Chapter 5 - Darknesses Reach

Jaune Arc was a man on a mission. After getting his daily training done and accepting his rewards he went off to a private area, ready to use his key when the opportunity presented itself as he wandered Vale.

His excuse to his friends went off without a hitch and they even asked if there were any gifts they can help him find to meet his family or if he wanted them with him. With an apology Jaune explained to them how he wanted to catch up just between family this time since he hasn't seen this sister since she moved out last year and he wanted to catch up without her trying to divide her attention between him and his friends. They all understood but made him promise to introduce them next chance they got to meet this sister. And a promise (read: threat) from Yang that she would grill his sister for all the embarrassing stories of him as a toddler and child, making Jaune cry out in anguish realizing that she used his families motto of never going back on their word against him very effectively.

With a wave and a promise to come back with souvenirs he went to the bullhead and landed in Vale. Jaune then plotted out where he could go to activate the dungeon. He went to the park, but since it was a Sunday it was full of families. Not the best look for a huntsman opening up Grimm gates in public.

Next location was a neighborhood, but that brought out its own problems as many families were enjoying the day together and once more, not the best look for a huntsman in training to be opening dark portals.

Then he tried the docks, but once more, Sunday. Deliveries and shipments were being brought in by the dozens so no luck there.

Finally he had a moment of genius, the warehouse district, Sunday later morning, had barely anyone there due to the nightclubs opening late, and the workers going to lunch.

So Jaune was soon in an alleyway between a building under construction and a warehouse. It looked like the building under repairs might have been a nightclub but the renovations and repairs they were doing had made it hard to tell. He shrugged and opened his inventory after making sure he was alone and opened the gate in the alley while drawing his sword and walking in.

As the Grimm Gates shadows fly by Jaune pauses at something that catches his eye, its only for a second but he swears he sees a pair of more human like eyes in the darkness but with red glowing pupils and red veins across their skin that was pale like the moon. But when he focuses on them to see more clearly the eyes and glimpse of skin are all gone, as he exits the transfer vortex and comes out into a large cave system.

Looking around he sees a mess of tunnels all around him, criss crossing and going up down and sideways. He draws his sword and shield out immediately as he turns around to see the portal entrance disappears. As he is about to be very confused, he sees a notification come up.

~Alert! Someone has exerted their influence on the dungeon! You are locked within this dungeon until you defeat all enemies! Alert the influence has doubled the original amount of enemies and strengthened them! The Dungeon has gone up from a basic C rank to B- rank!

Defeat Enemies! Clear the Dungeon and escape! 120/120 enemies remain.

Rewards: Full Recovery, +10 stat points, +20,000 credits for shop, Special gift box~

Seeing all of this happen one after another Jaune realizes he is in deep trouble. No backup, no way out, and over 100 powerful enemies who are around his level or greater after seeing the note about the influence empowering them. His mind flashes to the eyes and skin he saw in the portal vortex upon his entrance and grits his teeth.

He looks around while thinking to himself, Dang it! I think that was th eGreat Darkness the System has told be about before! That means I've caught their eye and am now a target! So they want to get rid of me using my own training strategy huh? Well I'll show them how having people to return to makes you more powerful than most! I have a whole family to return to now! Friends, teammates, maybe more than either?

His mind flashes to a smiling Yang with her trademark grin, a smiling Pyrrha with her gentle smile, a smirking Weiss with her confident but friendly aura, and a shy Velvet giving him a supportive glance and grin.

Jaune smiles to himself as the rest of his friends flash across his mind, Ruby with her weapon out showing him how she upgraded it. Reading a fun book with Blake in the library. Nora wanting to eat the Arc family specialty pancakes. Meditating and drinking tea with Ren while chatting about random things. Dealing with Yangs teasing and funny puns as he lovely laugh echoes across his mind. Pyrrhas beautiful form as she trains in front of him showing him a move and having her bright red hair dance across the sky behind her. Weiss graceful form as she twirls into a ballerina move with her sword singing through the air. Velvet giving him some study tips and notes as she brushes some hair behind her cheek in a cute manner. Coco as she smiles at his new jeans and shirt combo when he wanted to dress up for a team meeting. Yatsu as he helped teach Jaune a new sword stance for his heavier blade. And Fox when Jaune wanted to incorporate his sword and fist into a new combo style, with the blind fighter showing him the ropes to such a new but interesting style.

