Day two inside the Branwen Tribe...
Yesterday was a pretty interesting and eventful day. Got an intriguing item drop from a rare dungeon, finally made it to the bandits, met Neo for the first time, and had a chat with the head honcho herself. Plus, learning a bit of RWBY universe lore since Raven is apparently the Spring Maiden. I can't even ask her how she came about that either, not without putting every bit of suspicion and attention on me from her that is. And, from a fan's perspective, I really, really, really, want to know how she got that power.
It's frustrating but, well, what can you do?
Right now I'm just trying to get some rest, I woke up a little earlier because of my power's insistence on making me only sleep exactly eight hours a night. Today I wasn't having that and stubbornly clung to the blankets I had wrapped around my body. I was not even able to begin getting comfortable because a booted foot slammed into my back and made me roll over. I grunted in pain as I glared over at the one responsible.
"What the hell was that for?!" I shouted at the small woman glaring down at me with her hands on her hips.
Neo made a few gestures that I think I pieced together nicely.
"You want me to stay asleep? I can do that, didn't need to hit me," I told her, trying and failing to hide my smirk. "I'll see you in a few hours…"
I was cut off when she kicked my gut and pointed outside.
"Fine, fine. I'm getting up, just stop the kicking you little hellcat," I grumbled. Seeing that her dominance was secured Neo nodded, pleased, and walked out of my tent with her head held high. I sighed to myself and pushed my body off the bed mat I was sleeping on. I stretched and popped my back, with that small relief out of the way I walked out of my tent. Neo was standing a few feet away, tapping her foot impatiently.
"So why did you feel the need to wake me like that?"
Neo mimed eating then pointed to her wrist. She didn't have a watch on but I could get the general meaning.
"If it's getting late for breakfast then why not just ditch me to get some?"
Neo raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, right. You need to watch me." At Neo's nod, I slumped in defeat, "Alright then, lead the way, Your Majesty."
Neo turned her nose up at me in an attempt to look down at me and stalked down the camp, it didn't work all that well because I'm a good head and a half taller than she was. Nonetheless, I followed Neo to the food tent to grab breakfast. It was a rather simple meal of eggs and sausage, I got the feeling that simple meals are going to become commonplace during my stay here. Already I miss waffles.
Neo and I ate our meal while sitting on a couple of barrels, watching the other bandits come and go. When I finished my food I didn't bother getting up just yet, I pulled out a cigar and lit it. I took a deep drag and let out a large puff of smoke, I think it says something about me when I smoke this early in the day.
I felt a poke on my arm. I looked over at Neo, raising an eyebrow.
Neo pointed at the cigar in my hand.
"You want to try?" I asked. She nodded and I shrugged, handing over the cigar. Neo brought it up to her face and looked it over in her hand, rolling and twisting the cigar to get a look at every inch of it. It was honestly kinda cute to witness.
She finally had enough of just looking at it and stuck it in her mouth. Neo had no chill and took a deep drag on it like I did, I snorted and tried to stop myself from bursting out laughing (I failed) when she instantly stopped and began hacking. I slapped her back a few times to help her get rid of the smoke with a huge smile on my face. When she finally stopped trying to cough out her lungs she glared at me for laughing at her and flicked the still lit cigar at my face.
With a smile still on my face, I ducked under the cigar, trying to keep my giggling under control.
Day three inside the Branwen Tribe…
I didn't bother sleeping last night, with my massage skill I kept myself up all night so I could still train some of my skills in my tent. With my limited movement inside the camp, I shouldn't be sleeping so I can maximize my time to train. I'll have more freedom once this village raid is over.
Speaking of my massage skill, it's ridiculously easy to level up. Despite my other skills that should be easy to level, or just have many ways to do it, but end up taking a long time because it is too easy to do it, Massage just goes up quickly with no worry. Between the time I was driving to the camp and this night of constantly removing my fatigue, the skill reached level thirty-five. It also seems like it increases the fatigue per second by .01 every tenth level too.
Power of Aura, that nifty strength increasing skill, reached level twenty-two last night before it started getting harder and harder to level up quickly. Now that I've actually begun leveling that skill I've noticed that every fifth level increases the strength gained by two, and every twentieth level increases the duration by ten minutes. I'm glad that the skill's strength boost gets better over time, makes leveling the skill worth it and means I don't have to focus on strength training all that much.
