Chapter 11: A Stranger in a Strange Land
Self-consciously Jaune adjusted the hood that covered his head making sure the tan cloth covered his features or lack thereof as he rested against the railing of the boat. They had been at sea for some time and Jaune was surprised that he had enjoyed his trip so far. The ocean breeze had a refreshing scent and the warm light of the sun pleasantly warmed him.
The only real disappointment was that he had to keep himself mostly covered as he doubted that the faunus members of the ship would be overly happy about a human in their midst.
He had kept to himself during the whole of the trip and thankfully no one had seemed overly interested in talking to him.
Still, it was with relief that Jaune saw the landmass ahead growing larger. All he had to do was get off the boat and go further inland. There he would be able to begin.
The ship pulled into the docks and lines were tossed tying it up. The ramp was lowered and the passengers began to disembark.
Jaune mentally searched the area around him with his sense letting him know no eyes were upon him.
With a mental trigger he slipped into stealth and leaped over the railing slipping through the crowd of people moving through the unaware people quickly conscious of his skill draining his mana.
Kuo Kana was not quite what he expected he noted in the back of his mind. He was so used to the styles of near Vale and Atlas that these buildings looked strange to him. The number of what he recognized as Palm Trees was also very different than what he was used to. Behind those trees were a tall range of mountains that Jaune noted that he would likely have to cross to get to the interior of Menagerie and the Grimm he meant to fight.
Finding an alley, he dropped his stealth and then walked back out amongst the crowd. He wouldn't have been able to stealth entirely to the mountains but just walking there likely wouldn't be a problem.
So lost in thought was he, he at first didn't realize someone was calling out to him.
"You there! Are you Hunter?" Jaune blinked turning to see a tall burly man with thick black chest hair, yellow eyes, and a dark blue coat. Flanking him were two men in armor each holding a spear. Despite this Jaune noted that the people around him did not quite seem to fear the man catching only the occasional look from the crowd as if they were looking at someone rather important.
"Uh," Jaune was caught off guard but quickly he recentered himself, "Hunter in Training, Uh Sir?" he finished awkwardly going off instinct in attempting to give the man respect.
"Ha! Sir!" the man chuckled in a deep voice, "I'm looking for some people for a Grimm clearing party. You wouldn't happen to be interested in making some Lien?"
Jaune wasn't particularly against the idea. Plus he didn't exactly need for any suspicion from the populace that was surrounding him. Denying this man didn't seem a particularly great idea for his cover. Plus, it was just some Grimm, how bad could it be?
"I would be happy to help," Jaune replied.
"Good!" the man smiled a fierce looking grin that, "Here," he handed Jaune a piece of paper which with a quick scan Jaune realized contained a location and time to meet, "We'll be meeting tomorrow morning at my household. What's your name young man?"
It occurred to Jaune at that moment that given his clothing this man might not truly understand how old he was. He was tall for his age and was easily taller than a number of the adult men on the street.
Still, he wasn't going to deny getting paid for some work he would be doing anyway.
"It's Jaune sir," Jaune shook the man's hand, and he could practically feel the massive amount of strength contained within his arms.
"Good man," the man patted him on the shoulder once and Jaune walked off noticing that the man had gone back to surveying the crowd evidently looking for further fighters.
Jaune kept his pace even as he walked to the edge of the village till, he was staring up at the mountains behind it. Thinking to himself he decided that if he had till tomorrow morning, he should be able to get behind the mountains for a bit of Hunting.
Going off the road he broke into an even ground eating jog reaching the bottom of the mountain and powering up the rocky surface.
Even with his stamina it took Jaune an hour to get to the top of the mountain and he found himself staring over a vast desert filled with golden sand. There was only a sparse amount of greenery and there were a large number of tan stone pieces set against the sand.
Even from up here Jaune could see the occasional grouping of a tar black color against the sand. What he could only surmise to be Grimm groups.
Noticing the steep slope down below him an idea occurred to him. He reached into his inventory and pulled forth Corcea Mors Sheath expanding it into a shield. Twisting his boots into the straps he took a deep steadying breath before he jumped.
Metal hit stone and he skipped once again into the air from the force of the impact. He once again impacted stone and his path continued shotting down the side of the mountain at high speed.
