Chapter 6
"Uhhh. Gotta go!" All Might said, then took off running. For as skinny as he was, he was still pretty fast. Most people wouldn't have been able to even get close to him let alone catch him when he really had a reason to move fast. Unfortunately for All Might, Izuku wasn't a normal person.
"GET BACK HERE AND ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!" Izuku also took off running at speeds that Ochako had only seen in people with quirks that helped with mobility. She didn't know what she was expecting when she found the party leader. But she wasn't expecting him to be so cute, or to see All Might being super skinny. She definitely wasn't expecting to see said cute boy to chase after the number one hero wanting the answer to the question of why All Might was on a first name basis with his mom.
Ochako sat down on a bench in slight annoyance at being left alone, but she knew better than to get involved at the moment. A few minutes later Izuku came back with All Might being dragged on the ground behind him. "I have many questions." She spoke softly at first. "First and most important. What the fuck is going on here?"
Also sitting down on another bench nearby, Izuku did his best to explain the situation, after getting All Might to agree to it of course. "Firstly, the reason All Might looks like this." All Might pulled up his shirt to reveal the nasty scar on his left side. "He got that in a fight about five years ago. He kept it from going public, but it left him unable to do hero work for more than three hours a day now."
"And the rest of the time I look like this."
Izuku continued to explain things. "About two months ago, I met All Might when he saved me from a villain. Later on that same villain managed to escape-"
"Escape? Or get knocked loose by a small child clinging to my leg?"
"I ALREADY APOLOGIZED A HUNDRED TIMES FOR THAT!" Izuku shouted. Ochako giggled a bit at their interaction. "Anyways. He escaped, and All Might was out of time for the day. I asked him if I could be a hero without a quirk, he gave me his answer and left. I somehow found my way to where the villain was trying to take over my classmate's body. I rushed in to save him without thinking, almost got myself killed, and All Might saved me again. Later on he tracked me down after the other heroes at the scene chewed me out for being reckless. There he told me he chose me his successor, and started training me to inherit his quirk. And here we are two months later, I have the gamer, and I met you."
Nodding as everything made sense, somewhat, Ochako said "Great. I'll ask about the inheriting his quirk thing in just a minute. What I was really asking about was the same thing you were. Why is All Might on a first name basis with your mom?"
And once again All Might was sweating bullets. If he was given a choice on whether he would have to fight with the villain who gave him his injury again or explain himself to his successor All Might would choose the villain every time. But that wasn't an option, and neither was running as Izuku had already shown. So, he bit the bullet and prayed he would survive. "There is a very good explanation for that."
"Then what is it?"
"You see, your mother wanted me to give her updates on things. She doesn't know about OFA, but she does know that I am training you to be a hero and I have told her that I recognized the signs of a late bloomer in you, so we can also explain your quirk once you get it. I'll explain One For All to you in just a moment Young." He paused. "I'm sorry I forgot to ask your name."
"Uraraka. Uraraka Ochako. It's nice to formally meet you sir."
"Likewise. As I was saying, I'll explain it in a moment. But Inko wanted me to keep her updated on your progress. She insisted I call her by her first name instead of Ms. Midoriya. And she does the same, mostly."
"Mostly?" Izuku questioned, an edge to his voice.
It took every ounce of willpower in All Might's body to not run away screaming. "She calls me by my nickname, Toshi. But it was her choice! I didn't ask her to do it!"
Getting into his mentor's face, Izuku asked "And there's nothing else going on between you?" All Might shook his head. "Good. And I just know you would never dream of dating my mother without asking my permission first. Would you?" Once again All Might shook his head. "Good. I'm glad we had this talk." That was too much for All Might and he really did run away screaming in fear from the face Izuku was making.
"Huh." Ochako said, unable to really process what she just witnessed. "That happened. So, what's One For All?"
After taking a moment to calm down, Izuku faced Ochako and said "One For All is the name of All Might's quirk. From what he's told me and what I already knew from my research, it seems to be a stockpile quirk of sorts, with the ability to transfer the quirk to another person. It stockpiles strength from each user, and passes it along to the next person. All Might is the eighth user, and once he gives it to me I'll be the ninth. I'm not sure how it really works, but I'm confident that I can figure it out."
That left Ochako with another question. "Research?"
"Oh!" Izuku looked proud about something for the first time since she saw him. "I'll show you. I put all my notebooks in my inventory, and I even got a new page because of it. I wonder if I can share it with you."
A screen appeared in front of Izuku that read "Share File: [Quirk Database] with Player 2: Uraraka Ochako?" Izuku selected yes and Ochako got a screen saying that she received the file and she could access it from her inventory.
"Ever since I was little, I've loved quirks. I wanted to know more about them, how they worked, how they grew and evolved. So, I studied every single quirk I saw on tv and in person. I kept notes, and eventually I filled an entire notebook. Then, when I put them in the gamer those notebooks changed. The gamer updated them with proper spelling, grammar, and even flagged a few things that might need to be looked at again because it might be false information. And I think I've made some major breakthroughs because of it. And that led to this notebook being made." As Ochako looked over the notes she now had, Izuku pulled a notebook. It was labeled "Quirk Evolution Theory"
Ochako gently took it and flipped through the few pages. After she was done, she closed it. Even though she could only understand about half of what she read, she said "This is incredible Midoriya! Just imagine how far these notes could advance quirk science! There's still so much we don't understand about quirks but this answers so many of them! And that's just the parts I can understand!"
Blushing at the praise Izuku took back the notebook and returned it to his inventory. "It's not that good. I'm sure most of it will be easily disproven by actual scientists. After all, what do I know about quirks? I don't even have one." And there it was again. Something Ochako noticed in the very small amount of time she had known him, any time Izuku received praise or a compliment he instantly shut it down by saying how he was most likely wrong or how he wasn't special in the slightest. It was just one more sign of bullying and she refused to let it continue.
"No! It is incredible, and I bet not even the top scientists would be able to disprove some of your theories! You took information we already knew and filled in the blanks with information that explains things in a way that makes more sense than before! And it isn't just this that's incredible! You are incredible Midoriya! I don't know a single person who could do what you did. To run towards a villain to save somebody when even the heroes around you were unable to do anything. Even if you needed to be saved by All Might afterwards, the fact that you tried at all makes you something special. I've only known you for a day, but even I can tell that you're one of a kind. Why else would All Might take an interest in you? And what about the gamer? Do you really think you were chosen to be the party leader by chance?"
"I just go-"
She interrupted Izuku. "I swear to god if you say you just got lucky, I'm throwing you into the ocean."
"But I did!" The next thing anyone heard was a high-pitched scream and a large splash as Ochako followed through on her threat.
After Izuku pulled himself out of the ocean and walked back over to Ochako, slightly worried she would do it again, Ochako said "Self-depreciation is not allowed anymore. Do you understand?" Izuku nodded, afraid of what would happen if he said no. "Good. Now, I want to try out my abilities from the gamer. Can we do the dungeon?"
Unfortunately, it was still on cooldown. Izuku told her as much. "I've already done it today. You can only do it once per day, and allies can't enter it either. We'll need to wait until tomorrow before we can do a dungeon unless we can find another one and I have no idea whe-" Izuku paused as he thought of something. "Actually, I might. I don't think this dungeon is here by chance. This beach is where I train to prepare for U.A, and it's also covered in trash when it used to be beautiful. If I'm right, then dungeons might form because a place is important for some reason, either because it has meaning to one of us, or because some big thing happened there that changed it drastically. If that's the case, then I have two places we could go where there might be a dungeon."
A screen popped up confirming Izuku's theories to be correct. "That is correct. Dungeons form when one of two conditions are met. One, a place holds significance to a player in one way or another. Two, a drastic change has happened to the area. The more important or the bigger the chance, the higher level a dungeon will be. If the second condition is met, there is a chance the dungeon will be a special dungeon. If you clear these dungeons enough times, the area will be reverted to the way it was before."
