Chapter 5: First Mission
Jaune was exhausted.
His first mission was grunt work. He had taken a job at the docks that were just moving crates around. Pretty exhausting, and repetitive.
Jaune definitely couldn't picture himself working like this every other day. It was loud, crowded, and smelled extremely bad. He didn't mind the people and the exercise, they were friendly enough and he could use the muscle.
But it was so dull.
That didn't mean he would rush to make a D-Rank mission, as that meant he needed some fighting capabilities, and so far, he hadn't even swung Crocea Mors.
He would just complain constantly. In his head. He would only voice his complains if it served a purpose, and so far his were only childish whines.
The Foreman approached him, he is a middle-aged man, with a large nose, broad shoulders, and with pale green hair.
The man smiled and said, "Great work, son. Didn't expect much from your lanky appearance, but you certainly proved me wrong."
Jaune rolled his eyes (internally) and said with a small smile, "Thank you, sir. Working here was a good learning experience."
One of the things he learned in college was that managing relationships in the workplace was crucial in any workplace. That meant trying to be a good guy.
Surely he could say, 'I'm never coming back to this shithole.'
But instead, he said it was a 'good learning experience.' Even if the only thing he learned was how to deal with awful smells.
The Foreman appeared satisfied as he said, "You did good work, I'll put on a good review for you."
The Mercenary Guild had a review system, where employers could put reviews on mercenaries, this helped keep them in line, but it also worked the other way, mercenaries could also review their employers, so that other mercenaries would avoid them if they had bad reviews.
Jaune smiled at the Foreman and said, "Thanks, I'll do the same."
The Foreman turned to leave as he said, "Hope to see ya again."
He nodded as the man left.
This mission was open to everyone, that was why he took it, as many needed a minimum of jobs done and some good reviews. This job also took less time than others -barely six hours- and was pretty easy to reach, as it was in a pretty noteworthy part of Vale.
But he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, it reeked. So he left towards the subway and he was sitting on it ten minutes later.
It wasn't as crowded as he thought it be and it smelt better than the Docks, but what caught his attention was the people, or more specifically the Faunus.
Jaune didn't stare at them, but at the reflection in the windows, it would be pretty rude otherwise. He had seen passing glances across the city and the Docks, but never got a close look.
He looked at the blond teenager that seemed close to his age, he was thin and would only reach his shoulders if he was standing and he had fluffy ears in his head. Jaune couldn't tell what type of ears they were, he could only guess, dog, wolf, fox, or something like that.
It was kind of cool, but the novelty was warring off pretty quickly, so he focused internally.
Jaune activated his semblance.
[Perks]
[Slot 1- Strength I]
[Slot 2- Locked]
Jaune had used [Strength I] for the mission and it helped, but it wasn't anything significant, although it increased his endurance indirectly, as the things were easier to lift, so he could go on for longer.
He quickly changed to [Fast Learner I] and he could feel his aura change once again. He noticed that when he changed Perks his aura would be incredibly hard to mold. Jaune guessed because it was too busy changing itself.
He then pressed on [Slot 2- Locked].
Achievements [4/5]
Jaune was shocked, he didn't expect having four achievements, after all, it's been less than a day since he's been using his semblance.
But it made sense, achievements were always easiest to earn at the start since you haven't accomplished anything. But each time it will be harder to earn more as they will become harder.
He then pressed in achievements as if it could display them and to his surprise, it did.
[Achievements]
[First Perk]
[Plan of Action]
[Mercenary]
[First Mission]
[-]
They were stupidly easy and nothing was noteworthy, but it made it clear that he could rush towards his second slot if he did some pretty mundane stuff.
The first thing that came to mind was getting accepted by a teacher. With that thought, he took out the paper given to him by Jade and looked over the information.
It showed their names, contact information, mission record, and their monthly fee's.
Some were stupidly high, reaching ten thousand lien per month and some were free, but he quickly focused on the ones underlined by Jade, they were between a few hundred to a thousand lien per month.
He narrowed it down towards the ones with more missions as he needed someone experienced and he noticed a huge difference. The man had over double accomplished missions, although he had one less S- Rank.
But still, he had around seven hundred accomplished missions under his name!
Grey Meyer- 4 S-Rank, 92 A-Rank, 350 B- Rank, 147 C- Rank, 73 D-Rank, and 28 E- Rank.
