[||||=LEVEL 20= ||||]
"Abyss!" Ruby called to me. "Tomorrow's christmas eve!" I turned to her and braced myself for her tackle-hug. She slammed into me and I grunted at the impact.
"We're going to go get a tree! Can you help?!" Ruby looked up to me with happy, wide eyes and really could I even say no?
"Sure."
"YES! Thank you!"
Something occurred to me. "We?" Ruby nodded brightly. "The clan of course! The tree's going to be in the lunchroom!"
I raised an eyebrow. The magical bandit clan picking out christmas trees? Well… alright.
"When are we going?"
"Like five minutes!" I blinked. Well alright then.
"I'm going to go put on some clothes." Ruby nodded again before using her semblance to go racing down the halls.
"GUYS ABYSS IS MAKING A PORTAL IN FIVE MINUTES IN THE LUNCHROOM!" I watched her call it out for anyone who would listen as I walked to the bathroom.
Roughly five minutes later I was walking into the lunchroom and-holyshit Raven was wearing a santa hat. Oh, Ruby was sitting on her shoulders with her own santa hat. Raven also looked grumpy with a bigger scowl than usual… best not to mention the hat. Or look at it. A glance around revealed the bandits had similar ideas to me. We were all wise men it seems.
"Yes! Now everybody's here! Let's go!" Ruby froze. "Wait, does anybody know where pine trees are?"
Raven sighed. "There are plenty of pine trees around where we last made camp. Abyss, can you make a portal there?" I nodded and made four in the center of the room. The bandits filed in.
As they passed Ruby she put santa hats on their heads. First she started with Vernal, who looked tempted but then at Raven, who glared at her at a level above the usual. "If I suffer you suffer" was the silent message. I stepped away for a moment and took all the alcohol we had into my inventory. This might be more bearable with alcohol.
I managed to step into the portal without being santa'd and found my feet on snow. Oh? It was lightly snowing. I walked around and casted enchantments to keep everyone warm as well as alcohol, receiving plenty of thanks along the way. Nobody thanked me for the enchantments.
Ruby, still on Raven's shoulders, emerged from the portal. "That's everyone!" I closed the portals in response. "Now where are those christmas trees?" Raven pointed and I checked with mage sight. Yup. There are trees there.
"Onwards! For christmas spirit!" Ruby pointed dramatically towards the treeline past which lay christmas trees. Everyone slowly began to move in the direction of the christmas trees and Ruby tried to start a christmas carol. Did she lose all ability to read a crowd? Wait, it was working. It was probably the alcohol.
Speaking of alcohol I neared Raven and used a wind whisper. "What kind of alcohol?" Her eyes widened.
"Beer. Please beer." I sent a beer through our shared inventory and she accepted it gratefully. She took a long drink from it and sighed gratefully. Ruby looked down at her with her beer bottle and looked up.
"Where did the alcohol come from?" People sang louder and she shrugged and continued singing. Nobody was going to rat out the guy that handed out the only good part of this expedition, after all. Besides, I wasn't going to hand out any seconds to the guy that rats me out.
For a while we walked. I suppose I could have made another portal to the tree but people had actually gotten into it. The bandits were laughing as they drank and sang crappy christmas carols.
Occasionally some grimm would come around but for a bunch of tipsy magical bandits, a wizard, and a grumpy maiden they were barely a threat. For one poor beowolf a bandit wrestled it to the ground before they put it down… okay, this is pretty fun.
We eventually made it to the trees. It took about a half hour of murder on the ears and a large amount of walking before we all saw the trees come into view.
Immediately some horrible rendition of red nosed reindeer, but in remnant Rudolf is a grinn called a peryton. A deer with wings but instead of the normal dark feathered black wings of the grimm Rudolf has glowey red wings to light the way. Then the nevermoores could see the humans and kill them all. Geez, remnant is a weird place. This is a children's story by the way.
As we saw the first wisps of the skinny young pine trees cheers rang out. Ruby laughed and shouted "Onwards! Find the greatest tree of them all! So long as it fits in the apartment floor we can use it!" and the crowd obeyed. Bandits went running in all directions looking for the greatest tree we can use.
Raven set down Ruby - because no way in hell she was going to run around in a santa hat chugging beer with Ruby on her shoulders - and Ruby darted off with a laugh and a flurry of red and black roses.
Raven walked off with a groan and turned her beer bottle over. Nothing came out and she looked towards me. I tossed her a new bottle and she opened it with her teeth and took a small sip.
With a huff Raven waved her hand and a bench of ice rose from the ground. She laid back and a pillar of ice rose under her feet. She ignored the cold. I had never put an enchantment on her or Ruby, had I? I sat down next to her and raised my feet. I was going to make an ice pillar for myself but Raven did it for me. I smiled a little and poked her arm, applying a heat enchantment. She sighed and took her santa hat off. To my slight irritation she put it on my head. Bah, whatever.
"I don't think my tribe has ever been this cheerful." Raven said nostalgically. "They've been happy before when we hit a fat caravan or we got a whole load of eggnog before christmas but this sort of holiday spirit isn't seen. Nobody's ever gone to get a tree before or sung carols… but strangely enough they're still strong. They're just as willing to go rob a store as they are to play with Ruby. Vernal especially, has finally stopped hanging on my every word and developed a softer side. I have too. But I'm just as bored as always when I chop off some gang leader's head as always."
