Records - CH 31 - RWBY 1 - Arrival (Patreon)

Hey guys! Had a good writing week and was able to get my Harry Potter chapters done early, so I spent some time on Records. Been a while, huh?

(Word Count: 2,448)

“Index, can you show me the world of RWBY?” I asked the AI. 

“Certainly,” Index said, and the page describing the world of Remnant. It listed various timelines. A lot of them were just like the canon show. Others were far worse: Jaune was never a part of team JNPR, either because he was caught with fake transcripts or because he never caught Pyrrha's eye before the entrance test, so she never saved him and he died in the crash landing. Either way, that meant he was never there to provide an Aura Amp when needed, leading to a lot more deaths. 

In other worlds, Ruby wasn't given early entrance into Beacon, so she wasn't the beacon of hope to the others, nor was she able to provide the power of the silver eyes when needed.

In others, General Ironwood drops the bomb to destroy Mantle, along with several of the main cast.

In some, Blake stays with Adam and helps him in radicalizing the White Fang.

In all of these worlds, Salem gets the four relics and the world is destroyed.

Well, since I wanted to benefit from canon, I chose one that was similar to the show. The world was screwed enough as it was.

What set this world apart was nothing more than someone having a different snack one morning.

The quest list popped up:

| Stop Roman Torchwick from robbing Dust shops. | 100 WP |

| Join Roman Torchwick | 50 WP |

| Defeat Cinder | 500 WP |

| Join Cinder | 100 WP |

| Become a Huntsman | 50 WP |

| Unlock your Aura | 50 WP |

| Unlock your semblance | 50 WP |

| Defeat a small sized Grimm (Boar grimm, beowolves, etc)  (repeatable) | 1 WP |

| Defeat a medium sized grimm (ie. Ursa, Scorpions, etc)  (repeatable) | 5 WP |

| Defeat a large sized grimm (ie. Mammoths, Nevermore, etc.) (repeatable) | 10 WP |

| Defeat a special Grimm (repeatable) | 50 WP |

| Become a teacher at Beacon Academy | 200 WP |

| Become a student at Beacon Academy | 100 WP |

| Become a teacher at Haven Academy | 200 WP |

| Become a student at Haven Academy | 100 WP |

| Become a teacher at Atlas Academy | 200 WP |

| Become a student at Atlas Academy | 100 WP |

| Become a teacher at Shade Academy | 200 WP |

| Become a student at Shade Academy | 100 WP |

There were quests to ensure Jaune or Ruby don't make it into Beacon, as well as plenty of other quests that would ensure that Salem won.

The most interesting quests were the ones to gather the four relics of Remnant, the Staff of Creation, the Lamp of Knowledge, the Sword of Destruction, and the Crown of Choice. Each one was to get the relic, and gave 1,000 WP.

Looking at all of the quests, I couldn't help but wonder what I wanted to do in this world. Obviously, I wanted to kill plenty of grimm to get a bunch of levels, and unlock Aura, but how did I want to change things for the better? By the end of season nine, Ruby had PTSD and was crushed by the weight of the team's failures to stop Salem to the point where she willingly drank the tea Neo offered her. The tea that would merge her with the godly tree of life and death to be memory wiped and reincarnated as something or someone else.

Basically, she had given up and attempted to off herself.

Sure there was some magical change within her as she talked to the tree's consciousness—or the world's will?—and she came back the same, but… that happened. 

And she was…. What? 16? 17 at most at the time. 15 when it all started.

No one that young should have to go through that. Or anyone for that matter, but if it had to happen, let the adults shoulder the burden.

It was decided then. I'll interfere with Ruby's enrollment. Normally, that would basically doom the world, but I'll balance it out by taking out the bad guys.

Hmmm… the antagonists that screwed up everything were Cinder and Watts. So while I was there, I would have to make sure to take care of them. Tyrian was a psycho so, while he wasn’t as big of an issue as the others, he would have to go. Hazel seemed to be redeemable so I don't necessarily have to kill him, so long as I can convince him of his wrong doing. Adam needed to go, but in a way he didn't become a martyr. I was a human, after all. If i wasn’t careful, i could just make the situation worse. 

