Foolish Jaune wanted to be a huntsmen, and everyone told him he couldn't do it. When floating screen informed him that the System*Game was successfully installed, he ventured out to prove everybody wrong.
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Jaune Arc, Gamer
- Thread starter Krak-Quinn
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System*Game Successfully Installed!
Krak-Quinn
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I had wanted to try my hand at a RWBY Gamer story, and this was my first serious attempt, but I gave up.
Jaune sighed in relief, he had made it to a save point, unfortunately this game had some bugs, so it was better to save whenever possible. As the screen loaded the next part of the map, he stretched to relieve the stiffness in his joints, he started by puffing out his chest and pulling back his shoulders, then he arched his back while he rotated his shoulders. While stretching his neck, a glimmer outside his window caught his eye.
A shining shooting star raced across the black expanse known as outer space, for less than a second it was visible to Jaune, then it was lost to the void. He waited, hoping to catch a glimpse of another star, after five seconds passed, he returned his attention to the game.
As his character ran across the new field, Jaune realized he forgot to wish upon the star.
'I wish... I wish to be something, I wish my life meant something, I wish I could be a he-'
Just as he was deciding what his true wish was, his character in-game froze and started taking damage for no discernible reason.
"I wish I was playing a better game." He grumbled, this wasn't the first time it happened, and he was sure it wouldn't be the last time if he kept playing.
Jaune closed that game and opened a different one, it was a similar genre as the first game, but had big differences in combat, some called it impossible to beat if you weren't a pro. It was an open world with no direction, that meant if you weren't careful your first encounter could kill you.
This wasn't his first time playing, so he knew to avoid certain areas, until he leveled up or found a great weapon, although he wouldn't do this the whole time. He preferred a challenge, so after reaching a certain level he stopped only attacking weaker creatures. The rush he got when defeating a monster twice his level was worth the frustration from dying multiple times and losing all his progress.
Another fun aspect was the hidden effects, they were secret buffs and debuffs the player couldn't see, but Jaune was able to find and exploit them. Some obvious ones were leading an elemental creature to a field of the opposite element to weaken it, chaining certain effects to stack the damage more efficiently, or knocking a creature off a platform and letting the fall damage kill them.
Some of the more hidden effects took could only be found over multiple lives, like how dying to a certain monster more than once will make it stronger next time, or alternatively killing a certain monster at the beginning of a life will make it slightly weaker next time, but that resets if Jaune doesn't kill it every time.
With all the fun secrets and a play style that didn't restrict him, Jaune never got bored of this game, and so he lost track of time. It wasn't until the sun shot a beam of light through his window and into his eye did he realized how tired he was, and that he spent the whole night playing video games.
While distracted in his mind, his character took a heavy blow, nearly dying.
Jaune wasted no time in getting back into the game, telling himself to ignore every other thought. He did the math in his head, his chances of a clean victory were zero. His enemy was faster, stronger, and had more health. He had no items he could use in time, and no items that would deal enough damage to get a clean hit. Truthfully, he knew he would have beat his foe if the sun hadn't distracted him.
Jaune came to terms with his inevitable death, but as a smirk came onto his face, he wondered if his foe was also ready to die. One of more annoying features in this game was the fact the creatures could run away, even bosses, if they realized they would die, but some creatures would risk their life to win. As the creature lunged at his character, he used a tackle skill that launched him at the creature. He died on impact, but the momentum carried his corpse and the creature over the edge of the cliff that served as the battleground.
As the words "You Died." appeared on the TV screen, Jaune took a moment to breathe, a slight chuckle escaped his throat. His sleep deprived brain had made the scene feel less grounded in reality. He could hardly recall pressing the buttons on his controller, he had truly felt like he was making the decision to do a suicide attack.
The sun was too bright for Jaune, he could feel his eyes become irritated, he knew his parents wouldn't be happy with the fact he stayed up all night. Normally he would go to sleep before three am, so he could get a decent amount of sleep before he was forced to get up. He weighed the pros and cons of staying awake and being exhausted or going to sleep and dealing with his parents later. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of the pros to staying awake, although it was more like he was ignoring the pros.
'I'll let future Jaune deal with that, this Jaune wants to sleep.'
With his mind set, he turned off his console and TV, then he closed his curtains, a yawn forced its way out his mouth.
As Jaune dropped on his bed face first, he could feel a fog creep over his brain, he felt his muscles relax.
Then, a soft synthetic sound rang in his mind, Jaune tried to imagine the shape of an object that could emit that sound, but to no avail, and all the activity of trying to identify the sound cleared a small part of the fog.
The soft synthetic sound rang again, like a bell or a buzzer but not quite.
Jaune turned his head and opened his eyes, in the hope of satisfying his curiosity, instead he gained more questions in need of answers.
Floating in front of his eyes was a white transparent screen rotated at ninety degrees with black text.
'What?'
Jaune remained still, his brain occupied with trying to justify the existence of the floating screen.
'A common symptom of sleep deprivation is hallucinations, auditory and visual.'
Jaune nodded to himself, satisfied with his explanation, but he wasn't satisfied with the screen bobbing in the air, remaining level with his eyes. He rolled over in an attempt to lose the screen, but it followed, a small part of him knew he wasn't hallucinating, his thoughts were too clear, he was fully awake now.
He sat up in his bed, the screen floated directly in front of him, following his eyes, it reminded him of the crosshairs in first person games, of course that was probably influenced by the text on the screen.
'What is this? What does it mean?'
The answer was obvious, yet Jaune couldn't understand.
'What Game was Installed? How was it installed?'
If it was a game, he didn't know how to play, he didn't even have a controller. Of course, he realized real life didn't require a controller, so he tentatively reached a hand out to the screen, and tapped it, he drew his hand back in fear, but thankfully no harm was done to him.
The screen pulsed and shrank to half its size as another screen popped into existence, blocking the previous screen.
Jaune re-read the screen over and over, he was given a choice, and although he didn't fully understand the consequences, he understood the implications. Quitting will get rid of the screens, maybe permanently, he could be free and continue to live his life, and pressing Play carried its implications from the main menu of every video game ever made, starting the game.
Did he want to play the game or did he want to ignore this chance to possibly change his life?
Jaune reached out to touch the screen and he tapped his answer.
The screen with the prompt pulsed and shrank, but still covered the first screen, and like last time, a new screen appeared.
'Final.'
Jaune thought it over, this screen was asking if he was sure, and the warning emphasized the weight his choice carried. This was his only chance to turn back.
He tapped Yes.
A chill traveled along Jaune's spine and up his neck, he felt an invisible weight being lifted off his back.
All the screens remained behind the new one, Jaune reached his hand out, his fingers met the new screen, and it grew slightly, but he didn't stop, his hand went through the screen. He felt the old screens, he grabbed the one that asked if he was sure and pulled it out, it grew in size, but he noticed it had changed colors, it was now gray instead of white.
Jaune continued to play with the screens, avoiding the latest one. He learnt how to dismiss the screens, by swiping through them, and how to alter the placement and dimensions of the screens, by pinching through them with his thumb and any other finger on the same hand, the inside to move them and the borders to stretch them.
When his heart and stomach were ready, he tapped on the latest screen.
Following the pattern, the screen shrank, and a new one popped up.
The new screen had small bubbles hovering along the sides, they reminded Jaune of Hints or Tips, small reminders about how the game worked.
"Sta-" Jaune began to call out, but before he could finish, the door to his room bursted open and small Gremlins held pans in the air ready to smack them against other pans, however, once they saw that he was awake, they froze on the spot.
Jaune glared at the fourteen year-old twin Gremlins, otherwise known as his younger sisters. They wore matching outfits which consisted of a blue bow, a long sleeved shirt, a buttoned up vest and a skirt with leggings and blue shoes.
"Aww, you're awake, why?" Gremlin One whined.
"Mommy! He's awake!" Gremlin Two shouted out Jaune's door. "Jaune, Mommy wants you to go help Daddy." She said before walking away.
"Thanks for ruining my morning." Gremlin One pouted as she walked out the room. "I'll be back." She said with squinted eyes as she slowly closed the door.
"Good morning." Jaune called out, Gremlins they might be, sisters they were.
After they left, he got out of bed, the Menu would have to wait, his Dad was probably waiting for him. Jaune dismissed the screens as he got dressed, his outfit consisted of blue jeans, a black t-shirt and black boots, before he left his room he tucked his heavy duty gloves into his belt. Considering it was his Dad he was helping, it was probably farm or field work.
'Judging from the sun, it's probably seven in the morning.'
Jaune took a big breath of the morning air, supplying his brain with fresh oxygen. While he was breathing, he took in his surroundings, the two story house handmade by his Dad sat surrounded by greenery. From the natural forest to the Apple trees, to the crops and the garden, the only structure in sight aside from the house was their barn.
