Saph had been right to say mom would be happier with Terra helping him with his early travels, and mom had been right to think that too. The first day or two was an absolute nightmare – not because of any failing on his part or because he'd not realised how horrible the world was, but due to the weak transport routes between various villages and towns, and Jaune's own weak stomach.
If you wanted to travel from Vale to Atlas, you could just take a commercial ship or flight. Easy.
Getting from Ansel to a major city was a nightmare, and he came to realise he'd missed it all on their way to Mistral the first time due to his sickness. First, they had to take a trip by truck to another village that was a distribution hub for food. No one could afford to pay hauliers in Vale to deliver to every village, so villages pooled together and bought in bulk. It was cheaper that way. The good were then delivered to the town of Stokely, which lay roughly in the middle of the villages. There, it was fanned out and delivered by much cheaper truck drivers to each village.
So, the first step was to pay to hitch a ride on one of those truck to Stokely, the next was to hitch another ride toward the eastern coast of Vale, changing transport at two other villages and towns along the way before finally getting delivered to a larger town that dealt with ocean freight, which was more connected to Remnant's major trading lanes. From there, they could take a ship to Argus and finish their journey at last.
Jaune was confident he could have managed it all on his own, but it would have been with great stress and while double and triple checking notes and panicking about whether he was headed the right way.
Terra made it so much easier. She knew people, and they knew her, and she introduced them to friendlier drivers and got them better deals. Not to mention she could handle all of that while Jaune hurled chunks and Saphron stopped to rub his back.
Things were ironically better on the ship.
Not because of any immunity to sickness, but because he'd vomited it all out. That didn't stop him sitting on the prow of the ship with his feet dangling over the edge, strumming on his guitar. Saphron and Terra had finally gotten a room to themselves, and they were celebrating their engagement and independence.
Loudly.
And without any stereo music to dampen the noise.
The ship they were on was fairly quiet. It wasn't a typical ferry so there weren't many people – it was more a case of a small cargo ship that opted to take the occasional set of passengers because it made them some extra money. The crew only numbered eight or so, and they were minding their own business and doing work, and mostly ignored him, Terra and Saphron beyond a few early attempts to woo the women, in before they made their relationship clear. According to Terra, that was very normal for sailors she'd travelled with.
They were happy to leave him alone, however, and he was happy to be left alone.
Not that he was ever really lonely.
"Hey! Hey! I like your noise!"
"Thanks," said Jaune, strumming out a few more chords for the pod of bottlenose dolphins that had taken to swimming in front of their vessel, crisscrossing daringly in front of it. "What brings you out here?"
"Food, mostly. Your big string-things catch a lot of food, and we can pick at the edges. Free food, dry one."
They must have meant the nets. One thing Jaune had come to realise from speaking with animals was that language didn't always translate. If they didn't know what a "net" or a "boat" was then they couldn't say it even in their language.
Still, the dolphins made for good conversation. They were a lot smarter than the animals he was used to. They were chatty, but capable of full conversation, remembering things, and even asking questions back.
It was nice.
"So, first time one of you has talked back to us. I have so many questions, dry one!"
"I can imagine. We call ourselves humans, by the way."
"Human? Human. Huh. I'll have to tell the others that. What do you call us?"
"Dolphins."
"Dolphin. Dolphin. Hey, that doesn't sound half bad. We just call ourselves us, you know? There's us, then there's food – and then there are the sharp ones, the big ones, the many-armed ones." The dolphin's voice dropped ominously. "And then there are the blind behemoths."
"Behemoths—?"
Did they mean whales? But they weren't blind unless they referred to echolocation.
"The big, dark ones that swim but do not eat," explained the dolphin. "You probably know them by another word. They don't hunt, don't eat, but they kill your kind whenever they can."
Jaune's blood went cold. "Grimm. Are... Are they here!?"
"No. You're safe." The dolphin chirped in amusement. "We're escorting you through the safer areas that avoid them. Got to do our part, you know?"
Escorting—? The dolphins were swimming ahead as if they were guiding the way, and they didn't realise that the ship wasn't alive and wasn't following them. They must have thought it another animal – a "metal one" – that was domesticated by the humans. Jaune realised the dolphins were trying to corral the ship and had apparently been doing it for others.
All to try and help them get past the Grimm.
Jaune smiled. "Thank you all, then. You're heroes."
He didn't have the heart to tell them it didn't work.
"Nah. We're just looking after those we can. We used to try and kill them, and we still do if they're small and squishy, but the big ones don't feel us. Don't even react. Best we can do is try and warn others away."
"Ask his name!" chirped another dolphin, who sounded younger. "Ask his name!"
