11 Another World
My surrounding was a lush forest filled to the brim with healthy trees and other greeneries. A typical forest found in all kinds of fantasy or medieval setting. It was currently daybreak right now, with sunlight starting to seep in between the covers of the tree branches and leaves.
It has been a few minutes since I woke up to this beautiful nature surrounding me. It seems Dimensional Travel had worked properly and sent me off to another universe entirely. How do I know that for sure you might ask? Easy, the moon was not shattered on the BNHA world.
As I said before it was daybreak, but there was still a trace of the moon left to be seen, and it was clearly separated into multiple parts up there in the sky. Wonder what could have caused it to crack like that. Maybe some aliens or the likes?
I still feel unwell from the transformation that happened when One's Own Justice activated.
The Skill worked in a strange way. It would only activate when I die. It would prevent my death and makes me immortal for the short amount of time consisting of ten minutes. All damage I take during those ten minutes would regenerate, and I would have unlimited stamina as well. During those ten minutes, I must kill the person who caused the activation of One's Own Goal. If I succeed I would be revived as a normal human again, and if I failed to kill the enemy within ten minutes then I will truly die.
However, the big point here is the fact I regenerate Stamina endlessly during this undead state of mine. That means I can freely use costly abilities like Hundred Gauntlets and OverLoad without having to pay its due.
That much was great, but there was a penalty to this Skill; all Skills I own will be temporarily lowered by two full Ranks in terms of effectiveness during my undead state. For example, that means my Overload which currently has a 1:50 ratio at Rank(6+) will be temporarily returned to its former 1: 10 ratio from when it was still rank(4+). As you can see they become much less effective.
"Oh, hello there."
I turned towards the voice. There was a girl in red who assumedly spoke and another girl in white who was huffing. I recognized both of them from a certain show I watched in the past.
"Ruby, why do we need to bother with some random person? We have to hurry to get the relics!"
So it was prologue time again. Nice.
"Oh come on, don't be like that. Besides he looks like he's having trouble!"
"Then leave him be! If he can't handle some Beowolves and Ursas then he shouldn't have even entered the entrance test!"
I blinked at their words, before realizing what they meant. My appearance as still in utter disarray from the fight with Noumu and Stain, so I guess they must have concluded I was having trouble in this test of theirs. Thankfully there is no blood on me as the Noumu had no blood whatsoever and I managed to kill Hero-Killer Stain cleanly by decapitating him, otherwise it would be hard to explain how I got all bloody without an injury on me.
Maybe I should go along with their assumption. Honestly, that is the best case scenario considering I am out of gas already. I have already spent all my free stamina from Energy Replenishment during the previous fight with villains. Right, time to pretend to be weak then.
"Excuse me to trouble you two, but mind helping me out until the exam ends? As much as I hate to admit it, Miss Weiss is correct. This is a bit rough for me alone."
"Hey, who gave you permission to use my first name!"
I blinked at that.
"Huh. Would you prefer to be called by your family name?"
She balked at my words.
"When you put it that way…"
Weiss Schnee has a case of hating her own family, and besides with how famous it is she is also sick of merely being known as an heiress of the Schnee family, which is part of her determination of becoming a huntress, and the main reason she came to the school Beacon instead of the famous Atlas Academy which is nearer to where she lives. The authority of her family has even spread within Atlas Academy.
"Anyway, we accept your request!"
"Ruby!"
Ruby Rose, on the other hand, is a fifteen years old hyperactive girl who wishes to become a hero and save people. Somewhat naïve in a certain sense, while also more mature than others from a certain perspective. Considering her mother died early in her life, one could say she was forced to be more mature than her peers.
"Thank you. You have my gratitude for your assistance."
All formal since they are helping me in this instance. Would be bad manners to be impolite towards them when they are helping me. Wonder how I would fare against them in a 1v1 battle. Considering my lack of Aura the only way I could win against them is to land a full-power Overload hit before they can hurt me. My capability of landing a hit against them is rather doubtful though.