Jaune opens his eyes as his aura glows bright, with his heart area glowing with all of his friends aura colors for a brief moment. He smiles warmly to himself, then steels his face into one of determination as he holds onto all those important memories and more. He goes into the dungeon proper with his head held high and his senses in over drive ready for the first fight. His aura lighting up the place to give him a way to see through the darkness of the tunnel.

Right as he enters a tunnel his senses prick up and he manages to duck and roll to the side as he hears something swing right past where he was and smash into the ground of where he was as well.

Turning back and standing into his combat stance after completing the roll he turns to see a rather large Deathstalker. Thankfully nothing as big as the one at initiation, but it is about as long as 10ft and its stinger was longer than its body by at least 8ft. Its pincers looking large enough to cleave even Yatsu in half.

Jaune steeled his eyes and watched its every move as it started skittering towards him. Its stinger flying towards him Jaune manages to go to one knee with his shield up and deflecting the stinger up and above him. The stinger crashing into the tunnels wall as Jaune uses this chance to charge towards the Deathstalker its stinger still retracting, it opens its pincers up to get ready to snap Jaune in half. Jaune sees the movement and manages to slide on his shin guards across the ground to dive under them right as they snap together over his head. Jaune then brings his sword up in an arc of white steel crashing down against the Deathstalkers right arm. Severing the arm Jaune hears it crashing down behind him with a loud screech, and remembering Ports class he waits right below its head as it rears up away from him to get away from the sharp object that slashed right through its missing arm.

Jaune follows the move and leaps up cutting up through its belly where the chitin is weaker and goes from tail to head. It screeches once more in pain as it crashes down tot he ground from the surprise slash. Jaune rolls out from under it to end up behind it and pivots to slash right through its tail. The stinger flying off into the tunnel and the Deathstalker turning to try and get to Jaune. Only to find a blade covered in Aura cleaving into its face and going to the hilt of his blade and ripping up and away from it. With the cut on top, and the cut on the bottom the Deathstalker finally split in half, and dissipated into dust.

Jaune pants slightly at the end of the fight and looked up to see 119/120 enemies remaining on the counter.

As he turns to check around him he suddenly feels an impact on his back as he is pushed forward with a crash into the ground. He feels his armor dent deeply into his back as the stinger that got him retracts, and from a tunnel in the ceiling the next Deathstalker appears.

As Jaune rolls to his side he gets to his hands and knees only for his breath to be taken from him in a side swipe as a large pincer slams into him from another hole in the tunnel he landed near.

Rolling to his feet Jaune then pays close attention despite the sudden lack of air and with his high sense stat he manages to turn quickly with his shield up. Right in time to avoid being crushed into two pieces by another set of pincer that launched at him from yet another tunnel side shoot.

He leaps back as his shield groans from the pressure and looks around himself to see all three Deathstalkers surrounding him with another 3 on their way up the tunnel. Jaune grits his teeth thinking he might have bitten off more than he can chew, before his mind flashes back to his friends and Beacon academy.

He looks up at the now 6 Grimm surrounding him and smiles with an excited grin, "I won't die here! You guys want to feed off my fear and despair at how you have me surrounded? Well I won't give you the satisfaction!"

With his declaration out there his aura surges forth, making the Grimm skitter back in fear as Jaune has not only his white aura around himself, but his aura seems to have flashes of his friends aura colors among the blaze as well.

~Congratulations Player! You have unlocked Warriors Battle cry!

Warriors Battle cry lvl 1: Lower the physical abilities of foes within a 50ft radius of user by 5 points. Costs 100 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

Skill rallying call has leveled up twice!

