Chapter 8

Most of the next day went by quickly in preparation of a much bigger heist that I had planned. Jerry returned to the warehouse with a large mover's van he purchased with some money I gave him, I spent a while looking over the van to make sure it fit what I needed. It seemed my favorite goon did good, we now had a much better vehicle we can use to store stolen goods. The other van is now going to be used to transport men alongside the bigger vehicle, I suppose this means I can field more men on heists and not have to worry about cramped conditions.

Of course, while my henchmen went about the day getting ready I decided to visit Walter's place in the afternoon to see if there were any books about bomb-making he had lying around. The van my henchman and I were driving came to a squeaking stop in front of the entrance, I stepped out of the vehicle and my driver sped off to find a place to park. I fixed my scarf, strolled right up to the metal door of the warehouse without a care, and used my cane to knock five times. Three rapidly, two in long succession.

The door clicked open and some generic thug let me through, I didn't pay him much mind as he closed the door behind me and looked over the warehouse. Various types of criminals walked around the building, even at this time of day, business never stops in the underworld. After the tenth worker walked down the aisles of boxes and large containers of whatever I stopped staring at the multitude of colorful people and instead focused my attention at the red haired secretary-like woman seated at her desk near the door.

I leaned a hand on the well-kept desk and winked flirtatiously, "Hello again gorgeous, I'm looking for something specific."

She smirked and rested her chin on a hand, "Everyone is, handsome, but what specifically are you looking for?"

"A book or two on firebomb-making, nothing much," I stated, tapping my cane on my leg in no specific pattern.

She didn't spare me another look as she went business-like and focused her attention on her holo screen, after some typing, she replied, "It seems we have some in stock, it'll cost you four hundred Lien for one."

"Yeesh, take my kidneys too, why don't you. I'll take it," I said, sighing dramatically. The lady did whatever she usually does with her computer, in all the time I've spent coming and going from this criminal wonderland I never bothered to learn much about it. Other than that you don't normally bother Walter to purchase small things like explosives, guns, or ammunition. He always handles the big stuff like personally greeting new customers for the first time, buying sea ships, airships, or laundering large amounts of money. Buying a book about bomb making? Small stuff, let his assistant handle that or else he'd smack you with his golf club set.

It didn't take long for the book to be brought up to where we were waiting, and as soon as the thug set it down on the desk I pulled out four hundred Lien and let the assistant count it. She gave me a nod and a flirtatious smile, I smirked and grabbed the book, winking back a farewell. Once back out in the street I yanked out my scroll and texted my driver to come around to the front. While waiting I decided to pull up the book.

[You have picked up some blueprints! Would you like to add them to your recipe list?]

I tapped yes and watched the book flare up briefly with light and I instantly knew exactly what was inside the book, just like I would have if I had learned a skill book.

"Skills," I thought. My skill screen popped up and I tapped on the craft skill.

[Craft (Active) Lv28 EXP: 0.0%]

The people of Remnant would have died out to the Grimm long ago if they couldn't make anything. So honor your ancestors by honing your ability to make something out of seemingly useless stuff!

Crafted objects become better in quality as mastery rises.

Known blueprints: (3)

-Dirt Doll

-Basic Firebomb

-Basic Bomb

Chance to fail when crafting - 15%

I leveled the craft skill up every time I went out to train my stat points. I shamelessly ripped off of Han Jee-Han and used my earth elemental to summon earth to my hand and use my craft skill to make it into a doll. It took a while to level it up to a respectable level for how long I've actually trained with it. I should see if I can make something like those mana crystals he created, from what I could gather he could use them to give himself some extra mana in a pinch as well as use them to make magic items. I wasn't interested in the magic items as much, though I can only assume they would be irrefutably useful.

I wanted the crystals so I can use them to give myself aura in case I ever had my aura knocked down to zero. If I can get enough then I could use Aura Mend to give myself even more and get rid of the debuff that comes with a shattered aura. It was the ultimate hax, and I need to get me as much hax as I could to make certain I don't die to this quest.

