I don't own anything.

When I made my way back to the dorm, I could barely keep the grin off my face. I had grown more tonight than I had in all of last week, and maybe even the week before then. It was honestly kind of crazy how much progress boss fights afforded me, not only in terms of levels, but in spells as well.

After fighting the Deathstalker, Chitin Shield had quickly become one of the most important pieces in my kit, and it lent itself well to my reactive fighting style. The Pack seemed just a little more niche, since I couldn't really pick and choose when to activate it. But honestly, that wasn't nearly as big of a hurdle as it might seem to be, since I would be fighting alongside the rest of team BASN for any missions we ran for a long, long time anyways.

And honestly, a straight up attribute boost was a pretty crazy spell to have, especially since it came at no cost to my aura or anything.

When I got to the door, I opened my scroll to unlock the room, and took a quick look at the time. 04:16, alright, so I had plenty of time left to take nice, warm shower and get ready for the day before the rest of my team got up.

I opened and closed the door with a soft click and turned to head to the bathroom and froze. Sharp, blue eyes peered into my own, quickly looking me up and down. From the look in her eyes, my appearance had clearly come up short. To be fair, I did look a mess, even with the big smile on my face. Dirt and grime matter my hair, my clothing was similarly dirty, but it also had little cuts and wrinkles from when I'd been tossed along the forest floor while fighting.

From the narrow-eyed look I got when she looked back up, she hadn't missed it, even in the dark. I opened the door back up and pointed outside, almost feeling like this was becoming some kind of ritual for our team.

"Where were you?"

"Training." I said simply, and honestly, it wasn't really a secret. Port knew, along with the rest of the staff, and I was sure that my teammates had noticed that I was never in the dorm at night. I simply hadn't wanted them to know that I was going into the Emerald Forest at first, mostly because I didn't want them to worry. Now though, well, I was strong enough that I could take just about anything there, and I still had Port's beacon on me just in case.

"In the middle of the night?" She deadpanned.

"Yes?"

"Why?"

"I always train at night."

"What?" She hissed. "When do you even rest?"

"I don't? I thought you guys would have noticed by now, I don't sleep." I revealed, getting more and more confused by the second. I was never in the dorm at night, there was no way that none of them had noticed that, right? Sure, I left late and came back before they woke up, but that was mostly out of convenience. I had plenty of stuff to do in the dorm like homework or even just relaxing that it was easier for me to just do those either before I went out to train or before the day really started.

"Wha- HOW?"

"It's part of my semblance." I told her, and at her confused look, I continued. "I don't know exactly how it works, but it seems to focus on increasing or improving things."

Technically true. I didn't really know how it worked, and it did focus on increasing things like my attributes or even the defensive properties of my shield, but it wasn't really my semblance. But I wasn't going to go around telling people my semblance made me a video game character, I wasn't keen on being sent to an asylum.

"So, I don't actually need to sleep. I can, but I don't have to and it's kind of a waste of time."

Weiss didn't respond, she simply stood there and stared at me with a blank look on her face. After a couple of seconds, she just turned on her heel, opened the door to the dorm and got back into bed, muttering something about dumb blondes. I couldn't keep the amusement off my face if I tried, and I simply walked in after her, grabbing a fresh set of clothes before heading into the bathroom.

As I got into the shower, I considered the conversation in the hall. If Weiss hadn't known, maybe the others didn't either? It didn't matter, I'd just have to tell them later. I might even tell them about the forest, it wasn't like I was in danger there anymore, so it wasn't like they'd be overly worried. As the hot water washed over my sore body, though, I put it out of my mind. I could figure that out later, it was time to enjoy a nice, hot shower.

"So, you don't sleep?" Blake asked, again.

"Yeah."

"What do you even do all night?" Weiss cut in.

"I train, or do homework, or relax… I just kind of do the things I would during the day, but at night, I guess." I shrugged, and I didn't really have a better answer. After all, it just gave me extra time, time that I used to do the things I didn't have enough hours in the day for.

"Train? You looked like you were in a fight when I saw you this morning." Weiss pointed out. It was also the first thing Pyrrha reacted to, going from neutral to worried in a single second. Blake, meanwhile, was much calmer about it, but still turned her attention to me.

"What? Are you okay?"

"I don't look that bad, do I?" I gave the redhead a wry smile and a raised brow. "But seriously, I train out in the forest."

"The Emerald Forest?" Pyrrha asked hesitantly, and I nodded.

"For my semblance, I need to 'achieve' things," I explained, leaving out the video game mechanics, I could still tell them how my semblance worked. "Killing Grimm, for example, is the best way I've found to improve. So, I go into the Forest at night and fight." Before they could protest, I cut them off. And I could see that Pyrrha, at least, wanted to. "Port knows about it, he found me in the forest during the first week and he gave me a beacon to call him if I get in over my head. It's a safety net."

"Oh… I guess that's okay then." Pyrrha muttered to herself, visibly calming down. Blake remained silent, and her tells were much less obvious, but I could see the way her shoulders lost some tension.

"What about your shield, then? I thought that was your semblance." Weiss, not one to stray from the topic, continued.

"It's part of it. Normally, when I kill Grimm I just get a little stronger, a little faster, a little more stamina and stuff, but especially strong Grimm seem to give me some kind of extra. I got the bonus for my shield when we beat that Deathstalker in initiation." I told them, "I only have one other bonus like that, and I only got it tonight. I got it from an Alpha Beowolf, and it makes me stronger when I fight alongside allies."

I hadn't gotten to test it yet, but I got the sense that it would be pretty self-explanatory. After all, while the knowledge of how to perform Chitin Shield had been dropped into my head, The Pack said it was a passive effect, so I probably wouldn't even need to do anything to get the bonus.

