Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

(CROSS POST FROM FFN)

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Nobody
LV: 2 (13%)
HP: 225/225
MP: 150/150 (+10 per Min)

STR: 12
DEX: 8
VIT: 15
INT: 10
WIS: 10
LUK: 5
Points: 5
Perks: Arc (+700% ?) (? Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: No boosts
SPD: 16
Lien: 26

I stared at the blue 'screen' in front of me, believing myself to still be asleep, considering I was still in my bed. Seriously, what else does one do when blue screens appeared before them?

I examined the screen, and it showed stats, my name, my age, perks, and a line of question marks. Hell, whatever those perks were under 'Arc' sounded like good news, but probably weren't, considering the literal luck stat I was given. On the top right of the screen, I saw a 'Close Menu' button, and I hesitantly pressed it, not knowing if I could get that screen back up. Before I could ponder the sudden appearance of blue screen in my face, I heard my mother's voice call from the floor below.

"Jaune Julius Arc, get down here or you won't make it to Beacon!" My mother yelled angrily.

Resigned, I grabbed my shirt, jeans, and an armoured hoodie before being stopped by another blue screen.

QUEST: Get to Beacon on time.
Task: Get to Beacon Bullheads by 12PM (5:29:21 Remaining)
Completion: 300 EXP
Failure: Do not become a hunter, be a disgrace
Declination: Do not become a hunter, be a disgrace
(Yes/No)

Well, obviously I pressed the yes option.

My dad shoved me out of his car the second we got to the Bullhead dock. I just shrugged it off, already used to my parent's lack of patience with me. Grabbing the duffel bag that landed beside me, and adjusting Crocea Mors back into place. During the five hour ride here, I managed to bring up that 'Stats' screen. The stat spread looked okay to me, but when I looked over to my dad, all it said was

Name: Caesar Arc
Age: 42
Race: Human
Title: Arc Pride
LV: ?

I would have guessed his level would be astronomically higher than mine, but not the point where I couldn't even see it.

While passing through security, I couldn't help but look at the stats of other people. All the security guards appeared to be around level 20, while other Beacon students hovered between 20 to 30. Far superior to my pathetic level of 2.

When I got on the Bullhead, a notification appeared, saying I cleared a quest.

QUEST COMPLETE: Get to Beacon on Time
+300 EXP

I took a look back at my stats, and noted that my 13% to level 3 increased to 63%. And then another quest decided to make it's way onto the scene, not that I'm complaining.

QUEST: Survive Beacon's Initiation
Task: Survive Beacon's infamous initiation
Bonus task 1: Make 1 friend, and partner with him/her
Bonus task 2: Develop landing strategy
Secret task 1: ?
Secret task 2: ?
Completion: 600 EXP
Additional 100 EXP per Bonus
Additional 250 EXP per Secret
Failure: Do not become a hunter, Maiming or Death
Declination: Do not become a hunter
(Y/N)

So many questions, so little time until the Bullhead moved and I lost my lunch. So, questioning nothing, I pressed the yes option, as those numbers looked tasty. I may have not have had this inexplicable power for long, just received it this morning, but I was sure as hell going to abuse it, seeing as I was up against others, all wanting to enter the same school I did. I may be a tenth of what they are, but I can sure get to their strength!...

Right after I find somewhere to puke out my lungs. The Bullhead started moving, and mid-air movement did not sit right with me.

Now entering [Beacon Academy]
New Location found, +50 EXP

The notification popped up in front of me as I ran out of the flying puke generator known as a Bullhead, not that I gave it much mind. I'm pretty sure I puked on some blonde girl's shoes, but again, I didn't give it much mind until I decided to look at her level as soon as I was done emptying my innards. The data she gave me was fairly impressive, reading out as:

Name: Yang Xiao-Long
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Berserker Beauty
LV: 27
HP: 8100/8100
MP: 2250/2250

STR: 51 + 25%
DEX: 26 + 25%
VIT: 36 + 25%
INT: 15
WIS: 14
LUK: 20

Repeatedly performing an action has created skill [Observe]
Observe LV 1: Learn information from a target.

So this Yang girl had massive boosts, as well as…

I slapped myself before that train of thought left the station. 'Gotta be suave Jaune, not pervy,' I told myself, before noticing another window.

Performing an action has created skill [Physical Endurance]
Physical Endurance LV 1: Resist 2% of physical damage.

I looked over the skill, giving a nod to its usefulness, once I leveled it, that is. But really, would whatever ability I have allow me to get it to level 50? Probably not, but beggars can't be choosers.

"Now that I think about it, what kind of other passive abilities are there?" I wondered out loud, rubbing my chin. "Hmm, if I can find anymore passive skills, those would probably be the base of my training to get stronger…" I continued thinking, before two things happened. The first being a notification saying:

Due to your strategic planning, your INT and WIS go up by 1!

The second thing to make me lose my thoughts was a loud explosion, followed by an icicle whizzing by my face, grazing my right cheek. The cold cut deli me cost 2 HP, so before I lost anymore precious HP, I looked to where the explosion happened, and I saw two girls, one in an adorable lolita red and black dress, and the other was wearing a stunning white bolero jacket and battle skirt combo.

I decided to use my observe skill on them, and see who these two cute girls were!

Name: Weiss Schnee
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Schnee Heiress
LV: 26
HP: 2868.75/2868.75
MP: 8100/8100

STR: 25 +25%
DEX: 24 +25%
VIT: 17 +25%
INT: 54
WIS: 21
LUK: 15

Observe skill has leveled up!

Name: Ruby Rose
Age: 15
Race: Human (S)
Title: Red Riding Reaper
LV: 26
HP: 3750/3750
MP: 3300/3300

STR: 26 +25%
DEX: 55 +25%
VIT: 20 +25%
INT: 22
WIS: 19
LUK: 14

Observe skill has leveled up!

Alright, more question marks, two levels in Observe, a 15 year old girl with a bracketed 'S' beside her race…

And while I was reading the info, a monochrome themed girl walked up to them, and by the time I noticed, she was too far away to Observe, but not too far away to 'observe'...

Due to your quick puns, your INT has increased by 1!

Really? Brushing the message aside, I noticed that Ruby was on the ground and alone. Well, it wouldn't do for me, a valiant knight, to let her be alone, now would it?

QUEST: Rose Without Thorns
Task: Befriend Ruby Rose
Bonus Task: Learn the Boosts everyone but you has
Secret Task: ?
Completion: 50 EXP, Ruby Rose considers you Friend
Bonus Completion: 50 EXP, ?
Secret Completion: 50 EXP, ?
Declination: Nothing
Failure: Ruby thinks of you as weird
(Y/N)

Befriend a cute as hell girl? I think I'll slap that yes button's mother for that.

As I walked up to Ruby, I heard her mumbling to herself.

"Welcome to Beacon…" She said to herself, with some disappointment in her voice.

I didn't know what else to do, so I decided to offer my hand, and give the cheesiest line ever.

"Hey there, the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" Don't fail me now acting skills I don't have…

A special action created skill [Acting]
Acting LV 1: +2% more convincing performances/personas

Don't fail me now, acting skills I already have…

Ruby looked up at me, took my hand, and started laughing.

"Aren't you the guy who threw up on the Bullhead?" She asked, still giggling to herself.

"Hey, all I'm saying is that motion sickness is a worse problem than people let on!" I argued, after Ruby make yet another joke, calling me 'Vomit Boy'. "And besides, I don't have a way of not getting sick," I added, earning a curious look from Ruby.

"Err… Hunters can't get sick," she started, scratching the back of her head. "Our Aura stops that, for the most part."

"What's Aura?" I asked innocently. Maybe that was the boost everyone had?

Ruby just stared at me as if I had two and a half heads. "You really don't know what Aura is? It's what makes hunters so strong! How did you get this far?" Ruby practically yelled, and before I could reply, she just grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down to eye level.

The only thing I was able to say was a small "Meep" sound. Truly, I am a manly, strong, elite fighter worthy of protecting this world.

Once I was down to Ruby's level, she started chanting. "As it is in striving for virtue we achieve immortality, we become beacons of hope. With my virtue, I release yours to share in the burden that is righteousness."

Oh the rush I got was intense. I needed to open my stats to see exactly what happened.

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Nobody
LV: 2 (76%)
HP: 5062.5/5062.5
MP: 1800/1800 (+11 per Min)
AP: 4236.13/4238.13
STR: 12 +125%
DEX: 8 +125%
VIT: 15 +125%
INT: 12
WIS: 11
LUK: 5
Points: 5
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: No boosts
SPD: 36
26

My HP reached stupid amounts for my level, I unlocked AP, which I could only assume meant 'Aura Points', and my physical stats were more than doubled. Oh, and those tasty 'Arc' perks were tastier than I thought. And it appeared AP was drained to heal the 2 HP I lost from the icicle.

QUEST COMPLETE: Rose without Thorns
Main Task COMPLETE: +50 EXP, +Friendliness with Ruby Rose
Bonus Task COMPLETE: +50 EXP, +Aura
Secret Task (Actively flirt with Ruby Rose): FAILED

"That was… Invigorating, if nothing else," I said to myself dumbly, as I viewed my stats that were boosted. I looked over to Ruby, who was doubled over, panting.

"Aura, a lot, not ready for that," Ruby managed, before shaking her head. "I mean, I'm guessing you have even more Aura than me!"

I just gave a basic caveman grunt in response, trying to get over the sheer multiplier my Aura received. Then, I realized something I was missing; I had attribute points to spend! Five of them, to be specific, so I dumped three of them into STR, one into VIT, and for the hell of it, one into INT. I felt my body get stronger immediately, I felt my mind get clearer, and I could practically feel my life force get stronger. 'Whatever god decided to give me this 'Gamer' ability, I am willing to sacrifice some goats to you if you like,' I thought to myself, truly grateful for the stupidly awesome into my life. Less than 24 hours, and I've gone from scrub lord to comparable to my peers.

"So…" Ruby said, breaking me from my daze, "I've got this thing." At thing, she pulled a rectangle from behind her back, which unfolded into a scythe that appeared taller than myself.

My Gamer's Mind artificially calmed me down to the point where I barely flinched at the sudden appearance of the scythe. "That appeared out of nowhere," I mumbled in awe. It looked impressive, so I decided to give it a quick Observe.

Crescent Rose - Scythe/High Impact Sniper Rifle
Scythe - 170 Slashing
Sniper - 40 Ballistic

"A scythe with a rifle attachment?" I asked, already knowing the answer. "That's a nice combo."

Ruby looked ecstatic. "You think so? I put a lot of work into my baby, her name is Crescent Rose and she's the greatest weapon ever, if I do say so myself," She stated proudly, and in a matter-of-fact tone, and hugging her weapon in a way that seemed just a bit inappropriate.

After several seconds of… I'm not sure what to call that, Ruby looked at me sternly, right into my soul. "What kind of weapon do you have?"

I fumbled around my waist, reaching for Crocea Mors… Before all I could find was a standard sword in a not-also-a-shield-sheath. Giving it a look, the stats weren't too bad, but…

Iron Gladius - Sword
40 Slashing
DUR: 100/100

Observing your weapon created skill [Sword]
Sword LV 8: +16% DMG with Sword weapons, +8% Striking speed with Sword Weapons

Huh, the system accounted for the little self training I did beforehand. That's nice to know. Better abuse that in the future.

Your planning to use the 'Gamer' ability earns you 1 WIS!

System, you are a godsend. Anyway, turning back my attention to Ruby, I held out the sword that replaced Crocea Mors, presumably as 'Starting Loot,'

"It's nothing fancy, but it cuts well enough," I lied, netting me another level in my acting skill.

Ruby took the blade from my hand and inspected it. "It's heavy, compared to most other swords hunters use, but it's got a clean edge to it," Ruby muttered, then handed it back to me.

Little did I know that talking to Ruby for so long would make me late for the headmaster's speech. How did I know this? Because a PA system blared out the words "All first-year students, please make your way to the auditorium."

QUEST: Intro to Beacon
Task: Get to Beacon's Auditorium on time (00:07:59 remaining)
Bonus Task: Find another nice, quirky girl to talk to there
Secret Task: ?
Declination: Miss the headmaster's speech
Failure: Be late
Completion: 50 EXP
Bonus Completion: 75 EXP
Secret Completion: 75 EXP, 1 Jewelry Equipable

Aaaaaand Ruby was gone in a puff of rose petals in some direction. I decided to follow the trail, hoping it would get me somewhere, punching the yes button without thinking.

I made it to the auditorium with less than a minute to spare, and I saw Ruby beside that Yang girl.

"I guess this is where I to that bonus objective," I mumbled to myself before using observe on some people around the room. Most levels were averaging around 25, but this one girl I observed made me raise my eyebrows.

Name: Pyrrha Nikos
Age: 17
Title: Iron Queen
Race: Human
LV: ?

A first-year that had a level above what I could read? From my estimates, I could read 30 levels above my own, meaning this girl was monstrously powerful. And somewhat familiar, though I couldn't place my finger on it.

And was staring right at me. Because who wouldn't notice someone less than five feet away staring right at them?

"Sorry, didn't mean to stare," I said sheepishly, and turned my head away from those piercing green eyes, and burning red hair… Seriously, was this a school for fighting, or for supermodels?

"Oh, don't worry about it, I'm used to it," Pyrrha said in possibly the best voice I've heard in my life… 'EYES ON THE PRIZE ARC, YOU'RE HERE TO BECOME AN AWESOME FIGHTER!' I yelled to myself before my thoughts drifted to… things.

"Well, I'm Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, and the ladies love it," I said, extending my hand towards her, giving a cheesy smile. "I didn't catch your name."

Pyrrha looked honestly surprised at my gesture. "Well, I'm Pyrrha Nikos," She said, before taking my hand, shaking it politely, and saying, "Though you probably recognized me by now."

"Not in the least," I replied. I know I heard her name somewhere, but I couldn't place it. And before I could question where I've heard her name, the headmaster stepped up onto the stage. I, of course, used observe on him.

Ozpin

That's it!? Just how strong was this guy?

"You are here to prove yourselves, in valour, strength, and strategy, but all I see here is wasted energy, all in need of purpose, direction. While you may think you know what path you've chosen," Ozpin paused for a second, and appeared to stare directly at me, "I can assure you, this is not a game. There is no one set path people take. That is all."

That was… chilling, to say the least. Then, a blond, and quite frankly beautiful, huntress took the stage.

Glynda Goodwitch
Age: 42
Race: Human
Title: Dominating Witch
LV: ?

What a title.

"All first-years will sleep in the ballroom tonight, then report to the cliffs by 8 AM. Dismissed," Goodwitch said sternly, not looking up from a tablet she was carrying.

QUEST COMPLETE: Intro to Beacon
Main Task COMPLETE: +50 EXP
Bonus Task COMPLETE: +75 EXP
Secret Task (Observe Ozpin) COMPLETE: +75 EXP, +1 Old World Amulet

You leveled up to LV 3! You have 5 Points to spend!
Old World Amulet added to inventory!

A level, and an equipable? Nice.

I opened my inventory, noting that it could hold infinite weight, but not more than fifty of any item, and, after finding a secluded spot, pulled out my amulet and observed it.

Old World Amulet - Necklace
+20 per Min HP regen, +40 per Min AP regen, +25% better item find
"In the days before hunters, dust, and Aura, the people would pray to their Gods for protection against the Grimm. This is said to be one of the gifts the Gods bestowed upon Mankind." - Unknown

This item's flavour text was pretty cool, and the regens and item find abilities were awesome. The amulet itself was in the shape of an upside down triangle with a diagram of a male human in the centre. I immediately placed it around my neck, and shoved it under my plated hoodie.

I decided to give my stats one more look before I headed to the ballroom to set up camp.

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Nobody
LV: 3 (14%)
HP: 5400/5400
MP: 1800/1800
AP: 5602.5/5602.5
STR: 15 +125%
DEX: 8 +125%
VIT: 16 +125%
INT: 13
WIS: 12
LUK: 5
Points: 5
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: No boosts
SPD: 36

My AP… So tasty…

Chapter Text

Oh, my morning was going great, just got rudely awakened by some large ginger guy treading all over me. Seriously, not even five seconds into my day, and people were stepping on me. Lovely. Also, it cost me 10 HP, which my AP immediately covered, but still, those are valuable resources.

So, getting up, I looked around the ballroom that served as my bedroom last night. It looked like most others have woken up, it being 6:30 at the moment. That gets me an hour and a half to get changed and get breakfast, the trip to my locker not needed as I shoved everything into my inventory.

After heading to the washroom and doing the needed actions to make myself presentable, and equipping my amulet. Nothing wrong with that thing.

Breakfast was uneventful, and there was nothing to do until Goodwitch's voice came over the PA

"All first year students, please report to the cliffs for your initiation."

QUEST: Cliff Hanger
Main Task: Get to the Beacon Cliffs by 8:00 AM (00:29:59 remaining)
Completion: +1 Sword Weapon
Declination: Do not become a hunter
Failure: Be late, or do not become a hunter
(Y/N)

Well, weighing my options, I pressed the yes option without a moment of hesitation.

/LB/

New Location [Beacon Cliffs] discovered! +50 EXP

Well, seeing as that 50 EXP brought me up to 20%, I'm not complaining.

'Although, now that I think about it, I should have come up with a landing strategy,' I thought to myself as I gazed over the cliffs, as I stood on a metal platform as instructed by Goodwitch, with her ever present tablet.

QUEST COMPLETE: Cliff Hanger
Main Task COMPLETE: +Steel Claymore

I decided to take a look at the claymore's stats, and see if I really wanted to swap it with my gladius.

Steel Claymore - Sword (Greatsword)
60 Slashing
Can be used in one hand if STR is 30+
DUR: 120/120

Skill [Observe] has leveled up to LV 4!

Wait, with my Aura boosts, my strength is not just 15, it's sitting at 33.75! I can one hand this awesome thing, as well as use my gladius.

So, making sure no one was looking, I opened my inventory, and grabbed the claymore with my right hand, while shifting my gladius to my left.

Performing a special action has created skill [Two Hands]
Two Hands LV 1: +1% DMG +1% Striking speed while dual-wielding melee weapons, +2% DMG while two handing a melee weapon

Okay, back into the inventory you go gladius. The +2% damage is too nice to pass up.

So, while I was waiting for Ozpin to start addressing us, I opened my stats to spend my points I got from my last level, putting four into VIT, as my landing 'strategy' was to tank what I couldn't avoid, and put one into DEX so that I could avoid whatever I could. Hey, my quest gave me the bonus task of developing a landing strategy, it didn't specify if it had to be an intelligent strategy.

So, with those points spent, my stats now looked like this:

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Nobody
LV: 3 (20%)
HP: 6750/6750 (+20 per Min)
MP: 1800/1800 (+12 per Min)
AP: 5977.5/5977.5 (+40 per Min)
STR: 15 +125%
DEX: 9 +125%
VIT: 20 +125%
INT: 13
WIS: 12
LUK: 5
Points: 0
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: No boosts
SPD: 40.5

I was so engrossed by the HP boost that I didn't even register Ozpin talking to the lot of us, except for the mention of the direction of 'north'. When I did manage to close my stats screen, it was when the first of the metal platforms revealed themselves to be catapults, launching some average looking boy, totally not my ability's version of an NPC, into the forest.

I held my new claymore in a diagonal line across my body, in an attempt to block the branches I knew I was going to hit, and patiently waited my turn. And when my turn came, I… was surprisingly okay with getting launched into the air, hundreds of feet into the sky. Thank you, Gamer's Mind, for not making me panic.

So, soaring through the sky, I angled myself so that I would first impact some outer branches, and then bounce off of a smaller tree. Of course, that was the plan, until I heard something whizzing towards me. I couldn't react to it, of course, because a screen popped up in front of me, distracting me from the noise temporarily.

A special action has created skill [Free Falling]
Free Falling LV 1: -1% Fall DMG, +1% Accuracy for landing.

And the second of me being distracted gave whatever was flying towards me ample time to strike its mark… If, of course, it was aimed at my hood, and then aimed to pin me to a nearby tree, the force of the impact draining me of 120 HP, which my Aura immediately took care of.

Skill [Physical Endurance] has leveled up to LV 2!

"OH, COME ON!" I yelled in frustration, as I couldn't quite reach the object that impaled me to a tree. It had my hoodie pinned in such a way that I couldn't even look at it.

Then, a distant yell of "I'm sorry!" reached my ears. That was Pyrrha, if I were to guess.

