Chapter 32

[||||=LEVEL 32= ||||]

It was just may and June left in the school year. Just two tantalizing months. But first I had to get back to enduring these daily classes. Was math class always so long? Maybe it's the staring from having just gotten back from the tournament, which ended awkwardly for everyone but me.

"Abyss. Could you answer this question for the class please?" I didn't bother to open my eyes from my seat where I was meditating and just used mage sight at short range. Detail flooded into my mind - ah the one flaw of mage sight. TMI. Wait is that… yeah that girl Melody apparently got a new boyfriend. That or she's slept with maybe ten different guys since Christmas.

The problem was simple. It was just basic algebra, which I actually do know. "X is eight point five, ma'am." Miss Carnelia shrugged and continued on with her lesson and I went back to experimenting in my soul space.

I had gotten the corruption affinity last night but it was different from my other affinities. It was darker. More… Hateful. Not towards the other affinities but it did hate me. However, it hated everything other than me a bit more than me so it's not the love/love relationship I had with the others and more of a curious/hateful relationship.

Merging the two affinities was difficult. Incredibly difficult. Corruption and purity were like two sides of the same coin. You can't just make the two sides completely touch. Coins don't work that way.

Then again I wasn't trying to make two sides of the same coin touch each other. I'm trying to merge two polar opposite magnets more like. The two repel each other. I had to make them merge. No wonder origin was unstable enough to react with itself.

Nevertheless I had made just a tiny bit of progress. I had finally figured out how to foolproof make a silver bloom, as I decided to call it. That is to say, a tree with a purity affinity.

I had to insert just the barest sliver of corruption affinity as a sort of fertilizer. It was like an immune system of sorts. The tree had to learn about It's opposite. My previous attempts that were successes were all only successful because they had ambient corruption affinity around them.

Even so my new trees were SO much better. It was like comparing a sharpened stick in the woods to a high quality mechashift spear.

My new trees made ten times the sap of my old ones (more like eleven point five times on average) and were far tastier. They also were more accepting of the growth spell and my mana, being born from my corruption and purity affinity. They're perfect. I'm making a grove today and assigning Roman to begin selling samples immediately.

The sap of the silver blooms was different from the red bloom sap. Red bloom sap hit like a freight train on your tongue. It was extremely sweet and while many people loved the taste plenty didn't.

Silver bloom was different. It was subtle. By no means was it watery or anything but it didn't really hit you at first. It left a long lingering taste like honey but less… Grainy. I think that word sort of applies. To say it tasted smooth seems weirdly correct.

I personally like the new sap. A lot. I'm not crazy for it since I'm more of the salty or slightly sweet (like honey glazed pork) kind of guy but the sap was REALLY good.

Next up was a plant made with my storm affinity and it's component affinities. The only slight problem was the affinity levels itself.

For my silver blooms I had used my eyes to amplify my purity affinity before infusal into an acorn. The affinity in total reached to about one million six hundred thousand after being amplified though more recently it was more like two million four hundred thousand with my first successes.

My storm affinity currently reached four hundred thirteen thousand but I don't have an elemental at the moment. I need to make and contract one when I get a chance. I just haven't bothered. It'll only take a half an hour but… meh.

*Briiiiing*

"Ah that's the bell. Get to lunch you all. Remember to do the homework."

We have homework?

[|||| == ||||]

"Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Of course she will. The kid's strong. Not just in combat but in mind."

"Thats true. We've all been there. First kills are rough."

"I still remember mine."

"It never really leaves you, yeah?"

"Yeah… She was okay when we raided that last string of caravans last summer. There were a few bloody ones there and she seemed fine. Well, mostly. She got over it at any rate."

"As you said, she's strong. She'll make it fine. She just needs some time."

"And for her brother to get back."

"It's only an hour. She can collect herself a bit. Cry it out on Raven. Yeah, she'll be alright."

[|||| == ||||]

"Well it's been awhile." Bella started with a casualness to her voice. "So what did you all do over the break?"

Kerrigan spoke up. "Abyss and I went to the Mistral regional tournament. Did any of you watch it?"

"No." Cesium frowned. "I was busy with a few things at home. Settling into the new apartment mostly."

"I saw the finals." Bella offered. "And that was damn scary, kid. I saw some theories on how you pulled that off and all of them are saying you're beyond talented."

"Yes." Ocean answered. We all stared for a moment before realizing that was it. It's easy to forget that Ocean doesn't talk all that much.

"And your assignments?" I asked. Cesium grabbed a binder from his backpack that was thick with papers. Oh dear he and Kerrigan were really meticulous. What was I thinking?

Bella had two sheets of paper folded in half. Ocean let a small creepy smile onto her face, though we'd all grown used to them, and took out her scroll. "I scroll-mailed the normal schedule. She has a lot of bad habits."

I glanced over everything and hummed. The binder was actually composed by two scientists. One in Mistral and one in Vale, both material experts. Most of the materials seemed to be constantly endothermic with a 'obscure and strange energy reading of unknown origin' emanating from it.

Judging from the few papers there wasn't much I didn't know about the samples. Knowing the molecular composition of a few dragon scales was a perfect insulant and a fantastic armor even unenchanted was interesting but pretty expected. Still there were some helpful parts of the report.

Bella just had five addresses and nautical coordinates (which Summer had taught me on one of our more oceanic based trips, of which there were six) scribbled down onto some printer paper.

