Disclaimer: The Jaggi, Jaggia, and Great Jaggi, are taken from Monster Hunter Four. They belong to Capcom.
Another thing I had to say. Yes, the story is going pretty fast, and Izuku is unlocking powers at an alarming pace. But don't worry, it is going to chill down from there. I just needed these to be put so I can do more.
Just after the next chapter, we will finally have more time to settle down everything, and explore the other aspects of a fanfiction.
Like Romance. I thought about what ships I could do, but I couldn't choose, so I want to settle on Izuku!Multi. If you guys have objections, or better ideas, or just agree, let me know.
Oh, and as usual, please review if you have something to say, from good to bad. Just don't be mean, we're all here to have fun.
Thank you, and I hope you'll enjoy this.
As Izuku appeared on the other side of the gate, he rolled over himself, almost eating the ground because he couldn't retract his wings on time. However, as he rolled over the feathers, he didn't feel anything, and could stand back up immediately.
'Well, that's nice,' he thought, getting the stupid amount of dust there was in there off his clothes. 'Where am I?'
Izuku had appeared in a sort of parallel dimension of the wasteland. The sky was pitch black, which shouldn't be normal, as it was still a plain day. What told him things weren't normal, however, was the grass. Instead of the dark green you could find in whatever wasteland, it was now a dark red.
He looked around himself, searching for a cue about how to leave, or eventually progress.
"Hey, System, you who knows everything… Would there be a way for you to explain to me what's going on?" he asked, feeling rather uneasy. It was as if something was spying on him.
- This is a gate. In gates, various kinds of monsters with all types of Strength appear. Killing them grants the player Experience Points, as well as loot if lucky. To leave the Gate, you'd have to go back through the portal, or to slay the boss. Maybe I should have said… -
The portal started to make noise behind Izuku, before the extremities of it were absorbed by the middle, the portal disappearing. Izuku just stared at his now gone escape route, before gulping.
- … in the gates that were created by the system, and not natural ones, the only remaining options are an Escape stone, or slaying the boss. -
"Couldn't have told me that beforehand, huh?" Izuku mumbled.
- Notice: No. -
The boy sighed. However, before he could rant, a strangled cry roared from behind him.
He never would have reacted in any other situation. However, he had put five points in the Sense statistic, and it was just enough to force his body to roll to the side.
And he was glad he did, because as he rolled, he could clearly see the claws and teeth of the thing that had attacked him, and he would have been pierced and shredded to death.
'What the fuck?'
Izuku stared down at the creature, which was bouncing left and right, sometimes letting a cry leave its mouth.
The monster looked quite similar to a dilophosaurus, however, the colour was completely different. On the sides of his body, he was orange, while on top and on his face and on the hues, it was purple-ish. He had a long allonged face with dozens of sharp teeth. The dinosaur-like creature was almost as tall as him.
"What the hell is this.." Izuku said out loud, as the creature scratched its claws on the floor, ready for more. That's when he noticed the name tag above it, in the orange colour.
[Jaggi]
'Is that its name..?' he thought. However, the monster was obviously not done, as just like before, he jumped on him, his claws ready to scratch him. This time, Izuku saw the thing come, and he dodged on his own. However, just as the creature touched the grown, he rotated on himself, hitting Izuku with its tail.
The boy jumped back, blood immediately pouring down his nose. He looked up, only to see the monster bite his arm, immediate pain assaulting his system. Before it could bite him again, he started to run back toward where the portal used to be, trying to gain some time.
No, that was wrong, he was just fleeing in fear. Fear? It was something else, it wasn't him.
'How can I survive that!?'
- Notice: The Player has to kill the monster, otherwise he will die. -
'But how can you even want me to harm such a thing!'
- Notice: The Player has already lost 80 Health Points out of two hundreds. His left arm is almost done for. At this rate, he will die soon. -
'Don't tell me things I already know!'
He ducked to the ground, dodging another bite, as every second of this prolonging fight seemed more and more like hell. He continued to run, hoping the creature would just go away.
- Notice: The Fatigue of the player is already at twenty. Should he continue to escape the fight, he will get slower, before being unable to move at all when reaching 100 and die. -
'Leave me alone!'
He was in no mood to receive orders. He didn't want to kill anything, he didn't want to fight anyone. He wanted to go back home, curl up in his bed, and cry. He was never made to become some sort of hero, or a fighter, or whatever this entity asked of him.
It had always been like this. He acted as sassy as he wanted, was as pretentious as he could be, but the truth was he was nowhere near close to a decent fighter. He was weak, so was his body and so was his Quirk. He was useless.
If he died, everyone would feel better. He knew it. But he was so much of a coward that he never acted on that thought. How could he change anything when he was even scared of diving for the better choice?
His life flashed in front of his eyes. Bakugo, his mother, Kaede, there was not a single one of them who wouldn't profit from his death. The blond boy would finally be free of the chains that linked him to the frail kid that remained stuck in the past, his mother would win money, and his sister would be spared of the mockeries she received because of him.
Maybe he should just stop running? Stand still, and let the monster aim for his neck? He would even do a good deed to the creature, it would have food at least.
Yeah, maybe he should do that. Just let nature do its thing.
He stopped. Completely. He stood still, turning toward the Jaggi, who suddenly seemed to back off. Was it preparing an attack?
Izuku remained up, panting, blood pouring down his face and arm. Why was he feeling better?
'Oh, right, the auto-regeneration.' he thought, remembering the passive skill he had acquired.
The skill he had acquired.