I experimentally placed my hand on the ground, concentrating my aura around my hand and used Rumble to bring up dirt from below the concrete, "Craft!"

An orange glow erupted from under my placed hand and I could feel a little bit of something push my skin back. I moved my hand away from the ground and saw a tiny blue crystal sitting there, I used observe to see what it said.

[A new blueprint has been created and added to your recipe list!]

[Roman Torchwick's Artificial Aura Save Stone]

A small, artificial magical stone created by Roman Torchwick that contains a very small amount of aura. It can be used as a material to create magical products alongside restoring a paltry amount of aura.

Restores 20 MP on use.

Just like in the original comic, minus some changes in the description then. Not bad, I'll just keep on spamming these all day until I can make even larger ones. I picked the stone up just as I heard a honk and my van stopped in front of me. I nodded to my henchman as he unlocked the door.

"Let's head back to the warehouse, we've got things to do," I said as I climbed into the passenger's seat. Just as my henchman pushed down on the gas and we started down the road, as I thought about the upcoming heist I decided to make some more of these aura save stones in case I might need them later. It's always good to be prepared for anything.

Later that night my henchmen and I drove towards our next mission, the engine of our van growled as both of my vehicles came to a turn towards a warehouse on the opposite side of the district. I had been meaning to hit this place for a while now, but I lacked the necessary mobile storage to move large amounts of merchandise. The headlights flicked off and the two vans came to a stop a bit away from the warehouse's main door.

The place we were about to hit was supposedly where the White Fang store supplies, as they have been taking more drastic turns lately most of it was Dust. This place is also supposed to be relatively unguarded, as Junior said they were trying to stay on the down low. The police might be mostly bought off for the big time criminals, but the White Fang was fair game for everyone. They've been an annoyance to everyone over the past few months even before I arrived, stealing things, burning things that don't belong to them and that they can't steal. Killing, destroying, you get the picture.

Just a bunch of mongrels, the lot.

I've slowly been reading up on what they've done in this world, news channels, the internet, newspapers, everything that told the world just what the White Fang has been doing. It sickened me, none of it even comes close to truly helping faunus-kind. Don't get me wrong, I don't actually care about faunus, I have enough on my plate as it is to worry about some poor, random, in desperate need of aid, people I'll never meet. Once the novelty of seeing humans with actual animals traits wore off, all I was left with was the single notion that they were people just like I was.

And that makes what the White Fang was doing all the worse, in my opinion, all it does is remind me of current events in my old world. So I just could not help but see them as the animals they were being. It was that alone that made me glad Blake eventually sees the organization for what it actually was, rotten to the core and completely against what her father was trying to accomplish. She was still my third least liked character in the show, behind Cinder and Raven, but at least she still had that going for her to ease my dislike.

I shook my head of these unimportant thoughts and focused on the task at hand, "Let's go, everyone, we're burning nighttime. The Fang aren't going to rob themselves if they did it'd be the only useful thing they'd contribute to society."

My men chuckled and readied their weapons as we made our way to the warehouse. There were no lights on in or around the building, makes sense since the faunus had night vision and didn't have a massive presence here. I'd figure there were ten guards here tops, most likely less. My men and I slid up to some stacked boxes under a window and I turned to them and whispered, "Go up to the front and wait for the signal."

They nodded and I jumped up to the top box under the window, I tested the window to see if it budged. I sighed in gratitude when it opened and slid the window up, carefully pulling myself through the opening. Once most of my body was through the window I let myself drop, falling onto my awaiting hands and using them to spring myself back to my feet in a crouched position.

"That felt awesome to do, like I was a master martial artist or something," I silently mused to myself as I looked around the dark room, my eyes slowly adjusting to the lack of light. It was no faunus level of night vision, but I've safely maneuvered around a dark room with legos strewn about the floor before. Compared to that minefield, walking around static boxes and crates in a dark warehouse is child's play.

