A/N: If you enjoy my work, I have a totally-not-dead Discord server at discord dot gg slash ABfg74C
Inquiry
Olivia was as good as her word, and had a driver's license test scheduled for the weekend. She even tutored me on the road signs and laws, which were mostly similar enough to the ones I knew that I wasn't surprised when I passed. I'd also spent the intervening time refamiliarizing myself with the motorcycle in general
I spent the next month and a half continuing to focus on my physical stats, but they were definitely becoming harder to get. Despite working out every day, I only got 1 more point in STR, 2 in CON, and 3 in DEX. I wasn't sure if I'd tripped a flag by killing Krios or if there was some other trigger like having a stat reach 50, but I was definitely gaining stat points way more slowly
I had by now gotten a decent overview of the broad strokes of Remnant's recorded history, so I started focusing on languages. Contrary to the American English nature of the show, the truth seemed a lot more… fantasy-inspired. That is, Common (meaning English) was intentionally constructed from an old lingua franca originally based on the root languages of Vytalian (which seemed to be Latin), Sanusian (a melange of Celtic languages), Mistrali (Greek), and Solitan (a sort of mashup of the various Scandinavian languages). There were also loanwords from at least half a dozen more tongues, which somehow combined into the utter mess I was more or less familiar with. Tracking down etymological roots did net me 3 total points in INT, so I considered it a worthy pursuit.
Then there were the 3 points in CHA I'd gotten, along with another three ranks in [Acting], during a conversation with my oldest sister.
DM: Lux Aeterna - Paladin | Friday 15:21
‹Lux Aeterna› Hello, Jaune.
‹Paladin› yo
‹Paladin› Bianca, right? I think I've gotten everyone's names down
‹Lux Aeterna› …I know you were diagnosed with amnesia, but it hurts more than I expected that you have to ask.
‹Paladin› sorry
‹Lux Aeterna› You don't have to apologize. I'm just trying to adjust to what's different.
‹Paladin› can't help with that as much as I'd like to
‹Paladin› not much has really come back, so I don't have the firmest grasp on the Jaune of yesteryear
In a manner of speaking. I know next to nothing about how he grew up, only what his personality was like at the start of the show. Still, nothing's "come back", so at least I'm not a liar.
‹Paladin› he had an admirable dream, though
‹Lux Aeterna› To be a Huntsman?
‹Paladin› to be a hero, I'd say
He didn't really realize what that would entail, but… shit, neither did I until I had to put my sword where my oath was.
‹Lux Aeterna› I'm glad that much hasn't changed, then. Indigo and Olivia related what they could of your clash with Krios. I'm proud of you for finding a way to get both yourself and your Hunting partner out of that Charlie Foxtrot alive
‹Paladin› cheers I'll drink to that bro
‹Paladin› already did, in fact
‹Paladin› could have done with 100% less cracked ribs though
‹Paladin› overall I'd give my performance a six outta ten
‹Lux Aeterna› Jaune.
‹Paladin› no encore
‹Lux Aeterna› Jaune, you're rambling to distract me from asking questions.
Yeesh… Cut me to the quick, why don't you?
‹Paladin› is it working?
‹Lux Aeterna› No. What is the story with this 'trophy' Indigo mentioned?
‹Paladin› the damn goat's mask looks like most of a skull
‹Paladin› I dunno what to tell you, it didn't dissolve when the rest of the body did, so I took it home to mount on my wall
‹Lux Aeterna› Why did you claim the bounty anonymously? And come to think of it, how?
‹Paladin› I can't possibly explain 'how' in any satisfactory manner
Not that I really even know how in the first place, other than 'Semblance bullshit'…
‹Paladin› the why should be obvious
‹Paladin› amnesiac teen, never been to combat school, somehow kills a named grimm? with a locked aura? and backup from only one other tyro?