He then took a look at his monthly fee, only 400 lien. Extremely cheap considering his records. With that thought he decided to contact him, though, he only had an email, with specific instructions to label it as 'New Student'.
Jaune shrugged and took out his scroll, and he noticed two notifications, one from the Mercenary Guild, relaying mission accomplished and the payment was transferred and the bank, saying he had received a transfer of twenty liens.
He dismissed them both and started writing the email, with a basic introduction of himself.
Just as he sent it he noticed that he was arriving at the station.
-LB-
Jaune took out his scroll as he threw himself on the sofa of his apartment.
He noticed he had an email from Grey, and quickly clicked on it. The email arrived a minute later than when he sent his, so he assumed it was an automated message, and it made sense because of the required label.
He scrolled down and noticed it was an interview, age, sex, race, a weapon of choice, time training, mission records, and stuff like that.
What made him stop was the last one.
Goal.
Jaune was unsure if he should put, 'Get accepted into Beacon this year.'
After all, it was an unrealistic goal, he had three months and no training, and people who had trained for years had failed.
But he woul-couldn't lie on this, as it was past Jaune's dream, and now there where his.
And maybe that would get his would-be-teacher interested. Hopefully.
He then focused on his other problem.
Evolving his Perks.
So far there had been no suggestions or notifications, so he could only guess that they worked like any other semblance.
The more he uses them the more they grow.
Jaune would focus on [Fast Learner] as not only would it be the most effective, but the most convenient as he was in an entirely new world that had a different development than his own.
For now, he would use DustTube, as he needed a rough overview of Dust, History, and Grimmology. As those were the subjects more mysterious to him and would need to catch up quickly if he wanted to enter Beacon.
As he scoured through it he noticed that there courses complete with these topics and more, from kindergarten to high school, all in videos and from the Remnant Institute of Education (RIE).
It was extremely convenient and a necessity on Remnant that was facing extinction, as Grimm waited for no one and children outside of the Kingdoms would be disrupted with their education if their town fell. This would give them a chance to catch up.
He frowned a bit, as it couldn't be that shallow. He quickly realized, what the purpose was.
Universal Basic Education.
It meant that everyone would be able to learn if they were in the CCT range or downloaded the classes. It was a sign of cooperation for all the Kingdoms.
It was admirable.
Jaune quickly pressed on the first video about Dust.
The video started with a black-haired teacher with orange eyes saying with a huge smile and an uplifting voice. There was also a red crystal on her side.
"Dust is this pretty crystal, that makes energy for aallll the world, just like the food that goes into your tummy."
He groaned, and almost threw the scroll away, he absolutely loathed being talked like a kid.
Fuck this. There has to be a grown-up version of this.
-LB-
There was and he loved the REI for it.
Jayne spent hours watching these for grown-ups, History, Dust, and Grimmology.
Just as he clicked off the video he called on his semblance.
[Perks]
[Slot one- Fast Learner I]
[Slot two- Unlocked]
[Slot three- Locked]
Jaune was delighted as he immediately picked [Aura Control I] and his aura started modifying itself once again. He picked this so he could practice his aura shield, as he needed it to spar against opponents. Especially, now that he knew that the Mercenary Guild had its league and tournaments for its members.
He then pressed on the third slot.
[Achievements 0/10]
He wasn't shocked, he expected this increased in achievements, but it still left him in the dark if it increased by doubling the previous or in the table of five. He preferred the latter but had an inkling that it was the former.
He would only be able to tell when he unlocked the third slot.
It was this time he remembered to take out the timer so he could tell how long it took for his semblance to change.
Jaune took this chance to continue watching videos while he prepared his dinner. Every so often he would pull on his aura to see if there was any change.
It was when he started eating his dinner that he noticed the change. He immediately pulled his scroll out and marked it. [35:43]
A long amount of time if he was in a mission, but in day to day life- not so much. Even then he wouldn't change his semblance frequently because it would make it harder to evolve his perks and it wasted time.
Jaune then pulled his aura towards his arm, and to his fascination the black sheen covered from his elbow to his hand, a pretty substantial improvement from just his hand.
He then heard his scroll vibrate and picked it up. It was from Grey Meyer. 'Come to this direction at 8:30 A.M. Bring loose clothes and your weapon.'
With that he smiled, it's been a pretty good day for him.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone