[||||=LEVEL 34= ||||]
"Abyss! You finally called! How have your adventures gone?!" The infinite source of energy exclaimed with bright eyes.
"Terrible." I replied flatly. On the screen of my scroll Ruby blinked at my flat answer and looked at me silently for a moment rather than babbling. Her chatter cut off for a moment as she looked at me and understandably so.
Bella and I had just gotten out from our second site, site cavern. It had been much worse than I had thought. Giant worms that burrow up from under your feet, moles that could spit acid that they used to 'chew' (more like drool) their way through solid stone, and a nest of giant blind pale spiders that sensed heat, mana, and vibrations were the second worst parts especially since the moles were the dominant species of the underground, resulting in hundreds of moles coming at me at a time.
The worst part was that The earth mana was thick. I thought site frost was bad but that place's mana was weakened from the desert and sustaining miles of icy forest from the ambient mana of one angry frost demon. Site cavern was different. It was in it's natural environment and deep in it. There wasn't anything but earth and dirt for miles and miles anywhere. The earth mana was so thick that it costed more than ten times more mana than normal for any spell. Projectile spells wouldn't even work since they had to travel through that sluggish and nearly suffocating earth mana. Not that it would have done any good. I couldn't see past my skin with mage sight and there wasn't a speck of light to be seen.
With projectile spells gone, mage sight gone, there wasn't any light, and deadly creatures were about, all of which could dig faster than Ruby could run (ignoring her semblance) I had a pretty tough time. I resorted to taking iron spikes out of my soul space and throwing them with motion mana.
Bella? Oh she was fine. She's stealthy enough to not be detected since everything saw through vibration and I runed her clothes to not emit heat. I learned a lot. It's one of the only two positives of the mission. I learned a mountain's worth of stealth tricks and techniques from the horrible challenge of getting nearly eaten alive every five minutes by worms and fighting every other minute with a giant spider or a mole-man.
That said the managuard base was the breeding ground of the giant spiders. There wasn't even anything useful inside besides some gold ingots in a vault. The site was used as a moneymaker since the cavern was ripe with various metals. Why do I care? I'm already rich…
Having just gotten out of the site I looked like shit. I was covered in spider blood, my eyes were reddened by the spider blood, which was unsurprisingly an eye irritant, my aura was still completely empty since it was continuously healing the venom still in my veins (some acid might have gotten into my bloodstream too), My clothes were half torn or melted off, and I had barely any mana left and it wasn't regenerating. A spider-leech could suck mana or aura out of you and generally be a dick. It disrupted my soul and I still had the status effect for another hour.
Bella had acid burns over her right shoulder and left thigh and probably some venom in her still. I had pumped her full of life mana, healing her, but she was still pretty hurt. It would take a day and a half of treatment to heal her, I imagine.
I should clarify that my HP is at MAX. That doesn't mean I don't look like shit. I have the acid burn, leeched, deafened, fatigued, and poisoned status effects on me and I can't cure those. There's nothing to do but give them time. Luckily site daylight should give me a small break.
"OHMYGOSHAREYOUOKAY?!" I didn't actually mind the noise. That deafened status effect was somewhat useful right about now. I could only understand Ruby by reading her lips.
"No I'm not okay. I'm deaf, poisoned, my aura is empty and trying to heal my ailments as fast as it's being created, and so on. Also my clothes are torn and mangled. Bella is alright though."
Ruby looked at me with concerned eyes. "You'll be okay, right?"
"I'll be fine with some bedrest and spellwork." Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yeah… phew! Okay so… did you learn anything?" I almost smiled at how easily she put my injuries behind her. She's come a long way from an innocent little girl. I think she also knows I don't like being fussed over.
"Nothing. The base was ruined by a colony of giant spiders. They're the reason for most of my injuries." Ruby grimaced at the mention of giant spiders.
"And what caused you most of your injuries?"
"The mana density." I said the words like they were curses. "Site frost was extremely weak in terms of mana density because of my affinity to it and the mana fighting with the high heat of the desert. Site cavern was so dense I couldn't sense anything. Worse, though, was that earth mana is sluggish and heavy. It doesn't want to move and it's hard to do so. My projectiles had to displace the earth mana so they lost all of thier energy in the sheer concentration of the mana. I couldn't fire anything and I had to either sneak around enemies or not engage them. You can see how that turned out."
Ruby frowned and the worry showed in her eyes. "Like with Icmant?" I smiled a little.
"I think Icmant's magical presence was far worse. I can't properly say though. I only used physical bullets and purity mana, which cut through his mana like a hot knife through butter. I can see now, though, what Ozpin went through. I sensed his time mana. It's… thin. Without real substance or the magical weight to really throw punches with a presence as large or thick as Icmant's. It explains a lot about how Icmant was barely affected by his efforts. I'm willing to bet that I couldn't even use a storm spell in his presence, though. Luckily the cavern wasn't so bad. I could use mana internally and my semblance worked although it was only a quarter of how effective it normally is. It was still invaluable though."
"That explains a lot." Ruby said with a smile. "Things have been peaceful here. Auntie is spending some time with Roman teaching him to not be such a sucky fighter and, um, I sortametwithYangandDadandwe'regoingtobefamilyagain!"
I blinked and replayed her words through my head again. I wasn't sure if I heard that right. "You met with Yang?" Ruby nodded. "And you're, what, meeting with her and talking things out?"
"Uh huh. And Dad. We had some, uhm, talks and worked stuff out. I had to lay on the, eheheh, the ole Ruby charm…" Her expression fell. "It was super awkward."
"I see." I thought about that all for a moment. I hadn't gotten a particularly good impression of Tai or Yang when we last really met. There's also a lot that could go wrong with Ruby meeting with her sister and father again. She's loose-lipped around people she's comfortable with. Even letting slip something like the words 'Auntie Raven' would cause untold amounts of trouble. I have a feeling Tai wouldn't approve of my methods for anything. Well, except for explosions.
Yang is the biggest problem, actually. She's persuasive and she's had that golden heart of hers from the show for a while now. Not that she's anywhere near a golden girl. Not by a long shot.
"Please try to not mention Raven or my job for… well don't mention Raven until she's comfortable revealing herself, which she probably won't ever be, but don't mention my exploits. Please just don't. I know you can lead a conversation. Lead it away from my job."
Ruby nodded. "I'll keep your private stuff private. I think I can keep auntie on her lonesome. At the very least I can keep dad away."
"Thank you. How have you been?" Ruby's eyes brightened.
"I've been great! It's nice to finally get this stress of family off my back and I've had plenty of free time lately. I'm taking things easy. Yang was super frustrated that I can kick her butt without too much effort so I'm putting her on my training schedule. Well, as much as she can do."
I smiled at the image of tiny Ruby kicking Yang's ass. "That's nice. She needs to get in shape. She's been flirting around too much for her own good. Have you been exploiting her pride?"