"When did you make this" I asked.

"About five minutes ago between class periods." Bella smiled like that was perfectly professional. Then her hand flickered and I made sure not to look directly at it. "The actual meat on the organization is all buried… Oh, and you never told me you had me investigating a government cover-up." Bella's tone grew a little stormy at that. I glanced to the side.

"Well…" I don't really have an excuse. Shit.

"I believe you're doing that whole mysterious reveal over the summer, right?"

"… Yes."

"I expect some serious answers."

"… Okay." I actually do feel a little bad. If Bella had actually gotten in trouble… well she can handle herself but I should have warned her a bit more.

"Stop looking so mopey. I'm not THAT mad. Just tell me next time. I hit some, ah, uncomfortable situations with a building I didn't know was secretly a place Vale tried to bury some secrets. I'm also certain that I can't actually get anything substantial on this investigation without going to these sites. Everything was very thoroughly burned and the ashes swept not just under the rug but more like down the toilet before blowing up the building for good measure. I can find more of these sites I think but the actual organization is gone to the wind."

"We can find more actual information on the organization over the summer. It's cleared, right?"

"So long as I can make some dates with Qrow it is. I was kinda hoping for a break though."

"Like you actually do work in this class. Half the time I'm teaching everyone."

"Ugh. Just move on."

Ocean's report was… Vaguely professional. That she had a video of Yang in the shower while she was in the cupboard under the sink was incredibly creepy and somewhat disturbing but I didn't really expect less.

Yang's schedule was something along the lines of 'wake up, be a few minutes late for school, blankly tolerate the classes until lunch, talk with a cadre of friends (she had like forty), kick asses in combat class until Qrow (or Tai if Qrow is on a mission) sticks her with Kerrigan or myself, and then go out with friends onto the town for an activity before bed.

Of course there were deviations. Yang had to keep her gauntlets, Ember Celia, nice and maintained for example. They looked almost exactly like they were in the show. Ocean had deconstructed them and created a blueprint, the little overachiever.

She had also taken up sketching surprisingly. They weren't much more than extremely well drawn doodles but she did sketch things out sometimes. She had some colored pencils to use too. It's rather sad since she has a collection of colored sketches about her, Summer, Raven, Tai, Qrow, Ruby, and I as a family in a variety of situations. Raven wasn't well drawn (she does Not smile that much) but the other were well done.

Overall Yang was a bit of a mess at the moment that secretly yearns for a fuller family. I never really thought about it but after Raven abandoning her that she had left Ruby to me was something she probably hated.

I don't know how to properly handle this so I think I'll just show this to Ruby and let her decide what to do about Yang. She's unfinished business that we've not dealt with in long enough.

"Hm. Well you all did… Pretty well. The materials report seems rather disappointing but that's not your fault. Yang is better than I expected in some few ways but worse in others. Thank you for the coordinates, Bella. I'll be using these rather soon. Overall you proved once again to be very competent. I don't actually have any more ideas for rewards so is there anything you want?"

"I want a way to sneak out of my families manor for the summer." Ocean said immediately. Hm, I can do that by digging a tunnel, which my motion affinity can accomplish, albeit inefficiently. Easy enough.

"Fine. I already know your address. I'll install one tonight.

"Teleport me and Qrow to a romantic getaway for a weekend please." Bella grinned. "The deserted island was nice before. Maybe someplace like there. I like tropical places."

"Easy. Sure." I shrugged that off. Really that was so much easier than normal.

Cesium had a thoughtful look on his face. "I'd like some free trips to Vale when you can please. I'd like more direct contacts rather than through Roman."

"Why?" I asked with a frown. I plan on connecting him to Raven and Ruby next year. Ruby loves making weapons so they can defend themselves with them far better than right now.

Raven will be a huge gain in that she's an immensely strong huntress with loose morals and some free time. I hope that they'll ask her for training. She trained her tribe, after all. She's quite good at teaching. Even better than myself. She's also way more skilled in the blade than me so she can properly teach them.

"I want to double check my information I get from Roman. I don't trust him." I rolled my eyes.

"You don't trust him because you don't like him. Roman told me just how well you all got along." A universal scowl was on everyone's face except Bella's. She looked almost pleasant at the mention of Roman.

"Yes but I still don't trust him, whatever my reasoning." I looked into Cesium's eyes. He was resolute about this, I could tell.

I could just deny him this. His going to Vale is a useless endeavor. Roman has the criminal underworld under his and Neo's thumbs. Nobody does a thing unless Roman approves it. Not that there's much he doesn't approve and if it is stupid he fixes it and sends back the better way of doing the crime.

Over the past few months he's knocked out the last small-time gang his control has only grown more absolute. In short, it's Roman's way or the highway. That would be bad if Roman didn't work for me.

On the other hand Cesium isn't going to just give this up. He REALLY doesn't like Roman. I can understand that. The man can be condescending, smug, childish, greedy, and downright racist at times (except when he knows I'm watching). However, he's good at what he does and he knows when to roll over. He's the best option for me unless I want someone like Junior at my empire. Not a chance. I looked at the man. He's shit at large scale organization.

If something were to happen to Roman, Neo, AND Raven agreed to step in. If something is that bad she'll reveal herself and take control of the gang to keep all that hard work we did from going down the drain.

Ideally Cesium would be my right hand man leading the empire when he gets older. He's competent, loyal, ambitious, and cunning. All traits I value.

