Prologue: The first Dance

Stories, legends, and epics have defined human history and culture for millennia. Of course for every story there is a hero, one who stands against the odds, sometimes alone, sometimes with the roaring support of thousands at their back. Sometimes that hero saves the day without swinging a blade or firing a gun, and the strength of their beliefs and of their words is enough to change the world. Other times, the world is not so kind, other times, victory and peace must be won through bloodshed and suffering.

There are countless stories with countless beginnings and countless endings, with suffering and happiness, drowning in peace and in war, with equal rancor. Yet for now, for this short fleeting moment, only one matters.

This is a story that begins as many do, with a boy with dreams of being a hero, with a boy who finds an unimaginable burden thrust upon him and quickly begins to understand the true price of heroism, to understand just how distant a dream happily ever after is.

This is the story of one Jaune Arc, of his suffering and failures, of his triumphs and glory. This is the story of a young man, striving to pay the price of being a hero.

It was late. The sun had long ago faded behind the treetops and only the light of a shattered moon illuminated the forest overlooking a small town at the edge of the kingdom of Vale. A few scattered lights shone through various windows throughout the town, in stark contrast to the darkened windows of the majority of the town. If one were to look closely into one particular window, the lone light signaling the way to the Arc mansion that stood at the center of town, they might see a young boy sitting at desk reading.

It was a normal enough scene, a young boy doing some later night studying that he should have done days ago, for some test he was probably cramming for at the last second and yet, for all its apparent normality…

By studying intensely, your intelligence has increase by 1

Something was different, something that one wouldn't be able to noticed, or at the very least would fail to derive the nature of, no matter how long they watched and examined the now grinning youth.

I grinned, barely repressing the urge to fist pump as I tapped the accept button on the semi-transparent screen in front of me.

My mini-celebration was interrupted by someone knocking on my door.

"What is it?" I called out reflexively.

The door opened revealing a somewhat short woman that appeared to be in her early 20's with blonde hair and blue eyes that mirrored my own. Her eyes scanned the room in a heartbeat before returning to me "While it's nice to see you studying, it is way past your bedtime young man"

I flinched glancing at the clock to find that it was nearly 11:30

"Sorry mom, I lost track of time" I admitted sheepishly.

She raised an eyebrow, sighing when she found no sign of deceit before shaking her head "Go to sleep Jaune, I'll let you off this time but I can't promise anything if it happens again, your sisters will be up in arms if I they find out I'll let their 9-year-old baby brother stay up 3 hours past his bedtime without consequences" she smiled fondly.

I pouted "I'm not a baby, I'm almost 10" I complained without any real heat.

My mother laughed lightly "sweetheart, you will always be my baby, it's a mother's privilege."

I continued pouting even as I moved to shut off my lights before shuffling towards my bed "night mom"

"goodnight sweetheart" my mother replied as she moved over to tuck me in, giving me kiss on the forehead as she did so "see you in the morning my little angel."

My pout broke and I couldn't help but smile as I watched my mother start to leave.

'observe' I thought as my mother left the room.

?

Lilith Arc

Lv ?

My pout returned full force as I lay down in my bed staring at the ceiling. Despite her appearance as someone less than halfway twenties, my mother was a retired former A-rank huntress who was in her early fifties, her powerful aura having slowed down her aging drastically. She was someone strong enough to be considered a first-class huntress, considered to be just a few steps below living legends like beacon's headmaster: professor Ozpin. It wasn't surprising that I couldn't even see her level, but I still felt like it was some bitter cosmic joke that I, her only son, had been such a complete joke as a huntsmen trainee.

'status'

Name: Jaune Arc

Age: 9 years

Aging rate: 85% standard human rate

Lv: 7

Health: 1090 [100%]

Health regen: 1.3% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)

Aura: 1868 [100%]

Aura regen: 1.25% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)

Vitality: 30 (39)

Endurance: 23 (30)

Strength: 21 (27)

Dexterity: 17 (22)

Intelligence: 18 (23)

Wisdom: 19 (25)

Stat points: 13

Luck: ?

Charisma: ?

I sighed lightly before closing the menu and opening another tab.

'major skills'

Gamer's body Lv. Max: Allows the gamer to live life like a video game. If the Gamer's health is reduced to 0 Gamer's body is temporarily disabled, reverting the Gamer's physical form to that of a normal human until HP value recovers to at least 20%. While Gamer's body is disabled the gamer can receive scars and other permanent damage.

Gamer's mind Lv. Max: nullifies all negative mental effects. Allows for extreme emotional control.

Poison resistance lv 56: There's a reason why you're the only person in the Arc family (aside from your father) that is permitted to use the kitchen for actual cooking.

Indestructible master of housework lv 51: (unique level skill) You can cook, clean, sew, knit, embroider, paint, and anything else even remotely related to housework at a level far above even an elite housewife: extremely impressive for a 9-year-old and good progress on the road to becoming the ultimate house-husband, if that's your kind of thing. The result of living in a household of 10 where the only other person capable of cooking a piece of toast without setting the kitchen on fire is your father.

Dance! Dance! Legend lv 48: (unique level skill): Kick step, kick step, body roll is not rocket science! It's kick step, kick step, body roll! Not that it would matter for you if it was rocket science. You are a master of dancing in all forms, capable of picking up, mastering, and even modifying all dance moves on the fly with a single glance and minimal effort. Yet another point indicating that anything and everything even remotely resembling girl power in the Arc clan ignored the female majority of the family and went straight to you and your father for some reason.

Observe lv 23: You can observe the level and status of everyone less than 23 levels above your character level.

3-dimensional movement lv 21: The ability to move through terrains with rapid elevation changes and obstacles without being slowed; You've reached the level of an apprentice parkour nut.

Evasion lv 15: You can dodge obvious attacks with some consistency.

Covert arts lv 15: (advanced level skill) oversees multiple sub-skills, currently includes the ability to conceal yourself, steal, and spy upon others: at your current level you can steal candy from a baby. (evolved from skills: Stealth, eavesdropping, and steal)

Shield mastery lv 12: You can block the most straightforward of attacks.

Bladed weapon mastery lv 11: Well you won't cut yourself, probably.

Exhaustion resistance lv 11: Despite what your mother says, you don't need 8 hours of sleep; 7 and a half hours is plenty.

Ranged weapon mastery lv 9: you might be able to hit the broad side of a barn, with luck.

Aura mastery Lv. 6: Increase all statuses except luck and charisma by 30%. Reduce damage taken by 3%. Slows down biological aging rate post puberty by 5% .

-Aura shield (Aura subskill) lv 2: Passive barrier that absorbs health damage in exchange for Aura, at its current level the shield can absorb up 100 points of damage per second before being pierced.

Superior eyesight lv 5: Your eyes are slightly better than the average human's and can see with less light as well as slightly beyond the normal spectrum of what humans can see. Reduces light required for clear vision by 5%. Increases spectrum of visible light by 5%.

I couldn't help but frown again. My highest skills were poison resistance and an excessively exaggerated housework skill, the first of which was somewhat cool -if you could ignore that fact that I got it by 'volunteering' to test the results of my sisters' (and mother's unfortunately) attempts at cooking- but neither were really useful in combat.

While some of my skills might look good at first glance, from what I'd gathered skill levels went from level 1 up to level 100 with competence scaling as such: levels 1-20 representing incompetence, 21-40 representing passable levels of ability, 41-60 represented the level of a master practitioner, 61-80 was heroic level, and 81-100 was legendary level. I had started my training when I was 6, and had only barely managed to pass the mid-point of the incompetent tier with my primary weapons over the course of nearly 4 years. To put it in perspective of how slow that was, my sister twin Joan -who had started training at the same time as me- had already reached a proficiency level of 26 with her pole-arm mastery.