So, after several minutes of struggling against gravity, I was able to rip my jailer from the tree that it had pinned me to, causing me to fall about thirty feet to the ground. Looking at the offending weapon, it appeared to be a javelin, with red as its main colour with a trim of gold. So, I decided to observe it.

Milo - Sword, Javelin, Rifle
100 Slashing
80 Thrusting
65 Ballistics
Owner: Pyrrha Nikos

So, deciding not to put it in my inventory, I placed it in my left hand, and pressed a button on the guard, hoping it transformed into its sword form. However, it decided to transform into a rifle. Meh, played Bloodborne enough, this should be okay…

Is what I was thinking, until I heard rustling to my left. Out of the bushes walked out a lone Beowolf, unaware of my presence. Lovely, so I had a thing I needed to deal with.

Beowolf LV 9
100% HP

Yay, triple my level.

Before the Beowolf even registered my presence, I fired off a shot into its face from Milo. The bullet impacted the wolf-like monster's head plating, dropping it down by 7% HP as the plating made a subtle crunching noise.

Now knowing that I was there, and indeed a threat, the Beowolf roared at me, and stood on it's hind legs, standing at about two feet taller than myself.

Taking advantage of the Grimm's attempt at intimidation, I fired off another shot, this time into the Beowolf's gut, dropping it by 15%. I couldn't celebrate though, as the Beowolf landed down on all fours and charged me. I jumped to the right, but with my low DEX stat, the Beowolf easily smacked me in the opposite direction I was dodging, and I landed about fifteen feet from where I was smacked, costing me 200 AP. As I hurriedly got up, I tossed Milo to the side, and brought my left hand to my claymore's grip, and charged the beast with all I had, slashing wildly and, after about half a minute of my slashing, the Beowolf was crippled, and down to 5%.

So, being all awesome and such nonsense along those lines, I kicked up the head of the Beowolf, and plunged my claymore down its throat.

A special action has created skill [Rifle]
Skill [Rifle] has leveled up to LV 4!
Rifle LV 4: +4% Accuracy with Rifle weapons, +2% DMG with Rifle weapons

Skill [Physical Endurance] has leveled up to LV 3!

Skill [Sword] has leveled up to LV 9!

+250 Lien
+Rusty Iron Dagger
+Skill Book [Mana Spot]

Money is good, that dagger is garbage, and that skill book…

Mana Spot: Fire small blast of mana, Deals non-elemental DMG, Minor DMG.
Would you like to learn this skill?
(Y/N)

Ranged capabilities!? Magic!? THIS GAMER THING IS THE GREATEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE EVER. So, I gently punched the yes button.

Mana Spot LV 1: 20 non-elemental
Casting: 1 Hand to cast
Bullet: Sphere, 2cm Radius, 15m per Sec
Cost: 25 MP

Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

I may have an unhealthy attachment to my ability. Why may I say this? Well, since I was so busy reading my new skill, another Beowolf entered the scene, likely drawn by the noise of Milo being fired. Oh, and I was bashed into the ground by the by the wolf-like beast, draining me of a hearty 250 AP

Beowolf LV 11
100% HP

Even stronger than the last one? Well, nothing I could do about it but pick myself up and grip my claymore and charge the beast. I may have a ranged ability, but it didn't seem like the strongest of things at the moment.

With the Beowolf facing me, I crossed the 15 foot difference at a speed far greater than what I would have accomplished before yesterday, jumped up higher than I ever could have, and brought down my giant two handed blade into the back of the van sized monster, my right thigh grazing one of the spikes that I didn't have the common sense to dodge, dropping it's health by a third.

The Beowolf, while injured, had more than enough strength to fling me from its back, costing me 50 AP which would simply regen in over a minute.

I did, however, pick myself up in no time, held out my hand toward the Beowolf that was slowly making its way over to me, obviously slowed down by my attack, and willed my new skill to come forth.

"Mana Spot," I commanded, and a small white ball simply... whizzed out of my hand and struck the determined Beowolf in the face, dealing about 4% of damage. Decent, but enough of my musings, the Beowolf was almost upon me, now running at a formidable speed.

My plan was to dodge the left, avoid the head-on collision, and heft my claymore into its side.

However, the sound of a gunshot caught the my attention, and the source seemed to be a red spear impaling itself into the Beowolf's skull, knocking it down to barely 1%, allowing me to finish it by shoving my blade into its now exposed torso.

The Beowolf's EXP got me to 75% of my next level, so I guess another one like that would get me a level... Again, enough of my musings, I turned to look at my saviour. And by look, I mean Observe.

Name: Pyrrha Nikos
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Iron Queen
LV: ?

"Hello there!" Pyrrha called out from several trees away, and started walking over to where the now dead Beowolf was already dissipating. Ripping her weapon from the beast's skull, she turned at looked at me with her piercing green eyes...

"Looks like we're partners, then," I managed to say, tearing my eyes away from her face, and toward the loot the Beowolf dropped.

"Uh, Jaune? What are those things?" Pyrrha asked, gesturing to the loot on the ground. Said loot consisted of a wood ring with no discernible traits, a large wooden staff that was about 5 feet tall, again, no interesting markings, and finally a neat stack of lien, which I absent mindedly split into two, and gave Pyrrha one of the halves. The other items, I picked up and Observed.

Kindling Ring: Grants wearer perk [Minor Fire Affinity]
"Humans have been drawn to fire for both a means of preservation, and a means of execution." - Mistralian Philosopher

Oak Staff - Catalyst
15 Blunt
-25% Casting Cost
DUR: 30/30

"Jaune?" Pyrrha said, lightly poking my shoulder. "You've been staring at those things for a while, and just handed me 150 lien without a word."

"Drop rate is busted..." I said idly, only then to realize that Pyrrha was likely listening. So, turning my head to face her, I slapped the Kindling Ring onto my left ring finger, and held the oak staff in my left hand.

The perk the ring gave me hovered in front of me.

[Minor Fire Affinity]
10% of all DMG is Fire elemented

"Would you believe me if I said it's my Semblance?" I asked, only learning of the word by listening to a passing conversation. From totally not eavesdropping, I learned that Semblances were unique to each person, and usually were battle oriented.

Pyrrha gave me a look that said she wasn't buying it. "Jaune, since we're partners, you need to be honest with me. Does your Semblance just create money, and other items?" She asked, gesturing to the substantial amount of lien I shoved at her, and the catalyst in my hand.

"I haven't had the chance to learn the specifics of it until yesterday," Technically not a lie, "But I can say it's every gamer's dream come true," I answered, scratching the back of my head. Before Pyrrha could question what I just said, however, I pointed my catalyst to what I believed to be north, our objective. "Well, the north calls to us, so no more wasting time!"

"That's west."

/LB/

Before the both of us stood a cave with crude paintings on the outside depicting a bunch of people with spears poking at a big scorpion. Seems like the place some relics would be hiding, no? And besides, if it were a trap, I could do with some Grimm killing, what with my LV progress at 75% already.

"You think they're in here?" I asked Pyrrha, who I still can't recognize where I've seen her before.

Pyrrha looked to be observing the entrance, as if trying to see past the darkness. "I don't think so, but it couldn't hurt to make sure," She replied, preparing Milo in sword form. "But how are we going to see?"

My response was to summon my Mana Spot skill, and will it to stay on the top end of my catalyst.

Performing a special action has created skill [Mana Slug]
Mana Slug LV 1: Deal 20 non-elemental DMG
Casting: 1 Hand to cast
Bullet: Sphere, 5cm in radius, stays at hand
Cost: 8 MP per 1sec

And that created a new skill, cool. So instead of fighting the Mana Spot's fast speed, I simply commanded "Mana Slug", causing the top of my catalyst to glow a decent amount, as well as provide me with with a tool to beat things over the head with.

"Well, with my awesomeness, I made a torch, you're welcome," I stated proudly, and marched off into the cave of 100% legitness.

Pyrrha quickly sped up beside me. "Jaune, exactly how did you do this?" She asked, gesturing to the glow at the top of my catalyst. After I grunted a response, she stopped my movement by grabbing my hood.

"If we're going to be partners, you need to be honest with me Jaune,: She started, looking directly into my eyes. The light coming off of my Mana Slug gave her already piercing green eyes more of a commanding presence. "How are you doing this? I have never heard of a Semblance that creates money and weapons whenever a Grimm dies,"

I was going to answer, I swear I was, but there was a low rumbling further down the cave. Then a giant scorpion Grimm, so I had perfectly good reason to not answer at the moment.

Deathstalker LV 35
100% HP

OH GOOD LORD NO.

"RUN!" Was the only word that exited my mouth. I grabbed Pyrrha's hand and rushed out of the cave, throwing the odd Mana Spot from my catalyst.

Your self-preservation tactics have earned you 1 INT and WIS!
Your LUK has increased by 1!

/LB/

Five solid minutes passed before Pyrrha and I got out of the thick of the woods, finally getting some distance on the Deathstalker of level stupid… Or it was because I was underleveled as hell. Oddly enough, I could see Grimm levels that had more than 30 on my own, unlike with humans and faunus.

Anyway, tearing myself from my thoughts, I looked forward to the clearing ahead of us, and in the back of it lay a moss and vine covered structure, likely a temple, with a gathering of people in front of it.

"Not… like… running…" I wheezed, and shoved my catalyst into my inventory, earning some stares. Come on, is hammerspace really that impossible?

Chapter Text

In the span of two minutes, a bubbly ginger girl by the name of Nora rode a Beowolf to the temple, followed by some ninja looking guy named Lie Ren. Their stats looked very focused into one category, and with Nora being the stronger of the two by a few levels.

Name: Nora Valkyrie
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Pancake Queen
LV: 28
HP: 8437.5/8437.5
MP: 2570/2700
AP: 7016/7264.4
STR: 62 + 25%
DEX: 14 + 25%
VIT: 45 + 25%
INT: 18
WIS: 9
LUK: 20

Name: Lie Ren
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Lotus
LV: 25
HP: 3187.5/3187.5
MP: 4277/4500
AP: 5451/5921.9
STR: 20 + 25%
DEX: 42 + 25%
VIT: 17 + 25%
INT: 30
WIS: 33 + 30%
LUK: 8

I had to learn how to get me that boost that Ren guy has for his WIS. His MP regen must be ridiculous!

Oh, and there was that monochrome themed girl I saw yesterday. I didn't have time to observe her, however, as the sound of a girl screaming came from above me. Directly above me was Ruby, if I were guess from her colour theme of black and red.

And, one impact later, Ruby was directly on top of me, draining me of a hearty 230 AP and the embarrassment of a foot in my face.

Ruby jumped up off me, using my face as her launch point, sapping me of another 20 AP, and started apologizing profusely.

"I'm fine, Ruby," I groaned as I got up, rubbing my sore shoulder, where Ruby's knee impacted me. Then, pointing to myself, I cheerfully stated, "Built like a tank."

I then glanced back up to the nevermore to see a speck of white dangling off of the feathers.

"Is that Weiss?" I asked Ruby, who was also looking up at the gargantuan bird.

"Yeah..." She grumbled. "I told her to jump..."

"She's going to fall," The monochromed themed girl stated flatly.

Ruby let out an unconvincing laugh. "She'll be alright."

As soon as Ruby's words left her mouth, Weiss started falling. 'Oh boy, immediate irony, my favourite!' I thought to myself sarcastically.

Yang was the next to speak, "She's falling."

Ugh, just my day. No one else was doing anything, figuring Weiss would save herself, but I didn't see that happening. Especially not since I started charging Aura into my legs, and jumping some 30 feet into the air, catching her bridal style. A skill window opened up in the corner of my vision.

"I'm going to do something stupid, so hang on!" I yelled, and quickly equipped my Oak Staff, and tried forcing my MP out in a pulse. The end of my catalyst glowed and pulsed, slowing our fall to something manageable, and another skill window popped up. Once we touched down, our fall slowing to nearly nothing, I released Weiss and opened the new skills.

Giant's Strength LV 1: The power of Aura increases your physical capabilities
Passive: +5% Reaction time speed
Active: +200% STR and DEX
Active Duration: 3 sec
Active Cooldown: 1 hr
Active Cost: 550 AP

Soul Barrier LV 1: Slow objects by 10m/s/s
Casting: 1 Hand
Bullet: Pulses of mana, 1m in radius
Cost: 30 MP per 1 sec

Cool, some skills.

"SCREEE!"

Cool, a LV 42 Giant Nevermore headed our way.

*CRASH*

Oh my good friend the LV 35 Deathstalker treating trees as toothpicks. My favourite friend in all of Remnant needs his hygiene...

"GRAB WHATEVER WE NEED TO GRAB AND RUN!" I yelled, running in the direction of the temple. Pyrrha heard me, grabbed what I could only assume was the relic we needed, and started running in the same direction I was; to an old, crumbling cathedral looking building. Pyrrha and I, as well as Lie Ren and Nora, made it to the bridge of the cathedral and turned around, knowing the Deathstalker would be on my tail, probably not appreciating my internal sass.

While my Gamer's Mind perk keeps me calm, it sure didn't do anything about my fear. This arachnid based Grimm was larger than a minivan easily, could crush me with its monstrous pincers, and had as few weak points as I have levels.

"Pyrrha, aim for the eyes," I started handing out orders as if it were second nature. "Ren, shoot it and draw its aggro towards some high point. Nora, get on the high point and be ready for hammer time." The others gave small noises of understanding, Nora shouting a "Yippie!" and broke off into positions. Ren was drawing the Deathstalker towards a rock that jutted out at such an angle that gave Nora a perfect jumping platform.

I took a spot close to Pyrrha, and put away my catalyst, drawing my gladius from my inventory.

"You didn't say what your part in all this was," Pyrrha commented, not meaning to sound harsh, but succeeding nonetheless.

I gave my gladius in my left hand a twirl and rested my claymore on my right shoulder. "I'm pretty tanky with health regen," I said, not caring about questions Pyrrha might have at the moment. "I'm fighting this thing directly." With my piece stated, I rushed the Deathstalker, engaging it's left pincer first with a quick stab from my gladius and a hefty vertical slash from my claymore. While it barely dropped the Grimm's HP, damage wasn't my main objective, I was making sure Ren didn't have all the aggro on him, being as squishy as he is. After a solid twenty seconds of me and Ren leading the beast towards Nora's spot, me getting more often than I care to admit, we had managed to drop it by 5%, while Pyrrha, hitting weakspots, dropped it by a total of 10% and inflicted a blind debuff as she took out a few eyes. But now, it was Nora's turn to break another Grimm.

"STOP!" She yelled, getting the Deathstalker's attention. Then, jumping up into the air and propelling herself down spinning with some pink explosion out the head of her hammer, she continued yelling, "HAMMER TIME!"

The over excitable girl smashed her ungodly weapon directly onto the Deathstalker's toxic stinger, driving the deadly appendage into its own flesh, earning it the debuff of paralysed and toxic.

Within a solid minute of strong, uninterrupted attacks from the four of us, the damn thing finally died.

You leveled up to LV 4! You have 5 Attribute Points to spend!
You leveled up to LV 5! You have 10 Attribute Points to spend!

Due to surviving against an incredibly powerful enemy, your LUK has increased by 6!

Due to your strategy beating the Deathstalker, your INT has increased by 2!
Due to surviving Heavy Damage against a powerful enemy, your VIT has increased by 5!
Due to your constant dodging, your DEX has increased by 3!

"SWEET MOTHER OF GOD!" I yelled as I stared at my screens in awe. My LUK doubled, and three of my other stats received tasty boosts. These numbers are seducing me, I must be stopped.

While the others just stared at me, I paid no attention to them, and looked at the loot this beast dropped.

+ 3000 Lien
+ Dusk Bone Sword
+ Deathplate Shield
+ Stone Earrings
+ Steel Katana
+ Fire Dust Crystals x2

Skill: Physical Endurance leveled up to LV 7!
Skill: Sword leveled up to to LV 15!
Skill: Two Hands leveled up to LV 4!

Loot...

Wordlessly I divided up the lien between the four of us, and inspected the cool stuff, ignoring what were likely looks of confusion.

Dusk Bone Sword - Sword
130 Slashing
DUR: 20/20
Made from the bone plating of Grimm, this incredibly powerful sword is also somewhat brittle, and needs repairs often.

Deathplate Shield - Medium Shield
Physical - 90%
Aura - 75%
Fire - 66%
Lightning - 66%
DUR: 200/200
A heater shield formed of the bone plating of Grimm, this shield boasts excellent defenses, as well as a high durability.

Stone Earrings - Earrings
+2 VIT, +2 STR, -2 DEX
Those who look to the immovable wills of stone will take comfort in these odd pieces of jewelry.

Immediate equip on them earrings.

Steel Katana - Sword (Katana)
75 Slashing
DUR: 80/80

Fire Dust Crystal - Material
Can be ground and refined into Fire Dust, or used directly in a weapon's design.

/LB/

"And now can Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren please make your way to the stage," Ozpin announced over a microphone.

I was buzzing with nervousness. I in no way belonged here, as I had literally no formal training, but here I was, making my way to the centre of a large, lowly lit auditorium with people who I would be teaming with. The whole experience was quite surreal, really. There were cheers from the crowd of students from higher grades, as they witnessed the fight between my team and that Deathstalker. Not just any first year scrubs could beat a boss monster with nearly ten levels on them...

"The four of you will form team JNPR," Ozpin stated, and made a point of looking at me directly. "Led by Jaune Arc."

Not qualified? Check. Faked way into Beacon? Check. Made leader? Che-wait.

"Huh?" I mumbled eloquently, with the grace of a swan... on pain killers, stepping in super glue.

Ozpin looked at me, gazing above his glasses. "We're expecting great things from you, young man."

I really doubted Ozpin was a qualified teacher, but I couldn't even get his age or race off his character sheet, so... meh.

I looked over to my left to see three different reactions. Pyrrha (I STILL couldn't remember where I've seen her) was smiling widely, but her green eyes held a questioning look. Ren nodded subtly, likely agreeing with my totally legit position, but had the same questioning look as Pyrrha did. Nora, however, didn't have a care in the world. My guess is that she got handed a sizable amount of cash less than an hour ago, and was still riding off that high.

After everyone else's teams were formed, the leaders (ie: me) were given directions to our dorms, and ours turned out to be across from team RWBY's dorm. As soon as I unlocked the door using my scroll, a notice appeared.

QUEST COMPLETE: Survive Beacon's Initiation
Main Task COMPLETE: Survive Beacon's infamous initiation
Bonus Task COMPLETE: Make a friend and partner with him/her
Bonus Task COMPLETE: Develop a landing strategy
Secret Task FAILED: Defeat a "Boss" Grimm
Secret Task COMPLETE: Become leader
+1050 Total EXP!

You have leveled up to LV 6! You have 15 Attribute Points to spend!

That Deathstalker wasn't a boss monster? It was probably that Nevermore, now that I think about it. Well, at least I leveled... Wait, a level leads to a stupid amount of AP for me. Pretty sure AP was calculated by my level, as well as HP and MP, maybe. Anyways, time to check my stupidly high stats, I guess.

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Nobody
LV: 6 (16%)
HP: 8737.5/8738.5
MP: 2400/2400
AP: 10464.4/10464.4
STR: 15 +125% +2
DEX: 9 +125% -2
VIT: 25 +125% +2
INT: 16
WIS: 13
LUK: 12
Points: 10
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: No boosts
SPD: 36.5

Fair and balanced... OVER TEN THOUSAND AP!

"So Jaune," Pyrrha started, "About Semblance of yours you were going to tell me about?" She asked, again, not meaning to sound harsh, but again, succeeding nonetheless.

"I'd have to question where those items came from as well," Ren said, and gestured to a wad of cash poking out from his pocket, and the Deathplate Shield which resembled an Ursa's face plate. "Not that I am ungrateful, but I haven't heard of a Semblance that creates matter, much less money and weapons."

Heck, telling them won't hurt. Actually, not telling them would hurt team cohesion, now that I think about it.

"Well," I started, "Any of you play video games, RPGs in particular?" Nora and Ren's hands went up.

"I haven't played, but I understand the main premise behind them," She said, lightly scratching her cheek as she sat down on one of the beds; the one left of the centre of the room. Ren followed her lead and sat on the one on the far right, followed by Nora who sat beside him. I took the bed in between my teammates before continuing.

"Good, that saves me giving the typical tutorial speech. Yesterday when I woke up for Beacon, my Semblance decided to show itself, and showed me a page full of stats for myself, including things like level, strength, vitality-basically all the required stats for a full character sheet. Everyone else also has their own sheet, but I can only read levels and stats of those up to thirty levels above me," I explained, making sure that they were all caught up.