"See?" Ochako said. "Just another way of showing how special you are! We've only seen one dungeon, but you made that connection! Nobody else would have been able to but you solved it like it was nothing! Now lead the way, I'm sure you're right about the other dungeons too!"
But Izuku stopped her. "That might be a bad idea. The places I'm thinking of are pretty important to me. And not in a good way for one of them. They might not be low enough level for us to clear. I don't want to risk it. How about we meet here again tomorrow and try that one again?"
"Yeah, ok." Ochako agreed. "I don't really want to risk it either if you think it's dangerous. Well, I'll see you tomorrow then! Bye Midoriya!" And with that Ochako opened her map and teleported to her home.
"Oh right. Fast travel is a thing. How did I forget about that?" Izuku asked himself. He then teleported home as well.
The next day for Izuku was surprisingly calm. And that was unheard of for him. Every day he was beaten by Bakugo and his cronies, but Izuku was ever really scared of Bakugo. The other two were weak and had quirks that were useless in a fight. So, when Bakugo didn't even glance at him Izuku simply ignored the other two and they ignored him because they had seen him during gym recently and knew he was in really good shape. Even if he didn't fight back, they probably couldn't even bruise them without Bakugo helping them.
Although, Izuku did discover something interesting about his class the gamer gave to him. Because one of his skills was a passive buff to his defense, anything that could hurt him would cause it to level up. That day in gym the class was playing dodgeball and it went how most people would expect a game of dodgeball in middle school to go. All the popular kids and all the kids who played sports were on one team, while the outcasts and the nerds were on the other. And of course, the school played with a special rule that if you got hit in the face you weren't out. So, everyone on the popular team aimed for the face to make it more painful for other people.
Izuku was on the other team and because of his quirklessness he was pretty much public enemy number one at that school. Every member of the popular team hit his head at least twice before he got tired of getting hit and started dodging the throws. Pretty soon he was the last one standing. From there he caught two balls and threw them at two other people with a surprising amount of strength to those around him. He managed to get four people out at once, and that only left 5 others. Two of them were Bakugo's usual cronies, and even though Izuku would never admit it, it felt good to nail them each in the stomach with hard throws. The two other members forfeited after seeing Izuku send two of the 'toughest' kids in school to the ground with a dodgeball, leaving only Bakugo.
Unfortunately, Izuku still lost because Bakugo used his explosion quirk to throw the dodgeball. It hit him squarely in the chest and even though it didn't hurt at all because of his natural defense thanks to the skill from his class, it did level up said skill. Bakugo looked surprised to see Izuku not even flinch but just assumed he didn't put as much force as he usually did due to gym class having the only teacher in school who would call Bakugo out for going too far.
After school Izuku teleported to the beach to see Ochako already waiting for him. "Hi Midoriya! I was wondering when you would get here."
"School just got out for me." He explained. "Does your school get out earlier than usual?"
Ochako shook her head and said "Not really. There was a villain attack in the area and protocol for the school is to send student's home in case the villain decided to target the school for hostages. It doesn't happen often, but it did today. So, I've been waiting here for the last hour. I tried going into the dungeon put that would have pulled you out of class too and I thought that would be a bad idea." Izuku agreed.
They talked for a few minutes before they went into the dungeon. It was the same as before, but the number of normal enemies had doubled. Ochako tried out her moonbeam skill and blasted a crab with it, killing it instantly because she hit it after Izuku tossed it into the air. Izuku sliced a few in half with his sword when two appeared at once, and the rest were pretty weak.
Once the boss appeared Izuku showed Ochako where to find the weapon and then distracted the boss as she grabbed it. The weapon she got was a staff that boosted her magic damage. Since her moonbeam attack was classified as magic, it became stronger. A direct hit was enough to blow one of the crab's claws off and Izuku finished it off with a stab to the eye again.
The dungeon didn't take long to finish so Izuku cleaned more of the beach while Ochako watched and talked with him. Then, after a few more hours the two went home. Izuku found he could be himself around Ochako and he started to come out of his shell around her. And as Ochako learned more about Izuku, she grew more concerned for him. Mainly because of the school he went to. Still, until she knew the full story there wasn't much she could do.
As the two each laid in their own beds, a thought crossed both of their minds. "I wonder where the other three gamers are?"
Chapter 7: Player 3
All 5 of the gamers had awakened to their new powers at the same time. One of those members was a girl with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. Her name was Melissa Shield, daughter of the famous inventor David Shield. Normally she lived on the manmade island called Iron Island, or I-island for short. But for the past week her and her father had been in Japan because David was there trying to get more funding from a few of his sponsors here.
She had gone with him to visit her Uncle Might but hadn't been able to do so yet. Apparently, he had started helping a kid train to be a hero for the past few months and it took up a majority of his free time. Melissa could only imagine how special that kid was if All Might himself was helping them prepare for U.A. But that wasn't important at the moment.
It was her fourth day in Japan, and she had just woken up in her hotel room. Normally she would have just gotten a shower and prepared for the day as she had finally gotten Uncle Might to put some time aside to visit her, but something left her shocked and wondering if she was still asleep. "Hello, one of the new and final users of the Gamer 2.5!"
Before Melissa could even question what was going on the yellow screen vanished and a new one appeared. "All good games have a tutorial, and this one is no different. To begin the tutorial, please say "Begin Tutorial" out loud."
"Begin Tutorial? What is this?" Melissa finally got the words out. Normally when strange things happened to her, Melissa would have so many thoughts and emotions running through her head that she couldn't think straight. But now, her mind was just blank. No emotions except slight confusion, even the shock from before had gone away.
{Main Menu}
[Character Info/Inventory]
[Skill Tree/Quirk Skill Tree]
[Map]
[Quests]
[Party]
[Close Main Menu]
"This is the Main Menu. You can access this menu by saying or thinking the words Main Menu. In the Main Menu, there are 6 other menus as well as the option to close the menu. To open these other menus, simply say the name of the menu you wish to open. Party is the simplest. In Party you can view party members. Each party member will have their own Character Info sheet you can view. Currently, your party members are hidden. That will change in the future. Next is quests, this is also very simple. You can view quests you have been given, as well as information about those quests, like what rewards they give for completing them. Map is next. In this menu, you can see multiple different maps. You can also use this menu to fast travel to locations you have been to before. However, this doesn't work when in combat or when enemies are within 100 feet of you."
"Is somebody messing with me? I swear to God if someone has some sort of illusion quirk and is doing this, I'm going to find them and kick their ass!" Normally she didn't curse, but pranks like this, that made her think she had some sort of power, really pissed her off. It was bad enough that she was quirkless, she didn't need someone rubbing it in using their own quirk.
The screens kept appearing without her doing anything. "The last two menus are more complicated. In Character Info/Inventory, you can see information about yourself, such as your quirks, skills you have, and your stats as well as allocate stat points you gain through leveling up. Stats can also be raised by completing an activity using that stat. For example, studying would raise your intelligence stat while lifting heavy objects would raise your strength stat. Because you have the Gamer, you will improve your stats at a much quicker rate than those without the system. You can also view and access your inventory. There is no limit to the number of items you can place in your inventory. The only requirement an object has to meet to be placed in your inventory is that it cannot be a living person or animal, and you have to be able to lift said object without the assistance of quirks or skills to boost your strength. The final menu is the most complicated. Skill Tree/Quirk Skill Tree contains skill trees that you can spend points to unlock and gain new skills. You can open that menu at a later time for a more in-depth tutorial on skills."
"Quirk skill tree. Right, that will be helpful. Even if this is real, I DON'T HAVE A QUIRK!" She was really getting annoyed now. But at the same time, the longer she was awake for the less likely it seemed that this was fake. A few years ago, there was a person who lived near her with an illusion quirk who would use that quirk on Melissa. Because of that she had learned to feel if someone was using a quirk like that on her, and there was nothing like that here. She decided to just go with it for now. "Fuck it. I might as well go with it." She opened up her Quirk Skill Tree.