Even with my newly acquired gamer ability the revelation of how little I'd progressed for the amount of effort I'd put in had almost completely demoralized me. I would have been sorely tempted to give up if I hadn't discovered that the reason I wasn't progressing at anything resembling a decent rate had nothing to do with talent or potential. Discovering the reason for my agonizingly slow progress had taken an immense weight of my shoulders and was something that had ensured to me that I did indeed have the capacity to become a huntsman that would make my family proud. I just had to account for a certain trait of mine in order to do so properly.

Closing the major skills tab of my interface I open a different tab, beginning to reread the information I had already read countless times before.

'Traits'

Grand Soul: You possess an exceptionally powerful soul, something that is reflected in your Aura reserves: Quadruples Aura gain per level and doubles Aura gain per point of INT. (200 Aura per level plus 20 additional Aura per point of INT.) Also increases the ease and effects of Aura training.

Heroic lineage: Your family is extremely old and well respected, having produced nearly a dozen known heroes as well as numerous well known political and historical figures in preceding centuries. Your family line precedes recorded history and is generally believed by most historians to have originated from the high nobility of an ancient -now ruined- kingdom that once existed long before the founding of the 4 kingdoms, nearly a thousand years ago: +1 to all base stats per level, -10% rate of aging.

Of a Different Breed: You grow differently than most people, put under the care of the best teachers in the world in safe conditions and you'll progress at a snail's pace, but if thrown into the middle of a life or death situation with nothing but yourself and your wits and you'll learn at a blistering pace: 90% reduction to the growth of all combat skills outside of real combat, 50% reduction to experience gained towards next player level outside of combat and from non-combat related quests. 400% increased growth of all skills during live combat, 400% increase in experience gained from real combat and from combat related quests. Growth bonus increases based on the amount of genuine danger you are in, the more difficult the fight the greater the growth multiplier. ?.

Incandescent Soul: You are one of very few individuals who possess a soul with the ability to produce immense amounts of Aura. Rather than producing aura at a flat rate that can only be increase by intense training, your soul restores a percentage of your total aura reserves every set period of time allowing for drastically faster recovery. While many veteran hunters must wait days for their immense reserves to recover from being fully emptied you will only ever need a mere fraction of a day at most for a full recharge: Aura regeneration is percentage based ([1+ WIS*.01] percent of maximum Aura recovered per minute)

You ? ?: ? is clearly into ?, why don't you ? it you ? idiot? +200% to relationship gains with ?, -95% to notice that ? has ? for ?. Charisma stat hidden from the gamer.

Heroic Aspiration: You have always desired to be a hero and to protect others and, as such, it is difficult for you to accept bringing others into dangerous situations unnecessarily, instead preferring to stand by yourself and bear the burden alone: Party function considerably restricted, true nature of Gamer ability hidden from all sensory skills and devices, health regeneration now percentage based ([1+ END*.01] percent of health recovered per minute). Luck stat hidden.

My bad mood was blown away as I regarded my traits once more. The «Grand Soul», «Incandescent Soul»and «Heroic Aspiration» traits alone complemented each other to the point of being almost unfairly good, and that was saying nothing of the potential long term stat gains of my «Heroic lineage» trait. While the party restriction attached to the Heroic aspiration trait as well as the unknown trait littered with question marks were both somewhat worrying and disadvantageous, they were both relatively minor and it was nothing I couldn't work through one way or another.

The real issue was the downsides of the «Of a Different Breed» trait. While I could apparently learn at an almost inhuman pace if something was trying to kill me; normal, safe training was about as valuable as trash to me. To be honest I almost wanted to congratulate myself for making as much progress as I had so far, considering the 90% skill growth malus I'd been working against, but it was still a question as to how exactly I'd manage to find even a single Beowolf to fight without my overprotective parents or equally (and in some cases, even more) overprotective sisters rushing to kill it before it could so much as glance at me funny.

Ironically I wasn't too worried about the fight itself, for some reason, unless it was a crazy high level Grimm, of course this was partially because my Aura reserves were crazy large for my level. For someone without the «Grand Soul» trait or something of a similar nature, a level up gave 50 additional max Aura with 10 more for each additional point added to the Intelligence attribute. The truth was I, at level seven, had slightly more aura than my 15-year-old sister Sapphire who had already reached level 28. As a result, I was fairly confident in my ability to tank a few hits, just as long as my opponent was below level 10. That's on top of the fact that even a single minute of actual combat would apparently do more for my combat skills than 50 minutes of training would. Even disregarding my growth multiplier, I was fairly certain actual combat had greater base experience gain than training meaning that I would probably be able to level up my skills and get better over the course of combat quite quickly considering my current abysmal levels.

It would be hard work getting to a high enough level to be accepted into signal academy by the time I turned 12, but unlike a week ago, which was just before I'd unlocked my gamer ability, it was no longer an unattainable goal. It wouldn't be easy and I would probably lag behind my peers for quite some time until live combat training became the norm, but as long as I did my best and pushed myself to hell and back my dream was no longer an unattainable one. With these comforting thoughts, I felt myself begin to slowly nod off to sleep.

'Who am I?'

Such a question floated at the center of my(?) mind as I(?) looked around.

My(?) eyes focused on the scenery(sceneries?) around me(us?) strangely, like I(we?) was looking at something from a thousand different angles and yet could somehow see each one with perfect clarity. I was looking at Vale from a high vantage point, from the ice cream shop in the middle of town, and a hundred other alien places that somehow all felt familiar. The scenery was interrupted as the sky grew dark slowly, despite being only mid-day the sky was slowly blotted out by ominous black clouds as what I knew to be hours passed by in blurred moments. The clouds grew thicker and I felt nervousness overcome me before, without warning, a black wall of something expanded out in a dome originating on one side of Vale and suddenly I felt horribly empty. In a single horrific moment, the thousands of viewpoints I had once possessed diminished, as I felt the overwhelming majority of them suddenly being stolen from me as the black dome tore through Vale, consuming more than three quarters of the city in an instant, a torrent of harsh wind expanded out from the dissipating dome in a shockwave and I realize several dozen times in several dozen places that the dome was an explosion of some type: a black dust bomb, I learned from one of my selves. Rook, a voice whispered, before being silenced.

Fear and terror gripped me from a hundred directions as I panicked throughout the remains of the city and within the outskirts as time became muddy and obscure only to snap back into clarity when they appeared. Pitch black monsters with pale white masks and blood red eyes tear through the streets, killing me, killing me, and killing me as my perspectives disappeared one by one until only a single one remained and I remembered who I was.

I am Jaune Arc, 16-year-old huntsmen in training, I was on my way to take the beacon entrance exam a year early after a certain mishap led to me spending a few months in Grimm infested territory, which had allowed me to make up for lost time and even catapulted me greatly ahead of my peers. I am Jaune Arc and as of 4 hours ago when a black dome annihilated most of Vale, Beacon had meant about as much as a stone on the side of the road to me as I rushed down a familiar path, fighting my way through the Grimm that had rapidly filled the once quiet forests surrounding Vale. I had covered a lot of ground very quickly and had nearly reached the Arc family manor that stood nearby Vale, in a small fortified village barely 15 miles from the main city.

