Finding limitations

Before Jaune could scurry away, he was interrupted by Ruby. She was trying to introduce him to her sister and he didn't seem to have made the perfect first impression.

"So you're vomit boy huh?"

"Ah... yeah sure. You're never going to let me live that one down are you?" Jaune winced scratching the back of his head. Perhaps he should apologize for soiling her shoes?

"Yep. I~ think its slightly endearing. Don't you?" Yang grinned, amusement adorned heavily across her features.

"Sure, endearing... that's one way to put it."

"Cheer up, at least you didn't blow yourself up, the first day at beacon." Yang laughed.

"Urg.. that was an accident you know! I hope it never happens again!" Ruby clutched her head embarrassed.

"Well, you know Ruby, at least you have plus one friend now?" Yang patted her on the back

"Right... "

"Oh boy, alright come on Rubes, we're going to find you another friend! Jaune can't be the only one whose friendship you'll win. We'll make a social animal out of you yet!" Yang declared pumping her fist in a victory pose, while grabbing Ruby with her other hand

"Ah whoah Yang! Hold on!" Ruby shouted, startled.

"Come on Jaune, you too!" Yang beckoned.

"Ahah, I think I'll pass for now. You both go on ahead, I've got something to do." Jaune waved pointing at the public washroom.

"Alright, catch you later then, vomit boy!" Yang replied

"Ah, no Jaune save me!" Ruby cried out. Unfortunately she wasn't strong enough to escape from Yang's vice-like grip.

After the two sisters left, Jaune found himself all alone, with other students either talking to each other or ignoring him to attend to their our businesses. This left him enough time to construe upon his thoughts.

Firstly, he reminded himself to ask why Yang and Ruby looked nothing alike. It was actually hard to believe that they were sisters but... he had a suspicion that they weren't actually related. Step sister perhaps?

On second thought, perhaps he should wait before asking. They might come out with the info all on their own. Jaune had learnt the hard way that attempting to pry into the secrets of others lives tended to backfire, most of the time.

Shaking his head to clear away the unnecessary thoughts, he made his way over to the men's section of the restroom. Seeing a mirror in front of him, Jaune looked at his appearance.

See earlier, when he had taken the Healthy Body Card, he had felt as if his clothes had become a lot tighter and more constricting than before.

Curious, Jaune unstrapped his armor and took off his hoodie. When his bare skin greeted him, he was surprised at the outcome of his flesh.

While he was in no way any muscular than he was before, his gangly frame had seemed to have filled out quite a bit. While before, he had bit somewhat on the scrawny side of the spectrum, now, he felt... meatier... so to speak.

It was a good feeling but at the same time, slightly off putting as he more used to his previous body. But at the same time, he felt more... vitalized... more healthy.

Jaune grinned.

If this was the effect of the cards, he couldn't wait to accrue more.

Unfortunately however, he felt something off about his ability. It was hard to describe but it seemed that it was on some type of cool down period.

While he wasn't particularly sure how new information streams kept appearing inside his head for some reason or another, he was sure that if he tried to take another Card ability, it wouldn't work.

Not for a while at least.

Deciding not to tally any longer, Jaune put on his equipment and walked out of the washroom, hand resting on the pommel of his sword.

Ruby and Yang were nowhere to be seen so he decided that a tour of beacon's campus would serve him well.

He walked around the campus, seeing students of higher years interacting and eating. One instance, he had even seen two people compete on how much they could actually eat.

There were a few spectators around watching as well and as Jaune was curious of the outcome of the food competition, thus he stuck around.

In the end, a person by the name of Solferino won. It was a close call too, seeing as his opponent was merely 3 seconds away from achieving victory.

People congratulated the winner and he received some money from a nearby betting pool. Jaune was interested in these kinds of activities. It seems Beacon would be a lot more fun than he was expecting.

Choosing to explore the surroundings more, he soon arrived at an outdoor greenhouse. A person whom he recognized as a professor entered the greenhouse to water the plants.

Curious, he followed her inside to take a look. What he saw gave him a slight surprise. The were all kinds of plants with various different colors. What surprised him wasn't the amount of plant in the area, rather it was the size of them. Seriously... they were huge...

"Oh? Quite a surprise to see someone in here besides myself and several of the staff members. May I know who you are?" The beautiful professor arched her brow, taking another glance at him while watering a plant with glowing blue fluid.

"Er... hi, I guess. My name is Jaune Arc. I'm a prospective student here, I haven't gone through initiation yet so I was just exploring the campus." Jaune stated, waving his hand in a greeting.

Meanwhile, he took a small peak at her cards.

