Valor?

Vol. 1 – Reset | Ch. 1 - Valor?

Jaune was not a hero. But it was something he had always desired to be but lacked all the tools necessary to be one. Heroes are strong. They are brave. They are resourceful. They are loved. But Jaune was different.

In reality, he is weak, a liar, a fraud, a coward, and unloved, and yet Jaune has always wanted to be one of them because they were everything he was not. Jaune had tried but failed to become one, squandering what may have been his only chance to become what he had dreamed of becoming.

Although his chances were slim from the beginning. The opportunity he had had to apply was bought through bribery, and he was quickly exposed for his lies. He regretted choosing the path of a hero. All he had gained from this path was pain and suffering. Whether it was bullying from Cardin or the humiliation he suffered on this path. Once again, he was reminded...

He is NOT a hero.

Just when he had decided to quit trying to be one, the universe pushed him into a situation that befitted a hero. He was surrounded by monsters with nothing but his sword, his shield, and his guts.

*Grrrr*

A multitude of thirsty eyes and mouths salivated as countless pairs of eyes pinged him. Jaune was nothing but a piece of steak to these troll-like monsters.

Having found the situation unpalatable, Jaune circled in his position. Jaune smirked both internally and externally, gripping the blade with demeaning glee.

"It seems like this universe likes to play these shitty games with me... I am such a fool!" Jaune's eyes watered as a heavyweight settled upon his heart and the crowd of monsters parted as the apparent Boss of the swarm made its way towards him. The mountainous troll mocked as he played with his enormous club. Jaune's eyes reddened as primal anger swept through him, replacing the fear he felt. "I am not your fucking chew toy!"

Jaune brandished his sword, his mind clouded with rage.

You may find this confusing at first, but you will understand in no time. All you need is a little bit of patience and a teeny-tiny flashback.

Well… Sort of.

------

Kicked out in the middle of the night he sulked aimlessly through the Emerald forest and found himself in a quite… unique predicament.

After running away from a few Grimm, Jaune was hit by a wave of dizziness that nearly caused him to fall face-first to the ground. Upon regaining his footing, he saw the strange phenomenon before him and blinked twice.

'Enter the Field of Valor?'

When Jaune saw the holographic screen floating in front of him, he was pretty sure he was hallucinating. The text prompt stood stubbornly in the way of his view as he turned his head to look around. Looking at the prompt, he scratched his head.

It was a rectangular, translucent floating window that looked like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

'Enter the Field of Valor?'

[Y/N]

After ensuring he wasn't dreaming, Jaune pressed 'Yes', causing the text window to disappear, much to his confusion. After scratching his head, Jaune was about to leave when a new prompt window appeared.

'Granting 'Walker' the access to the 'Gates'

Please wait.'

A loading bar appeared below the prompt. As the bar began to fill, Jaune waited anxiously. As the bar filled up to 100, he closed his eyes as if a bomb was going off. A notification sound was heard and Jaune opened one eye hesitantly.

'Process Complete!

Do you wish to enter?'

[Y/N]

Sighing in relief Jaune wiped his sweaty hands before clicking on 'Yes'.

"Thank God nothing bad happened-" This was a perfect example of speaking up too early because not even a second later the world around Jaune glitched out of existence, and he found himself falling through a tunnel of lights.

"Argh!" Jaune nearly threw up as he landed directly on a patch of grassy land. He groaned as he stood up, only to be greeted with another text prompt, but this time with a voice.

"Welcome variable 'Jaune' you have been chosen as by the sentience to become a 'Walker' and though you have been transported to the Field of Valor you are at the trial grounds and you are to be tested to see if you really are worthy of becoming the 'Walker'. An entity who walks through the limitless fields and enjoys the exploits that it has to offer."

"I… I don't understand." Jaune began.

"Nor do you need to. Since you have accepted the first prompt you are now a potential 'Walker' and all you have to do is to prove that you are worthy of it and I make sure you remember this; You CANNOT back off now."

"…What do I have to do?" Jaune asked and immediately regretted it as the blue window ominously turned red.

'Quest: Test of Valor.

Description: As the name suggests, to become the Walker with sole access to the Fields of Valor and the right to exploit its fruit you must display your conviction. You must show your Valor to the 'Sentience'.

Primary Objectives: Survive for 7 Days.

Secondary Objectives:

Slay 1000 Goblins

Slay 500 Trolls

Slay 500 Ogre

Slay 5 Boss

Condition of Failure: Death, Hiding for extended periods of time.