Yet as I tore up the path towards my house I was greeted not by the large yet welcoming Arc Manor I had grown up in, but rather by a ruined burning wreck no longer fit to be called a building, and rather than my loving parents and sisters I was greeted by an unfathomably large horde of Grimm and a number of weapons scattered on the ground and covered in blood.

I froze as my emotions failed me, Gamer's mind attempting to nullify the negative effects on my mind to little avail. I knew those weapons, each and every one, and as the Grimm came charged up to tear me to pieces I found no will to resist as I dropped my own blade towards the ground, alongside the weapons once wielded by my parents and my sisters and, in another moment, I knew no more.

I woke up screaming.

Panic. Dread. Fear. Desperation.

Emotions both my own and yet alien flooded my mind in an overwhelming torrent. Gamer's mind faltered, reduced to slowly chipping away at the immense rush of emotions bit by bit rather than quelling them in a moment as my mind churned chaotically. In my panic I only vaguely felt several people enter my room, moving over to me and hugging me gently, whispering soft words I was too panicked to understand.

More people entered the room even I continued screaming words I only half understood "The sky's gone black, why, why, why? We have to stop them, somehow! The Grimm are coming! Rook!" I babbled nonsensically over and over again, faint memories not even my own hijacking my mouth even as the people around me struggled to calm me down.

It took nearly 5 minutes until a combination of gamer's mind and who I now recognized as my mother and several of my sisters managed to mostly calm me down. Panting with tears streaming from my eyes I murmured again, almost mindlessly, my voice coming out more as a whimper "we have to stop them…"

"Shh, Jaune" my mother whispered soothingly "it was just a nightmare, it isn't real" she finished in a gentle voice, hugging me even as my sisters held onto me where they could, my twin sister squeezing one of my hand reassuringly.

Both my mother and the 5 of my sisters currently in the house remained with me for close to half an hour to make sure I was alright, none showing any annoyance at having been woken up at 2 in the morning, their faces still marked with concern even as my mother sent them back to bed.

"It felt so real," I murmured as my mother made to leave "what if it wasn't a dream".

My mother turned around before reassuring me "it was, Jaune, don't worry about it, just try and forget about it and get some sleep" her gentle words sent a wave of despair through my heart even as I smiled tiredly at her and lay back down on my back, apparently returning to bed.

I waited a few minutes after my mother had closed the door before sitting up, staring at the pair of popups that floated ominously in front of me as my heart filled with dread. They had been there when I had calmed down for the most part, and had likely appeared when I first woke up, only to be missed in my panic. Looking more closely at the first one, which was a skill popup, I felt an icy chill shoot through my spine.

Rare skill acquired:

Oracle (passive) lv 5: The nature of a soul is something that exceeds the trappings of the physical world. One of the greatest and rarest examples of this is presented in the form of an Oracle. In a moment when numerous souls cry out at once as they are extinguished at the hands of some great terror, the souls of these people ever so rarely unite for but a fleeting moment. In this moment the souls momentarily bleed together and emit a vision of such power and urgency that it surpasses time and space, created from the raging emotions of thousands and sent out by the inconceivable power of countless souls united in a single action. Receiving one of these insights to the future is far from common and while larger Aura reserves and greater control over said reserves do increase the odds of receiving an Oracle slightly, even the greatest of hunters and huntresses have only a paltry chance of receiving even a single Oracle in their greatly extended lifetimes. Oracles are rare to the extent that many don't believe they occur and due to the nature of these prophetic visions they are often decried as mere dreams or delusions.

5% chance to receive a vision of a tragic or horrifying future event following the current course of history.

My heart hammered in my chest as I numbly accepted the popup, my mind already racing to a conclusion I didn't want to make even as I nervously turned my attention to the second popup.

Quest: Kingdom in Peril

You have received an Oracle of an impending tragedy; stop it at all costs.

Quest Details

The Tragedy: Around 6 years from now, most of Vale will be annihilated by an explosion of questionable nature and immeasurable power and then invaded by Grimm. You are the only one standing between Vale and utter annihilation.

The Culprits: Based on what you gleamed from the fragmented memories you received from a potential future; this event was no accident, it was deliberate, and carried out by human hands.

All Alone: Despite telling your family about how the dream felt real, they -quite understandably- insisted it was only a nightmare and with no proof available you chose to allow yourself to be 'convinced' that it was only a dream. With no help coming it's down to you to stop the destruction of Vale.

Finding a lead: Your garbled insight into the future has revealed a few things: That the explosion might have been the result of a massive black dust explosion and that an organization or group by the name of Rook might have had something to do with it. It isn't much to go by, but it's all you have.

Quest Objectives

• Discover who is behind the attack on Vale (Incomplete)

• Discover the source of the massive explosion (Incomplete)

• Destroy the organization behind the attack (Incomplete)

• Save Vale from destruction (Incomplete)

Time remaining: 6 years, 2 months, 3 days, and 11 hours

Quest Success rewards: 2,000,000 Lien, 15 levels, [?] hero title, additional +10 stat points towards all attributes, massive relationship increase with [Vale High Command], large relationship increase with [?], Hated status with [?], Hated status with [?], additional rewards based on Quest performance.

Quest failure: Destruction of Vale, possible character death, deaths of countless innocents, possible death of family members, extreme negative impact to remaining 3 kingdoms, additional negatives based on quest performance.

My heart froze in my chest as my worst fear was realized beyond the point of denial. From a purely logical standpoint I had already known the moment I finished reading about my oracle skill, even though I tried to ignore and deny it there was no point in deluding myself anymore. Gamer's mind staved off any panic with casual ease, even my most rampant emotions doing little to challenge it. It had, after all, taken what I imaged to be the combine panic and fear of the several hundred thousand people that called Vale home poured into my mind in a single moment to overwhelm it for even a handful of minutes after all.

Without waiting another moment, I opened my menu and instantly dumped all of my available stat points into INT and WIS leaving both at around 33 post modifiers.

By realizing the gravity of the situation ahead and acting to maximize your ability to properly prepare and respond to an important event your WIS and INT have increase by 3.

"okay make that roughly 36 after modifiers" I murmured to myself listlessly, my head throbbing painfully as my brain adjusted to the sudden increase in my mental abilities. A few moments later and I now possessed mental abilities around 50% greater than they had been mere minutes ago. I had already possessed above average intelligence for my age so at this point I was probably in the process of beating the bell curve in the face for my age group. Unfortunately, that was only for my age group and my mental abilities still fell behind most adults and seeing as my apparent opponent was a likely well-funded, powerful underworld organization I was nowhere near smart enough to even hope to thwart them as I was.

I had to get smart enough to figure this whole thing out and strong enough to stop it from occurring. My mind whirled as a possible solution came to the front of my mind, one which I set aside even as I struggled to come up with a different plan. I couldn't deny training at signal would be slow and ineffective in regards to growth, 6 years at the rate I was growing wouldn't be even close to enough and my mother would easily notice if I went out on my own to hunt Grimm for level ups and proficiency growth. After nearly an hour of running through countless dead-end plans later and I was forced to acknowledge the one plan I thought might work yet wanted to avoid with all my heart.

While my mother would indeed notice if I went hunting for Grimm on my own, she would only do so when I returned home, where her experience and sharp eyes would allow her to notice the telltale signs of combat that I wouldn't be able to hide or cover up at my current skill level. Yes, she would notice it then, but only if I actually returned. The idea that I logically knew was probably my best bet was also one that was the emotional equivalent of a knife to the heart; running away from home. I loved my family, even if they coddled me too much, and the idea of running away and not seeing them for 6 entire years filled me with dread. Yet for all I would miss them, the idea that it if didn't, that if I stayed and risked another plan, they could die, was something that chilled me to the very core.

