The Games We Play

Chapter 197: Regrouping

Chapter 197: Regrouping

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Regrouping

Raven Branwen

LV 173

Those were the words revealed on the Party screen as Raven furrowed her brow and pressed the accept button, writing themselves next to a pair of colored barsher HP and MP. While I'd only ever done it a few times, I could make parties with people of a higher level than me just fine.

There just wasn't much point, generally speaking. Experience couldn't be divided equally unless our levels were close to one another and by default, the only thing revealed about someone that strong was their level. While that was useful in its own way, levels being a broad indicator of someone's general ability, the fact remained that it was fairly unhelpful on its own. While the difference between two people at level one might not be huge, the difference between those who have grown and developed was immense. From the focus in their stats to the nature of their Semblance, those at high levels grew in vastly different directions and possessed their own strengths and weaknesses, so boiling them down to a number became almost useless. There could be a warrior with a Semblance that granted inhuman strength and a Dust-user with the power to create elaborate Glyphs and they could both be the same levelbut they weren't the same.

At the level I was at now especially, I pretty much ignored levels entirely, beyond noting whether or not I was able to see them. The information revealed by Observe was vastly more important that the numbers about their head, especially since at three digits or more, it wouldn't be odd if a person's effective strength could vary by a few dozen levels based on the precise nature of their Semblance and the situation. Knowing the specifics was a necessity, in cases like that.

Added to that, the truth was that while being a member of my party had its uses, it also had its limits. Even if they were connected to me in some fashion, it wasn't as though they obtained my Semblance or anything. As I'd tested with Adam a lot time ago, they couldn't use skill books to learn things more quickly, nor did they gain the ability to learn skillsor rather, the ability to learn skills the way I did. If we were all close in level, then we could see each other's HP bars, but they didn't gain any of the other perceptive abilities that came with my Semblance, so they couldn't see names, titles, or levels. They didn't gain the benefits of the Gamer's Mind or Body, either. Really, all they got out of it was the ability to earn experience by killing monsters.

Not that that wasn't amazing in its own right, of course. One of the advantages of my parties was that if you got enough experience while a member of one, you'd level up and get a handful of points to distribute however you wanted. Unlike conventional training, it didn't matter what you'd been focusing on, so you could freely place points in Intelligence, Wisdom, or even Luck, despite having done nothing to improve them directly. Given that training such things normally became exceedingly difficult as the stats got highereven for me, despite all the advantages I'd leveraged to the taskthis was a godsend.

In addition, unless they were a member of my party, levels weren't tied to killing the Grimm at all and improving them depended entirely on a person's own abilityand from what little I'd seen of Hunter graduates, their growth would usually slow down greatly around the time they'd finished attending schools like Haven or Beacon. None of the graduates I'd seen had levels that strayed too far from the higher end of the student body, which I guess made sense; once you'd already spent years and years training your body, mastered the use of your Semblance, finished polishing your combat style, and had some actual experience under your belt, it was unlikely to make any of the massive improvements that could be seen early on. Even then, while I'd seen people leap forward five levels overnight in my short time at Haven, that increase in levels was probably from gaining a greater understanding of how to use their Semblance or something and hadn't been accompanied by any change in their stats.

Thankfully, in my case, improving levels was a standardized process of reaching quotas, without anything like bottlenecks and with guaranteed rewards each time. Even if I didn't make any random improvements from sudden realizationsbeyond the natural benefit of whatever I came up with, of course; my power wasn't actually tied to my level, after allwhat gains I did make generally had more value to them, or at least more consistency. I'd seen people with stats far higher than their levels would indicate and also far lower, but I knew for a fact where I stood at any given time.

As always, I was grateful to my power for that, among many other things.

But still, what had Raven been eating? Even keeping in mind that levels were nothing but a broad measure of strength, for her level to be the better part of twice my mother and father'sI still couldn't Observe her to tell, but was it simply because of her Semblance or had she simply grown that strong on her own somehow? I suppose that if you added up all my gains from training and divided them by the five points per level, I wasn't too far away from the point myselfand I was stronger than my stats indicated regardlessbut it was still very impressive, even though I'd known she had to be about this strong, given that I hadn't been able to see her level even after breaking the three digit barrier. Given what I knew about growth rates besides my ownshe must have been at least three digits when she graduated from Beacon.

