Chapter 14
[||||=LEVEL 14= ||||]
9 years 3 months in Remnant
4 years 10 months after Summer's death
I quickly scrawled a note for Tai and left him Ruby's scroll number if he needed to call for her. I don't have a scroll of my own either. I'll visit Vale and pick one up. If I'm going on this mission to make friends with the future beacon team I'm going to want to keep in contact.
Going to Vale was easy. I just flew and magicked it up. Wind, motion, and space weakening made me go at nearly a blur. It really was fun. But I had to slow down and put up an illusion at Vale. Then I just strolled in and picked up a scroll at the store and put down a deposit for a plan to use the dustnet. It was easy really. I put down enough for the next five years, knowing that that was when the tower went down.
I set up my scroll with a few apps such as a map function, some games if I ever got bored, an alarm, and whatever else I felt I might need. With my scroll all set up I made a portal, traded numbers with Ruby and Raven, who didn't expect to see me so soon, and did a little research.
As it turns out Pyrrha isn't famous yet. You have to be fourteen to take part in a tournament. I'll talk to her in two years at the Mistral regional tournament, which is in late July.
The white fang haven't really shifted fully from peace to violence yet but their propaganda machines were in full swing everywhere but Menagerie, where they maintained a more peaceful front.
As for my schedule for my meeting of the cast members… I have no idea where Ren or Nora are. Kuroyuri is way destroyed already. I don't need to visit Ruby or Yang since… well I already know them.
Jaune is easy to track down. It would be good to visit him as well. Inspiring him to not be a dweeb when beacon comes along could help me out quite a bit. And him too… could I even inspire him? Well I could give him aura at least. That ought to kick his ass into shape. A little beating basic swordsmanship into him should work as well.
Yeah I can do that. Pass myself off as a huntsman on a… journey to help others? Better that I call myself a mercenary. I could never pull the benevolent huntsman thing off.
Blake might still be in Menagerie. Or maybe she's already shacked up with Adam in the white fang. I can infiltrate a base of theirs and look for her location easily enough if she's already gone away.
I might visit Weiss in Atlas or maybe not depending on whether I could easily meet her. I won't stress about it. Winter might be easy enough to see along with Ironwood. The dick way of going about it would be to commit a crime big enough to get me noticed from the general and Winter and have Ozpin forced to bail me out. I don't know if I care to do that… I'll leave meeting Ironwood for now.
If Weiss is already performing concerts I could steal a backstage pass easily enough and say hi to her. I don't think the effort is worth the pain of it though. Why bother? She turns out alright in the show. Lonely, bitchy, arrogant, and generally terrible at first but beacon doesn't take that BS and she'll get set straight.
Pyrrha I can meet at the tournaments when I enter Signal high next year. We might be able to become friends if we slap each other around a little bit. It would be fun… but I am at an almost professional level physically and I only need to train in the blade and polearm… hm. Well it'll be fun to meet her if not challenging at all. Next year then.
Roman is the only other person I'd like to meet. I can set up a criminal empire with him leading it under my watch. It'll be my night job. Ruby can deal with school herself. I kind of spoil her on that. Some independence could do her well too.
I marked down the locations of important characters on a handy sort of bookmark location function on the major city of Menagerie, called Kuo Kuana, Mistral city, Ansel, which was a moderately sized town in Vale, and Atlas city.
I also marked down some sites of interest for future exploring. My run-in with the icy forest had taught me that there were sites fraught with magic in the world and I intend to find them. I want to know more about magic and the sites are where I can learn and potentially find relics of ages long past. There were a few ancient ruins swarming with grimm that I can break into to search for magical artifacts to loot for myself.
And with all that settled I made my way towards my first meeting with Jaune Arc.
[|||| == ||||]
"Excuse me?"
"Hm?"
"I'm looking to get to Ansel soon. Without the CCT service I can't truly know. Do you know how long it takes by horse to get there?"
"Ansel? What would you be wanting in a tiny town like that?"
"None of your business."
"Fine. And it's none of my responsibility to help ya either."
"... How much?"
"What?"
"How much lien for you to tell me?"
"... Look, kid. I'm not telling you because you're being suspicious and rude. I'm not helping you."
"... Fine."
"What are you- No!"
"Talk. Now."