I was going to run away. There was no question about it, no matter how much it hurt me I knew I couldn't allow my family to come to harm. It was actually feasible too, my inventory allowing me to carry vast quantities of supplies and my gamer ability and traits allowing me to survive and thrive in the face of adversity. Even without instruction I could still advance my skill in combat and information gathering just by using them, and by getting into actual fights with some level of risk I would be able to become strong enough to possibly stop that terrible future from ever occurring. No, not possibly, I would stop it from happening. No matter how much I had to put myself through or how far I had to go, I was not going to stop until my family was safe.

-1 month later-

It was with a bitter frown that Jaune Arc acknowledged there was now little left to justify delaying his departure any further. He had enough food and water stored in his inventory for several months, along with any other equipment he thought he might need as well as Crocea Mors stored in his inventory and ready to be equipped at a moment's notice. Contrary to what Jaune had initially believed, he did not need to find a weapon to replace Crocea Mors. That idea had been swiftly shot in the face, as soon as he bothered to use Observe on the sword and shield combo, that is.

Crocea Mors (Legendary)

Blade:

Durability: Indestructible

Base attack: D-

DEX attack rate scaling: S

STR attack scaling: S

Sword mastery general scaling: S

Luck critical attack scaling: A

Aura channeling efficiency: S

Special attributes:

-Grimmsbane: +50% armor penetration and damage to all Grimm

-Arc Family Legacy: -80% total attack damage when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, the sword has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences.

-? [Locked]

-? [Locked]

Shield-sheathe:

Durability: Indestructible

DEX parrying scaling: S

STR stability scaling: S

INT soul magic defense scaling: S

Shield mastery general scaling: S

Special attributes:

-Unfaltering: completely nullifies physical damage on successful blocks

-Arc Family Legacy: becomes extremely unwieldy and difficult to use when wielded by someone not born or inducted into the Arc family, this sheathe-shield combo has an uncanny tendency to return into the possession of a member of the Arc family whenever lost or stolen through a series of almost unnatural coincidences.

-? [Locked]

-? [Locked]

As it turned out his family heirloom wasn't so much a bad weapon as he was a horrible wielder. While the blade's base damage was less than a kitchen knife, it had unbelievable damage scaling for its associated stats and would undoubtedly be a top-notch weapon in the hands of even a mediocre huntsman. It was only his pathetic stats and swordsmanship that had resulted in an apparently subpar weapon performance.

So here he was sitting on his bed, awake at least an hour past his bedtime and trying to mentally make himself run away. Now was the perfect time, his sisters had gone to sleep rather early and both his parents weren't home at the time: his father out hunting and his mother staying overnight in Patch after attending his older sister Jane's graduation ceremony at Signal. A chance like this wouldn't come again, and no matter how much he hated it Jaune couldn't leave this opportunity alone.

Gritting himself Jaune opened up his window and scale easily down from his second floor room, moving across the yard before stopping. Taking one last longing look at the familiar house where he had grown up and made so many good memories in, Jaune let out a breath before disappearing into the woods near his home.

He would not return for many years.

Slipping through the woods Jaune made quick progress away from his home, Jaune fiddled through his menu removing Crocea Mors from his inventory and attaching the blade to his hip with a familiarity and grace that surprised him. Even as pangs of sadness attacked him another part of him quivered in anticipation. He was alone, about to face immeasurable odds to save the kingdom he called home, going to face death a thousand times in hopes of coming out the victor and yet, in some way, he felt alive. For all that he would give it all up in a heartbeat to remain with family, it was only now as he readied himself to face oblivion that a sense of unprecedented awareness and focus filled his mind. Jaune allowed a bitter smile to cross his face for a moment as he slipped through the darkened woods.

"Of a different breed huh… so it seems" he murmured to himself, his words wreathed in melancholy.

His gamer ability did not thrust some new nature upon him, it merely revealed and interpreted what already was. He had been born for clashes of blood and chaos, born to stand alongside death to give and one day be given unto it. It was as startling a revelation as it was expected, some familiar alien thing that he had unknowingly known all his life, a revelation that carried with it the weight of a man who had seen all the world's wonders and then opened his eyes for the first time. This revelation wasn't rung out arduously by fierce introspection nor a deep cultivated understanding, no, instead it had come eagerly, as the safety nets that had wrapped themselves around him from the moment he was born faltered and faded for the first time. He was more than half an hour's run through the woods away from home, and far beyond running back for help.

Even as this revelation surged through his mind and began to settle Jaune found himself drawing Crocea Mors, acting on some strange instinct that existed beyond sight or sound, yet with it his blood surged and boiled, seeping with vitality and life he had never known. When the Beowolf burst from the bushes ahead of him, it's blood red eyes locking onto him with a growl, something within Jaune breathed deeper still as his newfound focus rose to even greater heights. Facing death for the first time, in a fight that both of his parents, all his sisters, and himself a mere half an hour ago would think beyond him, Jaune found only serenity.

«Beowolf Lv 16»

Pitch black and covered in bone plate, at least half again Jaune's height, the Beowolf charged at him, roaring as it demanded blood and death even an easy grin settled itself on Jaune's face. His shield up, Jaune moved diagonally forwards and right of the Beowolf approaching him even as it swung his claws down in an attack that he easily noted would cripple or even kill him instantly if it connected, aura or not.

It didn't connect.

Sweeping aside the Beowolf's attack with his shield and rotating slightly, leeching off the force of the blow, he swung his blade at its exposed arm, leaving a respectable gash even as he moved behind the Beowolf, dodging past it and gaining a few yards of distance before twirling to face the Grimm. Techniques that had been shown and explained to him, over and over, yet had remained as vague theoreticals beyond his ken now flowed like water, natural and unimpeded.

The Beowolf roared, incensed by its injury and still hungry for blood, charging at him again, now aiming to bite his throat out even as Jaune shifted to the left this time, collapsing his shield and jabbing the mecha-shifting sheathe towards the beast's gaping jaw even as he swung his blade, warding off the Beowolf's uninjured arm as it attempted to tear his torso to shreds. Just as the sheathe neared the Beowolf's mouth Jaune again shifted the sheathe into a shield, springing it open just as it entered the beast's maw, causing the heirloom to snap opened with violent force, tearing the beast's jaw open just a few inches beyond its natural limit with a wet crack before slipping free of the beast's mouth, the shield's smooth contours letting it free of the Beowolf's mouth as the beast recoiled in agony; it's jaw hanging open unnaturally. Missing no opening, Jaune's blade tore into its injured arm, widening the bleeding gash even further before slipping away on the same side, free from risk of an instant counter.

The Beowolf turned to face Jaune once more, hobbling awkwardly on its heavily injured limb, it's once fearsome roar now awkward and stilted in light of its broken jaw. This time Jaune is the one who charges, bearing down on a beast nearly twice his size fearlessly as it struggles to bring forth a worthy retaliation.

The beast fails.

Again, Crocea Mors tears into flesh as the beast's remaining uninjured arm meets only air as Jaune slips to the beast's injured side, finding no threat in its ruined Jaw as he swings his blade down on the beast's injured limb, cleaving cleanly through it and severing the offending limb as the beast loses its balance and topples onto the ground awkwardly.

