End of the Beginning

For a cheap place to crash, the motel had pretty good rooms. A single bed that I could barely bring myself to get off sat against the wall of the slightly cramped room. But what made up for it, and made me get off the bed, was that it came with a bathroom. Sure, the shower was barely larger than my body, but it certainly felt amazing after the day I had.

Feeling nice and refreshed, I considered my beat-up clothes sitting on the bed. But, at least, they were clean. Apparently, the level-up magic saw fit to remove the venom they were stained with from fighting spiders. Sadly they were still pretty torn up from either spider bites or my rolling around on the ground.

Shrugging, I slipped them back on. I would try and get some new clothes soon, but after I figured out the whole money situation. After that shower, I was actually feeling up to a bit of information gathering, so I left the room and casually made my way to the lobby. As I approached him, the older rabbit Faunus was still manning the front desk and looking at something on his scroll.

"Hey, sorry if I was a bit short with ya earlier. I was just having a bit of a day." I apologized. "My name's Aster. Nice to meet you."

"Aydan," The man answered shortly. Unfortunately, this was where my limited social skills with those older than me ran out.

"Aydan, I'll try not to take up too much of your time. I'd like to ask you some questions about the area.

The man looked at me and asked, "You want some info?" He asked it like he was curious why I was even asking. I considered his words for a second before I deduced that he was probably expecting to be paid to give out info like that. Was this a sort of information broker type thing?

"Yeah, but I don't think I have any money to spend right now." I technically could, but I only had a bit and wouldn't use it on this. I really just wanted to see if I could intuit the time period and get some information about unlocking my Aura. "Sorry for wasting your time."

I turned to go back to my room. This guy didn't seem too agreeable at the moment.

"Kid," the man sighed, "Just ask your questions."

I was slightly surprised but just went along with it. "Thanks!" I probably couldn't just ask the date because I didn't even know how they measured years here. "I was just wondering if any places here will unlock someone's Aura?" They probably have those, right?

The faunus's face fell slightly. "Kid, you don't want to go off fighting the Grimm now of all times." For some reason, he seemed almost disappointed.

"Ah, I was really just looking for something to help with self-defense." I wouldn't go off to fight the Grimm… yet. "What do you mean by that?" I questioned.

"Sure you do," he said, but still sounded like he doubted it. "Look, I've had a few of you come in the past couple of weeks." I looked at him curiously, and he sighed before answering. "Kids who lost everything after that whole Beacon debacle, who now think it's their duty or something to get revenge for their little town."

I froze a bit at that. Beacon debacle? Fuck! That almost certainly meant that the Fall of Beacon already happened. Which meant Pyrrha and everything else had already happened. Why was I inserted so late into the story!

The old man must have misinterpreted my reaction because he continued. "Look, kid, I get it. But going out there in some half-thought-out plan for revenge is pointless. Just try and find a place around here and forget doing anything that could get you killed."

I was a bit touched by his concern, but he really had the wrong idea. Sure, I did kinda just lose my entire life and everyone I loved by being tossed into another dimension… But at least I got some superpowers out of the whole situation.

…

…

Wow, okay not going to think about that right now.

"I think you might be getting the wrong impression here. First of all, I'm 19." I got the impression that he didn't believe me. Did I make myself look that young? "Second, I'm just new to the lower city and wanted some help with personal protection." Maybe I could play it off like I used to live in Upper Mistral and ran away or something. "I just got a bit roughed up by what I'm pretty sure were gang members, and most of my stuff was taken."

He almost certainly didn't believe me but eventually relented. "Right now, any place you go to will be looking for a bit more than money." Really, why? "The Councils put a pause on Aura awakening for people in the city."

"They can do that?" That couldn't be easy. "And why would they do that?"

"Well, they can't exactly stop the more wealthy folk from paying a friend to do it or something like that. But all the legal places down here were closed up pretty tight. So now the only real way is through the gangs, and they usually want more than money if they're gonna awaken someone. At least now that they basically control the market down here."

Dang, I didn't realize how bad Mistral had it with all the negativity from the Fall.

"And it's not exactly a secret that Grimm are attracted to large amounts of Aura in addition to negativity. Not to the same extent, sure, but the higher-ups are trying to avoid a mass attack on the kingdom. Especially with most of the Huntsmen out helping with evacuation efforts."

"Dang." That was an understatement, but I didn't exactly know what to say. "Thanks for answering my question."