Nora was the first to respond. "Ohh, so you're like a videogame protagonist! That's so cool! What's your level? What's my level?" She asked in quick succession.

I nodded in response. "Yeah, essentially. I'm currently level six, while you're level twenty-eight, and Ren's level is twenty-five."

Pyrrha's eyes darted towards my own, capturing them... help.

"Then what's my level?" She asked.

I shrugged. "You're more than thirty levels above me. But I'd be willing to bet around forty or so, give or take. Just judging from how you handled the Deathstalker though," I replied honestly. Pyrrha was undoubtedly the most skilled among us with her weapon, especially that mine changed every five minutes. I currently had the Dusk Bone Sword and Deathplate Shield equipped, the sword being close to the one-handed long sword style I was 'used' to, what with it's 30 inches length. It was, however, nearly as heavy at my claymore, and entirely black with the exception of red veins that crisscrossed every few inches.

Ren focused on me for a second. "If you're only level six, how were you able to keep up with us? I mean no offense, but it doesn't seem likely."

With a nod, I responded. "Well, one of my perks gives me eight times the aura I should have, bringing my aura to that of a person with a level of forty-eight, and while everyone with an unlocked aura has their vitality, strength, and endurance increased by a fourth, mine is multiplied by two and a quarter." Wow, I sound OP as hell. Arc Perk OP, must nerf next patch. "Fair and balanced gameplay, no updates required," I mumbled to myself.

"Sounds like a bad plot to me," Ren mused.

"Well, I am the protagonist, so I'm not going to argue with you on that one."

Chapter Text

My team, along with team RWBY, was almost late for our first lecture of the year with a teacher named Port.

However, now that I've seen the lecture, I can say with absolute confidence that we wouldn't have missed much. Professor Port was, as his name suggested, a portly man, equip with a full, thick mustache, a surprisingly full head of thick light gray hair. His outfit consisted of a red, almost maroon, military coat, and black dress pants.

The man spent a good part of the period rambling about his early days, when he was, and I quote, "A shining hero, with sweat glistening off of his pectorals that fought a herd of Boarbatusk with nothing but a pen cap and a stick of chewing gum!"

I swear, if I had half a lien for every time this man described himself as 'manly', I would never need to do any farming anytime within the next century. Seriously, at this point, he could have literally started saying 'blah blah blah', and half of us wouldn't notice, and the remaining half wouldn't object. I myself was about to tune him out before he raised a question.

"Which one of you believe that you have what it means to be a Hunter?" The portly man asked. Immediately, my hand rose, eager to prove my worth.

That Schnee girl's hand also raised, but she pronounced it with a "Me, sir!"

Rude, but meh.

Port chuckled wholeheartedly, his belly jiggling with what I could only describe as holiday cheer. "Well, not one, but two students want to prove something! Very well then, get your gear and rush back here, I have something special for you two!"

Changing out of my uniform didn't take all that long, considering I could literally unequip one set of clothes, and equip another set. So, when I stepped out of the room, I opened my inventory, equipped my combat outfit, and walked back in three seconds after I left. My team just rolled their eyes at me showing off.

After several minutes of waiting, Weiss finally entered the room with her combat skirt (absolutely ridiculous) and rapier.

I held my Dusk Bone Sword and Deathplate Shield at the ready, prepared for whatever Port would throw at us.

"Now, normally I only have one volunteer up here, but since these two," Port announced, gesturing to the two of us, "are so eager, they will both be facing one Boarbatusk."

That's easy though... Wow, not even a week with my Gamer Semblance, and I'm finding killing Grimm boring.

"They will also leave the weapons currently on their body on my desk, might I add!" The teacher added as soon as Weiss and I gave him a glare. Now we were giving him a glare of a different kind. "Mind you, this is an adult Boarbatusk, and there will be no judgement if you call for help in defeating the beast," Port said, and looked pointedly towards the rest of the class.

The general populace of the students nodded their agreement. Weiss and I set our weapons on Port's desk. Pleased, Port walked over to a fairly large cage.

QUEST: Fight the piggy!
Task: Kill the Boarbatusk
Bonus: Land the killing blow
COMPLETION: 150 EXP
Additional 25 per Bonus
Declination: Get laughed at by the class
Failure: Port intervenes, Get laughed at by the class

(Y/N)

now running... Complete!

Port swung down his weapon, some combo of a battle axe and a blunderbuss, smashing the lock on the cage, and releasing Grimm that resembled a boar, with spikes on its back, and small sections of bone plating along the back where the spikes formed gaps. The Grimm itself was about the size of a fully grown lion.

"Weiss, I'll distract it, you hit it with those glyphs, knock it off balance or something," I ordered, and rushed the demonic bacon, leading with a bolt from Mana Spot.

Boarbatusk - LV 19
87% HP

So it looks like it was already damaged, by Port no doubt in the process of capturing it.

I fired off several more Mana Spots before I closed the distance between myself and the Boarbatusk, and gave the beast a mighty punch to the snout, my Kindling Ring causing a small percentage of the punch to be fiery. That one punch knocked down the Boarbatusk by a whole two percent. My guess was that the Grimm was weak against fire elemented damage. Better make note of that one. Also, punching the beast earned me a new skill.

Skill: Martial Arts learned!

Basic Martial Arts: LV 1
Use your body as a weapon: Melee DMG +1%, Melee SPD +2%

Your INT increased by one!

Well, that was more MP for me... wait. I earned one INT for thinking about something? So all I have to do is make observations to earn attribute points?

Your WIS increased by one!

I'll save this for later. Now, however, I have a Grimm pig the size of a full grown lion to punch. I love my life.

The Boarbatusk whipped its head toward my torso, its tusks slamming into my chest, costing me a good 162 AP, and an additional 12 AP when I landed on my back.

"I'm ready, Jaune!" Weiss announced. "Just lead the Boarbatusk toward my glyph, and I'll take care of the rest!"

Ah, yes, I told her to make one of those, didn't I? Oh well, enough of my unwanted pain; Weiss had a glyph.

I held out my hand and formed a Soul Barrier between me and the Boarbatusk, eventually slowing it down to practically a standstill, and earning not one, but two levels in the skill for halting such a large target.

I did, with a bit of struggle, lead the Grimm towards Weiss' glyph. As soon as it touch the symbol on the floor, it was launched upwards, and Weiss summoned much smaller glyphs to hit the monster mid-air, dropping it down to twenty percent.

"I'm not to sure I have enough Aura in me to do that again," Weiss huffed, but still held her sense of dignity to not crouch over.

I brushed my hand through my hair, and quickly turned to Port. "We can kill it by any means, right?" I asked, as the Boarbatusk started a spinning attack similar to that garbage game with the hedgehog.

"You just can't use the weapons left on my desk, but yes," The portly professor replied jovially.

I nodded, and dodged out of the way of the beast's spinning charge. "Weiss, I need literally five seconds!" I demanded, which was received with a huff of annoyance, but not of defiance, as she formed small glyphs in the Boarbatusk's path.

Immediately, I opened my inventory and equipped the steel katana. "I'm ready!" I announced, and charged toward the Boarbatusk again, with renewed zeal.

The Grimm started running towards me, and I responded by entering a position where my Katana was in its sheath. Before its tusks could impale me, I unsheathed my blade and knocked the attack aside, yelling "PARRIED."

Before the Boarbatusk could recover from being knocked off balance, I shoved the entire length of the blade into its side, mightily yelling "RRRRRRREPOSTE!"

As a result, the Boarbatusk was knocked down to one percent, and one of Weiss' glyphs appeared on its snout, hammering it into the ground and killing it.

QUEST: Fight the Piggy!
Task COMPLETE!
Bonus FAILED!
+150 EXP

There was no loot. My salty tears.

I put my katana back into its sheath, and then into my inventory, and headed back up to my seat with my Grimm based weaponry back on my person, Weiss following suit with her rapier.

"Excellent show!" Port exclaimed the moment I got comfortable on my seat, making me jump a bit, and have to go through the entire process of getting comfortable again... "Now," Port continued, "We have a few more minutes before the bell goes, so who can tell me about the techniques used by these two hunters in training?"

Some nameless person, again, totally not my Semblance's excuse for an NPC, answered immediately. "Weiss used her semblance of glyphs to put the Boarbatusk into a disadvantageous position, allowing Jaune to go on a melee and ranged assault with his fists and what seemed to be shots of aura."

Port nodded. "Very good, but not quite! While it only appeared for a moment, Mr. Arc used his Semblance, some form of matter manipulation or a hammerspace perhaps, to summon another weapon to deliver a great deal of damage to the mighty foe!" The portly professor exclaimed. "Why, it reminds me of the time-" The professor was, thankfully, interrupted by the bell.

/LB/

"Ugggghhhhh," I groaned, flopping down onto my bed, stomach first, my face taking in the. My day consisted of Port's story time, history with the fast talking Oobleck, and Aura theory and combat back to back with Goodwitch. Nothing against the woman, but good lord is she strict. I thought her title was funny... It's not funny anymore, childish fantasies be damned.

The combat class, thankfully, was just going over the rules of when we actually start dueling... and that started tomorrow. I don't care what my LUK stat is, I'll just end up being paired against Pyrrha, I'm calling it now. Speaking of...

"Are you okay Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, gently placing her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, just not used to school..." I groaned. "Getting home schooled was so much better," I groaned, again. My eldest sister, Verte, was a certified civilian teacher, and took it upon herself to teach me since I was ten.

Pyrrha took her hand off of me. "Well, I may have not been home schooled, but I know what you mean." I sat up on my bed, and Pyrrha rested beside me on my right. "Back when I competed for the Mistral Tournament, I had tutors."

"What's the Mistral Tournament?" I asked, not knowing a clue about what she was talking about.

Pyrrha gave a short laugh that sounded somewhat like a pig-like snort. "Jaune, you have no idea how happy that makes me feel," Pyrrha said with a genuine smile stretching from ear to ear.

Seriously question though; Is this a school for supermodels? Because my partner isn't exactly helping the nay side of that argument.

Pyrrha turned her head toward mine, and continued. "The Mistral Tournament is the largest tournament for hunters in training, and I've been winning it for the past four years, setting a new record," she explained. "It's gotten me so much attention that I'm glad that you don't know about it."

The look I had on my face must have been pretty funny as I started piecing things together...

"So THAT'S where I know you from!" I exclaimed, as if I've found out how to kill all Grimm. Pyrrha's face deflated for a moment before I realized my mistake. "Nonono, I remember your face being on Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes cereal!"

An awkward pause of at least three seconds reigned supreme before Pyrrha started laughing again. Makes me feel good, making a girl like her laugh.

/LB/

"Our next match will be between team leaders Jaune Arc and Cardin Winchester," Glynda announced from the front of the class. The previous match was between Ruby and a katana/assault rifle user by the name of Helios. Ruby beat the older boy, but it was a fairly balanced match.

But mine... One look at the larger student's stats gave me one feeling...

Name: Cardin Winchester
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Cardinal Vice
LV: 25
HP: 8190/8190
MP: 1650/1650
AP: 6460/6460
STR: 70 +40%
DEX: 9
VIT: 39 +35%
INT: 11
WIS: 18
LUK: 3

That strength boost must be tasty.

"Again, tournament rules apply. Once one person's Aura goes into the red, I will stop the match," Goodwitch stated, the 'red' zone being 15% and lower AP. "Begin."

With my Grimm based weaponry, I charged the slower student, hoping to be able to avoid his massive STR stat with my superior speed. With Cardin's incredible STR, I chose not to even attempt to block his overhead swing, but instead I shield bashed Cardin. It did pretty much no damage, but staggered him enough for me to slash at his right elbow, hoping to cause some damage and if I'm lucky, make him drop that overcompensation device.

The slash to his arm did do a bit of damage, but Cardin just brought the giant weapon down onto my head. Our AP bars showed:

Cardin Winchester: 91%

Jaune Arc: 90%

Wow... My AP is stupidly awesome. However, so was Cardin's STR. If we were to continue to trade blows like this, I would be hard pressed to win. So, like a smart person, I backed off, and equipped my catalyst in place of my shield, and charged again.

Cardin swung his mace one handed horizontally toward my hip, likely looking to disable my legs. However, I used my catalyst to cast my Soul Barrier, and stopped his mace in its tracks. Cardin didn't know how to respond in time, so he took a chance in launching a punch at me which was blocked by the edge of my sword, as I was swinging it toward his collarbone. While Cardin's fist did stop my swing, I still dealt some damage because... You know... Flesh versus sharp sword.

And then an idea occurred. Since I could just straight up stop all movement with my Soul Barrier...

I pointed my catalyst at Cardin, stopping all his movement. The larger warrior's eyes widened, and stared at me when he realized he couldn't move. I just wailed on him while my MP drained dry, and I glanced back at the AP bars.

Cardin Winchester: 46%

Jaune Arc: 90%

My MP had another approximate 40 seconds, and I was doing over 1% of his AP per second, meaning I'll be able to take Cardin down before my MP was completely drained... I love having two different pools of energy. If I had to use my AP for this... I'd actually be able to do it for ages longer.

By the end of it, my AP dropped one percent due to the stress of swinging a sword for nearly a minute and a half, and Cardin was in the red. My MP, however, was so close to zero that it was hilarious. Some skills leveled though, along with a notice I didn't recognize, so great match either way.

"Jaune Arc wins this match," Goodwitch announced before I could see exactly what skills leveled. "Will both students please go back to their seats so we can observe the match?"

/LB/

After putting my gear away into my inventory, and waiting for Cardin to change his salty self back into uniform, Goodwitch put Ruby's match up for the class to observe, take note of, and question, but I didn't pay any attention, having been too busy looking looking at the skills that levels, and the new notice.

Skill Sword has leveled up by 3!
Sword LV 22: +44% DMG with Sword weapons, +22% Striking speed with Sword Weapons

Skill Soul Barrier has leveled up by 5!
Soul Barrier LV 8: Slow objects by 17m/s/s
Casting: 1 Hand
Bullet: Pulses of mana, 2m in radius
Cost: 30 MP per 1 sec

Title Earned!
The Spellsword: INT receives +40% Aura boost while wielding any sword type weapon

EQUIP EQUIP EQUIP THAT GOOD SHIT!

And now my stupidly high stats read:

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: The Spellsword
LV: 6 (73%)
HP: 8737.5/8737.5
MP: 350/7650
AP: 11054/11776.9
STR: 15 +125% +2
DEX: 9 +125% -2
VIT: 25 +125% +2
INT: 17 +200%
WIS: 14
LUK: 12
Points: 10
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: The Spellsword: INT receives +40% Aura boost while wielding any sword type weapon
SPD: 36.5

That 'Arc' perk is absolutely disgusting. A mere 40% boost was raised to 200%. Legit. Not OP at all. And my AP increased as well. Also, tripling my INT instantly made my thoughts so much more... well, clearer wouldn't be the right term for it, but I ironically couldn't think of better. It wasn't like when I rose the stat by a level or two; The amount of change was phenomenal. My thoughts became so vivid, and my mental imagery became absolutely stunning. I was able to recall insignificant details about Ruby's match, much less my own.

And the beauty of it? I never had to unequip a sword. My Semblance had a 'Fashion Mode', which hid my armour and weapons, and made it look and feel like I was wearing whatever I put into the fashion slots.

Anyway, enough about me having a mental breakdown over my stats. Goodwitch turned the class' attention to the replay of my fight.

"Can anyone tell me how Mr. Arc won?" Goodwitch asked, before adding, "And if you say by beating his opponent, you will be excused from the class."

Weiss' hand shot up, nearly smacking my face, and she was gestured to by Goodwitch, the teacher signalling for her to answer.

"After gauging his opponent, Jaune used a peculiar weapon, likely filled with pre-charged Gravity Dust that released at the push of a button, hence why his Aura didn't deplete as it occurred, and simply took the free attacks that his weapon gave," Weiss answered, somewhat incorrectly, but meh.

Goodwitch nodded. "That does seem the case. However, Mr. Arc, can you confirm Ms. Schnee's answer?"

"Wrong," I replied simply, without giving it much thought. I then brought out my catalyst and handed it to Weiss. And then came the lying. "As you can see, the stick I used is just a catalyst; Something I can store energy into, and then with a minor push, I can unleash that energy in any way I see fit."

Goodwitch nodded at the response at the same moment Weiss handed over my catalyst. "I myself use a similar technique, and Mr. Arc's explanation is fairly sound." Wow, I managed to lie my way into accuracy. I mean, that's how I'm here, but that's neither here nor there. "However," The stern professor continued, "You made a mistake that could have been fatal, if Mr. Winchester had been an enemy with an intent to kill, he would not have not have taken a punch at you, rather, he would have used his larger stature to simply wrestle your equipment away from you, and left you without space to perform your hammerspace semblance."

The remainder of the class was spent critiquing common styles that other students commonly used.

/LB/

Finally. Classes for the day were done. However, I had homework. Such utter garbage.

So, sitting at a desk in the library between Ren and Pyrrha, I pulled out my history books and started writing. Seriously, if there was one thing I wouldn't give up, it had to be writing. Ever since two years ago, I took up the hobby, thinking I could write a few short stories to get published. What I created, however, was one of the most popular 'romance' series to enter the hands of housewives everywhere...

Performing an action created Skill [Writing]
Writing LV 387: +387% quality of fictional writing, +193% quality of non-fictional writing

I then proceeded to ignore my homework, and write down notes for my next book.

"You will be the greatest installation yet!" I thought to myself excitedly. The fourth part of Ninjas of Love will be the greatest yet.

Chapter Text

It's been about a week since my first match against Cardin in which I so unfairly destroyed him, and since, I hadn't had a single fight in the class.

I have, however, realised several things, mainly from how stupidly awesome my Semblance was.

First thing: If there were more than three objects connecting me and solid ground, I was considered in a free fall state, meaning I could power level my Free Falling ability. Which I did, by wearing three pairs of thin socks when wearing shoes, and placing pieces of paper under my bed for when I was sleeping. The skill capped out at LV 90. For figuring that out, and planning to abuse it in the future, my INT stat rose to an astonishing 31 throughout the entire process, and my WIS raised to 22.

Second thing: So long as I held a sword in both hands, my Semblance would consider me fighting, and raise my Sword and Two Hands skills. Sword reached 58, and Two Hands reached 48.

Third thing: By having dumbbells in my inventory, my Semblance would consider me carrying a training item, meaning I gained STR and VIT by doing literally nothing. Also, the dumbbells I put into my inventory were absolutely monstrous, as they used Gravity Dust to increase or decrease their weight. So, naturally, I set them to their maximum of 999 kilos in hand, and dropped them into my inventory. My STR was at a disgusting 82 from the fake effort, and my VIT was at 60.

Whoever designed my Semblance was either incredibly stupid, or incredibly awesome. Possibly both. It didn't matter now, because my stats were infinitely busted, reading out as:

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: The Spellsword
LV: 7 (7%)
HP: 20550/20550
MP: 13950/13950
AP: 17585/17585
STR: 82 +125% +2
DEX: 9 +125% -2
VIT: 60 +125% +2
INT: 31 +200%
WIS: 22
LUK: 12
Points: 15
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests), Minor Fire Affinity [Kindling Ring] (Attacks have 10% fire element)
Title: The Spellsword: INT receives +40% Aura boost while wielding any sword type weapon
SPD: 36.5

Not going to lie. Those numbers had some sex appeal, and compared to everyone else who has about 6 attribute points per level, I was comparable to a level 36 with just my raw stats, and then the quintupled Aura boosts I received just shot my effective level up even higher. My strength was 186.5 after calculating my stupid boosts! My VIT was a monstrous 137!

So, with this knowledge in mind, I volunteered for the next match.

"Professor Goodwitch, I would like to volunteer for a match!" I announced.

Goodwitch, nodding toward Yang, replied "Then our first match of the day will be between Jaune Arc and Yang Xiao Long."

I made my way to the front of the room, and equipped my items on the way, with my Dusk Bone Sword in my right hand, and a Parrying Dagger I looted off of a Beowolf in my left. However, I noticed that I may have to switch out my Dusk Bone Sword, as it's durability read 4/20. Jokes aside, I would need to replace it before long.

When Yang finally arrived, Goodwitch used her tablet to start a countdown on the large screen to my right, the rest of the class on the left.

"Going down, Vomit Boy!" Yang boasted. I reviewed her stats to see what I was about to fight.