Rallying call lvl 3: +6 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 50ft of user. Costs 120 AP, lasts 5 minutes.~

Jaune smiles despite the situation making the Deathstalkers chitter in unease as Jaune brandishes his sword and charges while activating his Warriors Aura and Warriors battle cry together.

The Grimm skitter about nervously as they suddenly feel slightly weaker and slower before Jaune literally crashes into the first one dazing it with his shield and then cleaving into it with an aura charged slash. With the sword upgraded as it is and his aura powering not only his blade but his full body now, Jaune manages to cleave right into the Deathstalker.

It dies after having been bisected. As its body disappears, its brethren all charge forward looking to end the human who dares bare his fangs at them. Jaune smiles at them all and rushes forward once again. His sword and body both glowing with energy as he charges his very soul into his movements and weapon as his arm arcs around and creates a large energy cut that shoots out of his blade.

The first 3 scorpions that are stuck by the hit screech in pain and anger and try to hit him with their stingers in retaliation. Jaune readies his shield and manages to deflect each stinger one after another. As he deflects the last one he immediately listens to his instincts and his sense stat and leaps with a large back flip out of the way as one of the Grimm had skittered to the ceiling and tried to sting him from above. Jaune manages to land against the wall and jump off of it creating a crater in the rock allowing Jaune to reach the scorpion on the ceiling and slash right through the Deathstalkers head dealing a fatal blow.

As the Grimm dissipates into black dust, Jaune begins to prepare for a landing only for the remaining 4 Deathstalkers to rush up to him and slam him in all four limbs with their stingers mid air. Jaune coughs out in pain as he crashes and rolls across the ground making his sword and shield clatter out of his hands mid roll.

He slams into a boulder in the tunnel as he rights himself despite the pain and numbness in his limbs. Looking at the approaching Grimm Jaune tries to move, and as a result he only manages to twitch his fingers and toes a bit, "Damn it! Ugh they got me with their venom! System! Anything you can do?"

~I can't do much except give you a chance… I know! Call out loud, system, shop, antidote list and grab a Rank C antidote to cure yourself! It will take most of your credits but you should be able to survive! Now hurry!~

Jaune grunts with effort to try and make at least one arm listen to him as the Grimm are almost on top of him. He yells out, "System! Shop! Antidote Rank C purchase!"

A ding is heard as he suddenly has a potion bottle in his right hand and a notification saying he just spent 4500 credits on it. With a grunt of effort he manages to shakily lift his right arm and bite down on the cork as the Deathstalkers are now on him. Jaune grits his teeth in concentration and pulls with his head on the cork to pull the bottle open and quickly pours the potion down his throat.

The Grimm all swing down with their claws and slam down where Jaune is trying to flatten him.

They all screech in bewilderment as they lift their claws to see nothing but crushed rock and debris and no body or blood of their prey.

They all turn around to look for him only for one of them to go flying as Jaune does an aura infused twin upper punch he learned from Yang into the Grimms underbelly. It slams into the tunnels ceiling and comes falling down on another of its kin, making Jaune rush at another one who was turning to face him only to get a flurry of kicks and punches all over its side, crushing its legs into useless broken limbs. The pain makes it screech out and Jaune uses his sense stat to leap up and over the downed Grimm just in time to avoid its friends stinger lodging deep into its body and making the Grimm dissipate.

Jaune quickly makes his way over to the other tangled two Grimms while scooping up his sword on the way and slashes down after charging his sword with aura once again.

Both tangled Grimm turn to dust from the blow and Jaune pivots quickly and sprints towards the final opponent in the area for the moment. The Grimm screeches in panic and stabs forward with both its stinger and its pincer trying to kill the huntsman but all three attacks miss.

Jaune leaps up and readies his sword with a bright glow on it and hilts the blade deeply into the Grimms head. The Deathstalker gurgles out one last time and then slumps down dead as it turns into Grimm particles as well.

Jaune pants out as he looks up to see his stats from the battle just now and goes wide eyed at how close he was to death just then.