"I should get a detect life spell, just like in the elder scrolls games, it would really come in handy right about now." Ignoring my thoughts I snuck around the warehouse looking for any White Fang, I hadn't seen any of the animals yet.

[Sneak has gone up by 1 level!]

I tapped away my very helpful notification, no sarcasm there, it would seem there is someone around here and close enough to register my sneak skill to gain EXP. I noticed a light on the floor and I peeked around the crate I was sneaking behind, and I spotted the White Fang that was stationed to guard this place lounging around a table. Two older men and one younger, red-haired guy, probably no more than sixteen to eighteen, wearing a mask that looked a little familiar. They were a tad too far for their nametags to appear over their heads, I needed to get closer. A Dust powered lamp placed in the center of the table was the only source of light in the immediate area.

"I'm just saying, even though this is a boring job kid, it's a pretty sweet gig. Almost nothing happens around here, easy money, easy job, and still doing a service to the Fang! I mean, I'm not a fighter so really this is the best I can honestly do." The older White Fang member on the right said, I had no idea what they were talking about as I just joined the conversation.

"I don't want some easy job, I want justice for us Faunus." The young man stood up during that sentence as he got passionate and slammed a fist on the table, "I can't do that sitting in some dusty warehouse while our brothers and sisters lay down their lives every day for equality! This is a ridiculous job that they're pushing off to someone as young as I am," the red haired guy crossed his arms in annoyance and slumped back into his seat.

The other older member didn't say anything and just continued to drink a beer.

The member the younger man was talking to sighed, "Kid look, I get that you want to run off and fight humans. They're scum, I know. But you're kinda young and reckless right now, you gotta get stronger so that some run of the mill hunter doesn't off you in the first raid or mission you do. I've seen what you can do kid, you are very strong there is no doubt about that but the higher ups might be testing your patience with this. Can't have some snot nosed brat just rushing off blindly during a mission to kill humans right? Give it some time and I'm sure they'll be putting you somewhere better."

The young man scowled down at the table and sighed in frustration, "You're probably right. Still, don't like it."

The other guy snorted, "I can understand that." He looked over at the third guy and slammed a fist lightly into the table, "Gary, you really shouldn't drink during the job. What if something happens tonight?"

"Ain't nothing gonna happen, shit's been quiet for weeks," Gary mumbled back, bringing his can back for another drink.

I've grown bored of listening to these guys, I doubt I'd get any actual information from them. I pulled Melodic Cudgel up and aimed it at Gary as his beer reached his mouth. The first shot rocketed out from my weapon and struck the guy in the back of the seat, as his flying body destroyed the table the beer went sailing out of his hands and smacked the face of his buddy as he flew into a stack of crates.

[Sneak attack!]

[Critical hit!]

The response from the others was immediate, the young man grabbed a katana from… somewhere and the older guy, still dripping wet with beer, had pulled out a generic machine gun. I didn't wait for them to get any more ready and sprinted out of my hiding place, firing a few shots from my cane at the gun-toting goon. Stealth was a nonfactor now.

The older guy, Barry was the name I got from his nametag, barely managed to jump back from the concrete shattering blasts of my weapon but tripped over a piece of the destroyed table. Not a fighter indeed. The younger guy was significantly better, and it really bloody showed. He swiped a few times at me, chaining the strikes to leave as little room as possible for counter strikes. I was pushed back and forced to only deflect the attacks, sparks flying across my cane.

He clearly favored skill over just brawn, a fact that had me impressed despite myself.

We jumped back from each other in order to reevaluate our opponent.

I glanced up at the guy's name tag floating above his head and internally cringed. I really wanted to repeatedly smash my face into a wall, hell I could do it now and he would probably let me. The reason was the name in the floating text and the level he was at.

The Animal

Lv41 Adam Taurus

"So what is 'The Animal' a prelude to 'The Beast' or something? He and Blake are supposed to be based off 'The Beauty and the Beast' after all," I mused to myself as I tried to ignore the overwhelming urge to swear profoundly. I've met three major RWBY characters so far, if Blake just so happens to show up tonight I might just snap and kill someone.