Jaune walked to the barn, he had gone straight outside when he left his room, he probably should've asked his Mom where his Dad was, but now he was already outside. The red barn was larger than their house, but considering that it didn't have plumbing or electricity made it a fair trade. Behind the barn were the animal pens, and beyond that was the plain field.
As Jaune got closer, he could hear some clucking, oinking, and the occasional moo or neigh, but the only sound he paid attention to was the barking.
The barking came from a golden retriever as it ran up to Jaune.
"Hey, Butterscotch!" Jaune called out as he got one knee to pet his dog. "Who's a good girl? You are! You are!"
Butterscotch rapidly ran her head into his hands, her excitement was unmatched, she was an always-hyper fluffy ball of energy.
After wasting at least three minutes playing with his dog, Jaune continued to the barn, when he found no one, he went to the animal pens, and found one of his younger sisters feeding the chickens. She was wearing light purple overalls, a pink shirt, and her legs were coated in mud.
"How are your loyal subjects, Princess?" Jaune asked as he walked up to his twelve year-old sister.
"Oh, Jaune, they are doing just lovely. Thank you for asking." She said as she sprinkled chicken feed over the horde of clucking nightmares.
"Need any help?" Jaune asked, but he kept his distance from the coop. Hoping to avoid a repeat of an incident he would prefer to not think too hard about.
"Your assistance is not necessary, I've already entertained and fed the pi-" She stopped suddenly, catching herself before speaking such an uncouth word, but unfortunately she forgot the scientific word for them. "Pigs." She whispered to Jaune.
Who just nodded and smiled, getting amusement from his sister's self imposed role restrictions.
"And I promised Father I would tend to the bovines." She looked off into space, wondering if she was using that word right, but only for a second. "I thank you nonetheless." She finished with a curtsy while she held an imaginary dress with her hands.
"Then take care, Princess." Jaune said his farewell as he went back though the barn. He briefly chastised himself for not asking if she knew where their Dad was, but the moment passed already.
The sound of clunking wood caught Jaune's attention, it was coming from the forest, he started walking into the woods. Eventually he found the source, one of his older sisters was chopping up logs with an axe. She was only older than him by a year, at seventeen.
"'Sup Jaune!" She energetically shouted as she stopped chopping, she wore a brown vest over a green shirt and camo cargo pants.
"Nothing much Bro. I'm just searching for Dad, and I'm completely exhausted from staying up all night. What are you up to?"
"Dad asked me to chop up some wood, wanna give it a whack?" She asked as she held out the axe.
"Definitely." Jaune said as he took the axe from his sister.
His sister placed a log on top of the stump she was using as the chopping block.
"Let me see whatcha got!"
Jaune held the axe with both hands near the end of the handle, he stood with his left foot forward, then raised the axe over his left shoulder and swung down towards the center of the log.
The axe bounced up after leaving a mark, and Jaune scrambled to keep his balance.
Across from him, his sister erupted with laughter. "You're fuckin' trash!" She shouted before returning to her laughing fit.
"Yeah, yeah, haha." Jaune spoke flatly, his cheeks a light shade of pink. "Hurry up and help me." He grumbled.
Although she needed another minute or two to get over hi horrendous display, she was able to compose herself. "Okay, okay, I'm ready, get back into your trash pose, I'll help you from there."
Jaune replicated his stance but didn't swing.
"Pull your foot in, your feets should be at shoulder width, put your dom hand right up to the axe head on the handle, raise the axe over your noggin, when you swing the axe slide your dom hand down the handle, make sure to use your hips to and bend your knees, and if the log is too tough aim for the edges first, them the basics, got it?" She finished.
Jaune spent a few seconds trying to remember all the information, he was following along with her instructions, but if he was called upon to chop wood at another time, he wanted to remember how to. Confident in this chop, he swung down, sliding his hand down and bending his knees as he aimed near the edge of the log.
The wood cracked as the axe embedded itself into the log.
"Woo! Good enough!" Jaune cheered.
"Woo! Woo! The crowd goes wild!" His sister joined in his cheering.
"Thanks for the fun, but I got to find Dad, see you later Bro." Jaune said as he walked away.
"No problem, see ya later!"
Having skipped breakfast, which was normally served at sunrise, Jaune chose the Apple orchard as his next stop.
When he arrived, he looked around for a second, and then snatched two apples off a tree. While finishing the first apple he started walking to the garden, unfortunately his Dad wasn't there either, even more unfortunate his eldest sister, at twenty-three, was.
"Boss." Jaune said with a nod.
"Jaune." She sounded exasperated, she was dressed in her casual clothes, gray pants and a red shirt, but wearing thick rubber gloves, an apron and a sun hat. "How many times have I told you to call me by my name, not your silly nickname?" Her attention never left the vegetables.
"Got it, Boss." Jaune said, then he took a crunchy bite from his second apple.
"You didn't pick that apple yourself did you? Of course you wouldn't, because you know our apples are inside, so there's no reason to mess with the harvest, right?"
Jaune didn't say anything, instead he took another crunchy bite.
"You're going to pay for that, okay."
"Sure thing, Boss." Then another crunchy bite.
She didn't respond, so Jaune walked away, he decided to go back into the house, maybe he never should've left.
As Jaune finished his second apple, he briefly wondered why characters in media didn't finish their apples, they always left the core intact, he came to the conclusion the writers weirdly thought that one apple core contained enough cyanide to be lethal.
When Jaune stepped through the side door into the house, he spotted his last sister, well not last, but Saphron had just moved out. So the last sister still at home who he hasn't spoken to yet, she was a younger one, at thirteen years old and arguably the smartest. She was dressed in a blue-green-ish dress and wearing big round glasses.
Jaune walked to the table she was sitting at and peeked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. She had a textbook and also had her notebook opened, which she used to record interesting facts and ideas. On the pages of the textbook was a caricature of a guy without skin, and on the other page the guy was showing his organs. Even though it wasn't a real person, Jaune still felt queasy looking at the semi-graphic images. "How can anyone look at these and not feel sick?"
"I'm not sure whether your question was directed towards me or simply rhetorical, regardless, the problem lies with you. Your empathy imagines how a person would feel if they were to be skinned alive, and you end up thinking a picture can feel pain. No one was harmed to produce this image, our knowledge of anatomy mostly comes from the deceased."
"Oh, well I know no one was harmed, but I still don't like to look at it, probably why I failed biology."
"I'm positive that was the only factor." Her eyes rolled with her sentence.
"Yeah." Jaune let out a yawn as he took a seat next to his sister. "You're so smart." He said as he rested his head against the table. "I'm so-" 'Jealous.' "-proud of you." He hoped she didn't notice his pause, but the fog of sleep had finally returned, and he couldn't hold out any longer.
A blank expanse, reminiscent of outer space.
There was no light source, but somehow Jaune could see perfectly, it was a little weird to not have a shadow, but he got over it.
Before he could ponder about his circumstance, a soft synthetic sound rang in his head, leading Jaune to realize why he was here, in what was probably a dream. "Menu." He called out, there was no echo and no place for sound to exist, but Jaune heard his voice perfectly.
Jaune noticed the bubbles from last time were gone, most likely because he already knew the what they were trying to tell him. He tapped on Status, and the Menu shrank.
Jaune wondered why it was being generated, he never knew a game to do that, but he chalked it up to being a real person getting translated into a game character.
'Ah, the classics, but the five health/hit points were confusing. Normally, it would be a certain number set by the level of the player plus Endurance or a similar stat, so unless the set number is three, it's using a different way to calculate the HP.'
Another thing that confused Jaune were the stats themselves.
'They're all low, but how well do they translate to my actual abilities, I didn't feel different while walking around my home, and I don't feel different now.'
He tapped Str, in the hope of getting a detailed explanation.
'Well, that answered that, the Game has information I can't access yet, but I bet if I raised my Wisdom stat, I would naturally know it by then. Onto the next screen.'
He pulled the Menu screen back out, and he slid the Status screen to the left. Tapping Skills, the Menu shrank again.
Popped up, and he wondered what type of Skills he had, he didn't have to wait long.
There were no combat Skills, but it made sense to Jaune, for he had no combat training to speak of.
'Animal Handling, I probably got it from handling animals, it has a level, so maybe the higher level it is the better I could handle animals, plus Handling is a broad term. Crop Handling, the same thing as the Animal Handling, but for crops. Cooking Proficiency, I'm proficient at cooking, but what classifies as cooking? Sewing Proficiency, probably the simplest skill, it's literally being proficient at sewing.'