Ruby nodded sheepishly. "I remembered how you would take away my gun stuff if I didn't try my hardest and I thought about doing the same thing with Yang but she doesn't have anything like that so I just throw insults and challenges at her. It works great with her semblance. Did you know it dulls her sense of pain? It's so useful!" I snorted.
"Says the girl who can " Ruby huffed.
"Dad is working on me with my semblance. Distance and speed. I have the control to use it on just my arms to swing my scythe but he had some interesting ideas. I might be able to bring another person along with me when I dash and he mentioned that I might be able to apply my semblance at a sort of halfway point to go faster and leave rose petals but I won't go immaterial, which lets me wind up an attack before I reach the target."
"I never thought of that. Do you think he might have some ideas for me?"
"Probably." I considered the merits of going to Tai for semblance work but dismissed it. I have magic. Sure it can't do everything a semblance can and it's less an instinctual part of me like my semblance but it's more versatile and powerful. If I want advice for my semblance I'll go to Bella of maybe Qrow. Speaking of…
"Has Qrow dropped by?"
"Oh yeah! Uncle Qrow stopped by for dinner with us for two days but he's going on a ton of missions to make up for not having time with Bella. He's bragged about having a girlfriend to dad a lot."
I leaned back and ignored the sting of the acid burns. Talking with Ruby is nice but I've been up for about four days. I should finish this up quick.
"That sounds like him. Qrow never had a ton of luck with the ladies I think. Getting his sister as his partner? I believe his exact words were along the lines of her having an 'instant cock-block semblance'. Raven used it to become partners with him."
Ruby smiled and we fell into the easy banter we had done so often. I responded with the ease siblings had and barely finished talking before we left off and I stumbled to my bed. I tore off my clothes and crawled into my sheets, leaving blood, dirt, and grime on the sheets. I'll get a shower in the morning… wait it is the morning. Mmmm… sleep.
[|||| == ||||]
"So this is site overgro-are those giant bees?"
"… Those are wasps. Giant wasps."
"I already hate this place."
"It could be worse. At least it's small and not horribly hot."
"Look there."
"… Oh."
"Yeah am I going crazy or is that a giant wasp hive?"
"It's a giant hive of giant wasps. I think I can catch it on fire though. I can use motion magic to throw an incendiary grenade in there."
"Do it. Those bastards need to… wait hold on. Wasps need to eat. So what are their prey? I'm pretty sure wasps eat things bigger than them."
"Let's find the managuard base and get out quick. The mana here is thick but not particularly hard to shoot a spell through. Nature mana is laced pretty thickly around the life mana. My storms will work fine provided I augment them with nature mana, which is easy. It just makes them a little more expensive to cast and control."
"Abyss you're raining lightning onto those hellspawn, right?"
"I will… Oh I just had an idea."
"Do tell. Really I want to annihilate those plagues of nature."
"Have you ever heard of frostfire?"
"That sounds fun. And destructive. Cast it now."
"Let's not set the world on fire just yet. It won't spread too well anyways considering the life mana everywhere. Just something to keep in mind for later. Let's keep out of sight for now. Don't go poking a hornet's nest I believe the saying is."
[|||| == ||||]
"This place is just plain boring." I said with a scowl. "I thought there would be strong elementals or that I would have to figure out some method of seeing in here without burning my retinas to ashes would be difficult but Of course it was just pathetically easy and free of anything whatsoever including anything interesting." There was nothing here. It was just a pocket of highly concentrated light affinity mana trapped to serve as fuel for a runic circle that powers some ancient wizard's castle. Did the guy just not like lanterns?
"It's better than living in terror for a few days." Bella said with her own frown.
"And what would you know about living in terror? If I recall you just strolled around in the darkness."
"In terror for you, obviously."
"I was imagining the laughing when that worm ate me then."
Bella snickered and held back a few small laughs. I rolled my eyes and looked around the site. My light affinity strained as hard as it could to keep a window of fainter light so I and Bella could see. With a sizable application of mana it was pretty easy. It's most interesting feature was the dust it had. Not that it meant anything. Light dust was somewhat common and useful only for a few purposes. It could be used as a long-burning fuel for solar panels in a controlled environment and in laser weapons. That's pretty much it.
The good thing is that the dust here is concentrated to unheard of levels. Maybe I could sell this spot to the SDC? It would be nice to have a tiny bargaining chip for Jacques. He's a snake I don't trust although I think I sufficiently terrorized him last time we met in person.
As far as I could see there were no magical creatures here. It was like the pure vanilla of the mana sites. Just safe and rather boring. Come to think of it there might be more little underground mana pockets like this one. I know the managuard drilled into here based on some old Mantle reports. It's not a natural thing just wide open for anybody.
"Anyways," Bella said amusedly. "What can we do here? There's no base and no apparent danger. So why are we here?"
"I thought the source of the hotspot was some mage's stomping grounds and I could find some spells." I grumbled. "The only thing emitting mana is the dust. Sure it's extremely concentrated but it's not valuable and useless to me. I might be able to use them as a fuel source but why would I? That's boring. I've got dust in spades. This place is useless basically. Unless you want a suntan."
"Nope." Bella said, popping the P. "Well back up top then?" I nodded. The grimm weren't even a hint of a threat. I and Bella could sneak around them with an application of the wind part of my storm affinity and some light to make us invisible. If I was somehow caught I could just flare my silver eyes and dump mana out of me and have an instant grimm repellant in the form of an army.
I sighed and began the walk out of the site. Really overgrowth was alright and cavern had magical fauna every ten feet (until I killed a sizable portion of them but I'm sure they'll repopulate soon. So many spider eggs…) bus site dawn was just shitty. It reminds me of mount rushmore back in my old life…
I blinked when I realized that thought. How often do I look back onto my old world nowadays? I've just sort of… moved on. In more than one manner. Life was shitty back then except for…
With a scowl I pushed back the memories. I've moved on. That's all over now.
"You alright Abyss?" Bella put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me concernedly. I glanced around. Oh we're out.
"I'm fine. Just lost in thought." Bella nodded.
"It happens to everyone. Could you teleport us out now?"
I closed my eyes and reached out with mage sight. The world became clearer and I could see through the affinities and mana in the air. It was a little hard to see through the air in Mantle. It was rather thick in ice and snow mana due to a blizzard at the moment but it wasn't a huge issue. I could still sense a lingering trace of death affinity around the surface. It drew the grimm to this place. So long as we avoided the big grimm, which were like black holes of corruption, Bella and I would be perfectly fine.
I latched onto the teleportation anchor on the ship and grabbed Bella's hand. With a jerk and a twist of spatial mana I opened my eyes on the ship once more. We were parked at a frozen lake about fifteen miles out of Mantle. It had it's own little settlement but it wasn't filled with death mana. It was rather peaceful actually since all the grimm that came here left for Mantle.
"So where now?" Bella asked, leaning onto the wall.
"That depends on…" I trailed off. Something felt off. My ear twitched. I barely spent a moment considering it before I snatched Bella's hand again and blinked far into the treeline of the lake's edge. Bella looked around in surprise before a sort of understanding hit her and she crouched down, camouflaging herself with the chameleon runic matrix on her clothes. I myself went invisible as soon as I teleported. Working on casting two spells at the same time had been a pain in the ass but worth it in the end.
We stayed there for about a minute as I scoured the land with mage sight. Nothing. That's good but not foolproof. Mage sight can be bypassed with a high concentration of nature mana blending into the environment or a runic matrix. I had found that out when I had failed to see a deer in the woods.
I sent beams of light out at random tracking them to see what they hit. It wasn't perfect either but it helped. Seeing nothing still I tried my last detection trick. I focused on my affinity for the storm and held back everything but the wind and even then I kept that to a small gust that wouldn't so much as knock down a toddler.
Keeping all the elements back and keeping perfect control of the wind, which naturally was chaotic and disorganized, was a difficult exercise that I likely wouldn't have been able to do the first time I tried it without my high mana control skill.
The gust scoured the land and I made six more, keeping my parallels on it. Nothing… nothing… and some more nothing.
With a frown I looked out at the empty land or ruined houses, a frozen lake, and a short rocky hill before a snowy field. All signs pointed to there being nothing. Still, though, I had a buzz in the back of my head. It was like there was a mosquito around but different. It was a mix of my natural inclination towards being instinctual as a faunus and my instinctual skill. They both said a little about something being there. I just can't for the life of me figure out what's there.
With a narrowed look I used my nature affinity and spoke to the trees, searching for anything different. But no. The only anomaly in the lake's trees was Bella and I. Everything was as it should but us. So maybe…
With a suspicion that was bordering paranoia I reached out at the water under the frozen lake. The ice wasn't cracking and there wasn't anything in the water of serious note.
I turned around and saw nothing. I checked everything again. Nothing. What the hell is here? The feeling is still persisting. I don't like this.
"Anything?" Bella whispered so softly I couldn't almost hear her. I should thank her for her caution later.
"Can you feel anything watching you?" I whispered back. Bella closed her eyes and frowned in concentration. She opened her eyes and looked around.
"I… think so?" She seemed uncertain so I dismissed that she was actually getting anything.
For a few more minutes nothing happened but the wind blowing. I tentatively threw a rock out at the lake in open land. Motion mana spared me the risk of moving. It occurred to me that any observer might be far out and I expanded my radius of searching to twenty miles in every direction. All my parallels focused for ten minutes to find anything. Of course nothing was found.
Just to be absolutely certain of our safety I kept all my parallels away from meditation and instead monitored the area. Nothing. I hate this feeling.
I myself made two clones of hard light with a teleport marker in them and teleported them into the ship. Nothing happened. The two fakes did as I think Bella and I would do. Fake Bella reclined on the co-pilot's seat and my double operated the controls under her lazy supervision.
It irked me that nothing happened. I leaned in towards Bella again. "The ship is going to take off. Don't panic or talk." Bella nodded easily and continued waiting. I saw the dulled head of a crossbow bolt readied in case something needed shooting. It was very well concealed. Commendable, really.
The ship went away and I watched it fly for a few miles before I tentatively felt the feeling of being watched slip away. I shivered. I don't even know if the feeling was dangerous or not. I just know that I can't sense it. It may be something like Salem's seers or a crystal ball. I'm not sure if crystal balls are really a thing but I don't like my chances. Magic was already diverse. Something like a crystal ball was possible to say the least. Maybe even easy with some runes or a well crafted enchantment. That the feeling went away with the ship means that something isn't watching us. It's watching the ship. For now. Or maybe the dummies fooled it.
I sighed. Grabbing Bella's hand I whispered one final time. "I'm teleporting us back. Be ready." Bella nodded and I focused again. The markers and the clones of hard light actually had a convenient side effect. Whoever teleported into the clones would move their body in the same way the clone was provided it was solid. It's a neat little trick with some use. It just wasn't particularly noteworthy as far as tricks go.
I closed my eyes and when they opened I was in the cockpit again. The feeling returned full blast. I hate this. I hate it so much. Unless I'm going crazy Ozpin or Salem are watching the ship. Maybe Althea? No. if she really is watching me, as I still suspect despite lack of evidence, she's more subtle than this or has already been doing as she does for a while now. One more option is some sort of observer from a faction. I'm not sure exactly who would be sent though. Nobody except possibly Raven with her semblance would be that subtle and she's on my side. Finally would be some sort of unknown party, which basically means I have no idea who else it could be.
Either way my new observer isn't hurting me. I suppose I'm okay… for now. I just don't like this at all. It makes my ear twitch, as it always done when I feel in danger.
[|||| == ||||]
"You saw him?"
"Yeah. He stayed in the ship before teleporting out and I lost him for a moment. He reappeared on the treeline and stayed there for a long time. I think he was trying to find me since he looked very alert."
"Fascinating. He sensed you?"
"I think he sensed something but didn't know it was me."
"I see… I believe we can call this a success. He is simply visiting old relics of an age long past. Perhaps he is the one that released the demon in Vacuo."
"With his visits of these sites I believe so as well."
"There is no need to monitor him further. You're free to go."
"Alright. Should I keep an eye on him?"
"There is little of interest beyond two more imprisoned ancient ones. He is unlikely to make the same mistake twice. Do not bother."
"Hmm… alright then."
[|||| == ||||]
I sent a message to Ruby as the feeling of being watched thankfully left me sometime a few minutes after we took off. It wasn't a slow decline. One moment the feeling was like someone breathing down my neck and the next moment the only presence on the ship was Bella and I. It was almost more unnerving than being watched in the first place.
Travelling was as normal as could be. Sometimes grimm assaulted us. I crushed them easily with magic. I even flared my aura sometimes just to relieve the boredom of flying. I also had some wonderful books on me that I hadn't fully read yet.
Through some calls I found that Roman was doing well. Business hit a frenzy with the white blossoms in the public eye and new uses were being found every day. People found out quickly that the sap was the most potent poison against grimm on the market. An arrow laced with a drop of it would kill an ursa major in minutes and five would force an adult nevermoore to crash if you could shoot it. Adding some white bloom sap into a paint would give the grimm a subtle aversion to the area. As a consumable the item was only used by the rich. I suppose people like safety more than a tasty treat. Roman took it off the market as an edible good and began selling the extra sap to huntsmen academies.
Most interestingly was that people found that adding red bloom and white bloom sap together made a violent reaction occur. The saps would bubble and hiss as they tried to escape each other like they had opposing magnetic poles. If you ate both saps you could have severe stomach pains as the saps fought each other in your stomach. Nature's bounty got a minor lawsuit against that but it didn't really hurt us. I think Roman is a far more vicious businessman than a thief. Being a vicious criminal brought you problems, after all. Being a vicious criminal was respected.
Ruby decided to refrain from further honing her capabilities as a huntress and work on her abilities as a maiden. She knew what magic could do firsthand and she knew she had several advantages in it. She didn't have any natural talent in it at all unfortunately. Her creativity didn't extend far past weapons and combat (and possibly leadership but I haven't much investigated that) and that stifled her abilities as a maiden. I left her to Raven and offered my advice on the purity affinity. She had a major advantage in purity and considering her intent was to fight grimm it was the obvious choice to practice.