I'm thinking of using Rumble tomorrow night to smack me with that starting hammer I bought a while ago. I need to level my Physical Endurance and Aura Mend more, plus my vitality might increase as well. I didn't get a special skill for vitality when it went over fifty, got a bit miffed at that, but I figured I get one when it went over one hundred. In the meantime, I should just be patient and wait for that point when I get there.
When morning came Neo found me in the tent meditating, I opened my eyes and stopped when I heard her enter.
"Morning, Neo," I greeted. "What brings you to my humble abode?"
She mimed eating.
"Right," the early morning was spent eating and this time I didn't have the entertainment of seeing Neo try and smoke a cigar. Yesterday we spent the day doing various chores inside the camp. Or, well, I did the chores at first. Neo was content to let me do her share while she sat around and looked pretty. I got my revenge by not shutting up and kept talking to her the entire day, asking stupid questions without expecting a reply and shooting witty one-liners every time she gave me the stink eye.
By the end of yesterday, Neo had begrudgingly helped with her share of the tasks, if a bit lethargically.
Today Neo had guard duty, which translated to we having guard duty since I'm glued to her side for the next few days. From the look of it, Neo hated this job, though I'm unsure why the entire day since breakfast she kept up a scowl fierce enough to send a Goliath running back to Salem. I, personally, enjoyed it. Sure, guard duty is a bit monotonous, but I could relax a bit and let my mind wander around while I smoked since there were several other people around with us.
I… might not make the best guard.
"You know," I started, making Neo jump a bit, the conversation has been a bit dull for the past hour or two. "If you relax a bit then your mood might improve."
Neo glared at me.
I raised my hands up in surrender, "I get the feeling guard duty isn't your favorite job around here?"
She just huffed and turned away from me, focusing on the endless sand and dry, cracked ground. Did I forget to mention it was hot as balls outside? It's the desert, of course it is. I'm just glad we have some shade installed over us and some barrels of water to keep us hydrated.
"Wanna talk about it? Talking is supposed to help, I've heard," I offered.
"Hah, help? Her?" Came the voice of one of the unimportant guards with us, "With what she did this is punis-"
He was interrupted by one of the other guys jabbing him in the ribs and telling him to shut his big fat mouth. However, my attention was already caught and the need to know what Neo was supposedly being punished for weighed heavily on my mind. Sadly, I was unable to do anything about it. These people don't like talking about inner tribe affairs with people they consider outsiders. So, with extreme effort, I was able to turn my attention back to Neo and ignore the minor arguing going on on the other side of the gate.
"Anyway… about my offer?" Neo looked at me warily and I hurriedly put up, "It doesn't have to be now, I'm willing to listen whenever you're ready. I know we've only known each other for a short amount of time, and I'm a patient man."
Neo still looked unsure but nodded her head anyway and I felt like that was a win in my book.
Day four inside the Branwen Tribe…
I had an interesting experience while training last night.
Since Rumble needed the earth to form I had to cut a small hole in the bottom of my tent so he could squeeze through it. Luckily he didn't need it to be large, he could just move earth through the hole and make himself bigger or smaller as needed. I spent the night letting him hit me in the back with my hammer, managed to get Physical Endurance up by six whole levels, letting me have a whole whopping forty-two reduced damage from physical damage. I also managed to learn that leveling the skill goes by a tiny bit faster when my Aura is down. Since I want to level my Aura as much as I possibly can, I didn't feel like exchanging one for the other and just bit the bullet on a smaller amount of experience for Physical Endurance.
I did use my time to also level up Chameleon, being a skill that didn't need much from me other than spending Aura. Thanks to the fact that it is still in its early levels I reached level fourteen in the skill by the time the night was through, although the only thing affected by leveling it up was the cost per minute plus that arbitrary 'closer an enemy is, the easier you're able to be seen'. Due to the fact that Rumble was smacking me in the back, and me using Aura to level up Chameleon, I was able to make Aura Mend level three times. That skill has been slow to level up lately, so getting three levels in one night made me happy.
But while all of this is well and good, none of it was all that interesting in of itself.
Sometime during the night, I think it was around one or two, I heard my tent flap rustle and open up. I had just finished turning off my Chameleon spell and healing myself, so I was pleading to every god I knew that whoever just entered didn't see anything. My luck turned for the better as Vernal, who was the one interrupting me, stuck her head into my tent. Rumble seemed to have sensed her approach beforehand and made himself scarce, although to be fair he probably could've just hidden behind my back. He wasn't all that large, to begin with.