He realized the first two skills he probably got from working with his dad, and the last two he definitely got from working with his mom. It made him reflect on how he didn't have any of his own hobbies, if he was more like his sisters he probably would've had more creative skills.
Done with that, he slid the screen to the right and continued on down the list.
'This one was probably the most overlooked skill during most games, probably due to the heavy restrictions placed on it, and it doesn't offer many creative uses because the makers of the games wouldn't want the players to break their games. I'll probably also have restrictions, but it'll still be cool to have a miniature pocket dimension or a hammer space.'
'Zero out of six.'
"What the heck does this mean? Maybe it's a weight limit, or maybe I can store six items?" He asked aloud to no one in particular.
Jaune needed some way to test his Inventory, he couldn't test his Skills because of the lack of things in the empty space, but he had stuff on him. He pulled his gloves off his belt and pushed them against the Inventory screen, the gloves didn't come out the other side, and after pushing them completely through, his screen changed.
"At least it works." Jaune said, he still didn't know what it was based on, it could be weight or size, but he knew it wasn't slots.
Sliding the screen far left, he opened the last one.
'It basically means random, or unsorted.'
'Jobs?'
Jaune glanced to his left, on his Status screen Job was there but wasn't assigned anything, it had slipped his mind when he saw his HP, he tapped Jobs on the Misc screen.
'It's on my Status so it might be important.'
"Farm Hand, Chef and Tailor?" Jaune read, something itched in his mind, his eyes slid to the screen on the right, the Skill screen.
'Farm Hand, Animal Handling, Crop Handling. Chef, Cooking Proficiency. Tailor, Sewing Proficiency.'
It made him wonder how it worked. 'Did I get Skills from the Job? Or did the Job get unlocked because I had the Skills?'
Jaune looked at the fourth Job, Woodcutter, which was level zero, he didn't have any Skills for that, but considering he barely learned how to swing an axe correctly, it made sense.
'Maybe it's a bit of both, I get a Skill to stick my foot in the door and ask for a Job, from which I train my existing Skills and learn new ones. And maybe Jobs had more requirements. Farm Hand is level two, since I have two Handling Skills, it begs the question: What came first? The second level or the second Skill? Maybe the Skills belonged to different Jobs, but then the Jobs Combined, like Gardener and Wrangler, but why and how? I know I can do more than what my Skills say I can do, maybe I bridged the Jobs with a hidden Skill, that sounds reasonable. Would it be possible to Combine Chef and Tailor?'
All the critical thinking Jaune had done was taking a toll on his head, the last thing he realized before deciding to not think so hard, was that Jobs was the last thing to check out, and his Job slot was open on his Status, he needed to choose one.
Jaune chose Farm Hand because it was level two and he mostly did farm work, after choosing, he blacked out.
Jaune watched Gremlin One freeze, again, she was holding two pans, again, and ready to smash them together, again.
"Mommy! He's awake!" Gremlin Two shouted, again.
Jaune sat up straight in the chair he fell asleep in and glared at Gremlin One, again.
Gremlin One squinted her eyes, again. "You'll rue the day you crossed me." She hissed at him as she crept backwards and behind a corner while never taking her eyes off of Jaune.
As she disappeared, Gremlin Two followed after her, in a normal way. "How long can you keep up your act, Jaune?" She whispered ominously.
When she first started spouting things like that, it creeped Jaune out, but after he saw her practicing her lines in the mirror, he came to appreciate that commitment and dedication she had.
"Better Luck next time!" Jaune called out, internally laughing at his joke, he was pretty lucky for a guy with zero points in his Luck stat.
Jaune leaned back in his chair, he used the top of the chair to stop his lower back as he popped the air pockets that formed from sleeping slouched over. His posture was something he actually cared about, he had always been a small boy, but when he turned sixteen, about three months ago, he started a growth spurt, and he has already grown nearly two feet in height.
Looking our a window he could spot the sun low in the sky, if he had to guess the time, somewhere around five to six.
Jaune looked around the dining room, where he fell asleep, when he found no one, he read the screen that had appeared when he woke up.
Doing quick math, Jaune found out the original time required to heal one point of HP is one hour.
Jaune tapped on the Exp, hoping to see how far he was from Leveling up, luckily he got a result.
Jaune tried to calculate how many nights of undisturbed rest would level him up, but gave up when he realized he was doing math for no reason. He instead tapped on the Exp again, to find where the rest of the Exp came from.
It sorta made sense to Jaune, but he didn't even attempt to do the math for how many apples he would have to pick to level up. He noticed it counted his failed attempts to chop wood, that was nice.
Jaune picked an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table, when the Gremlins were in the dining room, they didn't react to the screen, which if he thought about it, he should've noticed that in the morning when they tried to wake him up.
Jaune called up Menu then he opened the four screens, Status, Skills, Inventory and instead of keeping Misc open, he had Jobs as his fourth. The two things that had his attention was the fact his Job slot was empty and his gloves weren't in his Inventory, a quick check on his belt informed him he still had them.
He thought it over, and came to the conclusion that the things he did in that Space didn't transfer into the real world. He thought over the implications of that Space as he ate the apple.
'It's definitely a feature of the Game, but if that exists then why didn't the Game let me sleep before.'
After thinking it through, Jaune realized that if he had woken up in the Space earlier, and been given the prompt to Play or Quit, he would've clicked Play without giving it much thought, and if he clicked Quit, he would've dismissed the whole thing as a dream.
'Maybe the Game wanted me to know it was real? Or maybe the Space could only be used after I selected Play?'
Jaune grabbed another apple and started questioning the Game, the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. It was on his third apple when he wondered something.
'Did that Shooting Star grant my wish? I had said something about playing a better game, is this it?'
Jaune shook his head and decided to distract himself by experimenting with the screens, he found out how to zoom and rotate the text on the screens, by using two fingers against the surface, when he was zoomed in he could also scroll with two fingers. Using a mix of zoom and altering, he was able to make a mimicry of a Health Bar and an Experience Bar that floated in the left corner of his sight.
[HP: 5/5]
[Exp: 1.8/200]
Satisfied with the result, Jaune dismissed the remaining screens, except for Jobs. He still didn't understand what difference equipping a Job would make, he tried tapping on them to get a better explanation, but the Game responded with a pop up that said his Wisdom was too low.
Something different did pop up when Jaune clicked on the last one.
Jaune didn't have to look at his makeshift Exp Bar, he knew he didn't have enough, but he wondered. He tapped Pay, and a confirmation prompt appeared, he confirmed the purchase. He kept an eye on his Exp, so he witnessed when it dropped, but that didn't matter, because another screen popped up and explained.
[Exp: 1.8/100]
Jaune double checked and saw that he sat at level zero, aside from the Lvl and Exp nothing else changed, so Jaune continued with his investigation, he dismissed the alert and read the other new screen.
'Sweet.'
Jaune equipped Apprentice Woodcutter, and saw a change.
[HP: 5/5.5]
That extra zero point five from sleeping would fit right at home. Jaune hadn't needed to recover any HP yet, but he was pretty sure he didn't have an automatic recovery feature, if sleeping for an hour only recovered one point, he was sure it wouldn't happen when he was awake.
Jaune opened up a Status screen to see if anything else changed, and sure enough, something had. Strength, Dexterity and Agility all went up by one point. He checked the other Apprentice Jobs, Chef had added one point to Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. Tailor had added three points to Dexterity.
All three of the Apprentice Jobs boosted his max HP by point five. He had saved the best for last, Farm Hand, which added one point to Strength, Dexterity, Agility and Intelligence, but the best part in his opinion, was the two points added to his Endurance Stat, plus it boosted his max HP to nine point five, nearly double his original.
"Yessssss." Jaune dragged out in a whisper, he didn't want to explain why he was cheering to his family, his immediate reaction did make him question his own reasoning though. He couldn't think of a valid reason for why he wanted to hide his newfound abilities, sure he came up with some pretty good excuses, but since there was no one he had to justify his actions to, he decided to drop it.
Something Jaune probably should've noticed was that the sun had already set and left him in a dark dining room, the only light came from the doorway to the kitchen.
Something Jaune had also barely noticed was his Inventory also changed, the six was now a ten, what the number represented Jaune still didn't know.
He picked up another apple, and tossed it into the Inventory screen, he learned he could enter stuff in that way, and that one apple equaled zero point two.
'So five apples would equal one, therefore I could fit a total of fifty apples into my Inventory before it got full, neat.'
Jaune dumped four more apples into his Inventory, before standing up and heading outside. He spent most of the day asleep, and to the world around Jaune, he hadn't done anything productive.
When Jaune exited his home, he remembered his Dad had wanted his help, but considering a couple hours have passed, it probably didn't matter anymore. The night air carried a chill with it, Jaune just stood around, taking in the nighttime atmosphere, from the crickets to the moon.