Unable to help himself he let out a whoop of joy as he skidded down the steep rock and sand.
A journey that might well have taken another hour was completed in ten minutes as the wind whipped through his hair. He hit the sand at the bottom of the mountain and he slid for another twenty feet.
He tossed his shield in his inventory unable for the moment to wipe his smile from his face. That had been exhilarating and beat climbing back down the mountain.
Shaking himself Jaune got serious drawing his blades twirling them in his hands loosening up his wrists.
He concentrated and shining blue Grimm rose from around his feet.
They immediately began to run spitting sand up from beneath their paws. He followed after them concentrating on his senses to find the nearest pack of Grimm.
The first pack wasn't so much found as they charged at him only to be met by a wall of his own Grimm. Jaune joined his shadows twirling his blades through a Grimm that tried to bite him punching the blade of his short sword through its head while kicking the Grimm behind it into the mouth of one of his Grimm.
Flowing his Aura through his blades they lit up a brilliant gold and he swept through another Grimm the aura enhanced attack easily cleaving through the thick bone white armor.
Jaune lost himself in the motion of combat as more Grimm appeared drawn by the appearance of an active intruder in the land that they claimed of themselves. They were met with the fact that the defeated forms of their comrades were there to face them.
Time passed and without the tiring that would normally inflict itself on a human or faunus Jaune remained. Picking and choosing Grimm to reincarnate from among those he fought when the waves ebbed Jaune reincarnated some of them but quickly he was growing to the point he didn't need more cannon fodder. He needed something bigger.
A harsh cry echoed and in the evening light Jaune saw a Grimm he identified as a large Nevermore swooping down toward him.
Against a first year Hunter at one of the Combat Schools such a foe would probably be would be asking too much.
But Jaune wasn't alone. The Nevermore tried to swoop at them and following his mental commands his shadows split though some still got caught by its claws disappearing in flares of blue light.
Then his shadows leaped onto the beast's wings ripping and tearing at them clipping its ability to fly if the weight of his shadows had not done so already.
Stepping forward to the crippled creature Jaune drove his blade through the beast's eye flaring his aura raging gold against the dark abyss of the creatures feathers.
Ripping it free he watched the creature collapse beginning to fade.
He reached out and intoned.
RISE
Glowing blue lines flowed along the bird and its once crimson eyes opened to show a cold blue.
Looking among his shadowy soldiers Jaune was surprised by how much more his ranks had seemingly filled.
He also noticed that his Shadows had died enough to the point where it had drained his mana significantly. Though he also noted that from what he could feel his older shadows were taking less mana when they were summoned than the newer ones. Something he could only attribute to a facet of his power that he was unaware of how exactly it functioned.
Still that was probably enough for tonight as even if he couldn't physically get exhausted he needed to rest his mind a little.
As he turned to go back to the mountain an idea occurred to him. He turned back and leaped onto the back of the Nevermore and the Nevermore following his commands with a flap of its wings lifted them into the air.
Jaune dismissed the rest of his shadows as they rose into the air and began their journey back to Kuo Kana. They traveled easily as he sat at the joint where the neck of the Nevermore connected to its body.
As he soared through the night air, he doubted that any below would see the shadowy figure of his steed though a small worry was in the back of his mind of if someone below saw the Grimm and taking a shot at it and causing a panic.
He could see the lights of Kuo Kana glittering below him and he glanced down at his steed.
Actually, landing there would almost certainly cause a panic from the Grimm like shadow even if its beak was a deep gold and its eyes a bright blue.
Which meant he would have to use the landing strategy that had been discussed at Signal though actual implementations were supposed to be in the coming months.
Well, he supposed there was no time like the present.
Spotting a patch of trees, he dismissed his shadow and in the next instant found himself in free fall. The cool night air blew his hair back as he fell keeping his body flat maintaining as much surface area he could as he fell.
His eyes narrowed against the wind as he focused on his target a tall thick tree. Spinning one of his swords into his hands he caught the trunk letting his motion bleed away as he traced his way down the trunk losing speed as his aura took the rest of the impact.
