Winter Break 31

Seeing the new Sphere Grid, Jaune tilted his head as he thought, "Huh? The bonuses weren't as big as my parents…so there must be higher class evolutions. There's boosted stats by 25 while our new Stat Spheres either increased by 5 or doubled… "

Unable to determine a pattern, Jaune sighed and checked out his new skills available for purchase.

"A lot of good stuff here…huh? Enhanced Amplification…Okay, I'll be picking you."

[Enhanced Amplification: Increases Amplification Ability by an additional 5 times. 1.5% of the excess Aura is absorbed into base after each use.]

Jaune choked as he realized that his Semblance Mutated yet again. Instead of the 10x Bonus he worked his butt off to achieve, it increased to 15 times in an instant and gained a new sub ability.

"What'd you pick," Jaune asked Ruby as they rode back towards Kuroyuri.

"I selected Razor Petal Enhancement. It increases my speed in Petal Burst Mode by 50% and makes my rose petals as hard as standard steel."

Weiss smirked like she had just won something, "That's good, but I think my class spheres are better."

"What'd you get?" Ruby tilted her head.

"Level 1 Blue Magic Spell Set!"

"MAGIC?!" Jaune and Ruby shouted at the same time.

The silver-eyed reaper's eyes sparkled as she asked, "Like the Maiden power. That kind of magic?"

"It's blue magic, so it's either water or ice…maybe both?"

"Yep! I can make a five foot sphere of water, shoot a projectile of water like a bullet, and create a wall of rushing water. The ice spells are the same. A projectile, a wall, and a five foot spherical block of ice."

"Show-me-Show-me-Show-me-Show-me-Show-me-Show-me!" Ruby chanted with an excited expression.

Weiss lips turned up in a haughty smirk as she created a sphere of water for 4 MP. It floated in front of them before Ruby squealed and hugged her partner.

"My bestie is the BEST!"

"Of course, we're you expecting anything less?"

"How does it feel to manipulate Mana?" Jaune asked as he looked on in wonder.

"Similar to Aura…but at the same time, it's also completely different. It's like a walking contradiction."

"That…wasn't very helpful." Jaune scratched his head.

"Who cares?! Can you shoot that ball of water wherever you want?"

"I suppose so…it's not in the spell description…but I don't see why I can't!" Weiss proudly bragged as she stuck out her chest.

"Cool! Hit that tree over there!" Ruby chirped.

"Make go as fast as you can," Jaune followed up.

Weiss nodded her head as she smugly waved Myrtenaster in the tree. However, instead of hitting the target, the ball of water flew to her side and slammed Jaune off his horse.

…

"Well…that didn't go well…" Ruby chuckled.

"You're aim needs work…" Jaune said as he got up and started shaking off the water.

Weiss blushed as she said, "Sorry! I thought I'd be able to control it better than that!" 

"Well it can't get any worse…" Ruby paused mid-sentence as she saw that it started snowing.

"If I freeze to death, I'm haunting you both," Jaune scowled at the two ladies.

"Heheh…awe, just change out your gear…" Ruby shyly rubbed the back of her head.

"I forgot about…Achoo!" Jaune rubbed his nose as he shivered.

"Better hurry," Weiss commented as she snickered.

"Grrr…sigh…well, look away," Jaune stood beside his horse and moved all his soaked clothes and armor into the inventory before pulling out another winter outfit.

It was a long black and white trench coat with fur around the color and interior, black pants, combat boots, and a blue long sleeve turtle neck.

While he was changing, Weiss was looking the other way when she noticed Ruby grinning with a look of satisfaction on her face.

"Ruby!" Weiss whisper shouted.

"What? He's my boyfriend," Ruby ignored her partner shocked expression.

"How uncouth!" Weiss mumbled with a cherry red face.

After getting dressed and jumping back on his horse, Jaune put a towel on his head and started drying his hair.

"We should probably get back," Jaune shivered a bit before using some of his Aura to keep out the cold temperature.

They made their way back up the mountain, only stopping to grab something to eat under a lone tree in the rocky terrain.

They finished their meals, fed the horses, and headed on up the rest of the tail to reach Kuroyuri's gates just before sundown.