Both letting him run around and keeping him here have their pros and cons. I could keep him here and under my control or I could let him loose where he'll undoubtedly fail to find anyone outside of Roman's control.

A deep and weary sigh left me. It's too early in the morning for this. I'll let him run around. It will hopefully make him respect my words more. If he does somehow manage to find someone I'll alert Roman behind his back.

"Fine. I'll give you five portals to and back from Vale. Don't waste them. I'm going to tell you now, though, you won't find anyone in Vale that will defy Roman. Keeping something from him is stupid for every criminal since he's a good ruler. Nobody really wants to dethrone him. It's too much work when you could just reap the benefits of his empire." Cesium scowled but didn't say anything. He didn't seem to be angry at me though. More at the news of Roman's absolute control.

"And Kerrigan?" Hopefully he won't want much.

"A small favor to be repaid at a later date." He said.

"A SMALL favor." I clarified. He nodded.

"Of course. I have nothing of real use for you to do right now." I shrugged it off. Fine by me.

"Now for your monthly assignment… I want you to get some floor plans for a lab of a guy. You'll be working together on this and I expect it to be significantly harder than usual. Mostly because you only have a week. It's not quite so monthly this time."

I was sending them to get the floor plans of the labs that held that supercomputer Poledina needs. However, I want them to get those plans fast so Poledina can do his thing as soon as possibly. Sure I have bit less than four years until the Vytal festival begins but I want him to make an impact. There's no excuse for him not to other than informational control. I don't think Ironwood ever really had the pull to let Poledina in on the whole magic thing but imagine what he could do if he had access to magic. I'm expecting Penny and so much more.

I had hoped to send them to steal the supercomputer but sadly I don't think they're ready to try illegal things. They like and respect the subI class but they see it as just that. A class. It's a great class and one worth a lot that's close enough and small enough to be as close as a beacon team in these four years we're together but we're not at that stage yet and we're not at that point yet.

Maybe Cesium and Kerrigan would be willing but despite Ocean's creepiness and skill she wasn't the type of person to flaunt the law without a really good reason to and Bella was a huntress and teacher. She's to set an example. That means no major crimes although some tiny ones like associating with a criminal are, while not really something she wants for us, is something that's okay so long as we keep an eye on the way out and don't do actual crimes.

"A week?!" Cesium asked in surprise. "Any other… difficulties?"

"He's in vale and you can't use Kerrigan's family. Also Roman doesn't know. Maybe try the city records or something but I'll be checking your work." I said smugly. "Oh right… It's your final assignment. Surprise." Bella chuckled at their expense and general mutters of discontent were heard all around. I love this position of spymaster. I can abuse it to mess with these guys so much.

[|||| == ||||]

"Ozpin something happened!"

"… Oh dear. Send Qrow to find her last location. Her corpse if she is in fact dead."

"Do you know who could have done this?"

"Someone with the power to kill a maiden… Granted she was alone but still…"

"The queen?"

"Perhaps. It's too early to make a judgment. Call Qrow. We'll hope for the best. I will summon Amber here. I'll also alert Lionheart to call Floss to shade until this business is over."

"What about finding the new winter maiden?"

"Of course. Now quickly."

[|||| == ||||]

Tuesday passed as Monday did. With the repetition that comes naturally to schools. Then the afternoon came along. I teleported into the kitchen, planning on getting the pulled pork sandwiches started. I had made homemade relish before but I think I can do better if I tried.

I was instantly hit with the aroma of strawberries and hot coco with a hint of cherries. We had an extract of cherries and strawberries that I sometimes used in sodas and a few other things like whip cream or that time I made yogurt, which was a failure.

My eyes darted to the source of the smell and I saw Vernal putting mint shavings on whip cream that floated on a mug of the strawberry/cherry hot coco.

Other scents hit me then too and I glanced around to see somewhat burnt cookies and freshly cut strawberries on the counter along with some members of the tribe like Maya, that seamstress that made me the fur clothes and I gave the life-strengthening runed ring. She was scowling at the cookies a man had made while she was putting the strawberries in a bowl.

I scoffed. "Get me the dough. I'll make the cookies. Is Ruby back?"

"She's back alright." Maya said with a hint of sadness. "We'll… Not entirely. Make the cookies. Doss here doesn't know how to make cereal." Doss, the cookie ruining guy, didn't respond and left quietly.

I got started on making the cookies and finished in about twelve minutes. I set them on the little platter, certainly for Ruby judging by the strawberries, chocolate, and cookies. All you would need is an upgrade for eclipse rose and you had nirvana for her.

I walked with Maya and Vernal, who hadn't spoken, and came to Ruby's room. "We're leaving you three alone. Having people crowd the child would be a bad idea right now." Maya said. "Come along Vernal." Vernal opened her mouth to protest but Maya reached up and flicked her ear. She tsked and grudgingly followed along.

With caution and an attempt to make some noise just to keep from startling anyone I entered the room.

My first thought was one of panic. Mana flooded the room. Frost covered the windowsill from ice. The walls were peeling and flickering with flames that just barely wouldn't catch. A faint wind flew throughout the room, making it feel like it was breezy. The air was also charged.

If I hadn't had my storm affinity it would be quite unpleasant. As it was the affinities were far too weak to even touch me and the ice affinity was negated by my temperature resistance skill and my own ice affinity.