He landed on the ground somewhat unsteadily his feet making indents in the ground. Taking a couple of uncertain steps, he glanced around to see if anybody had noticed his landing. He sensed nothing close by but two people were approaching, remembering his hood was off he quickly pulled it back over his head.
"Is someone there?" a rough masculine voice called out.
Instinctively Jaune drew the shadows over himself turning invisible.
From one of the lights that lit the Kuo Kana walked a man in dark clothing and a bone white mask with red markings. His hair was a dark red and from it Jaune could see two horns poking.
He looked about his eyes passing over Jaune his ability to see in the dark evidently doing him no favors in spotting the teen in front of him.
"What is it, Adam?" a male faunus wearing dark grey and black clothing walked up to him also with a mask over his eyes.
Adam looked over the area again, "It's nothing. Just thought I heard something," he turned, and the pair walked off into the night.
Once Jaune could no longer sense him he let himself reappear. Taking a deep breath, he slowly walked away from the area noticing that there were a serious lack of lights in Kuo Kana. Probably because the Faunus who lived here didn't really need them, he chided to himself.
Relying mostly on his sense he was still available to navigate the streets.
He checked his notifications and was surprised to see had gained a number of levels.
You have Leveled Up!
You have Leveled Up!
You have Leveled Up!
You have Leveled Up!
Shadow Extraction has Gained Three Levels
Hunter Gun Arts has Gained Two Levels
Aura Control has Gained One Level
Hunter Dagger Arts has Gained One Level
He had been stuck in an experience drought for so long he guessed now that he had finally fought a decent amount of Grimm that was changing. His skills probably hadn't leveled up as much as those were actually relatively high compared to his level
He checked his scroll to see that it was slowly approaching early morning. Even though it wasn't strictly necessary he wanted to get a bite to eat which shouldn't be a problem with the lien he had saved up.
For now, though he took the time to walk through Kuo Kana in the early morning where few people stirred. He could see a couple of shops preparing to open as the weak light of the day began to filter down. Seeing a stand that already had a couple of customers sipping coffee with some stacked plates he went to take a seat there.
Sitting down he waited patiently for the cook to turn around and take his order. Eventually the burly man with brown hair and dog ears turned to him.
"What'll you have?" he asked cheerfully.
Jaune responded, "A Number 4 Special please," he picked the meal number off the menu at the top of the cart.
The man nodded and turned back to the grill breaking some eggs to fry them for Jaune's dish. During this time Jaune found himself at somewhat of a loss for what to do. He couldn't exactly browse his scroll seeing as he had no access to the CCT. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to find a book shop to find something he could read to kill time.
His breakfast appeared before him and Jaune dug in savoring the taste of the salty food. It was very good and Jaune appreciated the flavor. Since he didn't need to eat for sustenance, he had actually developed a further appreciation for the flavor of food. It was comforting to sit here and eat breakfast with other people even though he didn't know them.
A simple comradery of people doing one of the mandatory tasks of the day together before they broke to take on their work for the day.
Jaune ate his meal and tossed down the necessary lien before leaving. He began to trek his way to the center of Kuo Kana where the flyer had said to meet. Eventually after walking down some steps he saw the largest building he had seen so far in Kuo Kana. It was a mansion though admittedly not quite the size of the Schnee residence.
Around it he saw some faunus had gathered having quite conversations with each other as they waited. Jaune stepped off to the side feeling every bit the outsider he was.
Jaune heard a murmur in the crowd, and he was somewhat surprised to see the man with red hair and white mask from last night or more accurately early this morning walking down the steps towards them. His name had been Adam hadn't? It was somewhat strange Jaune remarked to himself what the other people's reactions were to the man.
There was admiration but there was also a small undercurrent of unease. Not from everyone but some of the faunus shifted slightly something Jaune picked up with his Sense.
It finally clicked in Jaune's head what the mask meant. This was a member of the White Fang. He supposed it made sense given where he was, but Jaune was still astonished as he had never seen a member in person before. It was why at first, he had dismissed the mask to the back of his mind.
Which meant that he should probably make doubly sure that the man didn't discover who he was. He doubted that a member of the White Fang would be overly understanding of a human in Kuo Kana.
From the house emerged the man from yesterday drawing the attention of everyone.