"You keep an eye on them?" I asked.
"Of course." She said immediately. "I still command their respect. They know what I do. Sometimes they go in first after I finish a gang. They remember well to respect and fear me. We're absolutely still a clan but we just separated at the beginning of each day now. I suppose it's like when a family has breakfast each day and then split up to go to work and school."
I nod. "I was worried your clan might drift apart. I'm glad it hasn't." Raven snorted.
"You helped with that. The tattoos. The magic. Nobody can talk with anybody else about that. It brings us together. Not even Roman knows about magic, after all. We're bound together with the knowledge of that… and the tattoos. They wear the tattoos as a symbol of the clan. They've marked down the matrixes on some paper. They're planning on giving them to the future Branwen members after some sort of 'rite of passing'. They put it to a vote and it was almost anonymous. I had no reason to disagree. It helps with the unity of the clan."
I nodded as Raven took another drink of beer. "The community is good for Ruby. You saw how close she is to everybody." Raven grinned a little.
"If she had tried putting these stupid hats on anyone a year ago she might have been punched. Now, though, exposure bred some familiarity. Especially during the summer. She might start wearing that fur clothing again now that it's cold. Or maybe make it her huntress 'thing'. Dye it red and black. I'm pretty sure I saw some drawings of her as a 'badass huntress' wearing the furs. Heat runes from you along with whatever you think is best, armor like you wear under the furs, and some other things. The necklace made of bone, the tattoos, and more words saying things like 'awesome' and 'badass' than I could read. How she drafts actual weapons is beyond me."
I laughed as she shook her head. "Did you see her schematics for the weapons she wants to use?"
Raven nodded. "Of course. She finished them." I stopped laughing quick.
"What do you mean?" Raven closed her eyes.
"You've been working so hard over your whole criminal empire and getting the land around patch ready and talking with the white fang - just all of it. Not to mention how you're always working. She's worried that her schematics might not be good enough. She's torn her hair out over the schematics, putting out draft after draft and taking the best of them. The stuff she's made could easily be called a masterpiece. I saw the schematics for Qrow's weapon. What she's drawn up puts his weapon to shame.
Some of the stuff she's made is ingenious. You should see what she did with the barrel. It actually grinds some dust onto the bullets of her rifle without even igniting the dust. I think she took some inspiration from my blades and your dust system and put them into your two weapons. She made up a schematic for my katana too. Nothing incredible like she did for you but just the effort she clearly put into that schematic alone would be a boon to me. I could use half the amount of dust blades that I do. Instead of telescopic blades they actually shoot out of the hilt and explode like some sort of… blade bazooka.
And what she did with your weapon… well she wants you to actually use it. She knows what you can do with magic and to her it makes her weapons feel… inferior. She hates it but she could never hate you. So she took the only option. She made a weapon that does what she hopes you could never do."
I was silent. "I didn't know she felt that way." Raven nodded.
"You raised her too well. She's smarter than anyone gives her credit for. Not just weapons and mathematics and sciences, which was a smart thing to teach her, by the way. She used those lessons a lot in designing her weapons. But she knows herself well. She knows how to hide what she feels when she wants to. In an eleven year old that's… impressive. Almost humbling. I never learned that sort of 'hide your emotions' thing until beacon."
I nodded. "... I have metals that can conduct magic. Does she know about them?"
Raven turned to me slowly. "..." Swiftly her hand came up and punched me on the nose. She breathed slowly and looked away with a scowl. Her other hand raised up and she took a drink of her beer. A moment passed in which nothing happened but her taking a long drink. The bottle pulled away with a soft breath. "Sorry. You only sort of deserved that. Did you know she didn't know about those metals?" I shook my head.
"As you said, I'm always busy. Ruby and I don't talk about weapon crafting all that much. I mean, I showed her the metals before but this was before I told her about how they conduct mana. I can technically use any material to conduct mana. Come to think of it… I'm pretty sure different materials can make my spells stronger. Some materials have an affinity. Red bloom sap and wood have a corruption element imbued into them. Maybe I could tell Ruby about them and… yeah. I'll tell her about the stuff soon."
"Now." Raven said.
"What?" I asked.
"You'll tell my niece now. Christmas eve is TOMORROW in case you forgot. She's probably going to tell you about the schematics then. Tell her NOW so she can still give you them. She's worked so long on these and she's told me how much she's studied for this. For years, Abyss. YEARS! So you damn well will tell her right now. RUBY! GET OVER HERE!"
I blinked at Raven. It was probably the alcohol making her so demanding and… punchy. But she was right.
"Auntie! Is something wrong?!" Ruby came dashing into the clearing. Raven pointed at me.
"He has something to tell you. He's been a busybody and completely forgot something incredibly important. I'm pissed so I'm going to go hunt down some grimm." Raven snatched the santa hat from my head and shoved it on her head and stalked off drinking the rest of her beer and tossing the bottle on the ground as she drew her sword angrily.
"Uhhh… huh?" Ruby stared at Raven as she disappeared through the treeline. "I don't think I've seen auntie so angry for me before."
"That would be… my fault." I said grimly. Ruby looked at me in some confusion before her face came to a realization.