Roman and Neo… well, as much as I enjoyed their charming characters in the first few seasons, I had no sympathy for them as real life people. They were better in the Fixing RWBY fan project, but in the canon they were willing to lead a horde of grimm directly into the center of the city. They had to go. Especially Neo, with all of the destruction she caused in the later seasons.

Who cares if she's hot. 

Another goal was to get a hold of some of the technology here. They had hard-light projections, flying ships, and mechashift weapons. Definitely stuff I want to get my hands on, though I don't think I'll be able to take a ship back with me. I could still bring something like a solar panel charger so I can have my phone back.

I missed listening to music.

Thinking about my goals, I may have made a mistake in not choosing the Drop-In module. The ideal location for some early grinding would have been Mount Glenn, an abandoned attempt by Vale at creating another city. It was unfortunately overrun, leading to massive casualties. Still, it was close enough to Vale to interfere with some of the early canon events, like Ruby's enrollment, but had enough grimm in it to keep me satisfied for months.

Now, who knows where I'd end up. RWBY's canon takes place all across the world. Two worlds, actually. Hopefully I don't end up in the Ever After.

I sighed, lifted up the book representing the world of Remnant, and said, “Enter!”

I was enveloped in light, and the next moment the Library was gone, replaced by a lush green forest. ‘Okay, I'm definitely not in Vacuo or Atlas.’

There weren't any wacky looking plants either, so I didn't seem to be in the Ever After. So it was Vale or Mistral.

Looking around, I noticed in the distance a small log wall. Some minor defences of a small farming settlement. ‘I guess that would be the nearby civilization the drop-in module promised.’ I thought. It wasn't much to look at from here. While I did make my living during my travels by stopping in whatever small town I found to work for a day back in the Avatar world, that wasn’t the way I wanted to go about things here in RWBY. For now, it's better to just head directly to where I want.

I closed my eyes to use my Chi Sense. That was when I noticed that my Chi felt weaker. ‘No, that wasn't it.’ I was missing something, a connection of some kind. That's when I realized. I pulled up the Low Cosmic Connection skill.

[Low Cosmic Connection LVL 31/100]

Requires all 7 Chakras to be open. You are able to touch upon the cosmic energies of the universe. You are able to peek into the movements of fate and destiny.

Increases the effect of Aura by 10%/LVL

Increases Aura regeneration by 10%/LVL

Increases scrying effects by 10%/LVL

The description changed. Instead of boosting my Chi, it was now boosting Aura. Something I didn't have yet. So the “Cosmic Energies” of the universe was different depending on which universe I'm in? That was going to be annoying. I hope that when I’m finally able to upgrade this skill, it changes.

Putting the matter aside, I returned to trying to scry my location. For starters, I reached out to Ruby Rose. She should be in Patch or Vale, exactly where I want to be.

The connection traced through the ground and found her pretty quickly. As it turned out, I dropped in pretty close to Vale already. I must be just outside of one of those small towns on the road between Vale and Mistral.

I turned towards Vale and started Earth Skating.

About an hour into my journey following parallel along the main road, I ran into the next small town. Just like the previous town, it was walled in. Unlike the previous town, it was currently under attack by a small horde of grimm.

Most of the grimm were beowolves, looking like black werewolves with bone masks, but there were two Ursas, the bear grimm, among them. Along the wall of the town, a handful of huntsmen and some townsfolk with their own hunting rifles were shooting into the horde. One section of the wall was broken down, and two huntsmen were protecting the gap, desperately trying to hold them off.

But from the looks of things, they were already exhausted. As I noticed them, one of the Ursas landed a hit with its meaty paw and broke the aura of huntsmen guarding the gap. She went flying back into the town and disappeared from view.

Seeing the desperate struggle, immediately dropped into an Earthbending stance and raised a stone wall to plug the gap in the village's defense. There were probably some grimm already inside, but better to stop the rest while I could.

I thrust my hands outward, and several earthen spikes shot up from the ground beneath the large Ursa near the wall. The Beowolves likely weren’t strong enough to tear through the walls on their own, so it was probably the Ursas that did it. Better to take them out first.

