They had won. They had defeated the Grimm queen Salem, but at what cost?
Everyone was gone. During the long battle Salem alloed her subjects the grimm to rampage and in but a few hours Remnant was turned into nothing but a barren wasteland. There were no people, there were no animals. Everyone and everything... gone.
Everyone except for him.
The lone survivor of the world of bloody evolution, last in a long line of heroes, knights, huntsman and kings, Jaune Artorius Arc the slayer of the dark queen.
The one bright eyed blonde haired youth had grown from a naive wannabe hero into a man who had seen more death than even the most experienced soldier and it had changed him.
Gone was the youthful spark that had inspired many to fight by his side, replaced by an empty, cold, apathetic gaze that sweeped over the barren landscape that had been created as a result of his lone battle against Salem.
"Three months..." His voice was raw as he spoke, long having been broken by his loss and anguish.
That was how long he'd been fighting Salem. For three months straight he had fought alone against the most powerful being on the planet, never stopping for rest. He had pushed his semblance to the absolute limit to keep him supplied with enough power to keep up the fight, the stress of which had forced his hair to turn white as fresh snow, and eventually he succeeded by absorbing the four relics into his body and used their combined might to eradicate every last trace of Salem's existence from the world.
"All for nothing..." He finished the thoughts with bitterness clear in every fiber of his body.
He felt his hands tighten around something in them and found himself looking at the object.
It was something he'd created with the powers of the relics of creation and destruction based off a weapon that had been destroyed in the fight against Salem. A double edged broadsword, a beautiful one at that, it shone with a ethereal white light not unlike his own aura.
He stared at the set of eyes that reflected back at him in the steel of the blade. No longer were the orbs the bright blue he had been born with, now they were a reflective silver.
"Ruby..." He spoke the name in mourning of the girl he had grown to love after the deaths of Pyrrha, and later Weiss. They were all each other had for the longest time after the battle that claimed the lives of the WBY and NR members of their respective teams, along with both of their respective family members.
They silver eyes he now bore had been a gift from her when his own eyes had been vaporized by a blast of stray magic, courtesy of Cinder, one that Ruby herself had blocked with her own body to save his life.
Ozcar, the completely fused self of Ozcar and Ozpin had made the transplant on Ruby's dying request.
When Jaune had awoken and found himself capable of sight and Ruby nowhere in sight he immediately knew what had occured. The anger he felt that day eclipsed his ability to think straight and he flew into a rage that resulted in the utter destruction of all grimm within fifty kilometers. Afterwards Jaune and Ozcar went into hiding into the Ever After through a portal they'd discovered, so the former could learn to use the power of the silver eyes, and as it turned out Jaune's semblance was highly compatible with the eyes, allowing him to boost the petrification power to beyond anything seen before. During that time Jaune had taken the remains of his fallen friend's weapons to the Blacksmith of the Ever After and had them melted down with the shattered Crocea Mors to forge the original copy of the blade he now held.
Once he was proficient enough with both his new weapon and eye, him and Ozcar returned to face Salem once and for all and in the end with Salem gone, and the lack of any compatible hosts, the spirit of Ozma was finally granted the freedom of death as his body and soul gave out from pain, exhaustion, and loss of magic and aura to sustain him.
That left Jaune as the last one standing.
"I suppose... there's only one thing left to do... and that's to end this cursed dream." Jaune mused as he looked behind him to address the growing hoarde of Grimm. Beowolves, Ursa, Drakes, Deathstalkers, and many more that Jaune never bothered to remember the names of.
Gazing impassively at the embodiment of shadows and instinct, Jaune simply blinked and sent a wave of silver light at the creatures of grimm, turning them to stone in an instant.
"Out of my way..." Jaune muttered as he walked past then without so much as a blink.
Switching his perspective to the shattered moon, he found himself overtaken by a sense of melancholy.
"Did it really have to end this way?" he wondered aloud as he called forth the four relics from within his body and soul.
"Creation, Destruction, Knowledge and finally... Choice. The four relics to call forth the brothers of light and dark...awaken and allow this world to fade away... and grant me my freedom." Jaune intoned as the four items began to glow and orbit around him, before a beam of blue light shot upwards and through the already broken moon.
He had long suspected that this world had been nothing but an illusion for some time. One where he could live out his desires and ideals. One where he wasn't alone. One where he would be the strongest of all. And he had achieved that goal... he was the strongest in the world... but now he was alone once more.
As he watched the beam begin to expand he sighed with heavy sadness. He would never forget the people he had met in this world, dream or no... their souls would forever be etched into his own.
Once the beam overtook him, he gave an exhausted but sincere smile.
"I'll never forget what you all have taught me, farewell... my family."
With his words echoing around him, the world went white.
[Congratulations you have completed the Quest: Perseverance of the Dreamer. Awakening in progress... Awakening successful. Standby for level evaluation (based on strength and achievements) ... ERROR! Awakened has to many achievements to accurately assess... Start system registration? Acknowledged... Awaiting the completion of Quest: Courage of the Weak... Postponing system activation until quest is complete.]
The stench of bleach and sterilized air wafted into his nose as he awoke from a fitful slumber to the sight of a hospital room.