"You don't have a santa hat!" Ruby patted herself over before finding a spare hat. She tossed it to me and I pulled it over my head down to my eyebrows with a sigh. That's really not too important here, Ruby…
"Alright. So… I made a rather large mistake. A very large mistake. It wasn't really something I thought about. In fact, it was a lack of it that caused this in the first place."
Ruby was silent and stared at me, figuring that this was important. "Don't get mad at Raven. She told me about your work with the weapons. How hard you've worked with them. I don't really know anything about them." Ruby looked a little annoyed as she glanced back towards where Raven went off to. "Honestly. She didn't mean anything bad by it and barely told me anything other than that you worked your butt off on them." Ruby turned from where Raven ran off grudgingly and put her out of mind as she listened to me.
"I can't believe I forgot to tell you this… there are metals to conduct mana." Ruby's mouth opened a little and she stared at me with a completely off-guard look.
"Not just that but I'm going to run a few tests. I recently found out that materials can have an innate affinity. I got the idea from wizard's staffs. Sadly I only know about that ice forest I told you about and the red blooms, which have a corruption affinity. The affinities in the materials might add to or amplify the effects of spells…"
Ruby stared at me with a more surprised expression than anything. I stand there waiting for tears or accusations but nope.
Ruby disappears in a flurry of roses and slams into me. I hear a crack from the ice making up the bench. In under a moment Ruby begins shaking as she cries into my chest. I sit there for a minute as she cries into my chest. Eventually she collect herself enough to sort of speak.
"I-*sniffle* I was so scared you-..." I could barely make our Ruby's words so I offer a handkerchief from hard light. She takes it and blows her snot into it. She tries to hand it to me but I pinch an unsoiled corner and toss it aside as it dispels when I stop fuelling mana.
"I was so scared you would be all… all 'I don't need a w-weapon!' magic is so-so awesome! You c-c-can do anything with it… what do you need a weapon for?!" I hugged her back as she cried a little bit more in a fresh wave of tears.
"I'm n-not mad! I f-forget stuff a-all the t-time! Auntie si scared you h-hurt me… she's sense… sensitive. *sniff*." I chuckle that Raven could be sensitive. Ruby was right but it was still funny that she, the woman who abandoned her daughter, brother, and husband, was one of the most sensitive people I know next to Summer and Ruby. Perhaps Tai. He's a little too sensitive though and I pulled a reverse Raven taking Ruby and leaving while Raven left Yang and left.
"Don't worry. Besides, we can always upgrade weapons. I only know about where to get the materials for ice and corruption and I don't even use corruption spells… well, yet. I might start when I look into forever fall, which I really need to do… I'll do that during a three day weekend. The same goes for the icy forest."
"Can I come?" Ruby asked. It was hard to tell what she was saying since she said it into my shirt.
"If you get Raven to come you can come to the icy forest. The deeper parts of forever fall cause insanity and a bunch of nasty stuff. I've got a little trump card against that for myself but it's too dangerous for anyone else. I'm pretty sure Ozpin doesn't go into forever fall because of the stuff in there. You never know, there might be a final boss at the end guarding the best tree in the forest!"
Ruby giggled and turned a little to free her face to talk with. "Pull out your trump card at the last second and yell 'this isn't my final form!'" I rolled my eyes.
"This isn't the remnant gamer, Ruby."
"What's that?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Meh, whatever." Ruby sighed and leaned into me. I flashed mage sight and saw Raven hacking at some poor beowolves. She seemed to have cooled off a little bit at least.
I sent her a wind whisper. "Ruby's fine. But I promised that we're going to the icy forest together. Soon." Raven grunted as she sliced the last beowolf, an alpha, in half.
"Fine. I'm coming with you. I have a fire affinity, unlike you." She spoke the last part with a little mockingness to it. I didn't mind. She mocks people when she's off balance.
"That's fine. We have some time before the break ends. I'll tell Roman and Neo to handle things and we'll have an overnight if it's safe."
"Fine." Raven said as she spotted another pack to massacre. I cut the spell and waited for Ruby to get tired of hugging me.
After a few minutes she sighed. "What kinds of stuff do you think we'll see?" I hummed.
"Well there's the ice elementals, who are like bony looking snake skeletons from the one I saw but I'll bet that there's more of them in other forms. There's probably a minor elemental or… I dunno. I never saw an elemental greater than a minor. But I think that we can just loot a sapling from the forest and cultivate them. We can totally do stuff with their wood. Like a house in Vacuo that doesn't instantly give heatstroke without an air conditioner or a thermos that's always cold. I'll bet that we can find something else to do with them. Maybe they grow fruit."
"Ooh. The fruit might raise your ice affinity."
I smiled. "That would be awesome. We could make a smoothie out of them."
Ruby giggled. "Fruit flavored ice cubes that never melt!" I laughed.
"A worthy use of arcane forces."
"You use teleportation to get to school on time!"
"I'm going to be using clones to take my classes for me-"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"-so I can work instead."
"Oh that sounds more like you." I laughed a little more.
"You know… I can probably just ask Ozpin about the places and he can direct me to the places but that's boring. He might say 'You're too young to go chasing magical artifacts!' or something like that."