Moving instinctively, Jaune shifted behind the beast and -aiming at the back of its neck- stabbed downwards with all the strength of his arms and all the weight of his body, puncturing the creature's neck and sinking his blade several inches into the ground below. The beast jerks one last time, then lies still. Without a thought Jaune withdrew the blade from the beast with a smooth motion, returning to his combat stance in a heartbeat, remaining alert for a few moments before the Beowolf began to disintegrate and, with a start, Jaune realized the fight was over.

Sheathing his blade and attaching the sheathe to his hip once more Jaune blinks, becoming aware of the soreness in his arms and the fierce beating of his heart as he drew slightly ragged breaths. The beast had been stronger than him. Stronger just as it was faster and more durable and yet, he had won. A moment passed as the surge of vitality and life that had overcome him receded, lessening but not disappearing. Remaining an ember in his heart, in his soul, ready to surge up into a roaring fire once more when called.

As his heartbeat slowed he turned his attention to several popup screens that had appeared shortly after the end of his fight with the Beowolf and began working through them.

You have had a deep revelation about yourself and your innate nature allowing you to become more at peace and in tune with yourself, even outside of combat: Malus for combat oriented skill growth outside of battle reduced to a 70% reduction from a 90% reduction. 5 points of Intelligence and Wisdom gained.

Becoming more in touch with your true nature has granted you increased control over your aura: The skill Aura mastery is now at level 14. Subskill Aura shield is now level 5

By detecting a hidden opponent before it attacks you have gained the skill Detect presence. Skill folded into Covert arts advanced skill.

Fighting an opponent far beyond your level has allowed you to shatter the previous limits of your swordsmanship, letting the techniques you previously only knew in theory become something more. Bladed weapon mastery has increase to level 23

Fighting an opponent far beyond your level has allowed you to shatter the previous limits of your Shield mastery, letting the techniques you previously only knew in theory become something more. Shield mastery has increased to level 26

Evading attacks from an opponent much faster than you has greatly increased the sureness of your footwork and ability to evade attacks

Evasion has increase to level 21

Fighting against an opponent in darkness has strengthened your eyesight considerably

Superior eyesight has increase to level 11

You have grown stronger by pushing yourself beyond your limits. You have gained 2 points of strength.

You have become faster by pushing yourself beyond your limits. You have gained 1 point of Dexterity.

You have challenged fate and come out on top. You have gained 2 points of Luck.

Lv16 Beowolf has been slain, 21,500 Experience has been gained:

(430 base *5 (trait modifier) *10 (A dance at Death's border) = 21,500)

Congratulations!

you have leveled up!

You are now level 18.

You have 55 stat points to spend.

You have learned more about your trait «Of a different Breed»!

Value of bonus experience gain based on danger level revealed!

-A glimpse of Death (battle with slight risk of death) (2x Exp. & skill mastery)-

-A brush with death (battle with minor risk of death) (4x Exp. & skill mastery)-

-A meeting with death (battle with moderate risk of death) (6x Exp. & skill mastery)-

-A dance at death's border (battle with high risk of death) (10x Exp. & skill mastery)-

"level 18?" Jaune mumbled in dull disbelief pausing for a moment, Jaune opened his status page to check his stats.

Name: Jaune Arc

Age: 9 years

Aging rate: 77% standard human rate

Lv: 18

Health: 2548 [100%]

Health regen: 1.66% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)

Aura: 5198 [100%]

Aura regen: 1.77% per minute (reduced by 90% during combat)

Vitality: 44 (75)

Endurance: 39 (66)

Strength: 39 (66)

Dexterity: 34 (58)

Intelligence: 47 (80)

Wisdom: 45 (77)

Stat points: 55

Luck: ?

Charisma: ?

Jaune simply stared at his status for a moment a grin growing on his face, before it suddenly faltered and died. A look of grim determination crossed his face as quickly allocated 28 of his stat points into intelligence and wisdom, leaving them both at a raw value of 59, which gave him a modified value of 100 for both. Jaune waited a moment as his thought processed grew faster and more focused before promptly splitting his remaining stat points into endurance and dexterity (13 into the former and 14 into the latter) before setting off into the woods.

Despite his progress Jaune once again felt the sheer enormity of the task ahead of him. If his true opponent were Grimm then his progress would have been heartening, but against humans? It was only damning. An underground organization with the ability to create and detonate a bomb of the size he had seen in his oracle was in no way small fry, and while his gamer ability and bullshit trait accelerated his progress he had six years to accomplish what his opponents may very well have had decades or even centuries to accomplish. A plan to topple a whole kingdom stank of decades of planning and manipulating, something fully within the time allowed to strong aura users.

Aura had the effect of slowing down aging, but it had been proven that this didn't kick in until a person was around 18 years old, prior to which they would age normally. His mother, an A-rank huntress who had admitted to being unable to break past the barrier into S-rank looked maybe 24 years old at most, despite being more than 50 years old. That meant she had physically aged only 6 years in the 35 or so years that had passed since she turned 18. Her average rate of aging during that time was less than 1/5 the rate of a normal person's and it was undoubtedly higher now, considering she has undoubtedly strengthened her aura even further since then. Seeing as his mother had married into the Arc family she shouldn't possess the additional 10% aging rate reduction of the Arc bloodline, meaning her level of Aura mastery had to be higher than the equivalent of level 80 mastery, assuming the skill scaled consistently without spiking at higher levels. Ergo her base stats should be boosted by more than 400% and yet despite that she is still not considered at the level of an S-rank huntress. In fact, depending on if his mother had been being humble or not, she was apparently only slightly above average as far as A-ranks go, with as many other A-rankers stronger than her as there were weaker.

The number of S-rank hunters alive can be counted on both hands with fingers left over, the number of A-rank hunters on the other hand was estimated to be around three hundred globally. A plot that, barring his successful interference, succeeded in destroy an entire kingdom probably has a least 1 person with at least A-rank strength behind it, if not several. That meant that in 6 years he had to reach A-rank equivalent strength at a minimum if he was to have any chance at pulling this off and saving his home. While his trait gave him a chance it wasn't going to be easy by any sense of the word, nor would it be without risk, or rather it couldn't be without risk. Unlike other people, he couldn't simply decide 'okay I'm going to train for 5 hours' he would have to find an opponent and fight it, truly fight it, for his trait to kick in. It was something he understood intrinsically, if he wasn't putting his all into a fight he would progress the same way he would outside of combat, something that meant he couldn't just find some poor Beowolf to use as a training dummy for hours on end. It didn't matter if he could learn 5 times as fast if he was only able to train for 1/5 the time.

He would have to deliberately seek out fights against opponents that genuinely stood a chance at killing him to take advantage of his traits higher bonuses, such as the 'dance at death's border' ten-fold experience multiplier he had gotten in his fight with the Beowolf. It was why he had so hap-hazardously spent all his stat points the second he had gotten them, rather than saving them. If he had kept them they would have become a safety net, something that blunted the danger he faced, that he could use to suddenly become stronger or faster or smarter in a mere moment to get out of a pinch. He, ironically, couldn't afford safety nets if he wanted to stand an actual chance. He had to take risks, to throw himself into danger, to meet death head on again and again so he could stop its scythe when it truly mattered most.

On top of this he had to figure out who exactly was behind the incident, whether it was that organization -Rook- or something else, where they were, and how to stop it all while evading the inevitable pursuit of his family, their friends, and probably any other hunter who was in the know and wanted to earn a quick buck by picking up that runaway and dropping him back on his families' doorstep; probably dooming all of Vale in the process because there was no damn way his family would let him slip away twice. Fortunately, it shouldn't be to the level of random people recognizing him on the streets, his parents had made enough enemies (mostly by being good people, ironically) that they wouldn't risk openly declaring he was missing lest certain unsavory parties target him for revenge or leverage against the Arc family.

