I have returned! Last time during the bizarre adventures of our favorite green gamer, Izuku decided to finally take a look at the 'book' that outright explains how most of his nonsense works for the first time in a while. You'd think that he'd at least look at it daily to make sure nothing changes but I suppose being a hero student with villainous and magical enemies in the shadows alike would take up his attention.
Now, time to see what he's been missing.
"Holy shit I'm already level 70! I really need to keep up with my stats more often. These new features are damn useful too." Ranking System Unlocked! Was written in bold lettering on my rule tablet, a system that I would have unlocked at level 60 had I paid attention. "A ranking system this late into the 'game'? Does it take into account what I've done beforehand?" Well, only one way to find out.
Rankings: Plastic, Wood, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Challenger, Elite, Champion. Rankings are based on skills relative to the population. Those in the Plastic tier are in the top 10 billion individuals, effectively useless at the task being ranked. Wood tier are those in the top 1 billion, Iron tier is the top 100 million, and so on.
Rewards will be given upon reaching Gold rank and once again for each further rank. Each rank of Gold or above also provides a unique title.
"Population-based? Interesting, so I guess if I took wealth as an example, I'd be in the Bronze tier. At least in terms of liquid assets…Well, no use speculating when I have the answer right here." I theorized before swiping the screen to see my own list of rankings.
Hero Rank: Elite(...I really should be surprised at this point)
Rewards: Gold(Epic Heroic Gacha Token), Platinum(Legendary Heroic Gacha Token), Diamond(Time Rewind Tag! (One Time Use), Challenger(Wish x1), Elite(Tournament of Heroes Ticket).
Unique title gained: Prince of Heroes(E): A unique title granted to the rightful second in command of the world's greatest hero. Grants the wielder a 300% increase to Exp and REP gains/demerit from any hero/villain-related actions.
"Gacha tokens huh, and they seem to be limited to drawing heroic items. Those are definitely useful. That time rewind thing is also extremely useful, five minutes is enough to correct almost any mistake…A wish? Oh, like the dungeons and dragons spell. Looks like All Might's getting healed after all! I wonder if it also restores the remnants of One for All?" I almost started another mumble spree before stopping myself and shaking it off.
'Questions for later, first, what is the Tournament of Heroes?' I took a quick look at its item description and nearly choked on my own saliva. Rip in half to be summoned to an arena of heroic prestige! A free for all tournament shall be held here, and the winner of said tournament will win a grand prize. A magical pocket dimension to do with what they like!
*Lesser prizes may be awarded based on performance. Local time is also stopped upon ripping off the ticket, death is also temporary so don't worry about missing any appointments. ;)
Was written, the last part being in handwritten fine print which I could only assume was written by Asobi. A tournament for heroes from across reality?...'Yeah, I'm going to wait on this one. I don't feel anywhere near prepared enough for this.' That prince title looked like a no-brainer though. Decision made I switched to my new title and moved on to the other rankings.
Magecraft Rank: Elite(Well that's confirmation at least. There were other magecraft users out there, and they were better than me.)
Rewards: Gold(Epic Magecraft Gacha Token), Platinum(Legendary Magecraft Gacha Token), Diamond(Random set of mystic eyes), Challenger(Instant Magecraft Skill Mastery Ticket), Elite(Route to Akasha).
Unique Title Gained: The Green(E): A title granted to a magus that achieves greatness in their field and in the eyes of other magi. Boosts Exp gain for any magecraft related action by 150%
"Wow! I'll have to do some research on different types of magecraft to see which one would be the most useful to master. And a route to Akasha? It sounds dangerous, but a True Magic skill would be invaluable. I'm just surprised that it wasn't the reward for reaching the Champion tier instead." True Magic was the apex of a magus' ability, after all, it felt weird to have it as a lesser reward compared to whatever was at the top. I was seeing a pattern for the gold and platinum rewards though.
The title was also great, but I will hold off switching it out with Prince of Heroes until I'm doing magical research.
Academic Rank: Diamond(I'm in the academic world's top 1,000? Cool.)
Rewards: Gold(Epic Non-Combat Skill Book Gacha Token), Platinum(Legendary Non-Combat Skill Book Gacha Token), Diamond(Random non-combat Perk).
Unique Title Gained: Fucking Nerd(R): Simply put, you're a nerd. Formally you were just a hero nerd and would have received boosted exp for hero-related knowledge only. But now with this fancy new title, all exp gained via study gains the same 30% boost.
'Interesting, I wonder what the limits are for 'non-combat' skills. Like the others, the title was also obviously useful, if somewhat specialized. Next up there's…Seriously.' I blanked at the next ranking. In some ways it made sense, but still, this was a bit much.
Harem Protagonist Rank: Champion! (I swear I can hear the viewers laughing at me.)
Rewards: Gold(Epic Charisma Gacha Token), Platinum(Legendary Charisma Gacha Token), Diamond(Mastery of a random Charisma-based skill), Challenger(Romantic Exp Share Device), Elite(Waifu Hiraishin), Champion(Instant Trait Mastery: Soul Bond).
Unique Title Gained: Harem King(L): You have done it. Achieved every hot-blooded man's(and some women's) dream. Honestly, that should be reward enough, but I am a generous and benevolent god… Infinite stamina unlocked, but only when 0 cm away from a romantic partner.
…At least there weren't any overtly sexual skills or items on display. Just an implied one, and a few charisma stat-based skills, whatever they were. Deception, debating, and charm skills immediately came to mind. Those last few rewards though. They were something else!
"I can share my gains with the girls. At least some of them anyway." The exp distribution wasn't quite double, and it only worked on people with a reputation level above 750/1000 and a romantic relationship to me. And it could only be used on one person at a time. Again, it wasn't perfect, but it was still an excellent item that I'd need to use as quickly as possible.
