9 Downtime

When I finally got back home, the place was empty even though it was getting dark. My parents had left a note on the counter, saying they'd be out late tonight, probably because of what was happening in the Industrial District, and that there was food in the refrigerator.

I ate the food and turned on the news. It was about the chaos I'd been a part of all day, though, so I turned it back off and just…sat in the silence of my empty house, taking a deep breath and then exhaling slowly.

It was…strange, really. All that chaos and rushing to try and save lives—my own and those of others—and then…it was over. Things were calm and silent and just…finished. After I'd gotten what I'd needed from the skill books, healing the injured had been simple. I used Soulforge Restoration to heal them until I ran out of MP, used Soul of the World to restore myself, and then went back to healing.

And then I left. I'd accomplished everything I'd set out to do—and so much more I hadn't—so I took Tukson's car back to him and then went home.

Now I was just marveling at the day I'd had, letting it really sink in. This morning, I'd been level two. Now, I was level thirteen, simply because of a quest gone horribly wrong. Or maybe right. I still wasn't sure.

I felt…not tired, really, but strange. This morning had been so peaceful, then everything had been thrown into chaos, and just as quickly I was back to my normal life. A small part of me worried about the consequences—that someone would find something connecting me to this, about the White Fang in general, and so many other things—but the rest was just wondering 'What next?'

I guess the same things I'd planned to do this morning. Keep training, keep working, keep getting stronger, keep getting better. The Soul of the World was, despite everything that had happened, honestly worth all the trouble. Up 'til now, the thing that had been holding me back the most was…myself. I could only train so long before my body was exhausted and though I could completely recover in thirty minutes, it still took thirty minutes and I only had so much free time once you took out the seven hours from school, six hours of sleep, the time I had to spend at home, and everything else that got in the way. When I'd trained before bed, I'd spent more time trying to recover then I'd spent actually training.

My training in the woods went only a little better. I'd exhaust my MP quickly and it took a hundred minutes to recover it completely, leaving me to work on Sword Mastery until I exhausted my body too and then to rest until that recovered. I could try training harder, but that just meant I'd tire out more quickly and be forced to rest for a long time again.

I supposed I should count my blessings, since I could recover completely in just half-an-hour and I'd known mentally I was improving at a rigorous pace, but…

Well, it didn't matter now. With the Soul of the World, I could restore myself in a fraction of the time, whether it was my body's stamina or my MP. I could train myself to exhaustion and then recover quickly to do it again. Because of that…

I needed to redo my schedule again. I'd given heavy precedence to training INT despite already training it throughout the school day, simply because I couldn't train my physical skills very efficiently in my limited amount of time. I'd intended to improve my INT first, slowly raising my physical abilities as I did until I could switch to training them later. I'd intended to give my mental stats precedence in the beginning anyway, simply so that the decisions I made during my training would be the right ones—and that was still true, in a way—but…

Wisdom was high enough for me to focus on other things, for now. I wanted to get Intelligence above fifty next, but I didn't want to spend any more of my points on it then I had to—especially since I had no idea when I would even be able to get another level. Despite that, I think I was giving Intelligence enough attention by spending most of my school day reading, though I could adjust that if needed. I could devote the early mornings and the time before bed entirely to training my body, instead of trying to split my attention—which, thinking about it, had probably be inefficient itself.

In fact…maybe it was my bloated WIS score or my newfound INT, but I was starting to wonder how efficient any of my exercises had been, studying included. I'd spent all day reading my textbooks, trying to figure things out, but even now I wasn't certain how much had truly sunken in. But with my INT at twenty-five and my Aura boosting it above thirty…I think I could train it a lot more easily too, now. My INT had been just like my other stats in that its low level had made raising it harder.

Now…now I felt like I'd be able to do better. That if I read the same book again, I could soak it up like a sponge. I'd have to try to make sure, but…I think that my INT would actually increase faster now that I could learn things more easily, just as being able to train longer would do for my physical stats. At least, up to a point; I'm sure there was a point where the economies of scale tampered off, but I couldn't be certain where without actual practice.