Name: Yang Xiao-Long
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Berserker Beauty
LV: 28
HP: 8100
MP: 2250
AP: 6907.5
STR: 55 + 25%
DEX: 27 + 25%
VIT: 37 + 25%
INT: 15
WIS: 14
LUK: 20

Her level has raised by one since I first checked her, but even though she may pride herself as being one of the best physical fighters...

To be able to catch her, I put 8 of my points into DEX, as that has barely leveled. I now had a total DEX level higher than hers, even with my Stone Earrings on.

When the countdown ended, Yang rushed toward me with a vicious right hook, which I forced to the side with my dagger, muttering "Parry..."

I then took a mighty slash to her side, and with my STR, Yang went spiralling to the other side of the stage, and I took a moment to look at her AP bar on the room's screen.

Yang Xiao Long: 83%
Jaune Arc: 100%

My lord. 17% damage in a single hit = fair and balanced.

Yang immediately shot back up, her eyes blazing-wait, no, everything was blazing. She was on actual fire.

"Not too bad, Vomit Boy!" Yang said with a feral grin, "But I'm going to win this."

Yang then proceeded to rush forward, faster than her DEX level would have allowed, and hit me with a left hook to my forehead before I could even comprehend what just happened. I was knocked flat, and the hit took off 4% of my AP, which was about 700 AP. Fairly impressive, considering her STR stat and my Physical Endurance level that cancelled out 18% of physical damage.

Getting up, I cracked my neck back into place, and swapped out my dagger for my claymore. I then took a look at Yang's stats, seeing what kind of boosts she was receiving

Name: Yang Xiao-Long
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Berserker Beauty
LV: 28
HP: 8100/8100
MP: 2250/2250
AP: 5701/6907.5
STR: 55 + 50%
DEX: 27 + 50%
VIT: 37 + 25%
INT: 15
WIS: 14 - 50%
LUK: 20

Oh. STR and DEX were doubled... Lovely. However, her AP was rapidly falling. Another however, though, was that those stats were slowly increasing.

Not waiting for Yang to charge me, I bolted forward, and swung the claymore in my left hand, staggering Yang this time instead of throwing her, likely the result of her increasing strength, and stabbed forward with my Dusk Bone Sword, managing to knock her over.

Yang Xiao Long: 48%
Jaune Arc: 94%

Again, not giving Yang the option to move on her own, I slammed my claymore onto her thighs, no innuendo intended, and proceeded to whip my Dusk Bone Sword toward her head, at which point she sprung up, dodged my sword, and gave me a generous uppercut, draining me of 8% more AP. However, my disgusting STR stat gave me the power to resist being thrown off my feet. How my STR increased my weight to do this, I'll never know.

Yang was stunned at both the lack of damage, and the lack of me flying. Taking advantage of her surprise, I smashed the hilt of my claymore on the side of her head, my STR doing its thing and sending her rocketing into the ground. That attack dropped her by 10%, and with her Semblance draining her, she was at 31%.

Popping back up, Yang launched a flurry of punches my way, which I blocked with my blades. Bad idea, however, when my Dusk Bone sword broke in half. The second my Grimm based weapon snapped, however, I activated my one AP using skill, Giant's Strength to more than triple my STR and DEX for three seconds. With my STR above 550, my fist rocketed toward her face, and impacted her nose with an audible crunching sound. Her AP bar showed no AP left after that, and a quick Observe confirmed that yes, I had emptied her AP, and a good portion of her HP, further confirming my victory.

"Mr. Arc has completely depleted Ms. Xiao Long's Aura, and thus has won the match," Goodwitch announced, a small amount of shock on her otherwise neutral face. "Would the rest of team RWBY take your teammate to the infirmary? And Mr. Arc, please see me after classes."

I gave a quick nod, and looked over to RWBY to make sure Yang was okay. Being held up by her partner, Yang's nose and mouth were covered in blood, but she wore a grin. Quite disturbing.

"That was an awesome match, vomit boy," Yang congratulated tiredly, spitting out some blood mid sentence. I nodded my agreement, somewhat nervous of her partner's murderous glare...

I almost verbally commanded my Observe skill, realizing I still hadn't observed the monochrome girl.

Name: Blake Belladonna
Age: 17
Race: Faunus (Cat)
Title: Ninja of Love
LV: 31
HP: 3600/3600
MP: 5625/5625
AP: 7266.3/7266.3
STR: 33 +25%
DEX: 72 +25%
VIT: 24
INT: 30 +25%
WIS: 17
LUK: 10

No. Not happening. Not a chance. No way in hell is someone's title the same as the housewife porn I write. I put my weapons away and shook my head, not believing what I just read, as I headed back to my seat. Absolute, grade A, 100% coincidence, I assure me.

Seriously, it's almost like a scene from my second book.

/LB/

It literally is a scene from my second book. After Kuro, the hero of the novel, defeats a brawling beauty in the dojo, he meets another beautiful woman who has some connection to him, and is lead away from the dojo by a more mature, but still stunning, woman.

The only difference is that is it wasn't a dojo, but a classroom, and the brawler had blonde hair instead of a chestnut brown. After the analysis of the fight between Yang and I, and a fight between Pyrrha and Weiss and the following analysis, the bell rung, and I did as I was told by staying behind.

"Mr. Arc, follow me please," Goodwitch requested, but I could tell it was more of an order. I swear, if this turns out to be the exact scene, not only would I have quite the night, but I will be kicked out of Beacon.

So, obediently following the 'Dominating Witch', I was lead down several corridors, up a flight of stairs, and stopped in front of an ominously open elevator.

"Professor Ozpin will be waiting for you," Goodwitch stated, gesturing towards the elevator. "Best not to make him wait."

Well, at least we were skipping to the next chapter... That involved the master of the dojo doing things with his 'katana' to me. No. Do not want.

Shaking my head free of the possibility of my fiction coming to life, I took a deep breath, and stepped through the elevator doors. The interior of the intimidating contraption was largely gold in colour, and the handlebars along the edge were a glaring silver... Enough distracting myself from the excruciatingly long elevator ride...

Not even a fifth of the way up. Well, time to distract myself some more.

/LB/

I believe I've found it. The answer to life was right before me. This one particular chip in the wall of the elevator held the perfect expression of humanity...

A 'Ding' sounded, signalling the opening of the elevator doors opening. My metaphysical realization will have to be put on hold as I snapped my head toward the large room awaiting me. The room was entirely glass, with brass coloured supports criss-crossing at regular intervals. At the end of the room was an impressive, if over sized, desk. Underneath the glass floor, and behind the large glass walls were gargantuan cogs assembled in a clockwork fashion.

At the desk, Ozpin's head snapped up from a call he was taking, and gestured me forward.

"James, something has come up, I'll speak to you later," Ozpin spoke into his scroll. "Take a seat, Mr. Arc. I have a few things I would like to speak to you about."

Taking a seat in the uncomfortable chair provided, I started thinking about what he could mean. 'Did he find out about my fake transcripts? Am I going to get kicked out? Is this going to be Book 2 all over again?'

Ozpin smirked slightly. "To answer your unspoken questions, Jaune, I already knew of your fake transcripts, you are not going to be kicked out of Beacon, and I will not replicate your novel."

...

The actual hell?

'Can he-'

"Read your thoughts?" Ozpin finished my thought. He shook his head with his still present smirk that told stories. "No I'm afraid, I just have knowledge reading people, and I of know both your novels, and the pseudonym of yours. John Arch wouldn't have been my first choice."

A pause filled the air for several seconds.

"So why did you call me into your office?" I had to ask; Anything to break the silence. I pointedly ignored the fact that my headmaster had read my novels. Hell, now I might base part of the fourth book on him and Goodwitch... NO.

"We'll get to that in a minute," Ozpin replied smoothly. "Tell me, what is your favourite fairy tale?"

I had to think on that question. My parents, generally not approving of my dream to be a hunter, I wasn't told many fairy tales. However, there was one story my oldest sister read to me that for some reason stuck, probably because it was based off my family. "There was one that I remember, one about my ancestor called 'The Arc of History'," I replied.

Ozpin nodded. "Yes, the one about Joan Arc. I should have guess." Taking a sip of coffee, the headmaster continued. "However, there is one I want to tell you about. Bear with me for this, please

"A very long time ago, an old man lived alone in the woods. Then-" I had to interrupt Ozpin.

"I know the Four Maidens, headmaster," I stated flatly. Seriously, who hasn't? Not only was it the most printed fairy tale of the past few years, it also had a decent movie adaptation. However, I wondered why he brought it up. "Sir, I have to ask; Why did you ask about my favourite fairy tale?"

"All stories, be it fiction like your novels or a ghost story told around the campfire, always have some grain of truth to them," Ozpin replied. "Different Titles we give one another, such as a Nobody, can very well be the starting point of a grand story, all because the Nobody wanted to rid themselves of that title."

The way Ozpin had said the words 'title' and 'nobody' struck me as odd. Up until recently, my Title had been Nobody, and titles given to others, such as Cardin's 'Cardinal Vice', had drastic effects on their stats. I myself had gained the Spellsword title, tripling my INT, but also making me far more comfortable with my MP skills. I had to Observe Ozpin again.

Ozpin
The Storyteller

"You know of my Semblance?" It was meant to be a statement, but my surprise that I could read his title made it sound like a question.

Ozpin nodded slowly. "As you can tell, I am the Storyteller. While this is not my Semblance, I instinctively know everyone's Semblance. This allows me to make accurate judgements of their character. But when you arrived, I had difficulty understanding your Semblance, as it was currently making this ability of mine self aware, for lack of a better term. I believe this part of my personality did not want to be read, ironically. My skill of reading people had advanced so far that, it would cause me pain in the form of a headache if I didn't read everyone I saw," Ozpin explained. His lack of gestures made me look directly into his eye.

"I still don't understand why you brought up fairy tales," I replied after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

Ozpin's face became stern, losing all cheerfulness. "Jaune, it has come to my attention that your strength is improving at an absurd rate. Not only did you damage Ms. Xiao Long's Aura by at least a third in a single move, you broke her nose, you did so with only a fist, and your own Aura didn't drop a full percent from the action. While I have heard of the large Aura reserves of the Arcs, your own Aura is absolutely outrageous compared to your training, or lack thereof." Taking a breath, Ozpin shifted in his chair, and gestured for me to get comfortable.

"Someone with power such as yours is required in an inner circle of mine. We take care of the more supernatural forces of this world, so that simple souls such as Ruby can train peacefully in preparation of when my group may fail." Taking a sip from his mug, Ozpin sighed deeply as a scowl started to form on his face. "I asked you to hear me out about the Four Maidens for one simple reason; They are very much alive. In fact, the Fall Maiden is currently underneath the school in a coma. She was attacked several months ago, and half of her abilities were stolen from her by a pawn of an old enemy of mine. This new half maiden is a violent and sophisticated individual, if my source is to be believed.

"When the school year had started, I had asked Glynda to notify me of any more than exceptional individuals." Another breath. I had decided to break out of my shock.

"Headmaster, if this is legit, I quite literally don't have the option to refuse your help, do I?" I asked, before a notification popped up in front of me.

Due to the continued stress of carrying excessive training gear, your VIT has increased by 2 and your STR has increased by 3!

"I notice you're staring at the space in front of you," Ozpin commented dryly. "Your Semblance, perhaps?"

I nodded in response. "I found an exploit in the design of my Semblance. So long as I carry training equipment, be it in my hand or my hammerspace inventory with no weight limit, I am considered exercising. My strength and vitality stats raised by three and two respectively," I explained.

Ozpin's eyes shot open. "Based on your earlier comment, I assume you are willing to join my inner circle?" I nodded before Ozpin continued, now noticeably giddie. "Jaune arc, I can provide you with as many training weights as I can feasibly find. In fact, I can have Glynda bring up several of the Gravity Dust weights right now. How many weights are you currently holding in your inventory?"

"Just three. I didn't want to steal anymore from the training room."

Ozpin looked like a child on his birthday, rubbing his hands together. He picked up his scroll and dialed Goodwitch's number. I'm not too sure if I should be afraid of a happy Ozpin. He scares me.

"What is it Ozpin?" Goodwitch's voice answered.

"Glynda, I require every single Gravity Dust training weight you can spare from the training grounds," Ozpin ordered with a tone that Glynda could only groan at. Ozpin has been a bad boy at some point, methinks.

Turning his head away from his scroll and back to me, he continued, "While you are powerful among your peers, Jaune, in order for me to tell you the whole truth of my faction, you must be stronger. While you can defeat an Aura as robust as Ms. Xiao Long's in three unarmed strikes, I need you to be able to take out someone as powerful as Port in the same number of attacks. Since there are literal dozens of extra Gravity Dust dumbbells, I theorize that you will be able to do this by the end of the month."

I soaked this information in as thoroughly as possible. "So what you're saying is there is a person with supernatural powers that stole their powers from another person who originally had these supernatural powers, there are three other people with these damn near divine abilities, I made part of your subconscious into its own self aware entity, and before we get any weirder, I need to be able to put down a seasoned, veteran huntsman down in three hits by the end of the month."

Ozpin nodded with his smirk reappearing on his face.

"WELL THAT'S MIGHTY SIMPLE RIGHT THERE," I replied with as much sarcasm as a seventeen year-old smut writer could manage.

/LB/

One week. In only a single goddamn week my LUK stat QUINTUPLED. Not only does my Semblance not stop me from, pardon my Vacuan, exploiting the fuck out of it, it rewarded me with nearly seven LUK points a day for my exploit. Oh, and there's the small matter of even if my AP is depleted, it would be an impossible task to kill me. My HP reached- It would just be better to review my stats rather than recall everything by memory.

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: The Spellsword
LV: 9 (54%) 1130/2100
HP: 58350/58350
MP: 15300/15300
AP: 29932.6/29932.6
STR: 205 +125% +2
DEX: 23 +125% -2
VIT: 172 +125% +2
INT: 34 +200%
WIS: 22
LUK: 60
Points: 17
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: The Spellsword: INT receives +40% Aura boost while wielding any sword type weapon
SPD: 107.5

In the words of a wise Sunbro, "PRAISE THE SUN!"

"QUIET MR. ARC!" Oobleck snapped back.

Chapter Text

One week from when my STR became 205, and I was sitting on a throne of 389, my VIT was a disturbing 300, my filthy casual stat of DEX even increased to 40, after taking to playing with a butterfly knife. A simple knife, with three days of practice, increased my DEX to nearly double. My Semblance doesn't differentiate between hand-eye coordination and speed, apparently.

My LUK stat, however, just dropped off at 70, and refused to budge from its spot.

Plus, ever since my Observe hit LV 12, I've been able to see exactly how much EXP I had to my next LV, and not just the percent. However, within the last week, I hadn't been called on for sparring ever since I flattened Yang, and I've had no opportunity to hunt Grimm, since I've been honing my INT stat with diligent studying of material ahead of the year. With this studying, my INT increased to 44 - Now that I think about it, I should be reviewing my stat sheet.

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: The Spellsword
LV: 9 (54%) 1130/2100
HP: 101250/101250
MP: 19800/19800
AP: 41782.5/41782.5
STR: 389 +125% +2
DEX: 40 +125% -2
VIT: 300 +125% +2
INT: 44 +200%
WIS: 24
LUK: 70
Points: 17
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: The Spellsword: INT receives +40% Aura boost while wielding any sword type weapon
SPD: 176

Aura exhaustion? The hell is that? Does it taste good?

Regardless, I was viewing my current stats because the rest of my team, mainly Nora, has been bugging me about them.

"So who's the strongest among us Jauney?" Nora asked from her bed, as she was building a fort out of pillows and throwing miscellaneous objects at Ren. Ren was simply sitting at his personal desk, blocking the thrown objects with his free left hand while thumbing through his history textbook.

"I have the highest strength stat by far," I started, brushing some eraser dust off of my history homework. "With my 'Arc' perk, my Aura boosts are multiplied by five off of the base, giving me an additional one-hundred percent to my strength, vitality, and dexterity. With a base of three hundred eighty nine strength, I have a total strength of eight hundred seventy five, plus a quarter," I explained slowly, focusing on my work. I haven't told my team about Ozpin's story about the Maidens, but I have told them about how I'm abusing my Semblance.

Nora huffed. "And my strength is at what?" She asked, and whipped an empty grenade at me, which bounced harmlessly off my head.

I gave Nora a quick Observe, mainly to see if she had leveled yet, but also to answer the hyper girl's question.

Name: Nora Valkyrie
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Pancake Queen
LV: 30
HP: 8437.5/8437.5
MP: 2570/2700
AP: 7584.4/7584.4
STR: 64 + 25%
DEX: 15 + 25%
VIT: 45 + 25%
INT: 18
WIS: 9
LUK: 22

"You've leveled up twice since I first saw your stats, and your current strength is at a base of 64, giving you a total of 80 strength. You're sitting above Yang by a more than decent amount," I answered. I immediately turned to Pyrrha, who was relaxing, having completed her homework during lunch.

"Pyrrha, if we armwrestle, I might be able to give you your strength stat.," I suggested as I finished up the remainder of my work, tossing my pencil in the general direction of my bag... and it imbedded itself fully in the wall.

Performing a special act has created skill [Throwing]

Throwing LV 1: +2% Accuracy, +1% thrown projectile SPD

This is a skill?

Snapping me back from my new skill, Pyrrha replied "I think I'll pass on that, Jaune." She was glancing between my still raised hand and the new wall decoration. Now that I think about it, Pyrrha was by far in the right. What I intended to be a gentle throw ended up giving me a new pencil holder.

After a few more minutes of Ren studying, he stretched backwards in his chair, cracking his back. "Jaune, I suggest we go hunt Grimm. You haven't gotten used to your new strength yet, and could use the practice."

/LB/

The first Grimm we came across in the Emerald Forest was a weak LV 10 Beowolf, which I destroyed with a thrown rock that was about the size of a kitten. Odd comparison, I know, but meh.

The next Grimm I destroyed was a LV 15 Deathstalker. I leveled up off of that one, bringing me up to LV 10, and further increasing my disgusting AP count. And it turns out, leveling up restores my AP and MP. Pretty sure it does the same with my HP, but I don't think that's ever going down.

"This is boring," Nora announced, with as much eloquence a hammer-wielding war machine can muster. "You kill everything in one hit."

"I'll back off then," I replied, putting my catalyst in my inventory. I had no other weapon out, as I wanted to level my martial arts skill.

Due to constant strain on your body, your STR has increased by 27, and your VIT increased by 18!

And there was my daily growth. Every goddamn day, at about 5 pm, the time it is now, my stats receive growths on that level. It was routine. It was regular. It was F.A.I.R. A.N.D. B.A.L.A.N.C.E.D.

Oh wait, I leveled. I might be able to Observe Pyrrha.

Name: Pyrrha Nikos
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Iron Queen
LV: 40
HP: 15405/15405
MP: 3750/3750
AP: 11081.8/11188.8
STR: 65 +30%
DEX: 40 +30%
VIT: 79 +30%
INT: 25
WIS: 30
LUK: 35

That's an impressive VIT stat, all things considered.

"Pyrrha, I got your stats!" I yelled over the sounds of battle, backhanding a Beowolf that decided it was a good idea to charge me. Its face was now completely separated from its body. "You have five percent more physical boost than most people!"

Pyrrha stabbed a Beowolf with her javelin, before responding "That's nice, Jaune, but could you jump back in? I'd appreciate the help!"

Really? She was cutting down Grimm left and right no problem. Oh well, may as well earn that experience, and cause some loot to drop. Grimm I don't have a part in killing don't drop loot, sadly.

"Coming behind you!" I called out, and grabbed my claymore from my inventory, immediately smashing it into the side of an extremely large Alpha Beowolf.

Alpha Boss Beowolf LV 21
HP: 62%

So with one weak slash, I knocked that thing down by 38%? I'm starting to feel like a tool of Deus Ex Machina. I brought down my claymore into the canine Grimm's skull, rendering its brain useless, and by claymore broken due to the force.

You leveled up by 1 LV! You have 27 Attribute points to spend!

Immediately equipping my gladius for my INT boost, I left it in its sheath and faced the oncoming Grimm.

"Jaune, do you feel that?" Ren asked from my right as he dodged a swipe from a medium sized Beowolf.

Punching a small Beowolf's face, I responded, "No, what's going on?"

Before I could get an answer, however, a low rumbling reverberated through the forest floor.

"How far from the school did we even go?" Nora shouted after dispatching the last of the Beowolf pack with a golf-swing of her hammer.