"What happened? Why am I in a hospital?" He groaned as he sat up to see his surroundings, only to see a very startled nurse looking back at him.
"Uh... Hi?" he hesitantly greeted with a small wave.
The nurse immediately rushed out of the room without so much as a word.
He blinked at the lack of response.
"Well that was odd..." he mused before deciding to look himself over to determine the reasons for his current predicament, but other than being good deal thinner than he remembered he was overall fine.
"Maybe... I was in a coma?" he wondered as he peeked under his hospital gown to see his ribs.
."Indeed you were Mr... Arc." A doctor with a well-groomed appearance and round glasses spoke as he entered the room, accompanied by the nurse from before, of whom immediately began to run basic tests on his body.
Jaune ignored he actions to focus on the doctor.
"How long was I out? And what even happened?" Jaune asked with a calm maturity that surprised everyone in the room, including himself.
The doctorglanceddoa the clipboard he held before answering.
"Around three months Mr Arc. As for what happened..." the doctor pulled out a vial from somewhere in his white lab coat and held it up for him to see.
"According to your report you drank this. The Awakening Elixer, a rare potion that is almost impossible to obtain even in a dungeon... and also Highly dangerous Mr Arc. It's chemical and magical composition make it highly toxic to humans. There is a reason only Faunus and Grimmborn are the only ones who are capable of digesting it, and even then it would have been hard on them. It's a miracle that you even woke up." The doctor explained with a reprimanding tone that made Jaune shrink back like a kicked puppy.
At least he now remembered what had happened to him...
Jaune had been on his way back home from a dungeon raid, covered head to toe in cuts and scrapes from a dungeon of the lowest rank, E. When he'd come across an old man running some kind of stall that sold various odd items, some of which had caught his interest, the awakening potion being one of them. While rare it wasn't unheard of for an awakening potion to stimulate a reawakening, especially if the person to take it was an NPC, or the None Powered Class, derogatorily called the "Needs Protection Class." And as the orphan son of a blacksmith and former mechanics engineer, Jaune was by far the most NPC of all NPCs, he'd hoped the potion would perhaps reawaken him into a combat oriented class but...
Glancing up at the words that floated over his head he sighed in disappointment at what it read.
[NPC Rank: E]
"NPCs don't even get the dignity of a proper class display... this world is such bullshit..." Jaune thought with a clench of his jaw in self-loathing.
"Now Mr Arc, I'm afraid I have some bad news.' the doctor said as he pushed up his glasses with a hint of distain in his eyes.
Jaune only had to glance up at the man's own class display to tell exactly why he held such distaste.
[Alchemist. Rank: A]
"Let me guess. I'm using up hospital resources just by breathing and you want me out the second I'm able." Jaune had heard the whole shpeal before and it showed.
The Alchemist snorted at his self-depricating words.
"Glad you know your place NPC. I expect you to be gone by morning." The doctor ordered before leaving alsongside the nurse.
Jaune rolled his eyes at the man's words.
"Whatever..." Jaune grumbled as he shakily got out of bed and grabbed at the clothes that had been laid out for him and changed as quickly as possible, after all he had only an hour before dawn would break through the horizon.
"Prick..." he cursed at the doctor as he left the room and passed right by the Alchemist from before, who was apparently talking to someone who looked rather important.
Jaune decided to have a little fun as he passed.
"I wouldn't rely on that guy too much. He's the type to kick a coma patient out the second they wake up." Jaune said while making a purposeful show of his weakened appearance.
The doctor looked back at Jaune with an absolutely mortified expression, with the important looking person looking furious... but not at Jaune.
As he walked Jaune listened to the doctor babble to the VIP about how Jaune was a liar, he couldn't help but snicker as he passed through the door, which soon turned into laughter as he heard the words "YOU'RE FIRED!" through the glass.
Taking his jollies when he could get them, Jaune limped to the only place he'd ever called home, his father's workshop.
Located at the edge of city of Vale, in a relatively isolated area that rarely anyone knew existed. The building itself wasn't anything worth mention, it was run down, dingy, and falling apart but it was all he had left of his parents and it was enough.
Opening the door he gazed around the old tools and chunks of scap metal that his father had left behind before his passing. Jaune let out a sigh before shutting the door behind him.
"Time to get to work. I'll need gear if I'm gonna go back to being a dungeon porter..." he muttered as he approached the dust covered anvil beside the cold, mana crystal powered forge, immediately tapping a Runestone that ignited the coals within.
As he gazed into flickering red flames, he began to hum a tune that he had no memory of knowing, yet somehow felt familiar.
"Red like Roses... fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest..." The words escaped his lips without him realizing it, his eyes were entranced by the flickering of the flames as he picked up the nearest hammer and got to work.
[Alright so this one is inspired by solo leveling, and by the arcane craftsman story by the white wulf (which was unfortunately canceled recently), and various other gamer Jaune themed stories. I know that this was short, but I thought it would be a good prologue. Anyways a little world building and explanations time.
So basically the original world of remnant was just a dream cooked up by the awakening potion, the system that governs who and what class people get assigned, and Jaune's subconscious. Now this Jaune won't be an arcane craftsman or anything else like that. You'll have to keep reading to find out what's in store for him, or don't... either way is fine.