[Quirk Skill Tree]
Quirk: None
"Didn't think so! Of course, this system would have parts of it that are useless to me because of how I was born. This is almost worse than that time America tried to label quirkless people as a species other than human!" Normally Melissa didn't care about quirkless discrimination, she knew it was just the words of idiots who had nothing better to do than to put others down to make themselves feel better about their own sad lives. But this bothered her. Whatever this was, it gave her a chance to be whatever she wanted to be. But she would still be locked out of what she thought was a major part of whatever this was, all because she lacked a quirk.
Melissa was about to close the screen but something on it caught her eye. Even though she was quirkless, there were still skills she could unlock. There was a small question mark right next to the button that would close the screen, so she tapped it to see if she could get more information.
"This is the [Quirk Skill Tree] Menu. A user of The Gamer can access this screen and unlock new features and super moves for their quirk without having to develop them on their own. Developing some skills in this menu without purchasing them is still possible and will unlock said skill without spending points. Other skills or quirk evolutions can only be purchased. For those without quirks, The Gamer grants skills that can improve physical and metal capabilities as an equalizer. Should a quirk be acquired, either through quirk fragments or through other means, those equalizer skills will be removed, and all quirk skill points spent will be refunded."
That was all the information there. Currently Melissa didn't have any quirk skill points, but she looked at the skills anyways just so she knew what sort of skills she could get. IF, this all turned out to be real. Which she still doubted.
[Quirk Skill Tree]
Quirk: None
(Skill: Strength Growth Boost: Unlock: 1 Quirk Skill Point) (Skill: Agility Growth Boost: Unlock: 1 Quirk Skill Points) (Super Move: Intelligence Growth Boost: Unlock: 1 Quirk Skill Points) (Skill: Wisdom Growth Boost: Unlock: 1 Quirk Skill Point) (Skill: Durability Growth Boost: Unlock: 1 Quirk Skill Point) (Skill: Charisma Growth Boost: Unlock: 1 Quirk Skill Point)
A quick check in her character confirmed that she could get a skill to boost each of her stats, which was helpful. "Ok, so a person with a quirk might have more options and can evolve their quirks, but this is pretty nice too. Maybe this won't be so bad after all." She smiled and realized that she still had an hour and a half before she was supposed to meet with Uncle Might, so she wanted to explore the rest of her screens. She already looked at her Quirk Skill Tree and her Character Page, so she decided to look at her Base skill tree next.
It revealed that she had the skills Gamer's Body, and Gamer's Mind, and that she could unlock a few skills once she found a way to level up. Those skills were Regeneration and Analyze. She couldn't see much of a description for either of them, so she wasn't sure how useful they would be, but there was no point in not getting them once she could.
Her other skill tree was so much more interesting.
[Class Skill Tree]
"Your Class has been discovered. There are six tiers of classes. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super Rare, Legendary, and Mythical. Higher rarity classes offer either a higher number of skills or better-quality skills. You can gain more skills by leveling up or evolving your class. Classes level up by gaining Class EXP. Class EXP can only be obtained from defeating enemies or as a reward for completing a dungeon. Quests will not give Class EXP. When certain classes reach Max Level, they can be evolved. Evolved classes go up one tier and revert to level one. Skills gained from your previous class will be retained unless your class undergoes an extreme change, like switching from a ranged attacker to a brawler. Low Tier classes can just evolve once they reach Max Level. High Tier classes will require a specific dungeon to be completed to evolve.
[Class: Technomancer (Super Rare) LVL 1]
[Skill Unlocked: Blueprint: LVL 1/10
Type: Active
Description: This skill forms a blueprint of a weapon or other items. A blueprint contains a list of materials that are required to craft said item. A blueprint can also be used to craft that item without using tools or taking up focus. Leveling up this skill allows you to form more complex blueprints with stronger weapons and items. The more complex a blueprint, the more time it will take to craft once all materials have been obtained. A blueprint is considered active once summoned but will become inactive after a week. Inactive blueprints will sit in your inventory and can be made active at any time. If all active blueprint slots are full, inactive blueprints cannot be activated. Items required for blueprints can be obtained by finding them in your world, or by defeating certain enemies in dungeons.
Effects: Can currently create up to a level 1 blueprint. Has a 24-hour cooldown before another blueprint can be created. Currently only one blueprint can be active at a time.]
[Skill Unlocked: Extra Storage LVL 1/5
Type: Passive
Description: Adds extra inventory space specifically for items or weapons you have created with blueprints. Extra spaces cannot hold inactive blueprints.]
Effect: Adds ten extra inventory spaces and adds another five spaces with every level.]
Melissa was amazed at her class. Sure, it wasn't the highest rarity possible, but it was the third best one. Plus, it could probably evolve once she maxed it's level out. But there was one last test to see if this was actually real. She tried to create a blueprint. Nothing happened, and she realized that she probably needed to specify what she wanted the blueprint to be of. Then she tried to create a blueprint of a simple handgun. What she got was so much more.
[Blueprint: Weak Arm Cannon]
[Items Required: Metal Scraps x2, Focusing Lens x1, Energy Source (Small) x 1, Colored Dye (Any)]
It reminded Melissa of the arm cannon one of her favorite video game characters had. The character she was thinking of was called Mega Man. He was a little robot with blue armor and his arm could turn into a cannon that could shoot small pellets of energy or larger charged blasts. Not to mention all the upgrades you got over the course of the game. "Hmm. Seems simple enough to make. Although, the energy source might not be easy to get my hands on. I'm not sure what it means by that. The focusing lens is easy, just a glass lens that can withstand enough heat to avoid melting under the heat of whatever it's focusing. The metal scraps should be easy too. And the dye is the simplest. I think I'll make mine red, just because I think it'll look cooler."
Little did Melissa realize that she was muttering, something she often did when focusing on something. Her father had entered the room to let her know it was almost time for her to meet with Uncle Might, but he saw her lost in thought while standing over the blueprint. "What's that Melissa?" He asked.
The blond girl jumped as her father, the famous inventor David Shield, spoke to her as she didn't realize he was there. "Oh! You scared me! What are you doing? I thought you agreed to knock before coming in!"
"I did." David replied. "You didn't answer, so I came in to make sure you were awake. Then I saw that you were muttering again. What's the blueprint of? You know All Might doesn't use support gear, so I doubt it's for that." Melissa handed over the blueprint and David looked over it. It was incredibly detailed, only missing two things. A name for the invention, and a list of materials needed. Melissa saw a screen that popped up any time she focused on it, but nobody else did. But it did confirm to her that this was real.
The blueprint was something her father could see and touch. It had to be real. "Just something I'm thinking of making for me. It's just a prototype right now. I won't know how well it works until I can make it and test it. The real problem I'm facing is trying to figure out an energy source for it. It needs to be small, and it doesn't have to produce a lot of power all at once, but it needs to be a sustainable source of energy."
"You're right. That is a bit tough. Maybe a small generator that runs off of kinetic energy, so the more you move around the more it charges the generator and the more energy it would give. The size would keep it from generating more energy than the machine could handle, but it would be consistent and would be able to store that energy so it could hold a charge." Melissa knew her dad as a goofy and fun-loving guy. If you saw him acting like that and didn't know who he was, you would make the assumption that he was a bit of a dunce. But David was most likely the smartest person on the planet, other than the principal of U.A that is.
Melissa wrote something down on the blueprint then folded it up and tried to put it in her pocket, but it sort of just vanished, not that David noticed. "Anyways, I just got a call from your Uncle Might. He said that he might be a few minutes late, because that kid he told us about needed him for something. He let me know that it shouldn't take long, and you should just go and wait for him."
After that, David left so Melissa could finish getting ready. She was a bit worried that she messed up the blueprint since it vanished, but when she tried to make it reappear it did instantly. And it still had the notes she made on it, but also something else appeared. Another screen said [Certain Items can only be found in dungeons. Item: Energy Source (Small), is one of those items.] That bummed her out a bit, but she also sort of expected that.
Taking a few more minutes to check out the rest of her screens, Melissa found that she was already in a party with someone. Actually, with four people. But they were all hidden. Oh, and she was also player three. That meant that she wasn't the party leader, which also sort of bummed her out, but she knew she wasn't really the leader type. Hell, even her class seemed to gear her more towards support with being able to make items and weapons so easily, so that was the best role she could play. But she absolutely refused to give the arm cannon to anyone else once she made it. It would be hers, mostly because she loved the series it was based on, but also so she wouldn't be totally defenseless in combat.
She also found that she could only unlock one more ability for her class but leveling up her class would unlock blueprints for a lot of different things, like healing items and items that temporarily boosted stats. The ability she could unlock was something called simple crafting, which she no clue as to what it would do yet. Smiling at her newfound abilities, Melissa was more ready for her meeting with Uncle Might than ever before.
A few days had passed, and it was Melissa's last day in Japan. She had yet to tell her dad about her abilities, and she was a bit worried that leaving Japan would take her away from all her party members, but she supposed that if that was the case then she could make an excuse to come back.
So, for her last day she decided to explore the city she was in. Eventually she came across a dirty beach, covered in literal mountains of trash. And a swirling golden portal to the left of the entrance. A screen appeared and told her that it was a dungeon, but she didn't go there right away. First, she ran to one of the trash piles and picked up some of the metal lying around.
Thankfully she didn't cut herself on any of it, and even better, it would work for her blueprint. Then, in a moment of bravery, she walked over to the dungeon portal. A screen appeared asking her if she wanted to go in and she selected yes. Then another screen appeared. It read [Warning: You are attempting to enter a dungeon alone, without any skills or weapons to help you in combat. Going in alone would be dangerous and could prove fatal. Would you like to summon allies?]
"Yes!" Maybe she would be able to meet a few of her party members now. She had explored a lot and hadn't found anyone yet. A bright light shone, and two people now stood in front of her. It was a boy with green hair and eyes, and a shorter girl with brown hair and eyes. Each one looked surprised when they suddenly appeared here then calmed down quickly.
The boy said "You must be the other three players. Hi, I'm Midoriya Izuku, Player One, and the party leader. It's nice to meet you."
Other three? They were the only three here. Right? The girl spoke next. "Looks like you and I are the only two girls. I'm Uraraka Ochako, Player Two. Nice to meet you all."
Melissa was about to question why they were talking about other people when a voice from behind her said "What's going on? Who are you people? How did I get here?"
Quickly turning around, Melissa saw there were two boys standing behind her. Both were tall and fit looking. One had six arms and silver hair. He wore a mask to cover the lower part of his face and he was the one who had asked the three questions. The other boy was also tall, but he was bald and had a head that sort of looked like a mountain. Despite how large he was, he looked absolutely petrified. And the Gamer's Mind skill shouldn't have even allowed for that to happen! Was he even one of the gamers?
The voice that Melissa recognized as Izuku's spoke again. "I got a screen saying that a party member had summoned allies, and then it brought us here. I assume that was you, seeing as how those two have no idea what's going on. So, why were you trying to take on a dungeon alone?"
Ochako turned to Izuku and said "Didn't you do the exact same thing? And you don't even have a quirk to use to help. You got really lucky that you found that sword and your class is good for fighting." Izuku looked embarrassed and turned a bit red. Ochako turned back to Melissa and said "Don't worry about him. He doesn't seem to realize that just because he has almost inhuman pain tolerance it doesn't make him invincible. I've only known him for a few days and if I didn't already know him better than that, I would assume he's a suicidal maniac."
It was all too much for Melissa and she shouted, "WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!"
Chapter 8: Gamers United
After waiting a minute for Melissa to stop freaking out, Izuku said "So, you probably all know that you were in a predetermined party. All three of you were just officially added to the party. Uraraka and I have known about eachother for a few days know, mostly because she was given a quest to come find me. We were expecting something similar to happen to you three eventually, but the gamer had other plans."
Everyone was now sitting on the wall surrounding the beach and Izuku was doing his best to explain what was going on. "So, you tried to go into the dungeon alone, and instead of letting you it brought not only me and Uraraka, but these two as well. The best thing to do would be to introduce ourselves. I'll go first. My name is Midoriya Izuku and I'm the party leader apparently. My class from the gamer is called Dragonborn, a legendary tier class that gives me some pretty useful skills." He didn't mention his quirk, or rather his lack of one. Sure, Ochako knew and didn't care, but he didn't want to chase them away or have them start trying to bully him.
"I guess I'll go next. I'm Uraraka Ochako. I also have a legendary tier class called Space Walker. And my quirk is Zero-Gravity." She noticed how Izuku didn't mention his quirkless status but didn't say anything about it.
The blond-haired girl who summoned them there by accident introduced herself next. "I'm Melissa Shield. My class is a super rare class called technomancer. It's also the reason I wanted to enter the dungeon. I need an item from this dungeon to be able to use something my class gave me." After a very short pause she decided to take a risk. They people surrounding her all seemed nice, and they would find out eventually anyways so she might as well say it. "And I'm quirkless."
Izuku couldn't stop the gasp from escaping him. "You're quirkless too?" He asked. Melissa nodded, slightly surprised to have met another quirkless person her age as one of the other gamers. Not only were quirkless people mostly elderly people nowadays, and only five people had the gamer. The odds of one person in the group being quirkless was extremely unlikely, but for there to be two was almost impossible. That led her to believe that it wasn't random selection that caused them to receive the gamer.
"Yeah. I'm just glad the gamer gives us something else for the quirk skill tree. One hell of an equalizer huh?" Izuku stared at her blankly. "You didn't look at the quirk skill tree, did you?" He shook his head. "Not like I can blame you."
Clearing his throat, which sounded a bit strange coming from his hand that turned into a mouth, the tall six-armed boy spoke. "It is nice to meet you all. I am Shoji Mezo. My quirk is rather obvious, but also quite complicated so I will explain it. It gives me these six arms and I can change them into other things like mouths, noses, eyes, and ears. I can form smaller duplicates of those and regenerate those duplicates with no trouble." Shoji took notice of Izuku writing in a notebook but said nothing about it. "My class is rather simple. It is called brawler. It gives me a boost to all physical attacks and a skill I have yet to use called Power Blow."
The only one left was the boy who had yet to say a word, but still looked terrified. If it wasn't for the symbol above his head marking him as a party member, nobody would think he was one of the gamers. Izuku asked "Do you want to go next?" The boy shook his head. "Can you at least tell us your name?"
This time the boy nodded. "I-i-i'm K-k-koda K-k-koji. M-my c-c-class i-is p-p-priest a-a-apprentice. A-and m-my q-quirk is A-anivoice." That was probably the most he had ever spoken to a group of people.
"Thank you, Koda. And I understand being nervous around new people. I've had some... Bad experiences." Everyone instantly knew what he meant. Koda's rough appearance that was the complete opposite of his personality caused many to pick on him. Melissa was quirkless just like him, and it was difficult at times, even on I-island. Ochako had her fair share of experiences with bullies because of her financial situation. And Shoji's quirk was an extreme mutation, so he wasn't exactly spared either.
Infact, he said "I am sorry that happened to you. While I am sure you had it much worse than I did, I can understand other hating you for something you have no control over. Should you ever need someone to talk to, I will be happy to lend an ear. The same goes for all of you."
For the first time in a while, Izuku had a genuine smile on his face. "Thank you. Anyways, if you still want to, we can do the dungeon. But I'm supposed to let All Might know before I go into it."
"How do you know Uncle Might?"
Ochako said "He's listed as an ally. Didn't you see that on the party screen? It's in the allies tab."