Something different appeared in Izuku's heart. He didn't know what it was, but it quickly expanded to his entire body. It was a burning sensation, which was taking him from the inside, but also… appeasing him?
More flashes of his life appeared in front of his eyes, as if the present had suddenly stopped.
… "Hey, Katsuki, why do you keep being my friend?"
"Why would I not, nerd?"
"I don't know, doesn't me being weak and frail bother you?"
"Bothers me to no end, you useless freak. But when you stop being such a shitter, you're not that bad of a person." Bakugo finished with a smirk …
Another one.
… "I heard you got hurt again, Izu."
"Yeah, I did. Tried to help a cat. Bastard bit me."
"You're such a bitch. But I'm proud of you." Kaede said with a wry grin …
And another one.
… "I don't know what to do in life, mom."
"Did you read about all the jobs you could take? All the careers you could pursue?"
"I did. Just, none of the shit seems interesting, and the only good ones require some kind of fighting knowledge, or Quirk, or bravery."
"I think you underestimate yourself, sweetie." she said while kissing his forehead. …
Time seemed to go back to normal. He could see the monster take a sprint, ready to bring him down.
But he smiled.
He didn't know what had come over him. Was this new power of his also trying to heal his depression? It could actually be very possible. He knew Quirk Influence could change people's minds, just like Bakugo's made him more brutal, or Endeavor's made him more eager for a fight.
Was this Quirk making him more happy in the time of need? Trying to change his mindset?
The Phoenix race. Surely it meant more than what he had thought? It wasn't just a random choice, in a random situation. It had a more profound reason.
It gave him the thing he really didn't have above all.
The will to fight.
As the monster jumped, his claws now inches away from the boy's forehead, Izuku's left palm ignited with a two centimetres round ball. And before the Jaggi could strike him down, Izuku punched him with all his might with his right arm, propelling the monster in the air.
It would never hit the ground, as a jet of fire completely combusted him in flight.
Izuku just stood there, no more danger in sight, before he started, slowly, to smile again.
He now understood criminals more than ever. This made him feel alive.
"What sort of monster are you turning me into?" he stated with a grin.
- Notice: The Player has accepted the terms of the game. -
Izuku laughed. It felt like his problems were disappearing one by one.
His weakness? Done, he now was stronger than almost every man on earth, and it would just continue to go up at an alarming speed if he continued to put statistics in it.
His Quirk? He had wings, could create and manipulate fire, healed and could heal, and he was pretty sure he was very very far from done.
Even the money incomes? It felt like with these new abilities, life would become easier.
And his crippling depression that he hid with his stupid gimmicks? To hell it could go, because right now, while defeating that monster, he felt more alive than ever.
He wasn't useless.
He started to walk forward, going up a big sort of hump of dirt. When he arrived at the top, he could see the rest of the wasteland. However, everything had changed.
He had not noticed it at first, but there were no buildings in sight. Just hills and trees. If he went further ahead, he could see a sort of cavern that went deeper into the ground.
And there were dozens, no, hundreds of the Jaggi he had just defeated. Among them, he could even see bigger dinosaur monsters that looked alike, but with higher muscle mass, a longer and bigger body, and longer and stronger tails. Their name was in red.
[Jaggia]
"So, to escape, I have to beat the boss of this dungeon? I was right, this is like a video game, but better." he said with a smile. "Status".
His profile seemed normal, except for the Fatigue and the Magic Power. Fatigue was now at 22, and his Magic Power went from 70 to 64.
"So, I win 20 HPs per level, which is why I have 200. I recovered them all with my passive healing…" he said, looking at his arm. There was a stupid amount of blood on the white sweatshirt, but he couldn't feel the bite anymore. "It costs me 3 MP to create a fireball, and three more to re-activate it. I just don't know how fast it regenerates, while Fatigue decreases really fast because of my passive…"
As he looked again, the Fatigue had already decreased to 20. Those Phoenix powers really were awesome.
"I should try to save my Magic Points for when I truly need them. But can I just brute force through the monsters?" he thought aloud.
It should be possible, as he had literally thrown a Jaggi up in the air. But those Jaggias seemed a lot tougher, and if video games had taught him something, red names meant they were dangerous to him. It would coincide with the orange colour of the Jaggis, who seemed to be monsters he could barely rival with if you forgot his skills.
But even if he could take one on one a Jaggi, there were dozens of them right in front of him. Unlike video games, he didn't think they would wait their turn to jump him.
- Notice: The Player would have an easier time with a weapon. -
"That I agree, but how could I find o-..." he said, as he started to move around. However, just after a few steps, a metal noise resonated with his foot. He looked down, seeing a small piece of metal in the red grass.
He picked it up, and just like that, he held a metal sword in his hands.
[Broken Sword: A sword made for a soldier sent to his death. Its poor craft won't hold forever. +10 Attack.]
Izuku grinned, sliding his finger down the blade. He then gripped the hilt, and held it in front of him.
"How convenient. Should be enough to fight."
Of course it wasn't enough. He didn't know how to fight, he never fenced, he never used as much as a stick. But he felt wings grow, both literally and not.
He ran to the closest Jaggi, who stopped whatever he was doing to look at the boy. However, he had no time to act, as his head was cut in a swift motion of the teenager's arms.
Immediately, the other Jaggis jumped on Izuku, who rolled away. Just after finishing rolling, he jumped on his left, doding a dive bite. He swung the metal sword in a demi-circle where he used to be, managing to hit the body of the Jaggi. However, as he was already too far, only the tip touched the monster, barely making a dent in its scales.