"Oh, by the way, what is your name?"
"First name Kuzuno. Cannot remember my last name."
"Can't remember? What don't tell me you have amnesia?"
"Yup. Retrograde one. Had one since about half a month ago."
Weiss looked at me with squinted eyes while Ruby lets out fascinated 'oooh' sounds. Meanwhile, I kept a smile on my face. Last time I played mysteriously but now that my powers are more solid there should be no harm in pulling off the 'nice amnesiac child' card.
"Right retrograde amnesiac child. Totally normal."
"Yes. Miss Weiss is wise indeed."
"Of course I—Wait was that a pun and an insult?"
"Miss Weiss is wise indeed."
"And you are insufferable."
Nevertheless, we continued on our journey. Even though Weiss lets out a huff of distress every now and then she did not speak of deserting me alone. Guess the girl has her kind parts as well. Supposedly this is what they call a tsundere. How cute.
The three of us walked on.
And on.
And on.
And o— we are lost, aren't we?
"It's definitely this way."
"I mean, this way."
"…Alright, It is official. We passed the temple."
"Why can't you just admit you have no idea where we're going?" Ruby was apparently sick of the charade.
"Because I know EXACTLY where we're going. We are going to the forest temple."
"And where is that exactly?" I chimed in sarcastically.
"Oh stop it you don't know where we are either."
I sighed.
System, upgrade and evolve Seek, please.
[2-4-8SP and 1EVO spent to upgrade Seek(2)]
[Please choose its evolution result]
[Guider(4)] [Seeker(4+)]
And what is the difference between the two exactly? Whatever just evolve it into Guider, since that one sounded better.
[Seek(2) has evolved into Guider(4)]
My sense suddenly grew much better. Seek was original a Skill that simply lets me get a vague feeling whether my target is near or far away from me, but now that it evolved into Guider I can sense which direction my target is at. And right now what I am searching is the temple within this forest.
We are searching for the temple since that is where the relic lies. The relic itself is merely a chess piece in either gold or black, used as a symbol for passing the initiation of Beacon this year. There are cameras watching throughout this entire forest so there is no way for someone to replicate a relic and earn their way in that way though. Besides the relic used each year is random from what I could remember.
Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon academy chose chess pieces for this year but it was apparently kept secret by him since even his assistant Glynda has no idea what the relic is. At least that was what I remember from my memory of watching the show RWBY. As usual it still boggles me how I can remember the most random of memories and yet not my own name. Kuzuno itself is merely an online alias I use over the internet. How can I remember that and not something as vital as my own name?
Ah well, no time for sappy melancholy though, had enough of those during my first few days within BNHA.
"What, so you don't know the direction we're supposed to go either? Great."
"Five hundred meters in that direction." I pointed towards where my Guider tells me to go.
"…what?"
"Five hundred meters in that direction."
"Stop repeating it!"
I shrugged but kept quiet while holding the urge to repeat my words once more. Must. Not. Bulli. The Ice Cream.
"…how do you know it is in that direction?"
"I have the Skill for it."
That was not a lie, nor was it an omission of truth. They simply won't interpret those words the correct way as I meant them to be. Lies are useful toolkits for any human being, but there are other ways of manipulating words to your advantage without spouting lies. In fact, there is more elegance in doing so without lying.
"…Fine, we'll make you eat your words."
That might be partly out of kindness, partly out of cruelty, but undoubtedly mainly because of her helplessness with the situation. Guess the estranged princess does not have a good sense of direction, who would know right?
We went out towards the direction I pointed. Some Grimm interrupted us on our way but nothing Ruby and Weiss couldn't handle without my help. As expected from spectating alone I could tell I was no match for them without my Overload. But with full-power OverLoad I should be capable of at least nearly one-hitting them.
However, my capability of hitting them itself is doubtful. Even their movement speed is much higher than mine, and I was mostly a burden during our short rush to the temple.
"How slow can you be!"
"Give me a break Ice Queen, not everyone has superhuman capabilities."