Jaune let out a bitter snort as he found himself somewhat grateful to the Winchester family (bull-headed bigots that they were) for the first and likely last time in his life. They, along with a few other super conservative families, were the reason he only had to worry about his parent's hunter friends, close allies, and his own family chasing him down as compared to the entire god-damn Atlesian military (because his father just had to have been on the same hunter team as General James motherfucking Ironwood back in his Beacon days). Even if he grew strong enough to face his parent's friends and allies (a smattering of B-rank plus hunters and huntresses, surprisingly good natured politicians, and quite a few other key figures… oh and an honest to god Valean councilmen, how fun!) any of them who attempted to bring him back by force, diplomacy being an auto-fail for obvious reasons, would do so with the intent to capture him largely unharmed ergo, no real danger and hence shitty experience gain, even if he somehow managed to defeat them. The only exception he could see to that being his oldest sister Mordred (oh god is she going to be pissed at him).

The oldest of the Arc sisters, Mordred was a 23-year-old fully certified B-rank Huntress (having attained B-rank 2 years ago when she was 21, breaking the previous record by an entire year). Unsurprisingly she didn't look a day older than 19 and -like the rest of the female portion of the Arc family- had as much ability in combat as she lacked in anything even remotely resembling domestic skills. Yet despite her unexplainable ability to burn water (a skill shared with the rest of Jaune's sisters and their mother) and her rather brash, tomboyish attitude she was the one who largely raised him and his twin sister Joan for a good portion of their early life. A year or two after he and Joan were born there was a spike in Grimm activity, to the extent that their mother had to come out of retirement and the whole family left their manor behind and temporarily relocated to Vale. Seeing as his parents were out in the field fighting back the Grimm and adult supervision barely to the extent of occasional check-ins by some of their parent's friends, the duty of taking care of her younger siblings largely fell onto Mordred, as the oldest, despite being barely halfway through her teens at the time.

Long story short, she somehow ended up coming to dote on Jaune in her typical brash, tomboyish manner. Unfortunately, with this came the tendency to be excessively overprotective towards his general well-being, matched only by (oddly enough) his own twin sister in her excessive awareness of his well-being. Of course, Mordred's style of overprotectiveness was markedly different, tinged with what could only be called a demented combination of maternal instinct and the tendencies of a teenager (female) whose favorite activity for stress release was massacring Grimm with a massive great sword longer than she was tall. Basically, she had a sweat now so you don't bleed later mentality. Mordred wasn't overprotective in the coddling sense (usually), she was overprotective in the 'I'm going to kick your ass now so you don't do something stupid and get yourself hurt later' sense. Oh, and sometimes in the 'who the hell are you and why are you looking at my baby brother, I'm going to glare at you until you wet yourself' sense around most (usually innocent) strangers. Hence, it could be said that Jaune's eldest sister typically acted in a manner halfway between an Atlesian Sheppard guard dog and an overprotective mother. He wouldn't be surprised if she decided to break both his legs so he couldn't run away and get hurt if she caught him and then proceed to fret over his every need (save for the one to go and stop Vale from exploding).

Jaune found himself wondering if it was his newfound intelligence that was causing him to wonder how exactly Mordred was still considered relatively normal in their family.

His whole family was overprotective to some extent and he certain that they would be completely beside themselves with worry by noon tomorrow -cue stabbing guilt- so Jaune decided to try and keep his training methods as far away from any recording devices as possible (the knowledge that he was deliberately throwing himself into near death experiences to learn would probably give half his family heart attack. A heart attack that they would quickly recover from (because Aura) and then proceed to throw literally everything to the side and go manhunting for him (which they admittedly might do anyway). He didn't want them to worry but it was a simple fact that this was the only way he would progress.

He understood the fact that an opponent like a Beowolf would never provide gains anything close to what he'd gotten today again, seeing as most of his skill increases had come from finally comprehending things he'd known but never truly understood. His skill mastery levels were probably the most unconventional part of his ability, seeing as they aligned more closely with normal progress (not my-life-is-a-fucking-videogame progress). While swinging a sword in the exact same way a hundred thousand times would level up his sword mastery (something that admittedly wouldn't work for others) learning and trying to understand it would level up the skill mastery much faster, which was probably the reason mastery level had no experience or progress bar. Additionally, rather than the stereotypical, boost to attack rate or damage he simply got better with the sword, no differently from someone without the gamer ability learning swordsmanship. It was something that applied to almost all his skills apart from the ones that could be properly quantified, even disregarding his Gamer ability.

Mind still whirling Jaune glanced around him for a moment before using his newfound physical prowess to jump up to a tree branch before beginning to make his way through the tree tops. It was slower than running -even with his boosted dexterity and 3-dimensional movement skill- but it wouldn't leave any footprints and proficiency in the skill was too potentially useful not to level up as quickly as possible. At high enough levels, it would give him a massive advantage in most environments, both in combat and in escape from pursuers when necessary. Plus, it wasn't a combat skill so he could grind it outside of combat, even if doing it during battle would give him a fancy experience bonus.

On that note, seeing as his trait pointedly gave a 400% bonus to all skills during combat didn't that mean he could get better at those faster by practicing while something was trying to kill him? Putting aside the mental image of him sewing a sweater while dodging a pack of Beowolves as they attempted to tear him limb from limb, Jaune paused on a tree branch looking around and grimacing slightly before steeling himself. As countless pairs of red eyes appeared in the trees around him Jaune Arc allowed himself the privilege of a one-liner before getting to work.

"Sloths… of all the things to try and kill me en masse… Sloths…" the 9-year-old mumbled as dozens of sloth-like Grimm descended on him.

Despite his initial freak-out, the sloth Grimm had fortunately proven to be less of a threat than the Beowolf: partially due to his rapid skill growth and partially because they were mostly below level 10. Unfortunately, Jaune's ability had apparently decided to screw him over.

Congratulations, due to the fulfillment of certain parameters, the skill «3-dimensional movement» has evolved into the advanced tier skill «3-dimensional combat technique». Skill «3-dimensional combat technique» is now level 23.

"Son of a bitch!" Jaune roared, not at all amused by the fact that a skill he had intended to grind outside of combat had evolved into something he could only grind inside combat.

Even the 2 level ups he had received from the fight wasn't enough to offset the foreboding feeling that any skill he used while in combat would spontaneously evolve into a combat skill. Making a strong mental note to never dance or do housework while fighting, Jaune half of his 10 stat points into dexterity and the other half into endurance before continuing to move through the treetops.

As he continued through the treetops he was slightly mollified by the fact that the «3-dimensional combat technique» skill was an advanced tier skill in more than just name, judging by his considerably higher level of mobility. Although his general movement skill had increase somewhat, he could literally feel the fact that this was now a combat skill. Rather than simply movement across all three dimensions it now seemed to encompass combat worthy awareness, proper footing for attacks and evasion, and a few other things in regards to all three dimensions that clearly set it apart from a non-combat movement skill.

It also confirmed the fact that different tiers of skills existed and that they effected how good someone was at doing something. Seeing as he had already had his dancing, housework, and covert arts unique and advanced tier skills when he first acquired his gaming ability he couldn't use them as a gauge to just what an advanced or unique skill was, skill effect wise. Basing it on the change in his movement skill, an advance skill was probably around 20% better than its basic equivalent, i.e. at level 20 it would be equivalent to the normal skill at level 24 or so. Of course, this still left the open question as to how many quality tiers there were: Although he knew there was at least 2 and that they applied in both directions, good and bad.