‹Paladin› I can tell my situation is bizarre; I don't want to end up strapped to a table in a lab somewhere
‹Lux Aeterna› Stay away from Azure for a few months, then.
…I hope that's a joke.
‹Paladin› can't help but notice the absence of a "lol" or "psych"
‹Lux Aeterna› Imagine that.
‹Lux Aeterna› Your Hunting partner agreed to this? The anonymity?
‹Paladin› she's ex-White Fang, she's just as interested in keeping a low profile
From Adam and her parents. Not that I'm supposed to know the second part. Still can't believe I slipped.
‹Paladin› come to think of it, I still need to deliver her half of the bounty
‹Paladin› shit, hope I didn't spend more than half
‹Lux Aeterna› Why didn't you give her half right away?
‹Paladin› couldn't have kept it quiet
‹Lux Aeterna› That's the only reason?
‹Paladin› no, I also completely forgot
‹Paladin› because of stress, not the amnesia, although I might use that as the excuse
‹Paladin› what're you up to, anyway? don't you lead a squad or something?
‹Lux Aeterna› They're in the mess; I've got another few minutes before I start running them into the ground again. This afternoon we will be covering offhand weapon practice.
Good, good, keep telling me about your job and stop asking me difficult questions…
I still wasn't pumped that [Acting] was my highest skill, by quite a large margin. I didn't like lying, despite finding it justified in all the situations that had led to it being so high
On the other hand, I'm pretty glad these are the stats I have, rather than...I don't know, SPECIAL or FASERIP
The latter split combat skills too much, while the former didn't have the divide between INT and WIS that I found so helpful. SPECIAL also relied on Luck, which was fine in a game, but didn't really make sense in terms of reality
How would that even work? Would I get more loot drops? More critical hits? Encounter more Grimm, or less? I already apparently live in Interesting Times regardless
My recent spars (once each with Indigo and Olivia, who used two dirks instead of a sword) had seen a marked improvement as well, although the experience gains from that were drying up, too. I'd also gone on a couple hunts, once I confirmed Blake was still okay with accompanying me.
DM: Paladin - Nightshade | Sunday 07:05
‹Paladin› hey, I don't know if you're feeling up to it yet, but I was thinking of heading up to Forever Fall this afternoon
‹Paladin› probably pick up a tyro mission; I need some cash
‹Paladin› plus I need to give you something
‹Nightshade› That should be fine. Hopefully we don't encounter anything close to the same level.
‹Paladin› knock on wood
‹Paladin› wanna grab lunch first?
‹Paladin› (still not a date)
‹Nightshade› Relax, I understand you're not hitting on me. And sure, what did you have in mind?
‹Paladin› sushi
‹Paladin› haven't had any since I lost my memory but I'm pretty sure I like it
‹Nightshade› Sounds great. I know a place; I'll meet you there around noon?
Nightshadesent a location!
‹Nightshade› We'll have to walk or catch the train from there up to Forever Fall.
‹Paladin› no worries, I'll drive
Blake hadn't seemed thrilled that I'd meant 'on a motorcycle', but she still climbed on behind me with a minimum of grumbling, even after I mentioned I couldn't afford helmets quite yet. I was glad she'd agreed to join me Hunting again, because I still needed EXP and I was seriously starting to run low on Lien (not counting Blake's half of Krios' bounty). I hadn't received any new 'missions' from my Semblance lately, something else that made me wonder if I'd tripped a flag to make the Game stop taking it easy on me
Being outside of town also let me give Blake her half of the bounty from Krios. She seemed shocked, but didn't hesitate to take it.
Fortunately, the few Tyro Hunts we went on were fairly close to Vale, if still unsupervised, so we were able to complete and even go above our kill count fairly easily, simply taking a picture on our Scrolls of each Grimm as it dissolved
Regular Grimm netted me 200ish EXP a pop, edging me up over the level threshold for 18 after a couple of weekends. Slow but steady. I could probably have gained more, but my sisters continued to insist that I come home at night, and only go out Hunting with at least a partner for backup. A shame, but I was still on track for Beacon so I let it go.