"I never opened that! I didn't think I would have any!" Melissa felt a little stupid now. If she had opened the ally tab in the party menu, then she would have seen Uncle Might listed. Then she could have asked him about it and maybe have met at least a few of the gamers sooner.
Because he didn't really have much to add, Shoji had mostly stayed quiet. But he felt he needed to ask. "You didn't answer her question. How do you know All Might? And on top of that, Shield, why do you call him Uncle Might?"
Once again Izuku decided to tell them about the situation because he should be able to trust these people and they would find out eventually. "Well, All Might's sort of been acting as my personal trainer for the last few months to help me prepare for U.A. He already knows about the gamer, and he accepted the invite to be an ally. I'll text him and when he's not too busy he should get here."
Melissa also answered. "My father is David Shield. He used to work with Uncle Might back in his days in America and stayed close friends. He's the closest thing to an uncle I have, so I call him Uncle Might. And please, call me Melissa. It sounds super weird when you call me by my last name."
It only took about five minutes for All Might to arrive after Izuku sent the text. The fact that Izuku said something about his niece being there too may have helped with that. "Melissa! It's nice to see you again! And Young Midoriya, I see you have your entire party together!"
Currently, it was impossible for Koda and Shoji to say anything at all. They were shocked to see All Might acting so casually towards Melissa and Izuku. "Yep. I told them about how you were helping me train for U.A, and Uraraka and I were supposed to tell you whenever we went into a dungeon."
"Well then you should get that done! I will wait here! When you get back, you can tell me about yourselves! I'll even treat you to lunch!" While Shoji and Koda were still stunned into silence, not like either of them spoke much anyways, Izuku nodded.
He opened a few windows to check his stats and class levels and smiled. "Well, by the time the boss shows up I should have a new skill from my class. Let's go in. You can show off your classes and quirks." His smile was comforting, and the look in his eyes understanding. He had gone through all of this, without Gamer's Mind to keep him calm. And even with Gamer's Mind this was a lot to take in.
Then Melissa stopped him. "My class doesn't actually give me any combat skills. I don't have any way to fight." She looked embarrassed at seemingly being the only person in the group without a way to fight enemies.
"It's fine." Ochako assured her. "You can stay behind us, and we'll protect you. Not everybody is suited for fighting, and not all heroes focus on combat. Just look at me. Before I got the Gamer, I was focusing on becoming a rescue hero."
All Might added "Young Uraraka has an excellent point. And not all heroes wear capes, metaphorically speaking. A genius costume designer from the U.S has made sure everyone knows how dangerous capes on a costume can be. But my point is, your father David is just as much a hero as I am. His support gear for heroes, and the other amazing technological advancements that he has created have saved millions of lives around the world. Just because your fellow gamers have classes suited for combat, or quirks that are good for heroics, doesn't mean you have to be embarrassed. You can help people in other ways. Always remember that." Melissa nodded, feeling much better about herself.
With a short pause to see if anyone else wanted to say anything, Izuku said "I'm going to start the dungeon now. Uraraka and I already know how it's going to go, so we'll let you figure out how to use your classes in a fight. Melissa, stay behind Uraraka and I. We won't let anything hurt you, and when the boss spawns I'll take you to the place where you might be able to find what you're looking for. Everyone ready?" Ochako nodded immediately, with Melissa and Shoji doing the same a few seconds later. Koda basically froze for a good thirty seconds, but eventually he also nodded.
Izuku activated the dungeon and the gamers vanished. It was a bit disorienting for the three that hadn't done it before, but Izuku and Ochako were already used to it. This time, instead of there being only 12 enemies when Izuku did it alone, or 24 when Ochako joined him, there were sixty enemies. "Right, I forgot about that. At least it isn't doubling every time with every party member. It seems to add another dungeon's worth of normal enemies per party member. We can also most likely expect the boss to be a lot stronger than normal."
The beach itself was beautiful. All the trash was gone, and the water glistened in the sunlight as it washed over the white sand beneath their feet. "What sort of enemies will we be facing?" Shoji was a bit worried about the sixty enemies but seeing as neither Izuku nor Ochako seemed that worried, he decided to trust them for the moment.
His question was answered as the first crab spawned. "Metal crabs that increase in size and strength the more we defeat." Izuku didn't look intimidated by the crab because it was fairly small compared to the ones that would spawn later. Then, four others popped out of the sand, each one bigger than the last. Together the five crabs charged the gamers.
Melissa started to panic a bit because she couldn't fight on her own before Gamer's Mind calmed her down. Shoji was also worried now, despite the two experienced members of the party being relatively calm. Koda was freaking out so much that even Gamer's Mind was having trouble keeping him calm. As the crab closest to him reached him, he shouted "STOP!" It was the loudest he had ever spoken, and luckily his quirk worked. The metal crab in front of him froze in place, staring at him as it waited for new orders. "P-p-protect u-us from h-harm." The crab decided that the best way to do that was to attack the other crabs. It charged one of the others and the two crabs started to fight.
Even though the crab Koda had taken control over was the smallest of the five, it was still easily winning the fight. "Koda, what does your quirk do?"
As the initial panic of the situation, he was thrust into wore off, and Gamer's Mind helped keep him calm, Koda was able to answer without stuttering much. "M-my quirk can take control of animals. I-i wasn't sure if it would work on t-the crabs though. A-and I have another s-skill from it. I-it gives my animal allies a b-boost to their stats." That explained why the little crab was winning the fight.
"Impressive Koda. Allow me to show you what I got from my class." Shoji focused for a second before all six of his fists glowed red and he charged the nearest crab. All six limbs collided with the largest crab and flattened it completely. Once the glow faded, everyone saw the bruises on each of his fists. "Ah, so that is what Power Blow does. Although it does seem to have some recoil to it."
Izuku had a notebook out and was writing down information about Koda's and Shoji's classes and quirks. A crab charged him as well, but he didn't even look up as he kicked it away. "Woah! How did you do that Midoriya?"
"Huh? Oh, these crabs are fast, but they're also loud and can't change directions once they start moving. Uraraka and I have done this dungeon so many times we don't even need to look at the crabs in the beginning to beat them. We can just listen for the noise they make as they move to fight them." The crab he had kicked would have come back to try and attack Izuku again, but the crab Koda had taken control over attacked it first. It had killed the other crab that it fought, but because of the damage it took, its new opponent was able to win without difficulty.
Seeing the crab he had managed to tame get killed like that, Koda looked sad. He hated to see animals get hurt, even if they weren't actually real. He was so distracted by what happened that he didn't see the final crab jumping at him. By the time he saw it, it was way too late for him to react. But just before it reached him, a beam of silver energy hit it and killed it. "Koda, you can't get distracted like that. If you don't want to fight anymore, then stand behind us with Melissa." Ochako was the one who fired the beam. Melissa looked at her with stars in her eyes.
"Is that what your class can do? That's incredible! I wonder what sort of support gear would be useful for something like that. Maybe a way to focus the beam, increasing the damage it does without using more energy? It seemed to be fired from your hands, so it would have to be a glove."
Ochako giggled at seeing Melissa seemingly create gear for her on the spot. The look Melissa was making sort of reminded her of Izuku, and it was just as cute on her as it was him. In the brief moment Ochako had taken her attention away from the actual fight, Koda showed that he was still willing to fight. Even a gentle giant still had enough strength to do some serious damage, and Koda was no exception. While he didn't have any experience in an actual fight before this, he could still throw a punch surprisingly well.
The attack was sloppy, but it had its intended effect. The crab that Koda hit went flying a surprisingly far distance, landing on its back close to the water. But Izuku saw it and got worried because of it. He and Ochako had accidently discovered something about this dungeon when they were in it before. They didn't think it was worth mentioning, because the crabs were usually careful to stay away from the water.
"Oh no." Because when they got within two feet of the ocean, a new type of enemy would replace half of the crabs in the dungeon. "Uraraka, Koda spawned the sand sharks!"