Izuku got up swiftly, knowing he had no time to rest. His low points in the Sense statistic were just enough to notice a Jaggi that had been isolated in the melee right behind him. He turned himself, charging the monster with the sword. He impaled it, the Jaggi giving one last cry.
Izuku knew the other creatures had followed him, so he anticipated the attack from behind by trying to swing the sword behind him. However, he didn't manage to get it out of the body in time, as the weapon remained stuck by the solid scales.
Izuku turned himself, only to get tackled to the ground by a Jaggia. It immediately bit his right shoulder, before moving his head left and right, his teeth still deep in the flesh, to try to dislocate his bones, or to tear the muscles out.
The teenager, in great pain, grabbed the Jaggia by the throat with both hands, trying to keep it out of range. He could faintly see from under the big creature that Jaggis were quickly closing the range between him and them.
'Not now…' Izuku thought, as the Jaggia struggled to get closer to his body, jabbing all of his claws into the boy, trying to make the teenager drop him out of pain.
'Not now…' he continued, as he could barely see the Jaggis from the corner of his blood-shed eyes.
'Now!'
He took his left hand, the one that wasn't being attacked, off the Jaggia's throat. The monster happily rushed for his neck, but the green-haired teen just put his hand on top of what should be the monster's brain.
A condensed ball of fire appeared in his palm, successfully tearing the crane of the monster, taking out an eye in the process. As the Jaggis were all close to him, he immediately reactivated the fireball, even still in his palm. They all were engulfed by the fire with cries of pain.
He got up, pushing on his wings to get up faster. With his only available arm at the moment, he got the sword out of the impaled Jaggi, bringing it down on the Jaggia's neck, who was still wiggling on the ground, cutting it immediately.
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
"Status." he said between two rapid breaths, looking at the tablet.
'So my HPs, MPs and Fatigue don't reset when I level up, but only when I claim the day's rewards… Too bad.' he saw.
[HP: 135/220] - [MP: 62/80] - [Fatigue: 48]
'I can't predict what they are going to do. More Agility would be awesome, but if I can discern one by one where all of them are I can plan ahead and not be taken short.'
"Put all my remaining points into Sense." he said, hoping the System would recognise this command and execute it. He had his response when he was immediately surrounded by a yellow light, and his Sense points jumped to 15.
Izuku looked at all the approaching monsters, which were passing over their dead species' bodies, trying as much as they could to not step into the still burning grass.
The red-eyed teenager grinned widely. When did he even think he shouldn't kill these things? He was having the time of his life.
"Bring it on, fuckers!" He yelled, the monsters immediately rushing at him with their strange cries, as if understanding his provocations.
"So, your brother still hasn't come home?" the girl closest to Kaede asked.
The green-haired student sighed. She had been asked the question at least a dozen times since Izuku died and came back three days earlier. At every single break, various people, who she knew had no connections whatsoever with him, came to question her about him.
"What, you want to get in his pants?" she answered, the other girl blushing furiously.
Oh, for fuck's sake…
"Nah, you can't make this shit up!" she yelled in frustration. Usually, people mocked her because of him. Because she was taller while being almost three years younger, because he didn't know how to fight yet always got into one (Bakugo was a terrible influence), because he loved being a buffoon so much some used it to attack her.
But in the past three days, she had found an alarming number of people who actually liked him. At least four girls, which had no connections between themselves, and even just guys that found him funny.
Which was true. If there was one thing why people liked him, it was when he did some kind of stupid thing.
Even when Bakugo and him got into brawls, he often just remained behind, to then just kick their ribs when the blond had beaten all of them while saying things like 'Take that bitches'.
This was a public school of the broke ass city of Mustafu. They were on the opposite of UA, where the citizens with more money resided. Fights weren't disproportionate, since there were still heroes and cops around, sometimes, but they were very frequent.
But it was almost the end of these three long days of waiting, since her brother was supposed to already be discharged as she spoke.
Too bad her mother didn't let Kaede come with her at the hospital. She was still angry about that.
But it's not like she had no news of him. They talked multiple times a day.
He had told her his physical body had radically changed, but he had refused to send her a picture. Told her it would be a surprise for when she'd see him. By just talking on the phone, she knew his voice had deepened. Katsuki had made the same observation.
But this was lunch break. He should have been out like three hours ago. And yet, she had no texts of both her mother and him. Which shouldn't have been a problem, they could just be busy, but it was still strange for the very close family to not notify the last member of the green-haired trio.
Kaede walked away from the girl that had interpeled her as fast as she could. She needed to find Bakugo, and ask him a few questions.
She found him eating in his classroom, alone. Usually, he would be with Izuku, as the two boys were very close. Honestly, Katsuki was like a brother to the two green-haired kids. But even if the other boy was not there, he continued to refuse every invitation from the others' kids groups.
"Hey, bastard." she said as she walked to him. He turned his head, smirking when he spotted her.
"What'd you want?" He asked her. She didn't answer him directly.
"Still alone? You're so gay." she continued. He laughed openly, a privilege she knew her brother and her were the only one to have. No other person could be so straightforward with him.
"Sorry, not interested in your brother, or males in general. Not enough to eat on." he continued with a smirk. She laughed too.
"Sorry for disturbing your lunch, but did you get any news from Izuku this morning? Both him and Mom are on radio silence." she asked. If the blond had not received anything, it meant the boy had just not sent anything.
"Yeah, I got a text from him like one hour ago. He told me 'Send help I've been kidnapped', and hasn't said anything since."