These handful of Hunts, and training with Blake and my sisters in between them, also netted me a few dozen levels across my various detection and combat skills. The biggest gains were both [Sword Mastery] and [Shield Mastery] cracking rank 30. Together those also boosted up [Melee Combat Mastery], which hit 20. [Crusader's Smite] also reached 25 — bringing the bonus damage up to +150% — because I was activating it on basically every swing that hit a Grimm, since it meant killing most of the weaker ones in just a few strokes.
More importantly, though, my passive stat buffs like [Powerful] and [Parkour] were growing, too.
The mission fees, which Blake and I also split, didn't amount to much, but I was still collecting lien (probably Bounty) from the Game on every Grimm I killed, so the next time I was in Vale, I picked up some new duds
I bought a leather jacket for riding; that, plus a new pair of jeans with aramid fibers woven in, went over my usual gold tee to form a new Riding armor set. After some thought, I replaced my Combat jeans with the armored ones as well. I also picked up a pair of motorcycle helmets and a set of tools to keep in my [Inventory], the latter of which gave a relevant skill once I'd done some tinkering on the bike.
[You have remembered the skill [Mechanics]!]
Mechanics (Passive) LV 5 EXP: 0.00%
A talent with machines. Mortal society advanced their civilization further through industrialization. Grants an increased understanding of mechanical objects, and improves chance to successfully craft or repair mechanical items.
Able to repair mechanical items by up to 10%.
5% decrease in failure rate when crafting mechanical items.
I wasn't sure what the failure rate line was about, since I didn't actually have any sort of Crafting skill, though such a thing did exist in The Gamer comic. I hadn't come across anything that looked like crafting mats, but perhaps it was a matter of time
The easy days came to a swift end along with the month of September, when Azure apparently got some time off.
"Remember the moment you left me alone and broke every promise you ever made–" The Game interface gave me a small popup noting an incoming call from Azure Arc, and my ringtone cut off as I answered.
"Talk to me," I puffed.
"Pffft, is that how you answer the phone?" I didn't recognize the voice, obviously — an excited alto slightly higher than Olivia's — but I had a pretty good grasp on the family dynamics by now.
"How else should I answer?" I replied, racking the bar I was squatting 300 kg with. "What's up? You don't usually call."
"I got some vacation time!" Azure said, still almost-yelling. "Time to do whatever I want!"
"Congratulations," I said, still confused. "Are you coming home?"
"Nope!" she shouted. I was getting the impression that it was just her natural volume. "You're coming here!"
I blinked. "Come again?"
"I've got no assignments for work as of next week," Azure repeated. "The first week of October is my personal project time. So you're gonna fly up and I'm gonna try to figure out what's going on with your Semblance!"
"You know, I'm pretty sure Bianca warned me about this," I drawled. "I also distinctly remember saying I don't want to wind up in a lab."
"Too bad, I already booked your flight!" Azure giggled. "C'mon, it won't be so bad; we need to catch up anyway!"
"This has to stay private, Azure," I said firmly. "I won't bend on that. My Semblance is my business."
"Yeah, yeah," Azure blew a raspberry through the phone. "It'll all be anonymized, especially if I do manage to figure something out, but we've got the best equipment in the world for studying Aura, you know?"
"I'll want that in writing," I sighed. "When is the flight?"
"Tomorrow at nine!"
"Of course it is," I grumbled, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat from my face. Looked like my workout was over if I had an international flight in the morning. "Hell, do I even have a passport?" I wondered aloud.
"Yep!" Azure chirped. "We got them renewed two years ago when we went to visit Grandma after Indigo graduated!"
"Fine, fine," I said, heading for the stairs. "But you get to tell these two that you're kidnapping me."
"Excuse me?" Olivia asked, leaning out of the kitchen as Azure ended the call.
