Chapter 5

I'd like to say that I started practicing with Melodic Cudgel right off the bat, but I didn't. The first things I needed to level up were my new summon elemental skill and Hunter's Meditation. I hadn't a chance to really work on the second skill as of yet, only bringing it up to level three since I had gotten it. Mostly because it required me to sit still for long periods of time and concentrate on maintaining the skill and I had things to do that required movement.

Once I left the weapons store I entered an empty dungeon and switched my clothes to the style I'll wear in the future, it really complimented my cane. I didn't really feel like moving to the warehouse at the time so I simply grabbed some chalk from my inventory and drew the summoning circle right in the middle of the street. Once that was done I took some powdered earth Dust and sprinkled it right in the center of the circle until it was a nice and neat pile. I stood back up and admired my handiwork, having the skill implanted into my brain really made this easy.

Once finished overlooking my summoning circle I gathered aura into my hand and slammed it on top of the circle, the summoning didn't require any special chant at first but it did require me to call out to which elemental I wanted to summon.

"Come, Earth Elemental!"

The Dust in the center of the summoning circle glowed bright, making me briefly shield my eyes from it. The Dust melted into the ground, the earth shaking and splintering before the ground itself started collecting into a ball of dirt and stone in the middle of the circle. The ball slowly grew in size, morphing and bulging into a vague shape of a human. The eye sockets of the humanoid were indentions in its skull, two pebbles acting as pupils.

"I... Am... Here. What... Do… You… Require?" I could hear its voice in my head, a slow, deep, gravelly, and methodical speech. I could tell that the earth elemental is not one to waste words.

"I'll begin in accordance to the ancient rituals. My real name is Roman Torchwick. You have heard my true name, please tell me yours," I stared into the pebbled eyes of the earth elemental.

The next instant I blacked out, only seeing a dim light in the center of my vision after a few seconds, a vague sight of the very land itself replaced the darkness. People, buildings, technology, it all meant nothing to the earth. It was eternal, never caring about the whims of the creatures that thrive on its surface. I felt my gaze turn to see a statue of stone standing in a street, cane in hand, it took a while for me to figure out is was actually myself.

My eyes widened as pain erupted throughout my entire body, I let out a long and very distressed groan of pain as every part of me felt like it was being ripped to shreds. As quick as it began the pain was gone completely and I felt the stone upon my skin shatter away.

I felt happy and pleasant, a smile washed over my face.

"Name... Rumble. I... Rumble. Are… You… Roman… Torchwick?"

"Yes, I am Roman Torchwick," I replied with a sad smile. I was not who I was anymore and I can't even return to who I was before all of this. Who was I even to begin with anyway? All that was left was this new name, a few vague memories, knowledge of The Gamer, and knowledge of the show RWBY.

The elemental seemed to stare at me questioningly, tilting its head in a way that didn't suit it, before its gaze locked into mine as a connection formed between us.

"We are one, as the ancient contract decrees."

"Our souls are one."

"I am Rumble."

"I am Roman Torchwick."

"Until the soul meets its end-"

"-We will be one forever," I finished.

As the end of the contract finished the elemental before me seemed to shimmer like water, taking on a newer appearance with much sharper details. Most notable, he looked like I would if I was a statue made of solid rock. The earth elemental slowly nodded its head at me, and I could feel that it was pleased to have finally been summoned once again.

"I have awakened once more. Summon me whenever you wish, Roman Torchwick."

The elemental crumbled into dust as it desummoned itself, and I fell down in exhaustion. It was high time I took a nap after that, I didn't think it would have been that tiring…

[You have gained the elemental affinity Earth(10)!]

[Summon Elemental has gained 4 levels!]

[Hunter's Meditation has gained 4 levels!]

Leveling these skills was slow work, but it seemed that summon elemental still gained exp even when Rumble was not fully manifested into the world. Meaning he could stay invisible twenty-four seven as long as I keep my aura off, and since the skill technically spends mana my aura skill will also level up at the same time. After some quick math using my scroll, I found that my MP regeneration was eighty-seven per minute. Summon elemental was a one hundred MP initial cost and an additional forty MP per minute, so I could keep Rumble summoned at all times and I didn't even need Hunter's Meditation to help.

