So, testing an idea here; if you guys enjoy it, let me know; otherwise, it'll remain a One-Shot for people to enjoy. The basic concept, unknown gate, shows up with a gatekeeper and only allows those he deems worthy to enter and follow his rules. Expect either OP-ness if continued; otherwise, treat as if it was just a standard One-Shot
Reminder, MHA belongs to Kohei Horikoshi, and OCs belong to me.
-/\-
"Not all men are created equal," a voice says, as the planet spun around in space, stars surrounding it. "Most of the population were granted powers known as quirks. The first was a newborn girl with the ability to write in the air with a light, and soon, it changed dreams into reality."
The scene slowly changes to that of a large city in the middle of Japan, as a large man was fighting against a brick-looking creature, as it shot out clay thickening into redden bricks. The man, who was wearing a blue vest, smashed his fist against the brick, destroying them with ease, as another being, wearing a wooden mask, was able to bind them still, capturing them. The crowd cheer as the two waved their hands, with the larger man patted the other on the back.
"Heroes soon came from fiction into reality," the voice comes back, as they slowly changed to various other people, some wearing more revealing clothing than others. "And soon, they became a profession, fully license by the government to protect the people. Of course, not all quirks were made the same, so not all became heroes. But none were expecting that day to arrive."
Resting in the middle of a large yard was a gate, and standing before it was a man wearing a black vest with white gloves, a white shirt, black pants, and a pair of dance shoes. He stood there amongst all those that came to see the gate that had appeared, expecting it to be dangerous, including various Heroes stood before the gate, expecting something to happen. But nothing came about, as the man just simply sat in front of the entrance, doing nothing but minding his own business, before one of the reporters from the media came to question the gate.
"It's simple, my dear reporter," the man says, picking up a leaf. "Only those deemed worthy of my standards are allowed past the gate, and truly, so far, only one is deemed to walk past these gates, and he does not stand amongst you."
"Who do you say is the worthy to walk past the gate?" the reporter asks, moving their mic to the man.
"He is who you call All Might," the man replies, smiling softly. "A great Hero who stands only to protect the people lives for the people, and more than willing to die for the people. So only he is worthy of passing these gates."
"News spread fast like it always does," the voice continues, as hordes grew but slowly dwindled."Others went to be considered worthy of passing the gate, but none seemed to have matched the man's standards, not even the Number Two Hero, Endeavor, could compete with the standards, calling it worthless at the end. Soon, the time has changed..."
Wondering down the path to see the gate was a pair of boys, one with blonde hair and a scowl while the other was mopped with green hair, bouncing on his heels. Both wore black school uniforms with their own respective appearances; the blonde had a chain connected to his hip while the other wore a pair of bright red shoes. As they walked along the path, they notice fewer and fewer Heroes were going to visit the gate, and those that have were huffed in anger or in sadness, as they weren't able to match what was required of them as it seems.
"They don't seem too happy, Kacchan," the green-haired boy says, looking at the Heroes.
"Can't blame them, Deku," 'Kacchan' says, rotating his shoulders. "Ever since the gate showed up five years ago, plenty of Heroes and Heroes-in-Training could match this guy's standards. The problem is, we can't even tell what he looks for in a worthy person."
"You're right about that," 'Deku' nods in agreement. "Anyway, you sure you don't want to get any help with your Quirk?"
"Positive nerd, I'd instead rather learn it at my own pace, though if it helps with a costume idea, I'll ask."
'It has been different since the gate showed up,' Deku thought to himself, nodding. 'Kacchan used to be more... aggressive to those he knew, most of them because of his quirk. Explosion is genuinely a powerful quirk, but it's hard to control strength-wise due to it being made from nitroglycerin.'
Soon enough, they came across the gate as police stood around, making sure everyone continues on as more Heroes walk past them, upset about the high standards there were. As they waited to see if anyone could match up the requirements for it, the man smiled before walking past a woman wearing a cotton-looking jacket, confused at the action. The man slowly navigated past the Heroes, all watching to see what will happen, as he stops in front of the two boys, who looked at him before he rests his hands on Deku.
"Yes..." he says, smiling. "A second worthy being to pass the gate."
The whole park stared at the sight, as some young child was deemed more fit to enter than the Number-Two Hero, as it shocked both boys, making Kacchan grin. Stepping back a bit, he rubbed the back of his head before pushing Deku forward, making the greenette stumble a bit before he stood up straight. Spinning around, the man walked onwards to the entrance of nowhere, with Deku following behind him, before opening the door to nothing but a white glow.
"Izuku Midoriya," the man says, making the boy jump and stare. "Shall we begin?"
Before Izuku could respond, mostly question how he knew his name, the man pushed Izuku through the gate, disappearing from sight, before he walks in as well, the gates shutting behind him, staying. They all watched, confused about what happened, though more were worried about what would happen to the young, ten-year-old boy. Kacchan quickly pulled out his phone and dialed a number, getting an answer soon.