"Alright, it means he's fine." Kaede said, breathing a sigh of relief. She looked at Bakugo's hands, seeing that in his left one, he was angrily destroying a stress ball.
"The fuck's happening to you?" she asked, pointing at the hand. He sighed, biting into a piece of meat.
"Heard shome bashtards talking shit about Ijuku." he said, his mouth full.
Ah, yes, since they found his secret admirers, they also found his haters. Unsurprisingly, they were from the groups Bakugo and the teen always got into fights with. On the first day, Katsuki had beaten every single person who dared badmouth the petite boy, but since then, he just let it slide.
"Why don't you beat them like you've always done then?"
"I want to, but Izuku told me not to. Said he wanted to do it himself." he continued after swallowing.
Kaede sighed. Not this again.
"Even if he wants to, he can't, Katsuki. We all know it." she told him, looking away. It was pointless to think Izuku could defend himself, or fight. His body was just not made for that.
"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you." Katsuki interrupted. She just looked at him with curiosity in her eyes.
"He has told us his body has radically changed, yet he refuses to send pictures, and he seems to be far from upset about it. And that's not all: I've watched him come back from the dead with big ass wings and a new Quirk. If it were just regular wings, okay, but they had very red to orange colours, and his eyes shifted to red too. It could still mean nothing, obviously, but he seemed to struggle in water. I think there's a pattern there."
"Fire. His new Quirk has something to do with fire." Kaede resumed. He nodded, putting rice in his mouth.
"To me, he got a better body and a good Quirk. That means he's more than capable of beating these guys."
"But he still doesn't know how to fight." she told him.
"You're kidding? Bastard's the smartest nerd around. He used to watch heroes fight all day long. And it's not like he never saw what happens in a brawl, I've been there with him I don't know how many hundreds of times. He definitely knows how to throw a punch, he just didn't have the capacity to do it." he finished.
This… was very probably true. A long time ago, her mother had told Kaede she had tried to enrol Izuku into martial arts, in hope it would help him overcome his frail body. The trainer had asked for a demonstration, and had immediately agreed after seeing it. He had told Inko Izuku could be some sort of prodigee.
But he dropped out like 6 months after because no matter what he did his body just wouldn't let him grow muscle mass, which made all of his fighting knowledge useless.
She was taken out of her thoughts by her phone vibrating in her pocket. She took it out, seeing it was a notification from her mother.
Genitor: I saved him from the asylum they wanted to put him in [picture]
She unlocked the screen, so she could see the picture.
"What the actual fuck?" she said, looking at the screen.
"Hmmmm?" Katsuki said. She practically shoved the phone in his face.
He immediately recognised the eyes and wings. However, he was now tall, probably almost as much as him, since he was one metre eighty-nine centimetres. His hair looked softer, and his face was more defined.
However, he was buff. And as he seemed to be pausing for a camera, the hate expression was more than obvious.
"He got dragged into shopping, that explains the text." Katsuki grinned.
"Is that the only thing bothering you?" she said incredulously. Izuku just went from a small frail boy to a hot Greek god in the span of days.
"I didn't expect the transformation to be so brutal, but yeah, I supposed it would end like that." he just said.
She just shook her head several times, reviewing the picture again and again.
"Why did you run away like that?" her friends asked, entering the classroom. They were hesitant to approach, when she saw who was with her, but Kaede just slapped her cheeks.
"I don't know, brother got stabbed, came back, became hot." She barely managed to say. She was going to have a headache.
He was going to go through a very long explanation when she'd see him.
Things were going just as well as they were going downhill.
Izuku had leveled up three times by now. He was now level nine, after killing so many monsters he had lost the count. He had put the first ten points in Agility, to help him avoid the hits. It had worked well, even if he kept sometimes being hit. That was just normal, he may be strong, he just couldn't tackle hundreds of enemies easily.
At one point, his sword broke. He shouldn't have been surprised, it was literally the description of the item when he picked it up. It was still a little problem, but nothing ten more points in Strength couldn't fix.
So he just continued to take them down, with his bare fists. 25 in Strength changed everything, as he almost killed the Jaggis in one punch. It was still a bit harder with the Jaggias, but it worked just fine.
But it was incredibly tiring. Every hit just made his body heavier, his Fatigue always close to 90 and more. The pain and the thrill of the violence surrounding him kept him going.
When he hit level nine, he put the ten points in Vitality, to palliate for the Fatigue. However, it may have made things easier, but as his Fatigue was already almost at max, it just prevented him from touching the hundred that would mean a complete arrest of his body. And so, he continued fighting, keeping himself around 90 points of Fatigue.
Just after killing a Jaggia by turning its neck, he took several steps back, looking right in front of him. There were very few monsters remaining, at least at the entrance of the cave. But he could feel that once he was down there, he would immediately encounter the Boss. There were just too many enemies on the surface for the dungeon to have more down there.
'I can take a break before going down, it's not the problem, but will I have enough Magic Power…?' he asked himself, knowing he was at fifty points out of a hundred and ten. 'I have no weapon, and I don't think I can just brute force the boss…'
He had quickly realised that the bigger Fatigue he had, the weaker his healing passive was effective. He now could barely heal during the fight, and in such, his HP and body was in a terrible state.
He bent backward to dodge a bite, letting himself fall on his back. As he was still falling, he grabbed the Jaggias' neck with his leg, and spinned as hard as he could, breaking it in the process.
He had soon also seen why these monsters were considered the worst by the System. Sure, their bodies were somewhat resistant, and their attacks hurt like hell, but it mainly was because he was underleveled.
