Welp, So this actually came to me during a period of 48 hours where I had no internet access and I had already overused my 3G... So yeah, my first story in the RWBY fandom. The premise of the story came to me after I read a Korean manwha: The Gamer.
So yeah, I don't know if I am going to continue this or just leave it as a oneshot, because honestly, I have very little clue to go on from here.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story... seriously.
Hopefully you enjoy this.
Prologue: My Weird Ability
Hello, my name is Jaune Arc, and I am a regular, seventeen year old. Well, regular enough, other than the fact that I've got a secret ability, kind of a weird ability when you look at it. You see, I've got this ability that shows everyone's level, exactly like a videogame. In fact, this ability treats my very life like it were a videogame; with player stats, HP bars, skill stats and trees (I think), even (honest to Monty) quests and experience system.
You see, it all started a couple of years ago when I was fifteen years old. One day I woke up, went to the bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth before going down for breakfast, to look into the mirror to see a floating plaque above my head.
In my bleary half-awake state of mind, I only noticed it after I had finished my shower and was in the midst of brushing my teeth when I finally see it.
I promptly fell over and banged my head against the ceramic toilet's water tank.
I didn't even have time to cry out in pain before it disappeared, leaving me to then flounder around as my pyjama onesie caught and tangled my legs. It took a moment for me to untangle myself finally and stand upright, looking into the mirror, mind fully alert.
What I saw left my mouth hanging wide open enough for a beowolf to enter; there was a plaque hanging in the air directly above my head, in glowing gold font read; The Gamer, and right underneath it was: Lv. 2 Jaune Arc.
I tentatively tried to touch it based off of my reflection alone, but my hand just seemed to phase through the words, after finding no negative effects from trying to touch the floating words, I waved my right hand, then my left hand, and then both of them through the weird floating announcement over my head.
After feeling nothing from my hands, I tried to look up at it, but the words seemed to be attached to the movement of my head.
I was brought out of my shock by the sudden ringing of a bell, causing me to jump ten feet into the air, I landed in a heap on the bathroom floor again, and from the corner of my eye, a tiny window of light popped up with the following message: Waking up has fully replenished HP and Stamina.
Okay, so HP were my health points, but I had a Stamina meter as well?
"Honey, hurry up and come down for breakfast!" I heard my mother called from downstairs.
There was another DING and another window popped up:
Quest Given!
Eat A Meal With Your Family!
And on the bottom right hand corner were the buttons; ACCEPT and DECLINE.
Seriously? That's a quest?
I pressed on the ACCEPT button and the window disappeared.
Quickly drying myself, I got dressed in a regular pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and wore a simple black hoodie over it.
All the while, my mind was racing; was my life now a videogame? and if it was, why an RPG of all types? Why couldn't it be like a dating sim or something, heck, I would be totally okay if it was like, some kind of fighting game; I could pull of some sweet combos!?
Thoughts of why my life was now all of a sudden an RPG game brought back thoughts of the 'great' Arc Family name, and with a sigh, I realized why it would chose to be the way it is.
Being part of a family of famous heroes is stressful as it is.
Stupid so-called 'Legacy'.
When I made it to the kitchen, I was stopped once more in my tracks by what my eyes were currently telling me; sitting at the kitchen table was my father reading the daily newspaper, and standing in front of the stove with her back to me was my mother.
That's pretty normal
What wasn't normal was that, they like me, had floating plaques denoting whom they were.
Above my father was; Hunter and belong that was; Lv. 55 Jonathan Arc in red. He was really strong, I was only a measly level 2.
Turning to my mother, my mouth fell open so fast i heard it hit the floor; like father, above her head, also in red was the term Huntress as well, but underneath it...
underneath that, it said; Lv. 70 Joanne Arc.
Holy Oum! Since when was mom that powerful? My sweet, sometimes overbearing, and totally overprotective mother... there was just no way...
I was brought out of my reveries by my father; "Are you just going to stand there, boy? Sit down"
"Y-Yes dad" I answered, quickly moving forwards and taking a seat beside him at the table.