"We're about ten miles out!" I yelled over the now louder rumbling. "If anything, the most dangerous Grimm we should be seeing here are baby Goliaths," I finished, cracking the soreness out of my knuckles.

A special action has created skill [Massage]!

Massage LV 1: +0.5% alleviation to soreness per 1min

Just accept it Jaune, just accept it. Question nothing. Especially when there's an incredibly loud roar coming from where the rumbling was. And it was incredibly close.

"Ren, Nora, in the trees on the left, Pyrrha, stay behind me and be ready to move and shoot," I ordered, and equipped my catalyst. No time to pick up the loot from the dead Beowolf pack, something huge was coming our way.

My team obeyed my orders without a word, while I was relying on my disgusting amounts of AP and HP to tank whatever it was charging at us. Before I could get my catalyst properly held, however, through the line of trees that served as a border between the clearing my team was in and the rest of the forest just... Exploded wouldn't be the right word for it, but the trees were sent scattered through the air as if they were just confetti as a monstrously huge, solid black lion head burst through, followed by what had to be nearly one hundred cylindrical bone segments forming some serpentine body. The creature must have been the length of at the very least a bullhead, head excluded.

Leotine LV 46
HP: 100%

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS A LEOTINE!?" I yelled, before launching repeated Mana Spots at the beast's lion head. I knew Grimm could get pretty messed up looking, but really? A lion head on a serpentine body of bone segments? Why though.

The Leotine thrust its tapered tail toward me, which I stopped with a Soul Barrier. "Nora, Ren, open fire on its neck! It's the thinnest point!" I yelled to my teammates. "Pyrrha, shoot at its eyes and keep the aggro towards me!"

My team complied with a flurry of bullets and grenades. The Leotine turned its head to Ren and Nora, almost giving me a heart attack, before it decided the thing shooting its eyes was the worse threat. Thank god it was charging right at me now, amirite?

It snaked its head backward, and lunged right over me, toward Pyrrha. "Get down Pyrrha!" I shouted, putting my claymore in both hands and jumping toward the mighty beast.

My leap carried me up to one of its middle bone segments, and I responded by lodging my sword into a gap in its armor, both draining it of 8% of its health, and anchoring me to its body.

"GIANT'S STRENGTH!" I yelled, commanding my skill to activate, and for the next three seconds, I gave the Leotine super-powered punch after super-powered punch. The large Grimm dropped to 31% in HP.

"I'm going to try something stupid!" I yelled to my teammates, after seeing Pyrrha safely jump away from the Leotine's open jaws. Too close...

Grabbing my Fire Dust Crystal from my inventory, I pressed it to the bone armour of the Leotine, and surged a hefty 5% of my Aura into it.

Before I could even confirm what I was doing was stupid, a large explosion occurred under my palm, earning me two new skills, a single level in Physical Endurance, and a decent chunk out of my AP. I was thrown off the back of the Leotine in a literal blaze of glory, crashing into trees as I fell, draining me of even more AP, but on the plus side, I crashed beside Pyrrha, and the Leotine had 11% HP left.

"You weren't wrong," Pyrrha stated dryly as she continued shooting our gargantuan enemy. "I don't suppose you have another Giant's Strength in you?" She asked, briefly looking me over, likely looking for damage.

"No, it has a one hour cooldown, but I got two more skills from causing the explosion," I replied, dusting myself off as I saw Nora and Ren rush by Pyrrha and I in an attempt to finish it off.

Thermal Endurance LV 1: Resist 2% of Fire damage

Fire Dust Explosion LV 1: Deal 50 Fire/Explosive Damage
Casting: Fire Dust/Crystal in hand and/or equipment
Bullet: Explosion, +Continuous Explosion
Cost: 90 AP, +90 AP per 1/sec

Does my Kindling Ring give me additional fire damage? Is it useless? Do I now do 110% of that damage?

WIS increased by 1!

"I'm charging in, stand back," I ordered, gripping the shards that remained of my Fire Dust crystal in my left hand, and my claymore being one-handed in my right. Running at full speed, I called on my Aura to enhance my next movements, because while I can practically one-shot the Leotine currently, it was faster than me, and was currently battling Nora and Ren. "Nora, Ren, get back! I got this!" I yelled, as a new skill popped up.

Call of the Arc LV 1: The historic power of the Arc family surges through your veins!
STR + LUK
DEX + LUK
Cost: x2 LUK -1 AP per 1/sec

How lucky of me.

My speed nearly doubled as I activated the new ability that relied on my LUK, and my raw might received an okay boost. I bolted toward the Leotine, and as soon as I was underneath the huge beast, I placed my left hand on the ground, and activated my explosive technique with the Dust shards.

Having jumped a split second before having my shoes destroyed, they got blown off instead, and the force of the explosion propelled me upward, the initial explosion costing me 100 AP to cause as I stacked five explosions on top of each other, and an additional few hundred from the damage. A small cost to pay while Nora was barely avoiding being eaten by the large lion head.

I was launched up the left side of the Leotine, and I gripped the gap between two bone plates with my now free left hand, and swung my body toward the head of the Grimm, preparing my claymore in a two-handed grip.

...

Time slowed down, or at least, that's what it felt like. With the Leotine pursuing Nora, its head weaved back and forth, but I planned for that; I calculated my jump perfectly, even. But as I landed on the snout of the beast, its mouth just... snapped shut, pronounced by a sickening bone-crunch and a scream belonging to Nora. I glanced to my right, and saw Nora balancing on a tree branch, but I saw what she was looking at. Sticking out of the Leotine's maw was an arm with a green sleeve, and a pink cuff.

I had unwittingly cost Ren his arm. Even though it likely wasn't severed, Aura simply wouldn't be capable of restoring that much damage.

I swung my claymore horizontally into the Leotine's left eye, and deep into its brain, killing it regardless of my damage output.

Ignoring the level notice, as that's what I assumed it was, I slipped down the Leotine's face to its mouth as it was falling to the ground, and pried it open. Ren laid there, eyes fully open, and right arm hanging on by maybe a few strips of flesh. His sleeve was torn off, and the rest of his clothes were slowly dissolving in the now dead Grimm's saliva.

I slowly picked him up, making sure not to detach the remains of Ren's arm, and leaped out of the collapsing beast.

Your level increased by 3! You have 42 Attribute points to spend!

You have earned the title [Pride of the Serpents]!

I had to think of something to heal Ren with, and fast. Could my semblance help me with it? It probably could hurt to try, but I was the only person on my team with the ability to learn such a thing, but could I do that on the fly? I gained the Call of the Arc skill out of reaching into my Aura, but could that just be a familial skill? Could I only learn these familial skills when I called for my Aura?

I had to try something, though. Reaching out my hands to Ren's nearly severed appendage, I focused my Aura outward to the fissure in the flesh.

...

Nothing.

I tried to stitch the arm back onto his torso. I was running out of time. Blood was pooling everywhere.

...

Nothing. To make it worse, Ren had no AP left. His blood loss was draining his already low base HP, and said HP already took a huge hit. This wasn't good. Was my INT too low to learn a healing ability? I had tens of thousands of AP, well more than ten times the amount of HP Ren had, and it does NOTHING for me!

... But maybe it could help Ren.

I projected my Aura outward, but instead of focusing on Ren's wound stitching up, I focused on Ren's AP bar filling.

And fill it did. I gave him as much Aura as he could handle, and when he quickly drained that to restore his body, I gave him more.

A special action has created skill [Aura Transfer]!

Aura Transfer LV 1: Restore another's AP with your own
Max AP Transfer per 1/sec: 200 AP
Ratio of given:received: 4:1

Ren's arm still wasn't stitching itself back together. I pumped 6 points into INT to bring the base up to 50. Maybe that will be enough.

By increasing your INT to 50, you have gained skill [Mind and Matter]

Mind and Matter LV 1: Heal yourself and others
Passive: Recover HP and AP equal to INT/2 per 1/hr
Active 1: Heal self HP and Body Damage debuffs by INT per 5/min
Active 1 Cost: 120 AP 120 MP per 5/sec
Active 2: Heal others' HP and Body Damage debuffs by INT per 5/min
Active 2 Cost: 240 AP 120 MP per 5/sec

Oh thank whatever god is out there. I activated the Mind and Matter skill, equipping my Oak Staff as I did so, in order to mitigate the MP cost.

Ren's arm started stitching itself back to his body, albeit rather slowly. As I was, I could hold this skill up for about forty seconds, due to my MP pool being far smaller than my AP pool.

However, after my MP reached about 2%, with my AP trailing close behind, Ren's arm was finally, solidly attached, but he'll have a scar, unless Aura healed those too.

And he wouldn't experience any Aura exhaustion from this. But even though Ren is able to walk away practically good as new, I failed as a leader. I got my teammate critically injured, and only through the bullshit ability I possess was I able to heal Ren.

/LB/

Nora had called an Evac as soon as Ren's was in the Leotine's mouth, and after about five minutes after I had managed to reattach Ren's arm, a bullhead landed among the still smoking corpse of the Leotine. When the doors opened, two medics rushed out with a stretcher and placed Ren atop of it, and hurried him back into the aircraft. Nora wordlessly rushed to his side, while I sluggishly dragged myself to the ship after looting the place, being supported by Pyrrha.

"I don't deserve to be JNPR's leader," I stated as soon as Pyrrha and I were seated. Nora had followed the medics into a separate room to watch over Ren.

"Don't talk like that Jaune, you are easily the most qualified of us," Pyrrha responded, looking at me as if I insulted her ancestors. "You were able to not only kill that thing with relative ease, but also heal Ren's arm. If it weren't for you, Ren-"

"REN WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO BE HEALED, PYRRHA!" I yelled, bolting upright as the bullhead lifted off the ground. "When I jumped on the Leotine's head, it reacted by snapping close its mouth. If Ren's head was even a INCH to the left, we would be a team of three! I didn't look at the situation properly, and it nearly cost Ren his life!"

Pyrrha didn't have a response to that, at least not one that I was expecting.

"I suppose this is a case where the end doesn't justify the means?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm.

I chose not to respond.

/LB/

Two in the morning, and I still hadn't gotten any sleep. I sat on the roof of Beacon, looking through my inventory, looking at the new loot. But before that, I had something to do.

I emptied my inventory of the training weights. They plummeted to the ground stories down, and collided with the ground, causing cracks to form in the ground.

"Never did me any good," I muttered to myself. Sure, the stats were nice, but they didn't do my teammates any good.

Training session - Complete.

Training mode nerfed.

What.

By increasing your STR to 50, you have gained skill [Iron Ogre]

Iron Ogre LV 1: Your muscles are infused with the strength of Iron
Passively increases melee damage output by 25%
Active: Increases STR by 50%
Active Cost: 90 AP per 1/sec

By increasing your STR to 100, you have gained skill [Steel Giant]

Steel Giant LV 1: Your gigantic power is as strong as Steel
Passively increases melee damage output by 50%
Active: Increases STR by 100%
Active Cost: 175 AP per 1/sec

By increasing your STR to 200, you have gained skill [Carbon Colossus]

Carbon Colossus LV 1: Your might is as efficient as a carbon-alloy
Passively decreases cost of Iron Ogre and Steel Giant by 5%

By increasing your VIT to 100, you have gained skill [Cut and Bruises]

Cuts and Bruises LV 0: Be a man and take the damage
Active: Do not spend AP to heal HP loss
Active Cost: AP does not heal HP

By increasing your VIT to 200, you have gained skill [Callouses]

Callouses LV 1: Your skin's as tough as nails!
Passively decreases damage by 10% while Cuts and Bruises is active

By increasing your VIT to 300, you have gained skill [Raw Might]

Raw Might LV 0: Your vitality is a source of might!
Melee damage scales with VIT, in addition to STR

So because I was still technically exercising, I didn't get bonuses per x amounts of levels. And weight training was nerfed. Neat. I needed to see Ozpin immediately.

"You wanted to talk with me, Mr. Arc?" Ozpin asked from behind me.

I wasn't even surprised. "Professor, You made a mistake by making me leader of team JNPR," I stated blandly.

Ozpin sat down beside me, his legs dangling over the edge like mine. "You are referring to the situation involving the Leotine, correct?" Ozpin asked. I offered a nod in response, and the headmaster continued. "I remember a time when I was your age. I was unwillingly chosen to be the leader of a group. I didn't have the raw intellect as my closest friend, nor did I possess the strength as my then rival, but what I excelled in was the ability to apply my wisdom to a situation. I hadn't always had that power that I treasure now, Mr. Arc, I had to earn my wisdom through trials; successful and riddled with failure, it doesn't matter, so long as you don't make that same mistake twice."

I had to stare at Ozpin for a second. "Professor, by that logic of wisdom leads, my WIS stat is at only twenty five while Pyrrha's is at thirty. Ren far exceeds us with a base of thirty three, with a thirty percent boost! By all rights, he should be leader! I entered this school with a WIS of ten, but no, you had to put me in the leading position," I trailed off for a moment, before shooting my gaze back at Ozpin, having not noticed until now that my eyes started looking down to the cracked ground. "Why was it me that you made leader? Ren would have made a far better leader-"

"Because you had the most room to grow!" Ozpin barked. It was so... odd, hearing the usually, no, always calm headmaster raise his voice. The older man took a few breaths to calm himself down before continuing. "Jaune, I made you the leader for two reasons. The first being your absolutely unlimited potential with your Semblance. The image of an absolutely invincible warrior quickly rising to the top of the ranks, calling for hope and peace. That image strengthens people's positive emotions; the emotions that keep the Grimm at bay. The second reason is the same that I chose Ruby to lead RWBY, and Cardin Winchester to lead CRDL, Coco to lead CFVY- I could go all night listing teams, but it all came down to the reason that you simply were the least qualified to be in this school, much less a leader. By forcing people that aren't qualified to become leaders, they tend to do their homework, so to speak, and usually become a success story. These successes are an incredible boost for Hunter moral because the thought that even the lowest, scummiest, or simply the most naive person can wind up making a positive impact on this world encourages everyone who thinks themselves as high in society and cultured to at least try to change the circumstance of those around them."

WIS has increased by 4!

Ozpin went for a sip of his coffee, only to discover that his mug had been empty for some time now. "It seems I've exhausted this topic. Was there anything else on your mind, Jaune?" Ozpin offered his hand as he got up. I took the hand, and stepped away from the roof ledge.

"Professor, I think I'm strong enough now," I said, still digesting Ozpin's speech/explanation. "To join your inner circle, that is. I just got a WIS boost, but I think I get what you're saying about wisdom. Real wisdom is different than a definite number, it takes real world experience, success and failure alike." I took a minute to gather my wisdom, rather than some arbitrary number. "I'm ready to join. I'm certain of it."

WIS has increased by 10!

But not my wisdom.

Chapter Text

It was immediately apparent to Ozpin that I didn't want to put this off. I felt like garbage for letting Ren get injured, and I needed something to take my mind off of it.

So the headmaster lead me toward one of the rooms that served as training grounds, and called down Port. I was only half-attentive to what was being said.

"Jaune, I advise you use a weapon with which you have the most comfort," Ozpin suggested. "My colleague isn't a hundred-thirty by chance."

I nodded. Despite Port's outward appearance and jovial behaviour, he was most certainly a highly skilled huntsman. As a member of Beacon staff, he is required to complete three A class missions a year, and he continually boasts about completing five annually.

The missions first year students like myself are sent on are D class, and consist of typical search-and-destroy against packs of Ursa and the like.

I considered using my broken claymore, but immediately deciding against it. I chose to view the drops from the Leotine I received instead.

Hell Insight - Sword (1 1/2)
75 Slashing
100 Piercing
DUR: 125/125
Can be used in one hand if STR is 20+
The fang of a mighty Grimm beast, this exceptional blade is both a weapon, and a symbol of skill

Aura Caliber - Pistol
70 Ballistics
DUR: 100/100
Rounds: 15mm Dust Rounds
Mag: 12 Rounds
The caliber of the soul is measured in strength of character, not strength of impact

Skill Book - Clairvoyance

Skill Book - Grimm Muscle

2000 15mm Ice Dust Rounds
2000 15mm Fire Dust Rounds
1000 15mm Gravity Dust Rounds

Clairvoyance: See more than the average man.
You cannot currently learn this skill. 80 WIS required.

Grimm Muscle: The Grimm have no access to Aura, but have immense strength regardless.
Would you like to learn this skill?
(Y/N)

So that WIS stat was useful for something after all.

I equipped my Aura Caliber and Hell Insight to my left and right hands respectively, and pressed the 'Yes' option for the Grimm Muscle skill.

Grimm Muscle LV 1:
Passively increases STR by 10%
Actively increases STR by 200%
Active Cost: 4000 AP, additional 4000 AP per minute

That skill is more expensive than anything else I have access to. Due to the insane cost, I'm assuming it had a STR requirement of at least 300, maybe 350. Someone of my level wouldn't be able to even activate it, much less maintain it, but hey, the Deus Arc Machina of my powers is some miscellaneous bull. However, I needed to find some sort of passive that reduced AP costs, something to give me regen besides my amulet I got before initiation. The boosted item find was nice, but 40 AP a minute was abysmal compared to my near 50k AP. If I didn't regen all my bars when I slept, I would take the better part of a full day to restore my AP, and about four times that for my over 100k HP.

Again, if it wasn't for my Gamer's Body regen at rest, I would have to wait over two days before topping up from zeros. My Cuts and Bruises skill allowed me to take HP damage rather than AP damage, so there's additional fuel for my AP skills, So far, the only cost-decreasing passive I have is my Carbon Colossus, but that's only for the Iron Ogre and Steel Giant active skills. I could possibly talk to Ren and see where he got that WIS booster. Even though I don't have any overtly expensive MP skills, learning what he does may allow me to increase my AP regen naturally, without piling weapons and jewelry onto me.

On second thought, maybe not. I have no doubt that Ren will forgive me for my mistake, but Nora on the other hand... I'm not too sure she'll be as forgiving.

"Ah, Mr. Arc!" The jolly voice of Peter Port broke my internal monologuing. He was dressed in his usual maroon coat, despite the late hour. "I was genuinely surprised when Professor Ozpin called my scroll claiming you wanted to fight me. I will have you know, Mr. Arc," Port's tone adopted a warning quality. "I was instructed to not hold back."

Name: Peter Port
Age: 135
Race: Human
Title: Blunderbaxe Battleboss
LV: ?

QUEST: Heroic... Champion?
Task: Defeat Professor Peter Port
Bonus: Defeat Port within one minute
Secret: ?
COMPLETION: 5000 EXP
Additional 3000 EXP per Bonus
1 Skill Book per Secret
Declination: Nothing
Failure: Nothing
(Y/N)

My Grimm Muscle skill, being a skill that gave an Aura boost to my STR, I passively gained 50% rather than 10% boost because of my Arc perk. When active, Grimm Muscle will give me an additional over 1000% STR boost. With everything active, for a max of three seconds, I reach 27957 STR, reaching the power of an absolute maxed level 4660. After Giant's Strength wears off, I top off at 8602.2, lowering me to the level of a maxed level 777. As I used Giant's Strength earlier that day, it had plenty of time to recharge, so I wasn't worried about being weak against Port. Even though he's well over a century old, I highly doubt he had ten levels a year if he only did five A ranks a year. While students like myself can level fairly quickly, the average one of us had less than 7 levels per year spent training. Possibly the levels will boost now that we're all in Beacon with Grimm as easy pickings, but I can't see a professor reaching six levels a year when, while the quantity of the Grimm is large, the strongest thing I've seen was the Leotine in sheer might, and that netted me 3 LVs. On top of that, at that level, Port would have to regularly fight Grimm nearing level 90. If the Leotine were more common at that level, I wouldn't have much of a problem believing Port could reach above my relative STR level, but as it was, if I was capable of hitting him in three seconds, I likely win.

However, that brings up the issue of my low DEX stat. While I highly doubt Port to main the stat, it's more than likely he's faster than me, even with my Arc perk. But, since Giant's Strength also boosts DEX, it shouldn't be much of a problem to match his speed. What will be the problem, however, is my reaction time. If I could go as fast as light, it doesn't mean that's how fast I react. Still, if I prepare a swing with my weapons, I should be able to time things correctly.

Port hefted his Blunderbuss/Battleaxe over his shoulder, and slid into a stance similar to a sprinter's. I held a stance that had my Hell Insight bastard-sword held above my head pointing forward, and my Aura Caliber pistol pointing towards Port, at about mid-chest level. The Hell Insight's blade was an absurdly pale-yellow with red lines crossing the surface of the whole weapon, similar to my broken Dusk Bone Sword. The blade itself had a clean cutting edge, and a jagged backing, likely for catching other melee weapons.