The real reason they were E-class monsters, and not above, since a letter implied better ranks, was because they didn't think and all had the same patterns of attack.
They either jumped on him, hit him with their tails, or tried to bite him. Those were the primary patterns. They only started to differ from those only options once they caught him, which had only happened a few times.
But knowing they would always engage him in such a way made things infinitely easier for him to prevent. Once he had understood, with his upgraded statistics from leveling up, he had been able to almost never get hit once.
He didn't get up immediately, and remained on the ground, there were only a few Jaggis left, who tried to jump on him, like they always did. Izuku rolled over, letting them crash on the ground, before he used his leg to punch their heads. Once, twice, and he finished the last one by punching it right in the face when it crouched to bite him.
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Alarm: Modes - Acquired]
The green-haired teenager let himself fall on the soft feathers of his wings in the red grass, breathing heavily. Between two dead corpses, he let himself relax, finally away from danger.
"I leveled up on the very last monster… This dungeon was scripted. It wanted me to reach this level before entering the Boss' room..." he stated between two deep breaths.
- Notice: Correct -, a screen appeared in front of his eyes.
"Is it me or you are starting to help me more and more since I entered this dungeon?"
- As the Player fully accepted the terms of the game, the System can now progress with the Player. -
"I see. Put my ten remaining points into the Agility stat. I'm going to need it for the boss." he added. He knew the system did it when a light surrounded him.
- Notice: The Player has reached 25 points in Strength, Agility, and Vitality. His statistics will continue to scale with the points invested in them, but his physical body won't receive any more changes. -
[Alarm: Title - 'Forged by Trial' - Acquired.]
"What does this thing do?" he asked, his eyes closed, trying his best to calm down the adrenaline rush in his veins.
- Titles affect the Player's capacities. -
[Forged by Trial: +10 attack when using hand to hand battle or short-ranged weapons. Once obtained, allows the Player to fly.]
"To fly? Heh, what thing at a time. What about the Modes the Alarm noticed me on?"
Just as he asked, three new different screens appeared around him, and he sat to read them.
[Offensive Mode: The Player's wings will set themselves on fire. As long as this mode is activated, Player's Strength and Agility is upgraded by 20%. Every offensive skill will have its cost in Magic Power reduced. Passive healing won't be possible, and defensive skills will have their cost in Magic Power Augmented.]
[Defensive Mode: The Player's wings will remain on his back. As long as this mode is activated, Player's Vitality and Sense is upgraded by 20%. Every defensive skill will have its cost in Magic Power reduced. Passive healing is sped up, but offensive skills will have their cost in Magic Power Augmented.]
[Normal Mode: The Player's wings will disappear, as such, flying won't be possible. As long as this mode is activated, Player gets no additional bonus whatsoever. Fatigue will decrease faster, and Magic Power recovery will be enabled.]
"So that's why my MPs didn't come back." he mumbled. "Normal Mode."
He felt his wings, in under a second, disappear, as if being absorbed by his back. If he could see behind him, he'd see two glowing golden marks where they had disappeared.
He took a second to look at his body, passing his hands on his chest.
His sweatshirt, as well as shirt under it had been torn in the fight, and since he had grown more and had gained even more muscle, it had of course cracked. That was the reason why he was half naked. He was kind of squeezed in his pants, but he had no other choice.
He let himself fall back in the grass. He couldn't be too sure, but he should be around one metre and ninety-two centimetres. His muscles were even bigger than before, barely smaller than Endeavor's, which was logical since he was still smaller than the man.
Good thing he couldn't grow more, he was frankly tired of it. He had gained thirty-two centimetres in barely 3 days, after all.
"So, it said I should be able to fly. But I need to rest before. Anything you got to tell me about those dungeons? You did say there were normal gates, and these ones." The boy said aloud. As there wasn't anyone close to him, it was pretty obvious he was talking to the System.
- There are indeed. The gate the Player currently is in was created by the System. Those gates are made in order to satisfy the Player's needs depending on his advancement. Normal gates, which spawn naturally, have no connection with the System whatsoever. -
"Wait, spawn naturally? So you are not the one at the origin of all of this?" he asked.
- Correct. -
"Then… Who creates these gates? And how do you have the power to make some?" Izuku carried on. Something was incredibly fishy.
- … The System cannot answer this question as of now. It just doesn't have the knowledge to do so. -
'So there is something that is preventing the System from communicating information, even though it seems to know everything beforehand. Then who… Wait.' the boy snapped.
"Could other people see these gates?"
- The gates created by the System are invisible to everyone but the Player. However, normal gates are indeed visible to other people. -
"Shit!" he almost yelled. He would be fine, he could continue to get stronger with the gates, but other people probably couldn't. What if they went inside one?
Wait, this was an E-ranked gate. There would be even stronger ones, if this was the weakest.
- Normal gates won't appear as of now. The System cannot answer when they will start to spawn, but it just knows the Player still has time. If he continues to level up, the System should be able to gain access to additional information. -
"So I have to get stronger in time if I want to prevent this?" he asked.
- Notice: No. The Player won't be able to stop the apparition of gates. However, the System could find a way to clear them without putting anyone in danger, since it seems to be the Player's main goal. -
It was. He was no hero, but he wouldn't want to live in a world where monsters could possibly harm his family.
"Yeah, we'll do that. But we'll see in time, no need to overthink about something we know nothing of." he simply said, sighting. "Inventory."
There were a bunch of items that had appeared in his inventory. All of them had weird symbols, almost like drawings.
[Jaggi Scale x248]
[Jaggi Hide x243]
[Screamer Scale x235]
[Sharp Fang x229]
[E Cores x129]
"What are all of these?"