"Uh oh!" And the sand sharks were twice as strong as the crabs, and twice as fast. By the time the two got to the last enemy, the shark that spawned was almost a blur as it swam through the sand to attack them.
Izuku grabbed Shoji and Koda and pulled them close to the stairs leading away from the beach while Ochako led Melissa there as well. "Koda, this isn't your fault because you had no idea this would happen. Midoriya and I knew about this, but we didn't tell you because we were worried one of you would do it on purpose for a harder fight. and we didn't think you would accidently do it either. When you get a crab too close to the water, sand sharks start to spawn. The best way to fight them is to put your back against a wall so they can't get behind you and let them come to you."
Coming towards the beach was a dark grey fin. As it got closer to the shore the shark the fit was attached to sunk into the sand and kept going. It burst out of the sand to eat the crab that got too close to the water then moved towards the gamers to make them its next meal. Izuku summoned his sword and Ochako pulled out her staff. "This is going to get really dangerous, really fast. With 55 enemies left, that leaves either 27 or 28 as sand sharks, and they're twice as dangerous as the crabs. Koda, Melissa, you two can't fight very well. Neither of you have any skills that really help all that much in combat, and neither of you have weapons that you can use to help. Shoji, you're with Uraraka and I. Don't hold back and be careful. These things can do some serious damage if you're not careful. It's times like these that make me wish allies could enter normal dungeons. Having All Might's help would make this a breeze."
Izuku told Ochako that he wouldn't make a good leader. He didn't think he could take command like that. But when a leader was needed, he stepped up and did the job better than he could ever imagine.
The three gamers new to dungeons didn't bother to question where they got the weapons from. It wasn't like they had time anyways. The first enemy got there. It was another crab, but Izuku split it in half with his sword. Ochako fired off Moon Beams at the crabs that were appearing, but she couldn't do the same to the sharks because they would just go further underneath the sand to dodge the attack. Shoji did his best and used his six arms to decimate the sharks and crabs that attacked him. Something he noted was that even if the sharks were stronger, they were easier to damage than the crabs because of the lack of armor. He also noted that whenever he hit a shark with his skill there was significantly less recoil from it, meaning it was possible that with proper gear the recoil could be avoided entirely.
Very quickly the three of them were surrounded by enemies. Normally, the enemies would spawn in waves. The next wave would only spawn after you beat the current wave. If you activated the sharks, it changed. Enemies still spawned in waves, but instead of it being one wave at a time, the waves would spawn every ten seconds. If you didn't defeat all the enemies within ten seconds, the next wave would make your job harder.
After the three gamers who were fighting got surrounded, it was inevitable that enemies would go after Melissa and Koda. And that was what happened. A shark had burrowed deep into the sand and snuck up on Melissa and Koda. It bit Melissa on the arm and could have killed her if it wasn't for Koda. He punched it on the nose as hard as he could on a hunch. And his hunch was accurate. The sensory organs in a normal shark's nose were extremely sensitive. They had to be for a shark to hunt properly. If you hit those sensory organs, it would hurt the shark badly, and make it recoil. These sand sharks were pretty much the same way.
Once it let go, Koda took control of the shark. "A-attack the other enemies in the dungeon!" The shark mainly went after other crabs, but also took out a few of the smaller sharks when it got a chance to ambush them. After clearing a few more enemies, Izuku unlocked his new skill. Draconic strength. It allowed him to defeat the enemies even easier than before, and he thinned the crowd a bit.
"Go check on Melissa. She got bit!" Ochako nodded and followed the order she was given. She blasted one more shark that lunged at her, the only time she could actually hit them, and ran towards the two non-combative party members.
"Are you two ok?" She asked. Melissa nodded, but she was in a lot of pain and her health was at about half from just one bite. She was also losing a lot of blood. Uraraka took off her shirt, leaving her in just the tank top underneath, and wrapped it around Melissa's wounded arm. "Keep pressure on that to stop the bleeding."
Then Koda revealed another trick up his sleeve. He put his hand on the bite marks and activated a skill he got from his class. His hand glowed green, and Melissa's health started to refill. "S-sorry I d-didn't do this right away."
"It's ok. Thank you for healing me." Melissa said gently, knowing that Koda was shy and really nervous, and that any sort of loud reaction might scare him into stopping. Seeing that Melissa was in good hands, Ochako ran back into battle to help the other two.
Finally, after another few minutes of fighting, the boss spawned. Thankfully it was the normal one, even if it was stronger than usual because of the amount of party members. "Melissa, Koda, Shoji! Go check the hole that thing came out of. You'll find what you're looking for there! We'll handle the boss." With his new skill and Ochako supporting him, Izuku could have killed the boss really fast. But he just dodged and blocked its attacks for a minute while the other three checked out the hole.
Eventually Melissa popped back out of it holding a small glowing orb. "I got it! This is exactly what I needed! Thank you!" She activated her blueprint, and it took ten seconds to craft it. Once the crafting part was done, the weapon appeared on her arm. She also got a small window explaining how it worked.
[The weapon: Weak Arm Cannon uses mana to power its shots. Pull the trigger and it will consume one mana point and calculate damage based off of intelligence stat. Hold down the trigger and a stronger blast will charge up, consuming one mana every second the trigger is held down. Once 10% of your maximum mana is consumed, the blast will be fully charged and automatically fire after another three seconds but can be fired early by releasing the trigger. The shot will do the base damage multiplied by however much mana is used during the charging process, with a 1.2 multiplier for a fully charged blast.]
A smile formed on Melissa's face. She finally had a weapon. "Midoriya! Hold the boss still for a few seconds please!" She didn't have time for a fully charged blast, because with her amount of mana that would take over a minute to fully charge and even if Izuku could hold the crab still for that long, she had no idea how big the blast would be, and she might hit Izuku with it too. So, she just held it down for five seconds then released it. The shot was about the size of her head, and collided with the back of the crab, doing decent damage. It took away almost a fifth of the crab's health bar. Then, Izuku stabbed it in the face to finish it off.
"That was awesome Melissa! Even if the sharks made it dangerous, I would say the dungeon was worthwhile. So, Shoji, Koda, what did you two find?" Izuku was glad that everything turned out ok, and excited to see how the invention worked, even if he couldn't understand most of it.
And Melissa wasn't the only one who got something good. Shoji technically got six items. A set of six brass knuckles, one for each hand he had normally. Or so it seemed. The weapon would give each hand on a user's body a brass knuckle that gave a pretty nice damage boost per hit. Koda got a staff similar to Ochako's, but it boosted his healing instead of his damage. All in all, it was a successful trip to the dungeon.
There was only one issue left. Everyone was left exhausted from it, even Melissa who only used one attack. Once they returned to the real world, the group basically collapsed into one big pile. Before Izuku closed his eyes to block out the sun as he was lying on his back buried beneath Ochako and Melissa he saw a screen.
[Bonus Reward Unlocked: Party Housing]
Chapter 9
"Are you all ok? I haven't seen Young Izuku or Young Uraraka collapse like that since they accidently summoned those sharks in the dungeon." All Might asked as he helped them all stand up and walk over to the nearby benches.
Nodding, Melissa was the first to recover. "Yeah. Koda accidently summoned the sharks too." Koda looked ashamed so Melissa quickly added "But it was more Midoriya's and Uraraka's fault than his. If we actually knew about it in advance, we would have been more careful. Also, there were sixty enemies, and I couldn't fight until the boss when I finally managed to make this." She pulled her new weapon out of her inventory to show it off. She fired a single bullet at the nearest piece of trash and sent it flying out of sight.
In All Might's hands were a few bags from the nearest fast-food place. "Sorry it isn't much, but I wanted to be here when you got back, and I wasn't sure how long it would take. And yes, that most likely would have been helpful to know. But you all made it back safely, so no harm done, right?" Everyone nodded. Then, smoke started to billow off of All Might. Izuku and Ochako knew what it was, but the other three gamers were clueless and started to freak out a bit.