"Auntie," Kacchan says, smiling. "You would not believe what happened."
-| ? |-
Landing onto the ground, Izuku ground, slowly getting onto his feet, as he looked around, now in a large clearing of a plain. Izuku stared in awe, surprised at what he's seeing, as the man stood next to him, chuckling at the boy.
"Welcome to the Northern Plains," the man says as Izuku gets onto his feet. "Here, you'll train and gather experience. Of course, you'll also be taken in by my power."
"What do you mean?" Izuku asks, looking at him.
The man pulls out a small booklet, handing it to Izuku, letting him open it. What was inside the page brochure was the semi-blank page with various lines going across the pages and a portrait of a being displayed. Looking up towards the man, he walked along the path, going to a wooden table with various items on display for them to view.
Izuku followed him to the table, seeing various different weapons on the table, confused about why they were there. Even more, armors were on display; leather, fur, chainmail, even more, modern body armors were spread out on the table. Izuku stared at all of the items on the table as the man chuckles at Izuku's in awe expression before holding the boy's shoulders.
"Izuku, this is where we start off your adventure into the Gate," the man says before the greenette looks at him. "For now, you can call me Tor, Tor Ial."
"Is that supposed to be a play on words for Tutorial?" Izuku asks, making Tor nodding his head. "Okay."
"And so, let us start our proceeds of the tutorial," Tor says as Izuku nods in agreement. "Let us cover ourselves with each of the weapons as well as the armors."
Tor picks up the first weapon on the table was a large sword, giving it a few swings before giving it to Izuku. The boy has barely been able to keep the blade up for a few seconds before it fell to the ground, groaning a bit. Tor assisted up with picking the edge back up and onto the table, smiling at the results.
"The Longsword," Tor says, turning to look at Izuku. "Medieval bladed weapon of the Europian creation of intense heating to form the heated edges, a marvelous invention for the early twelfth-century. Anyways, they're the standard weapon most if not all Warriors use while they fight; of course, the more brutish ones use these..."
Tor picks up a larger blade, holding it with two hands, showing the strength to keep the sword high.
"The Claymore, a hazardous weapon in the right hands, and with the proper training and handguards, anyone could destroy a horde of enemies with a single swing."
Tor then goes ahead and places the claymore down before taking the two curved daggers on the table, giving them a few spins in his hands, before handing it to Izuku.
"Daggers, or more specifically, these are designed after the Kukri knives of the Indian-Napel era. Anyway, they help gather as well as kill off enemies, specifically the plant-like enemies, with all their plant-like vines... be glad you're a guy and not a girl, they are very... grope-ish."
Izuku shuddered, understanding what he meant as he might have ended up watching hentai or two due to curiosity... Tentacle hentai was a strange thing to watch...
"Continuing on," Tor says, taking the blades away from Izuku. "Now, the next weapon is the bow and arrow, and subsequently, the Crossbow."
Tor pulls out two separate items to the side, also revealing two different bows.
"With the bows, we got the Shortbow and Longbow, both impressive in their own rights, but the Longbow has more damage and flying speed, while the short bow allows you to produce more flying arrows. The crossbow is the slowest of the three but has the most robust damage output, going as far as the bolt penetrating and traveling farther distances. Though you'll have to keep maintenance if you use the crossbow."
Izuku nodded his head, holding the crossbow, feeling more comfortable with it, and when he shot it, it kicked back and pushed him back.
"Yeah, about the same oomph you get with a normal rifle. Now, the last weapon we have on the table is the staff."
Picking up the staff, Tor tossed it to Izuku, who uses it to stretch his body, smiling.
"As the staff implies, you use it for simple martial arts or, with tombs of magic, can cast various spells that will allow you to harness the power for Arcane to Elements."
Izuku nodded before setting the staff back to where it belongs, before looking at the various armors that were before him, curious of what these will be for. The first one he tried out was the Fur Armor, which was kind of odd when he puts it on, shrinking down to fit his body. The fur-covering covered his chest and shoulders while the leather went down to his cover his legs.
"The Fur armor is the most basic of armor," Tor says, fixing Izuku's collar. "It was initially designed to make sure you didn't freeze up in the winter while also providing decent defense for the essential animals like wolves and being able to hunt down their prey."
Izuku nodded and removed the armor, feeling it expand off of him, all the while it hid his school uniform, which was odd for him. Moving on from there, he put on the leather armor that was awaiting him on the stand. After putting it on, it shrunk on him again; the leather chest plate did as it was expected, though it left his stomach uncovered, as the breaches covered his front legs and a part of this hamstrings.
"Ah, leather armor, the most common, correctly used, and notorious for being a medium between a good defense and lightweight movement. Downside really, it provided little weather resistance as it was designed for more physical protection."
"It's still cool, though," Izuku says, getting a nod from Tor before removing the leather.