Then, I'd give the time in the morning and before bed to training my body and the time during school to my mind. But how should I spend the rest? Observe…Observe was an enormously useful ability, but I think it was high enough for the moment, though I'd train it whenever I got the chance. I was thinking that avoiding Tukson's place for a long, long time would probably be a good idea if I didn't want to get wrapped up in any more of the White Fang's business, but I could go back to the library and try to gather more skill books.

On the other hand…before it had really just been Power Strike, Sword Mastery, and Observe, so I'd trained the latter after school and the other two in the evening, but now…now I had a lot of useful skills to train and not much time to do it. But how should I prioritize them?

I frowned down at the table and organized my thoughts.

Aura, I felt, was the most important for several reasons. It was an enormously powerful ability with broad utility and, better yet, I could train it just by keeping it active, meaning I could do it while also doing other things. It would wear down my MP a lot more quickly, but when that happened, I could simply meditate for a few minutes. If I was careful, I should be able to do that even while I was at school, training Aura alongside my other stats. With the partial exception of Observe—which only increased when I learned new things about something and which I'd already used on most of the school—it was the only ability I could train any time. It also wouldn't interfere with the rest of my training, except possibly by exhausting me more quickly—which, really, was just a way of training the Spirits of the World.

Speaking of which…Spirits of the World allowed me to raise my MP independently of my INT, though I image it was similarly difficult and time consuming. The question was, then, how much time should I spend training that? Should I do it when I exhausted myself in-between the rest of my training or set days aside for it—or both?

Let me see. The most efficient way of training at first would be to train with my Aura on, using my sword and shield. I could raise Sword and Shield Mastery, Power Strike, Aura, and Aura Channeling at the same time that way, most likely, though I'd need to check the profiles off all my new abilities, since I'd been busy when I'd gotten them. I imagined I'd exhaust myself quickly if I fought that way in a real fight—which was one of the reasons I should probably focus on them for a while, as the cost of the skills went down as the levels rose. At the very least, I wanted to get Aura—or else my MP regeneration—high enough that I could keep it on constantly even without Soul of the World, since it was hard to deal with when it cost twenty-five MP a minute.

Of my other skills…Drive had proved itself surprisingly useful and was currently the only skill I had that could be used to escape danger—but I couldn't train it legally, yet, even if I could already drive masterfully. I'd need to go through official channels to be allowed to drive, one of my parents would have to accompany me and watch for weeks, questions might get raised about how good I was at this already—it could be problematic to train it further, currently, though I'd luckily already leveled it up quite a bit. Theft was the same in that it was illegal, though I was sadly aware I'd be leveling it up as well sooner or later. I'd need to level up Stealth eventually, but it wasn't a pressing need until after I'd grown strong enough. Dish Washing I figured I could safely set aside.

Then there were the abilities that would just be difficult to train. I'd need to check Aura Crash to figure out precisely what it did; if it required the use of a vehicle, I'd need to put training it on hold, too. Physical Endurance required me to get hurt and however useful the skill was, it would be hard to engineer situations where that was possible without drawing attention, though I might be able to try beating myself up.

The only other skills I needed to worry about then were 'Craft' and 'Nature Affinity' and I'd need to figure out precisely how to train both before whether I would or not. I wasn't sure where to even start with Nature Affinity yet, though, and the main issue with Craft was the matter of materials. Given that I'd originally gotten it from an art book, I might be able to improve it some if I took up drawing and cooking in my free time, but I imagined those could only take me so far. Eventually, I'd need to actually build stuff.

I knew there was potential there. Even if it was mostly in books or on TV, I'd seen some of the weapons Hunters used and I'd seen my Mom and Dad's a few times. I'd also seen some of the things technology could produce—like, oh, super death bots that chased people around—and I could admit there was definite appeal to the whole Craft thing, but it was all dependent on my resources.

Should I steal stuff so I could practice? But if I stole anything really useful and valuable—weapons, Dust, etc.—it'd draw attention, especially since I'd likely have to make a lot of stuff to level it up. I did not need that kind of trouble right now, but without it there was only so much I could do and that rankled.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, calming myself. The thing that annoyed me the most was that I was too smart and wise to not know why I felt that way. Bringing up my Inventory, I withdrew my sword and shield.