"Hiraishin, that's a technique from Naruto, right? It lets me teleport to anyone who I've tagged, limited by the same rules as the exp share device. Definitely useful, it adds a whole new level of security along with the group chat feature." It was the last item though that floored me.
Soul Bond(L) Lvl MAX: An ancient skill, as powerful as it is intimate. The user may bond their soul with the soul of those closest to them. This connection is permanent and must be made by willing parties. So long as the bond remains, all parties are rendered effectively inseparable.
"Even death shall not do you part. Only the extermination of the soul will break this connection. Warning, soul-based attacks now harm all bonded targets, however, bonded targets share soul durability and defenses cumulatively." I blushed at the implications of this skill. It was practically a magically enforced super marriage and he could already imagine some of the girls being down for it given the benefits.
'Still, that permanent binding aspect and the soul weakness gives me pause.' I would bring it up to the girls later, but this wasn't a decision any of us should make lightly. 'I have to shake this off for now. There was still one notable ranking to check off. After that, maybe the gacha will take my mind off things.' Mind made up, I moved on.
Wealth Rank: Gold(Oh there it was, I guess it does take non-liquid assets into account.)
Reward: Gold(Epic resource accumulation gacha token).
Unique title unlocked: Teenage Green Millionaire: A title earned by obtaining a net worth of over 1 million $USD before the age of 20. All resource gains increased by 10% when active.
Cool, that title should make getting to the next rank significantly easier. And a 'resource accumulation' gacha item? Interesting. You know what, since there's only one I might as well use it now. Black Soul Gem(E): A soul gem of considerable power. Capable of capturing the soul of any opponent the user gets below 5% health.
"Ok…Not the most heroic of items, but I guess it would be really useful against any 'immortal' opponents that I run into." I hope that I never need to use it, but knowing who I'll be fighting in the future, I might just need to…Thoughts for later, I continued where I left off, time for the academic rewards.
Perfected Skill Book: Chemistry(E): Grants the player an instant MAX level in the Chemistry skill.
Perfected Skill Book: Surgery(L): Grants the player an instant MAX level in the Surgery skill.
Perk: Polyglot(E) Level MAX: This skill allows the player to become fluent in any language after 10 hours of diligent study, or after 5 hours of conversation with a native speaker.
Ok, that last one was awesome! Chemistry and surgical skills are also useful for obvious reasons, but the ability to learn languages so easily is an invaluable skill for a hero! I already had Japanese and a decent grasp of English which this would help me master almost instantly just by talking with Pony. Next, I should learn…Ah, Rin was from China wasn't he? And Aoyama from class B knew French.
I shake my head again, I'll write down a proper plan later. Now for the Harem King, Hero, and Magecraft gacha tokens.
Skill Book: Familiar Magecraft(E): A school of magecraft focused on the creation or summoning of assistants. This time grants the user the first level or an exp boost for the familiar magecraft skill.
Familiars meant more work for less effort, and a set of extra hands if I can get it at a high enough level. Speaking of a high enough level, Servants are considered the highest form of familiar… 'Note to self, look up viable catalysts for later use.' Going blind was also an option, it was just probably a bad one considering what I knew about Heroic Spirits.
Perfected Skill Book: Alchemy(L): A school that focuses its studies around the flow of matter. Grants the player instant mastery over the skill.
'Excellent! This is great! Alchemy, the one magecraft that effectively takes everything in existence and manipulates it to the user's will with enough practice and knowledge.' Including the manipulation of natural phenomenon, weather, thermodynamics, cognition. It was an invaluable skill to learn for any magecraft practitioner.
Finally, there was the pair of eyes…The Mystic Eyes of Looting(E): A dangerous set of mystic eyes, capable of draining the life force of anything that enters the user's field of vision by 10hp/sec + mana expenditure. If not actively in use, the host's life force will be used as a substitute.
'Oh, thank goodness there's an out to the draining effect. 10 hp per second isn't a problem for me, it is a very useful power to have though. A constant draining effect on anyone that I look at, excellent for single combat.' Now, time for the harem king rewards.
Skill Book: French(E) level 50: The language of love, that's the joke. So there were skill books between basic and perfection, good to know.
Skill Book: Power of the Tongue(L) Level 1: Your voice, is now a thing of power, your tongue, an instrument of control. Any skill or ability used while speaking is boosted by 5%, or by 10% if the topic of conversation is related to the skill.
Perfected Skill Book: Kiss of Life(E): A skill that converts the user's magical energy into hp for anyone that they kiss at a 1:10 ratio. Works cumulatively with other similar healing abilities.
Finally, the hero skills. Or at least the ones that I'm willing to use at the moment. This was the one that I was most interested to see, I wondered what the game considered a heroic skill.
Skill Book: Rally(E) Level 1: Whether through a war cry, a powerful speech, or simply from striking a heroic pose, the user of this skill can strengthen those who witness them. 1% boost to all stats of the witnesses. So I can make the rule of cool a tangible thing…Awesome.
Skill Book: None for All(L) Level 1: Allows the user to create an area around them, 10 meters in diameter. No beings within this range may use any skills or abilities. Including the user.
Finally, the Wish. I will keep this simple, recalling the horror stories of those that tried to munchkin a Wish of all things. Instead, I'll just use one of the guaranteed, impossible to monkey's paw effects. The only issue, the only spell I could recall that could fix All Might's injury wasn't a healing spell. It was a necromancy spell, resurrection…
Which meant that to heal All Might, Toshinori Yagi would first need to die.
I'll leave this chapter here, seems like as good of a place to end it as anywhere. Thanks for reading, and as always I hope that everyone who did have a good day. It hasn't even been a week and 2022 has already started off strong, let's just hope that it doesn't get too bad too quickly.