"I-it's two days at a slow pace! One if you ride harder! Please don't hurt me!"
"Better. Now quit begging and mind your own business next time you nosy prick."
"I-I-... I hope to never see you again you crazy bitch!"
"... bitch? Crazy perhaps but I wasn't really going to burn him… it was just a little fire in his face… yup. Tooootally sane… Now I wonder if this Abyss guy is from earth?... Did Ash ever become a pokemon master? I can finally sleep at night knowing stuff like this. Where was that journal of mine? Got to add that one to the list."
*Neigh!*
"Shut up Aether or I'll burn your nuts and berries to cinders."
*whinney…*
[|||| == ||||]
Ansel wasn't exactly a small town but I wouldn't consider it large. It was about seventy or a hundred buildings in size with no wall and a few retired huntsmen.
Ansel was more of a meeting point for the locals than a town actually. All around Ansel, sometimes miles out, were manors filled with families and flowing fields of golden wheat. It was idyllic…
And boring. Very very boring.
Ansel was nice, don't get me wrong. Peaceful farmers, retired huntsmen just enjoying their lives, and the others plying their trade for the locals in Ansel.
In the town there was plenty of commerce but not that many residences. I assume most of the citizens of Ansel live in the manors or farms a ways out of the town.
Right now there were some few farmers planting crops in hulking machines all over the land outside Ansel. I suppose It's planting season then. I wonder what they're planting… Well it doesn't matter.
I landed down the side of the road in a tree under invisibility. I reclined and relaxed myself.
It was… Really nice here. It smelled like wheat and really fresh air even compared to Patch. I could faintly hear the him of machines in the distance too.
It was easy to fall into meditation and see through mage sight. All around me the world opened up to view and so I did.
In Ansel there really wasn't anything interesting. Well, there was an inn with a benevolent old lady reading a romance novel at the front desk. I suppose I'll stay the night there.
Straight west of Ansel out of the town a quarter mile was the Arc family manor. It was… Nice.
The manor was made of brick painted over white. Three stories tall and with a large foundation for rooms.
Outside of the manor was an old stable that looked to have been converted to a garage with a spare horse pen. There was also a well and a large garden shed eight by the house as well.
I looked a little closer in the manor and found six girls. In order of oldest to youngest there was Olive, Violet, Coral, Verdant, Azure, and Lavender, with Jaune being a Then there was Jaune himself.
He wasn't a very interesting person at any glance. His hair was more golden wheat than the brilliant gold in the show. He wasn't muscled or anything either. He looked like an average twelve year old coming into an early puberty and nothing more.
Of his seven sisters Coral, Verdant, and Azure are huntresses (Azure was in training at Beacon but on break) as well as the eldest sister, Crimson, who I only knew of because of the admiration for her from several of the sisters from observe. I read through their biographies and learned that they knew of magic and wanted to protect their brother for… Some reason.
Olive and Violet are civilians as well but they're strong. Huntress strong… Confusing…
Currently Jaune was getting his ass handed to him. Hard. It seemed to be training apparently. Coral was the one currently dishing it out with two wooden sabres. Observe said they could combine to form a glaive.
Off to the side Olive, Verdant, and Azure sat off to the side of their little dirt sparring ring engaging a past time of theirs.
A little higher than them well hidden in the trees was little Lavender, who peered out of a gap in the tree branches. Observe called her sneaky. No wonder. She's well hidden for a child.
I flew over there in invisibility and settled down on a branch a little above Lavender to hear what everybody was saying.
"-more of a twist than a jerk." Coral said with an exaggerated twist in her torso as she slowly struck.
"But the jerk is stronger, right?"
"That's only for a dagger. It would break a sword or, more likely, loosen your grip."
"Oh."
"Again." Jaune mimicked the movement as best he could. His core twisted, building tension, and then he swung, using the tension to strike harder.
Unfortunately, though, his stance was wrong. His feet were too close together, his back too straight, and his arms too far from his chest. There was no way-
"Good." Coral said. I'm sorry, what? That is not good in the slightest. There are so many problems with his guard that a child could beat him.
"Now on to an overhead strike. This is more in your hips than your core since, you know, you can't coil your core vertically. That twist is for horizontal strikes. Here's how it's done…"
I ignored this absolute heresy of swordsmanship and looked for Jaune's father and mother. It wasn't hard. His mother was in the kitchen and his father in Ansel doing chores.