"Jaune." A joyful yet stern voice spoke from behind him.
"Ah, Dad, fancy seeing you here." Jaune said nervously as he spun around to face the eight foot tall man made of muscles also known as his Dad.
"Relax, Jaune. I just want to talk."
"Oh, about what?" Jaune was relieved that he hadn't missed anything important.
"About you, and your future."
"Oh." Jaune could feel his blood freeze.
…
…
Two hours later, Jaune was laid up in his bed, his eyes were wet from tears threatening to fall and his throat was sore from shouting. His Dad had went on the same spiel about how Jaune was supposed to be preparing to take over the farm, and Jaune retorted with the same spiel about how he wanted to be something important, but this time instead of grunting and dismissing him, his Dad tore away at the flimsy foundations that held up his dream.
Now Jaune was stewing in his room as thoughts about how he had failed at everything he tried, how all his sister's were better than him at anything, how no one ever expected anything of him or believed he could accomplish anything, and worse of all: that the lineage of Arc warriors and heroes would never include him, swam through his mind. He could see it now, he would live and die here, after his death the Arcs would strike his name from their records, ashamed to acknowledge a failure born of their blood.
No one would ever know he existed. His life would have done nothing to contribute to anything.
'I just want to be able to look back on my life and say I meant something. Why is that so bad? Am I destined to fade away without doing anything?'
Jaune rubbed away the budding tears, and then something caught his eye.
[HP: 5/9.5]
[Exp: 1.8/100]
'No, I'm not.'
This… Whatever this was, it gave Jaune the chance to be much more, he didn't care what it was, where it came from, who gave it to him, or even why they did, none of that mattered, he could be a hero. With this he could finally be something, he didn't know what exactly he could do, but now he was ready to find out.
Jaune got off his bed in a huff, and tried to plan out his new life.
'What should I do? Well, I'm basically playing a game right now, there are levels, stats, and jobs, so maybe I should think of this as a game. So, what would I do in a game?'
Jaune looked around his room and imagined it in with lower graphic settings, if he was playing a game, then he was a character that just woke up. The first thing Jaune normally did as those types of characters was interact with everything in the room hoping to discover a something valuable, but since he knew he didn't have anything like that, he moved in the second thing he did. Gearing up before setting out, Jaune didn't know what gear he would need or where he would set out, but he was taking his adventure one step at a time.
While looking through his room, Jaune realized that if he left, he wouldn't be able to let himself come back with accomplishing anything, he didn't dwell on the thought instead he jumped to the next, he should pack a sleeping bag. Although he had backpacks and suitcases, he didn't touch them, if he brought them he risked the chance of getting his stuff lost or stolen. That meant he had to rely on his Inventory. He quickly made a small window to help him keep track of his available space.
[Inventory: 1/10]
That number one was made up of five apples, so he knew he didn't have that much room. Jaune had to be really selective of what he could bring with him. Right now the only thing he knew for sure was that he would need to sleep to recover HP, earlier his recovery time was double for sleeping without a cover, on a chair, being sleep deprived and for being in his day clothes. If he got hurt he should be able to rely on his new abilities to fix him, so he shouldn't be hampering it in any way. He packed a puffy sleeping bag and his bunny onesie.
[Inventory: 2.3/10]
Jaune really didn't understand how things were measured, but it didn't bother him that much, he had more important things to do. As he searched his room from top to bottom, he only found two more things he wanted to take with him, a wooden ukulele and a small sewing kit.
[Inventory: 3.5/10]
Before leaving his room Jaune changed his shirt, he replaced his black t-shirt with a pale white long sleeved shirt with a light brown hood and a dark brown leather vest, and he slipped on a pair of green arm warmers and his farm gloves, then he sneaked out of his room.
It was barely an hour or so past bedtime, so the chance that someone was awake was very high, but Jaune didn't let that stop him, he snuck down the hallway past a few doors and down a flight of stairs. He mostly held himself on the railing so as not to put too much weight on the creaky steps, and made it to the ground floor with drawing any attention to himself, he internally cheered for a moment before he headed to a closet.
Once inside the closet, he turned on a small light and spent a few minutes carefully moving small boxes and bags out his way, then he reached the Arc family's camping supplies, he found what he was looking for shortly after. A thick metal kettle/pot, a metal cup and a small knife.
[Inventory: 5.1/10]
After moving a few more boxes, he came across a large chest, Jaune had looked inside it before, so he wasn't surprised to see the armor and sword he admired. He spent more than a few minutes tightening the leather straps on the various armor pieces and threw the family weapon, Crocea Mors, into his inventory.
[Inventory: 7.4/10]
He still had more room in his Inventory, but he had no idea what to fill it with, he had already checked off all the boxes he made up. As he put the closet back into order, he thought about what else he should take with him, by the time he closed the door, he couldn't think of anything.
'Well I guess I have extra room for things I find.'
Jaune stared up at the sky, the bright stars were haphazardly painted across the pitch black night sky. This was it, he was really leaving, he placed a small note with just the word 'goodbye' scribbled on it, if he wrote any more, he knew he wouldn't be able to convince himself to leave.
He brought his attention away from the stars and took a step, and then another, and another. With each step he felt his body get heavier and his mind get lighter, the distance grew and grew, and Jaune had barely reached the tree line. Then his fears and resolve vanished in an instant as something popped into his mind, Jaune quickly turned and walked through the trees until he came upon a stump, there he took out an axe lodged into it and tossed it into his Inventory.
[Inventory: 7.9/10]
He had spent a hundred Exp for the Job and the Skill that came with it, it would be a waste not to use it.
Now it would be an appropriate time for his fears and resolve to come back, but that didn't happen, Jaune strolled away from his home with no problem, the tension was gone and he didn't try to bring it back.
A few hours went by without a problem, and Jaune pulled his sleeping bag out of his Inventory, although he wasn't tired he knew he should get some sleep while it was still dark out. He changed into his pajamas and cleared out a small area of twigs and stones before laying down inside the sleeping bag.
Once again he looked up to the night sky. "It's just like camping." He whispered to himself. Memorized by the stars once again, he could hear the phantom sounds of fire crackling, of sisters giggling and his Mom singing. "Alone. Camping alone." He corrected himself.
He denied himself the feeling of regret that was building up, and forced his body to rest.
A blank expanse, reminiscent of outer space but absent of the beautiful stars. Jaune was back in the odd Space, but he didn't need to do anything so he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
When he woke, he didn't recognize his room, he couldn't recall ever having leaves in his ceiling, then his brain caught up to reality. He was outdoors, in the woods, sleeping underneath a tree.
[HP: 9.5/9.5]
[Exp: 3.3/100]
In front of the trees was a small box, Jaune was happy that nothing caused the recovery time to double. After getting out of the sleeping bag and changing clothes, he put his things back into his Inventory and thought about what to do next. As he worked his brain he noticed he was hungry, and as he debated whether or not to eat an apple, a new box popped up.
Jaune sighed in relief, he had made it to a save point, unfortunately this game had some bugs, so it was better to save whenever possible. As the screen loaded the next part of the map, he stretched to relieve the stiffness in his joints, he started by puffing out his chest and pulling back his shoulders, then he arched his back while he rotated his shoulders. While stretching his neck, a glimmer outside his window caught his eye.
A shining shooting star raced across the black expanse known as outer space, for less than a second it was visible to Jaune, then it was lost to the void. He waited, hoping to catch a glimpse of another star, after five seconds passed, he returned his attention to the game.
As his character ran across the new field, Jaune realized he forgot to wish upon the star.
'I wish... I wish to be something, I wish my life meant something, I wish I could be a he-'
Just as he was deciding what his true wish was, his character in-game froze and started taking damage for no discernible reason.
"I wish I was playing a better game." He grumbled, this wasn't the first time it happened, and he was sure it wouldn't be the last time if he kept playing.
Jaune closed that game and opened a different one, it was a similar genre as the first game, but had big differences in combat, some called it impossible to beat if you weren't a pro. It was an open world with no direction, that meant if you weren't careful your first encounter could kill you.
This wasn't his first time playing, so he knew to avoid certain areas, until he leveled up or found a great weapon, although he wouldn't do this the whole time. He preferred a challenge, so after reaching a certain level he stopped only attacking weaker creatures. The rush he got when defeating a monster twice his level was worth the frustration from dying multiple times and losing all his progress.
Another fun aspect was the hidden effects, they were secret buffs and debuffs the player couldn't see, but Jaune was able to find and exploit them. Some obvious ones were leading an elemental creature to a field of the opposite element to weaken it, chaining certain effects to stack the damage more efficiently, or knocking a creature off a platform and letting the fall damage kill them.