I don't want to meet canon characters just yet, leave me alone universe! God damn...

The older guy finally got back from his trip, groaning as he shook himself and aimed his weapon at me. There was no shouting or telling me to stand down, he just pulled the trigger and unleashed bullet hell down on me. I flashed my cane in front of my body, the classy weapon easily deflecting the bullets away.

Adam decided to capitalize on my distraction, sheathing his katana and rushing forth. I suppose he didn't have Wilt and Blush just yet, or maybe it was being repaired or made and he had to make due with a simple katana. Adam growled and yanked his sword out in a classic iaido move, I ducked under the quick slash and could've sworn it shaved off a bit of the feather on my hat. The older White Fang grunt stopped firing in fear of hitting Adam, I was fine with that and used the reprieve to hook the handle of my cane under Adam's shirt and slam him into the ground while he was still retracting his blade.

Adam bounced up from the ground and I kicked him into the other man, who was forced to catch him with his entire body, knocking them to the ground and not being able to fire at me anymore.

"Seems he is really tough even five years earlier," I thought to myself.

I used observe on him, the skill long since been given the ability to show me a light backstory.

[Observe has risen to level 50!]

"Guess his strength makes sense, it seems like he's sixteen and apparently spent a while in the Fang so he has some experience fighting. Glad to have an age on the guy. Kinda hoping he isn't calling Blake 'My Love' just yet, that'd be creepy since she's twelve and all."

But anyway, that single level of Observe opened up a significant amount of information beyond a small backstory, the window had an entire section dedicated to the person's skills and what level they were at. Adam's stats were above what a level forty-one would suggest, and since he focuses on a combination of vitality, strength, and dexterity his intelligence and wisdom was low and therefore his aura shouldn't be as high as it looked. I was glad my dexterity was still higher than his, seems he spent more on raw strength. A bad choice, his sword style needs more speed, maybe he'll realize that later.

But when I looked at his skills I noticed aura had this bronze band around the skill icon and a little bronze star above it.

[Extra information in the help guide has been unlocked!]

"I'll have to look into that later then," I thought as I heard the warehouse's large doors open up. Moonlight shone through the gap of the doors and I twirled my cane around my hand as my henchmen surrounded us. One of which went to tie up the White Fang member lying unconscious in the pile of broken crates.

"Well, gentlemen, this warehouse now belongs to me. I'd appreciate your cooperation if you just let us take everything and we'll be on our way," I stopped twirling my weapon and rested my cane on my shoulder as I tried the diplomatic approach.

"Filthy humans, like hell we'll just let you take the Fang's supplies that help its righteous cause! Instead, how about I put you all six feet under," Adam growled out as he got back to his feet with his hand hovering over the handle of his sword, he was a tenacious one I'll give him that. A tad bullheaded though...

Get it? Eh?

I tsked, "You don't really have a choice, but how about this," I raised a finger and pointed it at him, "If you can defeat me, then we'll walk right out that big door and you'll never see us again!"

He gripped his sword tightly and charged me, bellowing, "You won't be leaving this place alive anyway, human scum!"

[Boss Battle has begun!]

In order to defeat this boss you must either:

Kill Adam Taurus.

Knock Adam Taurus unconscious.

or

Adam Taurus runs from the battle.

As much as I'd like to, I probably shouldn't kill Adam. Blake might not leave the White Fang if I do.

He used a classic iaido strike as his opening. I used the momentum from his charge to swat his sword to the side and spun around his body while ignoring the sight of my minions taking the other guy out and preparing to tie him up. Adam surprised me by stopping short and kicking behind himself, and since my cane was a bit off to the side I was forced to block with a forearm, it took off three hundred MP. I chuckled as I slide back from the force, "Going back to your roots, eh?"

"Fuck you, human," was his elegant retort alongside another swipe of his sword. I leaned back and let the red blade pass by my neck, swiftly jabbing a power strike enhanced smack of Melodic Cudgel into his sword wrist and swatting the back of his head with a simple slap. His sword fell out of his hand as he reeled forward in surprise from the slap. It might not have done any damage beyond one to his aura and was definitely a wasted shot, but it felt good.