Finally, a little rumor about a figure in western Vale that was causing mass chaos. Reportedly a small copper projectile fired at massive speeds tore through several houses and ignited a dust-fire through the sheer friction of it. The figure, who wanted to be anonymous, apologised profusely and personally took several people out of the fire with a companion.
I'm pretty sure Pyrrha accidentally figured out how to make a railgun and caused destruction as she fired it. Copper was a pretty good projectile for a railgun I think. Also with speeds a railgun fires at doesn't the projectile leave a trail of fire behind it? I think it does… I'll ask Pyrrha next time I meet her. I have her scroll number after all though she might have some sort of dramatic idea about only meeting me when she's strong enough to kick my ass. Ruby told me she wanted to do that. I'm somewhat excited to see what she adds up to once we hit Beacon.
When Bella and I finally arrived at the last site, site thunder, I found that the only way to get into the site was on foot or through one of several SDC controlled paths with lightning rods by the side of the road and a canopy after a boat ride. Being on an island around southern mistral meant you were isolated but certainly not easy to get to. I had to leave the ship in my inventory and continue with Bella on foot across the island to the main camp. Luckily that was pretty fast, both of us being competent huntsmen.
The mana in the site was surprisingly thin in affinity. It was a mix of lightning and electricity with electricity being more abundant. You could feel it in the air too. A sort of constant buzz. My steps actually caused static shocks every time. Bella had a pair of rubber boots for herself and my affinity for storm kept me better than healthy. In fact, I felt great. Like I could run a marathon. My thoughts were sharper, my body stronger, and spells in relation to the electrical portion of the storm were effortless to cast. I think it's a side-effect of storm being my dominant affinity as well as my storm affinity being absolutely massive.
Sadly the high mana concentration wasn't all good. Electricity was energetic and mage sight was utterly scrambled. Many other magics were screwed as well. Space magic was possible - easy even - but controlling the destination through the mana scrambling everything was impossible. I was as likely to end up five feet above the ground as five hundred below it. Luckily runes worked fine. My illusionary cloak on my runic matrix will provide a stable illusion for me and Bella's semblance and the chameleon effect on her clothes will make her stealthy beyond whatever she could do before, which is more than enough.
The landscape of the site was a strange sort of plains filled with black rocks spearing out of the ground. The ground itself was an ashy grey color and rough as could be. There wasn't a tree in sight.
Curiously enough lightning and electrical dust was common in the dirt. Every minute I seemed to see a new one. Unfortunately the dust was horridly low quality. I wouldn't use it to power a microwave much less in a spell. I have at least some pride. I sensed more potent dust far beneath the surface but it wasn't worth going down there when I could simply buy it.
With the rocky landscape traversing it was difficult… at least it would be. Bella and I are strong. We crossed it in leaps and bounds enhanced by the power of our souls. It wasn't like this was the first time we did this either. Site overgrowth didn't have much to offer in terms of managuard information or magical material but we at least got some experience travelling together.
That said there was an eerie lack of magical creatures. Sure the mana isn't particularly strong but it's not THAT weak. There should at least be some elementals of even a petty variety.
I kept an eye out but didn't see anything move the whole time I was there. Well except the lightning but that was a constant in the region.
"So that's the camp?" Bella said normally. I watched the camp as Bella used the binoculars. From my perspective I saw huge cylindrical machines grind dust in them as conveyors brought dust from around the camp to it. Other conveyors had ores of varying types in them all sorted. The camp did mine metals to make batteries after all. It would be strange to see only electrical dust being mined.
Pickup trucks emerged from a massive mining pit between us and the camp carrying piles of dust as cargo. More pits of a less large variety were seen in the distance but here was the largest.
A ways away multicolored figures moved at tables before putting what seemed to be dust crystals onto the belt. Some crystals went onto a cart and most went onto the belt to be taken to a grinder. Other figures in white stood vigil over the workers.
With all the information it was easy to see what was happening. Faunus were sorting the crystals that they find and keeping the high grade ones while the lesser crystals went to the belt to be processed into dust. Those of a higher station stood over them in supervision.
"My turn." I beckoned for Bella to hand me the binoculars and she huffed but passed them over. A look showed that the white figures were unarmed and in decent looking uniforms clearly meant to be for working as well as looking good. They weren't military or security it seems. Of the most interest was that a sizable portion of the supervisors were faunus.
The workers often wore overalls or a jacket with only a few wearing just a shirt. The colors varied often but none of them wore white and none of them covered their faces any more then a bandana around their heads or a scarf around their necks.
Overall nobody looked particularly oppressed.
I handed the binoculars back to Bella and she looked through them again. "Let's see what's going on in this mining pit." I muttered. Bella was already peering over the edge. I followed her lead.
In the pit there wasn't much to see sadly. Those workers were more common but they worked diligently on heavy machinery. A mining drill was parked in a little marked off area with another empty area beside it. I suppose that one is in use.
Plenty of workers worked with smaller drills off to the side. Occasionally one would run off into the side of the pit to store their unrefined dust to one of several crates on a gondola.
I didn't pay much more attention to the machinery or industrial process and instead looked at the workers. They didn't seem devoid of life or particularly unhappy. More of the bored face you might see on a store clerk or a construction worker fulfilling a rather grueling task.
The supervisors in the pit and above were of a similar variety. Not exactly thrilled either but they were working. Occasionally one of them might bark at a worker that was being lazy or negligent but not unfairly. One of them tossed a rock at a guy taking a nap but judging by the laughter I couldn't hear it wasn't abuse or the like.
"Let's get closer." I said. Bella nodded.
"It's no concentration camp but I'm not sure it's a picture perfect environment either. Look over there." Bella pointed at a conveyor belt off to the side seperate from the rest. I took the binoculars back and looked again.
Immediately I frowned at what I saw. Kids around what might be six to twelve years old sorted dust on a table. More dust was dumped onto the table when no more was present. Alongside them were older folk. Many of the elderly were using sticks as canes or in wheelchairs. A few young people with injuries watched over the kids with the elderly. They corrected what were seemingly mistakes the young made and drove them off from goofing off too much.
Taking another look at the sorters and miners I noticed that the sorters were mainly women and thee miners mostly men. So men did the manual labor and women did the more precise tasks.
I think I can say with certainty that the kids are born in the camp and taught from an early age to do the work their parents do.
"This isn't a good image for the SDC." I mutter.
"Not at all." Bella says easily. "But it could be worse. Does this really look like a bad place to grow up? They're safe, they have a community, the whole family is there, and they might even have a family."
"That's true." I nod. "But they're stunted. Do you really think they can properly function in the real world when they've only been taught to mine and sort dust? Not to mention how volatile dust is. How many injured do you see in that group of elderly and infirm?" I hand the binoculars back and Bella is silent as she looks.