"Good morning everyone," the man said, "Thank you for being here today. We'll be heading out soon. Just going to give some time for any stragglers. Use this time to make sure you and your equipment is ready."
Jaune glanced around and saw that the group by and large was following his directions giving their equipment a check over. Deciding to follow their example Jaune drew his blades giving them a check over and then testing the mechashift function of his rifle. Everything was in order to his eyes so with a flick the rifle turned into short swords again and he slid them back into their sheaths.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Adam had for some reason been looking at him before he turned his attention back to the man who had recruited Jaune.
Adam walked up to the bigger man and gave a solemn nod.
"Chieftain Belladonna," he said, and Belladonna looked back at him with hard eyes.
There was a tension between them, and it seemed the rest of the faunus had no interest in being involved as they kept studiously examining their equipment though Jaune noted those with animal ears had them directed at the conversation.
Perhaps realizing that their conversation wouldn't be private Belladonna shook his head at Adam, "I don't have anything to discuss with you Taurus. We have real work we need to attend to for the sake of Menagerie."
Jaune didn't miss how Adam didn't seem to like that response in the slightest his fists flexing but he replied back smoothly, "All I wished to do was offer what help I could provide. The White Fang exists to provide help to all faunus."
"Then join our Hunt if you wish," Belladonna replied shortly before walking away from Adam.
"All right everyone with me, it's going to be a bit of a walk, but we found a concentration of Grimm that's made their way up one of the mountains."
With that Belladonna walked off the rest of the faunus falling in line behind him. Jaune joined their number staying near the middle but on the outskirts of the group. They made far worse time than Jaune had yesterday as they trudged to the mountains that served as a natural barrier for Kuo Kana.
With nothing to really do Jaune found himself paying attention to the snippets of conversation. Talk of what they had for breakfast, someone was dating someone else, what the weather would be like in the coming week, and other conversations that fit the everyday life of the people here.
Jaune was glad that no one had tried to strike up a conversation with him. He doubted he would be able to come up with the words to hide that he didn't really know much about the everyday going's on in Kuo Kana.
They climbed ever higher till suddenly they came to a halt as Belladonna help up a hand. He beckoned the crowd forth, and they drew up behind him. Jaune saw that they were standing above a clearing where he could see a mass of Grimm were shifting about below.
Belladonna looked at all of them, "Follow my lead. Call for help if you need it. I don't want any casualties."
Saying this he leaped down landing on top of a Grimm and wrestling it to the ground. Most of the faunus opened fire at the Grimm below while a few others including Adam made to leap down. Jaune leapt with them driving his sword through a Beowulf's spine before harshly kicking its head snapping the creature's neck.
He leapt off his prey and launched himself at his next opponent ducking and waving between swipes of the Grimm around him. They weren't that difficult of opponents by any means but Jaune noted that the teamwork between the group was essentially nonexistent. No one it seemed knew how each other fought and some of them simply were poor fighters.
Soon Jaune found himself not even necessarily focusing on the Grimm but preventing the Faunus around him from getting overwhelmed. Belladonna had also seemed to take on that job and was easily beating back the Grimm with his pure strength. The only other fighter of note was Adam who was cleanly slicing through Grimm with minimal effort but didn't provide the same level of defense to his fellow fighters.
Jaune leapt over one of his fellow combatants landing a kick to the face of the Grimm he was fighting launching the Ursa backwards from where it had been standing attempting to flatten the man.
Spinning his blades into his rifle he shot another Ursa three times in its head in rapid succession causing it to collapse and begin to let off black whisps of whatever made the Grimm.
Jaune didn't let his motion slow down spinning his weapon back into his swords slicing off the questing paw of another Grimm that was attempting to swipe at another member of the Group.
Thanks to mostly Belladonna, Adam, and himself the Grimm were dispatched into smoking tar black corpses. His senses not picking up any other Grimm Jaune dismissed the window in front of his eyes indicating he had gained another level. He would check later as he had also seen that he had gained some levels from his midnight session with the Grimm in the desert.
A Menu had popped up before his eyes.
You have Leveled Up!
Hidden Quest has been Completed: Reached Level 20
Through Skill: New Subclass has Developed through Actions
Shadow Knight
New Skill Unlocked: Knight's Shield
Jaune cocked his head at that prompt. He hadn't realized he could further develop his class. Did that mean even after this there was more to develop?