Or was she and exception somehow, like I was? Had she had some other way of growing this strong? If it wasn't just her Semblance, then it would have to be her skills, but

And God, what about the rest of her team? Cinder? Ozpin?

Even though it was just a number on a screen, it was hard not to find the implications disheartening. It seemed I still had a long, long way to go.

"Did that do something?" Raven asked after a moment, the screen in front of her vanishing without any obvious changes from her perspective.

"Try saying 'Status,'" I replied, careful not to let my worries show.

"Status," Raven replied and started slightly as a window appeared before her eyes. She paused for a moment when her eyebrows furrowed, considering it for a moment. "Ah. This is?"

"Your status screen," I replied, nodding. "Just like in a game. You should be able to see the general details, at least."

Raven shot me an odd look.

"Can you not see it?" She asked.

"I can," I replied, shaking my head slightly as I spoke. "But I thought you might like a moment to go over it first."

Well, while that sounded polite, there was also the fact that there wasn't much point in snooping. Unfortunately, the status screens my party system provided weren't as useful or detailed as my ownprobably because most of the options I had simply weren't relevant to them. As they didn't have Inventories or skills the way I did, those things weren't available or displayed, nor was a lot of the other information that I could usually see. It didn't bother showing thing like their emotional states, backgrounds, or all the other stuff I found useful as a voyeur, either, presumably because they were expected know. Truthfully, it was really nothing but a simple, streamlined window with their names, HP, MP, stats, points, and the other basic stuff, along with the option to improve stats if points were available to do so; the stuff that they could actually use, essentially.

Which meant that it wasn't of much value to me because I had Observe, which displayed far more information and which was why whenever Adam wanted to see the details of his stats, I usually just created illusory versions of whatever I could see using it. While I was curious to know what stats Raven had, they were fairly far down the list of things I'd like to see on her status page, so it was hard to get too excitedI knew better than anyone how much your skills and abilities could play with your states, so that information was also of limited use on its own; her Aura alone probably at least doubled their effective values. If I'd been able to see her Status in its entirety, I'd probably have shamelessly taken a look, but it wasn't meant to be.

Raven pondered that for a moment before nodding and I glanced over it once. She was built similarly to Adam, with a focus on her physical stats, though they were a fair bit higher than his and arranged somewhat differently, favoring Dexterity first, Stamina second, and Strength lastnot that any of them were less than two hundred. Both Intelligence and Wisdom were fairly high as well, though her Luck was only about equal to mine. All told, she had the highest stat total I'd ever seen on a human.

"It's interesting," Raven mused. "Certainly, it's convenient to have such things numbered. They're accurate, I assume?"

I nodded.

"Adam can testify to that," I answered. "So long as you're a member of my party, each level you gain will give you five points to distribute freely among your stats. Adam's made a lot of improvement lately, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"So that's why," She replied, tilting her head. "Yes, I've noticed that he's become quite a bit stronger and fasteramazingly so, though he's always been a fairly quick study in such things. This is why? What a convenient powerhow do you gain levels?"

"By defeating enemies," I replied. "Adam and I hunt the Grimm nearby at night, when we're not busy training other things."

"Partially," I confirmed. "Truthfully, we could have escaped from the Ananta while it was still recovering, but there was too much of a risk that it'd turn towards Mistral, then or later. I couldn't take that risk any more than I could with anything near the Kingdoms. Part of the reason we're here is because, though extremely dangerous, it's also remote enough that we can relax somewhat. With the nature of your power especially, we should be able to withdraw at any time without them following us towards civilization, though we'll play it safe for the time being. But also, yes, you are our safety net, to catch us when things inevitably go awryat least for the time being. Early on especially, I suspect things will be rather touch and go, but later"

I shook my head.

"Is that alright with you?" I asked.

"It would not be the first time I've played this role," She replied, inclining her head my way. "And time is of the essence. I'll be on guard."

"Thank you," I told her truthfully, bowing my head more deeply then she had as a gesture of respect. "Now, a few warningsand don't be surprised if I add to this randomly, given where we are. First of all, stay away from the trees."

"The trees?" Adam asked, glancing around us. Right now, we were standing in the middle of what looked like a forest, surrounded by dark trees with white blossoms. Adam paused for a moment, squinted for a moment, and then widened his eyes. "Are those?"

"Lotus Eaters," I said with a nod.

The Fruit of Madness

LV 63

Lotus Eater

Those were the words that appeared over the branches of the nearest tree and a closer look at it revealed the truth behind them. Though it was disguised well, the delicate-looking petals of its blossoms were in fact made of hard bone spikes, giving away its true nature. It was a Lotus Eater, a species of Grimm that took on the forms of a variety of different kinds of plant life; however it looked, though, what mattered was its true nature. From its open petals, which did in fact look like lotus blossoms, wafted clouds of dust-like materialit's 'pollen.' Though the trees themselves had little combat ability, those who inhaled their pollen would quickly fall prey to its effects.

The symptoms were as horrible as they were varied and looking at the spores, I could see why. They'd drive their victims to madness with hallucinations and toxins, literally attacking their brain from within until they collapsed, sickened and senseless. Then, the trees would drag them into their trunks while they were still trapped within their nightmares and digest them.

Slowly. Though they were thankfully rare in other parts of the world, Vacuo had done several studies on them out of necessity, as there were some places north of it where they could grow. After a costly first encounter, they'd managed to destroy an infestation of the things relatively close to the Kingdom, and when the Grimm had faded, they left behind the corpses within. Autopsies had agreed they'd all died of the same thingstarvation.

"I'm shielding us," I said. "But don't let your guard down. This isn't exactly a place to go on vacation to."

"Please," Adam snorted. "You'd spend your vacations here in a heartbeat, Jaune."

I smiled at that, if not as brightly as I normally might.

"Well," I hedged. "Maybe. Just follow my lead, okay?"

Having said that, I took a moment to close my eyes. Sadly, returning to my horrific homeland was only part one of my magnificent strategy for meeting the approaching deadlineand it wasn't even the part I was most uncomfortable with. Taking a deep breath, I activated part two.

Venenum (Active) LV1 EXP: 47.03%

An ancient art utilizing the principles of Alchemy. Through the process of transmutation, it is possible to convert one's body and soul into baser materials, but due to the requirement of one's vital fluids, few alchemists were willing to transform large quantities, especially given the risks involved. Instead, many alchemists chose to convert small amounts of their blood into medicines, allowing them to profit without undue harmafter all, due to the process occurring within the user's body, even carefully bleeding the results out does not guarantee the alchemist himself will not suffer the medicines effects. For that reason, poisons were rarely created, but this skill allows for the creation of any toxin or medicine that may be produced organically, limited only by the users power and skill. Masters of the art, however, are said to be able to create far greater things.

10 HP and 10 MP per milliliter.

Immediately after using Venenum, I started feeling strange and knew that the blood I'd converted into poison was taking effect even before the pain took hold. I brought up my HP and looked at it carefully, Semblance keeping my body steady even when it should have been collapsing under the near liter of poison I'd filled my veins with. Immediately, several windows appeared, notifying me of the improvements to Poison Resistance, but even that wasn't enough to keep my HP from ticking down.

"Jaune?" Adam asked, concern filling his voice. He was close enough to my level to see my HP and how quickly it was dropping.

"Don't worry about it," I replied, still watching it fall. Only when it was nearly empty did I heal myself, carefully regulating my returning health to insure it didn't go too high and tried to keep it steady.

This was the next step of my plan, making use of the skill I'd obtained from the Ananta and which I hadn't used much until now, because of the danger involved. Despite its enormous power, using it carried enough risk that I had only used it sparingly and never in battleand even then, I wouldn't have even considered using it at all without Second Chance. Though I didn't mind hurting myself a for the sake of training and didn't care what happened to my body in generally, it was a bit different when my life was on the line.

But desperate times

Etz Hayim (Passive) LV1 EXP: 12.11%

The Tree of Life is what gives shape to the mortal soul, defining it between the states of life and death. Through life, the soul is polished, the truth of oneself being slowly revealed by the hands of timeand yet, at the same time, man is born to die. Yet death, too, has its place and role, for if to live is to learn, then it awaits as the final lesson. With this skill, the user may approach, in small part, the truth of that mystery.

Increase all experience gains by 200% while HP is below 1%.

Increase all experience gains by an additional 300% while only 1 HP remains.

Call for desperate measures.