[RWBY/The Gamer] The Games We Play

"Heymom?" I saidjoining my mother in the kitchen as she watched the sun set outside the window.

"Hm?" My motherIsabellaturned towards me slightlylifting an eyebrow as she made the sound in the back of her throat. "What is itsweetie?"

"Iuh…" I scratched my cheek as I frowned slightly. "WellI guess I'm just unsure about something and I figured you'd know?"

"Oh?"

"Is it…Momwhich would you say is more importantIntelligence or Wisdom?"

My mom put down the dish she'd been washingturning to face me fully with her head tilted to the side.

"I'm not sure I understand the question?" She said questioningly. "Where'd this come from?"

"Well," I saidwondering about that a bit myselfif for different reasons. "I was playing a gameI guess. You knowan RPGright? And it had the usual stats: StrengthDexterityVitalityIntelligenceWisdomand Luck. And I never thought about it until a few days agobut its likeall the others are obviously differentright? I wondered why Intelligence and Wisdom seem to be the exception and I started thinking about whether they were different in real lifetooand how."

Mom seemed to ponder that for a minute.

"WellI'd say that it's ideal to have both intelligence and Wisdom," She said. "Just how it's better to be strong and fast and tough and luckyrather than just one in particularbut that's very rarely possibleis it? If I had to say which was most important…I suppose I'd say Wisdom."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well…If I was to differentiate between Intelligence and WisdomI'd say that the former was power and the latter the awareness of how to use that power. I'd say that Wisdom was the ability to make good choices and Intelligence a way to give you more choices. If you're smart and have a thousand ideaswisdom would tell you which was the best choice to make and what the long term effects would be."

I nodded at her seriously.

"Then it would be better for me to become wise then become smartright?" I askedjust to double check.

Mom put a hand to my cheek and smiled.

"OhJaune. You're still young," She said. "You have time enough to become whatever you want."

"Thanksmom," I saidsmiling honestly. "Then…I promise I'll become someone great. Anduhwhy don't I handle the dishes?"

At thather eyebrows went up again before she chuckled and nodded.

"I'll leave it to you then." She saidpatting my cheek again as she turned away. I stared after her for a moment.

???
LV???
Isabella Arc

I sighed and turned to the disheswashing them one by one.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuously washing dishes has created the skill 'Dish Washing' to quickly clean dishes!

I just sort of…stared at the blue box that appeared before my eyes for a moment and then exhaled slowlyshaking my head.

So even stuff like this…

How do I explain this? I can'thonestlywhich is my I don't. I didn't even tell my mom or dad. But if I had toI guess I could describe this as my special ability. I haven't had it for very long—just a weekreally—but…wellyou seethe game I'd told my mom aboutthat made me wonder about all this? Well…

"Status," I muttered.

Name: Jaune Arc
Class: The Gamer
Level: LV2
HP: 100/100
MP: 50/50
STR: 10
VIT: 10
DEX: 10
INT: 10
WIS: 10
LUK: 10
POINTS: 5
MONEY: 100 Lien

This window appeared in front of me at the sound of my voice. I'd confirmed I was the only one who could see it by opening it repeatedly in a crowd and not drawing any attention. InitiallyI'd wondered if I was just seeing thingsbut…wellI had an Inventorytooand I could literally store stuff inside of it and they'dwellvanish until I could take them out. HellI could store more stuff in there then I could physically carry. I could even go on quests and stuffthough most of them were stuff like 'Set the table,' 'Take out the trash,' and 'Go get groceries.' Despite thatthey gave me experience points and yesterday I'd even leveled up and gotten points. Given the circumstancesI was willing to operate under the assumption that would work like in a gametoo.

Which had led me to the question I'd asked my mom. My stats were…average. Perfectly so—I wasn't good or bad at anythingfor someone of my levelbut I had figured out pretty quickly that I was low leveled. Most of the people in my class had levels like three or fourbut I'd started at level one with completely normal stats. It had been kind of depressing to have that thrown in my faceespecially since I'd gotten the ability something like a day after I'd failed to get into Signal. Again. And it had hurt. The knowledgethe reminderthe proof right before my eyes hammering in what I already knew—that I was a…

I'd gone to sleepwoken upand I'd been like thiswhich had mainly enabled me to see for myself how weak I was.