"Jaune. My name is Jaune." He waved to the smaller dolphin calf. "What's yours?"
"I'm water's-cooling-touch," said the young dolphin. Her voice was feminine. The name sounded odd, like his Semblance was translating the definition rather than the name, and the way she said it was much shorter. "My mom's the boss!"
"The boss, eh?" Jaune strummed a few more bars and watched the dolphins play happily. "Does that make you a princess?"
"What's a princess?"
He explained the concept of royalty and fantasy, and even got roped into bringing out a book and reading to the pod of dolphins. They adored it, flapping and clicking merrily and doing flips until even the sailors noticed and came to watch and take photos. He had a feeling his actions would land him online again, but he wasn't using his Bardic Music or playing any familiar song, so it'd be more like those videos of cows coming to listen to someone playing an accordion. It'd go big, but in an "aww, look at the cute animals" sort of way.
And they were cute. Smart, too.
"I'm a princess! I'm a princess! You have to come tell us more stories sometime, big brother!" clicked the young dolphin. The older ones radiated amusement. "Come swim with us next time. I can teach you to dive really deep!"
He stayed up for another few hours playing music for them as the sailors watched, taking in a rare moment of peace and joy on the open water. Sadly, the dolphins had to leave once they drew close to shore, telling him that they and the other humans were "safe now" and that they needed to return to their own domain to hunt and feed. Jaune bade them farewell and promised to come back and swim with them sometime.
It would be a memory worth making.
/-/
"So, this is Argus." Jaune walked alongside his sister and future sister-in-law, craning his neck to take in the modern-looking buildings and busy streets. It wasn't as crowded as Mistral was, but it was a lot more than Ansel. Sort of a middle-ground between the two but leaning toward the metropolitan.
"This is it," said Terra, looking very pleased with herself. She had been all morning, after a night spent with Saphron. "It's a bit of a political oddity given its ties between Mistral and Atlas, especially when the two kingdoms aren't even that close, but they've somehow made it work. Citizens here have dual citizenship and can pass between either kingdom as they wish, but they have to declare which they're currently inhabiting. Tax is split as far as I know, so both kingdoms get something."
"Will Saphron get dual citizenship as well?"
"Legally, she'll get that either when we tie the knot or after she's lived and worked here for one year. We're going to formally get married literally today, but that'll just be the official paperwork. We're going to save for a proper wedding where both families can come enjoy it."
"Hm. I think mom would kill you if you just signed a form and married her without a wedding."
Terra chuckled. "Don't worry. My own mom would have stern words for me too. We're only legally getting married because it makes things easier for Saphron. Getting a mortgage isn't easy when one of the people in it has a big question mark over whether they'll get citizenship or not. This is mostly just to calm the banks down. Show them we're planning for the long term. But we'll be renting for a bit. Just until we get our feet under us."
"Terra already signed the rental agreement," said Saphron.
"Wow. You were that confident mom and dad would agree to this?"
"I was hopeful for sure. Anyway, what about you? I saw a video this morning that makes me think you're not going to be very good at hiding your internet fame."
"It's already gone viral?"
Saphron sighed. "Jaune, it's a video of you playing music to dolphins and them doing somersaults in happiness. How would that not go viral? I've already sent it to mom. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen."
It hadn't, however, fed him any Charisma. That was good to know. Maybe it was because he'd been a bit idle with the songs, or that he hadn't used his skill and the requirement for a new point was higher than it used to be. Either way, it was a relief to know he wouldn't have to literally quit the guitar to avoid aneurysms.
"Luckily, no one is connecting you and Guitar Cutie," said Terra. "Mostly because she is a drop-dead gorgeous babe and you're just some guy."
Saphron punched Terra's arm. "That's for complimenting another woman in front of me."
"Okay, sor—ow! What was that one for?"
"That's for calling my baby brother just some guy." Saphron smiled pleasantly, even as she massaged her knuckles. "Just because you're into girls doesn't mean you get to insult him. My baby brother is very handsome, thank you."
"Yeah, yeah. Even I admit he's handsome. I'm just not into him." Terra wisely didn't mention having suggested a threesome with his alter-ego. "Seriously, though. What's with that? I've heard of boys growing into their looks, but you went from gangling, awkward teen to teen heartthrob in the space of three months."
It was less than that, but three months was how long it had been since Terra's last visit. Jaune wasn't blind to his transformation, but that was the key thing – it wasn't a transformation. He looked the same as he always did in the mirror, and he hadn't grown at all. It was perception that his Charisma worked on – the same as how it did in video games.