I waved a hand dismissively as I climbed to my room. "Call Azure, apparently I need to pack."
Security at Vale Airport was… a bizarre experience, for someone who'd grown used to the TSA. My bags went through a scanner, and I passed through some kind of detector, more or less as expected, but everything was ridiculously streamlined. A few seconds between people, and a swipe of my Scroll was enough to clear me through even with the Family Sword in my luggage. I kept the pistol in my [Inventory], since it wasn't in my name legally, but it was still weird to know I'd walked into an airport with a longsword and everyone took it in stride.
I could have stored everything in my [Inventory], but I decided not to tempt fate in case someone in Atlas wondered where I was getting clothes from.
The flight itself was nothing special. Quieter, maybe, and relatively quick, though admittedly it might not have been packed since it was Thursday morning. Before I knew it, I was stepping off the plane and into another Kingdom. The Atlas Airport was a bit more glass and chrome, and surprisingly warm given the latitude and altitude of the city
When looking for natural defenses against Grimm, 'floating island' wouldn't have been the first thing to jump to mind, I thought. Although maybe 'natural' isn't the right word either
Not for the first time, I was kind of wishing I hadn't given up watching RWBY when the narrative lost me after Volume 4.
Glancing around to get my bearings, my attention was caught by a knockout redhead. She was about my height, which was notable since Jaune was a good six inches taller than I had been on Earth. Her hair was a dark red shading to auburn, with a casual sort of Jane Shepard cut, and she looked like she worked out daily. Combined with some kind of blocky weapon attached to her back, I clocked her as a Huntress immediately. I couldn't identify the weapon in its collapsed form, but I was getting a feel for how mechshift weapons were generally designed after absorbing the "Huntsperson's Basics of Modelmaking and Drafting".
It was only after a moment that I noticed the thin blonde with blue bangs beside her, despite her bouncing on her heels and waving at me
"Jaune! Over here!"
‹?›
LV ?
Azure Arc
Azure, the shortest of my sisters according to the pictures I'd seen, still stood a respectable 5'8", with bright blue eyes and her hair pulled into a messy bun. She wore a white lab coat over a pale orange blouse, which nearly concealed the shoulder harness that was carrying at least six small pistols.
"Hello, Azure," I greeted her calmly, then staggered a little as she yanked me into a hug and dragged me down to her level. I patted her on the back gamely. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh, Sienna couldn't make it, so she sent her partner!" Azure chirped, not actually answering the question. "Cozy up, 'cause you'll be staying with her."
"Excuse me?" I said, shrugging her off and raising an eyebrow.
"Well, there's no room for you in my studio, and Sienna would have made you stay with her anyway," Azure shrugged. "Since she's on a mission you won't even have to sleep on their couch."
"Bia," the redhead supplied since Azure evidently wasn't going to, extending her hand to shake. "Sienna and I are usually partners in the field, but I'm on leave at the moment."
‹?›
LV ?
Bia Álikos
"Jaune Arc," I replied, clasping it briefly. I considered kissing her knuckles, but I didn't think my CHA was actually high enough to pull that off. "Are you from Mistral?"
"I am," Bia smiled. "You might have heard of my cousin, Pyrrha?"
"Hard not to," I said, leading the way to the baggage belt. "I hope you're actually okay with having me and didn't get bulldozed into the decision. Apparently my sisters are very used to getting their way." I sent Azure a glare, which she didn't even have the decency to acknowledge.
"Not at all," Bia demurred as I plucked my bag off the belt. "As Azure said, Sienna insisted on giving you a bed even though she couldn't meet you."
"I appreciate it, as my wallet's a bit light at the moment for a hotel
"As if," Azure scoffed. "Earn your keep with hair brushing, baby bro."
Rolling my eyes, I excused myself to the bathroom, retrieved the Family Sword from my luggage, and equipped it so the bandolier would appear over my usual outfit. I also threw my riding jacket on because it seemed to be windy. Finally, I slid my sunglasses back into place, since from what I could spot out the window, the rest of the city was as much chrome and glass as the airport.