"Begin," Ozpin stated flatly, from behind his mug.

I dashed forward, but Port bolted forward at a speed faster than me by about 50%. He met me in the centre, and our weapons clashed, my sword in a one-handed grip equalling his double-gripped axe.

Port jerked his weapon upwards and catched my sword in the space between the axe blade and the handle. In response, I brought my pistol to Port's belly, and we both fired our weapons. With Gravity Dust rounds loaded, Port was sent sliding back about eight feet, while his shot jerked my sword downward, but not out of my grip.

I holstered Aura Caliber and sheathed Hell Insight, and bolted forward, activating Grimm Muscle and Call of the Arc while doing so. Both being Aura boosters, they were multiplied by five. Within a fifth of a second, I was on top of Port. Bringing my fist back, I triggered my Giant's Strength, and punched Port in the stomach.

The larger man's eyes widened when my fist impacted his gut, before he was sent flying through the floor, the next, and stopped after nearly shattering a third.

I should be in shock of my strength, if it weren't for both my Gamer's Mind, and the fact that I spent several minutes calculating my maxed strength.

I glanced at Port's AP bar on the screen. He still had a quarter of his Aura left, but that was from a singular hit. I simply outclassed him by leagues. It would be a matter of seconds for me to empty his AP.

You have leveled up 3 times! You have 51 Attribute points to spend!

You have earned the title Inner Circle

I couldn't believe it. I was stronger than a Huntsman that lived to be well over a century. I mean, I witnessed it with my own eyes, and hit Port with my own fists, but the notion that I was capable of such strength was next to unfathomable.

QUEST: Heroic... Champion?
Task: Defeat Professor Peter Port COMPLETE
Bonus: Defeat Port within one minute COMPLETE
Secret: Do not use a weapon FAILED
+8000 EXP!

Your have leveled up 1 time! You have 56 Attribute points to spend!

/LB/

I sat in Ozpin's office, waiting for him, Goodwitch, and a third unknown man to show up. In that time, I had equipped the Inner Circle title, and my stats now read out as the following:

Name: Jaune Arc
Age: 17
Race: Human
Title: Inner Circle
LV: 18 (96%) 4920/5100
HP: 107325/107325
MP: 8625/8625
AP: 48291/48291
STR: 416 +175% +2
DEX: 40 +125% -2
VIT: 318 +125% +2
INT: 50
WIS: 39
LUK: 70
Points: 56
Perks: Arc (+700% AP) (Aura Boosts X5), Gamer's Mind (100% Resistance to Mental afflictions), Gamer's Body (Damage shows in pain and HP, not body), Gamer's World (Loot defeated enemies, accept quests)
Title: Inner Circle: AP regenerates at 2% per 1min, Add skill Inner Self
SPD: 176

Inner Self LV 1: Meditate to restore AP
Passively increases AP Regen by 0.1% per 1sec
Actively increases AP Regen by 0.75% per 1sec
Active Cost: Remain Still
Increases with INT and WIS

I equipped the title, and back to the Nobody title, and it seems I need Inner Circle on if I'm to actively use Inner Self, but with another title equipped, I could still get the passive regen.

I poured 10 points into DEX, hoping it would give me something cool. The different stats give bonuses at separate intervals, so here's me hoping it was like INT for a bonus at 50.

Aaaaannnd nothing. Looks like it's every hundred levels for DEX, or some arbitrary number between them. But still, at this point, I must be faster than Ruby...

Wow, I'm faster than a girl who's whole thing is speed. Gotta have a race with her.

"Who's the kid?" I heard a gruff voice ask from behind me. The owner of said voice was a shaggy looking man with a grey dress shirt, salt-and-pepper hair, and a massive sword stuck to his back. Behind him stood Ozpin and Glynda.

Name: Qrow Branwen
Age: 45
Race: Human
Title: Out of the Nest
LV: ?

Wait... If level can be predicted by age, then why are there not one, but two people in their 40s in Ozpin's group, while Port is excluded? Were Glynda and this Qrow guy that exceptional? Or did leveling get nigh impossible once you reach some pre-set soft cap? Or does leveling become a matter of skill rather than stat growths after a certain point? Or can levels and stats go down at all? Or am I just wrong as hell?

"His name is Jaune Arc," Ozpin replied, and walked past Qrow. "He reduced Port's Aura by nearly seventy five percent with a single punch. As unlikely as it sounds, I recorded the fight in the event you didn't believe me."

Qrow stood still for a few seconds, and reached into his shirt for... a flask, which he took a drink from.

"Play it," Qrow responded, placing his flask back into his shirt.

Qrow grabbed a chair and sat beside me, giving me barely a nod, and stared blankly at a holo screen that rose from Ozpin's desk. Standing behind his desk beside Goodwitch, Ozpin pressed a button, and the quick battle between Port and I played, slowed down to be easier to follow. I feel that was done for my sake.

A single weapon clash, two gunshots, and a punch is what the battle consisted of.

/LB/

"Mr. Arc, if you would follow me please," Goodwitch asked while Qrow and Ozpin talked. After the video of my battle was played several times, she led me away as per Ozpin's instruction.

Goodwitch led me to the elevator, and she inserted a key into a slot on the panel. "Ozpin has informed me that you are willing to join us. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, that's right," I replied, and activated Inner Self in order to grind it. I also activated Grimm Muscle. With the increases my Arc perk granted my regen, as well as the INT and WIS boosts, Grimm Muscle was practically free. However, I don't think I'd be able to use any other reasonable AP skill and keep it free. However, at base, Inner Self's active regen was 8.75% per second, meaning that in little over ten seconds, I fully regen my AP. In about two seconds passive, I earned the cost of Grimm Muscle. If I could stack the skill, I could have dozens of Grimm Muscle active, but it refused to stack on itself.

But the Active of Inner Self held a similar feeling to meditation, blocking out most of the external world. I knew this because Goodwitch shook me out of my trance.

"Jaune, please pay attention," Goodwitch said sternly. "I'll ask again; do you know exactly what you're getting into?"

I shook my head. "No, Professor Ozpin gave me a rough outline a month ago about the seasonal maidens and one being treated here in the school," I replied. "Sorry for zoning out Professor Goodwitch, I was grinding a new skill."

Goodwitch nodded. "Yes, Ozpin has told me about your... unique semblance," She replied, pausing halfway through. "And please, when in the group of us, refer to us by our first names. It saves time, and dissuades a hierarchy. From what I've seen, you're stronger than Qrow and myself, so there's no need to feel subordinate," Goodwi- Glynda offered.

I nodded. "Thanks, Glynda. But could you give me a more detailed explanation of what I'm to be doing?" I asked. Ozpin could want me to observe the school population, make an international power move for him, I just didn't know.

The elevator doors opened to a large, dimly lit room about the size of the cafeteria, possibly larger. Huge cement columns acted as supports, reaching up to the ceiling. At the end of the room was something glowing green. If I had the Clairvoyance skill, I might have been able to see it in detail, but as it is, it was a green glowy smudge.

"It's not my place to say, Jaune," Glynda replied, and took out her scroll, likely to message Ozpin to hurry up.

After a few minutes of relative silence that included Glynda standing still and looking professional while I idled on my phone. Well, I wouldn't say idled; I sent Pyrrha a message saying I went to see Ozpin. Not a total lie, but I felt pretty bad. While my Semblance has been explained in detail to them, or as much detail as I myself know, my team doesn't know exactly how powerful I am. Sure, they know the numbers, but when I can increase those numbers by multiples of five and ten, they didn't matter. By observing each member of my team, ever since Observe reached 20, I got a rough description of Semblances of those I could read. Pyrrha had ferrokinesis, Nora powered up by absorbing negative electrical charges, and Ren had material displacement. I had a rough idea of what they could do, but they had no clue of the exact strength I'm capable of.

After several minutes of waiting, Ozpin and Qrow stepped out of the elevator.

"Jaune, follow us," Ozpin ordered. I wordlessly put away my scroll and followed the older hunters, feeling things were about to become serious. "I gave Qrow a brief explanation of your Semblance, but I feel you should explain. For consistency's sake."

I nodded in response, and turned to Qrow as we walked toward the green glowing thing. "My Semblance turns my body, mind, and experiences into one suiting a video game, or an RPG to be accurate. There are three basic perks it gives me, which are Gamer's Mind, Body, and World. The Mind gives me absolute protection against mental afflictions as well as complete sensibility, the Body negates any damage done to my body and converts it into a health bar, and the World causes killed enemies to drop items such as lien, weapons, and skill books. Every person has six attributes, and they are STR, DEX, VIT, INT, WIS, and LUK. I gain five every level, while everyone else has six per level. Everyone, including myself, has three resource bars; health points, mana points, and Aura points. From what I've seen, I'm the only one that can draw from the MP freely, while others, mainly dust users, naturally drain the resource when using AP. My Semblance also allows me to gain attribute points independently of leveling up, which is what allows my 416 base STR and 318 base VIT at only level 18. As it is now, my maximum STR with skills active is... good god, little over a million," I explained, and by double checking my math... If I activated every STR boosting skill, I would have undoubtedly killed Port. "For context, Pyrrha's base STR is 65, with a boost of 30 percent. If I activated every STR boosting skill, Professor Port would have been less than paste on the ground."

It has never really dawned on me just how powerful I am.

"From what Oz has told me, you forged your way in here," Qrow stated flatly. "You expect me to believe that, in over a month, you have gained enough power to put every other hunter to shame?" Qrow asked sarcastically. "Sorry Oz, not buying it. As strong as he is to beat Peter, I refuse to believe that someone's Semblance gives them this much power."

Ozpin nodded, and stopped walking. The green glow... It was a machine that had a lady in it...

"Qrow, you know my affinity for Semblances. Jaune can reach these levels of power, and has the capability to reach higher with ease. With his strength at what it is now, he can easily up the stat by simply exercising. You probably haven't seen anything of its like, but there have been friends of mine with Semblances as odd, if not as powerful, as Jaune's. One man in particular had a changing Semblance, which based its power off of whatever religious blessing he received last," Ozpin explained, and took a sip of coffee. "He could even transfer between religions for different powers."

When Qrow didn't have a response, Ozpin turned to me. "The woman in the pod you see is the Fall Maiden; a woman by the name of Amber. Several months ago, she was attacked by three individuals, one of whom stole a portion of her powers. Qrow here confronted them before they could steal the whole of her powers."

After several seconds of silence, Ozpin continued. "With your power being what it is, I'm asking something that I can trust only you to do. We will be hosting this year's Vytal Festival, and students from other academies will be attending here. Due to the age restriction on the Maiden's powers, they can only be inherited by someone the age of twenty or younger. What I want you to do is to look out for anyone that stands out."

"Ruby has a bracketed 'S' beside her race. Does that count for anything?" I asked, recalling the first day I had this power.

"Ms. Rose is special for a separate reason, Jaune. Her silver eyes make her different than anyone else," Ozpin said, and Qrow nodded in response.

"My niece has powers even better than the maidens," Qrow said with a grin. "As good as your offense is, if she could control her power, she'd kick your ass kid."

At my strength, I'd just need to twitch, and she'd be blown away from the shockwave, but okay.

"Getting back on track," Glynda near-growled, "If you see anyone that stands out, come to us. You may be required to eliminate them," She warned.

"By eliminate, you mean..." I received no response, but their silence spoke volumes.

I made ready to leave and rejoin my team, but Ozpin stopped me with one last question.

"Jaune, what are our titles?"

I paused, and quickly observed the three to confirm the titles. "Out of the Nest, Dominating Witch," Qrow barked a laugh, "Storyteller," I responded, taking a breath before pointing to myself, "and Inner Circle."

/LB/

Standing outside my door, I waited with my scroll in my hand. It was well after 2 AM, but there was light coming from under the door. I opened the door, ready for the berating I would be getting.

Instead, everyone was doing their own thing. Ren was sitting up in his bed reading while Nora lay across his legs playing a handheld, and Pyrrha was... meditating? I would think Ren would be the one to do that, but then again, I'd never think I'd be the literal strongest person on the planet.

"What took you?" Nora asked with a yawn, pausing her game.

"Ozpin wanted to talk to me about the Leotine," I lied in response. They seemed to accept it, so I went to bathroom.

When I stepped out, my team members were staring at me.

"Why did you avoid us?" Pyrrha asked, getting up from her meditation.

I lowered my head. "You guys deserve a better leader than me. As strong as I am, I still put you three in danger. I could've killed the Leotine quicker, but I wanted to prove that I could coordinate us."

"You coordinated us perfectly, I was the one to not keep up," Ren replied, and gestured to the thick white line along his bicep. "This is entirely my fault Jaune. You saw a chance to kill it, and you took it. If you didn't, Nora likely would have been killed."

"But your arm-"

"I would trade my arm for Nora any day," Ren replied, raising his voice a few notches. Nora shifted herself off of Ren's legs, and gave him a one-armed hug. "I was the one to get caught in its mouth, and you healed me perfectly. No harm done."

"Now if we're all happy, I'd like to get to bed," Pyrrha stated, and flicked the lights off with her Semblance.

Thing is, I didn't need sleep. Fatigue is something my Gamer's Body doesn't allow. I slept for the sake of sleeping, but I needed to test something. So waiting for everyone to fall asleep, I slipped on my shoes and walked to the roof of my dorm.

For the second time that night, I found myself looking directly up at the shattered moon that hung in the sky. Everyone in the school didn't even hold a candle to my power combined, but if Qrow was telling the truth about Ruby's power, I needed to develop some ranged skills that didn't allow whatever silver-eyed hunters to get close to me. I have no idea what they did, but range is always a good thing.

I activated every STR boosting skill I had, and let out a punch toward a distant mountain. The shockwave would have probably rendered me deaf if it weren't for Gamer's Body, but that's besides the point.

On the mountain was a forest. Key word being 'was'. More than a third of the trees were knocked down, and I could see dust being kicked up from the ground by what was likely a rockslide.

Performing an action has created skill Far Strike

Far Strike LV 1: Strike enemies with distant melee attacks
DMG reduced by 1/3 per 150 meters
Cost: 20 AP per 15 meters
Max Range: 500 meters
Max Range may be increased by paying additional Cost

This... This can work. If whoever we're fighting has a Silver Eyes, I might be able to take them down without getting too close.

Several yells of surprise sounded out from below, and it took me a minute to realize that it was probably because of the shockwave I caused.

/LB/

"Today we will be doing one versus four battles," Glynda announced the second the last person sat down. "First up will be Pyrrha Nikos versus Team CRDL, and immediately following that will be Jaune Arc versus Team RWBY."

Pyrrha's matchup was fairly boring. She cleaned up so efficiently, It was a wonder that she didn't fall asleep. As strong as Cardin is, he was simply too slow to hit my partner. If he did, that would be game, but the logic of 'I can hit you but you can't hit me so I win' won out. The remainder of his team had decent teamwork, but Cardin's overcompensating ego got in the way.

So now my turn against the second best freshman team.

RWBY stood on the opposing side, while I started cracking my knuckles.

"An additional ruling," Glynda said before activating the 60 second countdown, "Mr. Arc will not be using any weapons, move from his position, or use his right arm."

As fair as she could make it, but RWBY took offense to that, Yang in particular.

"Prof, that's not fair in the least. Sure he took me down in a punch, but that's just unfair. He can't be that strong," Yang complained. Ruby seemed to agree, Weiss shrugged, and Blake... Blake-d.

"As unfair as you may think this is Ms. Xiao Long," Glynda admonished, "Mr. Arc is far more powerful than you can imagine. Begin!"

I raised my left hand, activated Grimm Muscle, and flicked at RWBY with Far Strike, taking down Weiss and Yang instantly, While Ruby sped out of the way, and Blake left one of her shadow clones. Taking aim with their weaponry, they fired at me, and I let them do so while I took out a Fire Dust Crystal, and generated fireball after fireball in their direction, and flicked my tongue to attack with Far Strike. Soon enough, after two seconds, Blake was taken down when my Far Strike hit her gut, and rocketed her out of the ring.

"Last one left, Ruby!" I called over the fireballs. I Observed the Crystal to see it had plenty of charge left. "Come on and hit me, Ruby! Bullets won't work!" Well, bullets did work, but I just regenerated AP faster than they could damage me. They hurt like hell, but with the knowledge that I wouldn't have any actual damage to my body, I couldn't help but pretend they did nothing.

Ruby took my bait, and rushed forward, Crescent Rose ready to cleave through my chest. I simply slapped it with my hand, lodging it into the ground, and lazily punched Ruby in the gut, emptying her AP.

I deactivated Grimm Muscle, and looked up at my AP bar. It regened at an obscene rate, and reached 100% within seconds.

There was no applause to my victory, no cheers of such overwhelming success like what Pyrrha got. Instead, I was stared at.

Your level has increased by 1! You have 51 Attribute Points to spend!

Screw it, I'm dumping 41 into WIS. I want that Clairvoyance skill now.

By increasing your WIS above 50, you have earned skill Application of Forms

Application of Forms LV 1: Tech is more efficient
Decreases energy consumption of electrical devices by 1%

Clairvoyance LV 1: See more than an average man
Passively improves vision by 10%
Actively see beyond the visible spectrum of light
Spectrums available: Ultra-Violet
Active Cost: 10 HP per 1sec

So the Application of Forms is decent. My scroll will last a bit longer... Lightning dust. It increases the output of Lightning Dust. Time to learn some Dust skills.

I activated Clairvoyance, and bar the burn in my skull from the skill, it was absolutely amazing... Cardin needs to do laundry. Yesterday.

And good lord Yang.

Nora and Ren...

TURN OFF. TURN THAT SHIT OFF, DO NOT WANT.

Chapter Text

I sat at the end of the cafeteria tables, and around me was most everyone who prided themselves on their physical strength. After combat class was a nervous time. In the three minutes it took me to get to the cafeteria, I received about a dozen challenges from said crowing students. I didn't reply to them in the hall, and they think I'll reply to them as I eat my chicken nuggets. They clearly don't understand my priorities.

Someone, I think it was Cardin, recorded my fight, likely hoping to see me get pummeled. Instead, however, he got a video of me, quite literally, single handedly destroying one of Beacon's most talented freshman teams by flicking at them. Weiss ended up having several broken ribs, Blake had a dislocated shoulder, and Ruby had internal bleeding that had to be attended to. The only one without any damage that needed attending to was Yang, but she went to the infirmary to be with her team as they recovered...

Getting off track. Strong students watched video of me destroying RWBY, told other strongs, and people want to keep titles as strongest.

Barring the annoying strong students, the rest of my team sat around me, doing their best to ignore the crowd of people staring at us with the collective subtlety of a gravity dust bomb.

"So Jaune," One fashionable student greeted. "My teammate Yatsuhashi asked me to arrange a match with you. Him versus you, what do you say?"

Name: Coco Adel
Age: 18
Race: Human
Title: Caffeine Bullet
LV: ?

Her teammate was standing some distance away, silently looking me over, likely judging my stature.

Name: Yatsuhashi Daichi
Age: 19
Race: Human
Title: Mountain Swinger
LV: ?

"Eh..." I groaned, making a show of laziness. "More concerned with my food right now than I am with punching an organic mountain, but thanks." Even though my Gamer's Body eliminated my need for food, I had to keep up appearances. Totally not that I like the taste. Only logical reasons here.

Coco huffed, pouted, and fixed up her beret. "What, not a big, strong enough man to do it?" She questioned in a tone I most certainly recognize; a flirtatious tone.

"He already said no," Pyrrha pointed out with a bit of venom in her tone. "If he wants to-" She stopped as I cut her off.

"If your teammate can last a second in an armwrestle, I'll fight him," I said, holding a hand to Pyrrha to calm her down. Coco nodded and brought Yatsuhashi over, and seated him between Ren and Nora. Nora fixed that problem by jumping over Yatsuhashi and glomming onto the unfazed Ren.

"The name's Yatsuhashi Daichi, of Team CFVY," He greeted in a deep voice, and propped up his massive arm onto the table. I grasped his hand and activated Call of the Arc, immediately getting me a level in it, bringing me to 3.

"Start!" Coco yelled, thinking Yatsuhashi would last.

His arm went through the table instantly.

"Point zero nine seconds," Ren answered, and played back a slow motion video on his scroll. I didn't even notice him recording, but meh.

"Rest in peace!" Nora exclaimed.