"Well you can just teleport out."
"Exactly."
"Can we go before the break ends? We've got a week before school starts after christmas."
"I thought the same thing."
We stayed like that, just chatting about what could be in the forest from yetis to a castle made of ice to talking snowmen. We both knew there might just be nothing but the trees but it was fun to think about what might be there. The icy forest was a wild and mysterious place. It was a place where we could take a look into magic and just have fun and explore.
Eventually we finally got up and found the bandits arguing over which of two trees was better since one was a little thin in the branches and one was a little too bit to fit. Ruby talked them down and we cut down the top of the too tall one and I grew it back to a better size. Everyone was happy after that.
I popped open a portal and we maneuvered the tree through it. As for the tree we did the only reasonable thing to do. We put it in the lunchroom, rearranged the tables to be around it, and began our near holy work.
We magicked the ever loving shit out of it.
I casted my most little used spell, animate, and made the little birds flap their wings every once and awhile. I made water, put some food coloring into it, and then froze it and then enchanted it with a light affinity to glow. A bandit had picked some berries whie we were in the forest that were still faintly alive and I grew them into a vine that I tossed around the tree to add some red to it. Besides that we really couldn't do much more. A few bandits got to carving wooden ornaments but those would take a few hours.
As soon as we finished I handed Ruby a list of all the metals I had and their properties that I had made a parallel make. I also set my parallels to nurture my ice affinity as much as they could. I wanted to get an ice elemental while I was at that forest. I gained a point once every half hour with four of them working on it; the fifth was still working on patch as Mystic with his tornadoes. He was still moving from place to place and meditating though so he was able to help out to nurture the affinity. It was growing fast. Not quite fast enough but I only had to get it to two hundred fifty and I should be able to contract a ice elemental.
I had noticed a little trend in my affinities and elementals. Raven had one thousand in each affinity roughly. Swift and Hawk agreed that she barely had enough to sustain Hawk while Hawk said I could probably support two minor elementals or one minor elemental.
Since I have two thousand affinity in air I think that means one thousand of an affinity lets me contract an elemental. Two thousand lets me summon petty elementals and keep a minor elemental or two petty elementals. Three thousand lets me hold a minor elemental and a petty elemental. Four thousand should allow me to contract a… whatever was above minor elemental and summon minor elementals. Then i would be able to summon whatever is two tiers above a minor elemental at eight thousand. It's just a theory but my semblance tends to follow patterns. Like increments of a hundred to mastering a skill. I can guess that affinities work in increments of a thousand.
Ruby went to sleep late. She was merging those new materials with her blueprints and working as hard as she could to merge those magical metals with her blueprints. She also made the early drafts of some sort of spellgun if the materials can be used to amplify spells as I suspected. She finished one particular blueprint early and I swear the girl is a genius. I got to work on it for a little while that night for tomorrow.
I didn't sleep that night and instead meditated deeply for about eight hours to morning, which was close enough to sleep that I wasn't really tired. I do it occasionally to work my affinities. I'm doing the same this time but I'm also furiously working to get to the suspected prerequisite for an ice elemental. Raven was not going to one-up me. I'm the wizard, damnit!
I was at eighty six, eighteen points above what I had before, by morning from a combination of ceaseless work and all my parallels working on it. Well, except for a little… gift from Ruby.
Anyways, that's for tomorrow. I actually have a plan for raising my affinity for ice fast. It might be a little dangerous, though. I could use soul hearth in reverse on an elemental and siphon off it's affinity. It would be like the passive effect of passenger but I'll actively drain the ice elemental of it's soul and enjoy the bounty of it's affinity.
However, my passive skills enhance my affinities so would my ice affinity reach two thousand or reach one hundred seventy eight, where my skills would multiply it to roughly two thousand? I can't say for certain but I'm pretty confident that with my aura control I can fight the ice elemental inside me and drain it for as much affinity as I can before it dies. Then I can repeat. This technique might work with other souls as well.
It makes me kind of like a soul vampire… holy shit could I soul vamp Ozpin?! Or other humans?! Or what about taking some bark from the red bloom trees and siphoning off it's affinity? But it doesn't have a soul. Could I meditate and absorb the latent corruption affinity in the ambient mana of forever fall? Could that tactic work in the ice forest? Does any of this work at all?!
I put these questions out of my mind and excitedly waited for the day where we'll go to kick ass in the icy forest while furiously raising my ice affinity.
Christmas eve was filled with me working on my ice affinity, finishing up that idea Ruby gave to me and Ruby drafting, merging, discarding, and redrafting weapons.
Raven checked in once or twice. The tribe wasn't really the 'celebrate christmas eve' sort, which I was thankful for. I did, however, make cookies and lay them and some out cheese on a platter by the tree. My family had the weird tradition of 'santa mouse' from a kid's book back in my last life. Not everything has left me.
I also put Ruby's newest creation under the tree and politely ignored Vernal doing the same with a box full of presents for plenty of people. She did the same for me.
Christmas spirit at it's finest in my opinion.
[|||| == ||||]
"Hello Winter."
"Hello again Weiss. I was hoping you would call soon. This is about the new company, nature's bounty? Or something else."
"It's about the new company. Father is getting rid of the singing lessons an-"
"WHAT?!"