The root of this knowledge is the fact that at least 5 of his 7 sisters (the ones whose stat sheets he had seen) all had the following skill at varying levels:

Homewrecker (literally) lv*: (abysmal tier skill) You have mastered the legendary arts of burning water, breaking the washing machine without doing anything but press buttons, and somehow managing to make rooms dirtier while trying to clean them. You are completely incapable of properly doing anything even remotely relating to housework, any attempt in doing so inevitably results in chaos and food that would give Cthulhu a headache. Live under the shame of knowing that the only reason you ever eat something other than fast food and takeout is because your baby brother is capable of cooking.

It had been somehow comforting to know that his Gamer abilities' descriptions were just universally insulting, rather than only towards him. Regardless, he wasn't sure if abysmal was the negative equivalent of unique, considering there was no convenient comparison chart to inform him of the exact-

Jaune's line of thought was promptly cut off and murdered as a popup appeared barely an inch in front of his face nearly making him miss his next jump. Barely recovering Jaune glared at the popup (which now floated innocently nearby, as if it hadn't just jump scared him). Jaune twitched.

Congratulations! For making an intelligent conjecture on the nature of your skill masteries the skill tier list is now available. You have also gained 1 point of intelligence and wisdom.

"Smart ass" Jaune complained, stopping firmly before sighing and opening the new tab.

Skill Tiers: grants an effect multiplier to skill based on tier, allowing effects exceeding the lv 100 mastery limit. The tier of a skill can be altered by passing certain parameters (revealed after tier acquisition). Some skills interact uniquely with tier levels by, for example, limiting max level based on tier level.

Abominable tier: bad to a level that should not be physically possible, -200% skill effect correction

Abysmal tier: bad to an almost unbelievable level, -150% skill effect correction

Horrible tier: bad to an extreme level, -100% skill effect correction

Awful tier: bad to an uncommonly great level, -50% skill effect correction

Bad tier: worse than most people, but not cripplingly so. -25% skill effect correction

Standard tier: average, no skill effect correction

Advanced tier: better than most, +25% skill effect correction

Expert tier: uncommonly good, +50% skill effect correction

Elite tier: extremely good, +100% skill effect correction

Unique tier: good to an almost unbelievable level, +150% skill effect correction

Godly tier: Good to a level that should not be physically possible, +200% skill effect correction.

Jaune simply stared at the screen for a moment "that explains so much…" and it did, judging by correlations it meant that all his sisters had an effective cooking level in the negatives, seeing as abysmal tier level would, for example, make a level 30 into an effective negative 15 skill mastery. Worst part is, the more they practiced the worse they would get... well disregarding the fact that Jaune apparently had an effective housework mastery level of 127, the tier system could be super bad news. Scratch could be, it was undoubtedly super bad news, even if it did answer a lot of questions.

"Shit… Shit! Shit! Shit!" Jaune mumbled even as he set off through the dark woods again; hysteria held back only by desperate determination and his Gamer's mind skill. "If tiers apply to random skills they should apply to combat skills as well!"

Expert tier was only at the level of being uncommonly good, and with it came a 50% skill correction, applied to something like swordsmanship or -god forbid- aura mastery meant even level 100 mastery of the standard tier skill would fall behind people in the late 60's and above of the higher tier skill.

"God damn it!" Jaune roared in frustration. Leveling up a skill was one thing, with enough grit and determination (and risk of horrible injury, death, etc.) it could be done, but completing some random unlisted parameters? Sure, he might stumble on them but that wasn't something he could manage with sheer grit and determination. But…. He couldn't afford to fail; he would have to keep trying regardless of how increasingly shitty the odds of success were. As if in response to his grim determination a window popped up in front of him.

Quest: Breaking the limit

New information has reveal that the road to power is even longer and more uncertain then it appears, level the playing field, or die trying.

Quest details:

With the unveiling of the secret behind skill tier levels, standard skill levels are not going to cut it.

The method of reaching higher tiers relies on meeting unlisted and unknown parameters.

Primary Quest objectives

Raise Aura mastery up to at least an Elite tier skill (incomplete)

Raise at least 4 other combat skills to at least Elite tier (incomplete)

Time remaining: Until final showdown with ?.

Success rewards: 2,000,000 experience, 5 proficiency levels in all combat skills Elite tier and above, A-rank combat prowess is a feasible goal.

Quest Failure results: Disappointment, A-rank combat prowess extremely difficult to attain, high chance of Kingdom in Peril quest leading to character death.

Tapping the accept button mindlessly Jaune quickly selected his newly evolved skill, intent on checking what the parameters were for its rank up from standard level.

3-dimensional combat (advanced tier)

Parameters cleared for current tier:

-level 20 skill mastery (cleared)

-win a battle while using the «3-dimensional movement» skill (cleared)

Parameters for next tier:

-Unknown

-Unknown

-Unknown

"well that's useless," Jaune murmured, only knowing what he had to do after he'd already done it was no help whatsoever…. Although "Just judging by the first parameter I'd hazard a guess that the first parameter requirement is getting the skill to level 40" he murmured. Half a second later a popup appeared in front of him, confirming his conjecture.

Parameter discovered: level 40 skill mastery (Incomplete)

Jaune quickly flipped through his menu, selecting his aura skill and bringing up its parameters

Aura mastery

Parameters for next tier

-Unknown

- Aura reserves exceeding 3000 (complete)

"oh gee, let me guess, level 20 skill mastery" Jaune grumbled, hazarding a guess at the other unknown parameter.

Parameter discovered: Level 20 skill mastery (incomplete)

"yup" Jaune murmured, a bit of relief seeping into his voice before he frowned again. While lower level tier ups seemed easy enough, Jaune had no doubt that they would only get increasingly complex and convoluted as he went up the ranks. Getting Aura mastery to elite level would require 2 more tier ups after this one that would likely be exponentially more difficult. On top of that he was going to try and get bladed weapon mastery, shield mastery, and evasion up to the highest tier he could, seeing as they represented his primary combat methods. Speaking of which…

Bladed weapon mastery

Parameters for next tier:

-level 20 skill mastery (complete)

- Unknown (57/500)

Shield mastery

Parameters for next tier:

-level 20 skill mastery (complete)

- Unknown (62/500)

Evasion

Parameters for next tier:

-Level 20 skill mastery (complete)

- Unknown (54/500)

"Huh. Least I'm apparently making some progress" Jaune murmured "looks like the parameters should have something to do with successful evasions, shield parries, and attacks with a bladed weapon"

Parameter discover-

"yeah, yeah, yeah I get it" Jaune grumbled, closing the windows without reading them "okay step in the right direction, looks like this might not be as bad as I thought"

For tempting fate despite the already horrible odds stacked against you, you have gained 5 points of luck. You'll need it.

Jaune twitched "not even going to dignify that with a response" he murmured closing the popup.

Seeing as he was finally clear of all distractions -for the moment- Jaune picked up his pace as much as he could, having already plotted out his general course days in advance. Rather than heading to Vale to start compiling information, Jaune was heading further into the wilderness, away from Vale. In a turn that was quickly becoming less ironic and more a simple fact of his life, it was simply too risky to start with information gathering inside of the largely threat free city. He currently wasn't strong or fast enough to escape students at the level of most signal academy students, getting anywhere close to the headmaster of Beacon (yet another of his parent's friends) would only result in him getting dragged back to the (temporary) safety of the Arc manor, especially considering his rather low covert arts skill. As it was, with his stupidly large aura reserves, someone like Ozpin or any of the other teachers at beacon would spot him half a mile away by his aura signature alone.