/LB/

"I feel that team RWBY has a lot more going on than we do," I muttered as my team walked into a bookshop by the name of 'Tukson's Book Trade'. Blake mentioned it once, and I wanted to see if they had anything that would constitute as a skillbook. "I mean, as fun as being the strongest team is, they're greeting some foreign students while I dragged you to a bookstore to exploit my Semblance."

Ren held his hand up to me. "Jaune, it's alright. I've been meaning to pick up a few books for myself on philosophy."

"And I needed to get out anyway," Pyrrha supplied.

Nora simply followed Ren to the religion and philosophy section in the corner, followed by Pyrrha, who looked at some textbooks nearby.

The thing is, the section Ren went to was fairly barren; two shelves only, and both being about three feet long. Not a lot of religious people, I figured, what with humans and faunus being capable of acts depicted in scriptures... Skills. There may be skills in the section, and if I'm guessing correctly, they were based on resource regen.

So, walking over there, I Observed the selection there was.

By leveling Observe to 30, you have gained additional benefits!
You can now: Observe Intent, Other's Body Damage, and Levels up to 50 above your own!

While the plus to my level range is nice, I learned that a person's fighting style and ability has about 70% to do with their Semblance. By that, I mean Ruby has a decent chance to take down a third year, so long as her Semblance is capable of avoiding her opponent's Semblance. My team was considered very odd in that regard, as we don't have Semblances that are immediately obvious; Ren provides a sort of cloaking Aura to him and others, making the targeted person disappear from Grimm's view, Pyrrha doesn't advertise hers freely, and Nora... She just passively stores negative charges in the air all the time, so she's normally just really strong, and those boosts aren't Observable. Possibly because it's not her Aura itself powering her, but electricity itself, and mine...

But I digress. I grabbed all the books that turned up as skill books, being four in total, and browsed the rest of the store. All told, I ended up with five skill books, the last coming from children's fairy tales, believe it or not.

After paying the cashier, a puma faunus by the name of Tukson, oddly enough, I looked at the books properly.

Brother Old, Brother New LV 1: Create a temporary duplicate
Passively grants +11% faster reaction time
Active: Creates a body clone that you control
Body clone will disperse after taking 1% of your total AP in damage
Body clone will have 10% of your total Attributes, after boosts
Body clone will have up to 5 skills you assign it at moment of creation
Current body clone limit: 1
Active Cost: 400 AP per 1sec
Two brothers, one of old ight and one of new darkness, came together to create a species both would be proud of. The original peoples of Remnant were weak and fragile, but very innovative

World of Forms LV 1: Increased efficiency in all things
Passively causes everything to take 1% less energy to operate
Active: All objects are 11% more effective
Active Cost: 50 AP
Requires skill Application of Forms in order to use Active

Empiricist's Senses LV 1: See the world for what is factually there
Passively makes you aware of illusions of any kind
Active: Improves all senses by 5%

Active Cost: 10 HP per 1sec

Rationalist's Mind LV 1: The world is only observable through thought
Passively increases INT and WIS by 11%
Active: Reduces AP consumption by 11%
Active Cost: 20 MP per 1sec

The Major Arcane: The power of the Fool to the World
You cannot currently learn this skill. 150 LUK, 60 WIS, and 60 INT required.

So for The Major Arcane skill, I need to more than double my LUK, and add ten to my INT. The INT will be just fine, gaining 10 points shouldn't take too much effort, but LUK is going to be a bitch. I got to 70 by exploiting my Semblance, but it refuses to budge... Poker, I guess?

/LB/

"Conditioning of the body is something that is largely overlooked in combat training, as our natural Auras already heighten our physical capabilities," Glynda stated to the class. Since the me vs. RWBY match, I haven't been called up, and I haven't gone hunting Grimm, so my stats stayed stagnant, barring my INT and LUK which have increased by 2 and 3 from playing a large amount of blackjack and poker. But enough getting off track, Glynda was talking, and she could smell distraction.

"By conditioning our bodies, we gain an increased amount of resistance to harm, giving our Auras less work. If Mr. Arc could come to the front, and help me demonstrate," She ordered/asked/ordered.

I hopped down to the stage, and linked my Aura Meter to the display on the room's large screen. "Any time professor," I said, and placed my hands behind my back, activating Cuts and Bruises.

Glynda looked up to the mass of confused students, and started speaking again, grabbing the Aura Caliber from its holster on my hip. "What I am about to show you is something that Mr. Arc's Semblance allows. While physical conditioning is excellent, it will not approach a Semblance that allows for immediate physical reconstruction. Do not attempt this; if you do, I won't be able to tell you I told you so. This demonstration is purely to show you what you cannot, under any circumstances, handle without your Aura"

Glynda pointed my gun at my head, and took the shot. It felt incredibly weird, temporarily missing part of my brain. My Gamer's Body kept me from actually losing my senses, and reformed my nearly blasted apart skull instantly, but for the brief moment that the Fire Dust bullet passed through my head, I was fully aware of my surroundings. It felt like my senses were just being interpreted by different means.

I've tested this before, Cuts and Bruises, that is. I've gone as far as chopping off my own arms and legs, ripping out my own ribs, and shooting myself in the face. This really wasn't that new to me, and the pain that accompanied these actions just felt... pedestrian.

However, even though I was fine, the rest of the class reacted. As physically strong as I was, seeing my skull get blown to literal burning bits and reforming immediately after was apparently frightening to everyone except my team, who have seen me test the limits of my abilities, which so far haven't been found by my own means.

Several exclamations of 'Holy shit' 'What the Hell' and 'Jaune' were all heard, even after I reformed my head. As the gamer's Body keeps me from permanent damage, there's no space on my body that's a weak point. The way my skull blew apart was the combination of the Fire Dust round in conjunction with Glynda's Semblance. If it were a normal round, there would only be a small blood splatter on the ground, rather than the massive pool of blood that stained the ground and my clothes. The giblets of my skull also stuck around, rather than disappearing to make up the matter of my new head.

Where my new head came from, I'll probably never know. Maybe something similar to how water dust creates water out of nothing? Not too worth thinking about right now; I have a class that thinks I'm immortal.

Glynda handed me my gun, which I holstered.

"Can anyone for certain pin down what Mr. Arc's Semblance is?" Glynda asked as I slumped down into my seat. Weiss was the first to get over Glynda casually using her Semblance to clean up my splattered skull, and thus, first to answer.

"It looks to be a sort of matter construction Semblance," Weiss started slowly, likely still taking it in. "He never seemed to receive any physical damage when in spars or training, and I have seen him form a katana in person. The Semblance may also be increased in its abilities due to Arc's both massive Aura, and fast regeneration."

Glynda shook her head. "While that is an excellent theory, it is also incorrect. If you were paying attention to his Aura Meter, you would have noticed that it did not decrease at all. Mr. Arc, if you would?" Glynda gestured to her arm... She wanted me to cut off an arm.

Ugh...

I pulled Hell's Insight out of the air, jumped down to the stage, and slid it right through my torso. An arm is too casual, plus, the action got me to LV 31 in Physical Endurance. That 62% damage reduction is delicious.

My Aura didn't reduce a drop. Not that it could, but when I just made an entirely new body waist down, I couldn't blame my classmates from being shocked.

"That's just impossible!" Cardin shouted. "You can't just reverse damage! A month ago, I matched him blow-for-blow! How is this even possible?"

"Good question," I replied, storing my sword. "Simply put, I did take damage, my physical body just doesn't care. Paired with an old ability I learned, I stopped my Aura from healing the vitality I lost. My Semblance immediately reconstructs my body as it gets destroyed for no cost to my own resources, while this skill negates the usage of a resource, that resource being Aura, from healing my body. If I were on the verge of death, you wouldn't be able to tell," I explained. "No, that doesn't give you permission to chop my head off."

/LB/

"Didn't Blake go missing the other day?" I asked my team promptless, as we studied in our dorm. Well, they studied. I was working on Ninjas of Love book 4. Just four more pages. 4 more writer's blocked pages... HOW SHOULD IT END FOR GOD SAKE?

"Yes, I think it had something to do with the White fang attack at the docks," Ren replied, reading from a book he got from Tukson's yesterday.

My eyes widened. "Really? Weiss shouldn't have been too tough on Blake if she helped stop it."

My teammates looked at me oddly.

"Because Weiss is a Schnee... And Blake is a faunus..." I said, thinking it was the most obvious thing in the world. Even if I didn't have Observe, I now kept my Clairvoyance and Empiricist's Senses on, even though I see stuff I don't want to see. I now could see most infrared on top of ultraviolet, and my senses have developed far enough that I could see through bits of cloth, paper, and other thin things... Now that I think about it, it wasn't obvious. "Semblance. Her race is listed. Nevermind me."

A light knocking sounded from the door, and I could smell a light tuna scent. Lovely, she heard me. I had no doubt.

"Deus Ex Machina..." I mumbled, and opened the door. Lo and behold, Blake.

"I'm borrowing your leader," She stated to my team, and shut the door. Aaaaaaand I still had my work on NOL in my hand, in a notebook.

"How did you know?" She demanded, pressing me up against a wall. I literally just wrote this. May as well make however this pans out the ending of NOL 4.

"How did I know what?" I asked innocently, and brushed her hand off of my shirt collar. Well, I went to, but Blake retracted her hand, likely in fear of it getting broken. Why do people assume I can't control it? When it's a massive boost like nearly 30 at once, of course I'd apply too much force, but I haven't really improved all too much within the past bit. To be fair though, I did squeeze a grape too hard during breakfast, causing the innards to explode across the table, knocking Ren and Ruby over. I was just testing what several thousand strength could so to a grape.

"I heard you tell your team I'm a faunus," She stated, staring at me with... dead tired eyes. Wow, I thought cats like sleep. "How. Did. You. Know?"

I rolled my eyes, and poked her bow. "Your bow twitches," I pointed at her eyes, "Your eyes are oddly angled and highly reflective," finally, I pointed at her mouth. "And to top it off, you have sharper teeth than an average human. I've also seen you work in low light, react to noises beyond a human pitch, and you have a tuna addiction."

Not going to mention I knew this fact because of my Semblance, but due to Clairvoyance and Empiricist's Senses, I could tell these things without Observe. Due to keeping them on at all times, they have gained a healthy amount of levels as I gained an unhealthy knowledge of everyone's laundry habits.

QUEST: Autumn's Blurred Queen
Task: Intercept the Half-Maiden
Bonus: Find out who the Half-Maiden is before any Beacon Staff
Secret: ?
Secret: ?
Secret: ?
Completion: 500000 EXP
Bonus Completion: 100000
Secret Completion: 300000 Per Task
Failure: Death of countless Valian citizens, Fall of Vale, Fall of Beacon, Possible Death of Player
Enforced Quest

I immediately used Observe on Blake, but nothing unusual showed up. Well, her MP and AP had pretty sizable dents in them. There may be the possibility that the Maiden powers don't show up on Observation... I'll have to Observe Amber, as disturbing as that is, Observing a comatose girl. But since this quest appeared when I was talking to Blake, I have to assume she's somehow connected...

Using my brain hurts. I don't want to think about what Blake coud be doing, but I have to assume it's connected to the Fall Maiden, and just hope that whatever Blake is doing is against her, rather than for. I'd rather not kill a member of Team RWBY, but...

"Why do you look like you ran eight triathlons with an empty Aura?" I asked, gesturing to her with my notebook, instantly realizing my mistake as she saw the title. As nice as it would be if her title was a coincidence, it was too specific.

"Never mind me, what do you have in your hand?" She asked, crossing her arms and staring at my notebook. Although, notebook was an understatement, as I had a full length novel tucked in there... minus four pages.

"A book," I answered simply, and turned to leave, but not before Blake snatched it out of my hands, and started flipping through it. I didn't really want to grab it from her; I might jerk my hand a little too hard and ruin my months of hard work.

...

...

...

"This isn't based on any of the books. It's OC ridden. Burn this fan fiction."

For the first time in weeks, I let out a genuine, wholesome laugh. I grabbed my book back, and laughed my way back into my room.

"Get some sleep, Blake. Whatever it is you're doing, it comes after your health," I said before closing the door, and continued to laugh. It was just so... priceless, seeing a fan think the next book is a fan fic! Perfect ending. The supporting male tells the heroine Kiji that she simply can't be the Masked Ninja, but guess what?

Gotta send this to my publisher!

"You look happy, did you find a baby sloth?" Nora asked, bouncing lightly on her bed.

"No, no sloths," I answered, and tossed the book over to my bed. "Just that Blake just called my latest novel a garbage fanfiction."

I have previously told them I'm an author, and gave them a rough summary of what I write, barring the steamy scenes. Thankfully, none of them have picked up the books. I'd likely die of embarrassment if it weren't for Gamer's Mind keeping me from that.

"Best part, it's getting published in about a week. It's going to be hilarious."

Chapter Text

This is just unfair.

Since I don't need sleep, I can use those eight hours to train whatever I like. I mean, before now, I didn't, but hey, no time like the present.

So there I was, about twenty miles out into the Emerald Forest. I was using Observe on everything I came across, and leveled it up to LV 50, where it seemed to cap off, alongside killing tons of Grimm, letting me level a total of 8 times, adding over 10k to my current AP stores. But that wasn't the unfair bit.

No, the unfair bit was that when Observe hit level fifty, it got nerfed. Apparently, now I wasn't able to see the exact HP, MP, or AP of people, nor could I see their attributes. While I could observe a full 100 levels higher than myself, and got full descriptions of people's Semblances, those stat readings were a huge advantage. I did, however, get to keep full Observation of allies; ie: JNPR and maybe RWBY, depending on what counted as allies.

It made me wonder who or what kept my Semblance balanced. So far, there have been two patches; Training weights in inventory and this Observe nerf. I guess it made sense why both would be nerfed, but who exactly was doing it? Was it my sarcastic complaining reaching my subconscious, or some deity of a long dead religion watching me like a let's play?

Lamenting on the second nerfing of my Semblance over, I brought my new sword, a pale green claymore named 'Jade Shard', up through a Beowolf's throat. My attributes didn't level, but plenty of my passives did. Oh boy did they ever. I managed to find a way to use the active for Inner Self while not meditating. Simply put, I told the body clone from Brother Old Brother New to use it. All gains the clone got, I got immediately, including skills, attributes, and EXP.

With current passives being at what they are, my INT now receives a higher percentage boost, meaning raising INT will boost my AP more than VIT will, and make most casting spells more effective. It's been awhile since I found any MP skill worth using in combat other than Rationalist's Mind, but that just mitigates cost rather than damages things, but stats aside, there was some massive Grimm that decided I looked tasty.

Draefend, Alpha Boss Beowolf: LV 63
HP: 100%

A beowolf the size of a house with crimson red bones rather than white. And it's named. What in the hell? I'll have to ask Port about this, what with him being the literal expert.

I sent my body clone to deal with it, figuring several thousand in STR would be enough. He put a dent in Draefend, I'll give him that, but it was a 20% dent that resulted in the clone dispelling when Draefend hit it a mere three hits. So it could end me in three hundred hits, not factoring for my regens, HP...

I activated my skills, leapt up to it, and smashed it into oblivion with my foot. GG Draefend...

Hunting is boring.

Your level has increased by 1! You have 56 unspent Attribute Points!

Of course I do. GOD this is boring. May as well head back with my new, 65k AP count...

I have the AP stores of a level 224. I don't even know if that level is possible. But still, I had nearly double that in HP, even if something did manage to destroy my AP stores, I had HP to just... Tank literally every attack. No strategy, just let them hit me until I hit them and delete them from the universe. Calling on my Aura to enhance my body's physicals, I bolted back to Beacon. With several skills boosting my reaction time, and my Arc perk multiplying those boosts, I dodged every single branch, tree, pebble, and Beowolf in my way. It was almost four in the morning, when breakfast was starting to be made. While I don't need it, waffles taste really good, and eating boosts my regens for a short while. I found the higher in calories the food was, the more it regenned HP, for example.

/LB/

Name: Peter Port
Age: 135
Race: Human
Title: Blunderbaxe Battleboss
LV: 114

I can read Port's level now. Neat. But storytime with Port as first period? Not so neat.

I reached into my pocket, where I opened my inventory to pull out an odd piece of loot Draefend dropped. On top of being weird, it was the only thing the Beowolf dropped, barring cash.

Witch Trial - Ring
+ Corruption
Pity to the Poor Soul of the Trial

It gave me what I'm assuming is a status effect, and had creepy flavour text. If I tried it, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't die, but Corruption sounds like a nasty effect. Maybe it has a huge stat boost paired with some mental effect? If it's mental, I'll be fine since I have Gamer's Mind protecting me, and any permanent damage damage will be fixed with Gamer's Body.

"Mr. Arc, as strong as you are, it would be beneficial for you to pay attention!" Port barked from the front. I shoved the odd ring back into my inventory, when I received a notification.

Left Hand Corruption - 12%

I only held the ring, and I received a twelve percent Corruption status. I looked to the back of my hand, only to see nothing really wrong. My palm, however, had red veins along the skin, and several light purple spots that gathered at the centre of my palm, where I held the ring.

"As I was saying, in just a week, Beacon will be releasing promotional advertisements for the Vytal Festival. While everyone is able to participate, the strongest students of each year are required to be part of a showcase, alongside their partners," Port explained.

I looked back to my hand to find that the Corruption has lessened to 7%. I decided to check my status screen to see what it did before it went away.

Corruption: - All Elemental Affinities, + Grimm Blending, - Aura in Corruption, - Mental Stability

So at the cost of Aura usage/effectiveness and any Elemental affinity I have, I can avoid Grimm detection? I'm assuming it's a rate of -1% affinities and Aura for 1% Grimm blending per 1% corruption. So basically, Ren's Semblance but bad. And just holding the ring gave me Corruption at a high rate. I have to wonder what rate I would be Corrupted at if I actually wore the damn thing... Wait, I have to do a PROMO VIDEO?

"Finally paying attention, Mr. Arc!" Port exclaimed as my eyes widened in surprise. "Yes, as you and your partner have the highest combat averages of your year, you will be required to participate. In fact, Professor Goodwitch informed me to send you and Ms. Nikos to the cliffs after class."

"Now, this year, the Vytal festival will be a little different. In past years, the four kingdoms have pit their best against each other for years since the Great War in person versus person combat, but this year, there will also be an event similar to your initiation," Port looked around the room, and seemed pleased to have us paying attention. "From each participating team will be one person that will be dropped into the Valean Badlands, approximately 200 miles out. While most of you can cross that distance in a few hours without breaking a sweat, you will be graded on how many Grimm you eliminate, and will have three full days to return back to Vale proper. As we speak, crews are building drones that will record your movement and actions." Port took a pause, allowing me a moment to think on the upcoming festival.

It wasn't that far away, if I really think about it. I've been here, what, two and a half months? There's only two more months to this semester, then boom, Beacon goes into full Vytal mode, putting a break on the nine hour school days, and emphasising on combat ability. Glynda must be drained at that time, while Ozpin just sits back and relaxes.

There were several questions, but nothing worth too much note. If we have trouble during the 200 mile trek, we have flares to use, lethal blows are not allowed among the first three years- fourth years are allowed to register for a lethal-blow match, and that's only allowed because they have levels comparable to fully fledged hunters, and a high AP capacity as a result. It's been apparently over a decade since the last fatality in a lethal-blow match.

/LB/

"Jaune, what do you think we'll be required to do for the promotion?" Pyrrha asked as soon as we left Port's class, before asking "Could I put my bag in your inventory for now?"

I nodded, and placed the bag into the floating blue window. "I'm not too sure, thought you'd know," I admitted, before slowly equipping my gear. I looked down at myself, and clicked my tongue. "I need better gear for this promo. An armoured hoodie and jeans just don't do it, and the weapons I've been looting are just so plain, but not as plain as the armour I've been getting. Seriously, steel platemail? The best looking thing I got was some cape thing, but it looked like something royalty would wear, not a Huntsman," I complained. I've gotten the Crafting skill, and raised it to a high level with toy building blocks in my spare time. And I'm not talking about grand toy block creations, I just stuck two blocks together, pulled them apart, and repeated. I'm certain I'm good to make a hunter's weapon, given the materials and some time, but I don't really feel like sewing. At all. "I'm going to talk to Goodwitch when I get the chance."

Pyrrha nodded. "I know a good brand for hunter's clothes here in Vale. It started up back in Mistral, and has branches in all of the kingdoms, and a few major settlements. If I'm remembering correctly, they're called 'Woven Spartan'."