"Winter calm down!"
"Calm down?! I nearly fought him to get you those lessons!"
"I'm getting sent to signal!"
"... I'm sorry, what?!"
"Abyss Mavros! He's the heir to the company and father wants me to befriend him so that when I eventually inherit the company the SDC and he inherits nature's bounty and we partner up!"
"... partner up… marriage?!"
"NO! Actual partnership!"
"Not lifelong partnership?"
"... Winter."
"Hm. Hold on… oh he is rather good looking. Some very nice eyes. I don't think I-"
"What? Are you… there are pictures of him?"
"Yes."
"Hold on… oh he is… his eyes are nice. Very unique."
"And his uncle too."
"Winter please don't speak improperly."
"You will have plenty of proper speech with father's tutors. Will you be alright without any more relaxed lessons for the time being?"
"I'm getting my experience with the rapier doubled and my business lessons increased by an hour each day. Father is also giving me lessons in dust usage from a tutor."
"I see… no trainers for your semblance?"
"I have a private study period, as normal."
"I see… I'll be coming over to tutor you in your semblance. Ironwood is otherwise preoccupied. The white fang have been more quiet than normal lately. Probably due to the attention being on nature's bounty and the Mavros'. I'm owed some vacation time anyways."
"You… thank you Winter."
"Of course. Just promise me something, won't you?"
"Within reason."
"Already you're becoming more businesslike. I suppose that will serve you well with the Mavros'. Or not, considering their… inelegance. You'll likely meet a man calling himself Qrow at signal. He'll likely say bad things about me."
"Why?"
"We mutually dislike each other. That's all you need to know. Call him an old drunkard for me, won't you? And for the love of dust don't pick up any habits from him."
"I… I'll remember that."
"Good. I'll see you soon, Weiss. Tell father that I'll come by to train you please."
"Of course. Goodbye Winter. Please be more decent next time we speak."
"I'll be in father's manor and thus in public. Of course I will be. Oh, and Weiss? Merry christmas."
"... Merry christmas Winter."
*Beep.*
"…*Sniffle*… I'll be alright."
[|||| == ||||]
"Here!" Ruby handed me a present. Around the tree were a number of gifts wrapped already. There were plenty made for Raven, Ruby, and I. there were also a fair few for Vernal and some other notable members of the tribe. Someone had made Raven's presents into a throne as some sort of prank.
There was Maya, an old seamstress that was like the grandma of the tribe. She handed out chores, repaired clothes, and did the cooking before I came along. She got a set of new sewing materials and tools, some clothes of her own, and some other things like a bronze necklace that I recall a bandit asking me to rune for him. I had done that in under a minute. Nevertheless the other guy wrote my name on the gift. All it did was keep a person a little bit more healthy. It was like a heal spell and a weak collection and storing system for mana. It was nothing really.
There was also Moss, who took the hit with flight and invisibility for the clan to be a scout. He got a few really nice explosives, a mechashift sniper and sword with a few hundred rounds, and some explosives with a note that said "To drop on poor dumbasses".
A man everybody called captain got a bottle of some well aged whiskey, a flak jacket (which I had been asked to rune to be lighter and had my name with it. I can barely remember doing this stuff), a decanter, and a case of cigars.
There were a few others with notable gifts but a good two in three people had a gift that I had runed to be better. I hadn't realized that I had done so much. Runing only took a minute. Three at most. For a full body was maybe thirty minutes to an hour of work.
We did the gifts in order of who got the least to who got the most for some reason. It was just what was suggested and nobody had any better ideas. Ruby had the most, I the second most, then Raven, and then Vernal.
As Vernal got started… well… there was a reason we didn't get along much.
"What the fuck is this?!"
"Awww, thank you Mint… but you're still a bitch with beowolves."
"Holy fuck!"
There was just so. Much. Swearing. I have a hard time handling it. I'm not the cleanest mouth around but I don't have swears every sentence. Vernal also has a tendency to insult everybody but Raven and Ruby and hasn't really picked it up that I don't just dislike being insulted constantly, even in a friendly way, but I don't like swears to be used often. It was one of the main reasons we didn't get along.
That Raven kept her around was something that still surprised me sometimes with just how crass Vernal was and how calm vernal could be. Well, Raven had her bitchy moments. She makes sure not to bitch to me or Ruby because Ruby is too nice and knows when to back off and I was more powerful than her and she knew I might poison her food if I was annoyed. I did that once to a bandit that had mouthed off to me and people got the point to not piss me off and expect me to make them food.
Vernal got a book titled 101 creative ways to swear, a plethora of city-wear for 'bad girls' such as herself with spiked collars and studs and whatnot, a set of paintbrushes and paints of various types (apparently Vernal liked to paint in her free time. I had no idea), and some more normal gifts. Then we got to the last one…
It was Ruby's, and apparently my, gift. On it was written 'From Ruby and Abyss! (I tricked him to make these). Instantly I knew something was up. Vernal's eyes lit up and she smirked as she opened up the weapons I had unknowingly made for her.
Two deer-horn knives capable of using wind, fire, lightning, and water dust as well as combining them in a few different ways. They didn't have a 'gun' but they did fire beams of wind and fire dust and lightning and water dust. One combined beam for each. They were also runed to hell and back to be light as a feather, about half as durable as diamond with none of the brittleness of gems, and sharp as… something really sharp. I don't think there's any real comparison here. They can cut through stone if I slash with all my might.