Vert Arc
Title: Arc patriarch
Level – 40
HP – 273/273
AP – 1280/1280
MP - Locked
STR - 19 (+30%)= 24.7
VIT - 21 (+30%)= 27.3
DEX - 9 (+30%)= 11.7
INT - 24 (+0%)= 24
WIS - 32 (+0%) =32
LUK - 95 (+0%)= 95
Affinities: Locked
Perks: None
Bio: Vert is married into the old bloodline of the Arc clan. He knows of magic and the war between the queen of Grimm and the old wizard and wants no part in it.
Vert is well aware of how his wife's bloodline is valued by either the Grimm queen or the wizard. He desperately hopes that his children can live their lives in blissful happiness and never be drawn into the games of the wizard.
Due to his son's potential power, however, he told his daughters of the wizard and the queen. All seven of them vowed to try their hardest to keep their brother from a life fraught with tragedy. He leaves his son's fate to his loving siblings. Currently they plan on discouraging him from the path of a huntsman by training him incorrectly, bribing the test givers of signal, and leaving him in the dark about aura in the hopes that ignorance lets him live in peace.
… Oh. So Jaune has some sort of power that Ozpin wants then…
Well fine then! This is a good bit more complex than I thought. I'm certainly not helping them keep Jaune in the dark though. He's too stubborn to give up on his dreams. Besides… He'll be a good huntsman.
Now how to start this…
"Now would our silent observer please show yourself?" Coral said loudly with a pointed look into the tree.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Sir?"
"Hm?"
"I'm looking for the Arc residence. It's around here?"
"A quarter mile east."
"Thank you sir."
"A'course."
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Now would our silent observer please show yourself?"
I didn't even think to act. I snapped into spatial negation and moved to flight based on motion magic rather than my wings.
Good on me for my reflexes on that too. As soon as I put my spells up a hailstorm of blades flew towards the treetops.
A loud 'Eep!' came out as Lavender hopped out of the tree. Nobody payed attention to her except Jaune, who ran to her and swept her up in his arms.
A tense moment of silence rang throughout the clearing. Argentum Arc, the matriarch of the family, seemed to be the one who slung the storm of blades at me given aura being a little drained. Just a little bit.
I, for one of the few times in my life, didn't know what to do. So it's time to do what I always do. Improvise and hope things work out.
They clearly knew I was somewhere in the tree. I had Coral, a high signal level student, two high beacon or professional level huntresses, and Argent, who I haven't observed yet.
Argent Arc
Title: Steel storm; Paladin of family
Level – 311
HP – 19,740
AP – 10,442/11,000
MP - Locked
STR - 374 (+500%)= 2244
VIT - 529 (+500%)= 3174
DEX - 245 (+500%)= 1470
INT - 128 (+0%)= 128
WIS - 275 (+0%) =275
LUK - 4 (+0%)= 4
Semblance: Rain of blades - create and control blades to your desire. Requires an iron mental discipline in exchange for low aura cost.
Perks: None
Bio: Argent Arc spent her life running from Salem. When she fell in love with Vert she settled down and had children, hoping for nothing more than a normal life.
When she finally relented and told her daughters of her son's 'gift' she trained them relentlessly behind Jaune's back in the hope that they might grow strong enough to make their own fate rather than rely on those like the wizard.
She hates anything that disturbs the peace of her family. Right now that includes you…
That's… Not good. She's no Ozpin but she could match Summer. But Summer had her eyes and magic… This skews the level difference a little.
I set a wind whisper across the whole clearing and dimmed the lighting with light. More for dramatic effect with the light than any real purpose but I can so did. Then I spoke through the whisper.
"It will not last. No matter his choice of a side it is coming. He must be trained in his power or killed."
Rage sparked in the eyes of every sister and especially the mother.
"And who are you but a coward to dare tell me how to treat my family?" she hissed.
"An honest coward." I said plainly. "while you lie to the one closest to your heart. Call me Villan."
You could almost hear the teeth gritting in Argentum's mouth.