"Now, now" chimed mother, turning from the stove to face my father. "Don't be so hard on him this early in the day" before turning to face me with a smile. "How are you this morning, Jauney?"
"F-Fine" I answered. before remembering how she had just addressed me. "Please stop calling me that!" I cried. "I'm not a kid anymore!"
"You'll always be my little 'Jauney' to me" she said, there was a twinkle in her eye that I did not like one bit as she turned back to the stove with a hum.
There was silence at the table as mother placed the food in front of us and the three of us began to eat. My father was still reading the newspaper, and mother was humming quietly to herself. I was fine being left alone with my thought about what was currently happening to me; since my life was like an RPG now, there should be theoretical skills and other stuff I could learn... theoretically.
"Um, dad?" I asked, there was only one way to test this out.
"Yes, Jaune?" he answered, not looking up from behind the paper.
"Cou-Could you teach me how to use a sword?" I asked tentatively.
The paper rustling stopped, and then the wall about Vale's current economy came down as he finally faced me fully.
To my shock and slightly creeping horror, there were visible tears welling in his eyes.
I was suddenly lurched out of my chair as my father grabbed me and pulled me into a bone crushing hug.
GAH! I could just barely breath!
over my father's shoulder, another window popped up before me. This one said:
New Skill Learned: Physical Endurance Lv. 1
Type: Passive
Current: 3% reduced physical damage.
Description: The body's durability increases and takes less damage.
Seriously!? That kind of skill was initiated by my dad's bear hug?
"Dear, you're crushing him" my mother said patiently, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I've waited so many years for this" my father said as he released me, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye as he held me before him.
"Yes dear" mother said as she began to rub circles into my father's back, like one would do with a child to calm them down. "But first, Jaune is going to have to do the dishes before the two of you begin playing with swords"
I gave a groan at that. Standing up, I sighed as I made my way to the kitchen sink with the stack of dirty dishes and pots and pans needed to be clean. As I did so, before my eyes, +50 exp appeared and disappeared as a short message appeared before me: Quest Complete!
So I had just gained fifty experience points from eating with my family... huh
Just as I began to run one of the plates under the tap; a window appeared again:
New Skill Learned: Washing Dishes Lv. 1!
Type: Passive
Current: 5% increased speed of dishwashing.
Description: The speed and quality of making dishes clean.
Even that's a skill!? I stared blankly at the pop-up until it disappeared on its own and I was left standing with my pile of dirty dishware.
I guess I should start leveling that up... I guess?
When I finished washing the dishes I received another pop-up telling me: Dishwashing Skill increased by 1.
With that done, I made my way outside to where my father waited. He was standing by a stump with a wooden sword resting upon his shoulder, and another stuck tip-first into the ground in front of him.
Another pop-up appeared; I was getting used to them, they weren't surprising me anymore:
New Skill Learned: Observation
Type: Active
Description: Used to gather slight better detailed information
Deciding to test this ability out, I turned to the wooden sword in the ground. Observe. I thought at it. Instantly, a new window appeared before my eyes.
Item: Wooden Sword (Common)
Damage: 5
Durability: Low
Description: A sword fashioned from wood.
After that windowed, I picked up the wooden sword and another one appeared, this one telling me that I had received a new skill:
New Skill Learned: Sword Mastery Lv. 1!
Type: Passive
Current: 3% increase to damage dealt & 2% increased to attack speed.
Description: the ability to wield a sword skillfully.
"Let's begin, son" my father said cheerfully. "I will teach you how to wield a sword like how your grandfather taught me!"
I spent the better part of the day with my father out in the heat drilling myself to swing a sword. Father also spent some time going over body positioning and stances. Surprisingly, no new windows popped up during this time.
Eventually, it got to midday, and dad called for a break. The second I stopped swinging, +100 exp flashed by my eyes, and several new windowed popped up congratulating me: Sword Mastery Increased by 1 Level! showed up three timesand then a single: Stamina increased by 2!
I wonder if I could see my own personal stats?