This Skill allows for the projection of a shield of mana within a radius around the user. The shield size and the radius size are dependent on the skills level.
Well, he had learned his lesson this wasn't something he was going to look at till he was well out of view of prying eyes. He closed the window with a thought and looked about checking on his compatriots.
They all thankfully still seemed to be in one piece. The majority of them it seemed were recovering from the strenuous fight and Belladonna was going around checking on them to verify they didn't need anything.
Jaune turned as he detected someone's approach and saw that Adam was approaching a half smile on his lips.
"You're quite the force," Adam said bluntly, "I don't think there's many faunus on Menagerie who could fight like that."
Jaune forced a chuckle trying to brush Adam's words off, "Well I actually just arrived," he said very consciously avoiding the instinct to pull his hood further over his head.
"Did you?" Adam asked curiously, "Well I'm glad to see that you're helping our brothers and sisters we could use more people like you in our fight."
Was Adam inviting him to join the White Fang? Well, that was… something.
Before he could respond Belladonna walked up to where the pair of them were standing.
"We're heading back to Kuo Kana, Adam, you can lead from the front in case any Grimm swept around. This young man and I will bring up the rear."
Adam turned to Belladonna and even despite the mask he was wearing Jaune got the impression that he was giving a hard look at the older man.
"As you wish Chieftain Belladonna," Adam replied and began climbing back up to where the rest of the Faunus had been shooting from.
Jaune remained standing by Belladonna as they watched the rest of the Faunus climb back up before they followed after once they reached the top. Jaune could practically feel the tension coming off the Chieftain, but he was unsure of how to deal with it. Discretion was likely the better part of valor in this-
"A young man like you should stay well clear of the White Fang," Belladonna said seriously.
Jaune's head almost spun off as it swiveled to look at the older man as he was staring at the retreating backs of the other Faunus who were already a fair distance down the mountain.
Struggling for words Jaune replied hesitantly, "I'm sorry sir?"
Belladonna looked at him and Jaune could see something sad in the man's eyes, "I know I once led the organization but that was a long time ago. The White Fang these days is a more violent thing that youth such as yourself shouldn't get wrapped up in."
"I understand sir," Jaune replied, before he continued for some reason wanting to assuage the other man, "I don't have any intention of doing so. I want to be a Huntsman."
Belladonna nodded a small grin appearing on his face, "Good boy. Also, There's no need for the sir. Ghira will do fine."
"Right, uh Ghira," Jaune stumbled over calling the man as such simply feeling unnatural to not have the barrier of a certain degree of deference to the Chieftain.
Their walk continued in silence as they sped up to catch up with the rest of the Faunus who were already trooping back down the mountain together.
Ghira's words stuck with Jaune. Or more specifically the implied reasoning behind it. Jaune didn't know that much about the White Fang really. The organization had been something mentioned in school, and he had seen the protests in his hometown but beyond that the entire thing was somewhat of a foreign concept to him.
He had only heard about things getting more violent recently and Belladonna word's reinforced that message. If Ghira a man who had apparently led the White Fang said that it was something to not get wrapped up in, he wasn't inclined to mistrust the statement. He seemed like a good leader and from the way he had spoken to Jaune he seemed like a good man.
They were even slower going down the mountain but that was probably because the majority of people with them were now getting tired. They made their way through Kuo Kana and arrived in front of the mansion where they had begun.
Ghira walked to the stairs and gestured at one of the guards who went inside and returned holding a number of envelopes. People stepped up and each received and envelope and by nature of being at the back of the group Jaune received his envelope last which meant he was privy to parts of the conversation that had begun between Adam and Ghira now that Faunus had left.
He heard something about a "Blake" and "Home" in the gradually escalating in volume words between the two men. Jaune turned to walk away with envelope to see that a girl around his age with yellow eyes, pale skin, black hair, and two cat ears, in a monochrome outfit walking slowly down the stairs here eyes on the argument between the two men.
He was walking away with his envelope when he heard behind him a soft voice saying, "Hey Dad."
Jaune made his way through the streets internally having decided that he was going to use some of his pay to buy himself a meal. The only question was where? The afternoon light was slowly beginning to fade as the day drawled toward evening.