Rewards: Title – 'Walker'

Punishment: Death'

Jaune begins shaking in fear as he read the ominous last word – Death.

"W-What the hell is this?!" Jaune shouted in hysteria. "You can't be serious!"

'I assure you that I am neither playful nor serious. I am rational and driven by facts. Please brace yourself, the challenge will begin any minute now.'

"I can't! I can't face that many monsters! Forget many, I am barely able to handle a single Grimm!" Jaune was in panic and was trying to talk himself out of it. "There is no way I can do this! I'm not a hero!"

'I know you aren't a hero, variable Jaune, and you don't have to be. There is no damsel in distress nor are you expected to save the world. Your sole purpose here is to survive. You will have to fight if you want to live. The Fields of Valor will reward you for fighting for survival, not for glory. You will fight because you must, or you will die.'

He gritted his teeth. Red portals tore open in space, spawning small ugly monsters as the text vanished. As they looked around, their gazes locked onto Jaune, a shivering mess, and they brandished their rusted weapons lecherously.

'You must put yourself above the notion of a hero to become a Walker. Best wishes, variable Jaune.'

"Hero... Walker... My ass. Don't you just want me dead!" Jaune slashed his sword desperately as a Goblin lunged at him. The blade cut through the ugly bastard, which disintegrated leaving behind crystal shards. Jaune wasn't allowed any time as another goblin attacked him quickly. Jaune spun wildly in his attempt to shave goblins after ducking under a lunge. After getting one into the torso, he tried to impale another, but this proved to be a mistake since the goblin was wearing armor and the blade got stuck midway.

*Gyaaah!*

"Ahhh!" Jaune screamed as the goblin jumped on him and bit him in the shoulder. Jaune tried to get the goblin off, but the bastardly creature wouldn't let go and continued biting into him. He let go of the sword, kicking the little runt away, before grabbing the goblin and squeezing his neck with all his might. After struggling to breathe, the goblin lost control over Jaune's flesh. Jaune slammed the goblin face down into the ground after ripping it off his body. Throbbing with hysteric anger, Jaune mounted the goblin and began to choke him.

*Cough!* *Choke!*

Jaune took sadistic pleasure in watching the creature thrash and suffer. It clawed at his hands irritating Jaune who mustered all the power he could and increased the pressure.

*Crack!*

A clear sound resounded as the creature's windpipe broke as its eye lost its light and disintegrated, leaving only crystal shards behind. As Jaune stared at the startled creatures surrounding him with murderous intent but cautiously approaching him, he grew emotionless.

Jaune walked to the goblin in whose armor his sword had gotten stuck. He put a foot on the struggling creature's chest to stop his movement. With both hands gripping the hilt, he looked at the goblins surrounding him.

"Watch this…" Jaune pressured applied pressure downwards burying the sword deeper. The goblin begins screaming which earned him a hard stomp to his face followed by another. "Shut up… Will ya? Will ya?! I! Said! Shut! The! Fuck! Up!"

As the creature became weaker with each stomp, Jaune twisted the sword and applied pressure for the last time, the blade now skewering the dying creature. In the darkness that enveloped the Trial Grounds, Jaune stared at the darkened sky. His eyes welled with tears as he felt the weight of all the emotion. While clenching his teeth in resolve, Jaune gripped the sword in a clumsy stance.

"It hurts… It hurts so much. I hate this… I really hate all of this!" Jaune screamed cutting a goblin apart in two. "What have I ever done to deserve this?! Am I really going to die?!"

Jaune looked up at the window in the sky which had morphed into a semi-static one.

'06: 23: 34: 18

Wave 1: 5/100'

It had barely been half an hour and Jaune was at the end of his wits and he had only killed five goblins. While feeling his heart's pain become unbearable, Jaune smirked self-deprecatingly.

"Of course… You wouldn't say anything. In the end, I am always alone, on my own." Jaune gritted his teeth while glaring hatefully at the goblins. "If I am going to die here, I will make sure that I will take all of y'all ugly bastards with me!"

With a war cry, Jaune charged towards the horde of monsters.

------

Time flowed painfully slow for Jaune as he fought one wave of monster after another. He had no idea how many waves of monsters he had fought off or just how he had done it. His only concern was survival and slaughter. It was improvised tactics or pure luck that kept him from kissing death on numerous occasions. But he survived, and that was what mattered.