No sooner had I thought that, did a new window appear before me. It was a long rectangular window:
Name: Jaune Arc
Class: The Gamer
Level: Lv. 2
HP: 100/100
Stamina: 01/32
STR: 4
VIT: 5
DEX: 4
INT: 3
WIS: 3
LUK: 1
Points: 0
Money: 50 Lien
Well these stats are depressing.
my current fatigue was directly based off of my stamina, and that Stamina bar does not look that good.
"How is my little hunter doing?" a new voice callout out.
I looked up to see mom coming towards the two of us.
"It's only been a couple of hours, dear" my father said with a huff. "In fact, I would be greatly surprised if Jaune has gotten remotely better from just swinging his sword the past couple of hours"
I gave a rueful smile; if only he knew.
"Well, then come in for lunch now, boys" mom said as she turned to make her way back inside.
"No thanks, love" dad answered as he picked up his wooden sword again. "Jaune and I are going to spend another hour here"
My mom stopped in her tracks, at the same time, another window popped up:
New Skill Learned: Danger Sense Lv. 1
Type: Passive
Current: 3% increase in danger perception.
Description: the ability to perceive danger in a timely fashion.
How in the world did this skill suddenly get activated?
"What did you say, dear?" mom asked, her back still facing us. I watched in shock as four new windows popped up, each with the same message: Danger Sense Increased by 1 Level!
Wait.
Was mom the source of danger?
My eyes widened, the denotation above her head had changed from Huntress, to now Legendary Housewife, and upon closer look at my mom's back, I could barely make out some kind of black aura around her body.
"We'll eat later, honey" my dad said dismissively, oblivious to the coming storm.
I received another five(!) messages, all of them once more: Danger Sense Increased by 1 Level. So in total, that particular skill had increased to level 10 in the span of several seconds.
All from my mom.
There was one more message after all of the ones with my Danger Skill: it was a message saying: Your Level has Increased by 1!
With the increase of my Danger Sense, I can now clearly see the malevolent aura surrounding my mom, luckily, it was directed at dad right now.
Whom was still oblivious to it all.
Suddenly, moving so fast I missed it completely, my mom disappeared and reappeared behind dad and gave him a smack to the back of his head with her open palm.
My eyes were totally bugging out: when the strike hit, there was even, in bold red letters, the words 'Critical Strike!' appear above my mom, and even a red health bar appeared over my dad's head. I watched as the bar lost only a sliver of itself, but the animations surrounding it said he had lost 10hp out of a grand total of 5750hp.
Also above my dad's head was a giant swirl, turning counter-clockwise with the word in grey: STUNNED!.
Mom then grabbed dad by the collar of his shirt and began to drag him back to the house: "Come now, Jauney" she called over her shoulder, I could just make out a sickly sweet smile on her face. "The food's going to get cold soon"
I could only nod numbly and follow my mom as she hefted my dad like a sack of potatoes and carried him over one shoulder the entire time back to the house.
Sometime after lunch, and after I had received 100exp from eating lunch with my family, I was currently in my room.
So it had said I had leveled up earlier, that means there should be some kind of points distribution to be done.
No sooner had I thought that did my Stat page come up once more, though this time, there were several difference from when I had last seen it this morning; my total HP amount was now 150, Stamina had increased to 34, it now said Lv. 3, and there were actual 'Points' to allot, a total of 7 skill points to be exact.
Looking over the possible places to put my new skill points I think the best possible place to put them all for now would be strength; that would help my Sword Mastery, I think.
With that done, I decided to take a look at my abilities. A new window replaced my Stat page, this one showing a few square images in slots. Moving my hand over to the first skill with the picture of a man in i think some kind of meditative position. I clicked on it and a new window appeared with the skill.
Skill: A Gamer's Mind
Type: Passive
Description: the Ability to calm down during times of stress/adrenaline to make critical analysis/observation of current surroundings/events.
So like, if I was scared out of my mind, it would eliminate the sense of fear so that I would be able to do stuff when I otherwise would be scared stiff?
That sounds awesome!