Spotting a place on the waterfront that looked like a decent candidate Jaune went to sit at the counter where only one other Faunus sat.
"What can I get you?" asked the chef who had grey hair and equally grey cat ears.
Jaune looked up at the menu searching for something to eat, "Uh the Salmon Fillet number 3 looks good."
The chef nodded and got to work getting a bowl ready in a matter of some minutes placing it in front of Jaune with a glass of water. Jaune took a sip of water before he began to slowly eat focusing on savoring the food as much as he could. It wasn't like he was eating to fill a hungry belly after a day of hard work. No, he was simply eating to enjoy the taste of food.
Jaune ate slowly and by the time that another person had sat down at the booth he was only halfway through his food.
Taking a glance out of the corner of his eye he was surprised to see the girl from earlier who had called Ghira dad. If Jaune was to put a name to the expression on her face it would be frustration.
Jaune wondered to himself what exactly had happened with the conversation that she was here instead of with Ghira who judging by what she had said was her dad.
Some minutes later Adam walked in and sat next to her on a seat that just so happened to be next to Jaune.
They were quite except for their orders and Jaune got the sense the quiet was distinctly agitating Adam. Adam rested his arms on the table before it seemed he had finally realized that he was sitting next to Jaune.
"Oh, it's you again," Adam said his mouth curling into a sort of smile.
Internally Jaune was wondering what the odds were that the man he was avoiding on Ghira's advice turning up in his booth.
Externally he nodded at Adam, "Nice to see you too."
He focused once again on his dish slightly picking up the pace as it would probably behoove him not to give the man too much of an opportunity if he was winding up for a recruitment speech. Still there was only so fast he could eat without looking like he was trying to get out of that conversation.
"So have you had time to think about what I said earlier?" Adam asked his masked head cocked to the side as he looked at Jaune.
Joining the White Fang? Yeah that was going to end well. Still no need to directly antagonize the guy.
Jaune shook his head hoping that his hood hid enough of his face to hide any micro facial expression he may have made.
"Sorry," he said before following it up with a partial truth, "I'm focusing on training to become a Huntsman."
"Well I suppose Menagerie could always use more Faunus to protect us from the Grimm," Adam remarked, "Still if you joined the White Fang you would be serving a purpose greater than yourself. If you changed your mind we would be glad to have you."
This guy did not quit did he?
"Even if it was something small like-"
"Adam," the girl said softly, "It's a choice he should make for himself."
Adam sighed and Jaune wished he could see more of his face as the thinning of the man's lips didn't quite do enough to tell him what he felt about his compatriot's words.
"As you say Blake," he said softly.
Jaune reached into his pocket drawing Lien from his inventory to cover his tab.
"Maybe some time in the future," he said to Adam before he stood up from the booth and began to walk away.
He walked for awhile till he found an out of the way park to sit at. It was there he sat down and opened up his menu. He had noted that he had a truly absorbed amount of Ability points at this point, so it was probably time to actually spend them
Looking at his stats he realized that so far, he had kept them relatively even with how he had trained them. So far that had seemed to work so he decided at least for now he wasn't going to change that. With a though he allocated enough points to bring all his stats up to an even fifty each which cost him thirty-three points leaving his intelligence at the uneven value of fifty-four.
Mana had been something that he had found himself losing rather quickly lately so he decided to toss six more points to intelligence to boost that value to sixty.
He shook his head shrugging off the strange feeling that came after boosting his intelligence value.
He closed his menus and began to really think about what his next steps were going to be. He still needed to try out his Knight's Shield skill but that was probably better done somewhere else in a more private location.
Remembering a thought he had earlier in the day regarding his boredom he stood up and began to walk the streets of Kuo Kana looking for a book store. It surprisingly didn't take that long to find one which on second thought wasn't actually so surprising given that the people here didn't have access to the CCT.
He walked into the small shop and saw a couple other people browsing the shelves. He also began to browse the shelves not really sure what he was looking for. He would occasionally check a book only to set it down after flipping through the first couple of pages.
He picked up another book titled, 'Ninjas of Love," flipping through a couple pages actually finding himself intrigued by the story. Wait why was the Protagonist removing their pants?