Some of the more hidden effects took could only be found over multiple lives, like how dying to a certain monster more than once will make it stronger next time, or alternatively killing a certain monster at the beginning of a life will make it slightly weaker next time, but that resets if Jaune doesn't kill it every time.
With all the fun secrets and a play style that didn't restrict him, Jaune never got bored of this game, and so he lost track of time. It wasn't until the sun shot a beam of light through his window and into his eye did he realized how tired he was, and that he spent the whole night playing video games.
While distracted in his mind, his character took a heavy blow, nearly dying.
Jaune wasted no time in getting back into the game, telling himself to ignore every other thought. He did the math in his head, his chances of a clean victory were zero. His enemy was faster, stronger, and had more health. He had no items he could use in time, and no items that would deal enough damage to get a clean hit. Truthfully, he knew he would have beat his foe if the sun hadn't distracted him.
Jaune came to terms with his inevitable death, but as a smirk came onto his face, he wondered if his foe was also ready to die. One of more annoying features in this game was the fact the creatures could run away, even bosses, if they realized they would die, but some creatures would risk their life to win. As the creature lunged at his character, he used a tackle skill that launched him at the creature. He died on impact, but the momentum carried his corpse and the creature over the edge of the cliff that served as the battleground.
As the words "You Died." appeared on the TV screen, Jaune took a moment to breathe, a slight chuckle escaped his throat. His sleep deprived brain had made the scene feel less grounded in reality. He could hardly recall pressing the buttons on his controller, he had truly felt like he was making the decision to do a suicide attack.
The sun was too bright for Jaune, he could feel his eyes become irritated, he knew his parents wouldn't be happy with the fact he stayed up all night. Normally he would go to sleep before three am, so he could get a decent amount of sleep before he was forced to get up. He weighed the pros and cons of staying awake and being exhausted or going to sleep and dealing with his parents later. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of the pros to staying awake, although it was more like he was ignoring the pros.
'I'll let future Jaune deal with that, this Jaune wants to sleep.'
With his mind set, he turned off his console and TV, then he closed his curtains, a yawn forced its way out his mouth.
As Jaune dropped on his bed face first, he could feel a fog creep over his brain, he felt his muscles relax.
Then, a soft synthetic sound rang in his mind, Jaune tried to imagine the shape of an object that could emit that sound, but to no avail, and all the activity of trying to identify the sound cleared a small part of the fog.
The soft synthetic sound rang again, like a bell or a buzzer but not quite.
Jaune turned his head and opened his eyes, in the hope of satisfying his curiosity, instead he gained more questions in need of answers.
Floating in front of his eyes was a white transparent screen rotated at ninety degrees with black text.
System*Game Successfully Installed!
'What?'
Jaune remained still, his brain occupied with trying to justify the existence of the floating screen.
'A common symptom of sleep deprivation is hallucinations, auditory and visual.'
Jaune nodded to himself, satisfied with his explanation, but he wasn't satisfied with the screen bobbing in the air, remaining level with his eyes. He rolled over in an attempt to lose the screen, but it followed, a small part of him knew he wasn't hallucinating, his thoughts were too clear, he was fully awake now.
He sat up in his bed, the screen floated directly in front of him, following his eyes, it reminded him of the crosshairs in first person games, of course that was probably influenced by the text on the screen.
System*Game Successfully Installed!
'What is this? What does it mean?'
The answer was obvious, yet Jaune couldn't understand.
'What Game was Installed? How was it installed?'
If it was a game, he didn't know how to play, he didn't even have a controller. Of course, he realized real life didn't require a controller, so he tentatively reached a hand out to the screen, and tapped it, he drew his hand back in fear, but thankfully no harm was done to him.
The screen pulsed and shrank to half its size as another screen popped into existence, blocking the previous screen.
Press Play to start the Game, or press Quit to uninstall the Game.
Jaune re-read the screen over and over, he was given a choice, and although he didn't fully understand the consequences, he understood the implications. Quitting will get rid of the screens, maybe permanently, he could be free and continue to live his life, and pressing Play carried its implications from the main menu of every video game ever made, starting the game.
Did he want to play the game or did he want to ignore this chance to possibly change his life?
Jaune reached out to touch the screen and he tapped his answer.
The screen with the prompt pulsed and shrank, but still covered the first screen, and like last time, a new screen appeared.
Are you sure? Your choice will be final.
Yes. / No.
Yes. / No.
'Final.'
Jaune thought it over, this screen was asking if he was sure, and the warning emphasized the weight his choice carried. This was his only chance to turn back.
He tapped Yes.
The Game has started.
A chill traveled along Jaune's spine and up his neck, he felt an invisible weight being lifted off his back.
All the screens remained behind the new one, Jaune reached his hand out, his fingers met the new screen, and it grew slightly, but he didn't stop, his hand went through the screen. He felt the old screens, he grabbed the one that asked if he was sure and pulled it out, it grew in size, but he noticed it had changed colors, it was now gray instead of white.
Jaune continued to play with the screens, avoiding the latest one. He learnt how to dismiss the screens, by swiping through them, and how to alter the placement and dimensions of the screens, by pinching through them with his thumb and any other finger on the same hand, the inside to move them and the borders to stretch them.
When his heart and stomach were ready, he tapped on the latest screen.
Following the pattern, the screen shrank, and a new one popped up.
Menu~ (To view the Menu screen, call out "Menu".) Status. Skills. Inventory. Misc. (Tap or Call out the Screen you wish to see.)
The new screen had small bubbles hovering along the sides, they reminded Jaune of Hints or Tips, small reminders about how the game worked.
"Sta-" Jaune began to call out, but before he could finish, the door to his room bursted open and small Gremlins held pans in the air ready to smack them against other pans, however, once they saw that he was awake, they froze on the spot.
Jaune glared at the fourteen year-old twin Gremlins, otherwise known as his younger sisters. They wore matching outfits which consisted of a blue bow, a long sleeved shirt, a buttoned up vest and a skirt with leggings and blue shoes.
"Aww, you're awake, why?" Gremlin One whined.
"Mommy! He's awake!" Gremlin Two shouted out Jaune's door. "Jaune, Mommy wants you to go help Daddy." She said before walking away.
"Thanks for ruining my morning." Gremlin One pouted as she walked out the room. "I'll be back." She said with squinted eyes as she slowly closed the door.
"Good morning." Jaune called out, Gremlins they might be, sisters they were.
After they left, he got out of bed, the Menu would have to wait, his Dad was probably waiting for him. Jaune dismissed the screens as he got dressed, his outfit consisted of blue jeans, a black t-shirt and black boots, before he left his room he tucked his heavy duty gloves into his belt. Considering it was his Dad he was helping, it was probably farm or field work.
'Judging from the sun, it's probably seven in the morning.'
Jaune took a big breath of the morning air, supplying his brain with fresh oxygen. While he was breathing, he took in his surroundings, the two story house handmade by his Dad sat surrounded by greenery. From the natural forest to the Apple trees, to the crops and the garden, the only structure in sight aside from the house was their barn.
Jaune walked to the barn, he had gone straight outside when he left his room, he probably should've asked his Mom where his Dad was, but now he was already outside. The red barn was larger than their house, but considering that it didn't have plumbing or electricity made it a fair trade. Behind the barn were the animal pens, and beyond that was the plain field.
As Jaune got closer, he could hear some clucking, oinking, and the occasional moo or neigh, but the only sound he paid attention to was the barking.
The barking came from a golden retriever as it ran up to Jaune.
"Hey, Butterscotch!" Jaune called out as he got one knee to pet his dog. "Who's a good girl? You are! You are!"
Butterscotch rapidly ran her head into his hands, her excitement was unmatched, she was an always-hyper fluffy ball of energy.
After wasting at least three minutes playing with his dog, Jaune continued to the barn, when he found no one, he went to the animal pens, and found one of his younger sisters feeding the chickens. She was wearing light purple overalls, a pink shirt, and her legs were coated in mud.
"How are your loyal subjects, Princess?" Jaune asked as he walked up to his twelve year-old sister.
"Oh, Jaune, they are doing just lovely. Thank you for asking." She said as she sprinkled chicken feed over the horde of clucking nightmares.
"Need any help?" Jaune asked, but he kept his distance from the coop. Hoping to avoid a repeat of an incident he would prefer to not think too hard about.
"Your assistance is not necessary, I've already entertained and fed the pi-" She stopped suddenly, catching herself before speaking such an uncouth word, but unfortunately she forgot the scientific word for them. "Pigs." She whispered to Jaune.
Who just nodded and smiled, getting amusement from his sister's self imposed role restrictions.
"And I promised Father I would tend to the bovines." She looked off into space, wondering if she was using that word right, but only for a second. "I thank you nonetheless." She finished with a curtsy while she held an imaginary dress with her hands.