I'd crossed three time zones, so it was getting on toward 1600 local, and the sun was already getting lower in the sky as autumn drew near. "Dinner?" I suggested, rejoining the others.
Azure bounced toward the door. "Do you want something quick, or do you wanna sit down somewhere?"
I shrugged. "I've got a few thousand Lien, just let me know if you pick something I'll have to dress up for."
"Nah, I know a casual place that does great Vacuan food," Indigo promised, coming to a halt beside the passenger door of a light utility vehicle that looked somewhere between a Jeep and a Hummer, painted matte white. "You'll love it!"
"Will I?" I asked, sensing the mischief in her tone. I tossed my bag into the back seat and strapped in as Bia started the engine. She gave me a sympathetic look in the rearview as Azure giggled.
"Welllll~ it's possible you're still a wimp about spice, but maybe your tastes have changed!"
"Why not," I sighed. "Let's go."
By the time our food arrived, I couldn't help lifting an eyebrow in Azure's direction. "You call this 'spicy'? You even went to the trouble of ordering for me to play your prank, and this is the best you've got? The spiciest things in this dish are garlic and black pepper, dude
Kafta-style lamb over vermicelli rice, while involving a lot of spices, didn't even contain capsaicin. Delicious, though
"I mean, I can't fault your order, I just can't believe you think this is spicy," I continued, smirking internally at the surprise on Azure's face. Apparently Jaune really was a wuss for spice.
Bia, smiling, offered her plate of kabsa toward me. Obliging her, I took a bite, and then gestured at it emphatically
"There, see? That at least has some chilies in it."
Azure shook her head, going back to her majadra. "You're probably sick of everyone who knows you being surprised all the time, huh?" she asked rhetorically
"I don't really blame anybody," I demurred. "You knew the old me for seventeen years. If anything, I'm sorry to be at the center of what's obviously difficult for you to take in."
Azure scooped up another forkful of rice and lentils, chewing and swallowing pensively. "That's not fair to you, though," she said, her voice much softer than she'd used so far
"Then we'll have to figure out a new dynamic," I said. Bia looked a little uncomfortable, so I changed the subject. "What's on the agenda tomorrow?"
Azure perked up at the thought of Science™, and said eagerly, "Tomorrow I just want to figure out a baseline for you. We can do that anywhere. On Monday I'm borrowing one of the private labs with no surveillance, and we'll do Science to you!."
I could practically hear the capital letter.
"No one's going to question you coming to work on your vacation?"
Azure blew a raspberry right there at the table. "Like I'm the only one. My boss comes in to work every single day of the week. Almost everyone at CLEO is like that."
"CLEO?" I asked.
"Center for Logistics, Engineering, and Ordnance. We're R&D for the Atlas military, basically."
Like DARPA, I thought. "Am I even allowed on site, then?"
Azure waved my concern off. "You'll just have to fill out some paperwork for an Unclassified Meeting tomorrow and I'll sign off on a Visitor's badge next week. It's not that big a deal since you won't be accessing any Compartmented Information."
"Should I leave my weapons?" I guessed. Probably just dump the Family Sword into my [Inventory]. Fuck being unarmed.
"As a Visitor, yes. And you'll have to power off your Scroll once we leave the ground floor, if you don't leave that at home too. That's why I have to carry a twenty-year-old pager."
The conversation drifted for a bit, and I decided to try to include Bia. "So you mentioned you're on leave. It's not for an injury, is it? I don't know if Azure mentioned it, but I'm a healer."
Bia glanced up from her dessert. "Oh, no, nothing like that. I just had to have some of my clearances renewed, and it was strongly hinted that I'd been taking a few too many missions, lately."