- They are items dropped by the monsters you killed. It may be possible to make objects or weapons out of them. As for the cores, they are a source of magic that are inside of all monsters. In the dungeons created by the system, they will immediately appear in your inventory, but you'll have to pick them up in normal dungeons. The System however, doesn't know what could be done with them. -
'The system is also becoming more fluent when I level up.'
He was covered in blood, it was absolutely horrible. He needed to get a new weapon, by all means, or he would just continue to get bloody. The clothes he had brought the very morning were already dead.
"Do you know how I could find another weapon?" Izuku asked.
- Loot would be the best option. Advanced monsters should have some for the Player to use. If the Player levels up Intelligence enough, the System should be able to craft some for the Player. -
"Would it be possible already?"
- The Player may already be smart, but he has yet to link his native capacities with the System. -
'Alright, I can't.'
"Status."
His Fatigue was almost completely gone, sitting at barely twenty. His Magic Power was slowly refilling, but he was already back at sixty five points. It was just more than half of his MP. It was enough to go to the Boss' room.
"Defensive Mode." he said, and his normal wings grew back in less than a second.
'So, I should be able to fly huh..?' he thought. Maybe he should concentrate on his back, feel every new muscle and bone his new members had brought.
But it was useless, because just as soon as he started to want to fly, he started to, without any effort. It had become a part of his subconscious the very moment he acquired the ability to use them.
"You know, I like it when you make things easy…" Izuku started, quickly reaching new heights, testing his potential by looping around. "... But I think you're starting to make things too easy."
No screen popped up, but he was sure the System had understood him. Calmly, he reached for the ground, landing on his legs without a problem. He would experiment with that ability later, but since the next fight would be in a cave, he didn't see much importance in learning how to fly now.
Plus, how long had it been since he entered the dungeon? Two hours, three hours?
- Notice: The Player entered the gate around six hours ago. -
"No, you're kidding me." He said, taking his phone out of his pocket. The screen was shattered because of a Jaggi's tail, but it still worked. "And there's no wifi. Of course. Mom is going to kill me." he finished, grabbing his hair with his hands.
- Time passes differently in dungeons. One hour in the real world is around ten hours in there. -
"So little? Wait, that means a full day is like two hours and twenty four minutes! I've not even been gone for an hour?" the boy exclaimed himself.
- Notice: Correct. -
"Holy shit, life is good. Well, I'm not in the mood to wait for hours there. Let's just go to that boss." Izuku finished with a grin, stretching himself. He didn't bother going back to normal mode, he could just carry on with the wings on his back. Plus, if something tried to jump him, he could actually resist easier.
He prefered not to go into Offensive Mode, though. It would be the best idea, as of now, he literally had no defensive skill, except Heal. But his wings would ignite into fire, and that probably was the worst option to not get jumped.
He stopped at the entrance of the cave. He had barely approached it, and yet he immediately felt the intense pressure, as if the killing intent of the boss could be felt even from where he stood.
'It must be big…' he thought.
He started to go down, trying to relax his tensed muscles. The dark aura was assaulting him, keeping his mind and body on the edge. If an E-rank boss could do that, then what could the strongest do?
Soon, he had nothing to see, as the cave continued going down.
"Shit, I can't see…" he muttered. He noticed a tree stick on the ground, which shouldn't be normal, because he had not seen a tree in the wasteland at all.
'The Player's needs…' He remembered. 'This gate is not only to teach me how to fight, use my power, or just to level up. It's also teaching me how to survive.'
He picked up the stick, before taking his torn shirt from his inventory. He wrapped the part of clothes around the tip of the stick, deciding to also add his torn sweatshirt in the process.
'I don't have any essence to add to the clothes, it's not going to last long. I hope the cave doesn't go down for ages.' he pondered. A small flame appeared on the tip of his finger, as he lit up the torch. It took almost a minute to finally work, but the clothes ignited.
He continued to go down, watching his steps to not fall. It seemed like whatever magic his new Quirk used had started to be used to the menacing aura, because he barely felt it anymore. Far from logical, since he was getting closer to the boss, but he wasn't about to complain.
Finally, he could see, just a few metres ahead, the end of the tunnel. It was a sort of gigantic circular room, and for a reason he didn't really understand, the ground went from rocks to completely flat dirt. The ceiling was also very high, probably around twenty metres, which even gave him enough room to fly.
'How can such a noticeable change be normal?'
- Notice: Boss rooms are entirely different parts from the dungeon. It is impossible to predict accurately how the room is going to look. -
But Izuku couldn't respond, because as soon as his foot touched the dirt, the entire room lit up with multiple purple torches on the walls. They seemed to brighten things a lot more than any normal fire would, because the entire room was now perfectly visible.
There were a bunch of trees, landforms and rocks to make things kind of irregular, but otherwise it was pretty flat. But the boy didn't really care about any of this: something had gotten his attention immediately.
[Great Jaggi]
The really big monster, who seemed to be sleeping, but had gotten his head up to look at Izuku, was the real threat of the room. The creature lazily got up, not visibly threatened by his presence. He was at the very least three metres high, and seemed to be between eight and ten metres long.
His head shot up, and he made a sort of shrieking call. Multiple noises shot up from within the walls. Izuku had not seen them, but there were multiple holes in the walls. Jaggis started to come out, with cries as they did so.
But Izuku noticed something else. The colour of the Jaggi's name had gone from orange to green.