"A lot. At least two in five of those teachers is an injured person. Do you think they get reimbursed?"
"I doubt it. There's too many injuries to properly reimburse every worker there. I'd bet that they have a good doctor around with how many injuries there are at least… Did you ever learn about traditionalist, communist, and capitalist economies?"
Bella looked at me curiously and shook her head. "To put it roughly think of it like this: Capitalist economies are where trade is free and government intervention is minimal. People move from one job to another freely and choose what they do. This is what system is currently used by remnant. Communist economies is, ideally, where everything is shared by the people. As for jobs I'm not quite sure but I think they're taken by volunteers and whoever is most suited for the job. Finally is traditionalist economies. The people are all assigned a job regardless of their efficiency based on their lineage. Your father was a tailor and now you're a tailor. Your father was a miner and now you're a miner. You learn from your parents on the basis that you'd eventually take their job and pass it on to your children."
"I've never heard of any of that but I get your point." Bella said flippantly, like I hadn't just given her a rundown of completely foreign economic systems. I hope I didn't just bring communism to remnant but I think I have more important problems right now. "Basically you're saying these kids are being trained to replace their parents when they eventually die, right?"
"Exactly." I confirmed. "The kids might not get a choice too." Bella looked once more through the binoculars and concern was etched on her face. I glanced once more at the site and stood up.
"Come on. Let's get started."
[|||| == ||||]
"Winter I don't see how this is helping."
"Keep the dust from igniting while channeling aura through it. Stay on this crude and terrible dust first and we'll move up to dust that's more potent and receptive to aura when you get better."
"It doesn't take a lot of control to ignite dust though. Isn't that what I want to do when I fight?"
"Do you remember when Abyss made that thunderstorm?"
"Of course I do! I still have no idea how he did that… He must have some incredible dust and aura to put everyone else's to shame."
"Close. He had control."
"What do you mean? I thought a thunderstorm was the opposite of controlled."
"Not in the slightest. Abyss' aura was saturating the whole area around him in the storm while it was there. He controlled that storm entirely. Did you notice how no lightning hit the ground? The air became more and more charged by the electrical dust he likely kept in his semblance. Father and Ironwood kept a few dust specialists on the topic to figure out how he did such a feat and came up with the answer."
"He… he spread his aura over the whole arena?! I was never told about this!"
"Don't yell. It's not quite spread around how he accomplished that act. It got drowned out over the screaming of his new fans."
"I-… sorry. But how could he have done that in the first place?"
"Aura control is difficult to train without the proper resources or experience. As Abyss grew up poor he learned through experience. You, however, will learn through training and hard work."
"Nobody ever went into depth on aura control."
"That's because you have more important skills. Like not getting hit when fencing and controlling your semblance. Aura control is typically taught at beacon, being an advanced skill and difficult to master. As you said, you don't need to have fine control over your aura to ignite dust."
"I see… what can better control over your aura offer you?"
"You may lose less aura when hit, with immense focus you might project aura as a solid shield in the later stages, you might choose to only ignite a portion of a dust shard rather than the whole, and as a whole you conserve your aura and utilize it better."
"Why isn't this taught at a young age? It seems extremely useful."
"It takes a large amount of patience, understanding in yourself, meditation, a more powerful than average aura, and a degree of focus not often found in teenagers or most people in general."
"… You mentioned you sensed Abyss' aura?"
"Yes."
"What was it like?"
"It was titanic. Terrifying. Utterly controlled… enough said. Now for your exercises."
[|||| == ||||]
"Kid!" A hand cuffed me behind the head. "That dust is clearly a grade four! Why would you toss it in the grinder?!" I growled at the supervisor but he didn't look terribly put off. I decided to explain to the ass why he was wrong and this crystal was crap.
"Look at this groove here. The discoloration." The man squinted at a jagged little dark groove in the crystal. "The crystal is more like a shell around a rock than a pure crystal." The supervisor looked closely at it before he drew back and grudgingly nodded.
"Eh… you're right. My apologies for the cuffing, kid. Carry on." The man walked off and the faunus around me looked at me with some respect in their eyes. I ignored them and continued sorting the dust through a parallel. My actual mind was daydreaming.
Working with the sorters was strangely calming. Teamwork among the faunus was flawless in a communal way. If someone found a crystal they weren't sure about they would pass it to an older and more experienced worker. The worked figured out if the crystal was to be shipped out or ground up. If a mistake was made nobody got offended if you plucked a crystal from another's hands. The whole process was wordless and surprisingly efficient.
Those with aura, namely me, had to wear protective rubber gloves. Rubber was a bad conductor of aura so little escaped those that wore the gloves. For a kid with poor control over his activated aura handling raw dust bare-handed was the height of dumbassery. The dust would explode and hurt you. I and probably any huntsman or huntress around could carry dust easily since we have more experience handling our aura. For these untrained faunus aura let you take an injury without getting put into care, for which you would receive reduced rations. It was an incentive to not get injured. You starved.
I learned it was uncommon for those with aura to be sorters. They were naturally stronger than normal people and as such were expected to work in the mines. Not that they always did but positions in the camp were fluid. So long as the whole camp made quota the supervisors didn't really care where you worked. You could work as a sorter one day and a miner the next. The whole thing was decided by a communal council for those that achieved the most and were the most influential members of the camp.
Workers were, ninety nine times out of a hundred, faunus. There were a few humans but they were typically prisoners that the SDC was paid to keep in their camps, which had the license to legally act as prisons. Not that the faunus were quite prisoners.
Human convicts that were violent (which was common enough. Prisoners sent to the camps were often convicted of violent crimes) were often… 'disposed of'. The council would meet and decide whether to subtly kill the disturbance or give him/her another chance.
Faunus that were convicted of a crime and sent to the camps were another matter. There was more leeway given to the faunus inhabitants of the camp as a whole. It was racist, sure, but that was how it was. People identify with those like them. Physical traits like a tail or ears were easy to see and consider you and that other guy the same. It helped the two empathise and more fluidly integrate with the camp community.
Anyways, back to the council and community. Inside the camp was by no means a paradise. If you defied the council without a damn good excuse you were often treated as a pariah. The amount of respect for the council made sense actually. The faunus had just one way of maintaining order and that one way was the council. The council was the way to properly communicate the masses of workers to the SDC representative of the camp. The council was the voice of the faunus, the leaders of them, and best of all was that it was entirely made up of those who were respected by the masses of faunus that made up the camp.
Overall the camp had a structured community among the faunus. It was crude and didn't have anything resembling proper rules or a proper enforcement of them but it was better in that it was entirely communal. It reminded me of a sort of primal tribe's leadership. Luckily debates didn't last for days like in political councils since everyone was family in the camp. They had to be with the harsh demands of the SDC.