"Who do you serve, Villan?" she spat venomous. Around the clearing Jaune was trying vainly to keep Lavender quiet. She cried into his chest and he just hugged her. The rest of the sisters were tense as a bowstring but had no target to attack.
"You should know how misleading that question can be…"
"Talk."
I sighed. "Myself. My… Sister. My best friend's dying wish. My hope for a brighter future. A peaceful one. Not this desperate fallacy you've constructed."
Argentum forced herself to relax a little and looked piercing around the clearing.
"Come and face me fairly. Leave my children out of this."
As if. She was a human. I was a wizard. There's just a clear difference in power here.
I slammed down air pressure in the area around Argentum and she yelled in surprise. It wasn't enough to permanently harm her but the blood coming out of her ears didn't assure her daughters.
"Mom!" Olive nearly rushed forwards but Argentum raised a hand and stood upwards.
I was actually impressed. She was stubborn that's for sure. I lifted the air pressure slowly to not cause any harm to her and she groaned and continued scanning the clearing.
"... Fuck you." she growled.
In response I tried something I had only tried a few times. Dimensional slash. I never truly understood the move until some time ago when I acquired the skill book from Ozpin. It had taken more INT, WIS, and some time to truly grasp it though.
To put it simply the dimensional slash skill takes a two dimensional plane of reality and uses it as a blade to sever objects in 3d reality.
The end result is a blade that cuts through anything regardless of aura. It would take an incredible amount of mana or an extreme affinity for space to cast though. Luckily for me my space affinity is near ninety and I have mana to spare.
I have a feeling the slash was more theoretical than physical in the book but I can't say for certain.
I slashed at Argentum and she immediately fell to the ground trying to avoid the slash of doom. Sadly for her though I had thrown the blade too quickly and cut her shoulder. Her aura shattered and her shoulder was cut deep.
A scream pierced the air from several of the sisters.
"Stop!" yelled Argentum. The sisters immediately stopped their sounds.
"What do you want from us?" Argentum asked quietly.
"Train him. That's it." Argentum was quiet. Still?! She's broken and defeated but she still wants to go it her way?
"I'm guessing you figured out I won't kill you." I groaned. Argentum smirked just a little bit as she grasped her bloodied shoulder on her knees.
"Fine. I suppose We're doing this the hard way." I stabbed another dimensional slash (it was more like a blade) through her shoulder joint, cleanly cutting it. I then did the same for her left knee. Argentum crumpled and couldn't use her arms. Still she grinned, thinking me defeated.
"Jaune Arc." I said clearly. "you should cry, young man, but you'll probably rejoice. You get to be a hero."
Jaune grabbed Olive, who happened to be closest to him, and shoved Lavender into her arms. He then readied his wooden blade shakily. As if that would do anything.
"You might be a bit overwhelmed right now but later this will all make sense."
Jaune turned around several times. Little did he know I was standing right in front of him.
"The world doesn't need a hero. There are plenty willing to do the deeds of good. Save the girl. Win the admiration of the kingdom."
I took out the auras of the other Arc sisters one by one but Lavender's. She was innocent of everything much like the sisters. I have no need to hurt an immature child.
"Those aren't heroes. Those are dreamers. Ideals. Heroes are the people that would do anything, take any punishment, and give up everything to help others. You're a hero."
I released my spatial presence negation spell. I didn't hide my appearance. I don't really care what they think about me later. Jaune tried to strike me but I just batted his wooden sword away with all the care of a fly buzzing around.
"A hero gives up everything they have for others."
I kicked Jaune's shin lightly for me but it threw him entirely off his feet and he fell to the ground on his shoulder, where it made an ugly cracking sound. Lavender whimpered as she hugged her sister's chest. Everyone was watching me.
"That's why I'm a villain. I would burn the world to ashes to keep the few people I care about safe. I lost everything once. I'm not losing anyone again until they're old and ready to die."
With surgical precision I projected mana to bind Jaune down like a patient as I stood over him. My tattoo gun came out from my inventory fresh with golden ink.
"Realize that you're part of the everyone else. But you want to be a hero. Misguided as it is you're not going to give up, right?"
Jaune looked at me and behind that fear I could see a fire in his eyes. That I would dare to harm his family like some sort of psychopath. He hated me… But that he still cared said enough. He was a hero through and through.