Level 41

Exp: 78% (Paused for now)

HP: 4,900/15,570

AP: 6,310/10,250

Fatigue: 34/100%

Class: none

With a large puff of breath Jaune slumps against the wall to catch his breath. Right as he does so he gets a message.

~You okay partner? I'm sorry that was so rough. I wasn't expecting the Darkness to have their eyes on you already.~

Jaune grunts while trying to get more comfortable against the rock before answering, "So those eyes, hair and skin I saw in the vortex was them? The Great Darkness I'm training to fight? Dang… And this is just their influence? How strong am I compared to them right now? Cause if this Dungeon is simply influenced, then that means they merely made things harder, they are not actually controlling these Grimm themselves. So I need to know how much more work there is for me to be able to protect my friends and family from this Great Darkness."

~Well… Do you want rough estimate? Or true difference?~

Jaune thinks and decides the only answer that is needed right now, the only answer that he needs to hear to make sure he truly becomes ready, "Don't sugar coat it. Tell how big of a difference there is left to make."

The system seems to pause and think about the request before seemingly nodding to itself in thought. Jaune doesn't understand how he knows these actions, but he seems to feel the connection to the system grow as he get stronger and uses the system more and more.

~That is the right answer my player. You might just be the one to be able to defeat the Darkness this time. But to be honest with you. The Great Darkness is still… at minimum between 10 to 12 times stronger than your current self, going off of the stats you possess and the skills you have. To make the gap shrink faster you'll need to unlock your class with that special quest you got recently. Other than that you have a lot of training left to endure with yourself and your friends to help you all become proper champions of your generation. Do you understand my player?~

Jaune nods and grunts to his feet as he then goes, "Yeah, and I am ready to endure anything to make sure my friends and family can survive this Great Darkness. I swear on my word as an Arc! And we Arcs never go back on our word!"

The system seems to smile at him and then tells him,

~Then let's resume your growth my player! You'll need it in this Dungeon.~

Jaune wonders about that before he notices his exp gauge hasn't grown at all since he started fighting. But then realizes something, "Wait did you pause my growth to allow us this time to talk"

The system pauses itself from going back to growing Jaune further as it answers, ~Yes I was able to mask your presence with my powers in exchange I had to pause your personal growth. I am not strong enough to mask you and help you continue to grow at the same time. If I did try that I would lose pieces of myself until you are left with an emotionless and blank computer program system to help you grow.~

Jaune hums to himself and nods seeing the limitations and appreciates its honesty, 'Then thanks for that, I was worried more Grimm would track me down and make it to where we would need to pause our talk and pick it up later, I'm glad that isn't the case. So thank you very much with your actions so far. I appreciate you being here for me."

~Of course my player, I will always be here for you, just like I was for the others.~

Jaune snaps his head to look at the text boxes, "Wait you mentioned the last player of your system being like me, can you tell me about him yet? Or should I wait a bit longer before you can share the details with me?"

The system seems to think about it before coming to a decision, ~Tell you what, get your class, and survive this Dungeon. And I'll tell you all about him and the previous users besides him. Sound like a deal?~

Jaune nods and then stops as he is about to get ready for his level grinding again, "Wait how many others did you have?! It seems like you know way more than you're letting on right now!"

~I promise I will tell you after your class achievement my player. Trust me.~

Jaune smiles at the system for a bit as he goes, "Alright, we have a deal after all like I said my family never goes back on their word. SO let's survive this Dungeon togethe rand get my class! I will be getting my answers!"

The system seems to smile at Jaune as it unpauses his stat growth and Jaune feels his injuries heal as the exp helps him get over the edge of his level needs and his levels up twice.

~Level up X2!~

Level 43

Exp: 11%

HP: 16,980/16,980

AP: 10,750/10,750

Fatigue: 34/100%

Class: none

Stats:

STR: 72

AGI: 62

VIT:62

INT: 57

SENSE: 62

Points available: 40

Skills:

-???- : ?????