"That's… oddly specific." Blake said, and I could only shrug. Weiss, meanwhile, cut in again.

"It is, but it's not the oddest semblance I have heard of." She began lecturing. "The Schnee family semblance, for example, also needs me to kill Grimm so I can summon them to fight for me in the future. It isn't exactly the same, but it is close enough that I can understand how your semblance does things." I nodded, it was as good an explanation as any.

"Well, thank you for telling us." Pyrrha finally said after a moment of silence, and I idly scratched the back of my head.

"Uh, yeah. To be honest, I thought you knew. I'm literally never here at night, so I figured someone would have noticed by now. I would have said something sooner if I knew."

"It's fine, it wasn't like you were keeping it a secret." Blake chimed in, getting up and grabbing her bag as she did so. Taking a quick look at the clock behind me, I did the same. Class would be starting in an hour, so we'd have to go if we wanted breakfast.

"Jaune!" I turned, only to get hit with the flying tackle equivalent of a hug. I nearly fell over, but with a staggering step backwards, I managed to stay on my feet. Ruby, now hanging onto me with her arms wrapped around my neck as she began rambling.

"Ifinishedthesketches!CanwegotoValetogettheupgradedone?"

Having understood exactly none of that, I looked to Blake, who I'd been walking through the gardens of Beacon with. It was chilly, but the sun was out, and I had been wanting to spend some more time alone with the black-haired girl. Blake, however, simply gave me a little smile and a shrug as she saw what was happening. The traitor.

Carefully, I pried the little reaper off of me and set her down on the ground, where she immediately began bouncing on her feet in excitement.

"Say that again, but this time in English."

"I finished the sketches! Now we just have to go to Vale to get the parts and do the mods!" The girl beamed at me, and I couldn't help the excited grin that came over my own face.

"They're done? Really?" I asked, and at her nod, I almost started bouncing on the balls of my own feet. "Can I see them?" I asked her, and she quickly pulled out a sketchbook and began turning the pages until she landed on a drawing of Crocea Mors.

It was detailed, and for a moment I wondered how exactly she had been able to capture it so accurately, since she'd not even asked to see the sword for her drawings. I shook the thought off, though, this was just classic Ruby. Next to the drawing of my sword was another, almost identical drawing, though I immediately picked out the little differences next to which Ruby had scribbled notes in her small, messy scrawl.

For one, the fuller was now coloured orange, and the note next to it read; Copper coating for the fuller, between 25-30 grams depending on thickness of coating. Need proper measurement.

Or the tang, which has a diagram next to it where it had a hole drilled into the bottom of it.

Screwed hole in the tang allows for Dust cartridge. Dust crystal averages ±20 cubic centimetres of volume, adjust pommel (or tang) with 157-165 grams of extra material to maintain balance. Dust crystal weighs approximately 53 grams, 100-110 extra grams of weight required.

The pommel, which looked a little bigger than my own, had another note written next to it.

Spreading the extra mass between the pommel and the cross-guard allows for a new balance point without making the weapon too bottom-heavy.

It looked great. There were lots of other little notes along the page, calculating and estimating dimensions, mass and a bunch of other variables that the modification would depend on.

"This is amazing." I breathed out, and I pulled Ruby into a tight hug. "Thanks Rubes, this means a lot to me." I told her, and it did mean a lot to me. I had been struggling over getting an upgrade to my weapons for a while. On the one hand, I clearly needed a ranged option in my arsenal, but choosing something had been beyond difficult.

I wanted to stick with Crocea Mors, the weapon had gotten me through more than one life or death struggle, and I didn't want to throw that away. I also didn't really want a completely new weapon, because I would have to split my time between learning more about sword fighting and whatever the new weapon would be.

The logical choice would have been to add something to Crocea Mors, but any kind of mechashift modification would need me to reforge the weapon entirely, and I wasn't willing to completely change it. So, when Ruby had come along with this idea, it had been huge for me, and now she had even gone so far as to work out the entire process for the mod. I'd be getting her a big plate of cookies for this, no, a platter. I decided.

"Ahem." Blake cleared her throat from where she was standing behind Ruby. Eyes wide, I backed away from Ruby as if she was on fire, more than a little worried about what this looked like to Blake. Sure, I knew that I didn't have any kind of attraction to Ruby, that she was more of a sister to me than anything, but did Blake know that?

"This is amazing Ruby, can we go and get the mod done this weekend?" I asked her, and she quickly nodded.

"Sure, but I have to go now, I promised to play Grimm Combat X with Nora, I just wanted to show you as soon as I was done." The girl said, taking her sketchbook back from me before zipping away with a cry of, "Bye Jaune! Bye Blake!"

Now alone with Blake, I winced at the simple raised brow she gave me. After a moment, she burst out into an uncharacteristic bout of laughter.

"Your face." She said between fits of laughter, and I realised that I'd been had.

"It's not funny!" I insisted. "I thought you were really mad."

"Relax, you treat Ruby like a little sister. I think it's cute." She assured me, much more seriously. Yet, I could still see her shoulders shake lightly. I leant forward quickly, pecking her on the lips. That shut her up. Ha, who's laughing now!

Hey guys! What do you think?

As always, have a good one!

If you guys want to talk about the story and get direct responses from me, or just chat in general, you can join this Discord at: b7JaQcpuc7

You can read up to 6 chapters ahead on: (The P a treon upload for today will be later in the day. Maybe this afternoon or tonight. Have to bring my mom some stuff in the hospital (She's fine, it's just for observation and pain meds) but I thought I'd let you all know that the chapter might be late.

P a treon . com (slash) Raven991

Anyways, hope you enjoyed and have a good one!