"Her girlfriend insisted she take a week off, because she was running herself into the ground even more than Sienna," Azure translated, smirking over her own enormous banana split
"And where's she?" I asked. "Is anyone forcing her to take a break
"She's running a few errands in Mantle," Azure revealed. "At least, she went to Mantle first. Since she's not allowed in the field without her partner, she probably hasn't wandered too far
"Ahem," Bia said loudly. "Specialists' missions are classified," she reminded Azure, before turning to me. "I'm sorry, but that's already as much as we can say."
Azure rolled her eyes, but didn't disagree. I smiled disarmingly. "I understand. Should we get going, then?"
"Yeah, drop me off and I'll see you in the morning," Azure ordered Bia and I respectively, swiping her Scroll over the tablet on the table before either of us could even see the bill. "You snooze, you lose, slowpokes. Home now, Jeeves!"
I snorted, and Bia gave a tolerant chuckle.
Azure had a loft apartment somewhat close to the airport, while Bia and Sienna shared a two-bedroom condo near Atlas Academy. It was constructed like a barracks, if roomier, but was furnished much more comfortably than expected. The glass-fronted shelves full of knickknacks recalled Sienna's room back home, while the stack of novels and photos showing an equestrian with distinctive red hair hinted at Bia's influence. All in all, it felt surprisingly homey for military housing.
There were even more collectibles in Sienna's room, when I was directed there, and I bid Bia good night before burrowing under the covers and setting my Semblance to wake me in six hours.
Upon waking, I sat up to meditate, stretching to wake myself up and shake off the chills. The apartment was downright freezing overnight — a poke through my Semblance's interface showed a temperature of 65F — and I'd only gotten comfortable after pulling an extra reddish-brown blanket out of Sienna's closet.
It was shy of 0600 locally, meaning not even 0300 back in Vale, so I didn't bother texting anyone. Instead, I found myself pondering the utterly minimal stat gains I'd received from working out the past few weeks. It was enough to make me question my decision to hold off on distributing my 'free' points.
On the one hand, I am still gaining points slowly, but on the other… if I bump my physical stats up with points, I'll get to choose the 50-point skills and start grinding those now. And considering how I keep falling into horrifying fights, it might be safer if I have all my options
I got up, deciding to ponder the decision while showering, and ended up holding off. Azure wanted a baseline, and raising stats is easy to quantify. I guess I can afford to hold off for a couple days, I thought, toweling my hair dry in front of the mirror.
Glancing at the clock, it was 0545, so I decided to switch on my Workout armor set and go fix some breakfast.
Eggs and milk were in the fridge, but there was only a heel of bread left, scuppering my plans for not-French toast. I also couldn't find any flour as I scoured the cupboards, but I did come up with a jar of protein powder, which would work as a substitute as long as I cut in some oats and applesauce. Fortunately there was a canister of baking powder that I sprinkled in to make sure they would rise slightly, and I set about mixing a batch that was a little bigger than I'd have made for me and Indigo at home since Bia was a bit bigger than my sister
Actually, she's bigger than any of my sisters that I've met. Going by the family portraits, Bianca and Olivia are the biggest, and neither of them is as built as Bia.
The portrait of Jacques, meanwhile, gave me some hope for my own future physique. Jaune always seemed skinny, if tall, in the show, but the animation was obviously stylized and he'd started out as a bit of a nerd. Jack Arc, meanwhile, was a mountain of a man, and since crossing 50 STR I was moving that way myself. Thankfully Gamer's Body makes the changes gradual. And thank fuckI don't have to worry about my clothes not fitting.
I was lining up the first tall stack of pancakes when Bia's door opened and she poked her head out, her hair in disarray. We looked at each other for a moment, and she didn't seem fully awake, so I asked, "Do you drink coffee? And how do you take your eggs?"
She blinked, and shook her head, clearly trying to wake up. "Over medium. And no, but there's some in the cupboard if you want."
"Be up in five," I promised, flipping the most recent pancake and grabbing a second skillet for the eggs.
