9 Chapter 9 - Weapon and the Welcoming Ceremony
The Sun had risen and a new day began. For many it was an important day that would decide their future.
Nephrite was one of them and for that he needed a weapon. Weapon he could master and fight with. Needless to say that his weapon or rather weapons must be devastating for any enemy.
At least that is what he hopes for. If his plans work he would potentially have a weapon for ANY situation imaginable. Of course this weapon wasn't cheap.
It was basically paid for by the wealthy. The true top 1% of the 1% in Remnant and why would they give him so much money?
Simple, paintings and art, art of such magnitude that his secrets were almost compromised a few times. He sold few paintings, 10 in total and made almost 2 Billion lien.
After the 10th painting he had no need for any more money. The 2 Billion was purely for his weapon, to create a technological masterpiece. Using references he found in his past life and 4 years of non-stop research resulted in an incredibly expensive and yet powerful alloy.
Damascus steel Remnant edition. Used with Remnant's technology and created through a very expensive dust process it is much stronger than stainless steel.
In total the design for weapons did not cost more than 10 million lien. What ate through his money was the giant before him. Made out of pure Damascus Steel Remnant edition or Damascus SRE for short.
It was a behemoth pillar standing at 3 meters in height and half a meter in diameter. It wasn't just a pillar and Nephrite prayed that this would work out.
"I choose Vulcan's Pillar as my weapon mastery skill." He thought as he activated the system.
[Scanning... Polearm mastery insufficient... Detected multiple blades... Detected long ranged weaponry... Scan Complete.]
[User can acquire a unique skill 'Vulcan's Pillar Mastery'. For each weapon inside the pillar a skill point has to be spent. Current amount of weapons detected: 6. Warning! Introducing any new weapon will reset the skill.]
[Replacing same types of weapons or very similar weapons is acceptable and will consume 1 skill point.]
[Warning! If selected, each 'Part' of the Vulcan's Pillar represents a Path. Increasing the level of the skill will exponentially increase.]
'It worked!' He thought excitedly. He didn't care if the difficulty of it increased as it was expected. After all this Pillar was basically an armory of it's own.
[Skill selected... Reducing required skill points... Skill Acquired!]
[Vulcan's Pillar Mastery LVL: 1/100]
[EXP: 0/2500]
[Description: A skill tied to a unique weapon. Perhaps only it's original wielder can wield it to it's true potential.]
(A/N: LVL 100 of this skill will cost 25 million EXP alone lul)
Nephrite was hyped up. Vulcan's Pillar is realistically impossible to wield as a normal weapon due to it's size and weight of 50 tons.
But that is where his inventory comes in. A unique skill that no person may have had in the history of Remnant.
This wasn't just a pillar and armory. It was ready for war. The reason why he even designed it this way was because of one thing.
It was a missile launcher system. Single rocket costs millions to produce and yet could take out almost anything. It was his true trump card against Salem.
He was imagining the surprise of his enemies when he is forced to unleash this beast.
As he smirked as the Pillar vanished as if it never existed in the first place. A sheathe, a holster and two weapons had appeared. It was not yet time to showcase his toy to the world.
Both of the weapons were part of the Pillar. The gun closely resembles an AK-47 and everything except it's magazine and some important parts are made out of the Damascus SRE.
Every weapon in his Arsenal was until he could upgrade them to an even higher level.
The AK itself normally fired normal or dust bullets. But Nephrite had a special type of bullet.
A bullet filled with fire dust that would explode shortly after an impact. The most important part was that the bullet shell was coated in Graphene.
(A/N: And no I am not a scientist, chemist, Biologist or something along those lines so I don't know if that would work in reality. Though Graphene guns are becoming a thing...)
Combined with his aura as another buff to the bullets he was pretty confident in it's extreme penetrative power.
What he chose for his melee weapon was something similar to a weapon that resembled Winter's sword but also had a resemblance to Adam's katana.
With Damascus SRE as it's main ingredient it had black and white engravings running throughout the whole blade.
The blade was 120 cm in length. Though it did not have transformative functions like many modern weapons do it would work for now.
'Invest all remaining skill points into Vulcan's pillar mastery skill.'
[Ding! 2 points are needed for levelling up the ability. Using every skill point will result in LVL 4 with 1 skill point left.]
'Proceed.'
[Vulcan's Pillar Mastery LVL: 4/100]
[EXP: 0/40000]
[Description: A skill tied to a unique weapon. Perhaps only it's original wielder can wield it to it's true potential.]