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[Spear Mastery] [Shield Mastery] [Gun Mastery] [Acrobat] [Parkour] [3D Combat Mastery] [Aura Control Proficiency] [Aura] [Nature's Call] [Combat Analysis Mastery] [Sword Mastery] ...

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Holy crap, her cards!

All for me to take! Jaune couldn't help but to salivate in his mind. She had multiple blue cards and green cards as well.

This time, Jaune was interested in a combat skill.

Shield Mastery!

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[Be within range of 3 meters for 2 minutes]

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"Oh? Well, good to know I suppose. Initiation should be an alright affair to those with good skills. I wish you luck, Jaune Arc."

Crap, Jaune think of a topic!

That's it!

"Er thanks... but I have some question to ask if you wouldn't mind answering?"

"Not at all, go ahead." She nodded, putting down the watering can and checking around at the other plants around her.

"Well, when I walked in here the plants kinda took my attention. Why are they so odd? They look almost...."

"Alien in nature?" Peach finished for him.

"Er yeah." Jaune nodded, curiosity filling his eyes.

"Well that's a simple reason. All of the plants that you see in this greenhouse are ones which are grown using dust crystals as their "nutrients." Essentially, they are plants which have dust imbued within their very DNA."

"Wait... what!?" Jaune exclaimed, hearing her explanation.

"Yes, its quite a surprise I know. The knowledge isn't particularly known to many but since dust can be infused into almost any object, plants were experimented on to see if there were any properties that they could develop when one was introduced to dust." Peach explained calmly, her brown ponytail swaying with the non existent wind.

"That's... surprising, I guess. So what exactly diversifies these plants from regular ones besides appearance? Do they have any special abilities or anything?"

"Yes, they do actually." Peach reach over for a plant in a flowerpot. "Take this one for example. Its called Lumien. If this plant is introduced to fire, it will not burn and instead absorb the fire around it and create something known as fire pearls."

"Fire pearls? Does that mean that it was cultivated with fire dust? Wait, is the plant completely fireproof?"

"My, you have a lot of questions, don't you?" Peach grinned, an eyebrow raised delicately.

"Er sorry..."

"No it is quite alright. I enjoy teaching students about the odd variety of plants and the like. As for your questions, fire pearls have no actual purpose other than to look slightly pretty and be warm to the touch. Oh no, that's not true. We haven't particularly found what it can do yet, so... there.

"Oh." Jaune nodded in understanding.

"The plant was indeed created using Fire dust crystals but it isn't completely fireproof. Each type of Lumien plant has a different threshold of heat that it can take. This one for example, survived flames as hot as 600 degrees. Some can even go up to 1000."

Jaune was enlightened to an entirely new area of plants which he had never heard of and after chatting with professor Peach for a while longer, he bid her farewell and continued on his path of exploring Beacon grounds.

To think there were many different plants that could be grown with dust. He had been particularly fond the one grown using earth dust to be very interesting. It looked more like a rock but it was carnivorous in nature and ate all manners of bees, bugs and sometimes even small animals.

But his biggest harvest wasn't the speech with Peach. It was the Green Card, Shield mastery. The instant the card was processed into his Mindscape, new knowledge filled him. He felt as if the shield was a perfect extension of his body and he could wield it almost as if it were his own limb.

Grinning at his harvest, he continued onward.

While exploring the facilities and the cafeteria, he came across an odd couple of students. One was an orange haired girl who was boisterously bouncing around a young man with a pink streak in the locks of his black hair.

"Come on Ren, lets go get some pancakes! I'm sure the school's facilities will have some pancakes?! And if they don't... we can steal some!"

"Nora... didn't we just have some food around thirty minutes ago... oh why do I bother asking? I already know your answer."

"Come on Renny, please, I'm still hungry."

"...Sigh. Fine, lets ask and see."

"Oh how about him? He might have some pancakes hidden within his clothes and if he's nice enough, he might share!"

"Wait, Nora-"

"Hi there!" The energetic girl trounced up to Jaune and held her hand out to him, introducing herself. Jaune couldn't help to but think she was regarding him as a very interesting and funny creature with the way she was looking at him.

"My name's Nora, I like sloths, pancakes and breaking peoples legs! Who are you and do you happen to have any pancakes?!"

"Er... I-"

"Sorry about that." The person Nora called Ren, caught up and scratched his head in slight embarrassment. "Nora's a little eccentric."

"Ah... no its all good... its an interesting personality trait to have, I guess." Jaune grinned. "My name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet and rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it."

"Do they?" Ren and Nora asked together.

"Sigh. They will... probably." Jaune answered, a fake pout adorned across his face.

"Its an interesting way to introduce one's self. I suppose you have quite an eccentric personality yourself, Jaune. Ah, where are my manners, my name is Lie Ren. Please, call me Ren."