"Watch your language around your elders," I smirked.

His glare could melt steel beams and I could feel it through his mask. With his other hand, Adam grabbed his sword before it hit the ground, turning the motion into another attack. I didn't even have to smack it away this time and just leaned to the side, swinging my fist at his head.

Adam took me by surprise when instead of dodging to blocking he took the hit directly with his sword, I took some damage from the edge of the blade hitting my fist. I narrowed my eyes and assumed he is trying to ready his semblance. I discreetly took a Dust crystal from my inventory and topped off my aura with an Aura Mend just in case.

I ducked under another horizontal swipe, stepped to the side to avoid a vertical by the skin of my teeth and fired Melodic Cudgel at his feet. He swore as he was launched back and tumbled into a back handed spring as he resheathed his sword, the show-off. I followed suite with a few more shots of my cane and grimaced when he blocked and deflected them all with his weapon. I needed to be careful around his semblance now.

He shot forward to re-engage, I obliged. We met sword to cane as went jumped from place to place, kicking off stacks of crates or just trying to hit each other really hard on the ground. During our little dance, I came to the conclusion that I'm an idiot for not creating the bind spell yet, Adam is really skilled even at his younger age. While my base dexterity is still just a tad higher than his, and all my extra increases to it makes it even higher than that, his skill with iaido more than makes up for it. While I was not feeling in any particular danger, it does mean that I need to work harder than before.

While Aura Mend makes me nearly impossible to kill, as long as I had Dust and a spare amount of aura, as I could just give myself more aura and health it runs the risk of me becoming lax. Every hit from Adam hurts my aura by a minimum of five hundred, with small variations here and there. I have used quite a bit of Dust so far, but it's worth it so far for my own personal combat experience with someone as strong as Adam. Perhaps I should start looking for strong people to fight with, it would be good experience in both regards. With one final clash of our weapons, Adam and I jumped apart to catch our breaths. He had less than half his aura remaining while I was at full, Aura Mend is cheaty to all hell.

I smirked, feeling a tad trolly. I started swinging my arms wildly in front of me, not seeming to do anything. Adam readied himself as I started but as nothing seemed to happen he looked at me confused, "What are you-"

"Give it a second," I interrupted.

Nothing still happened.

I saw Adam grit his teeth before he jumped into the air with his sword at the ready, "Take this seriously!"

I smirked and turned my flailing arms upwards at Adam, this time using each swing alongside Far Strike. The attacks might not be charged, but I was using double the MP than needed. The skill itself is around level fifteen and only costs twenty-five MP now, that plus my intelligence makes it much stronger than when I first got it.

Several waves of aura shot into the air like a glowing barrage of artillery. Adam widened his eyes, or at least I'd like to think so, and grunted as he raised his sword to block the attacks. I aimed indiscriminately but made sure to use less powerful attacks around where his sword was. I whittled his aura down to barely an eighth with this barrage of Far Strike and even gained a level of it in the process.

I jumped back as Adam finally neared, him swinging his sword down at my head from its resheathed position. I pulled out a few Dust crystals and once more topped my aura off with them plus Aura Mend. I managed to drain half my aura during that attack. Adam sheathed his katana and I knew things were about to get serious. I did not want to be on the receiving end of that attack now.

Adam rushed forwards, arm in position for one final attack. He likely knew he did not have much aura left to spare. I did not want to give him the satisfaction of using his semblance on me, I jumped back and fired my cane at him once again wishing I created the bind skill. Adam dodged around the shots and neared, I felt my back against a few crates and snarled in annoyance. I was trapped and Adam knew it, I tried one last attempt to lean back and avoid the blow.

