RWBY Re: Jaune Arc - Chapter 31

Jaune smiled and showed his Beastiary; the thick tome had already built up around eighty pages, all of the data on it was helpful and accurate, “Something my family does for fun,” Jaune said as Blake admired his talent.

Weiss took a look as well, “You do have a talent for drawing, I’ll give you that much.”

Jaune smiled and spoke in a pompous tone, “Oh, what a great honor you have given me, to earn the great Ice Queen’s approval, my dreams have been accomplished.”

“A Queen, flattering Jaune, but I don’t know about that.” Weiss smiled and seemed to have taken it as a compliment.

Yang snorted at the Ice Queen comment, and Jaune busted up at the fact that she thought it was something flattering.

“Weiss, that wasn’t a compliment,” Ruby said facepalming.

Weiss shot back to Jaune and said, “Hey!”

“Again?…Miss. Schnee, can you tell me the best way to kill a Goliath?” Professor Port shouted.

Weiss jumped up and looked a little nervous, however, Blake pointed her finger to what Jaune had written in his Bestiary, Weiss smiled and quickly read the passage written next to the beast’s description.

“Goliaths are very thick skinned, so a direct approach unless you have suitable equipment and fighting experience is all but impossible, its best to wear the beast down by cutting its legs until it can no longer walk, once it falls, that will present the best time to attack the Grimm Mask, eyes, or mouth, the weakest points on its body,” Weiss said as she finished reading.

“Very good Miss. Weiss, I’m glad to see you were paying attention, now, on to the tale of my time when I was Hunting a Goul Grimm…” Professor Port turned back to his chalkboard and continued to teach.

Weiss gave a thankful nod and sat back down, the group made it through the class and were on to their next class, Aura and Semblance Studies with Professor Peach.

While in class, Jaune was listening to a computer showing a shadowed out character bust with a question mark in the center of the forehead.

“Aura is part of the soul, and the soul is part of the body, in order to use Aura one must think of it as an extension of your own body, just the same as any of your limbs, you can manipulate Aura to protect and fight.”

Jaune raised his hand, “Yes Mr. Arc?” Ms. Peach’s lovely young voice echoed through the speaker.

“Is there a way to train your Aura? Like a way to train and increase the total amount?” Jaune asked with a bit of hope.

“That is a very good question Mr. Arc, can I ask why you thought to ask of it?” Professor Peach was intrigued by Jaune’s curiosity.

“Well, you said that Aura was the same as our limbs, a part of our body, and when we work out, our bodies improve, flex a muscle gain some muscle, I was just wondering if there were any similar methods for Aura.” The real reason Jaune was asking this, other than to abuse the hell out of it with his training modifier, was because it was something that always nagged at him, he had asked this question to many scholars of Aura Manipulation for the answer, but Professor Peach was one of the few he was unable to ask, he didn’t know what happened to her after the invasion of Beacon, only that they never heard from her again.

“Actually Mr. Arc, your method of thinking isn’t exactly wrong,” Professor Peach said causing the room to fill with gasps.

“Then how come we’ve never heard of such methods?” Weiss raised her hand and asked.

“Because; Miss. Schnee, they have all failed, people have tried countless ways to increase their natural Aura, several attempts have claimed many lives,” Professor Port waited for the shock to wash over the crowd before she continued.

“Can any of you tell me what happens when you run out of Aura?” Professor Peach asked.

This time Ruby raised her hand, “You pass out!”

Professor giggled, “Yes, that’s when you run low on Aura, but if you fight past that exhaustion and continue to burn your Aura away…”

“You die,” Jaune said finishing her sentence.

Everyone made a grim expression, “Very astute Mr.Arc.”

“What does this have to do with my question?” Jaune asked with a puzzled expression.

“I’m getting to that. There have been four studies of sudden Aura Growth in a human being.” Everyone leaned in on their desk, they were hanging on Professor Peach’s every word.

“They expended so much of their Aura that they entered a comatose stage, we’ve named this phase, The Absolute Zero Point, any past this, and you will die, for some reason, when they recovered, their souls had grown stronger, the growth was different from each case. It seems the closer you are to Zero Aura, the greater the gain will be.”

Everyone gulped, “This is why the only proven method of increasing your Aura isn’t known all too well; because it carries too much risk, one slip up, spend just an iota more than intended and you die.”

“Are there any other cases?” Jaune, asked with a bit of hope.

“Actually, someone came up with a few, but the returns were very small, they expended their Aura to the point of passing out and repeated it for several months, they only gained a 10% Increase in their overall Aura supply. Of course, the nights of crippling fatigue will chip away at a person’s consciousness, make them drowsy and weak for several weeks, along with head numbing migraines.”

Jaune nodded his head and sighed, “Well thank you for answering my questions, is there any place that is still studying and researching new methods of Aura Training.”

“All the time Mr.Arc, in fact, there’s a lab here in Vale called RCAS; there, they research such matters related to the Soul, if you like you can stop by and tell them, Professor Peach sent you.” The teacher seemed to have an almost jolly tone in her voice.

