Chapter 1 - A Brand New Life

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They say that time flows like a river. Jaune always heard that to be the case, but he didn't quite think he would ever see it so literally like this, watching various images pass by him like a river rapidly.

He could feel a sense of time within this, the river that binds them and organizes them together. It was like he was in a fleeting state, observing the events around him occur as the river of time and memories flowed faster and faster—until it stopped. Ending on a certain memory, a certain image of a certain time.

Jaune frowned at this, throughout all of this, he felt that all these memories were foreign, that they didn't belong to him at all… but then he realized that the way he was thinking now was not like how he should have thought if he was still a child.

It had hit him then, those were his memories, and the pitiful old man slumped on the office desk was his past life. And now, thanks to the name he was born with and the things he'd heard from his family, he realized where he'd ended up in this next life. The World of Remnant… not just any world of Remnant, his World of Remnant which he had written about in the time he had in between his college classes way back then, but had never published.

Jaune remembered it all. All the details, the people, and the many different powers and artifacts he would have to collect to truly survive in this world, it was all in his head.

But before he could even think of planning about it, as his consciousness started to wake, a notification window appeared.

[The Successor's Mark (EX)] has been inherited

Interference has been detected in the Synchronization, foreign user detected, original user not found.

Attempting to retrieve backup… Fail. Fail. Fail…

No Backup found. Detecting current user compatibility with host…

Success. Overwhelming compatibility detected, 9999%.

Modifying synchronization process…

Aura and Mana have been awakened. Unique Skill has been created to match foreign user.

{WARNING!! Unique Skill exceeds Max allowed rank! Administrator approval required}

[The Successor's Mark (EX)] grants Authority.

Unique Authority, [Omnipotence (EX)] has been created.

Verifying changes… Done. Reinforcing body again… success.

Initialization step has finished.

Welcome to Remnant, Author. May your light guide this bleak world through.

As all the notifications cleared up, Jaune felt as though his body was on fire, yet he did not scream. He felt no pain. As he familiarized himself once again with the infinite energy flowing through him, he finally opened his eyes and took a look at his surroundings.

Forest. Specifically, the Arkvale Forest, a rather peaceful forest situated within the Northwestern part of Mistral, mainly managed under the supervision of the Arc Family. Though, Jaune wasn't really supposed to know about that at this time, and he would have normally had a number of covert bodyguards at this point on as well, considering the hidden dangers that lurk within this seemingly peaceful forest, but none of that mattered here now.

He was far too deep in the forest after all, and as he recalled his memories, he realized that in his pathetic attempt at training himself, he had wandered off into the Arkvale Forest to look for something to hunt—something he could practice on, when suddenly a strong force of wind literally blew his consciousness away as it dragged him deep into dangerous territory.

Well, as the author, he of course knew exactly what happened instead, which made him narrow his eyes as he sat up and looked around, then mentally bringing up his status window again to check on himself once more.

User: Jaune Arc (Author)

Authorities: [Omnipotence (EX)], [The Successor's Mark (EX)]

Physical - D (Partial Synchronization | LIMIT REACHED)

Mental - E (Partial Synchronization | LIMIT REACHED)

Aura - EX (Immeasurable)

Mana - EX (Immeasurable)

Simple. Incredibly so. In fact the small amount of skills being shown in this screen is utterly laughable within this world he had created, but the contents were no joke, neither were his stats. Even if his Physical and Mental stats didn't quite match up to the others, they were still far better than the usual rank most people in this world of huntsmen start with, which was F-.

Although he did find it odd that he was given a much different Authority than he thought. He expected [The Successor's Mark (EX)] sure, but not [Omnipotence (EX)], which was one of the five Administrator-level Authorities in this system. Rather, considering that he himself was the author of this story, if he were to gain an Authority through [The Successor's Mark (EX)] influence, it would have been [Omniscience (EX)] or even just a normal skill/ability of [Foresight] whether it be S or EX Rank.

He didn't have much time to dwell on his thoughts, however, as the whistling of the wind reached his ears—making him jump to get out of the way, relying a tiny bit on his Aura to reinforce his body subtly as his current body was not yet fast enough to just physically dodge the attack.

[Omnipotence (EX)] - Allows User to cast any and all physical/magical skills related to offense/defense, all of which will be automatically upgraded to corresponding Mana/Aura Rank. Enhancement/Reinforcement spells are included, however the usual penalties will apply should the boost exceed two tiers from the original rank. Endurance abilities may be at the corresponding Mana/Aura Rank, but its effective strength is only applied relative to the BASE Physical/Mental Rank. All related spells have no cooldown. Additional limitations have been added to fit the current user's physical body.

[Physical Enhancement (EX)] has been cast with 2X reinforcement

Physical Rank is now B+!

Luckily, that was enough to get out of the way, even if the resulting shockwave as the person stopped just ahead of where he was once standing caused him to skid across the ground slightly. Normally that shockwave would have already been enough to cause a number of major injuries on his body and internal organs, but he simply waved it away with a brief Mana shield and used his infinite reservoir of Aura and Mana to cloak himself from his surroundings, rendering Jaune practically invisible to all but an EX-ranked Authority.