Worst was the so sobbing that was heard as soon as I entered the door. It was high pitched enough to be Ruby's. I scanned the room and saw her on the bed. Raven sat cross legged on the bed with her arms around Ruby.

Ruby herself didn't look well. Her eyes were shut from crying. The front of Raven's shirt was wet with tears. I didn't pay all that much attention. What struck me was the mana.

Ruby had mana. Why did she have mana? And so much of it… going to stay out here. This is a family matter. Blood family. I know you and Raven are closest to her. Come along Vernal."

"I'm not going to just-ow!" Maya flicked Vernal's ear and gripped her wrist. With Vernal not expecting it Maya pulled her away from Ruby's door, leaving me alone.

As soon as I opened the door I was hit with a flood of mana. Ice coated the windows despite it being more than a week into april. Lightning left a charge in the room, making the floor shock me. Fire fought with ice, making odd pockets of warmer air in suspension.

I didn't have to look around to see the source of the mana. Ruby sat down on her bed on Raven's lap facing her. Ruby clawed at Raven's shirt sobbing lightly, shining like a beacon of mana all the while. I barely noticed as I observed her. I just did it by instinct.

Ruby Rose

Title: Rose blooming

Level – 192

HP – 3214/3253

AP – 22,700

MP - 116,400

STR - 128 (+335%)= 556.8

VIT - 75 (+335%)= 326.25

DEX - 232 (+335%)= 1009.2

INT - 194 (+50%)= 141

WIS - 227 (+150%)= 567.5

LUK - 104 (+0%)= 104

Semblance: Petal flurry - Dash and become immaterial as you travel from one place to another so rapidly it's nearly teleportation, leaving red and black roses in your wake. Adding dust adds an elemental effect to the roses, which 'pop' once they hit the ground releasing a sort of carpet bomb effect. Low aura cost to use.

Affinities:

Air: 1699

Purity: 1628

Electricity: 1614

Water: 1574

Nature: 1544

Ice: 1500

Earth: 1500

Fire: 1500

Light: 105

Heat: 78

Space: 61

Motion: 49

Metal: 22

Weapon: 19

Perks:

Silver eyed warrior (Rank 2) - Your affinity for purity has grown immensely yet the emotional block for your eyes remains in place. Some grimm will flee from you even without your eyes on. Multiplies your WIS by 150% and INT by 50%

"There's a power in you. You just haven't quite found it yet."

-Summer Rose to her daughter

Maiden of Winter - You are a maiden. One of the heirs of the legendary women blessed with powers by the wizard. Whether this power is a blessing, a burden, or a tool is decided by you and you alone. No matter your decision you are worthy.

-1000% to MP capacity and regeneration.

-Mana and aura are unlocked.

-Nature, fire, water, ice, wind, lightning, and earth affinities are increased by 1500.

-Luck increased by 100 in winter. No limits on your total affinities.

My mind flashed to when we had shared a soul. My affinities had rubbed off on her even without her having magic. Not unexpected but good to know. She had the metal and weapon affinities naturally though I suspect that weapons is from prolonged exposure or something of the like. Affinities are gained by taking in a part of something and making yourself more like it, after all. Ruby simply had a more personal relationship with her weapons than anyone and gained an affinity for it because of that.

That was all background information as I strided towards Ruby. She opened her puffy eyes slightly and licks of mana flowed outwards from her eyes. She was a maiden now.

I hugged Ruby and she separated from Raven slightly to hug me more. A fresh batch of tears opened up and my shirt got wet. While she cried I reached out with my soul and embraced hers. The mana she was unconsciously emitting stopped as my soul blocked the flow of mana.

The room stopped being torn up and Raven briefly made eye contact with me. I took it as a sign of slight gratitude and we moved on.

For a few more minutes Ruby cried her heart out and I took small notes to piece together what happened. Eclipse rose was on the floor to my right around the foot of the bed. It's blade was covered in blood. Human blood.

Ruby was a maiden. Her scythe was covered in blood. A glance at Raven showed some faint specks of blood on her clothes as well. So Raven and Ruby had murdered a maiden… Ruby had struck the final blow and was having her first kill trauma at the moment. Oh dear. That's bad. Not having the third maiden around definitely inhibits my ability to predict the future. With Ruby as a maiden? Well… I can only hope the world doesn't throw a curveball before I get a chance to save my city.

"Abyss?… I want to be a hero."

Of course she would. "You can be a hero." I said with a hint of sadness. "Raven and I will make sure you don't die."

"Thank you." Ruby whispered, her voice choked. "Can you teach me?"

"Obviously." I said. "If you mean magic that is. We'll start as soon as you're less distraught." Ruby was quiet. Her breaths were still shuddering.

"Her name was Dianthus Null." She said shakily. "I… Can I take a nap?"

"With me here or not?" Ruby's hands gripped me harder. "Alright then. And Auntie?" Ruby seemed thoughtful but shook her head.

"Auntie was there with me… Sorry."

"It's fine." Raven said. I couldn't tell if it actually was or if she was fighting some maternal instinct. Probably not. Raven wasn't that emotional. "I'm going to check on the tribe. Don't forget about the cookies."

Ruby let me go a little as Raven slipped away and walked out. Her eyes lit up a little when she saw my cookies. She snatch done and nibbled at it, getting more into it after a few nibbles. Good. The sooner she comes to terms with this the better.

