5 Chapter 4

'So this is Vale, huh?' Jaune said as he walked through the city, admiring the cityscape.

A week had passed since he dealt with those bandits, and he gained several skills.

First was [Fire Manipulation] from the dust bullets of the bandits. The second and third skills were [Sticky Thread] and [Illusion Creation], which he got from a spider Grimm of all things that could create illusions of a person's fears. And the final skill he got was the skill [Degenerate] he received from having [Great Sage] help him combine the effects of various skills.

[Fire Manipulation] is just as it sounded and allowed him to create and manipulate fire.

The [Sticky Thread] skill allowed him to create sticky threads like a spider from his hands.

The [Illusion Creation] skill allowed him to create illusions that could trick ordinary people through more perceptive people would be able to tell they weren't real.

And the final skill [Degenerate] skill has two effects: Synthesis, which allows for the Transformation of two differing targets into a single object and can be used to chain the effects of several skills together, and Separation, which releases the properties inherent to the target and separates them.

Other than the skills, Jaune also gained a considerable amount of Lien from the bandits he had killed. With it, he was going to buy the remaining types of dust, which included lightning dust, Ice dust, plant dust, rock dust, water dust, and wind dust.

It didn't take long for Jaune to find the 'From Dust till Dawn,' a store that sold dust in Vale.

Going inside, Jaune saw the shopkeeper. He is an elderly, balding, gray-haired man with wrinkles under his eyes and over his brow. He wore a green shirt and gray pants with a red apron.

"Good morning, sir. I wish to buy a single lightning, ice, plant, rock, water, and wind dust crystal."

The shopkeeper nodded and quickly began pulling the dust crystals out of the display case, where he started ringing it up.

'60 Lien, huh.' Jaune thought in surprise since it was pretty cheap, all things considered. Going into his stomach/inventory, he pulled out 60 Lien and set it on the counter.

(AN: 1 Lien is $1USD)

"Thank you, have a good day," Jaune said, taking the dust crystals and heading out and using [Predator] on them.

[Extra Skill: Lightning Manipulation Skill acquired.]

[Extra Skill: Ice Manipulation Skill acquired.]

[Extra Skill: Nature Manipulation Skill acquired.]

[Extra Skill: Earth Manipulation Skill acquired.]

[Extra Skill: Water Manipulation Skill acquired.]

[Extra Skill: Wind Manipulation Skill acquired.]

[Using Unique Skill [Degenerate] to combine skills [Fire Manipulation], [Water Manipulation], [Wind Manipulation], and [Earth Manipulation].]

[Extra Skill: Molecular Manipulation acquired.]

[Extra Skill: Black Flame acquired.]

'[Great Sage], how strong is the [Molecular Manipulation] Skill?' Jaune asked as he weaved through the crowds.

[Notice. The skill [Molecular Manipulation] is not omnipotent. It only allows you to manipulate magicules in the air to create elemental effects.]

Jaune couldn't help but pout in annoyance, 'Dang it, and I thought it would be ridiculously op.' Jaune thought as he made his way to his first target for his collection of souls—Lady Browning's Preparatory Academy For Girls.

A prestigious school for wealthy and socialite girls located in the City of Vale, and was secretly a faction of spies and assassins aligned with Spider, a crime syndicate in Mistral.

While he wouldn't kill all of them, a decent amount of them would die, and the rest would serve under him and use their training for his use. Yes, Jaune knew how hypocritical his actions were, but frankly, he didn't care. As long as the person didn't pass his bottom line, then he would have no reason to kill them and would gladly welcome them with open arms though there were some exceptions. But that's humans, for you, hypocrites that do things based on emotions instead of logic.

Pulling out his scroll, Jaune began pulling all the information on the academy and all those connected to it. From there, he started pulling up the various files on notable students.

'So they're already there, huh.' Jaune thought, looking at the files for Trivia Vanille, Melanie Malachite, and Miltia Malachite.

The last two names were recognizable due to the name. Still, if you wanted to know who the first person was, you would have to read the book RWBY: Roman Holiday, which revealed that Neopolitan's original name was Trivia Vanille.

'They will do nicely, but for now, I'm going to set up a temporary base of operations here.' Jaune thought as he made his way to the industrial district where the warehouses were.

~~~~

'Idiots.' Jaune thought in contempt while looking at the burning corpses around him, thanks to his [ Black Flame] Skill. Once he arrived at the warehouses, a group of men from the Xiong Family tried to stop him from entering. Jaune tried to tell them to stop, to just run along, but as soon as they attacked him, they sealed their fates.

"Now I trust that the rest of you good people have enough pattern recognition not to follow in these men's footsteps." Jaune said to the group of men that watched in horror before he stopped himself, "O-oh wait, n-no, that's goldfish! I'm thinking of goldfish. Better play it safe." Using his [Sticky-Steel Thread] skill, Jaune made by strengthening the fibers in his threads; he tied up the men around him before dragging him to the inside of the warehouse where crates of dust and Lien sat in droves.

"Now, little Xiong family henchmen, I want you to tell me exactly what Hei is planning," Jaune smirked while tightening the [Sticky-Steel Threads] around the henchmen's bodies.

"Okay, we'll talk, we'll talk!" They all shouted in unison.

"Good," Jaune said with a smile before his face gained a severe expression. "Now start talking."

Several minutes later, Jaune was sitting on a chair he made via his [Molecular Manipulation], thinking about what he had learned from the men.

Apparently, the Spiders were getting more rowdy as they came over to Vale and started making moves to control the underworld. Because of this, Hei had his men regularly patrolling areas around Vale alongside the police he had on the payroll as they prepared for a gang war.

'A gang war with two crime syndicates and the prime place to collect souls. [Great Sage] How many souls have I collected?' Jaune asked since he wasn't really keeping count.

[Notice. Individual Jaune Arc has collected 53 souls.]

'99,947 more to go.' Jaune thought after doing the mental calculations. Getting up, Jaune made his way out of the warehouse but not before changing his clothes by using his [Sticky-Steel Threads] from his jeans and t-shirt to a pair of white pants, a white and gold long-sleeved shirt, and a functional white high-collar long coat with a hood that had red accents down the sleeves, along the rim of the collar, and down the middle of the hood.

"Thanks for designing this [Great Sage]. I don't know the first thing about fashion, but you came up with this instantly."

[Notice. It was easy to come up with this design using David's memories and your own preferences.]

"Well, I won't complain, and it's comfortable too," Jaune said with a happy smile before pulling the hood over his head. "Now, let's get started." Taking a deep breath, Jaune used his [Shadow Movement] to start moving to his destination.