Ruby had shown me the schematics and I just shrugged and went "Sure" and made them for her. Deer-horn knives weren't something I had done before and I had some free time. So I made them and forgot about them.
"Uh… thanks Abyss." Vernal said uncomfortably. I shrugged.
"It's no problem." She nodded and Ruby fist pumped. Was she shipping us? Dust I hope not. Please be friendship. That's probably it actually. Ruby knows I'm not looking to date anyone.
"Okay! Raven's turn!" Ruby said excitedly. We all looked towards the throne of presents and Raven sighed and picked one off the top, where she wouldn't destroy some poor bandit's hard work. She tore open the boxy present pretty easily and…
"Leadership and tactics… for dummies…" we all held our breath and Raven looked up.
"Who's the kind soul who gave me this?"
Nobody spoke for a minute. "It was probably Roman. Check the tag." I said. Raven's eyes narrowed and she looked through the torn paper and pieced together a name.
"A gentleman thief… hm. That's pretty good actually. I think I'll pay him back in kind." All of us shivered at her tone. It would have been a great joke if we didn't know that poor Roman was utterly screwed. He had tried to joke and failed at it. Now he paid the price.
Most of the gifts passed pretty quickly after that. A bit of alcohol, fine teas, some nice teacups (Raven really liked tea and alcohol and not much else), a set of weapon maintenance supplies since Raven was wearing down on some of her swabs and cleaning agents, and some good quality dust.
The last two presents were Ruby's and mine and I had actually known that I was giving them this time, considering I made one of them last night. The first was filled with high quality dust of a few different types. I specifically said that it was for her dust system in a note on the inside. She wordlessly looked to me curiously as to why but I just pointed to the last box from Ruby and me.
Raven opened the box under the paper and her eyes widened at the sight. I added a list of capabilities on a piece of paper for easy use. These items were made of a special array of metals though. Metals I've had for a while and never used.
Moribus
Rarity: Rare
Material type: Metal
Melting point: 1891 degrees celsius
Hardness: 42/100 (Somewhat soft for a metal)
Ductility: 93/100 (Easily molded)
Special trait: Superior conductor - This metal is capable of conducting any form of energy with no resistance. Mana, aura, electricity, heat, ether, and otherwise.
Novis (Unattuned)
Rarity: Rare
Material type: Metal
Melting point: 1984 degrees celsius
Hardness: 64/100 (Somewhat hard)
Ductility: 54/100 (a little hard)
Special trait: Dust reflective - Upon contact to a dust and/or attuned mana or aura the metal will absorb the dust's or mana's affinity and when mana is channeled through it after treatment it will attune said mana to the affinity of the consumed dust. Grade of dust/Affinity of mana and purity of metal determines amount of affinity granted to the mana channeled through. Mana already attuned will have a more intense attunement after being channeled through if the affinity is the same as the metal's.
The items in the box in question were a set of special dust blades and a hilt. As soon as Ruby saw novis on the list of metals I had she immediately thought of her aunt and how much this would save her money and time not to mention being able to channel mana better with the new properties of the metal. So she brought the idea to me and I made blades of Novis to conduct the attuned mana and amplify any spells cast from her blade, which most all of them were.
To actually channel mana properly metal kind of sucked while wood and natural materials were great at it. But I had moribus. So I just made a hilt made of it to attach to the blades. Raven could now use her dust blades infinitely without any worries over the blades breaking and channel spells through them to become even more powerful than before.
But that wasn't all of course. Because Raven had my dust system so her spells were already supercharged with affinity. The blades were chock full of affinity already from the high quality dust imbued into them but with a spell already made more powerful from dust Raven had a spell (powerful) amplified by dust (very powerful) amplified more by the blade (scary powerful).
With these blades Raven might actually be getting closer to beating me if we went all out. I mean, my affinities overshadow hers and I'm better at the spells AND I have far more aura and mana than her but she was stronger and faster than me with better skills in the blade. It was skill in magic, superior magical energies, and better affinities versus skill in physical combat and superior physical stats before but now it was just my superior reserves and skill. Raven could more than compete with her affinities with her blades. We both had the dust system so that didn't count.
It was a little scary that Raven could compete with me in combat even if I was at my best. There weren't many who could do that. Ozpin, Salem, possibly Cinder, and whatever forces were hiding in the background. Some grimm of incredible strength perhaps or whatever elementals were able to fight on even terms with me now. There's probably other magical creatures around remnant able to fight on even terms with me or utterly stomp me cone to think of it. Nothing to do about that.
Raven looked to me seriously and I glanced away uncomfortably for a moment before looking back. Wait, her upper lip quivered.
"Thank you, Abyss. Thank you Ruby." Raven said. There was the smallest shake to her voice as she replaced the dust blades in her weapon with the magical ones. Awww. She's a big softie.
"Okay!" Ruby called out to bring attention away from Raven, who clearly wanted to shed a tear in peace. "Next up is Abyss!" The usual cheering came out from the clan and the first gift was placed in my hands by Ruby, who looked at me with happily shining eyes.