Inheritor: Access to system, over level 20 access to shop

Arc Bloodline: +150 to AP

Advanced sword arts lvl 5: 6.5 times dmg with swords

Unarmed Combat advanced lvl 3: times 5.6 dmg with unarmed blows

Warriors Aura lvl 3: +20 to Str, Agi, and Vit for however long this aura is active, cost: 200 for activation, additional 20 per minute used.

Warriors Healing lvl 3: Recover 200 HP per 120 Aura used.

Rallying call lvl 3: +6 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 50ft of user. Costs 120 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

Warriors Battle cry lvl 1: Lower the physical abilities of foes within a 50ft radius of user by 5 points. Costs 100 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

Jaune breaths out in relief as his injuries heal and his Aura shoots back to full. He then grimaces as he notices he still has all his stocked up points an dthinks about using them to survive this dungeon. Then comes to a decision. The class quest is a moot point if I die here all because of the influence of the darkness. So better use them now when I have the chance, than use them later when I am either almost dead or dying.

His decision made Jaune applies his stats to cover all bases to help him survive the current Dungeon.

Stats:

STR: 72

AGI: 72

VIT:72

INT: 67

SENSE: 72

Points available: 0

Jaune nods to himself in satisfaction as his stats are all almost at the same level for the sake of ensuring his survival. Then he looks around himself and readies his sword and shield once more before he hears the skittering of more Deathstalkers coming towards him in a flurry of movement.

With a yell of defiance Jaune charges them as they screech out in search of his blood and soul to feed themselves with.

– 2 hours later –

Jaune stabs his sword into the ground in exhaustion as his stats have grown tremendously in the last 2 hours but the non stop fighting has taken its toll.

~Enemy counter 8/120 enemies remain

Level up X8!

All Skills leveled up X2!

Fatigue has exceeded 80% all physical stats will suffer a -20 penalty until brought back below 80 again.

Fatigue has exceeded 90% all physical stats will suffer a 50% penalty until brought back under 90 again.

Level 51

Exp: 2%

HP: 23,840/23,840

AP: 12,750/12,750

Fatigue: 96/100%

Class: none

Stats:

STR: 80

AGI: 80

VIT:80

INT: 75

SENSE: 80

Points available: 0

Skills:

-???- : ?????

Inheritor: Access to system, over level 20 access to shop

Arc Bloodline: +150 to AP

Advanced sword arts lvl 9: 7.7 times dmg with swords

Unarmed Combat advanced lvl 9: times 7.7 dmg with unarmed blows

Warriors Aura lvl 5: +30 to Str, Agi, and Vit for however long this aura is active, cost: 300 for activation, additional 30 per minute used.

Warriors Healing lvl 5: Recover 300 HP per 180 Aura used.

Rallying call lvl 4: +8 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 50ft of user. Costs 160 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

Warriors Battle cry lvl 2: Lower the physical abilities of foes within a 50ft radius of user by 10 points. Costs 300 AP, lasts 5 minutes.~

After reading it all Jaune slumps against a rock near him and listens in to his surroundings trying to see if he can take a small rest again.

He then checks the shop to see if there was anything in the potion section that might help him. He perks up after seeing fatigue potions on sale, and see after all the hunting of the B- ranked Deathstalkers he earned 100 credits per kill giving him a satisfying 12,530 left after his antidote purchase earlier. He was sorely tempted to save all credits but he knew h needed the potions badly to survive this dungeon so he bought a B ranked one for 9,000 and downed it.

He gets up after the potion kicks in making his fatigue drop back to 56% instead of the 96 it was earlier.

Jaune nods and prepares to finish his hunt to get the full recovery reward from this gate to prepare for his class quest after this. As long as his mental health keeps strong without him being too tuckered out from this kind of long term hunting mission.

Jaune stands once more now more rested than before and grabs his sword and shield to prepare for the fight ahead.

He turns down a tunnel to see the end of the nest he has been exploring for the better part of 2 hours. In side the final chamber is a large dome area similar to that of a football stadium, he is at one end and the other end has the remaining 7 regular Deathstalkers and the big boss himself.