Your character wasn't changing their looks; it was everyone around them suddenly finding them more attractive. He wasn't sure if it was just an illusion, or if it wasn't something playing with their thoughts.
But that felt too dystopian to consider so he pushed it to the back of his mind.
This was the beginning of his adventure abroad.
Drama and angst could stay home.
"We've got a third room that's eventually planned to be Adrian's," said Terra, leading him up to a rather small and cosey home. It was much smaller than the Arc household, but then the Cotta-Arc family was much smaller. "He doesn't need it now, so we'll move his crib into our room. That's basically the arrangement we had when Saphron came over for the month last year."
"Don't emotionally scar my nephew."
"Don't worry. Ironically, the bedroom is one of the places we've had the least sex in."
"Aaand now I'm even more worried." Jaune eyed the dining room table. "Is it safe to sit here?"
"Sure. I just wouldn't lick the table's surface. Saphron's ass has been planted on there plenty of times."
"Terra!" shrieked Saphron.
"Terra..." groaned Jaune, sliding away from the table. "What is safe!?"
Saphron kicked at the floor.
"Is anywhere safe!? Maybe I should pitch a tent in the garden."
Saphron coughed.
"Seriously!?"
"It's our first home," she mumbled. "We wanted to... ah... leave our mark."
He pitied Adrian. He really did. "Where is he anyway?"
"With his grandparents. They've been missing him lately and they knew I was going to pop the question, so they offered to keep him for a week. We'll go pick him up tomorrow. You want to come?"
"Ah, I'm fine." He hadn't met Terra's parents and didn't feel like being the experimental first try for the eventual full family gathering. "I think I'd like to explore Argus. This is the first step on my travels after all."
"Fair enough. Let me give you the tour of the house and we can dump your stuff in your room."
The tour was short, thankfully. There wasn't much to their rented home as affordability had obviously been chief in their minds. Technically, he'd be paying a good part of their rent with his online ad revenue, but he didn't begrudge them it. It wasn't like he actually put any work into the videos, and he felt guilty about the money anyway. It might as well go to a good cause. Speaking of, maybe he could donate a portion of it to the orphanage Ren and Nora had gone to. He brought the idea up with Terra during the tour.
"It's your money so you can do what you like. But, as your apparent agents, I think it's best if you tell us what you want to do and then we do it for you. That way you can focus on enjoying your travels and there won't be a paper trail if some weirdo starts to look into you."
"You think I'll have stalkers?"
"You think you don't? Jaune, there's already fanart of you."
He perked up. "Nice fanart?"
"Sure. If you like seeing your female self spread out over a table as men jerk off onto you."
Jaune's jaw dropped. "There's porn of me!?"
"Oh yes. Oh, hells yes." Terra chuckled. "You would not believe how much there is. Which is super creepy given your age, but they don't know, and you looked seventeen in the video. The porn certainly has you looking older."
"I... I hate the internet. I hate it!"
"Hmhm. So, yeah. Donating to charity is a great idea. You can let us know which you like, or you can ask us to write you up a list of good ones if you like."
"That seems like a lot of work..."
"Jaune, we owe you. Or Saphron does. I think it'll make her feel less guilty for sponging off you if you give her actual work to do. I know it'll make me feel less awkward about it. Having to beg my girlfriend's little brother for money isn't fun. You could have made me do almost anything."
"You might like that too much," he mumbled.
"Awk!" Terra squawked like Doom for morning seeds. "H—Hey, don't say it like that! My girlfriend promised me a fun surprise, dropped innuendos all day of the fun we'd get up to that night, then dragged me into her bedroom with a shy and nervous hottie I knew – or thought I knew – wasn't one of her sisters. Come on," she whined. "I was totally fair to make that assumption."
"I'll give you Saphron could have phrased it better, but do you really think she'd dare arrange a threesome in mom and dad's house?"
Terra winced. "Yeah. In hindsight... but uh... my brain doesn't do well at rational thought when I'm being teased by the girlfriend I haven't seen in months. You'll experience that someday. Some girl is going to make you act like an idiot and I'm going to laugh." Terra eyed him and smirked. "Or maybe it'll be some boy, hmmm?"
"It won't be someone I meet online. I can tell you that much for sure."
"Ha. Well maybe you'll meet someone as you travel." Terra helped him set his bags down and move some stuff into drawers. "Speaking of, have you thought of where you'll go first or are you going to play it by ear?"
"Honestly, I haven't put any thought into it."
"That's fine, honestly. Argus has good transport links to just about every kingdom so you can go anywhere. You can even swing back between each visit. Treat Argus as your homebase where you can rest and recuperate. Or, better yet, where you can plan your itinerary."