Ruby scared down some of her comfort food and chattered with me about mundane things all the while. What I had been doing with the subI class, which was surprisingly nothing, and I let her look at the materials sheet Cesium and Kerrigan had cooked up. I set it on her bedside since I'm sure she'll pore over it later for new ideas.

Eventually Ruby dragged me to her bed and was out in seconds. How hard had Raven run her? Or maybe it was the stress of becoming a maiden. Or the effects of her first kill. Maybe a combination of all three? It doesn't really matter. We payed down and I let sleep take me rather than retreat to my soul space to meditate on the origin affinity.

[|||| == ||||]

"Is she going to be alright?"

"Yes… she'll be alright. However, she will never be a person like us."

"You mean a criminal or…"

"A bad person. Even a neutral one. She is a good person through and through."

"We all kind of knew that."

"She's too much like her mother. She'll drive herself to death alone. I believe Abyss has a few plans for her to be safe."

[|||| == ||||]

With Ruby being a maiden I took a few precautions. With her permission of course. I runes and enchanted a ring to hide her magical signature first and foremost. I don't want anyone finding out Ruby is a maiden. It could just cause so many problems.

I called in sick for Ruby and people actually believed that. I'm pretty sure the staff at Signal all know that if I wanted out of school I would pull some usual cloak and dagger business. If I called in sick I was probably actually sick.

Well… we aren't actually sick but Ruby is close enough. I'm sure not telling anyone she's dealing with the trauma of her first kill.

Two days passed of playing video games, eating cookies at an inhuman rate, and being coddled by me and occasionally Raven (she was more subtle about it than me). It did wonders for Ruby.

I made sure she was alright with using her weapons and fighting and basically ran a status check on her. She was fine with shooting and fighting but she shied away from striking vital areas. I couldn't bring myself to reprimand her.

Finally it was time to learn magic. Ruby was really excited. She probably imagined that we were jumping to throwing fireballs and calling lightning from the sky.

The reformed bandits had actually decided to sit in on this. It was magic so of course people would want to learn magic. Sure they can't cast a spell except for what my runes grant them but still… It's magic.

I had just asked Raven to join and she didn't bother to protest. The whole tribe was there and Ruby was excited and cheery for the first time in awhile. Besides, it never hurts to brush up.

In the end of it all I felt like a college professor standing in the dining hall with all the bandits sitting in chairs with Ruby and Raven in the front. A lot of them were even ready to take notes.

"Magic-" I started "-consists of three parts. Affinity, technique, and mana." Some scribbles were heard and I continued on. Come to think of it this is a really weird scene.

"We'll start with the most important part. Mana. Mana is, to put it simply, a controllable energy within your soul that can be molded by your willpower for a variety of uses. This is strictly referring to mana that is residing in your soul, of course. I'll be going into depth in that in a moment." A hand was raised. They're not even making fun of me. They're serious about this.

"Yes?" The bandit looked surprised I actually accepted a question.

"I thought only wizards could manipulate pure mana?"

"That is true. Wizards have the unique ability to manipulate their mana externally. Not ambient mana, which is not affiliated with a soul but mana just existing. However, all beings with a soul have the potential to manipulate mana although the only other mean than being a wizard, an unknown ritual, and maidenhood are not known."

"Now. None of you can manipulate mana externally so don't worry about that. There are two ways to manipulate mana. Internal manipulation and tools. Internal manipulation is willing your mana to move a certain way or be imbued with an affinity. Tools are objects of a construction that they allow mana to flow through it and form through it's structure. Your runic matrix es are a prime example of this."

Another hand was raised. "If this is about the intricacies of your matrices we can go into that at a later date." The hand lowered.

"Now for technique. It's not a difficult concept to describe. To make a spell you have mana that you warp to fit the structure of the spell you desire, imbue the necessary affinity if there is one, and release it."

"For example, A very basic spell would be the wind blade. It's a blade of pressurized wind that cuts things. To make this spell you make an arc of mana, add air affinity, and release it. The intricacies of crafting a spell are many. Especially because you will likely be doing all these steps in under a quarter of a second before I actually call you decent at the spell. Ideally the process would be near instant. Sadly Raven never achieved that level of mastery."

I leveled a stink eye at Raven. She wore a haunted expression, likely remembering my many, many spell drills I made her do. It worked for me in that blasted desert and in Summer's soul space so it will work for you too. And it did. Ruby looked a little more nervous at the prospect of learning magic now. It's not just wave a wand and say something cool. It's pretty damn complicated.

"It is notable that willpower and imaging play a large role in using a spell. That mana you manipulate is imbued with your willpower and will act in accordance to your wishes. If you desire a wind blade to explode on contact and push enemies it will do so. However, I recommend you simply use a different spell more suited for that purpose. It's far more efficient."

Raven looked interested in that last little nugget of information. I mentioned it once but I think she didn't really get it due to fatigue or something. It doesn't matter.

"Finally… Affinities. Affinities are the absolute most important part of magic. There is no disagreement on this whatsoever." Ruby looked a little surprised at this but didn't doubt me for a second. Raven nodded in agreement with me.

"Affinities are the presences of energies and concepts in you. That is mainly theoretical, however, so I would recommend you simply view it as your attunement with an element, energy, or whatnot."

"I'm sure you all are wondering what affinities exist. For your information there are too many to name by far. Time, space, origin, fire, water, earth, mud, wood, blood, life, death, light, gravity, shadows, ice, storm, lightning, plasma, electricity, corruption, purity, and far more than I could ever really list. There are even elements like weapon and unity." Ruby looked at me with wide eyes.