"Yeah… You're a hero by nature. Skill doesn't change that. Strength doesn't change that. You would be a hero regardless of what happens today…"
I whispered to my electrical affinity and it obeyed. The major nerves became temporarily dysfunctional so Jaune couldn't feel. Since he didn't have aura he was pretty much powerless to me messing with his body directly. He panicked a little but my bindings held easily.
"You should cry but I know you'll rejoice, Jaune. You get to be strong. You get to be the hero. You get to save princesses, kill dragons, and perhaps get the girl…"
I formed a knife from hard light and began to slice to the bone.
"But first you need to be strong. I'll grant you this and you will be a hero and save me so that I can live in peace. I'll try to save you from yourself in the process…"
I put my tattoo gun to the bone and began my work. He was a warrior through and through. Strength, vitality, some Dexterity, reflexes, speed, and a system… That will be his mark.
"I'm so sorry." and with that I made Jaune into a hero.
[|||| =+= ||||]
I stretched my soul out to Jaune and inserted a little bit of my own into his, unlocking his aura without any ritual of any sort. His mother had stopped screaming at me a while ago. His sisters were the same.
I had let Jaune pass out and the sisters free after a while. They seemed to understand that they couldn't save their brother from me.
I had healed his mother too. She seemed to be in a lot of pain so I fixed her with a quick heal spell.
And now finally we came to the end. Jaune's aura awakening was a small thing. It was a pure thing. Absolute white. I smiled. I like to hope that it means that he's still the same person he'll always be.
I admit that I lost myself when I swatted Jaune's family. I just… I never claimed to be a good person. Ever. This is the first thing I have ever done that's truly evil.
This kid has his fate decided. Not by genetics he can't control or some odd twist of fate but by me.
His family is traumatized for certain. Jaune will remember me as a monster for the rest of his life. But that doesn't matter.
Jaune will be strong. He'll be a hero. He'll have his family behind him every step of the way. He knows everything now. Magic. His fancy bloodline. Salem. Ozpin. Perhaps silver eyes. Certainly the maiden's.
Yes… Things will be better this way.
For just a moment I leaned back and admired the works. Jaune's back was more like a shield shape with a spiderweb on the edges. How ironic. The shield that is.
I turned him over, where the spider web design is continued, and touched his sternum and pulsed my mana. The designs faded and he looked normal again. Except for one detail.
On Jaune's hand was a tattoo of a black pit with red eyed silhouettes peering out of it. A man wearing a black hooded robe lined with silver sat by the edge and looked back at them.
Under the emblem was the word 'Marked' under it in black and silver lettering. The emblem wasn't just good looking. It was a rune with decorations to appear as an emblem. It held a teleportation marker and an empathetic rune to alert me to when Jaune was in extreme danger (by his judgment).
I got a sword out of my inventory. One of my earlier mechashifts. I wanted to recreate Crocea mors but with… more. I added a channel that dust runs through to add an element to the blade and a crap ton of lightening and hardening runes to the shield portion. There were also some more runes on the blade to make it silent when it goes through the air. Like my still air spell but on a sword.
There were more runes around doing a few things like keeping the blade sharp and one to stick it to a man's grip until he releases his hand. Jaune's hand now. Nothing great but it was a good sword.
I scribed into the side 'Blanc lumiere'. I wasn't very good at French but I'm pretty sure that means white light. It would serve Jaune well. Better than Crocea mors at any rate.
I had some better weapons but I was never one for planning weapons out to be super complex.
Crocea mors was one I had needed some help for actually. I phoned Raven and she helped me out. She knew a thing or two from being Summer's partner.
Anyways, it was a good blade and Jaune's new one. I dropped it on his chest and walked away.
This, of course, signaled to his family that they could see him. I made a portal and stepped through to Vale. I don't want to visit Weiss anymore. It just doesn't seem worth it now.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Oh… Oh no oh dust what happened?!"
"Vert! Jaune… Jaune knows. A man came by. He called himself the Villain."
"The… the what?!"
"It's a callsign. He didn't leave us with his real name."
"What happened to my boy?!"
"He… He beat me in a fight. I was completely subdued. He beat the girls and spoke to Jaune. Then he carved into him and… He did something."
"S-something?... What else…"
"I don't know. The only thing left is this sword and… This."