[Mana Shield (EX)] has been cast.

[Universal Camouflage (EX)] has been cast.

As the dust around them settled, Jaune looked on impassively as he saw a familiar man looking around confused, blood-red eyes glowing darkly. Nathan Arc, the current family head of the Arc Family line and Guild Master of the Golden Sword Guild, his father, did not look normal at all. A deep red aura seemed to cover him from head to toe, and everywhere he moved and touched, a trail of dark smoke seemed to appear which withered and cracked every material it came into contact with, even the various energies around him seemed to be in an endless battle against it, but Jaune didn't pay attention to that, instead, he used his Authority on his father, looking into his status, even if he already knew what he'd probably see after doing so.

[The Successor's Mark (EX)] peers into the user's soul

User: Nathaniel Gaius Arc (Possessed by [Seed of Malus (SSS)] since 3 days ago)

Skills: [Seed of Malus (SSS)], [Arc Swordsmanship Legacy (S+)], [Aura Slash (S)], [Aura Boost (A)], [Mana Search (C)], [Enchantment: Fire (C)]

Physical - A+ (Boosted by [Seed of Malus (SSS)])

Mental - S- (Overwhelmed by [Seed of Malus (SSS)] {Deterioration: 8 years}

Aura - S+

Mana - A- (Boosted by [Seed of Malus (SSS)])

Even still, upon seeing that it really was the [Seed of Malus] that was wreaking havoc within his father's mind, Jaune couldn't help but frown, especially considering the fact that he himself would have been infused with that same thing had he not awakened in time to get out of the way. This event wasn't even explicitly written within the story he'd made, he'd only alluded to it a number of times, but seeing the actual thing happening with his own eyes was something else. Especially when he was Jaune Arc… the unfortunate kid who would have eventually died in a few years on his debut Huntsman mission.

Jaune Arc himself wasn't the main character of this story either, no, it was another man called Arthur who was the original inheritor of [The Successor's Mark] but it seems that in the process of Arthur's soul being transferred to this Jaune's body (which would eventually become an empty husk as his mind deteriorates enough, causing Arthur to awaken within Jaune's body) his foreign soul interfered, somehow getting caught up in the way and, well, possibly obliterating or absorbing Arthur's soul into his own due to his high understanding of him as he was the author after all. Nevertheless, to think that he'd be able to change things this far back was rather astounding, and in some ways, made him feel rather suspicious of whatever plans the Godlike being(s) had to send him here, and as the main character in itself, considering he now had Arthur's ability as well…

Nathan continued to look around, using [Mana Search (C)] multiple times to find him, but considering its low rank and the fact that his father didn't have any Authority skill at all to rival his, it didn't succeed in finding him, leaving Nathan even more confused.

[Universal Camouflage (EX)] successfully resists [Mana Search (C)]

[Universal Camouflage (EX)] successfully resists [Mana Search (C)]

[Universal Camouflage (EX)] successfully resists [Mana Search (C)]

"What? Where did that kid go all of a sudden? I'm pretty sure he was just here a while ago…" Nathan muttered to himself in disbelief, while Jaune just stared at Nathan right next to him, contemplating something, remaining utterly undetected.

As Jaune saw his father about to leave, he immediately cast a Mental Strength Enhancement spell on himself and reinforced it countless times, making it feel as though time started to slow down by a large amount, reinforcing his body to counteract the sudden piercing headache, he now suddenly had S+ Ranked Mental Strength despite the penalties that were piling up on him. 

[Mental Enhancement (EX)] has been cast with 8X reinforcement.

Mental Rank is now SSS+!

WARNING!!! Current body cannot handle the current enhancement! Penalty will be applied!

[Mental Endurance (EX)] has been cast with 3X reinforcement.

[Mental Endurance (EX)] can no longer be reinforced (current limit based on base Mental Strength)

[Mental Endurance (EX+++)] partially resists the penalty.

User now has [Mental Strain (D-)] affecting him, reducing Mana efficiency by 18%

Finishing his preparations, he then activated his Authority, [The Successor's Mark] in full force, suppressing the [Seed of Malus] completely and rendering it basically comatose within his father's body, making the bloody and dark aura around Nathan completely recede after a while, and his eyes to return to its original shade of blue. Jaune didn't focus on that, however, and instead focused on carefully extracting the curse out of his father's body with his Mana. Thankfully, he was barely able to enhance his Mental Strength to be just above the curse's rank, otherwise it would have been difficult for him to completely remove it from his father without causing irreparable damage.

This was something that the Jaune in his story did not do, or rather, Arthur, didn't do, considering how that Jaune was so far gone already to not even have a shred of memory left within his body thanks to the corrosion caused by the Seed of Malus. At least now, he didn't have to worry about any of that, and he could even save his father too due to how high his Mental Strength is, even the Seed of Malus at SSS rank can't do much but take its time to fully wear down Nathan's defenses to completely control him. The only reason it was even able to influence Nathan enough to spread the curse onto Jaune as well was due to how it used Nathan's thoughts and feelings against him, since he really wanted to come over and save Jaune from the depths of the Arkvale Forest's inner region which actually had Grimm and Magical Beasts lurking around. Within that gap, the curse worked overtime without Nathan's notice and then eventually spread to Jaune.