(A/N: Btw do not underestimate the LVL 4. LVL 100 is theoretically impossible and only few people like Ozpin could potentially have LVL 100 mastery on their weapons [Of course they don't have a system for them to see.])
Maybe he wasn't on the level Pyrrha was at but he'd be damned if he couldn't whoop Jaune's ass.
...
"Neo have you packed everything?" Nephrite asked Neo as it would be quite some time before they returned.
Sure, they could return on weekends but leaving this apartment made Nephrite nostalgic. It had been almost a decade that he spent in this place and it was filled with memories.
Neo flicked Nephrite's head and bringing him out of his stupor before going ahead.
"Heh, Goodbye home."
...
Like a flock of birds hundreds of Beacon airships and bullheads littered the skies. Seniors and newcomers were all headed to the same destination.
The Beacon Academy a place that singlehandedly produces enough Huntsmen and Huntresses to defend Vale. It wasn't just an Academy but also the final shield of the Vale kingdom.
Nephrite and Neo had boarded Beacon's airship and quietly waited for the take off. As he was gazing off into the distance a rough woman's sound had exploded in every student's ears.
"I WILL BE THE STRONGEST!" The voice boomed in the distance and before long a juggernaut like woman had boarded the airship rather aggressively.
Her steps were so powerful that students could feel faint trembles of the ship. Most students averted her gaze but some looked at her challengingly.
She was huge. She stood at around 2 meters and even Nephrite seemed a bit short compared to her. She had a very rough but tanned skin. Her brown hair reached her waist and she was quite big in other places too...
She was the definition of a barbarian and her huge metal club and her bulging muscles further cemented the thought.
"Hey isn't that Atlas's beast? I heard that she pursues extreme physical strength."
"Yeah! Her name is Fade Ross apparently her family hates technology and uses it very sparingly. They instead train in the cold and fight Grimm barehanded from a very young age. Everyone in her family had unlocked their aura through pure training."
Some more knowledgeable students started to gossip and the word soon spread.
As the commotion slowly stopped more and more people had boarded the Beacon's airship.
Though he didn't see Ruby and Yang he did see some interesting students.
The flight took only few minutes, Glynda had welcomed them through the hologram and they had subsequently departed.
"Seeing Beacon is always a sight to behold." Nephrite said aloud.
"I know right? But it's still not as cool as my toys!"
It was a girl with short blond hair and blue eyes that had responded to Nephrite's self talking.
"Name's Blizzard Arc nice to meet ya!" Her surname shocked him but he quickly responded.
"Nephrite Antaeus and this is Neo Antaeus she doesn't talk much so don't mind her."
Neo just smiled before looking away quietly watching and judging students passing by.
"Oh yeah what did you mean by your toys? Is it some kind of weapon?"
"Yeah! I designed them all by myself, I am here at Beacon to show them to the world! Look this is little Timmy!" She said as she took out a ball and it quickly expanded into a huge 2 meter big mechanical bear.
"Cool...Is it sentient?" Said Nephrite in awe. The bear seemed to be sentient as it moved quite realistically.
"Sadly I am not at that stage yet, but little Timmy can even beat a major Ursa! What weapons do you have?"
"I have thi-"
"What kind of material is this?! Oh my gosh it's so cool! Where did you get this, this feels even better than stainless steel!"
"Uhum." Nephrite coughed as the girl was madly touching almost every part of his AK.
"Ah sorry about that! I just haven't seen any kind of material like this!"
"It's fine don't worry just don't do this again or some people could get mad at you..." He sighed.
An explosion had sounded from the docks. 'Ah some things are the same, thank God...' He thought distractedly.
Numerous students were going in. He had even seen Nora and Ren if he wasn't mistaken.
"We should probably go to the ceremonial speech I'll tell you about the alloy later okay?"
"Okay! Let's pinkie promise!" He sighed and complied. Energetical people were truly tough to handle.
...
The welcoming ceremony was held in the auditorium. By the time they had arrived a lot of seats were filled and a lot of people were standing down bellow as well.
"Oh Pyrrha over here!" He noticed Pyrrha standing close by. She was standing there alone probably waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Seeing Nephrite call out to her, she smiled and waved at them.
"Hey Pyrrha how's it going?"
"Hello there, I am doing well."
"Pyrrha this is Blizzard Arc, Blizzard this is Pyrrha Nikos."