A chill ran down his spine and he halted on a branch glancing around and drawing Crocea Mors, leaving the shield in sheathe form to keep his other hand free. "more Grimm huh" he murmured even as the creatures surrounded him "don't want to risk leaving a trail behind… fortunately I doubt they'd link Grimm tracks to me, without bloodstains and a corpse to indicate my demise anyway, so if I don't touch the ground it's probably fine." Jaune paused, looking at the totally harmless forest floor before snorting "The floor is lava, huh?"

Setting aside thoughts of the uncertain future for the moment, Jaune allowed himself to focus entirely on the impending battle, finding a grin stretching across his face once more as shadowy figures closed in on him, likely attracted by his constant surging of negative emotions. The beasts closed in, and the ember smoldering in his heart flickered then surged, burning irrepressibly as he readied himself to face death once more.

"It's going to be a long night" The 9-year-old murmured, his tone quivering in a manner than might have been mistaken for terror… if not for the nigh maniacal grin stretched across his face "well, just another dance at death's border, I guess."

Prologue: The first Dance: End.

A/N

Hi everybody. I know I haven't updated my other stories for some time but my muse is being a bit finicky right now. I know where I want to go with the stories but I'm having a little bit of trouble getting from point A to point B, so to speak. It's a problem I will admit to having as a writer; I think up a bunch of good scenes or story arcs (or I hope they're good at least) and then struggle to properly connect them together. Seriously, in my story Gamer's guide to the underworld, I have literally multiple arcs largely formed in my head, but literally all of them are after Kokabiel's shenanigans are over and done with. In fact, I have several points of that Arc planned; a fact that does me nothing while I'm agonizing over how I want to properly introduce more of the future main cast without messing up a reveal and twist I've been excited about ever since I thought of it. Suffice to say I'm not abandoning my other stories, just taking a bit of a break from them as I am forcibly bent to my muses will.

Anyway, this story is a plot bunny that has been bugging me for quite some time now, distracting me from thinking about my other stories incessantly, as you might guess by this 11k monster (well, monster by my standards at least). Part of the inspiration comes from a couple of quests I ended up reading on spacebattles, specifically Crossycross's Price of Power quest and Iandude0's Lords Among the ashes quest, which both share a common point of Jaune growing at a rate directly proportionate to how much effort the world around him is putting in to try and murder/enthusiastically maul him. I ended up getting the thought of that concept combined with a Gamer style story stuck in my head and it all started coming together from there.

In my opinion the fact that Jaune needs to take risks, that he can't afford safety nets, and that taking it slowly isn't an option will hopefully mitigate some of the things I find take some of the tension and excitement out of Gamer stories. Most prominently the whole, I'm going to save a fuck ton of stat points to make a built-in Deus-ex-Machina plot device thing. It's not like I don't understand why writers use it, it is genuinely a smart thing for a character to hold in reserve, but I still feel like it saps a lot out of a story when a character is apparently struggling against something, and all the while they have over a 100 attribute points laying around. So, my solution to this was the fact that Jaune's growth would genuinely be impeded by safety nets such as these.

It should be noted that his somewhat excessive battle lust will fade for the most part with time, it's mainly just him working off years' worth of buildup and trying to distract himself from the fact that he's running away from home.

Fair warning, the world of remnant has been majorly buffed in regards to power levels. Ozpin (unsurprisingly one of the handful of S-rank hunters in existence), for example, is fully capable of stopping a speeding freight train with nothing but his aura and sheer brute force. Adding insult in injury, Ozpin is primarily an agility type, who considers his physical strength to be one of his weak points. Of course, this buff applies to the Grimm too (oh hello there Mr. Kaiju, how's the weather up there?)

Primary differences compared to most other gamer stories are as follows:

-Single player: between the danger Jaune is facing, his desire to be the one doing the protecting rather than the one being protected, and simply the fact that he would be hard pressed to prove a crisis he knows is real was anything more than a child's nightmare means he isn't going to be getting any party members any time soon. If he does end up gaining a companion (of which I'm still undecided) they will not directly link up with the game. Jaune will be able to interact with them like an in-game party member with his ability but for them it will merely feel like they are growing stronger normally, albeit at an accelerated rate.

-Skills maxed at level 100: no skill class ups simply by grinding a skill (although that is sometimes part of it) you don't get an entirely new branch of a skill simply by doing the same thing everyone else does better than them, that would be like saying that upon acquiring a 10th Dan black belt in karate a person spontaneously learns a new and improved martial art, it just doesn't work that way. Skills have higher tiers that can only be attained by managing unorthodox and (beyond the first tier or two up at least) extremely difficult parameters and challenges. For example, Jaune's souped up cooking skill (bu dum tsh) was the result of becoming an extremely competent cook despite his mother (who has a lv 94, Abominable tier housework skill because lol) being the one to teach him cooking, amongst other household chores.

-Nerfed Combat recovery: During combat health and Aura recovery rates suffer a massive 90% malus, meaning Jaune's resting aura recovery rate of (currently) 2% per minute is dropped to a measly .2% per minute during combat. With Jaune's wisdom at around 100 and half of the recovery rate coming from the base rate of 1% regen a minute, to get an in-combat recovery rate of 1% a minute would require an effective 900 wisdom score. The funny thing is, Jaune's aura regeneration rate would already be considered quite fast, both due to Jaune's massive aura reserves (for his level) and the fact that most people recover at a flat rate rather than a proportion of their max reserves.

-It's a semblance, not admin hacks: Jaune's gamer ability can't warp the laws of reality, it is something that's primary effect is restricted to Jaune himself. That means no random money drops or materials from Grimm, nor unexplainable hax potions. This also means that skill mastery level effects Jaune's actual ability at something, a high covert arts skill doesn't make a shitty lie more convincing, it would just let him think of a better and more convincing one. Jaune is also the only one with a numerical health value, everyone else just has a health bar denoting their general wellbeing.

-Levels don't clearly correlate to power: While a higher level is generally better, people other than Jaune are assigned levels by his ability based on the degree of their own potential they have unlocked. It's easier to go from level 10 to level 20 than from level 110 to level 120. Jaune's Gamer ability doesn't assign people levels based on stat values and effective combat strength but rather on how much they've worked to get stronger. It's fully possible for a level 10 to be just as strong as a level 30, even if it is rare. An extremely high level merely means a person has met a large portion of their potential. That said, very few people without great innate talents survive to reach higher levels.

-Aura penetration: An Aura shield is not invincible just because a person has aura remaining. If a certain damage threshold is passed, damage will bleed through and deal Health damage (or rather, a physical injury for anyone other than Jaune).

-Even gods can bleed: And Jaune is not a god, when health points are depleted to zero Jaune's body is reverted to a normal (albeit more durable than most, thanks to his stats) human's meaning he starts getting cut and bleeding like normal, and can be permanently scarred and even crippled.

-Mods disabled: Jaune's gamer ability cannot create abilities or traits that are not possible for a conventional person. Jaune's oracle skill, for example, is a genuine ability that others have possessed just like other people possess the incandescent soul trait and hence rapid aura recovery. While he could conceivably make a new skill, it would have to be technically possible even without his gamer ability.

-paved with good intentions: Ironically quite a few of major 'antagonists' in this story are going to be genuinely good people. For all intents and purposes Jaune is a kid running away from home, regardless of the reasons, many of the people who are going to try and stop Jaune are doing so out of both genuine concern for Jaune and because they know his family is worried about him.