"Then take care, Princess." Jaune said his farewell as he went back though the barn. He briefly chastised himself for not asking if she knew where their Dad was, but the moment passed already.
The sound of clunking wood caught Jaune's attention, it was coming from the forest, he started walking into the woods. Eventually he found the source, one of his older sisters was chopping up logs with an axe. She was only older than him by a year, at seventeen.
"'Sup Jaune!" She energetically shouted as she stopped chopping, she wore a brown vest over a green shirt and camo cargo pants.
"Nothing much Bro. I'm just searching for Dad, and I'm completely exhausted from staying up all night. What are you up to?"
"Dad asked me to chop up some wood, wanna give it a whack?" She asked as she held out the axe.
"Definitely." Jaune said as he took the axe from his sister.
His sister placed a log on top of the stump she was using as the chopping block.
"Let me see whatcha got!"
Jaune held the axe with both hands near the end of the handle, he stood with his left foot forward, then raised the axe over his left shoulder and swung down towards the center of the log.
The axe bounced up after leaving a mark, and Jaune scrambled to keep his balance.
Across from him, his sister erupted with laughter. "You're fuckin' trash!" She shouted before returning to her laughing fit.
"Yeah, yeah, haha." Jaune spoke flatly, his cheeks a light shade of pink. "Hurry up and help me." He grumbled.
Although she needed another minute or two to get over hi horrendous display, she was able to compose herself. "Okay, okay, I'm ready, get back into your trash pose, I'll help you from there."
Jaune replicated his stance but didn't swing.
"Pull your foot in, your feets should be at shoulder width, put your dom hand right up to the axe head on the handle, raise the axe over your noggin, when you swing the axe slide your dom hand down the handle, make sure to use your hips to and bend your knees, and if the log is too tough aim for the edges first, them the basics, got it?" She finished.
Jaune spent a few seconds trying to remember all the information, he was following along with her instructions, but if he was called upon to chop wood at another time, he wanted to remember how to. Confident in this chop, he swung down, sliding his hand down and bending his knees as he aimed near the edge of the log.
The wood cracked as the axe embedded itself into the log.
"Woo! Good enough!" Jaune cheered.
"Woo! Woo! The crowd goes wild!" His sister joined in his cheering.
"Thanks for the fun, but I got to find Dad, see you later Bro." Jaune said as he walked away.
"No problem, see ya later!"
Having skipped breakfast, which was normally served at sunrise, Jaune chose the Apple orchard as his next stop.
When he arrived, he looked around for a second, and then snatched two apples off a tree. While finishing the first apple he started walking to the garden, unfortunately his Dad wasn't there either, even more unfortunate his eldest sister, at twenty-three, was.
"Boss." Jaune said with a nod.
"Jaune." She sounded exasperated, she was dressed in her casual clothes, gray pants and a red shirt, but wearing thick rubber gloves, an apron and a sun hat. "How many times have I told you to call me by my name, not your silly nickname?" Her attention never left the vegetables.
"Got it, Boss." Jaune said, then he took a crunchy bite from his second apple.
"You didn't pick that apple yourself did you? Of course you wouldn't, because you know our apples are inside, so there's no reason to mess with the harvest, right?"
Jaune didn't say anything, instead he took another crunchy bite.
"You're going to pay for that, okay."
"Sure thing, Boss." Then another crunchy bite.
She didn't respond, so Jaune walked away, he decided to go back into the house, maybe he never should've left.
As Jaune finished his second apple, he briefly wondered why characters in media didn't finish their apples, they always left the core intact, he came to the conclusion the writers weirdly thought that one apple core contained enough cyanide to be lethal.
When Jaune stepped through the side door into the house, he spotted his last sister, well not last, but Saphron had just moved out. So the last sister still at home who he hasn't spoken to yet, she was a younger one, at thirteen years old and arguably the smartest. She was dressed in a blue-green-ish dress and wearing big round glasses.
Jaune walked to the table she was sitting at and peeked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. She had a textbook and also had her notebook opened, which she used to record interesting facts and ideas. On the pages of the textbook was a caricature of a guy without skin, and on the other page the guy was showing his organs. Even though it wasn't a real person, Jaune still felt queasy looking at the semi-graphic images. "How can anyone look at these and not feel sick?"
"I'm not sure whether your question was directed towards me or simply rhetorical, regardless, the problem lies with you. Your empathy imagines how a person would feel if they were to be skinned alive, and you end up thinking a picture can feel pain. No one was harmed to produce this image, our knowledge of anatomy mostly comes from the deceased."
"Oh, well I know no one was harmed, but I still don't like to look at it, probably why I failed biology."
"I'm positive that was the only factor." Her eyes rolled with her sentence.
"Yeah." Jaune let out a yawn as he took a seat next to his sister. "You're so smart." He said as he rested his head against the table. "I'm so-" 'Jealous.' "-proud of you." He hoped she didn't notice his pause, but the fog of sleep had finally returned, and he couldn't hold out any longer.
A blank expanse, reminiscent of outer space.
There was no light source, but somehow Jaune could see perfectly, it was a little weird to not have a shadow, but he got over it.
Before he could ponder about his circumstance, a soft synthetic sound rang in his head, leading Jaune to realize why he was here, in what was probably a dream. "Menu." He called out, there was no echo and no place for sound to exist, but Jaune heard his voice perfectly.
Menu~ Status. Skills. Inventory. Misc.
Jaune noticed the bubbles from last time were gone, most likely because he already knew the what they were trying to tell him. He tapped on Status, and the Menu shrank.
(Generating your Status...)
Jaune wondered why it was being generated, he never knew a game to do that, but he chalked it up to being a real person getting translated into a game character.
(Generation Completed!)
Menu~ Status~ Jaune Arc. Lvl: 1. Job: _. HP: 5/5. Str: 2. End: 2. Dex: 2. Agi: 1. Int: 2. Wis: 2. Cha: 1. Luk: 0.
Menu~ Status~ Jaune Arc. Lvl: 1. Job: _. HP: 5/5. Str: 2. End: 2. Dex: 2. Agi: 1. Int: 2. Wis: 2. Cha: 1. Luk: 0.
'Ah, the classics, but the five health/hit points were confusing. Normally, it would be a certain number set by the level of the player plus Endurance or a similar stat, so unless the set number is three, it's using a different way to calculate the HP.'
Another thing that confused Jaune were the stats themselves.
'They're all low, but how well do they translate to my actual abilities, I didn't feel different while walking around my home, and I don't feel different now.'
He tapped Str, in the hope of getting a detailed explanation.
Request: Failed.
Reason: Wis is currently too low.
Reason: Wis is currently too low.
'Well, that answered that, the Game has information I can't access yet, but I bet if I raised my Wisdom stat, I would naturally know it by then. Onto the next screen.'
He pulled the Menu screen back out, and he slid the Status screen to the left. Tapping Skills, the Menu shrank again.
(Generating your Skills...)
Popped up, and he wondered what type of Skills he had, he didn't have to wait long.
(Generation Completed!)
Menu~ Skills~ Animal Handling, Lvl: 1. Crop Handling, Lvl: 1. Cooking Proficiency, Lvl: 1. Sewing Proficiency, Lvl: 1.
Menu~ Skills~ Animal Handling, Lvl: 1. Crop Handling, Lvl: 1. Cooking Proficiency, Lvl: 1. Sewing Proficiency, Lvl: 1.
There were no combat Skills, but it made sense to Jaune, for he had no combat training to speak of.
'Animal Handling, I probably got it from handling animals, it has a level, so maybe the higher level it is the better I could handle animals, plus Handling is a broad term. Crop Handling, the same thing as the Animal Handling, but for crops. Cooking Proficiency, I'm proficient at cooking, but what classifies as cooking? Sewing Proficiency, probably the simplest skill, it's literally being proficient at sewing.'
He realized the first two skills he probably got from working with his dad, and the last two he definitely got from working with his mom. It made him reflect on how he didn't have any of his own hobbies, if he was more like his sisters he probably would've had more creative skills.
Done with that, he slid the screen to the right and continued on down the list.
(Generating your Inventory...)
'This one was probably the most overlooked skill during most games, probably due to the heavy restrictions placed on it, and it doesn't offer many creative uses because the makers of the games wouldn't want the players to break their games. I'll probably also have restrictions, but it'll still be cool to have a miniature pocket dimension or a hammer space.'
(Generation Completed!)
Menu~ Inventory 0/6.
Menu~ Inventory 0/6.
'Zero out of six.'
"What the heck does this mean? Maybe it's a weight limit, or maybe I can store six items?" He asked aloud to no one in particular.