He introduced them, they greeted each other as he was trying to find a spot with enough empty seats.
The only place that was empty was seemingly a loner's corner. He even saw Blake at the very end reading a... questionable book in broad daylight...
'I am sorry loners.' He apologised in his head as he brought the overly energetic Blizzard and the group over.
What surprised him the most was her perception. She saw a lot of weapons and could instantly judge their quality to some extent.
"Mind if we sit here?" He asked a male student. He was intently staring at the stage waiting for the ceremony.
"No." He said one word to them and went back to staring at the empty stage...
'Weirdo...' Nephrite thought as they sat down.
Blizzard just so happened to sit next to that student. She suddenly turned around and sniffed...
"Hey! You smell like metal and earth are you a blacksmith?"
"No."
"Come on don't be shy what's your name? Mine's Blizzard Arc nice to meet you."
"Onyx."
Blizzard ignored Nephrite and rest of the group as she became interested in Onyx. Onyx was around 170 centimetres tall with black hair and brown eyes.
Nephrite did not notice it at first but then he saw a fluffy tail. If he was right then it seemed that Onyx was a tiger faunus. They were notorious for being one of two things.
Either very temperamental or they like to sleep, a lot. Like 12 hours a day lot. And seeing that Onyx was pretty chill with Blizzard pestering him he was confident that he was the latter.
"I'm Nephrite Antaeus, this is Pyrrha Nikos and this is Neo Antaeus." He introduced himself and others to Onyx.
"Hello!" Said Pyrrha and Neo just waved. Neo was eating some snacks she got from god knows where.
"Onyx." He said again this time with a more polite tone.
Blizzard had finally noticed his tail and her eyes lit up.
"You have a tail! Can I touch it? Please please pleaseeee. I can let you play with little Timmy and others if you accept!"
"No." Onyx shot her down. After all Faunus let only people they trust to touch their animal body parts.
"Mark my words that I will fluff that tail!" Blizzard declared dramatically as she stood up and people started to look at her weirdly.
She quickly sat down and became quiet... For about 5 seconds before she started talking to Onyx again.
"She's... Very energetic." Commented Pyrrha.
"Indeed that she is."
The seats were quickly filling up but the place around them was a bit deserted.
'News travel fast huh.' Nephrite thought as he was trying to find someone.
'There she is!'
"Ruby over here!" He yelled as he saw Ruby walking around with her sister trying to find a spot to sit. 'I wonder where are Yang's friends...'
Ruby heard Nephrite and she took Yang's hand before bolting over.
"Nephrite you really are here! But aren't you a bit..."
"Don't mind it I'll tell you later." Said Nephrite. His period of weakness because he did not have Aura was over. Altough he preferred to stay in the shadows, lying to friends wasn't his style and it would just make things worse when they eventually caught on.
"So you are Nephrite that my little sis kept telling me about huh. You are quite the lady killer aren't you." Said the blonde.
She was Yang Xiao Long or the sunny little dragon. A tomboy with confidence and huge canons to back it up with. *Cough
Though it wasn't just her that got his attention. Thinking about it a bit deeper over the years he basically had one male friend, Apollo back when he worked at White Pearl.
'I wonder what he's up to now...' Nephrite, few years back had visited the place but Apollo wasn't working there anymore. The manager told him that he was dragged away by an angry blond woman.
Apparently he had a different job and used this to slack off...
"You must be Yang then?" He asked completely ignoring her remark. Pyrrha squinted her eyes as he ignored the question and Neo just stared at him with a 'I know' face.
"Yup, Yang Xiao Long but you can call me Yang. Lady killer I'll be watching you..." She said. Nephrite knew that she was talking about him potentially pestering Ruby but he didn't care.
Just then the headmaster had appeared on the stage. No one knew when but most took it as their carelessness.
Only the few perceptive people noticed something was off and Onyx was one of them.
He was watching the stage almost the entire time and when he blinked the professor had appeared. 'Is he that fast?' He thought seriously. Maybe he had underestimated this school...
The headmaster tapped the microphone a few times and got the attention of everyone.
"I'll...keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge--to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
(A/N: Prolly the only word for word thing in this whole fic that's from the original cuz I really like his speech sue me. xP)
(A/NN: Any people that like to throw stones? You can throw a few in here~)
(A/NNN: Chapter 10 will finally have teams and I will maybe publish it today~)