I should once more clarify that the camp and it's pleasant communal government was designed with one purpose in mind. Survival. The faunus as a whole had one large quota imposed on them by camp. If the camp didn't meet the quota amenities were taken away, food was more scarce, and in general conditions became poorer. The council made sure that nobody was a slacker. They decided who needed more resources than the others. The extra food could go to the elderly or the miners, for example. The council decided who needed it more based more often than not on productivity. It was efficient, communal, and resourceful. It was a shame that it would never work in a large scale society.
As for where the SDC fits into all of this? Well in a way I could liken the SDC to the wielders of the carrot and the stick. If the faunus didn't put out enough dust the stick would be put in place. Rations would decrease. Medicine would turn more to crude solutions than the big city products. Water would grow scarcer. The thread to keep clothes and cots in decent condition would be withheld. So on went the list as everything in the camp grew worse.
The carrot was a far better solution that was, thankfully, more common. The faunus would get the dust needed and turn it in and in turn medicine would be given to the sick, water would be given out plentifully for baths and drinking, and so on. If they were really good they might get a day with electricity to power the old televisions and radios in the camp. Not that there were many in the first place.
The SDC weren't tyrants trying to kill off the faunus. Not all of the guards were racists though there were some bad apples. They weren't saints by any means at all. Faunus were allowed to die right in front of them and children raised knowing no other life. If the leaders of the workers decided to kill one of their own they would not intervene. In fact, if they wanted someone gone too they might conveniently forget to patrol an area past the curfew.
In my week in the camp I had learned all this and more. Bella confirmed that this was the standard form in every camp. Councils in the faunus were encouraged in every camp although sometimes there might be just one ruler, being the most knowledgeable or most powerful in fewer cases. Typically the faunus were allowed to govern themselves while the SDC reaps the bounties of their efforts to make a functional society meant to produce dust.
I actually approved of the setup used. The faunus, if they were allowed to leave, would likely stay in the camps. They weren't educated enough to survive in the city and in their minds they were safe, fed, had a large family, and all of it was available so long as they worked. The shorter lifespan wasn't mourned since they never thought that they should have better.
The SDC were the main profiters of the arrangement. They got dust by the truckloads, didn't have to manage a community of faunus with the expenses of a prison, and the chance for some sort of uprising was little. They basically got their own communities of faunus willing to work long hours for scraps and didn't terribly mind it. Well, most didn't terribly mind it. Some were, of course, discontent. There were always those who wanted more. I still didn't know what happened to them.
Bella had achieved a lot of this information for me. The record keeping building wasn't heavily guarded. I don't think many of the faunus here know how to read besides the basic words like SDC, grade five dust goes here, and so on. Likely a fair few knew how since education wasn't discouraged but what use was reading when your whole life was to be devoted to mining?
"Oi. The shift's over." I blinked out of my trance and looked behind me. Kale, a deer faunus, had taken a sort of motherly attitude towards me. She had noticed I was alone and she and several other workers had some sort of stare-off as towards who would approach me first. Kale just sort of took me under her wing and showed me the ropes.
My story was that I was an orphan by the name of Scorch (I kept myself a jaguar faunus) with no given last name that ran away from the orphanage. I had gotten into signal and taken three years of training before I was exposed as having no legal parents. I had some faked documents so it was either go to one of these camps as a convict for a year or pay a fine I couldn't afford. Bella had forged all the papers to seem truthful herself inside the reception building. It wasn't hard to sneak into the camp. People didn't really do that so nobody looked very closely at me for legalities.
That I had aura and could actually unlock the auras of others made me the new hot shit. I limited myself to two to three auras a day so I didn't run out but that was more than enough. People didn't blink twice when I claimed to have an unusually large aura but no apparent semblance. It's not like they were particularly informed on the matter of aura.
Luckily the news died off quick and I became just another face in the crowd. An important and extremely helpful one but not necessarily one that you would try to look into. I heard a few mutters about me getting a place in the council but no way in hell am I getting that deep in the camp. I worked a little harder to stay away from the spotlight then.
"Kid you really gotta keep from zoning out." Kale said as she pulled me gently away from the conveyor belt I was staring at.
"Ah, right." I muttered. "I was wondering, how many people have aura in the camp?"
"About an eighth." She said easily, like she wasn't giving me valuable information. I suppose to her it wasn't valuable. "Unlocking aura is hard and there's about a thousand two hundred faunus here so… meh. Your kind are a minority. Occasionally some lucky guy unlocks his aura naturally but not often. Some people don't want aura. It attracts the grimm, after all. Not that there's many around. Not everyone wants aura, though. You need to be a huntsman in training or to have signed a ton of papers to live in a city with aura. Considering plenty here don't know how to read not everyone wants it. The ones that want to become a miner, though? Aura lets them work longer, harder, stay healthier, and get injured far less. Some of them might get a semblance too, if we knew how."
"Oh it's meditation, personal understanding, and a powerful aura." I said easily. "Experience using your aura helps too. Some semblances are always active or activate by reflex under certain conditions though. They're a minority though." Kale looked at me like I had just dropped a priceless nugget of information. I had learned plenty about unlocking semblances from my research in trying to unlock my own. Besides, it wasn't uncommon information… oh I see. How ironic. Common knowledge between the two of us is completely different. I should have figured out that sooner.
"The council might appreciate knowing this…" Kale muttered.
"You mean how to activate semblances?" I asked. Kale sent me a look like I wasn't supposed to hear that.
"Ah, yeah."
A few minutes later the two of us got to the center of the camp. Food was always served here. It was a large lot with plenty of rocks faunus had hauled in long ago. People lounged around on the rocks while they ate whatever was being handed out. In good times like these we had what was basically mediocre school lunches. Soups, chickens, and the like with canned foods (mainly peaches and vegetables) as a side. In poor times it would be watery gruel and poor crackers.
Today was cheap mass-bought chile. There weren't toppings like cheese or sour cream or the like. We weren't exactly valued by the SDC after all. Even so it was clearly edible food, which was better than what they all supposedly got.
I got a bowl myself. The guy dishing it out seemed to recognize me and loaded a little more into my bowl judging by his smile at me. Kale followed after. I found a nice little spot away from the busiest places and Kale followed.
"Ooh! Scorch!" A kid about eleven years old - and already showing some muscle himself - bumped into me. He had rough grey skin for the most part except around his face, where it stopped like some sort of biological armor and was quite heavyset for his age. Ah Basalt, clumsy as the first time he barrelled into me. A rhinoceros faunus that got a rhino's tough hide. In the mines that was extremely useful since the calluses for hard work don't have to be earned. Also, with a burly animal like a rhino as his faunus trait he developed muscle somewhat faster than most. Just like how bird or feline faunus had naturally better eyesight. Despite popular ideas not ALL faunus saw better at night. Just most of them. Turtles don't see in the dark, after all. It would go against genetics to have night vision because you were part turtle. Although there is a guy around here with a shell somewhere.
"How are you doing?!" Basalt asked excitedly. He had his own bowl next to him, already empty.
"I'm fine." I said easily. "A boring day but it was nice to take a break from the mines."