"Itinerary...?"
"Sure. A big lesson I learned from my own travels was to have a plan. There's a lot of tourist locations and big places to see in each kingdom, but if you go there blind then you'll waste a lot of time just wandering around aimlessly. There are some tourism offices and a library in Argus, and then there's tourism videos online. You should look up some places you definitely want to see and plan out a full journey."
It was good advice, actually. He didn't know much about each kingdom, and it'd be a shame to miss out on a wonder of the world because he hadn't set time aside for it. He didn't want to watch videos and spoil what was to come, but maybe he could take her advice and do some research on what drew the most tourists.
The idea of Argus being a stopping point made sense too. His family would want to know he was safe and that would reassure them, not to mention it'd make his life easier if he could research places to visit in one kingdom, go see them, come back, then research on the next. It'd be boring to plan all four kingdoms in advance.
"You don't mind me swinging back every few months?"
"Course not. We'll be family soon." Terra winked. "And besides, it'll make building a stockpile of Guitar Cutie's videos easier as well, won't it? You can record a bunch, go on holiday, and spend your money, then come back and make some more. Keep your funds topped up and really have fun. Most people's travel adventures are hobbled by money. You might as well have fun if that's less of a concern for you."
"Hmm. I do feel a little guilty about that money, though."
"Don't. Remember it's ad revenue. Those brands are paying to be seen by millions of people, and you're giving them millions of views. They're getting exactly what they want, so you're not tricking them at all. As for everyone else, they're watching and listening to great music for free. I don't think you should feel bad about that."
Maybe she was right. It was a victimless crime, if you could even call it a crime at all, and the companies paying money to advertise were happy. So was RemTube, who probably kept 90% of that money and only gave him a small cut. And his – or her – fans were happy as well.
"I guess you're right. So, as my agents, do you think I need to make another soon?"
"I'd say tonight or tomorrow, but you shouldn't bother stressing. I'll go take Saphron to sign our marital forms and then we'll grab a camera and some clothes for you on the way back. This is your first proper day of travelling. You should enjoy it."
Now that sounded like a good plan.
/-/
Wandering around Argus on his own not only gave him a chance to relax, but also to consider his Semblance – something that hadn't been easy when he'd been vomiting every few hours from motion sickness. When he and his sister explained to their parents that they were leaving, and after a long period of crying and an even longer period of stern warnings of what he should and should not do, his Semblance had handily informed him that his "quest" was complete.
He'd found enough money to travel and levelled up once more.
Given that he'd gained almost 100 Charisma without a level-up but gotten one from just having 20,000 lien to satisfy his mom, it wasn't exactly an epiphany to realise his Semblance had a messed-up levelling system. Or, more specifically, the system was independent of his stats. Maybe it worked on traditional EXP tied to fighting, but since he wasn't fighting monsters, or Grimm in this case, he simply wasn't racking in EXP other than from quests.
It made sense. Most RPGs he played had an early disaster happen for the protagonist, or at least them wanting to travel and save a princess or something. The only princess he knew was a dolphin, and he'd adverted his early-life disaster by scaring Raven away from Ansel. Beyond that, he just wasn't interested in fighting, so presumably his EXP was sitting at a big fat zero most of the time.
That was fine with him.
As for his level up, there hadn't been any new skills or perks this time, but he'd decided to do something truly shocking.
He'd put points in something other than Charisma.
It wasn't out of any great plan or need or fear for the future, but more the simple fact that adding +5 to his Charisma felt a bit pointless when he'd gone and racked in 80 points from his performance. Instead, he'd put one point in Str, Con, Dex, and Wis, and then dumped the extra point in Constitution to round it and strength out evenly.
He hadn't felt much of an improvement from it, but it wasn't like he was really testing himself either. Maybe he'd notice if he was fighting Grimm every day, but the heaviest thing he had to lug around was his luggage and that wasn't going to require esoteric strength from a Semblance based on video game logic.
-/-
Jaune Arc
Lvl 6.
Title: Bard
HP: 150/150
MP: 70/70
Str: 7
Con: 7
Dex: 6
Wis: 8
Cha: 102 (103)
Aura: Locked
Semblance: The Game
Perks:
Speak with Animals.
Bardic Skills.
-/-
That looked better, though. More even. It wouldn't be a bad call to spread his stats around just in case. Taking his Charisma from 102 to 103 was a less than 1% improvement, while going from 5 to 7 Constitution was a growth of 40%.
And it wasn't like the one extra point of Charisma would make a difference at this point.