I kept my beating heart in check and made myself look as casual as possible, "Well, while I'm not opposed to a late night rendezvous with a beautiful woman like yourself… I'd like some sort of warning beforehand. Need to keep the place tidy for a lady."
Vernal, to her credit, kept her face rather neutral despite the fact that I saw a flash of surprise run across her face for the briefest moment.
When my words registered in her brain she rolled her eyes, "Keep dreaming, Romeo. I'm just here for a surprise inspection to make sure you aren't doing anything suspicious."
For some reason, I didn't feel like she was telling me everything. She had to have come here for some other reason since I've been nothing but docile since I agreed to Raven's terms. I didn't have any evidence to back that up, it was just a gut feeling. But sometimes a gut feeling was all you needed to try and get some answers.
I knew I wasn't going to get anything from Vernal, she's only loyal to Raven and her lips would be tighter than a submarine's hatch. So I just shrugged and pretended to believe her, she seemed like she believed me and we had a bit of an awkward staring contest.
"Well," Vernal finally started while looked around my barren tent, "you seem to have nothing suspicious here. I guess I'll leave you to your…"
"Meditation," I supplied.
"Meditation," Vernal nodded. She retracted her head from my tent's flap, I listened carefully and heard her footsteps crunch in the direction of Raven's tent.
I'll admit, I was curious. I gave Vernal a good ten-second start on me before I cracked out my Chameleon spell. I poked my nearly invisible head out of my tent flap and eyed my surrounds, nobody who wasn't on the nightly wall or gate duty was up and about. So that meant I had free reign to sneak off to Raven's tent. Since my Aura regeneration was higher than the combined cost of my Sneak and Chameleon skills, I didn't have to worry about randomly running out of Aura during my little late night stroll.
With my goal in mind, I snuck across the campgrounds, I could already feel my Sneak skill rising as the seconds pass. With no resistance at all, Raven really needs to work on her internal security, I finally reached Raven's tent. I could hear some muffled voices but I wasn't able to make anything out. I frowned, I didn't want this little recess from my training time to be a huge waste. Then my high intelligence stat rears its head for once, I used my Aura and directed it towards the ear I had pressed against the tent cloth.
[You have created a new skill!]
[Listen - Lv1 EXP:0.0%]
Hearing the world around you is a skill that many take for granted every day. But, there are some in the world that can take this basic skill known to almost everything on the planet and increase it by magnitudes. There is even a legend passed down that a lone monk on a mountaintop could focus his energy and hear the buzzing of a bee all the way down at the base.
-Increases the range you can hear soft noises by ten meters.
-Soft voices become a littler louder.
-Cost: 20 MP/Min
I could tell the difference almost immediately, I leaned in a bit and focused on the conversation happening right now.
"-didn't see anything suspicious. He was just sitting down, meditating. I don't know ma'am, are you sure you felt something?" I could tell that this was Vernal.
There was a pause, Raven must be thinking.
"I can not be certain… I know I felt something in the world stir. Like the earth was wide awake instead of just sleeping. I felt the ripples, just as before."
"Well… that's distressing," I thought to myself.
"Perhaps it comes from something else? From the way you describe it, it sounds almost like the power you command. But that's impossible, only a woman can inherit the powers of a Maiden. For the life of me, I can't see that man ever being a person with great magical powers," Vernal stated.
"Well, hey, screw you too, Vernal!"
"Perhaps… but his timing when I felt the first ripples was too great. I'll admit I don't feel anything from him, that was why I agreed to meet him in person in the first place, but…" At this point, Raven sighed, "Nevermind. It's late, Vernal, get some rest."
"Of course, ma'am."
I waited in a very shadowy part next to Raven's tent and watched Vernal head back to her own. Once she was out of sight inside her tent I quickly made my way back to mine, I had a lot to think about as I continued my training. For tonight, and sparingly every few days for a while, I'll still use Rumble to continue to level my Physical Endurance up. Don't need Raven to get suspicious that it stops completely after tonight.
As I sat back down in my tent and closed the two messages that told me Sneak leveled up twice, I realized that I had a lot to think about tonight.
The rest of the day was boring. Neo and I had guard duty again today and I decided to lighten her mood by telling her all I knew about Vale and some of the funny, miscellaneous things I had happen to me during my day to day while there. She seemed a little less grumpy by the end of the day, so I'll endeavor to cheer her up with more of those.