"Tch, got anything else before you go get yourself killed doing something stupid?"

He sounded like he wanted to be done for the night, and I realized I probably couldn't convince him that I wouldn't get in trouble. So I thanked him and left to go collect my thoughts in the room.

I sat on the bed and considered what I just learned.

The news was pretty much all bad. Unfortunately, with it being after the Fall of Beacon, I couldn't do anything to prevent what happened. Now I'm not the most selfless guy in the world, but I would have preferred to be able to do something.

I kinda had stock in this world surviving now.

This just meant I would have to be even more prepared for what would come. I wasn't exactly sure about the timeline, but eventually, team RWBY and the gang would come here and have a face-off for the relic of knowledge. This meant at some point, Cinder, Hazel, Watts, Emerald, and Mercury would be in the city.

Cinder, who had the power of the Fall Maiden. And a creepy Grimm arm that could absorb Aura and Magic… Wasn't my system sourcebook stored in my magic? I shuddered as I imagined Cinder with the power of a system. I would probably avoid trying to fight her.

But I still needed to get stronger, so my rest would have to wait. I laid down and summoned my book onto the bed to read.

—

Name: Aster Tempest

Level: 7

Class: Mage Lv.7

Titles: N/A

Health: 100%

Mana: 49/49

—

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 20

Constitution: 12

Intelligence: 21

Willpower: 15

—

Traits: [Gamer's Body] [Gamer's Mind]

Skills: [Martial Arts Lv.2] [Enter Dungeon Lv.1] [Observe Lv.3] [Stealth Lv.2] [Sword Arts Lv.1] [Meditation Lv.1] [Knife Arts Lv.1]

Magic: [Mana Bolt Lv.3] [Mana Control Lv.1] [Wind Magic Lv.1]

—

<Inventory>

<Quests>

<Gatcha>

—

Some things I could probably train right now are my Mana Control and Wind Magic. When I purchased the magic system, I thought I would get more than a single spell. I figured I just needed to get my Mana Control high enough, and I could maybe make some spells of my own.

So I settled down to Meditate and try what I had failed earlier, to find the source of my Mana. I tried this for a few minutes with no progress before I got an idea. So I activated Mana Bolt, and instead of just stopping it, this time, I tried to reverse the flow.

This took longer to get right, it took a couple minutes just to move the energy back a few inches, and if I lost concentration, I would immediately lose my progress. But eventually, I got the Mana back to where it came from. I could feel it almost squishing itself back into some kind of container.

—

Mana Control Lv. 1 → 2

—

I quickly checked my Mana and saw that I had only lost a single point during the process. Even better, whether it was the level-up or me knowing where it was now. I could now feel where my Mana was coming from. I guess you could call it my Mana Core.

With that success under my belt, I moved on to my Wind Magic. With my increased control, I could sloppily move my Mana throughout my body without the aid of a skill. I eventually got to the point where I could combine that with Wind Magic and send small gusts of air around my room.

—

Meditation Lv. 1 → 2

—

But that wasn't enough for me. Those were just basic applications of my skills without relying on them. What I really wanted to do was create something new.

So I focused on what I knew about magic. My skills only really dealt with the more physical aspects of magic. Mana goes in and attacks or an element goes out. But I knew that you would have to use more metaphysical powers to go far with magic.

I currently only have basic control of my Mana and the Wind element. However, conceptually wind gives me the impression of cutting or maybe speed. Run like the wind, as they say. So perhaps if I suffuse my entire body with the wind element Mana, I could create a sort of Agility spell?

Maybe I was being a bit ambitious considering my skill's levels, but I felt like it should be possible.

I spent 2 hours slowly spreading Mana throughout my body and carefully converting it to wind multiple times. Unfortunately, the only reaction I was getting was a slight gust coming off my body.

The Gamer's Mind certainly helped with pushing through boredom, but it did not help with frustration. Finally, after an indeterminate amount of time, I got fed up with doing it carefully and started trying to force it through. Sending larger and larger bursts of Mana throughout my body only making me need to recharge more often.

After recharging all my Mana, I gathered as much as I could physically and pushed. I needed to cut through the air and run like the wind. Over 40 points of Mana exploded from my body, and I was launched into the bed's headboard with a crack of displaced air.

-4% HP

—

Wind Magic Lv. 1 → 2

—

—

Mana Control Lv. 2 → 3

—

—

Magic Learned: Whirlwind Sprint Lv.1

—

I smiled as I passed out.