He slammed the book shut his face bright red in defiance of his Gamers Mind. That was…
He saw a couple patrons looking at him askance for the noise and he dipped his head in apology hoping his hood prevented them from seeing his still bright red cheeks. Still…
Jaune hesitated. He was almost fourteen. It wasn't like he wasn't interested in that kind of stuff. It was just he had very much understood there would be dire consequences if Ruby or Yang found him reading that kind of stuff.
He was on his own here though. It's not like there was someone to get embarrassed about seeing him read this here.
More hesitantly than he would have liked he brought his book up to the register and after a quick interaction with the cashier he was out of the store with the book safely in his inventory.
He continued on his way down the street enjoying the cool breeze on his still slightly flushed face. He would be headed back over the mountains again today, but he would wait till it was darker. Till then he found himself sight seeing on Kuo Kana taking it in the buildings lit by the orange light of the setting sun.
Finding a place to stand on the docks he leaned against the railing watching as the sun was setting below the waves. The people of Kuo Kana were filing back home, and the markets were closing.
Over these waves Ruby and Yang may have already bedded down for the night. Weiss was probably doing some studying determined to keep her grades at their peak.
It all felt so far away.
Jaune swallowed the lump that had swelled in his throat from the thoughts.
His mind continued drifting as he realized that he hadn't even really thought of his family. It had been years now and he hadn't interacted with them.
Did they think he was dead? It must have at least crossed their minds. Maybe it was because he had experienced more parts of the world now, but he thought maybe he could understand a part of his parent's reluctance toward his dream.
He didn't regret leaving, but at least a little bit he regretted how he had left. Leaving nothing behind to let his parents or his sisters know that their son and brother was at least alive besides his final message.
Out of the corner of his eyes he realized that he was standing next to what was a postal office.
He pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket, which in reality was inventory. He reached in again and pulled out a pen. Frowning he stared at the piece of paper he was holding against the flat wooden surface of the railing.
He began to write. He didn't give any specific details, but he focused on the people he had met. His journey to become a Hunter. Leaving Crocea Mors behind in favor of a weapon that suited him more.
He finished with a single sentence, 'I'll be back someday, I promise.'
An Arc never goes back on his word.
Authors Note:
So, some may have noticed I used dagger and short sword interchangeably this chapter. This was in part to emphasize that the blades are not that much shorter than Crocea Mors and also an experiment to see if short sword flows better in some situations than dagger.
Also, a class evolution. The second evolution and not the last. It's something I've wanted to do to make the power truly Jaune's power. The class was unlocked at Level 10 and similarly this evolution was unlocked at Level 20. The next evolution is going to be awhile though.
Also, for anyone wondering about Jaune's semblance it is indeed still waiting to be unlocked. Still not sure when but given his skills at this point he will need to be pushed to emotional desperation to achieve it. I know some may be wondering why he hasn't unlocked it given that by this point he has received more training than the original Jaune ever did. Simply put in the time to develop it as he has been focused on the Gamer ability. Not to mention it is a little bit fuzzy to me how exactly semblances first appear and then evolve. While the evolution is through training, the only origination, we have to go off of is Jaune's, and when it truly came into being it was in a moment of desperation.
I truly appreciate the reviews, likes, and follows, this story has received.
Stats:
Name: Jaune Arc
Class: Shadow Knight
Level: 20
HP: 500
AP: 5000
Mana: 6000
Strength: 50
Agility: 50
Health: 50
Sense: 50
Intelligence: 60
Luck: ?
Available Ability Points: 71
Skills:
Gamers Mind: Level Max
Dancing: Level 50
General Studies: Level 40
Hunter Martial Arts: Level 15
Hunter Dagger Arts: Level 36
Hunter Sword Arts: Level 31
Hunter Shield Arts: Level 25
Aura Control: Level 36
Shadow Extraction: Level 13
Hunter Gun Arts: Level 12
Stealth: Level 5
Dust Channeling: Level 3
Survival: Level 3
Knight's Shield: Level 1
Inventory:
Crocea Mors
Hunters Daggers
Clothing
Assorted Food Supplies
Ninjas of Love: Volume 1
Camping Equipment