"It was boring without you!" Basalt complained. Since he was tough, energetic, and his parents had their own problems Basalt often went into the mines and pits to, well, mine. I had done it a few times but I don't like being underground and the pits aren't pleasant either. That I'm strong enough to shatter rock with my fists regardless of magic made pretending to not be absurdly strong rather mentally tiring too. I dislike holding back.
"Work is usually boring, Basalt." I reminded him. "You survived years without me. You can keep doing so."
"Yeah but nobody else has awesome stories like you do!" Basalt complained. "Being a huntsman - even one in training - is awesome! We only get stories about rocks and cave-ins and stuff and even then people don't like to talk about it. I wanna go killing grimm with you and stuff!"
"I won't be killing grimm anymore for a while." I said calmly. Ruby could be worse as far as annoyingness goes. I suppose that I'm actually good with kids. I don't get annoyed easily, after all. Patience is a virtue, after all. I can handle a half hour with Basalt anyways. He doesn't interrupt my stories too, which is nice. Something about telling stories is appealing to me. It helps that I remember all the adventures I've been on so far. Not that there are a ton but I got some hunting with Summer and I can bootleg some from what stories Raven's told me about from her hunting days.
"When you do can I come?!" Basalt got excited, like he would ever get out of the camp. At least he knew how to read even if he was a bit dumb. That was more than some had.
"If you ever get a way out of this camp and find me I'll teach you about hunting." I said. I really would too. I just doubt that he'll ever control his own life.
"Definitely!" Basalt said happily. As I said, not a genius. "I bet I could totally wrestle an ursa!"
"When you grow up I'll bet you could." My words weren't idle praise. I think the kid seriously might be able to when he grows up. He has sixty one strength right now. And seven intelligence with eight wisdom but… let's not talk about that. Might makes right I suppose.
"Yeah!" He grinned enthusiastically as though he wanted to go wrestle one right now. "What are you doing?"
"We're trying to eat, Basalt." Kale said patiently from behind me. I took the opportunity to take a few quick bites. I had more work to do for seven more hours in a half hour. I could just not go but the mines had plenty of conversation to be had. I didn't like socializing but it worked the best for gathering information. The record houses only had so much. Real firsthand experience was more valuable for me. I wanted an opinion from the workers themselves rather than an SDC report. The reports are biased anyways. I checked the most recent ones on a cave-in with the victim's experiences. Injury reports were vastly understated. Being impaled through the shoulder and likely never using the arm again was not a 'moderate injury'. It was crippling.
"Ooh! Scorch! Could you unlock my aura?" I blinked and looked at Basalt. He seemed excited. It said something about him that he hadn't asked about this before. I think it just slipped his mind.
"Sure." I shrugged and touched his forehead. I don't bother with the ceremonial chants like most do. I extended my aura around his dormant one like a cocoon and slowly coaxed it to life by slowly pouring aura into it. After a moment the aura he had brightened to a livelier state and I continued. I had found that rather than adding a dump of aura to a soul it was far more comfortable for the recipient to have aura slowly poured into their own. It was more comfortable apparently. It took only a second more before his seemed to explode. On the level of his soul his aura erupted mightily like it was letting pressure out in a tiny explosion. From a visual perspective Basalt glowed dark crimson for a moment before the aura surrounding him became tainted dark green. Then suddenly a faint corona of green light took over.
Claps and cheers came up around us for a few seconds before they died off. Basalt looked down in awe at his hands, still glowing a faint green for a second before the glow wore off.
"That was AWESOME!" Basalt shouted. I didn't let my patient expression falter despite the irritatingly loud sound. My right ear twitched though. Kale noticed and sent me a sympathetic look.
"It was like a super soft and warm hug - and a little weirdly wet now that I think about it - and then I got all warm and fuzzy! And then I went FWOOSH like I was going to blow up and I felt all sparkly and awesome!" Basalt chatterred. I was taking his little rant as an opportunity to eat my chili. Nobody likes wasting food.
"How does it work?!" Basalt asked excitedly. Stars practically shone in his eyes.
"Like this." I reached down and snatched up a flat rock that easily fit in my palm. I grabbed Basalt's hand before he could say anything and smashed the small rock against his hand.
"OW!" Basalt yelled. He moved to pull away but I held his hand firmly. Then he paused. "Wait that didn't really hurt all that much." A few snickers broke out from the people watching.
"Aura dampens any blows you receive." I lectured. "If you get punched the aura would take some of the blow for you, for example. With a little focus you can hit harder and faster. You can move faster too. There's plenty more you can do like ignite dust if you're not careful-" It occurred to me that Basalt was NOT a careful person but that's not my problem - "So don't touch any dust until you can control your aura somewhat well or you're wearing the aura-resistant gear."
"How do I hit stuff harder?" Basalt asked, excited as always. I don't think he heard the cautioning stuff I said. I highly doubt he'll die or anything if he explodes a little bit but… meh. Experience is the best teacher. Ruby exploded a few times too. Now she doesn't. I'm such a great teacher.
"Feel your aura for a moment. Focus on the feeling of it for a moment." Basalt closed his eyes and seemed to be touching it a bit. The first step to controlling aura was actually touching it. "I'm going to hit you lightly with another rock. Focus on the feeling of your aura as it defends you. Try to focus on that feeling. Then hold it back." Basalt nodded. There was a fire in his eyes. A determination.
I picked up another rock and flicked my wrist. The rock hit Basalt like a soft punch. He took it easily and his aura defended him. I don't know if he can even get bruises with his skin being so thick. Probably not.
I saw his aura flare a bit but it was quickly tamped down by Basalt's will. Then his aura changed a little and I could tell he'd lost it. He opened his eyes with a little frustration. "I lost it." He said with some petulance in his tone. "Can we try again?"
I inspected his reserves. He was about five eighths full. Man his reserves were so tiny. He had what, three hundred twenty? Most huntresses and huntsmen have at least two thousand with the good ones having about eight thousand. Ashaya had about ten thousand and raven was at twelve. Then again, both of them were focused on being extremely skilled rather than having large pools of aura. Taiyang had about eighteen thousand. Quite a large aura. Argent Arc, the matriarch, had ten thousand as well. She was also a vitality freak though.
"Sure kid." I left him a moment to focus before lobbing another rock at his chest. He grunted but lost it again. Without waiting for him to ask to try again I threw another rock. He snatched at his aura but it was just out of reach. I lobbed one more and I saw his aura change a little bit.
"I did it!" Basalt yelled out happily. I nodded.
"Now that you have a hold of it try to bring it outwards." Basalt thought about it for a moment before staring hard at his hand. A few seconds passed and I could see him struggling with his aura. Better to struggle than to not be able to touch it at all. Basalt was already far ahead of most of the aura users in the camp. I've seen plenty of faunus in the mines use their aura to make themself stronger but I think they do it without really knowing how they were doing it. They knew how to do it sort of but they didn't know how they were doing it.