"Sure. Um... Nora, sorry I don't happen to have pancakes but I heard that tomorrow morning, beacon would be having a large all you can eat breakfast buffet. I asked if there would be waffles and the cook said yes. They probably might have some pancakes-"

"You had me at pancakes! Let's go Ren, its time for us to search for the heavenly delicacy that gives me my leg breaking power!" Nora grinned madly and dashed off, dragging Ren with her. His body resembled a piece of cloth, flapping uncontrollably in the proverbial wind.

"Sorry, Jaune! We'll talk later... probably!" Ren screamed out.

Soon the pair disappeared, and Jaune was left alone at an empty corridor. Jaune couldn't help but think that those two were an odd pair of students.

Shaking his head from his thoughts, he started walking around more. On the way he couldn't help but recall what he had seen for Nora's cards and Ren's cards as well. The professor he had encountered earlier as well.

They all had the card known as Aura. This made Jaune question why. Every person at Beacon seemed to have this card for an unknown reason Unfortunately Jaune had no idea what exactly Aura was. Was it something that only huntsman had?

If that was the case then it was going to be his first priority to extract an Aura card from someone. Also, the hunters around him seemed to have an ability alongside Aura which was also a blue rarity card.

Enhancement, Super speed, Lightning empowerment, Glyphs.... and many more. Jaune felt himself metaphorically drooling at the thought of gaining more cards.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as he arrived at the Beacon combat room. It was massive and had bleachers for people to sit and view any fights that were occurring.

There so happened to be a person fighting against a enemies in a holographic environment. Her moves were fast and deadly with precise execution in each of her stabs. It was almost beautiful in nature, the way her body moved.

The projected enemies were being cut down with ruthless efficiency, each taking only a hit or so before they dissipated into particles of light.

See, beacon had a special training ground which could be used for free. It was operated using dust crystals and special technology that projected enemies such as Grimm or even human opponents.

The girl that was fighting had red hair, a brown and gold combat outfit and was fighting using a spear and shield.

Jaune sat at the bleachers watching her fight, unwilling to interrupt and secretly took mental notes on how she fought. Jaune had to admit that her skills were vastly superior to his own and even his card system seemed to agree.

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[Spear Mastery] [Shield Mastery] [Gun Proficiency] [Acrobat] [Parkour] [3D Combat Mastery] [Superior Reflexes] [Aura] [Polarity] [Combat Analysis Proficiency] [Sword Proficiency] ...

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Damn... Jaune had to admit... She was impressive. She had even more skills related to combat and the like but most of her skills were in the Green Tier. Surprisingly, she had more than two Blue Tier cards, besides Aura and Polarity with the new one being Superior Reflexes.

Peach having three blue cards made sense as she was a teacher. Aura control Proficiency, if he remembered correctly. But why did this read haired beauty have more than two?

Training?

This made Jaune think for a moment. Blue cards appeared to be a very rare trait. But then what the hell kind of rarity was Purple?

Jaune couldn't help but wonder, what the hell did Ruby having Silver eyes mean? Was it a trait of some sort which gave her the ability to... shoot lasers out of her eyes?

Perhaps, or perhaps not.

He became curious about this girl in front of him and thinking about it, he remembered seeing her during Ozpin's speech which meant that she was most likely an initiate like him.

Soon the girl finished her training against the projected enemies.

The girl seemed to glance around, looking for something and as she caught sight of him, she smiled politely.

Jaune decided that it was a good enough invitation to walk up and speak to the lady.

"Hi there. My name's Jaune Arc. I have to say, your moves are impressive."

"Thank you. I saw you earlier during the headmaster's speech. You're a prospective student yourself aren't you?"

"Yeah. I think I've seen you as well. Which combat school did you attend?" he responded, asking a question in return.

"I went to Sanctum in Mistral. And yourself?"

Crap. What did his transcripts say again? Oh, that's right!

"I didn't go to a combat preparatory school. I was interned with my father, who was a huntsman." Jaune replied to the red haired beauty.

"Oh! That's quite rare. You must have some skills to be able to attend through a recommendation like that." The lady smiled, her face lighting up.

"Haha... yeah." Jaune nodded, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ah, where are my manners, My name is Pyrrha Nikos. Its nice to meet you Jaune."

"Thanks. Its nice to meet you too." Jaune lamely finished off. He wasn't used to talking to beautiful women and Pyrrha just so happened to be one on the higher scale.

Though, that wasn't the only reason Jaune was uncomfortable. See, Jaune had already started picking a card from Pyrra and he had about a minute left before the card was ready. He had to find a way to keep the conversation going.

Think, Jaune think!

Just as Pyrrha was about to turn away and wave to him, an epiphany hit him.

"Ah, um... would you like to spar with me?" Jaune asked.