Jaune needed some way to test his Inventory, he couldn't test his Skills because of the lack of things in the empty space, but he had stuff on him. He pulled his gloves off his belt and pushed them against the Inventory screen, the gloves didn't come out the other side, and after pushing them completely through, his screen changed.
Menu~ Inventory: 0.2/6. Thick Padded Left Glove. Thick Padded Right Glove.
"At least it works." Jaune said, he still didn't know what it was based on, it could be weight or size, but he knew it wasn't slots.
Sliding the screen far left, he opened the last one.
(Generating Miscellaneous...)
'It basically means random, or unsorted.'
(Generation Completed!)
Menu~ Misc~ Jobs.
Menu~ Misc~ Jobs.
'Jobs?'
Jaune glanced to his left, on his Status screen Job was there but wasn't assigned anything, it had slipped his mind when he saw his HP, he tapped Jobs on the Misc screen.
(Generating your Jobs...)
'It's on my Status so it might be important.'
(Generation Completed!)
Menu~ Misc~ Jobs~ Farm Hand, Lvl: 2. Apprentice Chef, Lvl: 1. Apprentice Tailor, Lvl: 1. Apprentice Woodcutter, Lvl: 0.
Menu~ Misc~ Jobs~ Farm Hand, Lvl: 2. Apprentice Chef, Lvl: 1. Apprentice Tailor, Lvl: 1. Apprentice Woodcutter, Lvl: 0.
"Farm Hand, Chef and Tailor?" Jaune read, something itched in his mind, his eyes slid to the screen on the right, the Skill screen.
'Farm Hand, Animal Handling, Crop Handling. Chef, Cooking Proficiency. Tailor, Sewing Proficiency.'
It made him wonder how it worked. 'Did I get Skills from the Job? Or did the Job get unlocked because I had the Skills?'
Jaune looked at the fourth Job, Woodcutter, which was level zero, he didn't have any Skills for that, but considering he barely learned how to swing an axe correctly, it made sense.
'Maybe it's a bit of both, I get a Skill to stick my foot in the door and ask for a Job, from which I train my existing Skills and learn new ones. And maybe Jobs had more requirements. Farm Hand is level two, since I have two Handling Skills, it begs the question: What came first? The second level or the second Skill? Maybe the Skills belonged to different Jobs, but then the Jobs Combined, like Gardener and Wrangler, but why and how? I know I can do more than what my Skills say I can do, maybe I bridged the Jobs with a hidden Skill, that sounds reasonable. Would it be possible to Combine Chef and Tailor?'
All the critical thinking Jaune had done was taking a toll on his head, the last thing he realized before deciding to not think so hard, was that Jobs was the last thing to check out, and his Job slot was open on his Status, he needed to choose one.
Jaune chose Farm Hand because it was level two and he mostly did farm work, after choosing, he blacked out.
Jaune watched Gremlin One freeze, again, she was holding two pans, again, and ready to smash them together, again.
"Mommy! He's awake!" Gremlin Two shouted, again.
Jaune sat up straight in the chair he fell asleep in and glared at Gremlin One, again.
Gremlin One squinted her eyes, again. "You'll rue the day you crossed me." She hissed at him as she crept backwards and behind a corner while never taking her eyes off of Jaune.
As she disappeared, Gremlin Two followed after her, in a normal way. "How long can you keep up your act, Jaune?" She whispered ominously.
When she first started spouting things like that, it creeped Jaune out, but after he saw her practicing her lines in the mirror, he came to appreciate that commitment and dedication she had.
"Better Luck next time!" Jaune called out, internally laughing at his joke, he was pretty lucky for a guy with zero points in his Luck stat.
Jaune leaned back in his chair, he used the top of the chair to stop his lower back as he popped the air pockets that formed from sleeping slouched over. His posture was something he actually cared about, he had always been a small boy, but when he turned sixteen, about three months ago, he started a growth spurt, and he has already grown nearly two feet in height.
Looking our a window he could spot the sun low in the sky, if he had to guess the time, somewhere around five to six.
Jaune looked around the dining room, where he fell asleep, when he found no one, he read the screen that had appeared when he woke up.
HP Recovered: 1 Point per 16* Hours of Complete Rest.
Recovery time doubled for sleeping on a chair.
Recovery time doubled for being: Sleep Deprived.
Recovery time doubled for sleeping without a cover.
Recovery time doubled for sleeping in your day clothes.
Recovered: 0.5 HP.
0.5 Extra HP = 0.5 Exp.
Recovery time doubled for sleeping on a chair.
Recovery time doubled for being: Sleep Deprived.
Recovery time doubled for sleeping without a cover.
Recovery time doubled for sleeping in your day clothes.
Recovered: 0.5 HP.
0.5 Extra HP = 0.5 Exp.
Doing quick math, Jaune found out the original time required to heal one point of HP is one hour.
Jaune tapped on the Exp, hoping to see how far he was from Leveling up, luckily he got a result.
Status~ Level~ Experience: 1.8/200.
Jaune tried to calculate how many nights of undisturbed rest would level him up, but gave up when he realized he was doing math for no reason. He instead tapped on the Exp again, to find where the rest of the Exp came from.
Status~ Level~ Experience~ Played with Dog (0.6). Chopped Wood (0.1). Chopped Wood (0.4). Picked Apple (0.1). Picked Apple (0.1). Extra HP (0.5).
It sorta made sense to Jaune, but he didn't even attempt to do the math for how many apples he would have to pick to level up. He noticed it counted his failed attempts to chop wood, that was nice.
Jaune picked an apple out of the fruit bowl on the table, when the Gremlins were in the dining room, they didn't react to the screen, which if he thought about it, he should've noticed that in the morning when they tried to wake him up.
Jaune called up Menu then he opened the four screens, Status, Skills, Inventory and instead of keeping Misc open, he had Jobs as his fourth. The two things that had his attention was the fact his Job slot was empty and his gloves weren't in his Inventory, a quick check on his belt informed him he still had them.
He thought it over, and came to the conclusion that the things he did in that Space didn't transfer into the real world. He thought over the implications of that Space as he ate the apple.
'It's definitely a feature of the Game, but if that exists then why didn't the Game let me sleep before.'
After thinking it through, Jaune realized that if he had woken up in the Space earlier, and been given the prompt to Play or Quit, he would've clicked Play without giving it much thought, and if he clicked Quit, he would've dismissed the whole thing as a dream.
'Maybe the Game wanted me to know it was real? Or maybe the Space could only be used after I selected Play?'
Jaune grabbed another apple and started questioning the Game, the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. It was on his third apple when he wondered something.
'Did that Shooting Star grant my wish? I had said something about playing a better game, is this it?'
Jaune shook his head and decided to distract himself by experimenting with the screens, he found out how to zoom and rotate the text on the screens, by using two fingers against the surface, when he was zoomed in he could also scroll with two fingers. Using a mix of zoom and altering, he was able to make a mimicry of a Health Bar and an Experience Bar that floated in the left corner of his sight.
[HP: 5/5]
[Exp: 1.8/200]
Satisfied with the result, Jaune dismissed the remaining screens, except for Jobs. He still didn't understand what difference equipping a Job would make, he tried tapping on them to get a better explanation, but the Game responded with a pop up that said his Wisdom was too low.
Something different did pop up when Jaune clicked on the last one.
Apprentice Woodcutter, Lvl: 0. Pay 100 Exp to Level Up.
Jaune didn't have to look at his makeshift Exp Bar, he knew he didn't have enough, but he wondered. He tapped Pay, and a confirmation prompt appeared, he confirmed the purchase. He kept an eye on his Exp, so he witnessed when it dropped, but that didn't matter, because another screen popped up and explained.
[Exp: 1.8/100]
You lost one Level!
You are now Lvl: 0!
You are now Lvl: 0!
Jaune double checked and saw that he sat at level zero, aside from the Lvl and Exp nothing else changed, so Jaune continued with his investigation, he dismissed the alert and read the other new screen.
Job Gained: Apprentice Woodcutter, Lvl: 1!
Skill Learned: Axe Proficiency, Lvl: 1!
Skill Learned: Axe Proficiency, Lvl: 1!
'Sweet.'
Jaune equipped Apprentice Woodcutter, and saw a change.
[HP: 5/5.5]
That extra zero point five from sleeping would fit right at home. Jaune hadn't needed to recover any HP yet, but he was pretty sure he didn't have an automatic recovery feature, if sleeping for an hour only recovered one point, he was sure it wouldn't happen when he was awake.
Jaune opened up a Status screen to see if anything else changed, and sure enough, something had. Strength, Dexterity and Agility all went up by one point. He checked the other Apprentice Jobs, Chef had added one point to Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. Tailor had added three points to Dexterity.