This was good, I needed to get the per-minute cost down to the lowest at five per minute as soon as possible. The less wasted aura during battle, the better.

I stopped my meditation and pulled out my scroll to check the time, nine in the evening. Junior's should be open right about now, and I hope he'll help me. I stood up from my seated position and stretched, meditation is killer on your muscles even if you don't move at all. I cracked my neck and left the dungeon I created, I looked down the side of the building I was currently on and saw Junior's hired goons guarding the entrance.

Nodding to myself I stepped over the edge and landed nice and neat in a nearby alley, I didn't need his cannon fodder to think I was suspicious. Even if I was. Dusting my jacket off, I readjusted my awesome bowler hat and strolled right up to the club's front door with my cane clacking on the sidewalk.

"Gentlemen," I nodded to the two thugs.

They nodded back and let me through.

"Don't cause any trouble, the boss don't like trouble," the goon on the left warned.

I stopped just before going in and looked over at the man, "Don't worry about that, I'm here looking for business, not trouble."

With that said I finally walked through the doorway and into the club proper, already I didn't like the loud music and the mass of sweaty bodies grinding on each other, even if the music was tasteful for the venue. I pushed aside dancers as I looked for the bar, they didn't seem to even notice me passing through. The scenery of the club was, admittedly, kinda breathtaking. Junior does have good taste.

I finally got a look at the bar and made my way over while ignoring all of the ax and sword holding grunts giving me judging looks. I found Junior himself sitting at the bar, I didn't see any younger versions of Miltiades and Melanie which meant that they were a bit of a newer addition to the club. Or maybe they just weren't old enough.

There was a goon preparing a drink for the boss of the club as I sat down next to him.

"I'll have what he's having," I told the red and black colored goon, pointing to Junior.

The big, bearded man in question looked over at me, an eyebrow raised, "So, can I help you?"

I grinned and tipped my hat, "Roman Torchwick, soon to be big shot, at your service. I came here to do business, heard you knew things and wanted to know some of those things myself."

Junior grunted in acknowledgment as his employee slide two glasses of alcohol at us. He downed his in one go and asked, "It'll cost you. So, what do you want to know?"

"I just need to know where I can find a good…" I waved a hand around in a circle, "broker. I have some stuff I don't really need anymore, figured you would know someone trustworthy."

I downed my drink like he did, ignoring the poison resistance skill I gained from it. Junior seemed to consider my words as he searchingly looked me over. Finally, he seemed to stop his observation and replied back.

"And even if I did know someone like that, how would I know you aren't just some undercover cop trying to bust someone?"

I shrugged and figured I might as well let him know about the Dust store, "You know about that Dust shop that was about to have its grand reopening today? The one that had all that fancy Schnee Dust in storage?"

He narrowed his eyes and slowly nodded in confirmation, "Yeah… what about it? You're not saying that was you?"

I opened my inventory and dragged a single box out of it. "My semblance," I explained. He didn't seem to really care about that though, he was too busy examining the box and its contents as he opened the top flaps of the box.

Junior held up a single burn crystal and scrutinized it carefully, twirling it around to see it from every side. He grunted and set it back into the box, "That's Schnee Dust all right, I'd recognize this stuff anywhere. Very high quality too, the same stuff the store supposedly bought." He seemed to stare at the box for a solid couple of minutes, likely thinking things over. He nodded to himself after a while and turned back to me, "All right, I'll give you the name of a good broker of mine. A trustworthy man in this sort of business, and that's rare nowadays."

"How rare?" I couldn't help but ask.

Junior snorted, "At least eighty percent of the ones I know of are slimy scumbags. You wouldn't want them anywhere near your money or merchandise."

Yeah, that didn't sound all that great. But if this guy is someone Junior recommends then he should be good, "How much do you want?"

"Ten boxes," was his immediate reply.

"One hell of a price to know one guy," I said, leaning on the bar counter.