'Since I killed the last one, I got a title, unlocked the forms, leveled up to 10… So, the same monsters don't become stronger in the same dungeon. If it became green, then it must mean they went from hard to kill targets to easy ones. But, him…'
The Great Jaggi scratched his claws on the ground, strangled noises coming out of his mouth as he studied the newcomer. He looked like a mix between a Jaggi and a Jaggia, but significantly stronger, with a longer tail, and overall a bigger monster.
Suddenly, he sprinted on Izuku, closing the gap in seconds, when he used to be almost thirty metres away.
The mere 15 points in Sense were not even close to being enough to successfully dodge the hit. The monster turned himself, sending him flying toward the middle of the room with his tail. On hit, he felt several of his ribs crack, and blood flowed from his mouth.
He landed on his feet, managing to spin himself mid-air. Immediately, his wings deployed, and he started to take height, hoping it'd be enough to create enough distance for him to heal. If he managed to, he could immediately switch to Offensive Mode and fireball the close-range boss who should logically have followed him. However, the Great Jaggi jumped up, biting his wings, throwing him on the closest wall.
He crashed on the cold stone, falling down and hitting the ground face on. His entire body was in pain, and he could barely distinguish what was real from what wasn't. He was almost unconscious, on the verge of collapsing.
Finally, he managed to get back into motion, shaking his head, and got up, thinking about what he could do.
But the Great Jaggi was already here.
'Bite, Jump, or Tail?' Izuku thought quickly, watching as the monster started to rotate himself.
'Tail hit!'
He jumped on the side where the monster's tail wasn't, thinking he had successfully dodged the blow. But when he looked at the monster's face, his narrowed eyes, and what seemed like a grin, he understood his moment of joy was founded.
He wanted to know if monsters could feel emotion, like joy, sadness, or fear, but as the Great Jaggi body slammed him against the wall, he immediately went unconscious. Everything became black, as the last thing he saw was the monster roaring its victory.
…
'I could never have won.'
"Indeed."
'I don't know if that's the System finally using a voice mocking me, or if my body is hallucinating during my final moments.'
"I am not the System, and I am not your body either."
'Bullshit. Leave me alone.'
He was dead, he could have a few moments of peace? Wait, this felt strangely like Déjà vu.
"You really do have weird reactions to dying. But you are not completely yet, not as long as I'll be here."
Izuku's eyes shot open.
Darkness, again. If this was going to become a regular event, it was quickly going to become boring. He got up, before looking at where the voice was coming. Though, this time, it was very different from the last time.
Because he was very sure the last time he was in this place, there weren't these two hollow figures standing a few metres away from.
Both were really tall figures, though the first one was even taller. The first was made of deep purple fire, and what seemed like a sort of armour of black flames surrounded some parts of his body. His eyes were made of crimson fire. The being was completely flammable, and yet it was easy to understand the forms of his body.
The other one, however, was a complete mess of Dark Flames. Just like the other one, his eyes were crimson, but the only thing that Izuku could actually understand of his body parts were the black wings, always made of flames, behind him.
Both beings were looking at him, and if they felt anything, Izuku couldn't know.
Which meant there was no reason to be hostile. He was already dead, either way, and with how he got stomped by the Great Jaggi, he wasn't sure he could do anything against them.
He looked at his body, covered in blood. The most recent one, which had flowed from his mouth after being hit by the boss' tail, was more red, and had seemed to have flowed on his torso, before slithering between the lines of his muscles.
"No fear yet?" the purple being asked.
Izuku just looked at him with a closed expression, shaking his head. The man made thoughtful noises, as the boy could clearly see him trying to analyse something.
"Hey, you both, what are you? The System?" Izuku tried again.
"I have already answered the second question. As for the first, it is not the time for you to know yet."
"When will it be the time, then? I'm dead." the green-haired teenager added.
"I suppose it is true. Though this may have been voluntary on our part."
Izuku didn't answer. He just raised an eyebrow, considering everything this answer could imply. The purple being nodded toward the other one, who made a few steps forward. A table of light appeared in his hand, one the red-eyed teenager clearly recognised as something linked to the System.
"We have been observing you since you received these powers." If the purple being had a deep and profound voice, this one was a lot more acute. "Though we can not answer all of your questions, there are a few things you should be aware of."
"You shouldn't have been able to enter the first dungeon at level 5. You should have received the key at level 10, and with the first part, or the mob of monsters at the surface, if you prefer, you should have faced the boss while being level 15. Everything was scripted so no matter the level you entered at, you would always win five more levels before going down the Boss room."
Izuku just remained silent once again. It would certainly make sense. With a higher Sense statistic, he should have been able to dodge at least one of the hits that sealed his fate. The tablet in the being's hands disappeared, as he took a few steps back, to go back behind the other one.
"This was my decision, should you question this… Change of plans. After observing you for a few days, there were a few things I wanted to tell you, and ask you as well."
"Couldn't you get the answer by yourself, if you could observe me as you say?" he asked. The man, or whatever it was, laughed.
"No, I couldn't, and you'll understand why soon. Firstly, there is one thing you should know: you weren't the person that should have inherited this power."
Oh, that was why he was here.
"Oh, you want to take them back? Go on, I'm dead anyway." he told him, closing his eyes.
"Such nonchalance. I won't, for several reasons I will explain. There is that one question I wanted to ask you, too: why are you not scared of me?"
And Midoriya really thought about it. Why couldn't he fear this thing, that was visibly powerful enough to prevent his death? To give him his powers? He searched in himself, looking for an answer, but just another question sprouted in his mind.
Fear?