"Marked… that's not… Oh."
"... I don't know what to do…"
"Did you check his pulse? Did he ever really hurt anybody"
"You are… No. It doesn't matter. He cut my limbs and broke all of our auras but he healed us after."
"Magic?!"
"Powerful magic… He told me to train Jaune. That we couldn't lie to him."
"Well that's utter"
"VERT! Look around! He didn't beat all of us! He annihilated us! I don't know who or what he was but we can't fight people like him… We have to teach Jaune to stand by himself now."
"... Alright."
[|||| =+= ||||]
I made my portal all the way to Vale. I needed a break. Only a day of my… Travelling; and I need to rest a little.
I made my way to an inn to stay the night and half heartedly paid up and went to my room. I nearly collapsed on the bed while my parallels made a protective barrier through runes.
A minute later and I was asleep. It was, thankfully, dreamless.
I rolled over and stared at the ceiling then to the clock at the end table. Ten o'clock? I really needed rest. I had flown across Remnant and made what could be called a masterwork rune matrix while improvising…
I didn't even get out of bed. It was nice and comfortable and just fluffy enough. I retrieved my scroll from my inventory and turned the brightness down. Then I searched for Roman Torchwick and found a half dozen news articles.
'Roman Torchwick; Flamboyant thief or ruthless underworld boss?'
'A new torch in town - Roman Torchwick'
'Vale crime weekly: Vale's newest celebrity thief'
A little reading and I found a few of his recent exploits. Torchwick was nowhere near the apex of the criminal underworld. He was a flashy criminal with a former huntsman record.
The man had a bounty on his head of a measly eighty thousand lien. If I needed lien I would rob a bank or three. Or criminals if I was less desperate.
Finding Roman wasn't too hard. A hard light tack board with a map of Vale on it and the sites of hir robberies put most of them in the middle/western part of Vale. Not the docks but not really the center either. An industrial district infringing on commercial.
Easy enough. I use mage sight to find a goon, interrogate him, and I've found him… perhaps I should collect some examples of other gang bosses in the area as well. To show I'm competent.
Yes that would do. Eliminate his competition, let him grow, and keep him terrified of me while helping him to rule the underworld. With me puppet ING him, of course.
I'm not sure if Raven would want to manage the underworld. I trust her to not stab me in the back without a damn good reason, of which there are none, and she gains a far better source of income than merchants in Anima. She lives in near poverty, I know. Her camp isn't exactly nice.
I'll dominate the underworld first and then either manage through Torchwick myself or hand it to Raven so long as she allows me as an ally. Roman being the public head of the organization, of course.
A quick flight under invisibility to the mid-western district was easy. Finding a goon was a matter of mage sight and observe. It was even easier than in Vacuo with no parallels or eye for detail to make me take in everything at once with no penalties.
I found Dan Frost, a mid-level goon for Torchwick, running errands for his mother. Petty theft, some assault, and some drunken disorderlies.
I caught him in an alley and pulled him into a portal. He would have screamed but some still winds stopped that.
I pointed to a map of Vale. "Show me all the mob bosses on this map and you live. Now."
"P-P-please man! I'm not a bad-" I hit the back of his head with my palm.
"Work and you'll be fine. Go."
Dan quickly jotted down a rough map and listed some addresses. I used my acting skill to seem intimidating. When he leaned back there were a few blank spaces. I pointed to them questioningly.
"I-I'm sorry. I don't know." he admitted fearfully. I shrugged and snapped my fingers. A dulled bullet of ice hit him in the back of the base of the neck, knocking him out.
I fished his wallet out and checked the addresses. A parallel flew him over with his groceries.
Looking at the map the list of addresses was pretty useful. More than the map. Dan was smart…
With a smile I made a few basic runes on him to make him stronger and faster. Hardly anything but a few points but noticeable for a goon like him. I think I'll make runes my new form of payment. They're valuable.
With a hum I sent out my parallels to the addresses to do most of my dirty work for me. I personally went to go deal with one Ramsey Brimstone.
Ramsey was in roughly the same area as Torchwick so it goes to reason that they fight a lot.
Finding the address was easy. A little flying and a dash of mage sight led me right to him. An old metalworking factory.