Then All Might was completely obscured and Toshinori stood in his place. "Oh. Well crap. I thought I had more time, but I guess not." The only think keeping Melissa, Mezo and Koji from screaming or passing out from shock was Gamer's Mind, and even it was having trouble keeping them all calm.
"But that wasn't three hours, was it? You lost more time, didn't you?" Izuku made it sound like a question, but he already knew the truth.
With a nod Toshinori said "Yes, it is now closer to two and a half hours apparently. When I saved you months ago, I pushed past my limit. I knew there would be consequences, but I didn't think it would be this bad."
"Ahem." Mezo cleared his throat. "This is clearly a secret so attracting attention would be a bad idea. So, I will say this as calmly as possible and ask that you forgive my language. What the fuck happened to you All Might?"
And so, Toshinori explained his condition and his quirk to the other three gamers, after checking the area multiple times to make sure nobody was around to listen in. After his explanation, Melissa wrapped him in a hug and refused to let go. She cried as she imagined how close to death her uncle had come. "Everything is alright. I will still be around for a long time." He assured her.
To everyone's surprise, Izuku was distracted with something and grinning. After a minute of him not stopping, Ochako asked "What are you looking at Midoriya?"
"You remember how the last time we went into the dungeon and activated the sharks we got triple rewards for exp and money?" Ochako nodded. "We got a different reward this time. It's a player house for all of us, allies included! From what its description says, we can access it from the map the same way we use the fast travel system. We just select the Player Housing tab and we'll be teleported there."
"Woah!" Ochako loved the idea of a place for them to meet and hang out together. They could also freely discuss info about the gamer without others overhearing and asking questions. "Can we go check it out now?"
Izuku checked quickly. "Nope." He showed them all the screen he got. [Player Housing Construction in Progress. Time to Completion:47 hours, 55 Minutes, 31 seconds] "I guess it didn't exist until now and The Gamer has to build it all. So, after we all head home for the day I say we wait for two days to meet up again. We can all go to the Player Housing the minute it's available."
"Sounds like fun! Oh, here. This is my number, so give me a call some time. By the way, what are you planning to do for high school?" Melissa handed everyone a slip of paper that had her number written on it.
As Ochako took the paper and gave one with her number on it to Melissa she said "Me and Midoriya are planning on going to U.A and be in the hero course. What about you guys?" Koji nodded and pointed at Izuku and Ochako to signify that he was doing the same. He may have felt more comfortable around them, but he still didn't enjoy talking all that much.
"I am aiming for the same place. I hope we can all make it, and I wish you all the best of luck. What about you Melissa?" Mezo asked. He also quickly wrote down his number and gave it to everyone in the group.
"Well, technically I've already started high school work. My dad decided he could teach me more himself than a public school could, so I've been homeschooled since I was 8. But now I'm thinking of going to U.A too, so we could all stay together. But I probably wouldn't try to get into the hero course. The support course suits me better, and I feel like I can do so much good for the world by inventing things and making support gear for heroes, instead of trying to be one myself."
Then, after a few seconds to think Melissa said "But if I do this, I want you to promise me something. Even if you don't make it into U.A and go to a different hero school, I want to be your personal support technician while you're in school and when you graduate to become heroes."
None of the other four gamers even pretended to think about it. They all agreed instantly. Izuku said "Then it's decided. We're all going to U.A together." He put out his hand and one by one the others piled their hands on top of his.
Ochako smirked as she said "U.A won't know what hit them."
Shaking his head with a smile on his face Toshinori added his hand to the pile. "I will support you five in any way necessary. And may God help the poor souls who try to stop you."
"Thank you, sir. I will be going now before my mother starts to get worried about me. I look forward to when we meet next Little Dragon." Shoji bowed to Toshinori and started to walk off after he said that and shook Izuku's hand before leaving while he gave his leader a nickname.
Izuku was surprised at that. "Little Dragon?" He wasn't expecting to be called anything other than his name or an insult.
"Yes." Shoji said. He explained his reasoning. "You are much smaller than me, and your class gives you dragon abilities. Thus, Little Dragon. Is that okay?" Shoji may or may not have already started to see Izuku as a younger brother, despite being the same age as him.
What sort of question was that? Compared to his old nickname, the one Shoji gave him was impossible to turn down. "Y-yeah. Sure." Shoji nodded and then started to walk away before Ochako reminded him that he could teleport home.
Two days passed, and it went fairly normal for everyone. After school on the day when they agreed to meet, Izuku pulled up the timer to see how long it would take for the Player Housing to finish, and it was 15 minutes. He would have gone home before he met up with the other four, or maybe he would have gone to the beach to look at just how far he had come in such a short amount of time.
But he didn't get the chance to do either of those things. Because the moment the bell rang to end the school day, a hand hit Izuku's desk, and an explosion went off. "Listen up Deku." Bakugo Katsuki, Izuku's long time bully and former best friend, said loudly to get people's attention. "After that thing a few months ago, I've been letting you have an easy time." It was a thank you in a way, but it was never spoken about because Bakugo was too proud to say anything about it. "But lately you've gotten that stupid ass look on your face. The one that says you forgot how useless you were. So, knock it off, or I'll fucking put you in your place and beat you so bad you won't be able to even show up to any entrance exam for any high school."
Another explosion came from Bakugo's hand, and everyone was expecting Izuku to cower in fear and not be able to respond. What they actually saw was Izuku sitting there semi-calmly. Everyone took a step back from Izuku when he stood up and they realized how much he had changed. First off, he had started to put on a lot of muscle. It wasn't as much as Bakugo, but it was really close and the rest of them couldn't even begin to compare. The other major change they could see, especially now that he was standing up for himself, was how much confidence he had gotten. Even if he was shaking, Izuku was clearly willing to defend himself.
The tension in the room was so thick you could almost cut it with a knife. It broke suddenly when Izuku's phone rang, and he turned away from Bakugo to answer it. "Hi Uraraka, what's up? Yeah, I'm curious too. Just a little bit longer though. I'll see you there. Bye." He hung up and looked back to Bakugo. As he put his phone away, he asked "Is that all? Or can I go?"
Bakugo howled with rage at being dismissed like that, especially by Izuku. He swung his arm in an explosive right hook, but Izuku dodged it easily. Bakugo wasn't expecting that, and when he didn't hit anything, he tripped and fell flat on his face. "Are you ok Kacchan? Here, let's get you to the nurse's office!" Once again Izuku surprised his bullies by picking Bakugo up off the ground completely and carrying him out of the classroom.
He didn't get far before Bakugo overcame his shock over what happened and let off another explosion onto Izuku, causing him to drop Bakugo. "SCREW YOU DEKU! I DON'T NEED HELP FROM ANYONE! ESPECIALLY NOT A WEAK ASS QUIRKLESS LOSER LIKE YOU!" He ran off before Izuku could react at all. Once Bakugo was gone Izuku sighed. He wanted so badly for Bakugo to be his friend again, but it was probably never going to happen.
The hero Izuku knew Bakugo could be seemed to be slipping further and further away, and Izuku could do nothing but watch as his old friend Kacchan faded away, and only the bully Bakugo remained. Maybe it was time to move on. A screen appeared letting him know that the player housing was ready, and Izuku quickly looked around to make sure nobody would see him teleport.
The light that always accompanied teleporting using the gamer faded and Izuku looked around. The house was an open floor plan with four hallways going in different directions. The kitchen right was to his right and it was fairly large. He was currently standing in a living room with two large couches with a coffee table in front of them. There was also a recliner, but there wasn't a tv and there was no space to put one either, no outlets in the wall to plug anything into. "Hey Midoriya. This place is really nice, isn't it?"