"About time…" Blake's voice echoed out from the top of gate.

The returning trio looked up and smiled.

"Glad to be back," Jaune waved.

"We're home! Sort of…" Ruby snickered.

"Well, it can be home someday," Weiss followed up as they walked through the gates and dismounted their horses.

Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren all came rushing over with excited expressions.

"You guys really went wild on those Grimm. How many did you kill?" The blond brawler questioned.

"I think around 1,400, maybe? It got hard to count them all when we started collapsing caverns all around the base of the mountain," Ruby answered with a puzzled expression. 

"Hey! What'd spheres did you guys pick for your Class Prestige?" Jaune asked.

"Oh, I picked Second Wind. It lets me recover half my Aura when it hits the red once per day," Yang grinned.

"I picked the Storm Caller class! With lightning magic on my side, I'm invincible!" Nora said while bouncing up and down.

"So we have two mages now. One for each team," Jaune laughed.

"I got the Prismatic Mage Class, nine of my spheres contain magic skills of different elements," Weiss bragged.

"Congrats," Blake nodded her head.

"I picked Alchemical Assassin. It's class that has a mix of alchemy and assassin skills. So I selected the Transmute Skill Sphere. Now I can make potions without brewing them and gained a bunch of knowledge on poisons," Ren followed up as he showed one of the potions he made.

[Common Stamina Potion: Restores 15% of Stamina and steadily increases lung strength over months of constant use.]

[Common Healing Potion: Restores 5% of condition and heals minor wounds such as cuts, bruises, and simple illnesses.]

[Common Health Drink (Cherry Flavored): Through regular use built up over time, the taker will steadily increase growth of physique, organ function, and cognitive processes. Has a hint of black cherry flavor."

"This is pretty good! I wonder if we can replicate the class skills without having the class.." Jaune said as he looked at the vials of potions.

"Seems like something we should test out," Pyrrha commented before explaining more about her selection, "I picked the Spartan Champion Class and chose the Electro Magnetic Manipulation skill. I can make sparks of electricity with magnetic fields now."

"Freaking awesome, Nora's going to be unstoppable," Jaune laughed.

"You can make rail guns without the tech! THIS IS AMAZING!" Ruby's eyes sparkled.

"And the strong get stronger," Blake rolled her eyes.

"What'd you get?" Weiss questioned the Faunus.

"I got Shadow Dancer. The skill I picked was shadow chaser. I can turn into a shadow and move anywhere I want as long as there is enough light in the area. So I don't need to jump from shadow to shadow anymore. At night or in total darkness, I lose my shadow chaser ability. But in return, all my physical abilities are magnified by 50%."

"That…wow, just how strong are we going to get?" Ruby gushed at the thought of everyone becoming over powered Hunters.

"Alright, let's eat dinner, get some rest, and go out hunting on our way back to town tomorrow!" Jaune followed up.

"I do want more magic elements, but the EXP needed to level up is getting higher and higher," Weiss commented.

"I guess we'll have to be careful not to waste our tokens," Jaune smirked.

"I imagine if we want to level up at a much quicker pace, we should go for Ancient Grimm whenever we can and focus on Adults…" Blake thought out loud while tapping her foot against the ground.

"True, I think Mount Glenn should be full of Adult Grimm, I know the Goliaths there are at least a few thousand years old," Ruby added.

"Hah, can you imagine what the 'council' will say if we clear out Mount Glenn," Yang commented with particular ire for the word, council.

After seeing firsthand the kind of world they built, Yang didn't have much respect for the ones calling the shots. Not that anyone could blame here. When led by incompetent people, you get incompetent solutions.

"But first we need that Grimm Barrier. If we had that, we could clear out the whole city in a couple of months," Nora shouted with a look of joy.

"Seeing as how we get stronger the more Grimm we kill, it could be even quicker," Weiss thought how their rapid gaining in levels made each fight easier. The hunting they did could barely be called that after they hit level fifteen, a slaughter was more appropriate.

I want to do the same here. Call me selfish, but I want to revive Kuroyuri and make the Sanctuary Hunting School. I think it's the least I can do for my parents…and I want to be close to them."