I got onto unwrapping presents and just got… stuff. Nothing actually useful but they got me stuff. It was so strange to be the person receiving gifts after all this time. In the previous christmas' it had just been me and Ruby so we went out and did something nice together. Ruby killed her first grimm on christmas. I still have the picture… I should spread that around.
Most important to me was a journal from people. Everyone had come together behind my back and had a brainstorming session on what I could do with runes. From making windows made of concrete by making them transparent to using the affinities of somebody else to cast a spell the ideas were nearly endless. It was the only of two gifts that actually meant something to me. It was a bit of a shocker to see Raven's and Vernal's names on a few ideas.
Raven offered the idea to store spells in runes and release them later through my soul space to mitigate mana costs. It was one of the best ideas in there with the magical metals I can use so I can make a sort of spellgun for real instead of the gun/wand that Ruby was coming up with. I'm pretty sure she's going to merge that with my halberd/shortsword somehow though. But that was the last present.
Vernal pointed out that maybe I could make a fortress and rune it to hell and back to store mana and use it as a sort of safe house. An unassailable wizard's tower. It… wasn't a half bad idea. I just needed a tower, first of all. Actually… I could make something like a tower of ice and maintain it with all the ice mana that the ice trees emit and bind the elementals to me somehow. The elementals were bound to defend the icy forest. Could I bind them to defend me?
"This is his thinking face." Ruby whispered. That snapped me out of considering whether ambient ice mana could maintain ice.
"How long was I out for?" I asked.
"Only about twenty seconds." Raven said. I shook my head and looked towards the last present. The holy grail. Ruby's schematics.
I opened the box and withdrew the three rolls of schematics, even colored blue from some drafting paper I had gotten Ruby a while ago, and opened them with reverence. Ruby chuckled a little nervously as we looked at them.
Holy shit Ruby.
The first was Ruby's scythe/shortsword/sniper with… whoah. That's… that's… well then…
First form was the scythe. The sheath was the shaft of the weapon and the blade the… blade of the weapon. It was pretty big. The blade was about half the size of her body but that was fine. It was actually a little-fuck…
She wrote to use space runes to expand the blade but they only activate as she draws it. I can do it but that's really smart. I don't even have to make the runic matrix that big since, as an annotation stated, it could slowly burn off a small amount of mana to fuel an expand spell only when it was in scythe mode or when she activated it in it's shortsword mode apparently.
The shaft was also extremely complex. It used novis to add a dust effect to the gun. Ruby had studied the runes for hardening that I used and she warped them so that they still worked fine but they were shaped along a tube of novis to add spin to a bullet as well as a dust effect while the moribus wouldn't budge since it was harder. It wouldn't even be dangerous since she had an inert non-magical metal as the outside of the shaft to keep from hurting herself from the attuned novis. The shaft had some odd engravings on it though. I don't understand them. They aren't runes…
There were an array of safety measures crammed into the scythe as well.
Next was the sniper mode. The barrel was the same as the scythe but the blade bended through some unholy contortions that worked though they made my brain hurt just looking at them to become a grip and scope. The scope was an iron sight actually. Ruby was confident that that was enough for her and made a reference to a piece of headgear to allow for long-range sniping. The rest of the sniper just sort of fell into place as the barrel shortened and it sprung to become the sniper and the novis became harmless as it was covered by the safety measures.
Finally was the shortsword. Undoubtedly the most complex form. The blade was filled with the novis once again and the hardening runes pressed against the case of the non-magical metaland-OHHHHH! Those engravings touched the runes and filled them, making the runes filled in and-why in the name of Ozpin does that work?! Somehow the runes are made three dimensional and apply to the non-magical metal and the novis so they're both harder.
The blade is two-sided in a way but some parts of what was the scythe blade are folded up with some spring works that were making the rifling of the sniper to both… so it hits something, has a delayed effect, and then the sniper fires and you give me some space to make anti-recoil runes and I can actually do that. Fucking genius girl. This is so smart it's pissing me off.
The gun can use the springworks to extend and fold over the blade, effectively sheathing it. The handle, thankfully, was normal.
"Dust…" Raven whispered.
"This pisses me off. It's too smart." I mumbled. "I want one. I'm making ten."
"I call it rose eclipse… I've got some color schemes but I really like red and black… what do you guys think?" Ruby smiled sheepishly. "I mean, the spring works are a little prone to fault in the shifting stage to a scythe but it works. So long as nobody hits it while it's shifting the novis will be fine and-"
"Shut up Ruby." Vernal said. Ruby flinched. "It's amazing. And way too complex for me to comprehend. I just get that this works in some sort of mad scientist way."
"Those contractions from scythe blade to sniper rifle… they hurt my head." I say. Ruby giggled.
"I could calculate that they're possible but yeah. I had a huge headache actually making them on paper. Be really careful with them, alright?"
"Ruby…" Raven said carefully. "The rifling with the moribus with the scythe and sniper… what are the velocities on those?"
"That depends. You see that blank space there?" Ruby timidly pointed out a space in the moribus rifling where the bullet just enters and yes there was a blank space. "It depends on how intense the momentum runes Abyss can make there are. Without them, though, the bullets travel at mach 2."
"I can double that." I mutter as I pore over the schematics. Ruby's eyes widened.