But nowif I had this abilityif it worked how I thought it didthen maybe I could change that. I was sure of itnow—I could do things no one else could do. I had five points right now and I could put them anywhere I wanted. I could make myself strongerfasteror anything else. Given the raw potential held in these little numbers on mywellcharacter sheetit was only a matter of choosing properly to gain strength.

I had no idea how to do that. I'd considered all my options. I wasn't sure exactly how the numbers workedbut I could become the strongest in my class in a snap of my fingers by putting them in strength or the fastest by placing them in dexterity. But which was most important? Being strong? Fast? Tough? I'd considered it but after sleeping on itI realized I just didn't know. What's the best choice? Where do I even start?

And then I realizedif I didn't know thatwouldn't making myself smarter and wiser be the best choice? And if Wisdom is the ability to make good choicesthen…

I pressed the arrow beside Wisdom five times and raised it to fifteen. Taking a deep breathI nodded and closed the window.

"I'm done with the dishesmom!" I shouted. "I'm going out for a bit!"


I organized my thoughtsputting what I already knew in context. I wasessentiallya video game character. I could grow stronger by leveling up—whether that was my ownpersonal level or the levels of my skills. From what I'd seendoing one didn't affect the otherso I had to improve them separately. I already knew how to do bothI'd just been uncertain as to how to go about it.

Improving my skills was as simple as using them. That in mindI moved into the foresttook my sword out of my Inventoryand started whacking trees while I was busy thinking. I'd done this a little latelyonce I'd developed my 'Sword Mastery' skill after practicing for a while. I'd figured out quickly that my skills could be either active or passivebut the method of improvement was the same. What I needed to do then was focus on two things: Leveling up important skills and finding new skills that would be useful.

I'd gotten 'Power Strike' around the same time I'd gotten 'Sword Mastery.' I could use the former about fifteen times before I ran out of mpafter which it took about an hour to regain it. It had taken me about two hours to increase it to level two and longer to raise it to level threeentirely because of how long it took to regain my mp. In comparisonI'd been able to raise my Sword Mastery to level five in a single day because I didn't need mp to use it. From that I could assume that passive abilities were easier to improve then active onesas well as easier to use—but on the other handthey were weaker individually and active skills got both stronger and cheaper as they grew more powerful. I needed to get many passive abilities that worked well together but also train my active abilities.

On the other handraising my own level was just as importantbecause it gave me points to improve my stats. Unfortunatelythere were only a few ways to do that—doing quests was the only big one I'd donethough I could get a small bit of experience by studying and working out. But if I thought of the world as a game then presumably I could also do it by killing monsters and defeating enemies. Generallyquests gave more experience than individual monsters in return for taking more time and being more complicated. That all depended on the difficulty; I assumed that taking out the trash gave less experience then killing a Grimm would.

If I could do itfinding an area full of Grimm and killing them all would probably be the faster way to level up and places like that were easy to find. I could just leave the city boundaries and I'd find them eventuallythough the forests close to the residential district were safe. But…I was still only level two and there was no way of knowing what I'd find. Getting stronger first was probably the wiser choiceas was sticking to quests for now.

Then…could I manufacture quests? If I could get five hundred experience from just doing things like doing chores for my momcould I volunteer for tasks and do things around the neighborhood? Or did someone have to explicitly ask before I could do something? I'd have to find out. Even if I couldn'tthere had to be a fair number of people who needed stuff done around town.

Thenthat's where I should startat least in terms of leveling myself up. For my skills…I should probably make a schedule.

Besides Power Strike and Sword MasteryI didn't have many other skills. I'd gotten 'Observe' while watching the higher-level people I'd seen around town and the fights I occasionally saw. Andof courseI'd gotten 'Dish Washing' just a while agobut I think I could exclude that from my list of 'Important skills to grind.'