He seemed to glow as he unsheathed his blade and swung it forward, the world seemed to turn black and red as I felt the blade start to dig into my stomach. I grunted in pain as my aura was ripped to shreds, the orange of my aura sizzling out around my body and the blade of Adam cutting right through my body. Despite the extraordinarily hot and sharp pain of a sword slicing through my flesh, I could only think about my wonderful suit being ruined. Thankfully the paiin of being sliced open like that was gone nearly instantly. And at the very least I took the attack at my full aura levels, it still did like one and a half thousand damage to my health, but I was still alive.

[Aura has risen by 2 levels!]

As I slammed through the crates I opened my inventory and yanked out one of the many small aura save stones I made earlier today whilst I prepared for the mission. It restored just enough to let me use Aura Mend and I crushed it in my grip, the glow of aura surrounding my body once again. I quickly pulled out a Dust crystal and used Aura Mend, filling my aura up enough that I was no longer in danger.

With my aura restored I shoved the debris off of me and stood back up, cracking my neck. My moving around seemed to have made enough noise as Adam seemed to have stopped in his tracks a little ways off in his quest to off my henchmen. Jerking around in surprise as he took me in and his mouth was opened in shock if this wasn't a little serious I'd be tempted to pull out my scroll and take a picture. Instead, I pulled a few more crystals out and restored my aura and health.

"How are you alive?! I shattered your aura and cut open your stomach! You don't even have blood on you!" He yelled.

"Thank you, Gamer's Body, you are amazing," I thought. I smirked at Adam and twirled my cane around my hand, it has become a bad habit of mine, "Silly animal, I can't die. See, I already have my aura back." I emphasized by pulling a spare knife off my belt and stabbing my chest, it bounced off my aura. I put it away and stalked forward, "But you, you can die. That attack hurt you know, it's time I returned the favor."

I was milking this for sure, but I didn't care. It was too much fun.

Adam took a step back and his hand shot to his sword, his arm shaking very slightly. I was surprised, according to observe he seemed to be genuinely scared right now. Then again, if I saw someone survive a wound like that that I gave them with no blood and no damage to show for it beyond some cut up clothes… I'd be scared too.

Every step I took forward he took another back, gritting his teeth every time. Finally, he made a decision.

"The White Fang council will know of this, human. I'll make sure of that. This is not the last you'll see of me," and with that cliche 'I'll kill you later' line he shot from his spot on the ground and bolted out of the warehouse. I didn't bother stopping him or give chase and instead pulled out a cigar and lit it.

I took a drag from the cancer stick and let out the smoke, "Yeah, I'm already well aware of that, Adam."

[You have defeated the boss and gained 50,000EXP!]

[Your faction relation with the 'White Fang' has changed from hostile to hated.]

[You have gained the skill book 'Iaido'!]

(A/N) This was fun to write.

Edit(To Guest, other guy had a PM): Aura is a TOGGLE skill, which is why (In chapter 1) it is both a Passive and Active skill. Thus, when Roman's status says 'Inactive Aura', it means that he does not have it on at the moment. This does not equate to a LOCKED aura, which would mean that person has not yet had their aura unlocked and ready for combat use. The status sheet just below this A/N has 'Inactive Aura' as a placeholder for a status that changes at will.

He's been using his aura this entire story thus far, how can he not have it unlocked?

Name: Roman Torchwick

Class: The Gamer

Level: 37 (Next Level: 51,720/70,300)

Title: Up and Coming Kingpin

Bounty: 28,000 Lien

HP: 2,402

MP: 4,178 [3,214 + 160.7(5%) + 803.5(25%)]

STR: 42 [Base 30 + 9(30%) + 3(10%)]

VIT: 60.2 [Base 43 + 12.9(30%) + 4.3(10%)]

DEX: 159.9 [Base 78 + 11.7(15%) + 23.4(30%) + 7.8(10%) + 39(50%)]

INT: 141.4 [Base 101 + 30.3(30%) + 10.110%)]

WIS: 56 [Base 40 + 12(30%) + 4(10%)]

LUK: 11

Elemental Affinity: Earth (10)

Attribute Points: 5

Lien: 2,523,690

Status Effects: Inactive Aura(Toggled Off)