Day five inside the Branwen tribe��
I gave myself a bit of a break last night, letting my mind rest is a good thing. Even if I could, I shouldn't stay awake all the time, that's not healthy. I was also getting myself ready for the village raid ahead, I needed to be in the right mindset so that I don't screw something up or do something I'd regret.
Today was a free day for Neo, who seemed to be quite chipper about that. From what I understand she doesn't seem to get many of those. Apparently, she'd be lucky to get two off days a week, normally Neo has to deal with guard duty for six days out of the week and is not allowed to leave her post for long besides to eat or use the bathroom. I frowned when I found that out from her (A lot of miming and sand writing for those harder concepts), that seemed a bit harsh to do to one of your people. Even I rotate my men around every so often and let them have breaks. Keeps morale up and makes them less likely to backstab you.
Seems like Raven didn't get that memo.
Since I'm stuck with Neo, for the time being, I am also subjugated to her rather harsh schedule. And I am beginning to understand why nobody likes guard duty now. It was fine at first, being alone with nothing but your thoughts and the occasional chatter between the other guards, but just standing there looking out at a whole expanse full of dull sand is mind-numbing. And not in a good way.
At one point in this dull day I decided that I no longer wanted to stand, I looked over at the other guards that hung out together (left the two of us all alone for the most part) and saw that none of them were paying any attention to us. I discreetly stuck my hand into my inventory and pulled out two metal, foldable chairs. I put them on the shady ground behind us and sat my butt down on one.
Neo turned to look at the small amount of noise I was making and jumped back a bit in surprise, she pointed at the chairs in bafflement. I just shrugged and said, "What? I keep a few chairs with me in case I need them, can't expect me to need a place to sit and just deal with the dirty ground." I gestured to the other one with a hand, "Feel free to join me."
Neo looked at the chair for a second before shrugging and joining me, seems she finally gave up trying to figure out how I've been getting items I clearly didn't have before. I handed her a glass of lemonade that I quickly yanked out when she wasn't looking. She took it from me with a smile and stuck the straw in her lips.
"I even added one of those little umbrellas," I said, taking a sip from my own glass.
Neo nodded, pleased with my offering of peace.
We clinked glasses and spent the rest of the day drinking lemonade while gleefully basking in the complaints the other guards were giving us. They were angry we got to sit and drink refreshing, ice cold lemonade while they stood around, baking in the heat all day. But hey, none of them thought to bring a chair or make their own lemonade.
"You know, Neo," I started when the sun started to set.
Neo glanced over at me in confusion, a questioning look on her face.
"I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
(A/N) Ah, nothing like good old-fashioned friendship to start us off.
There were two different ways I thought of to get us past this part of the story. The first was to do a single chapter for the second through fifth days and have each day have something different about it. For the second I'll admit that I gave some consideration to a single chapter dedicated to each day. But, that clearly had some problems with it (Other than being horrifically dragged out and a pain for both the reader and me the writer), mainly that there just isn't much to write here. Roman doesn't get to do much within the camp as he's stuck at Neo's side the entire time. But hey, spending time with Neo is its own reward.
Anyway, I'm thinking of updating at the end of the month. Gives me time to write on the side, play games, and work my job. I also missed some Aura Regen, forgot the 10% from one of his passives. Oops.
Name: Roman Torchwick
Age: 25
Class: The Gamer
Level: 46 (Next Level: 5,866/107,100)
Title: Kingpin
Bounty: 38,000 Lien
HP: 3,014
HP Regen: 60.3/min
MP: 5,778 [3,728 + 186.4(5%) + 1,864(50%)]
MP Regen: 607/min [289(base) + 289(100%) + (28.9(10%)]
STR: 58.8 [Base 42 + 12.6(30%) + 4.2(10%)]
VIT: 71.4 [Base 51 + 15.3(30%) + 5.1(10%)]
DEX: 164 [Base 80 + 12(15%) + 24(30%) + 8(10%) + 40(50%)]
INT: 142.8 [Base 102 + 30.6(30%) + 10.2(10%)]
WIS: 56 [Base 40 + 12(30%) + 4(10%)]
LUK: 43
Elemental Affinity: Earth (10), Wind (10), Fire (10), Ice (10), Lightning (10)
Attribute Points: 50
Lien: 2,419,620
Status Effects: Inactive Aura(Toggled Off)