The boss was more than intimidating to Jaune as he looks at a Deathstalker the same size as the one from the initiation and it has 3 stingers with extra bone plating, even on its joints to protect itself from further harm.

Thinking about how to go about this one, Jaune looks up and sees his answer in the form of the stalactites hanging from the ceiling and going across the entire room even going so far as to be over the boss. Jaune readies his sword before taking stock of the way this seems too easy, There must be a catch somehow… Wait… If I do knock them all down, what is keeping the ceiling together with a bunch of cracks and possible giant holes all over it? Hmmm if I want to do this right then I better make sure I aim my sword energy blade at the ones only over the boss and his minions. Otherwise this won't end well for me even if I do take them all out.

Jaune readies his stance and charges his sword up, the blade beginning to light up as his aura coats the blade and grows thicker. The Grimm begin to notice and all screech to charge at him as they begin to skitter closer the boss himself preps himself for fighting Jaune. However the young knight has other plans. He finishes his charge and slashes out with his blade. The energy traveling out in an arching wave of pure aura. And slamming into the ceilings stalactites as it crashes into the ones above the boss and his minions. Jaune ducks back into the tunnel he entered from to avoid the collapse as his blades attack cracks all across the ceiling in a spiderweb motion with plenty of breaking sounds resounding throughout the cavern.

The Deathstalkers all pause and go wide eyed with shock as the ceiling comes crashing down on all of them at once. Jaune hears many screeching cries of pain as the noise is akin to being right near a mortar landing right next to him many times in a row. The crashing goes on for at least 2 minutes before falling silent with only the remaining clatter of smaller stones and pebbles remaining.

Jaune peeks out from his cover in the tunnel entrance only to see the stalactites have all fallen and he has risen the ceilings height by a good 3 feet. Only thing is the floor is now looking like a 7+ Richter scale earthquake hit a small town and knocked down every building within the place. Jaune checks his enemy counter to confirm his suspicions.

Enemies remaining 1/120.

He readies his sword and shield and begins to carefully navigate the ruins of the boss chamber to see where the final enemy is waiting for him. Or maybe the last one is trapped beneath the rubble. Either way Jaune shrugs to himself at the thought as he simply acknowledges that he will need to slay the creature remaining either way, whether it is a boss or a mob type enemy.

As he thinks this he passes by a larger mound of stone that shifts subtly as a red gleam is seen from the cracks of the rocks. A stinger comes shooting out of the pile and aims right for Jaunes head.

He manages to spin and kneel at the same time ducking low and diving beneath the stinger with his sword scraping the bottom of the tail as it grinds against his blades edge.

A loud frustrated screech is heard as the tail retracts, but not without a fresh cut as Jaune manages to score a cut on it as it passes by him once more. With a screech of pain this time the stone pile explodes as the boss is revealed to have survived. Its full 50ft long glory is out and ready to fight to the death, as Jaune sees he managed to land some lasting damage to the boss from the stalactite drop strategy as he sees fresh cracks and some broken rock shards stuck in the hide of the Deathstalker. With a smile to himself he empowers himself with his aura skill and then weakens the boss with is battle cry skill.

But as he activates the battle cry the boss roars out and Jaune feels a wave of negative energy wash over him, looking at a notification he sees the system has bad news.

~Warning Player Jaune! The influence has allowed the boss to resist your battle cry skill and deactivate your aura skill! Be careful! You only have your passive skills to aid you in this fight!~

Jaune blinks in shock then grits his teeth in determination, "So my battle cry is no good, and my aura gets deactivated to passive mode for healing me. And I have to survive with my skills and remaining tactics and aura to fight this Grimm off? Hmph a normal Sunday in the life of a huntsman I see! Bring it on!"

Jaune charges with his aura coating him in its passive mode allowing him to have his increased endurance, stamina, and healing rate without risk of it being wiped out by whatever skill the boss was given by the Darkness.

The boss raises both claws to try and crush Jaune beneath their weight and durability only to see him suddenly speed up into a sprint and roll underneath its body. Jaune turns to try and cut the underbelly, but pauses as he notices the Deathstalker is dropping its body down on top of him.

