind him, the cave he was in exploded. Showered with rocks and dust, he instinctively covered his face as he turned around. His eyes slowly went up and up to meet the multitude of glowing eyes. Out from the smoke came a Death Stalker three times the size of the previous one.
"How the fuck did you fit in that cave."
The Death Stalker raised a mighty claw. Sighing, Jaune dodged out of the way.
Or rather, he should have. His body didn't move, as a new message he hadn't seen before popped up in his HUD.
[System]: Out of Stamina.
There was a stamina stat?! Since fucking when?! Did you just add it at the last second?!
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
A/N (20240220): Awkward split this time, unfortunately.
Next Chapter: February 25, 2024