'06: 00: 13: 56

Wave 9: 900/900

(Next Wave in 09: 46)

As he stared up at the window, Jaune smiled painfully. The man had survived for almost a day and fought off about 4500 monsters. He breathed in deeply as he sat on his ass, allowing his body to rest. He lay back as he recounted everything he knew so far about this trail.

The monster count would increase by a hundred with every wave. In Wave 1, he killed 100 monsters, and in Wave 9, he had killed 900. After fighting off a wave, he had a break of about ten minutes, which he could either use to rest or try out new abilities.

Jaune had no idea what these abilities were exactly, but he knew that he could learn them either by reaching a certain milestone, by repeating a certain action, or by progressing and growing stronger. As of now, his abilities are [True Perception | Grade: C], [Inventory | Grade: Ex], and [Weapon Mastery | Grade: D].

'True Perception | Grade: C

Description: The ability to perceive and assess the world in a way that is impossible for any other creature. The ability grants the user access to different branches as it develops.'

Jaune acquired this ability when he stopped rushing at his opponents blindly in favor of carefully watching their movements, behavior, and assessing their threat level. The ability also gave Jaune access to a text prompt that displayed the details of the target he is observing. Using this ability, Jaune found that he was able to understand and predict the attacks of his enemies.

'Inventory | Grade: Ex

Description: A dimensional storage where you can store potentially any item without a limit.'

The description sounded so simple, but perhaps this was a God-Level cheat. After Jaune grew tired of using it as storage, he began experimenting with Wave 5 and the results were far more charming than they had initially appeared. Even though Jaune faced a whole battalion of archer skeletons, he had managed to piss them off by storing their arrows in his inventory and then using them against their own knights. The sight was hilarious. Inventory's greatest strength was his ability to store any object in his line of vision within a radius of 25 meters. Thieves and smugglers would die for this ability because it made objects appear and disappear silently, storing them without anybody noticing.

'Weapon Mastery | Grade: E

Description: An ability that categorizes and indicates the overall mastery of the user with a certain type of weapon.

Sword | Grade: E | Talent: D

Bow-Arrow | Grade: D | Talent: A

Club | Grade: D | Talent: D

Mace | Grade: E | Talent: C

Lastly, Jaune's only combat-oriented skill was truly an eyeopener for him. Even after training pitifully for his entire life in the art of swordplay, Jaune realized that he would always be a beginner. After he reached Grade D, it would be difficult to advance further since his Talent was a meager D.

A mace gave him a better chance of thrashing Cardin than a sword could have. Jaune smiled at the idea of destroying Cardin with his own weapon and smashing his head into a paste-

"Woah, Woah… These thoughts have been too dark lately." Jaune stated to himself as he got up. Looking up the clock there was only a minute left before the next wave. "Apparently you don't feel sleepy or hungry here. That really helps since I can't imagine myself sleeping with these Monsters spawning non-stop or eating these ugly piles of retards."

'06: 00: 04: 09

Wave 10: 0/1000'

"Hmm. This is getting a little ridiculous." Jaune smiled, even though his eyes had lost all their brightness. A dead expression occupied his face as he stared at the monster. He looked very different from the Jaune only a few hours earlier. This Jaune was too disconnected, all he cared about was surviving by any means possible.

'Name: Hellspawns

Description: Lesser demons from the outer purgatory. They are a species like imps only more barbaric. While Fighting them one must watch out for their razor-sharp teeth and their tails which they notoriously use to stab their prey.'

"Ya don't say," Jaune said sarcastically as he looked at the red imp-like creatures with their sharp teeth and black-tipped tails. "I'll keep them at a distance, and hopefully by the end of this I will be victorious with only one hand missing."

Jaune casually mentions losing a hand may seem bizarre, but to him, it was just another occurrence. The trolls had taken a chunk out of Jaune's left hand during Wave 3, a harpy had taken a big bite out of his right hand and leg during Wave 6 and a hobo-goblin had blown him to bits during Wave 8. He was able to come this far in one piece due to the Trial Ground restoring his body and fatigue during the Break Time.

"Well… Come y'all you only have six more days to kill me." Jaune smiled taking a stance with the sword. His storage was opened in an instant by his mental commands, releasing hundreds of arrows along with angry grunts and howls of Hellspawns. He rushed ahead and decapitated an imp before retrieving a club with his left hand and hitting a group of five with it. He smirked, flicking his sword. "I, for one, intend to survive this hell."