Observehoweverseemed like the type of thing that could be extraordinarily useful. Even at level oneit showed me a lot about whatever I used it on. It was an active skillbut…it didn't seem to drain mp. Thenif I were to use it on every person I met—noon everything I saw—I should be able to improve it at a decent rateright? Did the level or value of the object matter? If it didI could use it in stores and stuffand places like that would also have lots of stuff to use it on. A library might be a good place to use ittooif every single book counted. I could use that whenever I was in the city and I could spend a few hours wandering every daymaybe doing some quests in the process. My Sword Mastery and Power Strike I could train later onelike I was doing now. That would serve to level my existing abilities. As for acquiring new ones…

Dish Washing served as a reminder of how broad 'Skills' could be. If I could get a skill by doing choreswhat else would count? Sword Mastery implied that I could get a similar ability with other weapons. It might be more efficient to stick with swords for nowat least in terms of meleesince I'd already put some work into it—but it might be smart to get a longer-range option at some point and maybe see if my hands counted as weaponsjust in case. In factwas there a Shield Mastery? I hadn't gotten one just by wearing a shieldbut then I hadn't gotten Sword Mastery until I started using my sword. There wasn't anything nearby to attack mebut…would it count if I bashed something with my shield? I'd bring try it out in a bit.

Besides thatthere were a bunch of things that probably counted. Sneaking around probably counted and if I wanted to reach the Grimm laterI'd need to get past the border guardto say nothing of any of the other reasons I might need to hide. Something to help me run awayjust in case. Ways to defend myselfthough my shield might count if that workedand I could try my armor. I'd focus on them for now and see what other skills I discovered and what came to me. I'd hopefully have some time before anything dangerous happened.

But what should I focus onone I leveled up?

I closed my eyes and frowned. If I was rightthen…it should get harder to level up as time went onso early on I should focus on things I didn't want to wait for. My mom was completely right—I had time to become whatever I wanted. I could become strong and fast and tough and anything else. But while I could do it easilyI should focus on…

"Intelligence and Wisdomhuh?" I muttered before nodding to myself. If I was smart and wiseI could figure out how to get stronger or come up with solutions to things I couldn't face with strength alone. I could make up for weakness with intelligencebut could I make up for being stupid by being strong? Maybebut it'd probably be harder and I might regret it.

"It's a planthen," I saidsmiling to myself as I drew my shield out of my inventory. "Just watch me—I'm gonna be great someday."

I then proceeded to start my path to greatness by repeatedly whacking a tree with a blunt object.

I woke up at six and started working on my homework the moment I rolled out of bed. I'd thought about it last night and had decided for sure—school was going to cut into my time a lot. Not only did I need to spend seven hours a day there when I could be training insteadbut there was also stuff like homework I had to do out of class. Soto avoid wasting more time than necessaryI should get this done with as quickly as possible. Hencewaking up early and spending an hour on this week's homework.

Diligent studying caused your INT to increase by 1!

I turned to stare flatly at the notificationwondering why I was even surprised.

I could increase my stats like thattoo?

That changed things. If it wasn't just by leveling up—that isif I could get more than five points per level—then my plans needed to be adjusted accordingly. I'd need to test exactly how it workexperiment to see if how it applied to my other stats and how I could improve eachthough I imaged that working out would improve the physical ones. In which case…

From eight to three I was in school. Taking into account breakfast and the time it would take to reach classI would have an hour of free time in the morning that I couldn't use effectively in any other wayso I could study and work out then. At schoolI could study and get ahead and nobody should be able to complain. After schoolI could stay out until supperif I told mom I was going to the library—which I wasso it wasn't even really a lie. I could practice a number of my skills then and after supper I could go into the woods to practice the ones I couldn't use in town. Mom would want me back by darkthoughat which point I could study and work out some more in my room.

No matter how exhausted my body gotI would recover after thirty minutes of rest. My hp and mp returned more slowlybut even they would be fully restored simply by sleeping in my bed for six hours. As suchno matter how hard I pushed myself at nightit was fine. If I could gain additional stat points at a reasonable rateit was more than worth it—if I could gain even just one INT per level then even assuming I couldn't think of any way to get additional WisdomI could focus on it and get it to level fifty by level nine and still have an INT of eighteen or higher. If I switched my focus to it afterwardsI could raise INT to fifty as well by the time I was level fifteen.

I resisted the urge to pump my fist in the air before realizing there was no one around to look at me strangely and doing it anyway.

Then I went downstairs to make breakfast before Mom woke up.

The Breakfast of Champions.