With a yelp of shock Jaune manages to roll out to the side as a loud THUD echoes throughout the cavern making Jaune flinch in reflex from the loud sound wave. He rises to his feet quickly and readies his sword as the boss is rising up from the body slam it did. Using this chance Jaune charges aura through his blade and slashes downward, expecting to at least leave a good sized gash in its hide. But to his shock his blade only sinks in by 2 inches and becomes stuck in between the bone plating covering most of the boss.

The boss begins to turn towards him and Jaune uses a burst of his aura boost to wrench his sword free and retreat to the back of the boss trying for a back attack. Only to yelp once again as he dodges to the side as the triple stingers all try to stab into him as soon as he attempts the move. He rolls out of the way once again and sees his opportunity remembering his initiation.

He grabs a stinger as it begins to retract and rides it to the top of the scorpions back. Once perched on top of the stinger end he leaps off and charges his maximum amount of aura he can into his sword and cuts it towards the three tails. He managed to hit two of the tails in the sweet spot and prune the stingers from the tails leaving only one tail now sporting 2 cuts along its carapace.

As Jaune resumes his fall to the back of the Deathstalker he begins to run towards the side while slashing and cutting as much as he can hoping to find a weak point. But as he reaches the legs he remembers what he did to the ones in the tunnel near the beginning of his hunting grind. Grinning Jaune leaps down hoping the extra force of his falling body weight will help him out as he swings down with both hands on his sword to increase his strength. He lands down on it and shears through the leg he targeted. But right as the scorpion rears back to avoid more legs being slashed off, Jaune turns and manages to score one more arcing swing like a baseball player and sheer off the leg behind him from where he was standing.

The boss skitters back while flailing its arms and stinger around trying to hit him. And as Jaune desperately tries to avoid any hits he get blind sided by a tail without a stinger and gets slammed into a cavern wall. This results in the boss seeing him from the grunt of pain he let out and slashing at him with both claws.

This makes Jaune cry out in pain as he feels the claws actually shear through his armor his friends got him and his aura flare up to try and protect him from the huge amount of damage he just endured.

"Ugh that wasn't fun." Jaune looks at his Hp and AP bars quickly to see how he was doing and grimaces at the view.

HP: 9,870/23,840

AP: 5,411/12,750

Jaune knew some of the lost aura was from his canceled skills and others were from his use of the aura sword technique he uses in battle, but to see his aura below half and his health nearing one third he knew he needed someway through the armor for a death blow of some kind.

And I don't have my team to help me with the hammer and nail strategy like in initiation. Ugh what can I do? Think! Think! Wait! Weiss mentioned this!

– Flashback –

Jaune and Weiss were back in the gym training together as they practiced the dancing sword arts from the book Jaune got as a gift reward. And Weiss was enjoying how Jaune knew so many dance styles from his sisters wanting him to know them as he grew up.

"Hey Weiss how do you deal with a tough opponent? I mean you are a lighter hitter and fast on your feet so how do you deal with a tough, durable, and hard hitting opponent?"

Weiss stops after a nice pivot and flourish of her blade to regard Jaunes question before looking to her blade and then up to him, "Well for myself I usually use my speed and flexibility to my advantage to go in circles around my foes. Then when the opening comes I strike a few times in the same spot to hit it hard and wear them down."

Jaune nods for a bit before wondering, "Why the same spot? Why not aim for different spots to spread the damage and weaken their whole form?"

Weiss chuckles at the fair view point, "Well in this case they are heavier, stronger, and more durable than me. Spreading damage around won't do much for me besides annoy them. If I want to take them down then I need to make my own opening in their armor. Carve my own chink as it were. Understood?"

Jaune nods with a smile right as Weiss comes to a twirl and stops 2 inches from Jaunes face making him blink in surprise at her, "And I am making my own chink in the armor of your heart as well Jaune, so keep your guard up. Or I may strike when you aren't ready."