"You'll make much more money as you go back to him for business than you lose right now. Win win for the both of us," he shrugged. "Plus, he's a good friend of mine and I need to make sure you're legit."

I mulled it over, I had plenty of boxes of the stuff to spare. Hundreds even since I stole every one of the crates contents, so it wasn't an issue of giving some over and losing out on a lot of Lien. But, I didn't want to waste more than I needed to, "How about you throw in a bit of a person search for me then? Shouldn't be too dangerous and I'll even hand over an extra two boxes as payment."

Junior crossed his arms and thought it over, chewing on his lip. After a while, he gave in and sighed in acceptance.

"Deal," he finally said and nodded at me. "Follow me to my office."

[Due to successfully talking your way to a better deal you have gained the skill "Bartering"!]

[Bartering (Passive) EXP: 0.0%]

Everyone can't get the best deals without any sort of effort on their part, what fun would that be? That's where bartering comes in! You can trade one thing you don't need for another thing you really need. It's the future!

-When bartering for goods or services you have an extra 15% chance at getting the other party to accept your terms.

[Due to your ability to persuade someone to see your side a little better you have gained the skill "Persuade"!]

[Persuade (Passive) EXP: 0.0%]

Talk, talk, talk. That's all you ever do and people are tired of it! At this point, they'll do whatever you say just to get you to shut up for a few damn minutes.

-10% chance of convincing someone else over to your side.

-Increased chance of choosing the correct thing to say when convincing others.

Junior stood up from his seat at the bar and walked around the bar. I followed suit after dropping some Lien on the counter to pay for the drink, stuffing the box of Dust back into my inventory, and shooing the random skill gains away. We eventually entered through a small hidden door. The sound of the club faded to a small background noise and goons were more prevalent in this part of the club. I figured Junior definitely did a lot more than nightclub running and information brokering in this area of the building.

The journey to Junior's office took longer than I expected, the building itself was actually kinda big. Really the hallways and doors reminded me of an office building and I had to wonder if Junior bought out one and remodeled it into a nightclub. After walking through several hallways and taking a flight of stairs we finally we made our stop at a normal door at the end of a seemingly random hallway. The door simply had the words "Junior" on it in big black bold letters.

"This is it," Junior redundantly said and we entered his office.

The interior was nicer than its bland door would suggest, maybe a way to throw people off? A plush looking couch was nestled against a wall with a few pieces of artwork hung just above it, a few bookshelves lined the wall across from the couch and a small table by the door had some expensive liquors sitting on it. A rich mahogany desk sat in front of a blinded window with various expensive knick knacks and a holo-computer on it.

"Nice place you got here," I whistled in appreciation.

"Thanks, you can set the Dust by the couch while I get you the address of my broker."

I slowly began to unload the Dust from my inventory and place them into four neat stacks while Junior went over to his desk. In only a minute I was finished and walked over to Junior's desk just as he finished rummaging through one of his drawers. With a loud bump of wood the drawer closed and he handed two business cards over to me in between his fingers, one with just a number on it, "Just go to this address during the night shift and tell him Junior sent you. He'll know what kind of business you're working for then. The card with just a number is my scroll, you can add it to yours."

I graciously took the cards from him and discreetly stuck the one with the address into my inventory with a wave of my hand, Junior rolled his eyes at my "sleight of hand" display. I quickly put in Junior's scroll number into my own and handed his card back to him.

Junior slid a blank piece of paper and a pen over to me, "Just write down anything you know about this person of yours and I'll try and find him or her. And don't forget to put your scroll number down too, I don't want to run around this entire city trying to find you."

"Her," I stated and began writing down what I knew about Neo. Not much to be honest, I really only knew her physical description and the show never really went into any detail about her past. All we knew was that she had some sort of relationship with Roman if his concern for her drifting off the ship around the end of volume three was any indication.

I slid the paper back to Junior once I finished, he looked it over and sighed, "It's not much, so don't actually expect anything to come from it."

I shrugged and leaned on my cane, "It's worth a shot anyway. Even if you can't find her you can still keep the extra Dust."

Junior seemed to accept that and stuck a hand out, "Alright, pleasure doing business with you then, Roman."