Bia vanished, and reappeared as I set down the first pancakes on the table with half a dozen eggs. There was no syrup, but I laid out peanut butter and some regular butter and fruit preserves from the fridge. Mental note, stick some syrup in my Inventory.
[Mental note added!]
Bia sat down, with her hair still messy but pulled back into a short ponytail, wearing a cyan sports bra and compression capris, dropping a set of sweatbands on the table. She watched me wrap up an equally-tall stack of pancakes and my own set of eggs — over easy — chewing thoughtfully before greeting me when I took a seat.
"Hello again," she said, and I smiled in return. "Would you care to join me for my workout?"
"I'd be delighted," I replied. "I was wondering how I was going to keep up my routine here."
She nodded, going back to her meal
Clearly not a morning person, I thought, but I appreciate the effort.
We finished eating in comfortable silence, and she pulled the sweatbands around her wrists and forehead while I went to retrieve my shoes from by the door.
"Have you guys been here a while?" I asked, pulling my boots on.
Bia locked the door behind us and pocketed her Scroll before answering, "A few years. It's standard for Specialists to room with or near their partners, and as my girlfriend has other responsibilities, we elected to keep it this way."
"Not dating Sienna, then?" I asked to be sure.
Bia smiled. "No. Here we are."
We'd climbed down about six flights of stairs, which made for a decent warmup, and entered a basement set up with at least thrice as much weightlifting equipment as we had in the Arc house.
"Excellent," I rubbed my hands together, moving over to one of the power racks as my Workout playlist started automatically. I turned the volume down with the interface and added, "I presume I won't be able to spot you, but let me know if I can help."
To my surprise, Bia took the next rack, also setting it up for squats. We both started preparing, stretching out and checking form with the empty bar before loading progressively more weights. With a passive 57 STR, my working weight was now up to 310 kg. More than halfway to the unassisted world record back on Earth, and I was confident that even here on Remnant I would be near the top of my age group without an active Aura. And yet…
I had to force myself not to stare as Bia loaded up quite a bit more, and proceeded to easily squat half a tonne. Her movement on the descent was unhurried, but rather than standing in a smooth motion, she paused for a full second at the bottom. She didn't seem to strain at all, and her form remained perfect through the whole set.
I feel like I should be making a joke about her 'perfect form' but holy shit I'm too impressed. I don't know if I could lift that even with all my actives going.
Blinking, I refocused and pushed through my own set. Bia watched me critically, nodding when I re-racked the bar.
"Good job, you kept your back straight," she complimented. "How long have you been powerlifting?"
"Just a few months," I admitted. "I'm aiming for Beacon, so I've been focused on strength this Summer. I'm pushing the weight higher every week. How long did it take you to get up to this level?"
"Two years or so, but this is one of my light days," Bia said, and I suppressed a wheeze at the casual admittance that she wasn't trying very hard. "It's nice to have some company while lifting. Most Hunters don't put as much focus on it."
I had to agree. "Bia, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
Name: Jaune Arc
Level: 18 (Next: 73.77%)
Title: Grimm Slayer
Race: Human
Age: 17
Job: Tyro Huntsman
Class: Paladin
Semblance: The Gamer
HP: 1417/1417
MP: 1197/1197
STR: 57.1 (51)
CON: 40.3 (35)
DEX: 45.6 (34)
INT: 38
WIS: 52.5 (50)
CHA: 35.6 (26)
Points: 54
Money: 3698L
Status: Cursed – Yellow Death [High]
A/N: Holy shit, what year is it? Time is a flat circle. Monty's birthday again, so happy one year anniversary to this story, I guess.
This was half-done for several months, but then just petered out as I tried to decide how this arc should go. Probably going to be heavier on the conversations and a lot lighter on combat, at least for a chapter or two. Not exactly playing to my strengths, but I gotta practice somehow.
Still available with better formatting on AO3; same handle.