With a toss of her ponytail that sweeps against and past Jaunes cheek she twirls away and goes back to the dancing sword training. Jaune blinks a few times with a blush before smiling after her and rejoining her training while filing away that little tip for future use.

– End Flashback –

Jaune shakes his head at Weiss's tease of him and refocuses as the boss is approaching once more to try and strike him while he is down.

With a patient and highly analytical mind Jaune waits for the boss to come closer again while subtly unstrapping his armor. Right as it strikes he drops the armor where he was to make the boss think he was there right before leaping above its head and coming straight down and making an X cut on top of its head where its eyes are, cutting off half the Deathstalkers sight as he hits true and deals a painful amount of damage to the bosses weakest area. Jaune doesn't stop there though, he actually does the same striking cut in the same shape twice more. With each cut digging a bit more into the tough hide and bone armor of the boss before he is flung off as the boss flails about and manages to rear back and throw him off somewhere to its side.

It screeches in pain as it rears back and once it lands back on its remaining legs,the Deathstalker tries to find Jaune with its remaining eyes only to see him on the cavern wall a good 10 ft off the ground with his sword poised to thrust deeply at it. With a charge and a quick burst of his aura skill Jaune comes shooting off the wall and slams his sword to the hilt right at the cross section of the X where the two lines meets allowing him to lodge his swords blade all the way inside the bosses head. The boss screams in pain this time as it has no answer to this sudden weak spot it has. Then Jaune surprises it by holding onto his blade throughout its flailing movements. And then charges aura into his leg and pulls a glorious recreation of Yangs Hammer Kick technique on his hilt.

Cracking the carapace of the Deathstalker and sinking his sword right into a key point of its core, making the eyes grow dim and the whole body slamming down into the ground from its life force finally expiring. It slowly flakes away as Jaune breathes out in exhaustion form that final combo and slumps to the ground. He checks around but the notifications confirm that he is in the clear.

~Boss slain! Congratulations Player Jaune! You survived! And have grown even stronger from this event!

Rewards: Full recovery, +10 stat points, special gift box, +20,000 shop credits

Level up X3!~

Jaune sighs and looks at his stats first to make sure he was doing better after those level ups were applied to him. And accepted his full recovery for good measure to make sure he was ready for the class quest once he accepted it later.

Level 54

Exp: 27%

HP: 26,300/26,300

AP: 13,500/13,500

Fatigue: 0/100%

Class: none

Stats:

STR: 83

AGI: 83

VIT:83

INT: 78

SENSE: 83

Points available: 10

And with a quick application Jaune grins at his new stats.

Stats:

STR: 88

AGI: 83

VIT:83

INT: 83

SENSE: 83

Points available: 0

Jaune nods to himself with a grin after finally applying all his stats to the point where they are equal, and he is free to focus on his favorite stats, Finally with all stats on equal footing, I can focus my efforts on seeing if there is a max for str, agi, and sense. After all that combo is good and my Hp is on a nice accelerating growth as I level up. Now to make sure it will be possible to react to any attack and overpower dead locks first, then I can worry about my thinking speed and my durability.

With a plan in mind Jaune looks to his sword and now destroyed armor, then thinks to himself about equipment for the upcoming class quest, I better grab something that works better than my old gear. Now what to grab?

As Jaune leaves the Dungeon while thinking about what armor he can grab from the shop the system looks to its owner with pride.

~He didn't give in! And he kept his cool despite the situation! … But still to think the Monarch of Grimm would make a move so soon! And with such a near disastrous result as well. I see the seal my previous user placed on her with his sacrifice is weakening if she can exert this much influence on a Grimm gate I helped generate. I will need to tell Jaune the full story soon to make sure we are prepared and so he is not caught off guard when he learns the truth of why his Great grandfather left him that sword and what happened behind the scenes of the great war. Please be ready for the literal world of responsibilities you have been given to watch over Jaune. I will be here to support you along with your friends.~

With that final thought the system prepares itself for use as Jaune begins to look through the armor section of his shop for a new armor to prepare him for the upcoming class quest with its sure to be harder difficulty.