I shook it, "Likewise, Junior."

[Quest Created!]

One scoop, or two?

What's a master criminal without his true partner in crime? Going lone wolf will only take you so far in this industry. But, unfortunately, you have no idea where this prospective partner of yours is. For now, you will just have to wait for Junior to come up with something.

Quest Progression:

-Commission Junior for his services in finding information. [X]

-Wait until Junior contacts you about the information he found. []

-?

Rewards: 100,000 Lien, 1,000,000 EXP, new title "Partners in Crime", a new follower, storyline progression.

Failure: Death.

This was the quest I had received just after I left Junior's nightclub, and boy was my ability not messing around with me this time. The only thing that awaits me if I screw this thing up is death, and that makes me wonder just what the hell am I about to get into. I can't even decline the quest, the button is grayed out. I sighed to myself and tapped on yes, the quest phasing out of existence the second my finger left the button. At least the rewards look promising, that ungodly amount of EXP too.

I should prepare myself hardcore for this quest. Maybe even level up that Persuade skill, it might help me avoid any fights with huntsman level people. I still don't know the stats on a huntsman yet and I'd rather not find out when it's too late.

[By accepting the mandatory quest "One scoop, or two?" the beginner's phase of the game has been completed. You have been moved to the main questline and may truly begin advancing in your storyline.]

Huh, didn't expect that. I swiped the screen away, it was quickly replaced by a much more ominous one.

[Due to finally leaving the beginners phase, the skill "Create Instant Dungeon" has been converted to "Find Instant Dungeon" and further training must be done in the real world. With your new skill you may still find rare spawning dungeons out in the world, these may contain very strong elite Grimm bosses and yield vast rewards at a significantly higher risk of death.]

[EXP gains have been set to their normal amounts.]

"No…" I muttered out loud, horrified and not even caring if anyone saw me and thought I was insane. "No no no! Go back! Go back!"

I was furiously punching the blue screen before me, it did nothing to help. I stopped my flailing and closed the window in anger. I slammed a fist into a nearby wall, grunting as I received forty damage to my health and cracked the wall.

"God damn it!" I stalked down the street, "Fucking game didn't even give me a fucking warning! How the hell was I supposed to know that?!"

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down, getting too angry will only make things worse somehow. I just need to adapt to this new headache and find a way to get stronger without the dungeons. I put my hands behind my back and stormed down the street, the bottom of my cane tapping against my heels as I made my way to the broker, thinking about how to level now.

If I recalled correctly, the Beowolves I was fighting gave anywhere from two hundred and seventy EXP to two hundred and ninety EXP, depending on their level. I spawned an Ursa dungeon before in order to find out what EXP they gave, took a while to kill one because of the bland weapons I was using, my lowish level, and that they were much tougher than they looked. That gave me about five hundred EXP.

On the other hand, defeating a single level eighteen guard at some Dust shop granted me over six thousand EXP. Even if the EXP was now set to "normal" amounts, defeating other human should still give significantly more in return than Grimm. That means my only real source of EXP now was to either run off into Grimm infested lands and kill thousands of Grimm, or to find and fight other people.

Considering how easy and often the training hunters and full-fledged hunters kill Grimm and defeat other people, I had to wonder how high their levels were. If my ability was showing me levels alongside the hunters and using the same leveling system as I did, then to stop getting stronger quickly by killing a bunch of low leveled Grimm or defeating a bunch of people they would have to be pretty high. I really needed to find some Beacon students and a trained Huntsman to compare the levels.

The trip to the broker and the entire meeting with him was uneventful, really I just talked with him and unloaded the boxes of Dust into the large warehouse-office combination the place had going on. He was surprised by me casually pulling out a hundred boxes of the stuff out of apparent thin air, but I just vaguely answered him with an "It's my semblance.". He seemed to buy it at least and it avoided any awkward explanations, I didn't want a ton of people knowing about my skill. That would paint a real target on my back.