I hummed in response. I also knew that Beacon had a forge I could use, and the cost for the materials wasn't much of a concern, considering I have enough Lien to buy up a small company or two. And if the name was anything to go by, I might be able to get something that can work with Pyrrha's outfit.

That might not be too easy, though, since she wears actual metal armour rather than the usual cloth or leathers most hunters go for. As she is, she's the second most armoured hunter of our year, behind Cardin by miles, but Cardin's sheer size makes him suit the plates he has on his body. And while my focus is in sheer, overwhelming power like Cardin, I simply didn't have the body type to make armour look good. In order to have some sort of similar look to Pyrrha, while not looking gaudy, cloth and leather were my only options. The metal plates I have on my hoodie are decent in protection, but good lord are they not Huntsman worthy.

"I hate hunter fashion," I sighed as we approached the cliff. I looked around and saw no one around, barring Glynda, who was waiting with crossed arms.

"Mr. Arc, Ms. Nikos, thank you for seeing me," Glynda said, nodding to the both of us. "I have called you both here to discuss the lethality you are capable of in the tournament."

Rather straight forward of her.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "Lethality?" She asked. "I wasn't aware our Semblances required this kind of attention. I've never had to discuss my Semblance to the Mistral Tournament managers before."

"And while I'm stupidly strong," I started, crossing my arms, "I'm at least capable of not crushing whatever I'm holding." I was starting to get a sense of where this was going. There had to be someone in the tournament who would likely have metal implants possibly, or a Semblance copying Semblance, and use it against me. That would be hellish, having someone just copy my Gamer Semblance. While powerful, their Game wouldn't give them my stats; it just doesn't work like that. My numbers and skills won't just appear to them, or my understanding of human biology means nothing. Regardless of Gamer's Body, my heart still pumped blood, my lungs still breathed oxygen, and my nerves still registered pain. My AP and HP regens were just so high that I didn't care.

"So who do we need to be careful around?" I asked. "You wouldn't call us out here unless there's someone who can be easily killed with a misuse of Pyrrha's polarity," I pointed out.

Glynda narrowed her eyes at me slightly. "General James Ironwood. Nearly half of his body is metallic, and while normally an incredibly powerful man, he's not impervious to magnetism," she answered sharply. "And Mr. Arc, you are capable of physical feats that appear once in possibly two centuries. I'm merely being cautious."

Pyrrha spoke up. "Professor, I am in complete control of my Semblance. I'm sorry, but I'm still not seeing why you called us out here."

"There's the additional issue of the promotional video," Glynda replied. "For the next five hours, I want you two to put together a baseline of what you're comfortable doing, and get practice fighting Grimm as close as physically possible."

"And Mr. arc, you need new armour."

/LB/

"Where are you going, mister one punch?" Yang asked after following my sorry self into a cable car. Said cable car went straight into Vale, and while I no longer threw up on bullheads, they are not my favourite.

I sighed, and sat down on the seat. "Getting some proper Huntsman's clothes, and some material for a proper weapon," I replied.

QUEST: Walk, Walk, Fashion Baby
Task: Get some proper Huntsman's clothes.
Bonus Task: Have Yang help (The Game does not apologise)
Completion: 500 EXP
Additional ? per Bonus
Failure: You have no fashion, you amatuer
Declination: You have no fashion, you amatuer
(Y/N)

Really? This is what I get for accepting all of the quests so far? Fine. I mentally checked the yes option.

"About time, One Punch," Yang laughed lightly. "A hoodie with armour do not suit a Hunter. I know a few places I could drag you to," She paused, then poked my arm. "As strong as you are, you can carry my stuff for me!"

I Observed Yang, and sure enough, I couldn't see her attributes anymore. She did, however, go up another level.

"So I'm a super powered, unnaturally strong Huntsman, and I'm being used as cargo transport," I sighed, leaning back into the cable car's wooden bench, trying to inch away from Yang, who was poking my arm.

"What, are you not big and strong enough?" She asked, smirking.

I activated Brother Old Brother New. "Have that one drag your stuff," I suggested, looking directly at Yang.

Yang... Yang possibly set a new record for dropping one's jaw. She glanced between me and the clone, pointing at the both of me.

I dispelled the clone and started meditating with Inner Self for the rest of the cable car ride.

/LB/

I managed to keep my jeans, and nothing else. From my previous outfit, of course, not at all.

However, this is the third outfit Yang wanted me to try on. It consisted of my jeans, a pale undershirt the colour of birch wood, and a bright yellow, unzipped sports jacket with royal blue trim. My shoes were replaced with brown combat boots, and I now wore a plain azure choker made of supple leather.

"Lemme see it," Yang ordered from outside my dressing room. Giving my hair a final run-through with my hand, I opened the door, and stood in front of Yang, who was sitting on a stool.

She gave a so-so gesture. "It'll work for now, just make sure you get your emblem on your jacket later."

I nodded in response, changed back into my hoodie, and bought the outfit. Pretty boring outing.

While walking back to the cable car station, Yang initiated conversation as I struggled to keep hold of her bags.

"One Punch, how exactly are you so strong?" She asked, elbowing my side lightly.

I shrugged as best as I could without dropping the bags in my arms. "I'm just awesome, I guess. I think my Semblance enhances my strength." What was the assumption on my Semblance again? Matter contruction? "I just add mass to my fist, and force energy out of my elbow, propelling my fist forward. With my Semblance manipulating matter, I create highly energized material, which propels me forward."

I'm lying through my teeth so badly.

Yang shrugged. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine One Punch. Just don't say it's because of a hundred pushups, situps, squats, and a ten kilometer run every day."

...

...

I know she's referencing something.

Chapter Text

Mine and Pyrrha’s part of the promotional video was approximately thirty seconds of raw footage, fifteen on Pyrrha solo, ten on me solo, and five of us paired.

For Pyrrha’s footage, she demonstrated her marksmanship, swordsmanship, spear skills, and how quickly she can change style between the weapons. It took her four seconds for each style, with a mere second in between to change.

My solo footage was me literally doing fingerguns at Grimm, and killing them with my immense strength paired with the skill Far Strike. It was nothing but that. All jokes, all the time. ‘Tis why Pyrrha received more screen time methinks.

Our shared footage was the both of us staring down an impossibly large group of CGI Grimm. If it were real, I believe I would have leveled so many times off of just one percent of the horde. The camera panned to my face as I glance at Pyrrha, giving a short laugh, and then panned to Pyrrha’s face as she smirked toward the horde.

While Pyrrha was in her regular battle armour, I was in the jacket I got while in Vale with Yang, now with the Arc signature double-crest in bright yellow on the back. The cuffs of my jacket also have the crest, but with a design that looked like it was smoldering.

Yeah, while every Arc hunter does indeed use the Arc double-crest, we each have our own design on them. My father’s, for instance, has a padlock in the curve of the inner crescent in order to fit his semblance of killing momentum of anything he touches. I don’t know where I got the idea of heat, but it looks pretty cool.

I had a pendant of the Arc emblem dangling by my choker by a bit of tough chain, letting it rest just below my collarbone. The pendant held some extremely efficient gravity dust I picked up from an Alpha Beowolf a while back.

I also leveled up to 31, bringing my AP to nearly 70k, and my free points to 71. Just five more points, and I’ll be able to learn that Major Arcane skill.

“Fold,” Ren said with a sigh, tossing his cards onto the table.

Which is why I started a huge poker game with both JNPR and RWBY.

I grinned as I looked to Ruby, surprisingly the last one in the round aside from me. My hand was invincible, and I didn’t cheat the whole game. I wasn’t even dealer! I had Cardin deal for us. No chance of collaboration.

Ruby stared at me, determined to get her chips back (we were playing for actual potato chips). “Call,” She said, and threw down a four-of-a-kind fives.

“Royal Flush,” I declared simply, tossed down my cards, and took the bags of chips off the table. Considering I didn’t even trade in a single card for my hand, my luck has to go up a bit...

LUK has increased by 30, because you pulled the most stupid draw in poker!!!

By increasing your LUK to 100, you haved learned the skill !

Lucky Shot LV 1: Being lucky is totally a style! Believe me!
Passively increases accuracy % by LUK as a %
LUK now affects your total AP
Active: Increases STR by LUK
Active Cost: 120 AP per 1/sec

Is a 1 in 650000 probability really worth 30 points? My own high LUK stat probably caused this stupid draw.

My LUK was now at a satisfying 104. I tossed my newly won chips into my inventory, and wordlessly dumped 46 points into LUK, bringing it to the required 150 for the Major Arcane. I would wait until later to learn the skill though; don’t want to have to explain a book bursting into pieces in front of Blake... who left as soon as I sat down. Meh, still don’t want to explain to the remainder of RWBY.

Wait, did I read that right? My LUK increases my STR? And with my Arc perk... that’s an additional 750 STR to what I can just consider my base, as I can keep this new skill up without my AP going down faster than my disgusting regens improved it. And a new maximum STR of... Oh my god, 5,748,485.76. Well, I reach that number for only 3 seconds because of Giant’s Strength, but the rest of the time I can keep up a total 469,269 STR. I highly doubt anything on this entire planet of Remnant can withstand what I can do without Giant’s Strength, and my full strength could likely be catastrophic.

“Well, that was a hand,” I stated plainly, and left to my dorm without another word.

/LB/

The Major Arcane LV 1: The powers of the fool to the world.
Summon an astral minion of the 22 Major Arcane.
#0: The Fool: Sand/Dirt creature, specializes in physical attacks and defenses
#1: The Magician: Fire creature, specializes in ranged fire-based offense
#2: The High Priestess: Terrain/Metal creature, specializes in traps
#3: The Empress: A virus that forms a small humanoid minion on the target
#4: The Emperor: Conjured pistol, extremely fast and controllable bullets
#5: The Hierophant: Water based creature, High utility and good traps
#6: The Lovers: Extremely small insect, shares and multiplies user’s damage against target
#7: The Chariot: Metal based creature, uses extremely precise rapier
#8: Strength: Takes form of metal, excellent combination with large vehicles
#9: The Hermit: Plant apparition, heals user and can be used for minor telepathic skills
#10: Wheel of Fortune: Amplifies any metal object it links to, excellent combination with small vehicles and devices
#11: Justice: Fog based creature, can take control of a number of dead bodies equal to this skill’s level
#12: The Hanged Man: Light based creature, jumps between reflections and attacks with quick, clean cuts
#13: Death: An apparition that appears in the target’s dreamscape, and controls all things in the dream. Damage dealt to target is transferred to reality upon waking up
#14: Temperance: A gel-body that attaches to the user, and absorbs organic material in order to boast an incredible defense
#15: The Devil: A doll that can be controlled remotely, but when attacked it flies into a rage and mercilessly charges all non-allies
#16: The Tower: A small swarm of beetles that can enter the target’s body and cause internal damage
#17: The Star: A highly durable, very precise melee fighter. Can stop time for skill LV/3 sec every minute for 10x skill cost
#18: The Moon: A humanoid fish creature that deals moderate damage above land, and superb damage under water. Allows a moderate control of water
#19: The Sun: A small star with somewhat directable damage.
#20: Judgement: A metallic creature that can animate dirt, and transmute materials
#21: The World: A durable, very precise melee fighter. Can stop time for skill LV/2 for 10x skill cost every minute
Cost: 1000 AP and 10 MP per second, additional 500 AP per second for additional minions
Damage done to minion is transferred to user
Current limit of minions: 1
Scales with INT, WIS, and LUK

You can’t be serious. This skill is busted, and I swear it’s a reference... JoJo. It’s a goddamn JoJo’s refere-

By realising there are many references to fiction in your life, you have earned skill

Bibliography LV MAX: Your Gamer power is full of references!
Each skill, title, and quest you correctly identify as a reference receives a bonus!
Skill Bonus: Skill level reduces cost as a percentage when active, and boosts effectiveness as a percentage when passive
Title Bonus: All stat boosts are increased by your LV/4 before Aura
Quest Bonus: Loot from referenced media as a bonus upon completion of quest (Never known beforehand, sorry Gamer!)

What. How.

Well, better not question things. This skill was a long time coming... and gotten immediately with poker. Only one thing to do now, and that’s to reference the shit outta some show.

“ZA WARUDO!”

And as expected, the golden muscular scuba-diving heart shape addict from a fictional world appeared before me. This is stupid. My Semblance is stupid. Time to have time-stop shenanigans... with a cost of 4950 AP for the half second I get... wait, my World of Forms decreases the cost of everything by 30% passively, and with the INT and WIS scaling of Inner Self, plus the x5 boost to my regen that my Arc perk grants... I can keep my Major Arcane up indefinitely. This is stupid.

Didn’t Yang call me something the other day? One Punch? I didn’t get a title from that, but I imagine it would be STR based, so no need, even with my Bibliography skill. Still, would be nice.

()-()-()

“Fuck it,” Glynda snapped after I cleared RWBY and CRDL at the same time, this time only being allowed to use my left foot. To hear Glynda actually swear... Kinda scary. Everyone was wide-eyed, barring Ruby and Sky Lark, whose eyes were both swollen shut. She took a breather before continuing. “As Mr. Arc has the power of a seasoned huntsman, he will not be ‘fighting’ anymore. The fact that every single one of you lost against him is understandable, but the fact that groups of you can’t even damage him for more than a tenth of a percent of his Aura before he regenerates it is unacceptable!”

I don’t think Glynda knows how much AP and AP regen I have under my belt... Well, as long as she doesn’t do anything rash.

“So in order to show all of you how to actually fight as hunters, I will be facing Mr. Arc,” She announced, rashly. Beautiful.

Some kid in the class, a team leader by the name of Helio Bright, spoke up. “You can’t blame us for not being able to damage him, he’s invincible! His matter control Semblance is too universal, making it perfect!” He complained. A legit complaint as well, considering my Semblance isn’t that at all.

“And what is your Semblance, Mr. Bright, aquakinesis? Do you realize what exactly you can do with it? You could control Mr. Arc’s very movements from outside his range if you cared enough to train,” Glynda retorted, and slapped her riding crop onto her desk. “Enough excuses. The performance in this class is absolutely pitiful. Mr. Arc, take your position, and feel free to use your full movement.”

This was a dumb idea. Well, may as well give me a chance to exercise my day old Major Arcane skill.

“When the counter goes to zero,” Glynda started, and pointed to the large overhead screen, which was at ten, “we begin.”

Name: Glynda Goodwitch
Age: 42
Race: Human
Title: Dominating Witch
LV: ?

Still unknown level? Neat.

As soon as the counter hit zero, I brought out Star Platinum, and stopped time.

Triggering all skills, I used my half-second advantage and rushed Glynda, making it to her in less than a hundredth of a second, poked her head in order to drain most of her AP, swapped Star Platinum for The World, reapplied the stopped time because the cooldown is separate because of course it is, rushed back to my spot, and recalled The World.

When time resumed, I got a notice saying the skill leveled, and Glynda was down to 30%. Looks like I underestimated her AP reserves.

Glynda picked herself off of the ground, and telekinetically tossed me toward the edge of the stage. I summoned The Hermit, and latched the summon onto the stage with its purple vines, and pulled myself back down to the ground. I then summoned Wheel of Fortune into my Aura Caliber pistol that I pulled from my inventory. The Wheel of Fortune turned the Aura Caliber from a properly sized matte, white revolver into and over-sized, hand-cannon of an automatic, all shiny silver with matte white trim. An already pretty gun transformed into an absolutely beautiful weapon of destruction.

Shrugging at having to use such a beautiful masterpiece in a spar, I shot five bullets toward Glynda, who was hit by three, knocking her down to 25%, while I regained my full AP in a blink of an eye. Glynda, however, reapplied her telekinetic grasp on me, forcing me to switch back to The Hermit in order to not be rung out, by grasping the rafters. I shot at Glynda with the normal Aura Caliber in order to divert her attention from me, and dropped down from the ceiling.

Continuing my firing, and reloading my gun by placing the rounds directly into the chamber from my inventory, I also grabbed a potent fire dust crystal from my inventory, and let loose a stream of white-hot fire, and tossed regular gunpowder bullets into the flames.

That distraction set, I summon The Chariot, and dash forward. With bullets going off in random directions, Glynda had her hands full making sure she knew where they were all going...

Or so I thought. Apparently, experience trumps power here, as she saw through my plan and directed all bullets at me. My HP just took the small metal projectiles with ease, so i figured it was fine to continue charging. Wrong again, as Glynda released wave after wave of her rapidly depleting telekinetic energy that forced me back... and off the stage.

With her AP barely above the 15% cut off, she won by ring out against me, who was at full 100%.

Life is full of mysteries.

I climbed back on stage, and looked to my classmates. Not a single one of them had a remotely normal expression on their faces. It was accepted that Glynda was one of Vale’s most powerful huntresses, and too see her curbstomped by a mere student like myself was likely jarring. That, and summons aren’t a thing many people can do.

“There’s more than one way to win in a match,” Glynda stated, wiping the sweat off her brow, and taking a seat. “Remember that during the Vytal Festival, because first years will be put up against fourth years. There are no separate year brackets. Class dismissed, and Mr. Arc, go to Ozpin’s office.”

Wait, why would Ozpin want to... oh, right, I just destroyed Glynda, even though the win was technically hers. He likely wants to check on my progress.

/LB/

“Jaune, I called you here for a very simple reason,” Ozpin stated, standing behind his desk, facing out to the city of Vale. I had only entered the room not even a second earlier. “Qrow has reason to believe that our enemy has finally made her move.”

I frowned. “What makes him so sure?”

“He was looking at the teams from the other kingdoms, and found something odd about one particular team. The team’s name is CEMM (cream), led by one Cinder Fall. Her teammates are Emerald, Mercury, and Mint. While Mint seems to have a fairly clean track, and Emerald’s track has a few thefts, it’s Mercury and Cinder that I’m worried about. Cinder not only displayed extremely overwhelming skill with dust, quickly outpacing all of her peers, but she fits the description of the woman that attacked Amber. Mercury is somewhat more morbid, as he looks exactly like a rumored Hunter-Assassin that went quiet little over a year and a half ago. Qrow said that this Mercury boy and Emerald girl also match the associates of Amber’s attacker.”

I sighed, and massaged the back of my neck. I wasn’t going to like this, was I?

“What do you need me to do?” I asked, already guessing what needed to be done. Ozpin had been over this when I joined the Inner Circle.

“Jaune, I am deeply sorry about this. You have all this power...” Ozpin trailed off, and rested his mug down, a solemn frown on his face. “Please, forgive me for this, but... I have to give you the order to eliminate Team CEMM on sight, no exceptions. Due to the danger they pose to the Kingdom of Vale, the complete and full strength you posses must be used. Mint may not be spared either, she’s too much of a risk to our kingdom’s safety”

“What level mission is this?” I asked coldly.

“Due to the threat, plus the fact that you will most likely be facing a pseudo maiden, plus who may be behind the whole plot...” Ozpin trailed, before picking up his mug and downing the whole thing in one gulp. “Double S class, with additional pay for materials bought for mission. I wish you luck, and demand your secrecy on this matter. If you are caught, you will be punished by the Valean Council, and I will be unable to help you.”

QUEST: Autumn’s Blurred Queen UPDATED
Task: Destroy the Half-Maiden*
Bonus: Destroy the Half-Maiden’s Team**
Secret: ?
Secret: ?
Secret: ?
Completion: 1000000***
Bonus Completion: 200000***
Secret Completion: 1 legendary item per task***
Failure: Death of all Valean citizens, 90% of Valean Hunters, and countless others****
*Task Updated
**Bonus task updated to match main task
***All rewards updated to match difficulty
****Failure updated

I nodded slowly, and willed away the screen. I was just hoping Gamer’s Mind blocked the guilt of killing another person.

Ozpin continued, “The team is from Haven, and should be landing in two days.”

/LB/

“Blake, stop avoiding me,” I said, pulling a signed, collector’s edition of Ninjas Of Love 4 out of my inventory.

“Come on, can you just pause for a second?” I asked when she turned away from me. Ugh, perfect, I try and do a nice gesture and she turns away.

Blake huffed, and sped up her pace, which I matched. “Not talking to you right now!”

“Because you don’t want an author signed copy of book four?” I asked, knowing it would get her attention.

And get her attention it did. She bounced off a clone, snatched the book out of my hands, and bounced off another clone to her original position. Pretty quick movements for her level.

“This is weirder than you know, but thanks,” She said, and started walking away with her head down.

Weirder than I know? HA! She must forget page 80 in volume 2... I wish I could forget that...