Closing the current window, I went back to my Skill Page and selected the next picture, this time of a really buff arm.
Skill: A Gamer's Body
Type: Passive
Description: When taking damage, the body will receive a mild sense of pain, but will soon disappear, leaving only a decrease of the Health Bar (Unless stated otherwise) and no other physical remnants of damage taken.
So as long as I don't die in a fight, I only receive the sense of pain and not like actual broken bones and stuff... Unless stated otherwise... Whatever that meant.
The next two skills over were Physical Endurance and the Washing Dishes skills. After that was my Sword Mastery skill and finally, there was my Danger Sense skill, which had leveled up the fastest out of all of them.
That was all two years ago, now, I had successfully reached Level 10!
Bringing up my Stats Page brought a sense of pride to myself.
Name: Jaune Arc
Class: The Gamer
Level: Lv. 10
HP: 510/510
Stamina: 100/100
STR: 28
VIT: 15
DEX: 15
INT: 10
WIS: 4
LUK: 4
Points: 0
Money: 1500 Lien
I'm ready to prove myself at Beacon. I was able to train my Sword Mastery to Level 25, I got the Block skill about a week after I started training with dad and its now at Level 18, and I also got an Armor Skill about a year ago when dad bought me my first set of armor, that's about Level 15 now.
My Physical Endurance Skill is also pretty good at 23; fighting against dad, even with only wooden swords is a painful experience.
But even my trained skills have nothing compared to what I have in my inventory. Bringing up the Inventory tab, I feasted my eyes upon Crocea Mors.Apparently, it has been passed down from generation to generation of the Arc Family since it was used by John Arc during the Great War.
First time I ever heard of that too.
Anyway, what's so great of this sword, and the shield that came with it is the fact that it has some kind of unknown special ability.
Clicking on the item in the inventory slot, I brought up the two information windows:
For the sword:
Item: Crocea Mors (Legendary)
Damage: 200
Durability: Impeccable
?:?
?:?
?:?
Description: Arc Family heirloom.
And for the shield:
Item: Crocea Armun (Legendary)
Defense Rating: 75
Durability: Impeccable
Ability: Able to transform into a sheath
?:?
Description: Arc Family heirloom.
Other than the absurd stats given by the two items, there were also the weird question marks in the Item Window. They weren't Stat related I think, so there are just things I have yet to be able to unlock pertaining to these two things.
Anyway, I will probably unlock whatever secrets they are hiding as I go through Beacon, and become someone worthy of the Arc name... I just hope that mom and dad never find out how I got into Beacon in the first place.
I shook my head to chase away the guilty thoughts as I stepped onto the dust plane heading towards Beacon, surrounded by what appeared to be my fellow students... All whom seemed to be quite a few Levels ahead of me...
I looked up from staring at my feet to look around myself; I was in a throng of other teens all trying to get on board the dust plane as well, their bodies were so pressed together that it was hard to make out the individual tags attached to everyone above their head, but after several seconds of me squinting all around myself, I was able to conclude that yes... I was currently the lowest leveled 'player' here; everyone else was currently Level 18 or higher.
Holy Monty, Oum and Rooster!
Did my training not mean a thing... or was I always just that far behind everyone else?
All of my pride and sense of accomplishment of what I had done the past two years evaporated in a matter of seconds. I was left gritting my teeth in frustration as I squeezed my eyes closed.
But my mind cleared and I was left to take a couple of deep breathes as I stood waiting to show my ticket to the attendant.
At least that Gamer's Mind skill came to good use, I could have had a complete total meltdown, and that would have totally made me endearing to my fellow schoolmates.
It looks like I need to grind even further.
When I finally stepped onto the plane, a new window popped up:
Entering Dungeon Area: Dust Plane
- Motion Sickness Debuff Active
Motion Sickness? That doesn't sound too bad.
Anyway, I feel like I didn't do the character of Jaune justice, as in that I failed to properly characterize him, especially in this first person POV style of writing. If I do continue this story, I will try my best to keep in canon characterization for Jaune.
Have a nice day,
Desodus