I observed all the people in the factory through mage sight and surprisingly enough they were all… Well not good people, being criminals that prey on the innocent, but murder and major crimes were rare and often accidental or done carefully.
Well I'll just be killing Ramsey then.
I strolled in with a dash of spatial presence negation and invisibility. Within a minute I was standing in front of Ramsey.
Since everything was muffled by still winds I took out a pistol from my inventory.
Ramsey was sitting down at his chair going over reports from his men at the moment. I put a hand on his shoulder, holding him down, and unloaded at point blank range into the back of his head.
It took nine bullets for his aura to give and the tenth went through his head. He slumped down on all his papers, covering them in blood.
I myself took out a red towel from my inventory and cleaned myself as I looted his office.
Ramsey wasn't the wealthiest of gang leaders. He had about ten thousand lien in cards sitting in a safe and more in a few dummy accounts judging from an accounting record in the safe.
I put Ramsey's body intoy inventory and went on my merry way.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Excuse me? I'm looking for… oh no… Oh nonononono."
"No! Don't touch my boy!"
"I-... Okay. Look, I need to know what happened."
"Who are you?!"
"I'm Ember Fall… can you describe the person who did this?"
"... A kid with silver eyes with redish glowing veins running through them."
"WHAT?!"
"So you know about the silver eyes then. Well he was also a sorcerer. He subdued my whole family with his magics and… Did something with my baby boy."
"A spell? A ritual? A summoning?"
"He drew on him."
"He… Damn it. Runes… He did that… on a child?!"
"..."
"... I-I'm sorry. I need to go."
"Are you going to find him?"
"If I can. I just hope I know where he's going next."
"When you find him… Kill him slowly. I don't care if you work for Salem herself. Kill him. If you can find out what he did to my baby I'll be beyond grateful."
"... It's funny. I was hoping he was a good person before this. I don't think I could have been much more wrong. I'll try."
[|||| =+= ||||]
Roman Torchwick
Title: Aspiring kingpin
Level – 87
HP – 124.2
AP – 2560/2560
MP - Locked
STR - 56 (+130%)= 128.8
VIT - 54 (+130%)= 124.2
DEX - 125 (+130%)= 287.5
INT - 89 (+0%)= 89
WIS - 64 (+0%) = 64
LUK - 47 (+0%)= 47
Semblance: Lady luck's favor - High risk situations have a far better outcome than normal. Stats gain a 50% increase in high risk situations. You instinctively know when a situation is risky or not.
Perks: None
Bio: Roman Torchwick used to be an atlesian huntsman in training. However, he left due to the harsh and orderly lifestyle not suiting him. When he finally realized his semblance gave him an advantage in high risk situations he began a criminal career.
He is still new to being a criminal but is quickly rising due to the inherent risk of the trade and his charismatic nature. Due to the need for leadership in being a kingpin he is considering turning over the gang and going freelance in robberies instead.
I dropped the four bodies of Torchwick's rival gang leaders in a pile in front of him. He looked up from counting his lien and gaped.
I released negation with an illusion to make me seem more professional. Older, with more huntsman-like clothes in black. A black bandana and good clothes were all I really cared about.
"Roman Torchwick." I talked through wind whisper with a voice more befitting my character.
"Y-..." Roman collected himself. "Yes that's me."
"I have an offer for you." I said. I gestured to the dead gang leaders.
"I can do more of this. Easily. You can rise to the top but you will serve me. I don't care for a cut of the lien or anything like that. I want control over the underworld and I want you to be my more public face to the criminal elements of Vale."
Roman eyed the bodies consideringly.
"If you prefer I can simply kill you and move on to bigger fish." I materialized an air blade at his neck and several major arteries to prove my point.
Roman stiffened. "Point taken. I accept then."
I nodded and walked up to him. He looked at me fearfully but I handed him a slip of paper with my scroll number.
"Don't be an idiot. You know there are far bigger men in the world than you. That makes you valuable. Don't become useless."
Roman looked to me warily. "What should I call you… Boss?"
I softly smiled underneath my bandana. "Call me Villain."
Roman nodded and I walked out the door. Not that anybody would see me of course. Except Roman. Before I left I heard him mutter:
"Holy shit. Is that Ramsey Brimstone? What have I gotten into…"
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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If like it please drop some POWER STONES