School was boringas a ruleand it wasn't made particularly less so by the fact that I spent the whole time studying. My Int didn't go up again while I was therewhich didn't particularly surprise me since even a week of school and homework hadn't raised it until this morning. After it let out for the dayI headed towards the library like I'd told momObserving everyone and everything that caught my eye on the way there. Most of them were just normal peoplebut practice was practiceright?

The libraryhoweverturned out to be a treasure trove. Not just because it turned out thatyesI could Observe every single book and not just because there were plenty of books there that I could use to study after I finished with my textbooks. Those were nicebut they paled in comparison to the true power of the library. I'm not remotely ashamed to admit that I made a beeline for the section about Hunters and such the moment I entered. I started from the top and went through it alphabeticallytaking a book outObserving itand putting it back. Each use gave me what amounted to a summary of the bookwhich got more detailed as I leveled it up again. But as I was approaching the end of 'A'…

You obtained the skill book 'Aura: The Light of Our Souls.' Would you like to learn this skill?

It took me a minute to understand what I was look at. When I did…wellif I'd been holding a drinkI would have crushed it right then and I proceeded to press 'Yes' about twenty times in the half a second it took for the message to vanish. The book proceeded to fill with a bright golden light before flaking apart into what seemed almost like glowing petals and vanishing completely. As it didI could feel the knowledge flowing into me and I knewknewexactly what Aura was despite having never even heard of it before.

Aura (Passive & Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%
The Manifestation of one's soul. Long agoManwho was born from dustlearned to wield the light of their being against the soulless Grimm. It's a power that allowed Mankind to reach past their human limits and drive back the darknessletting them bear their burdens and shielding their hearts. Stat increases depend on the amount of Aura (MP).
Passively increases STR by 30%.
Passively increases DEX by 30%.
Passively increases VIT by 30%.
Passively increases INT by 30%.
Passively increases WIS by 30%.
Additional 30% increase to STR when activated.
Additional 30% increase to DEX when activated.
Additional 30% increase to VIT when activated.
HP regeneration speed increased by 100% when activated.

…Holy crap that's broken and it's only at level one. And all Hunters have this?

I looked at my hands as they—my entire bodyreally—started glowing bright white. After a few seconds passedit began to die downthe power drawing closer to my skill. It was active alreadyI could feel itand I had no objections to that whatsoever. This skill was one I wanted to level up as quickly as possible.

I tried to fight down the urge to start laughing and cheering like a madman and only succeed because I heard footsteps and they reminded me that I had no way of explaining what just happened andalsoI'd just destroyed one of the library's books which I really didn't want to explain either. Oruhpay for. Because my wallet was anemic.

Thinking quicklyI dove to the end of the row with my new found speed and turned around the cornerholding my breath in an instinctive attempt to go unnoticed. Someone—another library-goer or a librarianI didn't know—stopped near where I'd just been and I silently crept past the thankfully empty row beside the Hunter section and turned down into the one two shelves downwhere I spotted another person. I went back to looking at books in a way I hoped was casualgoing back to Observing.

Seconds past and nobody came after me and I let out a slow breath.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuous hiding has created the skill 'Stealth' to avoid notice!

I didn't react as the notice appearedfocusing on the books. Just in caseI should probably avoid looking at the Hunter section again todaythough I could still browse through a few shelves of books. I needed to remember that using skill books came with a lightshow and vanishing books and do it somewhere out of the way.

Out of the way…

I spent a minute browsing the shelf I was onjust for showbefore minding another empty row. After a few minutes of searching and Observingas well as some basic thoughtI found what I was looking for. A Driver's Manual—or ratherto mea driving skill book. I could use this with the push of a button and instantly learn how to drive and all it would take is a destroyed book. And…it may have been selfish of me or said something about mebut the destruction of a book in return for skills like this just didn't bother me. If anything didit was simply that I would be taking the book from the library permanently in doing so and maybe a minor fear of being caught. But…

I took a deep breath and spoke.

"Inventory," I said and the window appeared before me. I pushed the book into it and it disappeared into a ripple in spacestored neatly into one of the top slots. And thenI went back to the shelf and started looking for other skill books.

I'll pay you back someday, I promised the library as I left a few hours later. As I passed through the thresholda notification appeared.

A skill has been created through a special action! Continuous theft has created the skill 'Theft' to take things that belong to others!

Mastery of the skill Theft increases! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one! Theft's level goes up by one!

Damn it.