Actually, Jaune right now could have just waited a while after his father's search ended, but he didn't know how long that would take and he wanted to quickly deal with organizing his memories, so he quickly moved to deal with everything now so he could get to planning about his whole ordeal and what the hell he's even going to do in this crazy world he's made up for himself.

[The Successor's Mark (EX)] completely suppresses [Seed of Malus (SSS)]

[Seed of Malus (SSS)] has been deactivated temporarily

[Curse Extraction (EX)] is attempting to extract [Seed of Malus (SSS)] into a Skill Orb, 10 seconds left…

"Fuck." Jaune couldn't help but curse as he saw the amount of time he'd need to extract the Skill Orb out of Nathan. It was too long, but it wasn't as if he didn't have a way around it, if he didn't have enough time… he'd just have to make it. Thankfully, there's a useful offensive skill he could use that's available to him, one which was known to have a ludicrous amount of Mana Cost and Mental Strength requirement to even handle properly, [Time Manipulation], Ozpin, or rather, Ozma was known to be one of the most advanced users of this in all of Remnant, but not even he could maintain it for 10 seconds, simply put, you'd have to basically have Mana reserves equivalent to that of the System Monitors aka the Angels.

Well, he had more than that. Rather, he seemed to have a nigh infinite supply of Aura and Mana, which in itself is quite insane already. Perhaps it would be spoilers to mention or even think of this, but he already has enough qualifications to become a God in the System right now. Jaune just chose not to do so, especially not at this time when his physical body could not even hold out against a fucking Beowolf of all things. So, he had a lot of training to do, and he wanted to collect all the Administrator Authorities first, he knew of different ways to obtain them all at the very least, and [Omniscience] wasn't even that far from being part of his own, but considering all the limitations the current [Omnipotence] Authority that he had now, it's pretty clear that if he did try to get that skill right now with the method he knew of, he would definitely lose his mind. Literally.

[Time Manipulation (EX)] cast on target successfully.

Excessive mental stress increases the penalty on the user, [Mental Strain] is now at Rank C, reducing spell efficiency by a total of 28%.

Extraction time increased by 2 seconds.

Now he was able to slow down the time surrounding Nathan so much it made him look as if he was frozen. That couldn't be farther from the truth, however, as Jaune simply reduced the temporal field around Nathan so time flows around a thousand times slower within. It was a bit painful though to experience the headache induced by the [Mental Strain] effect though, but that can't be helped since although he did have [Mental Endurance (EX+++)] that was only relative to his base Mental Rank, which was at a pitiful E, making him really only barely immune to the Rank C [Mental Strain] bearing down upon him. If he pushed himself any further, he may actually black out.

After a tense few seconds, wherein thankfully nothing happened to pass by and distract him, which could have had disastrous consequences, he was able to successfully extract the [Seed of Malus] into a Skill Orb that he formed with his Aura, making him sigh in relief.

[Curse Extraction (EX)] has succeeded in extracting [Seed of Malus (SSS)] into a Skill Orb.

Skill Orb [Seed of Malus (SSS)] has been successfully sealed with Aura.

He then reverted the flow of time around Nathan back to normal and deactivated all of his other skills, making his head feel clear again. Before Jaune revealed his presence, however, he stored the skill orb in one of his pouches, making sure to cloak it with his Aura to both stabilize and hide it.

Nathan quickly detected him and turned around to face him, "Jaune? How long were you there?" he asked, making Jaune tilt his head,

"I… don't know?" Jaune said, smiling sheepishly at his father, "Hi dad… what brings you here?"

Nathan glared at him, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and throwing him on his shoulder, Jaune just let him do so, not minding a free ride "You're in so much trouble kiddo. You better be ready, your mom and especially your sisters are not gonna let you off the hook easily this time." Then, he paused, and after a sigh, he spoke in a low voice, "And if you're really that intent on becoming a Hunter then I'll do my damnedest to make you the greatest one to ever live, alright kiddo? I'll train you soon, just… don't do anything reckless anymore alright?"

Jaune smiled at that, appreciating his father's consideration. In the first place, in this Remnant that he'd written up, Jaune's dad only didn't train him because he was so busy all the time in addition to the occasional headache and mood swings because of the curse implanted on him. His father would still be rather busy at this time, but at least Jaune's gained his approval to train, and judging from those words he spoke of… he likely won't just be training under his dad. Though he knew it would be a pretty rough road ahead of him in training, this world wasn't exactly the kind of place he could just laze around in either, no matter how powerful his current Authorities may be, his body was still his limit after all, and right now, he was no different from a normal kid. Except for the fact that he had a bottomless amount of Aura and Mana, that is.

"Yeah, thanks dad." Jaune replied, before allowing himself to rest as he felt the fatigue from overworking his body coming over him, closing his eyes, he muttered one last thing, "Love you, dad."

As his consciousness faded into the realm of sleep, he didn't notice his father pause momentarily in surprise as he grunted and said something with a grin on his face.

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