The spikes impaled the Ursa, and it faded away into ash and dust. One thing that I noticed was the durability of the Ursa. The spikes didn't go as deep as I had expected them to.

The local huntsmen all paused in wonder at the appearance of the wall and the death of one of the Ursas. They cheered, and resumed their fighting with renewed vigor.

I went ahead and started sending boulders into the surrounding Beowolves. The boulders crushed the grimm beneath them as they crashed down on them and went on to roll into the ones behind. 

I frowned. The differences in his bending were obvious. Both my Chi Manipulation and Earthbending were back down to level 1, and it was showing. My control was back to how it was in the beginning, and it took far more Chi to do something as simple as throw boulders than it did just a day ago. 

No matter. I'd just have to grind the skills back up to max. Once I did, the skill evolutions would show their worth.

I didn't take out very many before the nearby grimm noticed my presence and turned to attack me. I threw down my pack and shrugged off my greatsword from my back. I drew it, threw the sheath towards my pack on the ground, and grinned.

I charged the nearest Beowolf. It leapt at me, claws extended, but I met it with a downward stroke of my blade. It cleaved in two, dispersing into ash as it passed by me. I stepped through the cloud of ash to attack the next grimm coming at me.

I worked my way through the horde, and slowly, one by one, the last of the grimm were taken out. I did take some hits, as I wasn't skilled enough yet to handle a horde untouched, but my armor held out for the most part. The other Ursa had been taken out by some of the local huntsmen. When the last of the grimm dispersed into ash, I pulled up my screen to check out my progress.

STATUS SCREEN

NAME: Callan Stone

TIER: 1

RACE: Human

RACES AVAILABLE [-]: Human

GLOBAL LEVEL: 15 35,404 => 37,634/43,409 Exp

CLASS: Swordsman 8 => 9 5,023 => 7,253/9,586 Exp

CLASS HISTORY: Street Rat 10/10, Brawler 10/10, Monk 10/10

STATS [-]:

Str: 38 => 39

End: 63 => 64

Dex: 34 => 35

Int: 15

Wis: 51

Cha: 15

Chi: 54

Chi Rec: 10

Free Stats: 0

BLESSINGS:

Lion Turtle, Moon Spirit

SKILLS [-]:

Skill Points: 0

[Swordsmanship Lvl 1 => 2/100]

[Elemental Chi Manipulation Lvl 1 => 2/100]

[Chi Enhancement II Lvl 1 => 2/100]

[Situational Awareness II Lvl 1 => 2/100]

[Precise Striking Lvl 35 => 39/100]

[Pain Tolerance Lvl 59 => 60/100]

WP: 141 => 162

I frowned. I helped clear out a whole horde of grimm, and I only gained 1 level in my evolved skills? These new skills will be a lot harder to grind back up than I thought. Still, I was here to focus on leveling up as much as I could, and the skills will follow.

I went back to pick up my pack, sheathing my greatsword and throwing both over my shoulder.

“Hey, you!” One of the huntsmen called out to him. “Would you mind lowering this bit of stone wall? We need to patch it up properly.”

I raised my hand, palm facedown, and pushed downward, the stone wall lowered back into the ground. A couple of the defenders came out to greet him.

“Hey, great job out here! What's your name?” A huntsman, wielding a sawed off shotgun, greeted him.

“Callan Stone,” I said.

“Mike Rosen. That's a powerful semblance you've got there,” The huntsman said.

“Yeah… It's pretty handy. But it's not all I can do. I can use it to heal as well. If you take me to your wounded, I can get them patched up,” I said. Since I've helped out already, might as well do things properly.

Mike blinked at him in surprise, then grinned widely in relief. “You can heal! That's perfect! Come on! We've got a lot of people knocking on death's door.”

Mike rushed me into the town, where I could see several destroyed buildings. In the town center, a triage had been set up where several dozens of people were lying wounded. Some of the worst off were set up on actual cots, and were being treated by one doctor and a nurse that were each desperately trying to stop the bleeding of their own patient.

I set my pack and sword down again and stepped forward to help.

The battle may be over, but recovery always took longer. By the looks of things, I'll be spending the rest of my first day in RWBY here in this town.