Izuku turned around and saw Ochako, Melissa, Shoji and Koda. "Yeah. But I think this is only one part of it. Let's see what else is here!" The gamers explored the house. There was a bedroom for each of them, as well as a room for All Might. Each door was labeled to let them know whose room it was, and the hallway was a lot longer so more rooms could be made if any other allies were made. The rooms themselves were simple but fairly large. They each had a queen-sized bed, a desk, an empty bookshelf, and an American style bathroom.
Down one of the other hallways was a single large room. While the other room had a few couches and a recliner, it had no tv or anything to entertain yourselves. In this room there were a few more couches, TVs and video game consoles, tables for pool, foosball, and air hockey, and even a few arcade cabinets with older games like street fighter and mortal combat. "We get a game room! Wait, if our whole life is now like one big video game, does that make actual videogames mini games?"
"I believe we could consider them as such. However, it would probably be best to not think of things like that. That means you can stop muttering about it, Little Dragon." Shoji patted Izuku on the shoulder to break him out of his muttering spree. "Anyways, I have not played many of these games, but I am undefeated at foosball, for obvious reasons." He held up all six of his arms. He could hold onto all the sticks and turn his other two arms into eyes to see the game from more than one angle.
That got a smile out of everyone. Izuku said "That sounds like a challenge. C-care to put your money where your mouth is?"
Shoji said "I would be happy to beat you Little Dragon. But for now, we should explore the rest of the house." Izuku agreed, and the two of them left the room, leaving the other three to follow. 'Yep, I'm adopting him as a younger brother.' Shoji decided in his head.
The third hallway had a few more rooms, each labeled with a name like the bedrooms. But instead of more bedrooms, these rooms caused a screen to open the moment the correct person walked in. It was like the inventory screen but had way more slots and items from the inventory could be transferred into these storage rooms. Izuku and Ochako quickly dumped the items that were filling up their inventory. Doing the dungeon gave them items as a reward and doing the dungeon so many times caused their inventories to fill up. But that wasn't the only thing causing their inventories to fill up. When they beat the enemies in the dungeon there was a chance for them to drop metal scraps from the crabs, and teeth from the sand sharks.
Because the other three had only done the dungeon once, and Izuku and Ochako took care of most of it once the sharks started to spawn, they didn't end up getting much and decided to leave it for now.
And the final hallway was the most interesting. There were two doors at the end of it, side by side on the same wall. One was labeled 'back', and a quick test showed that it sent them right back to the spot they came to the house from. The other door didn't have a label on it. Melissa decided not to waste time and opened it. This door led to the outside of the house, where something interesting was revealed. A few things actually.
First, the house was on an island with no other land in sight. The ocean water was warm, and there seemed to be a constant pleasant breeze blowing. The next thing they noticed was that there was another floor to the house, but no way to access it at the moment. The five of them deduced it would probably come later, possibly once they got more allies and needed more space or got another special reward from a dungeon.
And the final thing they noticed. The island had a name. "That seems a bit insulting." Melissa noted once she saw the sign above the door they had come through.
"Y-yeah." Koda agreed, still timid about speaking much.
"But you have to admit, it isn't exactly wrong. I mean, none of us really fit in with others for various reasons." Ochako said calmly. She honestly thought it was sort of appealing.
"The Island of Misfit Gamers. A place for us, who do not fit in with others, to be ourselves and not worry about being judged for it." Shoji mused, also okay with it.
(Author's Note: If anybody doesn't get this reference, I will be severely disappointed in you.)
As they thought about it more, each of the gamers decided they liked it and started to smile. It wasn't meant to be an insult. This was supposed to be a safe place, even for misfits like themselves. They didn't need to fit in with normal society, because they had this place and eachother. "Let's head back inside. We should talk about what we want to do next." Izuku said, and they all entered the building again and sat down on the couches in the living room.
"I wish we could keep going with the same dungeon we did yesterday, but that won't work unfortunately. Remember, Midoriya and I have done it a lot more times than you have. You can't go into the dungeon once you reach level five, and during the fight yesterday both of us hit level five, and Izuku even leveled up his class twice, and legendary classes take forever to level up. My class is also really close to leveling up too."
Izuku continued for Ochako. "That means we need to find a new dungeon to do. Dungeons appear in places where one of two conditions are met. One, the place holds major importance to one of us. And two, a major change has happened in that area. The more important or the bigger the change, the higher level the dungeon. I've found one dungeon, but it's way too high level for us to even enter for now. And the other place I have in mind would likely be the same, but it would still be worth a try."
"All right. We can try that today or tomorrow. I also have some very good news." Melissa said. "Yesterday I went back to I-Island. But I put in an application to the support course exam for U.A, and it was approved. I'll be moving to Japan in a month with my dad. He thought it would be a good idea to get away from the whole situation at I-Island, especially since his latest project was discontinued and locked away. He never liked the executives anyways. So, it'll be a bit difficult for me to join you all the time. But that just means we'll need to plan things out in advance."
Nodding, Izuku said "It's a really good thing we have fast travel. Anyways, I think we should try to go tomorrow to find a new dungeon. We'll need to let All Might know, and we'll need to let our parents know we'll be gone for most of the day, so they don't worry about us. I'll need to go soon, or my mom will start getting really worried."
Everyone else was in a similar situation. Ochako asked "So, what did your new skill give you?" It seemed pretty useful because you were beating the crabs and sharks like they were nothing!"
Quickly navigating his screens, Izuku pulled up the one in question. "It basically doubles my strength stat right now, making me a bit stronger than Shoji." He spoke.
[Skill: Draconic Strength LVL 1/10
Type: Passive
Description: With the blood of dragons running through you, it causes certain physical changes in your body. One of those changes is stronger muscles.
Effects: Adds 10 + 10% points to your strength stat.]
"I'm not sure how much it will improve with leveling up, but if we keep growing eventually, we'll hit a point where 10 more points in strength won't mean much. The 10% will always be pretty useful, but not so much right now. I'm guessing it'll also level up really slowly." Izuku told them all about the skill the best he could. "My next few skills will be even more useful though! I get them all at class level five. One lets me breath fire, another lets me form wings, and the final one gives me enhanced senses!"
"Woah!" Ochako couldn't believe how much his class would give him in such a short time. She only hoped her own class would give her the same sort of benefits. "You're gonna be so strong! I hope we can all keep up!" Izuku tried to say how he wouldn't be that much stronger than them, but Ochako stopped him. "What did I say about self-depreciation?"
"Not to do it."
"Exactly. Besides, you're getting All Might's quirk! You'll be even stronger than he is! If you keep talking down about yourself, I'm going to throw you into the ocean again! You are Midoriya Izuku, leader of the gamers and successor to All Might! You should be confident in yourself! I know you can do it!" Ochako gave Izuku a bright smile, which he returned the best he could.
Shoji checked the time and said "We should all get going. I'm sure our parents will be getting worried if we don't get home soon. Our match in foosball will have to wait for a bit Little Dragon. I will see you all tomorrow for dungeon hunting. Have a good day." With those final words, each of the gamers left the house and went back home to await the next day."
"So, we all agree. We never speak of that dungeon again." Izuku said, a blank look on his face. The gamers were walking down the street just after they finished the dungeon.
It turns out, Izuku was right about where another possible dungeon would be. And everyone hated that he was right. None of them cared that the dungeon would be a great place to level up. They all refused to go back there or even mention it. Even All Might looked horrified once they told him about it.
That was the reason they all were walking around town, to hopefully get rid of that memory. Just before they got to a busy area, something came out from one of the alleyways and ran into Izuku. It was a little girl, and she looked terrified. "H-help me. P-please!" She cried and latched on to Izuku's leg like it was the only thing keeping her in this world.
The six of them were instantly on alert. When they looked down the alley, they saw two men in bird masks approaching them. One of them yelled "THERE SHE IS! YOU! LET HER GO NOW, THE BOSS NEEDS THAT GIRL FOR HIS PLANS!"