"Really?! With that little space?!"
I nodded. "You've already got novis here and there's the recoil negating runes here, right? They still work?" Ruby nodded.
"As a sniper, yeah. I can turn them off and on with the scythe."
I nod. "Well in that case… I could imbue motion mana into the novis and instead of an elemental effect the bullet will be faster. They'll also be immune to gravity, being imbued with the motion magic. I'm guessing… mach 9? Yeah… or probably 8 after wearing down the moribus a little but I'll give you a plate filled with motion attuned mana and you can refill the moribus."
"As my affinity for motion increases the bullet will get increasingly faster. This is only possible because I'm going to put a mana charging and storing system on the recoil negating part here so I can just conduct the mana through here and make the runes way more efficient."
Ruby was looking at the schematic with stars in her eyes. "Do it."
I grinned. "Now for my halberd/shortsword…" Ruby grinned wolfishly.
"It's even better than my baby, that being eclipse rose." I nodded with a similar grin.
"And what are the final two schematics?" Ruby laughed lowly. She sounded like a menacing goblin.
"Well… it's armor. Mine is just some basic stuff to allow you to go ham on runes and be protective. But auntie Raven got some pretty nifty upgrades… and she can stop showing so much thigh to her clan with this. It also looks good."
The entire clan glanced towards towards raven, who was glaring at Ruby for bringing it up. Now everybody would notice it for the whole day.
"Yours… well… remember my sheath idea? Where I have a sheath that's a part of the weapon that also stores it? Well it occurred to me that I don't actually need to make it a sheath. So why not full armor?" I stood up and cackled with Ruby. Raven got over us mentioning her thighs and looked towards us with a shiver. The clan collected everything and ran as we began to talk about Ruby's absolutely wonderful ideas.
"Oh that's beautiful! Does that mean we can cut the auxiliary piston here?!"
After we finish planning a masterpiece. I'll make Ruby's weapon tomorrow too. Not that it's not a masterpiece of it's own. She deserves it.
[|||| == ||||]
"You're working too hard."
"I'm not. There are people like this Abyss Mavros going to be there. I need to train!"
"No. You want to train. There's a difference. What's wrong?"
"… How can I compete with people like that? I looked him up on the dustnet. He fought on even grounds with a huntsman. Not for long but… I can't do any of that. How can I fight that?!"
"It's simple. Try. You don't know that you're going to lose. You're finishing the fight before it even begins with that attitude."
"Or was the fight over before I thought in the first place? I am trying. Through training more."
"Training is just making yourself feel better. You're not getting stronger. You're hitting dummies with forms you know better than the back of your own hand."
"…"
"You need to relax, Pyrrha. Sit down and smell the roses. You're not fighting with your life on the line. You're going to make our family name proud even if you just make it to the finals. With all the time you've put into this in the first place I think you would be harder on yourself than anything we could do to you."
"…"
"Pyrrha we-"
"I want to meet him… I want to be friends with him. Dad, I fought the fourth years at sanctum today. I beat them all. I've stagnated. I love fighting but… it's so stale now. People practice the same forms, the same tactics, sing the same praises. I just… I just did the same thing as them! But I just didn't know that to do! What can I do beyond what I've done?! I want to fight in the tournaments and I'm going to but what am I going to do after?! I'll just go to sanctum and what? Stagnate! Stop growing as a fighter!"
"Slowing down isn't a lack of progress, Pyrrha. It means you get a chance to breath and look around. Now stop. Breathe… Now look around. In your training session you just destroyed four perfectly good training dummies and you didn't even realize it. That's what happens when you don't know how to stop. You go straight through things that could have lasted. You have months until the tournament. Now slow down, stop ranting, enjoy the peace and quiet, and tell me what you want to do after the tournament that you're so concerned about."
"… Okay. Okay… Sorry I… Sorry."
"It's alright."
"Right. I… I'm scared. That nobody can actually challenge me. That's what I want to do. Be challenged every minute of the day and grow past the obstacles. But this Abyss… he's an obstacle but more than that I don't think he's going to stop and let me surpass him like so many others. Sanctum, for example. Call me superstitious but I have a good feeling about him. A really good one. I want to meet him. I want to see if he slows down and I leave him behind or… just maybe… he can actually match my pace. He could actually give me a challenge and keep challenging me to stay ahead."
"Hm… That's true. I got that impression from him as well. But there's something else, right?"
"Yes. He said in this interview that he made his own style. The sting style, focusing on fast strikes towards vital points after putting an opponent off balance or creating your own opening rather than taking the already open ones. It's the opposite to my achilles branch of the spartan style with an impenetrable defence and strikes at every weak point. I made my style and he made his. I want to see who's is better. I can't see the recording of his fight with that schoolteacher at signal either since they don't allow recordings of fights."
"You're still not telling me something."
"Um… well I… ah… Abyss is my age and I rather like a challenge."
"Wait… oh dust you're fourteen and…"
"He has very nice eyes."
"Pyrrha…"
"If he turns out to be rude or of weak morals then I'll stop! Really!"
"My girl's first crush… I'm going to grab my spear. I need to be in shape for when we meet."
"No! Wait! Dad stop! I haven't even met him yet!"
"Your blush speaks more than your words can Pyrrha."
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