"Yes Ruby you have a weapons affinity. I don't know what it does and it seems rather ridiculous but-"

"YES!" Ruby cheered. Then she realized she had just yelled when even Vernal was being quiet and listening and she looked down with an embarrassed blush.

"Yes, well let's move onto what affinities can do. Affinities allow you to do several things. The most important is to mirror onto mana the properties of it's element. The controllable property of mana and the various properties of affinities allow you to accomplish feats such as manipulate the elements easily."

People oohed and looked really interested in affinities. Good. They're the most important and the most interesting.

"Of second most importance is the ability to manipulate the elements without the expenditure of mana." I flicked on that on switch with my affinities and just let them loose, providing only enough mana to make a small amount of each element. A variety of effects happened. The most noticeable one was a small storm forming though I know it could easily grow far larger. My affinity's limited consciousness knew I wouldn't like that at all.

"As you can see affinities can cause effects on their own. Anyone can do this though making elements did require an initial expenditure of mana. Common affinities like air, earth, or the like don't require mana and as such you can make some small manipulations of the elements without using mana. However, the manipulations are SMALL. Very, very small. Unless you have an advantage like being a maiden or a lifetime of training you might be able to levitate a rock or something."

"Now… let's move on once more…"

[|||| == ||||]

"Sienna?"

"Yes Blake?"

"You remember when Adam met with me right?"

"Of course."

"Well he gave me an idea… wouldn't nature's bounty turning to a more proactive outlook be a good thing?"

"Explain."

"Being passively there is great help to representing the faunus. They're already showing some effects. However, the white fang has done more."

"Are you saying they should become violent like us?"

"I think that they're prosperous and the white fang can use all the help we can get."

"Blake not everything can be solved through violence. We have to show that we can stand up and fight for our rights but we can't oppress humanity. We're better than that."

"We shouldn't show a violent front through them, I know, but what if the company sponsored the white fang publicly? We are the voice of the faunus so shouldn't we or the company have a public relationship? It would show a united front."

"No. The company is non-violent. They're a COMPANY. They're people who play at the level of the Schnees and snobby humans and beat them at their own game. Being friendly with them drags down their status to the level of the supposed animals and criminals.

They show that we can be better than lowlife - and don't you even start saying that we aren't. You think I don't know that? We all know that. But we need the people who make the decisions to know that. That's why they are there. Not to support the white fang. To show the people what we can do beyond lashing out like animals."

"… I never thought of it like that."

"Sometimes it's hard to look past the white fang. Every faunus is trying for equality in their own way, Blake. Whether they're white fang or not. And the white fang isn't the only road towards peace, though I believe it is one of the most important ones."

"… Okay."

"Now why are you not practicing your forms right now? I recall you saying you were going to."

"Um… yeah."

"That's what I thought. Now go."

[|||| == ||||]

It had been a nice few months to the end of school. Finals were easily done right after the tournament and some review weeks and everyone, teachers included, spent that last week taking their shoes off in class and kicking back. Just like normal schools. We even had a few classes with Qrow where he just left us to practice on our own in groups. It was pretty much business as usual for me but the atmosphere was so much more relaxed during that time. The tests were a stressful time for everyone though and it even affected me despite my confidence in the tests since I could kind of cheat with mage sight… well let me amend that. I could totally cheat with mage sight.

SubI had done admirably on getting those floor plans. I gave the computer and gave it to Poledina, who had nearly sorted out his lab and was really happy with it. It wasn't as good as the one at Atlas but it was solely his so that was good enough.

I got him some more computer stuff myself and then was the magic reveal, which was… tiring. And very long with all his questions. I was there for hours. I gave him the books and he stayed awake for two days on coffee reading them and calling me over to demonstrate or clarify on something in the book.

First I gave him fifty pendants stuffed with as much mana as I could and asked him to identify mana from a scientific standpoint. I also had a parallel write a book on runes that was incredibly cut and dry but with my teaching skill and runes skill the parallel did do it. It just sounded really robotic.

Roman had gotten the new purity trees, white blooms, and a LOT of them. We had finally achieved as many red blooms as we cared to sell for sap seasonally and a new set of groves filled with purity trees had been erected to harvest sap, wood, and more and sell it. However, this grove was WAY bigger than the redwood grove. We had marketed the sap as a strong grimm repellent and had immediately gotten a constant order from all of the kingdoms as well as menagerie and the SDC for constant orders to receive sap.

We jacked the prices sky high as we could, over six times the price of red bloom sap, and sold it. The other parts of the tree were sold with their similar properties to the sap albeit about ten times weaker. Specialty arrows were made from the sap since they weakened the grimm penetrated with the wood and even insta-killed the weakest ones. Sure guns were overall better but some who still used bows liked the arrows. It helped to weaken the large grimm and make combat safer with them too. We used the shedded leaves of the trees as compost for the red blooms and saw a eight to twelve percent increase in production. Adding a little purity really did help. Huh. Helpful to know.

We'll sell some for personal consumption at the same price but we doubt many people will buy it. It's different than red bloom sap but for consumption it's too expensive unless we sell it at a lower price than we do to the kingdoms. Most of our buyers we have are companies who use the syrup to make other foods that they sold to the populace so even though the white bloom sap is better it's not economically sound to use it in products.