Jaune smiled and put his hand on his brother's shoulder before saying, "Of course, that was always part of the plan. Ironwood is coming to Beacon, so we'll get our chance then. I wanted to meet up with him sooner, but my dad said he'd take care of it. If I can get Polendina on my side, we can probably get a prototype of the Grimm Barrier running before school starts back up."

"But we have to keep it a secret. If Watts figures out what we're up to, he'll inform Salem. So leave nothing of value on your scrolls guys, this all has to be word of mouth," Ruby held her finger over her lips.

"It'd be nice if we could get a secure form of communication," Jaune rubbed his chin.

"We have a lot of work to do, don't we?" Ren lifted a brow.

"Nobody said saving the future was going to be easy," Yang shrugged her shoulders.

"What do we do with the relics?" Blake asked.

"Ugh…we can't just leave them where they are. Salem will keep sending people out to get them so she can be free from the Darklands. We might stop Cinder, but who's to say she won't just pick up more agents," Weiss sighed.

"The barrier is good, but Weiss is right. It's prone to sabotage, so it has to be hidden in the city and we should have multiple projection points," Jaune added.

"Good thinking, if one of Salem's people destroy one, another can activate and take its place."

"But there are two people we need to make this plan work. Dr. Polendina and Dr. Krick. Krick's ability to duplicate technology with his Technopath Semblance is a must have if we're going to be cranking out Grimm Barrier after Grimm Barrier," Ruby followed up in her leader voice.

"Sounds like we got a plan," Yang placed her arm around her sister's shoulder.

"Yep, the start of one. So the best chance to keep the timeline where we need it is to meet with the general at the start of spring, when he comes to Beacon. When Cinder and her team come to the school we can make our move," Jaune informed.

The group headed back to camp and Jaune made a makeshift patio to put the tents on top of so they didn't have to worry about snow. His crafting skill leveled up and with a roof over their head and coal heaters inside the tents, they would barely notice the cold.

The night passed quickly and everyone woke up early the next day to the sounds of Jaune and Ruby working on their equipment.

With all the raw A.R.M Ore they had, the Diamondnite, and other various metals, they could make dozens of weapons.

New Ember Celia consisted of a set of layered elbow length gauntlets that looked paper thin. She also included the same for her knee high leggings. The Grieves covered the top of her boots and had two spikes at the end of the toes.

They couldn't reforge Myrtenaster without making it a weaker product, so they made her a new one and incorporated it into the new weapon with decorative patterns. 

While it had some differences, it was pretty much same appearance as Weiss's rapier. The new Estoic Ruby made with Myrtenaster had a fancy hand guard and the original blade of the rapier wrapped around the new blade in a spiral pattern. It looked like a fusion of a wand and a rapier, and with all the extra metal, it allowed Ruby to make it a mecha-shit weapon that changes into a semi-automatic rifle. 

Ren's new Storm Flower had the same functions as the previous ones made of Marigold, but now they could combine into a double barrel submachine gun. 

Other than the new metals, the only new function in Magnhild 2.0 was the flight function they originally got in Atlas.

Blake's tassels had metal engravings where the Dust Symbology used to be, and they infused A.R.M into the fabric, making the tassel sparkle with the light. It was a tricky thing to turn the ore into dust and paint it over the whole thing without making the strange fabric loose its elasticity.

Jaune reforged Crocea Mors with A.R.M metal and made it look exactly how it was supposed to. He also reforged his entire armor into an Adamantium one. 

Milo and Akouo 2.0 was made with Adamantium like the rest of everyone's weapons, but they plated it with her old weapons metal. Ruby also added in the ability to fuse the sword into her shield and make a two handed spear. 

To make everything, in total, they spent five hours since they got up at two in the morning. Without any breaks and Jaune using his Semblance to keep up their stamina, they managed to complete everything just in time for breakfast.

When everyone saw their new pearlescent shines on their weapons, they gushed over how cool it was.

"They look freaking awesome, and I can actually infuse my Aura into these pretty easily," Yang said as she punched her hands together, letting the weapons give off a small spark.

"I have to agree, the designs on Myrtenaster look appeasing to the eye. You've outdone yourself, Ruby Rose." Weiss complimented.

"Awe, shucks…it was nothing," Ruby waved hands.