"He's right Weiss, don't rough him up."
Thankfully Ruby was kind enough to match my pace, forcing Weiss to do the same unless she Intends to travel alone. Though I wonder whether it was true kindness or was she fueled by other motives, considering she gave Weiss a face with tongue sticking out right afterward. We continued to travel and look and behold a temple at the yonder.
"There are two other people there…"
"Oh, that's Yang! She's my sister!"
And also her partner, the Faunus Blake Belladonna. Faunus, plural form Faunus, are basically people with animal traits on them, usually shown as animal ears, horns or tails within the RWBY show. In this case, Blake Belladonna has a set of cat ears hidden by the bow she wears above her head.
Faunus suffers racism from humanity, which is one of the reasons Blake decided to hide her animal features. Thinking about such topics furls me with rage. Not because I am a righteous person or anything, but rather because I don't feel anything for them. And that fact sickens me to the point I am frustrated beyond belief.
I vehemently despise the society which shaped up this personality of mine.
The three of us went to the temple. Both Yang Xiao-Long and Ruby Rose have smiles on their faces, yet their jolly mood was interrupted by a feminine shriek coming from hundreds of meters away. Good old Jaune Arc.
"What was that?"
"A female scream? Is someone in trouble?"
"Correction; A feminine scream." I chimed in.
The others looked at me with a strange look, probably questioning what the difference between the two was. There was no need to explain myself however as my words were soon explained by a human projectile coming towards us all. One Jaune Arc coming through.
"…What?"
The rest of the crews were still reeling back from their shock, but the world of Remnant did not give them a break. A large Ursa suddenly rushed through the trees towards us all. Everyone else raised their guard, but it was a futile act as the Ursa fell all by itself before any of us were able to do anything.
We all saw a ginger-haired girl falling down from said Ursa, poking at the Grimm with her hammer.
"…Is it broken?"
"Please don't ever do that again Nora."
Another voice came from behind the Ursa, greeting our gaze with the sight of a feminine man with black shoulder-length hair along with a few pink locks. He wore green Chinese clothing and white pants and black shoes. His voice sounded lethargic to an extent I did not think was possible for a teenager. Poor sap must have been tired of keeping up with the energetic gal all the time.
Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren have made their appearance.
"Uhh… Did that girl just ride on an Ursa?"
"More importantly, there is an enemy at three o'clock," I said towards the rest.
It seems that Guider is a very useful Skill bordering on clairvoyance. As if taking my words as a cue Pyrrha came rushing in towards us all with a Deathstalker following her. She made a show of her skill by avoiding the pincer attacks from the oversized scorpion as she ran towards us. A good idea considering there is power in number.
"Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?"
"Oh, also another enemy right above us."
Taking my words as a cue again the large Nevermore up in the sky decided to shoot its sharp feathers towards us. With clever use of HG, none of those feathers even hit any of us. Do not underestimate a Rank(6+) Skill.
Speaking of Skills though…
Status, please.
[???
Rank 9
SP: 43
EVO: 0
EXTRA: 1
[Planeswalker]: [Dimensional Travel(2)] [Hundred Gauntlet(6+)] [Dimensional Shooter(4+)]
[Limitless]: [OverLoad(6+)] [Energy Replenishment(6)]
[Underdog]: [Triumph(EX)]
[Rascal]: [Accurate Throw(2)]
[Loner]: [Unknown Phantom(4)]
[Egocentric]: [One's Own Justice(EX)]
[Vigilante]: [Guider(4)]
[Berserker]: [Juggernaut(2)]
[Murderer]: [Human
[Limit Quest 6: have six Rank Search(2)]
[Quest: Reach Rank 10] (6) Skills.]
Upgrade both OverLoad and Energy Replenishment twice, please.
[6-12SP spent to upgrade OverLoad(6+) twofold into Overload++(6+)]
[6-12SP spent to upgrade Energy Replenishment(6+) twofold into Energy Replenishment++(6+)]
OverLoad can multiply my strength up to 50 times before this upgrade and since each plus signify a 50% increase I can reach up to 100 times my normal strength now. And with Energy Replenishment upgrade as well I can throw them out at full power twenty times a day, and ten more times left today.
