"So what's your story, kid?" Qrow asked. He was the man who'd come to aid Amber — my compatriot in arrow wounds to the upper body.

"I already told you," I rolled my eyes as I held my hand over Amber's side. I didn't need to be touching her, but it would be faster the closer into contact she was to the healing light. "I was just roaming around when I noticed they were fighting. I didn't know who was in the right, so I just stopped Amber since she was the one who looked like they were about to kill off one of those three."

"You just so happened to be around? Pretty big coincidence, don't you think?" The man was skeptical and suspicious of me to the point where it was starting to get annoying. Did he not see me fighting off the three when he arrived? What more did he need to know that I was against them and a neutral party?

"Yeah," I said, refusing to entertain his attitude for any longer.

"Gods… Ozpin is going to kill me," Amber muttered under her breath.

"Better him than them, don't you think?" Qrow said humorlessly. He retrieved a flask from somewhere on his person before taking a swig of something so alcoholic that I could smell it from several feet away.

"You make it sound like he'll blame you for this," I commented as I finished healing up her wound. As I took my hand away from her, only healthy skin without scarring could be seen through the gap in her cut shirt. "Weren't you ambushed by them?"

"I was… But, how did you know that?" Amber asked as she stared at me expectantly.

"I noticed you pass by the settlement a couple miles back." When her look turned sour, I added, "Hey don't blame me for noticing that massive amount of power in your body. You're the strongest person I've come across, so naturally I got curious and wanted to see who you were."

"Is that why you followed me to the fight?"

"What? No! This is the road that leads back to Vale. Can you stop being so paranoid?" I asked. "Why are you being targeted anyway? If you work with the headmaster of Beacon, I can't see why you'd have that many enemies."

"Don't answer that," Qrow warned.

Amber looked like she was going to speak, but she shook her head instead.

"Whatever. I'm going to leave now. If you're visiting Ozpin tomorrow, don't be surprised if you see me at the school. I work out there on Wednesdays and Saturdays."

Qrow remained quiet while Amber smiled and gave me a nod. I took great pleasure from the shocked looks on their faces once I lifted myself up with Ki and shot off towards Vale.

Once I was back at home and ready for bed, I rolled all the Gachas I'd gotten over the day. My luck with Gacha today was the worst it had ever been as I'd not gotten only new Skills or levels to my current skillset and only riffraff Items that weren't worth mentioning. Only the rewards I'd gotten from fighting "Team CEM" and "saving Amber" were good.

I didn't know what a cannon event was, but I didn't like the sound of it. I was glad that I'd prevented it by saving Amber. Any misfortune that befell Team CEM was good for me.

[Results: Rarity — Unique 2,075 | Militech Apogee Sandevistan (Item)]

[Results: Rarity — Unique ???? | x1688 Rare, x845 High-Roller Rare, x422 Cursed Unique, x422 Summon Unique (Gacha)]

Now, for a time, the Sandevistan I rolled looked like it would be yet another promising reward I wouldn't be able to put to use. The Item was a piece of futuristic tech, a cybernetic enhancement that allowed its users to move normally while time slowed to a crawl — not really, but that was essentially the way it would appear. Unfortunately, I only got the Item itself and not the method or way to get it on myself.

Fortunately, one of the 422 Unique Summons I got was a "Ripperdoc" who could be summoned as my ally for a full day to either act as my doctor or use their expertise to install the Cyberware in my body. Unfortunately, even though I had a way to get the Sandevistan safely on my person, actually going through with it and replacing my entire spine with a piece of hardware was a different matter entirely.

I would be keeping that under a brand new folder of Gacha rewards meant for things that were too dangerous, risky, or inherently offputting to make use of without hesitation. A lot of the Summons I got fell into that category as well. For now, I would only consider undergoing the surgery if I knew well in advance that something outside my current power level couldn't handle. I quite liked my organic spine even if it didn't come with built-in bullet time.

As for the rest of the other Gacha I rolled from the Meta Gacha, there was little to be happy about after rolling 422 consecutive negative Unique "rewards." That was a lie and I knew I was being a whiny ingrate, but I couldn't help how I felt. The truth was, I had plenty to be grateful for.

[Results: Rarity — Rare 999 | Equipment Slot x4 (Ability)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 999 | All Rounding Enhancement x13 (Consumable)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 999 | Equivalent Exchange (Perk)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 999 | Learning x10 (Skill)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare -999 | Scav Raid (Scenario)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare -999 | Hollow Hunt Gone Wrong (Scenario)]

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[Results: Rarity — Unique -6,665 | From Earth Without Sam (Scenario)]

[Results: Rarity — Unique -3,481 | The Destroyer's Descent (Scenario)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 412 | Water Release: Water Colliding Wave x6 (Skill)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 177 | Tamriel: Muffle x7 (Skill)]

Aside from the good High Roller pulls and new Skills, the only other noteworthy rewards from this round of Gacha were the few Bad Scenarios I'd gotten. It would be enough to keep me occupied if I ever got bored again, but that was for another time.

Right now, I wanted to fight Katayoki. I wanted to make up for my mistakes earlier in the day by acquiring as much fighting experience as possible. It was not a good feeling to be caught off guard and ruthlessly backstabbed like I was some gullible idiot. I couldn't even deny that I wasn't since it had literally happened to me.

The best I could do was be better for the future. It was one thing to make a careless mistake against people I could wipe out if I cared enough to go all out. It was another thing entirely to be caught with my pants down by someone who could kill me even with all the powers I had. I couldn't let something like what happened today happen if I was locked in a Bad Scenario.

Terrorist Takeover was a relatively low Unique Rarity Bad Scenario and getting nuked had been a risk there. What if I entered an Epic Bad Scenario or worse? With my luck, I'd probably be faced with an extinction event like a city-sized asteroid hitting the planet.

After taking all those All Rounding Enhancements, my fights against the Zanpakuto Spirit became several times as intense as before. I was still getting my ass kicked decidedly by the smug bastard, but at least he was finally starting to get a few nicks as well.

"Stop that, you cheat!" Katayoki seethed as I threw Ki Blasts at him.

I hadn't been able to do that until I got the Equivalent Exchange Perk, since the battle within my Inner World prevented anything other than Reiryoku from being used. Equivalent Exchange made it so any power source could be used to fuel any technique. There were steep conversion costs involved so it wasn't like all my energy was being pooled together, but it did allow for some blatantly unfair advantages.

"Cheat? How is your entire existence not a cheat itself? You fucking spawned with absolute mastery of throwing knife combat! Don't talk to me about cheats," I angrily said.

I hit him with a good dozen Ki Blasts, but he still came out on top at the end of the fight. Extended versatility made a difference, but there was still too wide a gap between the implementation of our techniques. The only way I would ever overcome him was if I outclassed him as overpowering him was impossible since he scaled to the peak of my current strength.

After waking up the next morning, I got ready to leave for Beacon. As I made my way outside of Vale's walls, I materialized the absolutely cursed Chuni Eyepatch of Power Suppression and decided to wear it to make running over to Beacon something of a challenge. I made it a policy to keep my Aura active from the moment I held the sealing artifact until I decided to secure it away in one of my Inventory Slots.

The unfashionable accessory not only covered up half my field of view, it also suppressed 99% of all aspects of my powers. That left me with only 1% of my Ki, Aura, Spiritual Power, Strength, Speed and Endurance. It left me feeling sluggish and crippled, yet wasn't anywhere close enough to keep me from retaining superhuman abilities.

The run to Beacon took me an hour and a half. For the first time since I'd started making the journey, I felt tired from the fifty-mile trek and occasional extermination of Grimm packs. This in turn raised all my rewards from making the journey advance by one level of Rarity; common Grimm giving me Rare Gachas, Alphas giving me Uniques and so on. When I finally entered the school's campus, I took off the eyepatch and recovered with a Stamina Potion.

I headed off to the gym and broke all my previous weight-lifting records yet again. I could now bench press upto 30 tons, squat 70 tons, and deadlift 75 tons when I wasn't suppressed. It still didn't look all that impressive while I was in the middle of my workout sets, but even the advanced materials and tech used to support the machines and weights at the gym started letting out terrible screeching sounds when I dropped the weights I used after a hard set. That certainly attracted a good amount of odd looks from the others around me.

"Amber," I called out to her as she approached me from behind without ever having turned in her direction to see her coming. Along with my physical strength, my Ki itself had been amplified by the All Rounding Enchancements such that my range was now a full mile in diameter. "How's it going?"

"I've been better," she came around so that I was facing her as I put down the weights I'd been pumping. "Can't complain too much, thanks to whatever it is that you did to fix me up. The doctors said I was in perfect health when they checked."