“I’ll do just that, thank you for the information,” Jaune said scratching his head, he had only heard that spark in a person’s voice when they speak of a particular subject that they love.

The rest of the class was actually quite informative, Aura and Semblance class was actually his worst subject, it was only after years of training and meditation, that Jaune was able to gain incredible insight towards that particular subject, so he knew that Professor Peach really knew her stuff.

After classes, Jaune met up with the rest of the group and hung out, Jaune was sitting in the lotus position in the center of the courtyard’s grassy section, Jaune was trying to think of a way to train his Aura, he sighed as he Ruby sat down next to him.

“Something bothering you?” Ruby said as she munched on a cookie.

Jaune smiled and said, “Just thinking up a way to train Aura, unlike others, we have the system to notify us of our body’s condition, so we could actually train as professor Peach recommended.”

Yang shouted, “Nope! Still too dangerous, like she said, we have no experience with just draining our Aura’s, even if we were to it in combat, you heard what professor no show said, the aftereffects sound like the worlds worst hangover.”

Jaune sighed, “That’s why I’m bothered, I’m trying to decide if the momentary pain is worth it, and if not, then I have to come up with an entirely different method, it could take years.”

“Or days,” Ren said as he spread out a blanket and pulled out their dinner from his hammerspace, Nora plopped down next to him and said, “You’re talking about his blessing right?”

Everyone looked to Ren, “Well, yes, actually.”

Everyone looked at Nora, “Well Jaune has an actual x10 Exp modifier, doesn’t that apply to everything that he applies himself too. If anyone can pull it off, then it has to be our fearless leader!”

Jaune’s eyes opened up, “Ha, I knew it, Nora’s a genius in disguise.”

“Awe, thanks, Jaune!” Nora said as she started to chow down on Ren’s cooking.

Ruby grinned at Jaune’s funny expression and giggled, Ren, saw this and looked at Yang, who then noticed Ren looking at her, and started to whistle suspiciously.

“So you think that it doesn’t just apply to physical training, but even helps me chose the right path?” Jaune placed his hand on to his jaw in a deep state of thought.

“Something like that, more like it helps you avoid the dead ends, remember how you told us your Aura Shade Ability just kind of popped up after you reached a certain level of understanding?” Ren said as he handed out the plates.

“You’re right, and ever since I got the skill, it’s been leveling up like mad.” Jaune created an Aura Shade of Ruby, it copied her straight down to Cresent Rose, it had turned into a solid and colorful Aura Construct, “The Arua ability was only at level 1 a few weeks ago, now it’s already at level 8.”

“So there’s hope then?” Ruby asked with a bit of dėsɨrė in her eye, it was the same look she gave him when they discovered he could create an Aura Blade around his sword.

“I keep looking for a safe method, in the meantime, I can always check out that lab.” Jaune nodded his head, letting out a breath of fresh air, Jaune reached out his hand and touched the Aura Shade, its body broke down into Aura particles as they were reabsorbed into his body, recovering his lost Aura in the process.

When he learned this, Jaune noticed that the Aura Ability leveled up twice, he also noticed that the higher the level, the less Aura he had to expend to make the construct.

The days passed by quickly so much that Jaune wished that he could it slow down, the first semester was the calmest, the one that they could enjoy, but he was about to change all that, the only reason he hasn’t yet, is because he wanted them to enjoy the small amount of peace they had at the moment.

He hadn’t really gotten any headway in Aura Training, only he forced himself to the point of exhaustion to test the limits of the benefits he would obtain, and to his surprise, with the Moondust Pendant on, Jaune didn’t feel any of the wear and tear that came from recovering, however, all his senses were telling him that this way of training is not only dangerous but not as efficient as some other methods could be, when Jaune realized this, it was as if he were experiencing a revelation.

“There’s a better way, hahaha!” Jaune smiled as he continued to ponder an appropriate way to train one’s Aura.

Other than making a snail’s pace in his Aura Training method, Jaune discovered that the max level for Aura Abilities is 10; and because he maxed out his Shout, and Denfeder Ability, it gave him a wellspring of information pertaing to how Aura Abilities Grow.

Every time it leveled up, the cooldown time was shortened from 5 minutes to 5 seconds, and it increased from a 15% Bonus to a 30% bonus. “Okay now on to the next problem,” Jaune thought as he looked at Ruby, “Asking my wife out on our first date.”

Jaune ended up at a particular shop that dealt with confectionaries, he picked up a sweets recipe book and started to thumb through it.

“Ruby always loved my experimental Cookies, let’s see what the recipes shake loose, Jaune was looking at her two favorite snacks, Cookies and Strawberry Cheesecake, Jaune grinned as if he had a sudden spark of genius.

He purchased some cooking materials and headed back to his room, noticing that Ruby was out, Jaune smiled, it was 3 days before Ruby’s birthday, and he needed to make some test products.