All three of the Apprentice Jobs boosted his max HP by point five. He had saved the best for last, Farm Hand, which added one point to Strength, Dexterity, Agility and Intelligence, but the best part in his opinion, was the two points added to his Endurance Stat, plus it boosted his max HP to nine point five, nearly double his original.
"Yessssss." Jaune dragged out in a whisper, he didn't want to explain why he was cheering to his family, his immediate reaction did make him question his own reasoning though. He couldn't think of a valid reason for why he wanted to hide his newfound abilities, sure he came up with some pretty good excuses, but since there was no one he had to justify his actions to, he decided to drop it.
Something Jaune probably should've noticed was that the sun had already set and left him in a dark dining room, the only light came from the doorway to the kitchen.
Something Jaune had also barely noticed was his Inventory also changed, the six was now a ten, what the number represented Jaune still didn't know.
He picked up another apple, and tossed it into the Inventory screen, he learned he could enter stuff in that way, and that one apple equaled zero point two.
'So five apples would equal one, therefore I could fit a total of fifty apples into my Inventory before it got full, neat.'
Jaune dumped four more apples into his Inventory, before standing up and heading outside. He spent most of the day asleep, and to the world around Jaune, he hadn't done anything productive.
When Jaune exited his home, he remembered his Dad had wanted his help, but considering a couple hours have passed, it probably didn't matter anymore. The night air carried a chill with it, Jaune just stood around, taking in the nighttime atmosphere, from the crickets to the moon.
"Jaune." A joyful yet stern voice spoke from behind him.
"Ah, Dad, fancy seeing you here." Jaune said nervously as he spun around to face the eight foot tall man made of muscles also known as his Dad.
"Relax, Jaune. I just want to talk."
"Oh, about what?" Jaune was relieved that he hadn't missed anything important.
"About you, and your future."
"Oh." Jaune could feel his blood freeze.
…
…
Two hours later, Jaune was laid up in his bed, his eyes were wet from tears threatening to fall and his throat was sore from shouting. His Dad had went on the same spiel about how Jaune was supposed to be preparing to take over the farm, and Jaune retorted with the same spiel about how he wanted to be something important, but this time instead of grunting and dismissing him, his Dad tore away at the flimsy foundations that held up his dream.
Now Jaune was stewing in his room as thoughts about how he had failed at everything he tried, how all his sister's were better than him at anything, how no one ever expected anything of him or believed he could accomplish anything, and worse of all: that the lineage of Arc warriors and heroes would never include him, swam through his mind. He could see it now, he would live and die here, after his death the Arcs would strike his name from their records, ashamed to acknowledge a failure born of their blood.
No one would ever know he existed. His life would have done nothing to contribute to anything.
'I just want to be able to look back on my life and say I meant something. Why is that so bad? Am I destined to fade away without doing anything?'
Jaune rubbed away the budding tears, and then something caught his eye.
[HP: 5/9.5]
[Exp: 1.8/100]
'No, I'm not.'
This… Whatever this was, it gave Jaune the chance to be much more, he didn't care what it was, where it came from, who gave it to him, or even why they did, none of that mattered, he could be a hero. With this he could finally be something, he didn't know what exactly he could do, but now he was ready to find out.
Jaune got off his bed in a huff, and tried to plan out his new life.
'What should I do? Well, I'm basically playing a game right now, there are levels, stats, and jobs, so maybe I should think of this as a game. So, what would I do in a game?'
Jaune looked around his room and imagined it in with lower graphic settings, if he was playing a game, then he was a character that just woke up. The first thing Jaune normally did as those types of characters was interact with everything in the room hoping to discover a something valuable, but since he knew he didn't have anything like that, he moved in the second thing he did. Gearing up before setting out, Jaune didn't know what gear he would need or where he would set out, but he was taking his adventure one step at a time.
While looking through his room, Jaune realized that if he left, he wouldn't be able to let himself come back with accomplishing anything, he didn't dwell on the thought instead he jumped to the next, he should pack a sleeping bag. Although he had backpacks and suitcases, he didn't touch them, if he brought them he risked the chance of getting his stuff lost or stolen. That meant he had to rely on his Inventory. He quickly made a small window to help him keep track of his available space.
[Inventory: 1/10]
That number one was made up of five apples, so he knew he didn't have that much room. Jaune had to be really selective of what he could bring with him. Right now the only thing he knew for sure was that he would need to sleep to recover HP, earlier his recovery time was double for sleeping without a cover, on a chair, being sleep deprived and for being in his day clothes. If he got hurt he should be able to rely on his new abilities to fix him, so he shouldn't be hampering it in any way. He packed a puffy sleeping bag and his bunny onesie.
[Inventory: 2.3/10]
Jaune really didn't understand how things were measured, but it didn't bother him that much, he had more important things to do. As he searched his room from top to bottom, he only found two more things he wanted to take with him, a wooden ukulele and a small sewing kit.
[Inventory: 3.5/10]
Before leaving his room Jaune changed his shirt, he replaced his black t-shirt with a pale white long sleeved shirt with a light brown hood and a dark brown leather vest, and he slipped on a pair of green arm warmers and his farm gloves, then he sneaked out of his room.
It was barely an hour or so past bedtime, so the chance that someone was awake was very high, but Jaune didn't let that stop him, he snuck down the hallway past a few doors and down a flight of stairs. He mostly held himself on the railing so as not to put too much weight on the creaky steps, and made it to the ground floor with drawing any attention to himself, he internally cheered for a moment before he headed to a closet.
Once inside the closet, he turned on a small light and spent a few minutes carefully moving small boxes and bags out his way, then he reached the Arc family's camping supplies, he found what he was looking for shortly after. A thick metal kettle/pot, a metal cup and a small knife.
[Inventory: 5.1/10]
After moving a few more boxes, he came across a large chest, Jaune had looked inside it before, so he wasn't surprised to see the armor and sword he admired. He spent more than a few minutes tightening the leather straps on the various armor pieces and threw the family weapon, Crocea Mors, into his inventory.
[Inventory: 7.4/10]
He still had more room in his Inventory, but he had no idea what to fill it with, he had already checked off all the boxes he made up. As he put the closet back into order, he thought about what else he should take with him, by the time he closed the door, he couldn't think of anything.
'Well I guess I have extra room for things I find.'
Jaune stared up at the sky, the bright stars were haphazardly painted across the pitch black night sky. This was it, he was really leaving, he placed a small note with just the word 'goodbye' scribbled on it, if he wrote any more, he knew he wouldn't be able to convince himself to leave.
He brought his attention away from the stars and took a step, and then another, and another. With each step he felt his body get heavier and his mind get lighter, the distance grew and grew, and Jaune had barely reached the tree line. Then his fears and resolve vanished in an instant as something popped into his mind, Jaune quickly turned and walked through the trees until he came upon a stump, there he took out an axe lodged into it and tossed it into his Inventory.
[Inventory: 7.9/10]
He had spent a hundred Exp for the Job and the Skill that came with it, it would be a waste not to use it.
Now it would be an appropriate time for his fears and resolve to come back, but that didn't happen, Jaune strolled away from his home with no problem, the tension was gone and he didn't try to bring it back.
A few hours went by without a problem, and Jaune pulled his sleeping bag out of his Inventory, although he wasn't tired he knew he should get some sleep while it was still dark out. He changed into his pajamas and cleared out a small area of twigs and stones before laying down inside the sleeping bag.
Once again he looked up to the night sky. "It's just like camping." He whispered to himself. Memorized by the stars once again, he could hear the phantom sounds of fire crackling, of sisters giggling and his Mom singing. "Alone. Camping alone." He corrected himself.
He denied himself the feeling of regret that was building up, and forced his body to rest.
A blank expanse, reminiscent of outer space but absent of the beautiful stars. Jaune was back in the odd Space, but he didn't need to do anything so he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
When he woke, he didn't recognize his room, he couldn't recall ever having leaves in his ceiling, then his brain caught up to reality. He was outdoors, in the woods, sleeping underneath a tree.
HP Recovered: 6 HP.
1.5 Extra HP = 1.5 Exp.
1.5 Extra HP = 1.5 Exp.
[HP: 9.5/9.5]
[Exp: 3.3/100]
In front of the trees was a small box, Jaune was happy that nothing caused the recovery time to double. After getting out of the sleeping bag and changing clothes, he put his things back into his Inventory and thought about what to do next. As he worked his brain he noticed he was hungry, and as he debated whether or not to eat an apple, a new box popped up.
Quest: First Meal.
Primary Objective: Make Breakfast.
Rewards: 10 Exp.
Quest Expiration: 1 Hour.
Primary Objective: Make Breakfast.
Rewards: 10 Exp.
Quest Expiration: 1 Hour.