A thin sheen of green appeared on Basalt's hand and he looked at it like it was gold. Tough cookies, kid, any signal student worth the dirt of your shoes could do that in year one and without leaking aura too. Basalt was leaking a sizable amount of aura (for his reserves) every second. Most kids also had a larger aura too. Around two thousand as a rough average with some three thousands at the top of the class. Yang was around three thousand five hundred herself.
Basalt was two years ahead of those signal students though and stronger than a lot of them… hold on he might actually be a good huntsman some day. He had the VIT and STR for it. He just needs to wisen up a bit and learn how to use a weapon. Maybe a hammer. Not a warhammer like Nora used in the show but a handheld hammer or a war axe. Hmmm…
Nah. The kid's got talent but he's not my responsibility. If he gets out I'll definitely train him to my standards though.
Basalt's aura was running pretty low from his admiring of it so much. He seemed to not notice it before he was around seven aura. "What's that… feeling?" A few more seconds passed with me looking at Basalt in blatant amusement before his aura flickered and faded.
"Huh?" Basalt looked in confusion at his hand. He waved it a little bit before squinting in concentration. "Where'd it go?"
"You ran out of aura, kid." I said. He looked up at me in surprise.
"But I thought people had way more!"
"People with training do." I corrected him. "Aura grows naturally over time even without training but you have poor control and while bringing out your aura you were leaking aura like a faucet."
"So I don't have a lot of aura." Basalt looked sad.
"Very little." I confirmed. He looked to get a little more down. "Then again, you're eleven. It'll grow and you can train it to control it better." Basalt seemed a little put down still but he nodded. I was weak once too, kid.
"Here. Let me show you what a trained aura looks like." I brought out a portion of my aura - just about ten thousand points of it - and layered it over my right arm. A corona of light wrapped over it. It was far brighter than Basalt's expression of his aura. It was bright enough to cast a faint red glow onto the ground and our faces given the cloudy weather. Basalt looked at it in that awe he had had before he got disappointed.
I held out my aura for a moment longer before I drew it back inside me. I glanced at the small circle of people watching me and Basalt during my little lesson. Kale watched me too, likely planning to try this herself later. I have no doubt that the information I just told Basalt will spread like wildfire but I don't much care. If the SDC throws a little fit then I'll stop. I don't think they will though. I'm not showing anyone combat techniques or anything after all. Just little things that any aura user could do. I'm sure the supervisors, who all have unlocked auras, can do plenty with their own auras. Some of them probably have their semblances unlocked too.
"Want to train a little more?" I offered. I have nothing better to do right now. Basalt looked at me with some small confusion. I rolled my eyes and poked his forehead, sending a jolt of aura roughly equivalent to his aura capacity into him. He yelped and jumped once at the sensation of foreign aura entering his body but blinked once and seemed to feel that he had far more aura than before.
"Whoah… how much aura do you have, Scorch?" Basalt looked at me with some wonder.
"A lot more than you, kid." I answered vaguely. "Now I'll show you how to hold your aura back from shielding you. With your hide as a natural armor you don't need aura for a lot of stuff. It's better to not use it unless you need it in some cases. You don't need to deflect every pebble that's flung at you, after all. You can also use your aura to heal quickly. I'll show you how…"
[|||| == ||||]
"Did anybody ever tell you 'I told you so?'"
"Just rescind the order. I'll go and you don't have to see me again. I won't tell Abyss and you won't be punished."
"Mmmm… I could… but I want you to say it."
"No."
"Then you get nothing."
"You blackmailed Harlequin and EVERY gym in Vale and Patch! I can't train to get stronger!"
"That's the point."
"What the hell do you want?!"
"I wanted you here. Now you're here."
"Why?"
"Because you're working for me now."
"No."
"Oh? I see then. Listen here, you little shit from a backwater slum, I carved my way through Vale leaving a BLOODY SWATH OF BODIES in my wake. The only reason you're standing where you are instead of grovelling in the shit with the animals is because Abyss has some interest in you. I don't care about your potential. Right now you're a bug that I can squash. You're not special or essential. You're interesting and Abyss can find other toys to play with."
"Fuck off. If I tell Abyss you're doing this he'll gut you."
"Not even! See, I'm not stupid. He tosses you into what amounts to live-fire exercises. Stealing things, playing thug, recruiting gang members - all of that is real stuff. Not training exercises. He's tossing you into the deep end and seeing you kids swim. Well guess what, kiddo? This is the deep end! This is the criminal underworld any you're not strong enough to strong arm the world to your demands like he can. You get to play ball with the big boys."
"Fuck. Of-"
*CRACK*
"AGH!"
"Don't speak to me like that, brat. I'm not abusive but with a mouth like that I'm not above smashing it in to enforce some respect. Get off your high horse, kid. You can't ask your good buddy Harlequin for a pit to crap in unless I say so. I could say a word and the ferry to Patch would blacklist you. You'd be stuck on the streets unless I decide to me merciful and say otherwise."
"… What do you want?"
"So quickly giving?"
"I've been blackmailed before. You want something or you wouldn't bother with me. What do you want?"
"I want you to quit being an insufferable brat. Grow the hell up."
"What do you mean?"
"This little angry tantrum streak you have with me. In front of Abyss I'll act all nice. You act like I'm some disgusting, untrustworthy bastard because I have power. Because I'm the big man in Vale I'm out to squash you and everything you love under my boot. Guess what, Goldilocks? I'm not. The opposite, actually. Have you noticed something about Abyss' jobs for you?"
"He puts me in jobs that are related to charisma and information gathering."
"Yeah. The skills of a leader. Something I am."
"Oh really?"
"Watch that tone, kid. Respect is a virtue that you're severely lacking in. Keep letting that ugly flaw shine and I'll beat it out of you."
"Tch."
"Scoff all you want. Now here's my olive branch. I'll teach you how to be better at leading, managing, and gathering information."
"… You're serious."
"Kid, I've been smooth-talking since you were in diapers. I've been leading the biggest, strongest gang in Vale for a year and longer and gathering information and deceiving dumbasses for longer."
"Why would you do that?"
"Simple. Favors."
"Favors."
"The world's ultimate currency, kiddo. You'll learn someday.
"Favors are unreliable."
"But they're powerful. First lesson, kid. In a situation where you have the upper hand a favor can bring any task to completion so long as you play it right."
"Fine, so I COULD learn from you. But I can't fake and talk out of everything. I need to be able to fight. I need a combat tutor."
"Oh you'll get a combat tutor alright. The best there is."
"And who is that?"
"The right hand of my not so little empire. The best assassin in Vale and enforcer of the whole city."
"… Fine."
"Finally realized you don't have a choice, do you?"
"…"
"Awww, what an adorable little glare! And for your information, I'm sure mini Mavros would be thrilled that you were getting lessons from me. I'll pay your ticket back to patch and you won't even have to pay. Aren't I a generous teacher? I'm sure we'll have a great summer and even better ones for the rest of your educational years. Now let's get you started meeting by Neo. Be sure to make a good impression. You'll be spending a LOT of time together to get you at at least a decent level combat-wise."
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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If like it please drop some POWER STONES