Well… most products. Grimm repellant is a fantastic thing that people bend over backwards for. We added water and a mechanism with fire dust to heat the syrup solution to evaporate and voila… grimm repellant. It's so beautiful. The money and power I mean.

I considered that huntsmen might lose jobs but I did a little research and found that they wouldn't at all. Actually the repellant would really help the kingdoms. With less need for defense the kingdoms could expand a lot with their huntsmen.

I had patented the trees of course. I called them a rare mutation like an albino of the red blooms. A cocktail of recessive genes that we managed to isolate and grow independently of the red blooms. The councils and such tried to get a grip on the trees, being so insanely useful that their grimm repelling element was, but we had the clout to deny them. Money and power… you gotta love it.

This was the first step to really getting remnant to lean on my company like the SDC. People in remnant NEED the SDC. They use dust in everything, after all. But they didn't need nature's bounty. The grimm lures were extremely useful and no way would they ever really fall out of practice among hunters but a repellent that the kingdoms could grow dependent on? Now that was something that the kingdoms need. I just made sure that humanity didn't become lax. I made a public statement encouraging that remnant did need hunters as much now as ever but that this time we could really expand out into the country without sacrificing hunters to solely defend the settlements.

At this rate there might be a new golden age coming soon. Now if only people would stop asking for super powered guns…

With that all being the case Bella and I were heading out tomorrow on a grand adventure. I was bringing her into the secret too. It was road trip time. To the sites of mana of course. Where the managuard have their bases. I've got four of them planned out. Some of them are way too dangerous though. The ocean site, for example. I don't want to go into deep water without getting some sort of affinity that complements the environment like salt to pepper. Deep water and sea monsters is just… BAD!

We've got a site thunder, which is electrical affinity and the only one whose name we actually found at site frost.

Then there's a site overgrowth with a ton of wildlife that's either nature or life around the proclaimed borders of Vacuo and Vale down south on the crest of the U shape of the continent. It's supposedly filled with dangerous plants and a fair bit of very exotic and dangerous magical creatures. Mostly plants though. Most of them release spores that cause a variety of harmful effects like paralysis, death, poison, death, comas, death, death, and lots and lots of death. I'm a bit concerned about bacteria or general sickness causing microorganisms but the managuard didn't report anything on it. Then again the managuard didn't note a demon in site frost… but they didn't mess with ancient runic circles so I can't complain too much.

Number two is site cavern, which is deep in the earth that's plagued by earthquakes in northern mantle in the mountains. I'm not sure if the managuard site is still standing but they seemed quite confident in their base there from the sound of it in what little scraps of information Bella could scrounge up. I didn't get much else sadly.

Third is a break that's actually in one really damn dangerous place. Site daylight. To Bella's fear the site is actually RIGHT UNDER MANTLE. That is to say, the abandoned city filled with old and dangerous grimm in old buildings and buried under a ton of snow. It's caverns filled with so many light dust crystals that it's actually impossible to see. The managuard couldn't find a way around that so they never put a base there but they didn't find any dangerous creatures or elementals (wraiths) either. It sounds like the first part will suck but the second will be easy.

Finally is the easiest site. Site thunder. Believe it or not the place is actually settled by normal people. It's not filled with dangerous elementals or anything. It's the premier mining site for electrical dust. I mean it's monopolized by the SDC (Like a lot of things. The SDC has daughter companies that branch off of just dust though it's primarily mining) and has a faunus labor camp but that's better than horrible plant monsters and earthquake filled caverns, right? Maybe.

I could have asked Jacques for a tour or something of the place but why would I really? That leaves a trail and he'll ask questions. 'Why would Abyss/Mystic Mavros want to examine one of my main mines?' And I'll have no real answer to that. So I'll keep us invisible (and keep us safe from infrared and the like of course) and sleep in a hiding place. It won't be too hard. There's an old hidden managuard base that was cleaned out by the managuard and sold so faunus sleep in the bunkers to be safe from the lightning strikes that occur frequently above. Lightning rods keep them safe and the bunker powered when mining.

I hope there's still something of a magical nature there to use but if not I'll get a good look at the SDC mines with my own eyes. In fact I'm going to take a video for when Blake gets here. I want to know if it's really slavery as she claims in the show. I don't think she ever really saw the mines and all the information she has MIGHT be white fang propaganda or the like since she's the daughter of Menagerie's chieftain. It would be a political nightmare if anyone found out she was there. But it might be true that the faunus are fairly employed and able to leave or it might be true that they're unwillingly there and kept in near-slavery. I don't know but I'm going to find out.

I have to say though that I see myself as more faunus than human with all my time as a faunus now though. My memories of earth have gotten spotty and I'm so much more comfortable with my extra ears. So I can empathize with the faunus a lot on the whole racism and discrimination. I've been kicked out from a few shops before but a fair number of people recognize me from making the news recently so I'm given more leeway than other faunus since… well I'm rich and making the world a safer place from the grimm.

In some eyes I, or Mystic, is practically a saint since I save a lot of lives with my grimm bait. That might get worse when I reveal the repellent in a few months. Halfway through the fiscal year to be precise, at the end of June in two weeks. Most people understand I'm a businessman though so I don't have a cult or anything crazy like that.

I'm emulated by the faunus not only for providing an example but also jobs to the poor faunus and whispers of the white fang supporting me. When asked I gave a small smile and said 'no comment'. That was comment enough though. Nobody actually came out with evidence that I was affiliated with the faunus so I couldn't be charged.