Izuku went ahead and put on the chainmail next; feeling heavy from the layers of metal links on his body, he looked over himself. His entire body was covered in the links, going from his whole body, going to a bit to his legs, while he wore some leather breaches with is and a pair of boots.
Moving a bit, he felt sluggish, but jumping around has helped with the odd weight feeling to his body.
"And chainmail or chainlink armor, more on the heavier side of protection, it does help to prevent most attacks while leaving environmental protection to zero. Taken an idea of what you'll use?"
"Yeah, I'll go daggers with the chainmail armor," Izuku says, causing Tor to whistle. "If it's okay, I'd take the short bow as well."
"Alright, go ahead and put them on, then we'll go over how you'll handle with growing stronger as well as what you'll currently be facing."
Izuku nodded and quickly changed into his armor, given the chainmail armor with a tunic to go over it, with the Kukri daggers and a short oak bow. Once changed, Izuku followed Tor down the path further until they have reached a clearing with little to no cliffs and watched animals slowly appear out of thin air, surprising the boy. As he watched, it ranged from elk and deer to the preditors of wolves and birds flying through the sky, making Izuku look above his head and turning around before stopping next to Tor.
"Now, we're in the Southern Highlands," Tor says, as Izuku nods his head. "You're primarily going to find your usual batch of elk and wolves, as well as the occasional highland cattle. You'll mainly deal with the wolves, but random NPCs will have you provide you quests to deal with the rest of the animals or retrieve items lost. Honestly, I couldn't have provided a better start to the place myself."
Izuku nodded before fixing his stuff and looked to see Tor nowhere to be seen, leaving him to his devices. Pulling out his book, Izuku flipped through the pages to see what he'll need to do, seeing his first quest in the Notes pages.
'Locate me near the Heart of Hills,' it says, making him look around, then back to the book. 'It has a singular tree with a tombstone resting nearby under its shade; we'll talk more of how the world works there.'
Izuku flipped through the pages to find a small map section, split into a two-by-two map, each a sheet of paper length. He saw a small golden dot, marking where he was at, and a purple dot of where his destination would be at, being nearly a full page length away. Putting the pages and book into his backpack, Izuku made sure everything was strapped to his body before making his way towards this destination, the Heart of Hills.
While traveling along a dirt path, Izuku came across his first creature to face, a Brown Wolf, who pounced at Izuku. Lifting his hands up, he fell backward as the wolf tried to get to his neck, forcing Izuku to draw his blade and shove it into the neck of the wolf itself, and pushed up, cutting the spinal cord and the major artery in the neck in half, killing it. Getting onto his feet, Izuku observed the wolf before it faded away, leaving a small chest, which he opened up. This revealing a couple of torn pelt pieces and some wolf fangs.
Opening his book, Izuku was able to locate a Beastiary in it, which listed the Brown Wolf in the book, making him open up the article.
'The Brown Wolf, or better known as the Canis Himalayensis, originated from the Himalayan Area and are golden grey cousins to the standard Timber Wolf found in the Northern Americas. Prideful hunters are known to hunt down young some of larger animals, at some points, to take down a Yak's young. Obtainable loot consisted of: ?, Torn Pelt Pieces, Wolf Tooth, ?'
Izuku closed the book and continued on, looking around for more wolves to keep an eye out for, before being able to make it to the Heat of Hills, seeing Tor setting down some flowers at the grave marker. Walking over to him, Izuku watched as the man gave a silent prayer before standing up straight and turning around, revealing the name to be missing.
"Forgotten adventurers die without proper names to themselves," Tor says, smiling softly. "Too many had died without being able to show their families what they've done and the stories they tell. I can't tell you how many, but this gravestone is a marker for all those that have lost their lives without being able to tell their stories."
"And you don't want anyone else to suffer this kind of a fate?" Izuku asks, getting a nod in response. "Then help me grow stronger."
"You will get my help, but you have to help yourself first. And the best way in being able to do so is to accept that you need friends to help you, and not those that will betray you, but true friends that'll be by your side and catch you when your ladder falls."
Izuku nods his head at the fact, knowing that he doesn't have anyone until possibly later when they learn he can enter the gate. Tor extended his hand out, cupping something in it, which Izuku cupped his hands as a few copper coins fall into his hands.
"Every quest has a reward, whether it is a weapon of value or just a few coins, the copper you have will help with getting supplies in the future," Tor says, cocking his head. "The main question is, do you know how to ration out your money, so you don't spend it all in one moment?"
-\/-
I know it's not much with this, but I wanted to get this posted to work on a different idea for it. It's a different kind of a gamer; this one is flowing with the similar style I did with my Mechanical Gamer from my RWBY story, which I am still trying to get a good chapter set up. Side note for that, my mind keeps trying to link it to my RWBY reaction series with having a Grimm version of Nessie, don't ask.
Anyways, if you want to see a more fleshed-out version of this, leave a follow or comment; other than that, I look forward to a different kind of Gamer hopefully in the future.