Well, 'my' sword and shield. Originally, they belonged to my great-great-grandfather Julius, but my dad had given them to me several years ago, before I first applied to Signal—and before I first failed to gain entry. The idea was that I'd use them until it was time to get my own weapon. That's what my father had done when my grandfather had given it to him, just as my grandfather had done before him. It was a family heirloom, of sorts.

But…to be honest, I'd always thought of it as more of a hand-me-down. Maybe not at first, when I'd been honored to even hold it, but after I failed, after I proved again and again I wasn't good enough…

It wasn't an honor to me anymore. It was just a reminder, a weight, and maybe even a mark of shame. Jaune Arc, who carried his ancestor's blade because he wasn't worth one of his own. There was a part of me, a fairly large part even, that wanted to level up Craft and was honestly considering theft to help do so despite the risks, simply so I could make my own weapon. Just to have my own weapon.

But…if I put that aside and thought about it logically…was that wise? Was it smart? Given the risks of grand theft and the costs of buying the materials legally, it was unlikely that I would be able to afford improving my Craft for quite some time—whereas my Sword Mastery, Shield Mastery, and the various skills I had to improve it could be leveled many times in that period.

If it took, say, a year until I could make my own weapon without drawing attention, then given my rate of growth and my Sword and Shield Masteries, I probably wouldn't benefit a whole lot from a new weapon. No, more than that, I probably wouldn't need one. If I did ten percent more damage with Sword Mastery at level one and thirty percent at level five, then following that trend I should do at least two hundred fifty-five percent more damage before taking into account the bonuses from Power Strike, Aura Channeling, and the bonuses from my Aura. To say nothing of the increases to my stats from training and leaving aside the additional attack speed granted by Sword Mastery and how it would improve. Or the defensive benefits of Shield Mastery.

If I waited too long, I would have no logical reasons to stop using this weapon.

Was that really such a bad thing? It felt like it in my gut, but my brain disagreed. Crocea Mors, the Yellow Death. It was old and outdated technologically speaking, but it had been cutting edge back when it was first made and my great-great-grandfather had used it to great effect in the War to drive back the Grimm. He'd been truly legendary; you could crack open a history book of your choice and odds were you'd find his name in it somewhere. Even now, Crocea Mors was an amazing sword, made by the best smith Julius Arc had been able to find and seemingly untouched by the passage of time, even if it didn't have a lot of additional utility. Beyond the need to have ranged and unarmed options just in case, there wasn't a lot of need to put it aside, beyond my wounded pride. At best, I might want to modify or improve the blade itself, once I was able.

Goddamn Wisdom.

I reverted my shield into its smaller form and sheathed my blade, putting it on the table before crossing my arms on the edge and resting my head. I looked at the blade for a while before sighing deeply.

"What a day," I muttered. "But I guess you've probably seen loads worse, huh?"

It was a rhetorical question. I'd heard all the stories. Julius had fought armies and led them, driven back the Grimm, helped forge Kingdoms, and done things that others had believed impossible until he'd proved them wrong—and Crocea Mors had been beside him through it all.

And I guess it had been beside me through pretty much everything. However much its status rankled me or what it reminded me of, whenever I'd needed a weapon, I'd drawn it. I could have gotten something else or taken one of the White Fangs guns, but I hadn't. And, in fairness, I was still here, despite the mess I'd thrown myself into. And I remembered, though it seemed like a long time ago, how fast my heart had beaten when my father first gave it to me

Sighing again in irritation, I picked it up and leaned back in my chair, drawing the blade just to look at it. I felt my aura wash over it, embracing it like an old friend—and I felt the blade, too, in a way I hadn't felt before, resonating with my Aura, tied to me strongly, but also independent. I could feel it and I, like music just out of synch, and felt my Aura reacting to that, shifting.

"You and me, huh…" I said at last as we became aligned, feeling as if I knew on some level what was happening. "I guess…that's okay."

New Status, "Metal Element Affinity" has been created.

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