On the side of most humans the poor like me a lot. I don't just employ poor faunus but also some poor humans if they're not utter racists and they get a background check. Most poor humans are friendly with the faunus since most or remnant's population is urban and in the slums you have to be living in a close environment with a lot of faunus. Racism is just not done. It gets you beat up.

With rich humans I'm… not well liked. Businesses want in on my scheme but I'm not running a stock company and I don't have a board of directors or anything like that. I partner with Mahogany officially in a 50/50 split if we ever decide to divvy up the company or the whole thing assigned to Abyss Mavros if need be, being the heir. This all combined means they just plain hate me. I take customers with my goods, making competition, and my goods sold are a new essential for huntsmen and huntresses with how useful they are. I've got a stable and prosperous company that makes others take a hit. That I have promise makes it even worse for them since they can't get in on this without a damn good reason like selling equipment we need.

All that reputation and businesses and spy kid stuff was finally being left behind though. I was leaving it all behind for a summer for a vacation with Bella… this will be fun. I haven't been to any of these places so we actually ahve to road trip the hell out of it. There aren't even roads to site cavern and overgrowth is so far away from civilization that it would take months of bush-whacking to get there without an airship or boat. So I got one, an airship that is, through Roman and also a bunch of fuel that I stored in my inventory.

It's a Mk. 4 Umberwin medium size cruiser. It's a thirty meters commercial cruiser that's outfitted with the best tech around. It was… expensive. About sixty thousand Lien to be precise. It's four rooms (I might need passengers. Also, beacon teams), a miniature kitchen, a tiny living room,and a small common room with a TV through two low roofed floors.

It can land in water though with RADAR and LIDAR capabilities.

It's got a turret on the belly and two on the rear of the craft for defense just in case. There's struts for landing with some hover capabilities through gravity dust so that I can… well, hover and land. It can land in water as well though. It's buoyant, which is pretty much standard fare since with air dust that's really easy to do.

The thrusters are quite good too. It's a speedy, fuel efficient version of an old engine that's pretty widely used. Sure there are faster ones but I don't need the best. I'm fine with simply above average. I can travel at about the speed of sound but I can't see with it and I can't see at that speed. My eyes can take in all the information in the world but sadly I can't process it all. The ship fixes that for me.

It doesn't have have autopilot but that's perfectly fine since it makes up for that with both RADAR and LIDAR. I've long since figured out how to incorporate hard light into my avatars so I can use them in combat properly though they can only take a few hits or slices. It works for the purpose of flying the ship though.

The spell happened in a brainstorm session where I make new spells and the like from what I can do. It doesn't always pay dividends but sometimes I figure out a more efficient way of doing a spell. I've even made a fair few breakthroughs on the level of my shockwaves and pressure spikes. To me it's like a suit of armor, a hotel room, and transport. The guns are only commercial grade sadly.

I only have one since they're a pretty penny to buy and I don't really need two though I might get a spare just in case I need to transport multiple people. I don't need a car since I can consecutively blink faster than any car.

I might need a submarine though… I don't really do so great in water based environments. Most of my attacks rely on air, lightning, or heat. My storm affinity is pretty focused on lightning and wind and less so on water with plasma being completely sacrificed. I can manipulate water better than ever for sure but in an ocean I wouldn't want to trust it. Especially with the giant sea dragon grimm in season four or five or RWBY… I think it was four. And there are MUCH worse grimm in the oceans of RWBY. Like leviathans of the depths that actually really want to kill humans. Scary stuff. I don't want to go down there unless I'm absolutely certain in my ability to kill everything down there without a problem… Okay so I don't like being deep underwater. Big whoop. Dark scary places are dark and scary and totally not meant for people. I like land thank you very much.

Anyways, we have an airship to break in (and learn how to actually pilot. Bella knows. She's going to teach me), locations to visit, a truckload of magical materials and artifacts to collect, a plot to unravel, a teacher to teach, and I'll bet that I'm going to come out of this summer learning a lot.

I had decided against Raven or Ruby joining us. Raven gets to kick back and relax. I mentioned that she can raid some caravans and preserve tradition if she wants but I don't know if she will. Ruby seemed really uncomfortable with saying where she's going but I made her swear up and down that she wasn't doing anything dangerous and told Raven privately to keep an eye on her through her portals. She was already doing that whenever she got bored and didn't feel like watching TV but she agreed that she should use a few more to see what she's doing.

There were a few other candidates to bring along. Roman or Neo were two but I don't really know Neo at all. I'm her boss above even Raven in her eyes and I don't care to change that. Roman is too busy playing Mahogany to leave for a long time. I think he actually being the big man too. He's also pretty weak. Bella is level two hundred sixty four though more than half of her points are in WIS and INT. She's also extremely skilled more than physically powerful a lot like Summer was if Summer had been extremely focused on clandestine operations.

In the end it was just me and Bella. I think I'll reveal magic to Roman eventually though. He'll need to know after a while. I just want to reveal magic only when I need to and Bella needs to.

I really hope this works out.

[|||| == ||||]

"Hey, um… Yang?"

"Wh-uh-um-hi Ruby…"

"We need to talk."

"… Is this family stuff?"

"I'd like to spend the summer with you and Tai."

----------------------------------------------------------

If like it please drop some POWER STONES