Turning away from his Semblance, Jaune paused in front of a shop selling television, upon which was playing his stupid video online. Not the cross-dressing one for once, but him playing for the dolphins. The angle had been taken from off to the side, and the cameraman had obviously been paying more attention to the dolphins than him, so it wasn't easy to tell who it was. Still, he had a feeling Nora would recognise him.
"At least I won't have people hunting for me," he muttered, looking off to the side where a newsagent had a poster of Guitar Cutie in the window. Selling merchandise of him was surely illegal, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it. "Is it bad that even I think I look a little sexy like that? Maybe my Charisma influences me as well."
He really didn't look like a boy dressing like a girl, though. He looked like an actual girl.
Beside that was a poster of another girl with red hair and green eyes, posing with her back to the camera, looking over her shoulder at the poster, with a spear out to one side. The words "VICTORY" were emblazoned beneath her. A movie of some sort? Ansel tended to get things like that late, as even though they did have a cinema, it still relied on getting the physical tapes to be played to the audience, and those didn't get delivered to villages in the ass end of nowhere.
"I guess I could go watch movies but that feels like a bit of a waste. On the other hand, I should definitely buy everyone souvenirs." He had money now, and it'd be nice to bring home suitcases of goods for them. "Yeah, that'd be fun. I should get a camera too. A proper one instead of just using my scroll. Maybe I should make a scrapbook to show them, not to mention I promised Nora and Ren I'd take pictures."
Terra had been right: having money really did make things so much easier. Jaune stopped by a camera shop and, after showing he had money to spare, the old man there was happy to help him pick one out and even teach him some tricks to take good shots. He then bought a laptop and an external hard drive to store them on, and a new travel bag that would let him carry it all a lot easier than his suitcase. Better yet, the people in those places were happy to chat and offer advice, and they knew a lot about travel since it was their jobs to sell paraphernalia for it.
"You want to travel light enough to be mobile," said a girl studying in college in Argus, who had apparently travelled before going there. One thing he was quickly learning was that his idea wasn't as rare as he'd assumed. A lot of people did it at least once. "Even if you're going from major city to major city, you don't want to be stuck having to take a taxi everywhere. Go with maybe three or four sets of clothes and get used to having them washed regularly."
The woman was happy to give him examples of things she'd taken, and to help him try on some big backpacks. They were hefty, meant for camping more than travel, but it would be easier to carry them on his back then it would be in hand.
"You know, I could tell you a few tricks I learned before you go," she said. "Maybe we can get lunch—"
"Girl, I don't pay you to flirt!" called the old man behind the counter.
Blushing horribly, she squeaked and fled, face in her hands. Jaune was left to blink and wonder if the man had been right, and then to realise he probably had. The girl had really been flirting with him.
Huh...
Should he be pleased about that or worried? Was it okay for him to date someone, or was his Semblance mind controlling them? It was definitely influencing them, but since he couldn't turn it off and this was to be a permanent part of him, maybe he should get used to it. There wasn't much point worrying over something he couldn't change.
And he wanted to get a girlfriend at some point, and maybe his travels would be a chance to meet someone...
-/-
Quest:
A longing for romance and a chance to see the world go hand in hand. Lost your v-card at any point during your travels across Remnant.
Success: +EXP.
Failure: Title: Incel
-/-
Jaune's eye twitched.
Seriously, Semblance? Seriously!? He was red faced as he paid for his goods, and the shopkeeper obviously thought it was because of the flirting. The girl wouldn't meet his eyes as he left, and he wasn't sure he could have gone out for dinner with her anyway now that he had that in his mind.
Maybe Quests to save Ansel from ruin were better after all. The last thing he needed was his stupid Semblance deciding the "game" he was playing should be an erotic one. On the other hand, he definitely didn't want that title...
"What would it even do? Make women hate me? Make me do more damage to women based on how upset I am about being alone? Ew. No thanks."
Jaune hurried out the store with his head ducked down and didn't see the person hurrying the other way. They collided, slamming together and – to his embarrassment – Jaune bouncing off the woman while she grunted and steadied herself. He landed on his ass, wincing as his belongings scattered across the floor. His brand-new camera thankfully survived, stored within its protective casing. Good job he'd bought that.
"I'm so sorry!" gasped the girl, hands over her mouth. "Are you okay? Here, let me help!"
Red hair, green eyes, and a nervous expression – more nervous than Jaune thought really made sense given all they'd done was bump into one another. He accepted her hand and gasped as she hauled him to his feet with ease. Then, she stood there, smiling awkwardly as if she expected him to say something.
Jaune opened his dumb mouth.
"Oh, hey. You're the main character from that 'Victory' movie."
The redhead tilted her head and laughed. "What...?"