My path to OPness is getting as clear as the sky in summer heat now. Just continue to reinforce these two Skills and I can become freaking Saitama-level in term of pure physical strength alone. Still needs to find a different way to upgrade my reflex, vision and reaction time though.
I must have missed something while spending my SP, as Ruby suddenly rushed forward to attack the large Deathstalker all alone.
"Ruby, wait!"
And apparently, it was an uncoordinated attack as one can conclude from Yang's scream. It does not take a rocket scientist to know this would not end well. As expected Ruby attacked the large Deathstalker… Which barely did anything. It sure managed to piss the oversized scorpion off though, as it slapped Ruby away with one of its pincers. Ouch. That was painful to even watch.
"Ruby!"
"D-don't worry, totally fine."
She said while standing back up. Honestly, Aura or not that kind of attack must have hurt quite a bit. Now that I think about it I still do not have any Aura or the like. Maybe I should ask someone to unlock them for me later.
If so then it would be good to have someone owe me a favor right about now.
[Quest: Scorpion and Bird]
Nice. I rushed forward towards the large scorpion. This one should be a cinch, but the Nevermore up in the sky will be troublesome. Hmm, wonder how I could defeat that thing. While thinking such idle thoughts I arrived in front of the Deathstalker.
"Wait what are you doing, Kuzuno!"
I did not reply to her word. Instead I pulled my right fist back and leaped forward towards the scorpion. Overload: 100%
[+10000% temporary physical strength]
"Overload 100%: SMASH!"
And the rest was history. My fist buried deep inside its skull and crushed its brain. The Deathstalker stopped moving right then and there, dying by my hand. For something so large, defeating this thing was much easier than defeating the Noumu. Guess size is not everything huh.
"…How anticlimactic."
"Wha- But- How did you—Did you hold back up till now!?"
Weiss accused me with anger. It must have made sense to do so from her perspective. She and Ruby went out of their way to escort me, only to see this sight of me killing a large Deathstalker with one punch. It was only natural for her to think I was holding back up till now.
"My semblance gives me a temporary burst of strength for a limited period of time."
That was all it took to clear up her rage though. This time I decided to utilize the truth even though my instinct screams at me to lie. It is rare for someone like me to even contemplate doing something so righteous, but antagonizing her here will do me no good and the best way to cull her rage that I could think of was to dish out a reasonable explanation.
The truth was just the most convenient way, and the only option I could think of at the moment.
Well, enough dilly-dallying though. There is still one large Grimm to take care of and it is far beyond my reach. However, I do still have a blade in hand.
It was Hero-Killer Stain's old blade, which I still haven't stored into my Dimensional Shooter yet. For now, I do not intend to use DS considering how it would be hard to explain having spatial storage when I admitted my Semblance is super-strength.
Semblance is basically the super-power of anyone who has Aura. It can be anything from super-speed to creating clones. Apparently, it takes a lot of training to unlock your own Semblance, and you cannot even skip the process like with having someone else unlocks your Aura for you, as a Semblance is a personal thing and differs from person to person.
Nevertheless, time to kill the bird. I drew my blade back like it was an oversized dart. I activated Accurate Throw, OverLoad, and Hundred Gauntlets.
[+10000% temporary physical strength]
HG: This throw will kill the Nevermore.
"OverLoad 100%: Throw!"
The blade flew towards the sky. It travels the air before nailing the bird right in one of the eyes. The Nevermore screams in pain from the attack, yet the gigantic beast still kept to the sky. It screamed towards us before once again bombarding us with its razor-sharp feathers. Tch.
Now I really need to defeat that thing, and quickly before it drops the katana onto the ground, as it would be a pain to search for it again later considering how large this forest is, even if I have Guider(4) to lead me to it And no leaving it was not an option considering it was the blade which I did my first kill with. I was starting to grow fond of the thing already
I looked towards one Nora Valkyrie.
"Hey Queenie, I need an express to that oversized bird!"
She seems puzzled for a few seconds, before putting a giant smile on her face, with her hammer Magnhild behind her. I hurriedly balanced myself above said hammer, crouching as if preparing to leap.
HG: I will reach the Nevermore by becoming a human catapult
Soon enough I was soaring through the sky. The wind enveloped around my body creating a pressure which makes it hard to move, but thankfully there was not much need for adjustment mid-flight, the aim being spot-on letting me reach the bird right on its head.
As usual.
[+10000% temporary physical strength]
"Overload 100%: AXE!"
I said while delivering an axe kick.
The Grimm seems to have lost its consciousness as it started to fall down from the sky… which means I who had the great idea of hanging onto it was starting to fall as well. That would have been fine and dandy, but I was constantly harassed by its sharp feathers while we were going down. It felt like swimming within a metaphorical sea of knives.
Like so I fell down to the ground along with the oversized bird. Thankfully its large body and light weight slowed down the fall. Otherwise, I might not have survived that. Well, there is still the matter of treating my wounds or otherwise I might still die anyway though.
[Quest: Scorpion and Bird Clear +20SP]
[Through special actions you have earned the Trait: Hunter +10SP +1EVO]
[Skill: Sneak(2) has been derived from Trait: Hunter]
[Rank 10: Clear +25SP]
"Whoa, why are you bleeding?!" Jaune asked.
As I said, a methaporical sea of knives. My body has cuts everywhere. They are all starting to bleed out. Crap, if I do not handle this quickly then this is going to be the death of me. I do not know if One's Own Justice will revive me when the enemy that caused it has died already before I did, considering the revival condition is killing the being that killed me.
Panic started to boils within me. This is definitely not good. Will this be how I die? Out of recklessness and foolishness, dying to a random bird while trying to one-up others instead of cooperating with them?
"And by my words, I lock thee within a cage of ice!" Weiss screamed out.
[Trait: Hunter has upgraded into Hunter+ +11SP +EVO]
[Skill: Aura(6) has been derived from Trait: Hunter+]
…What?
Oh, my body healed already.
"…Wow, Aura sure is bullshit."
I spoke, more to myself than anything. Everyone else stared at me, their silence continuing for the next few seconds as I massaged my shoulder. Those feathers sure were sharp. Have to thanks Weiss here, think I nearly died there if it wasn't for the high regeneration rate attained from my Aura.
That was a mistake of mine. If there is a next time around I suppose it would not hurt to be more cautious even if I have an unparalleled skill that lets me revives after my death. My second flash with death, and so close to the first one as well.
The first to snap out of their daze was one Weiss Schnee, who I have to thanks for unlocking my Aura and somehow increasing my Rank from 10 to 11 in the process. Wonder how that happened.
"Y—You just recovered from bleeding all over! How are you fine already?!"
"You mean this is not how quickly Aura is supposed to work?"
"There's more blood you've lost than what an average person should even have in their body! Twice over!"
I merely raised my eyebrows.
"Yes, Auras are not supposed to take effect that quickly! Nor that effectively!"
"Must be something special about me then. Ah well, shouldn't we go back already? Otherwise, we might be late for the assembly and get disqualified."
I tried to avert their attention. There are lots of inexplicable things about myself and things outside my knowledge as well. Even so, mulling over them will reach me nowhere though, so I have since decided not to agonize over them. With that in mind, there was no need for sappy worries over this tribulation of mine. Right now what important is making sure they do not delve too deeply into my business.
More hesitation, before Ruby of all people, spoke the words needed to remove the awkwardness surrounding us all. She sure is talkative for a shy person.
"Right, let's hurry up guys! We can't be late for finishing the initiation!" She disappeared with a flair of rose petals, her silhouette turning into a blur as she activated her semblance to run very quickly, leaving the rest of us in the dust.
…Really Ruby?
Right, fifteen.