A target I didn't need since the place was a real hotspot for criminals to meet and gather. Imagine a large and chained supermarket, like Walmart, this place was a criminal equivalent to that. I saw guns, Dust, illegal goods, and even bombs up for sale. How this place had not been busted already was anyone's guess, I personally think Walter, the broker I spoke to and the big boss of this place paid off the police. Thanks to that damn special revelation I had after Junior's I figured I could make use of the fighting ring in this place, or look for actual work with someone and hope there would be fighting involved.

I could also start my own string of crimes, try and pick different places that were wealthy enough to have guards. My situation wasn't just a playful game anymore, not with my dungeons all but gone. I could even pick a fight with any police officer that comes after me, though I'd have to be careful with them for now. There was the case with the White Fang too, I heard from Walter that they were getting more aggressive in Vale and might start expanding soon.

Now they would make great training dummies, I'm pretty sure the average White Fang member was little more than cannon fodder.

Actually, now that I thought about it, why not all of the above? I need to make a name for myself quickly and very flamboyantly in order to attract the attention of certain people once they start with their plans. I should be the first on their list to choose from, like how Adam and his "force of revolution" was. Perhaps not in the "guns blazing" kind of flamboyant, but in the very recognizable way that can easily spread fear and uncertainty just by walking down the street. The kind they would love to have, that was kinda the kind of thing they needed to spread to get at the comatose Amber.

The Dust went for four hundred thousand Lien in total, taking out the cut for the broker I get around three hundred and sixty thousand. Plenty of money for the foreseeable future and just what I need to help set up my training regime. First I just needed to go and buy a ton of weights that I can attach to myself, I figured that if my body is a game character then I can do it with no consequences. It'll be a fast track on increasing my physical stats while I work on my summoning, that skill has already gone up by ten levels and I haven't even done anything with it yet.

I stepped out of the hive of scum and villainy and into the cool night air of Vale, taking out a cigar and lighting it. I had a lot of criminal planning to do, and a lot of various forms of training to get done. This will take a lot of extra work and I'll need to consult the help guide in the options menu now. I don't want any nasty surprises in the future.

[By making the wisest and most intelligent choice at your disposal, your WIS and INT have risen by five levels!]

Oh, fuck off...

Name: Roman Torchwick

Class: The Gamer

Level: 21 (Next Level: 340/23,100)

Title: Grimm Slayer

Bounty: 0 Lien

HP: 1,330

MP: 2,043 [1946 + 97.3(5%)]

STR: 21 [Base 15 + 4.5(30%) + 1.5(10%)]

VIT: 28 [Base 20 + 6(30%) + 2(10%)]

DEX: 45.1 [Base 22 + 3.3(15%) + 6.6(30%) + 2.2(10%) + 11(50%)]

INT: 89.6 [Base 64 + 19.2(30%) + 6.4(10%)]

WIS: 49 [Base 35 + 10.5(30%) + 3.5(10%)]

LUK: 11

Elemental Affinity: Earth (10)

Attribute Points: 5

Lien: 368,580

Status Effects: Inactive Aura(Toggled Off)

Omake (Canon)

Cheers rang out through the gathered crowd surrounding the columns of police officers just graduating from the academy. The loudest being a family of blondes, only two of the nine there were male. Streamers and balloons decorated the stage, on which seated several very important figures in Vale. The council members that governed the kingdom, various influential politicians, and even the headmaster of Beacon itself, Professor Ozpin.

"I am proud to see you all graduate from your training, as it is you who will keep the city of Vale safe from the forces that wish to destroy it from within. It is with pride and honor that I accept you all into Vale's police department. But none more so than our very own Valedictorian, and top of her combat class, Jeanette Arc!" The chief of police announced with a flourish of his arms, he was a graying man in his mid-fifties and in a snappy police dress uniform. He stood behind the podium in the middle of the stage and with a wave of his hand he motioned for a young blonde woman standing at the edge to come up to the stage.

The Chief opened up a velvet box and took out a single badge as Jeanette Arc marched up the stage. He pinned it to the young, eager woman who couldn't keep the smile off her face.

"Do us proud and serve the people of this city well," The chief of police told her with a smile.

She saluted, "I will sir!"