"Good. I still feel responsible for it since it looked like you'd been doing just fine before I inserted myself into the situation. So, I'm glad you're at least fine now."

"About that…" Amber looked uncomfortable as she said, "I can't help but ask you a bit more about it. Like, what's the deal with your Semblance? You have healing, teleportation, summoning things out of thin air, sensing — which, you've convinced me you actually have, by the way — and flying."

"None of those are my Semblance," I was amused by the look of befuddlement on her face. It intensified when I added, "To be honest, I'm not even sure what my Semblance does since I only got it along with my Aura less than a week ago. I tried it out against some Grimm and it didn't look like it was doing anything."

"...A week?" She repeated.

"It's complicated and I've already talked to Ozpin about it. He can vouch for me if you care enough to want proof."

She shook her head sympathetically, "Nevermind that. I can talk to him later if you don't want to repeat yourself." She added, "Do you really not know what your Semblance does? Are you even sure you've found it? It took me months after I unlocked my Aura to discover mine and from what I've heard that's the norm."

"I'm pretty sure I've used my Semblance before. All it does is make a field that turns the world monochrome. Against the Grimm at least, it didn't do anything."

"Maybe it only works on people? If you'd like I'd be willing to let you test it on me," Amber offered.

"Alright," I said after thinking about it for a moment. "Worst case scenario, I can just heal you if something goes awry."

We left the gym and entered one of the rooms that could be used for sparring. I told Amber to stay away before I activated my Semblance such that its effective range did not reach her. Then, we did a few tests that got progressively more risky.

She dipped her hand into the Heart Death Field and told me that she didn't feel anything change. Nothing changed when her whole body entered the field. She let me lightly punch her and her Aura still showed that it was active. I tried to focus on her and do something, anything, but nothing changed.

What did change, however, was the fact that Amber couldn't use her Semblance within the effective range of mine. Her Semblance worked similarly to my Inventory Slots where it allowed her to store things in a personal pocket dimension. Within the Heart Death Field she could neither store nor retrieve things with her Sembalnce.

With one test, though, I learned that if just a part of her body was outside of my Semblance, she could use hers but only to an extent. When she had the right side of her body in and left side out of the Heart Death Field, she couldn't summon things to her right hand, but she could to her left hand.

Another test showed that Amber could activate the effects of her Semblance while her body was out of it. With one of her hands just outside the range of the field, she could make her weapon appear inside the field. The implication being that the effects of Semblances persisted past the field and that only its activation was canceled when people were in it.

It was a powerful ability against other people, but not overly so. With a range of 200 feet from me, in all directions, that was plenty to make a lot of fights against people with annoying Semblances like Neopolitan's a lot easier.

"Whatever it is that you two are doing in here, you need to stop!" Ozpin said as he barged into the room.

He came at the was the worst timing possible, as Amber was currently holding my hand while trying to see if being in physical contact would change anything about the effect of my Semblance. There was nothing overtly sexual about it, but that didn't change the fact that it was the only test we had in mind that could even come close.

"Why?" I asked as Amber let go of my hand and took a few quick steps away. "We're just testing my Semblance."

"I won't blame you for not being able to notice, but whatever it is that you're doing, your soul is being galvanized to the point where it will soon start attracting Grimm if you keep it up. This wouldn't be a problem if the effect receded or had an observable cap, but I haven't seen the light of your Soul stop getting brighter since it started. If the effect can grow without restrictions or is permanent in nature, eventually you will be attracting Titans."

That would not bode well for me or anyone around to face the consequences. Titans were a class of Grimm above the Ancients. They were terrifying monsters with enough firepower to singlehandedly bring ruin to one of the four great kingdoms.

I was strong, but I didn't fancy my chances against one of them just yet. I didn't plan to antagonize any of them until then and fortunately for me — and everyone else on this god-forsaken planet — only a single Titans rarely grew active every couple of decades.

"Ooh, that's a pretty bad side effect," Amber winced like I was pitiful, "Canceling out the use of Semblances is good, but not if it can risk bringing a Titan out of seclusion."

"Is there at least some way we can measure if and how slow it might be before my Soul to go back to normal? If it doesn't take too long, I can live with only being able to use my Semblance sparingly."

"I have already taken a recording of it. You can see me before you leave later in the day at my office and I'll take them again and compile a report."

After Ozpin left, Amber followed after saying her goodbyes. I went back to the gym and trained until lunch.