"This is what I thought." He started to path around, his arms behind his back. "You see, the power we gave you sort of… malfunctioned."
"It was supposed to, slowly, change the user's mind with his natural development. As he went through the different trials the System will have on its path, he should have been reforged into something greater."
He paused, looking at Izuku. The teenager was standing proud, his red shining eyes observing the man with rasp attention.
"But you are not any of that."
His arms went back to his front, where he crossed one, the other scratching his chin. The boy didn't know what he was scratching, because he wasn't sure flames had any physical aspect, but well, he could do whatever he wanted.
"I heard you call for me. A boy, dying of a tragedy, without achieving anything in his life, like there are so many. But, you were… different. You bathed in Death, missing the key emotions you should have felt. Betrayal, fear, sadness… You just waited in understanding."
Midoriya didn't know how to feel about any of this, other than it sounded like him alright.
"I looked into your past, and saw your… strange closeness to death. There wasn't a week or month that passed without you dodging miraculously what should have been your end. At first, I thought this was your Ability, what you humans call Quirks. But it wasn't at all. The lack of barricade between you and death should be alarming. Right there, I was impressed by how you never let the sweet darkness of my realm embrace you."
This could mean several things, and none that Izuku actually liked.
"But I also saw something else in you. The desire to change things, to help… To achieve greatness. That's when I decided you would inherit the power I wished to grant."
"Regretting that already?" Izuku asked with a smirk. If anything, he felt the being smirk at him in response, not that he could see it.
"Far from it. This decision was the best I made. But little problem: the emotions the System was supposed to grant you in order to cultivate your powers interfered with your actual ones. That's why you went into shock after waking up: fear your normal body would never have felt was created by the System to scare you of death, which caused a major problem in your mind."
He could remember it clearly. He was okay with dying: he could even go so far as to say he wanted it. But, out of nowhere, he suddenly felt the envy to live, the fear of the end.
"When I saw these consequences, I thought I made an error. But the second you went out of shock, you just… moved back into motion. Just like that, you went back to living. And that was when I made my second decision: to advance the moment you'd receive the dungeon's key."
He started to get closer to Izuku, who didn't move an inch. As the Being stopped right in front of him, they looked into each other's eyes, something he didn't quite understand passing through them.
"You understood your powers better than anyone would, and then jumped in the gate. As you were underleveled, the Jaggis were stronger than you. The System created fear in your mind the second you encountered them, to perpetuate the fear of monsters that were stronger than you. But as fear was non-existent in your brain, the reaction was disproportionate. I thought you'd die again, but you managed to get yourself under control, like you did the first time."
He paused, starting to turn around the teenager, who didn't do as much as flinch.
"You took on monsters that were so much stronger than you by yourself, without fear, but the thrill of the fight. That shouldn't have been possible, one like the other . The Boss, however, was too much, but you still managed to create a plan mid-beating, you just couldn't execute it."
He walked away from Izuku, going back next to the other being.
"You are doing even better than we could ever hope for. But we also needed to change the System, or it would cause problems for you, as you don't behave like the person it was made for."
The tablet appeared in the black being's hands, and Izuku's eyes narrowed.
"This is the last question that will seal everything. Can I ask you what your morals are? What do you want to become?"
What did he want to become?
When he was a kid, he wanted to become a hero. A man that saved everyone, without any distinction, that could single handedly counter the injustice.
But he has grown since. He lived in the poor part of Mustafu, which was almost an entirely different world from the other side of the city. He had seen violence, had felt it, almost every day for several years.
He had matured. He knew his dreams had changed, and if he became a hero, it wouldn't be to protect the world, but to earn his family a nice life. He still wanted to save people of course, but a nice little house wouldn't hurt either.
But was that his vocation? Definitely not. He felt… different. Since entering the first gate, something new had appeared in him. A new envy. A new objective. He wanted to get stronger, face stronger enemies, and grow.
He wanted his mother and sister to be proud of him. To follow Katsuki into brawls without the blond keeping an eye on him in case he got punched. He wanted to win money, so his family could get out of these poor apartments.
Yeah, he knew more or less what he wanted to become.
"I want to be relevant." he just said, looking at the purple being's face with dead serious eyes. The entity responded with a deep laugh.
"A very special human with such common motives. I think this won't be the last surprise you give us."
Just after that, the other monster started to tab on parts of his tablet.
"I'm erasing everything that should have brought fear into you. I'll reorganise the natural progress. I'll…"
Soon, it became mumbling, and Izuku didn't try picking it up. Whatever this man would do to him, he couldn't do much anyway. He just waited patiently, before he suddenly saw a light surrounding him.
"As I changed the process of your growth, and your mind and body are more than ready to gain a few levels, I skipped a few steps and gave you five additional levels. You should be able to face the Boss when you go back."
"Go back?" Izuku asked.
"You're keeping that power." the other said, with what sounded like a smirk in his tone.
And so they waited. Once the black entity was finally done, giving a nod to the purple one, Midoriya knew it was just a question of seconds before he would go back to the Boss' room. But before, he also had one question they were going to answer.
"So, did I sell my soul?" he asked. Silence passed through the three of them, before the purple one picked up on his question.
"Why this question?" he asked.
"I don't know? I came back to life, twice I might add, I've gained new powers, and as far as I know, you have not forced me to do anything in return. What's going to happen? Am I some sort of vessel, an empty body? Have I sold my soul?" he continued, serious as he could be. The first entity crossed his arm, as if questioning his words.
"You have not sold your soul. And indeed, there is nothing I have to ask in return. You can do everything you want with these new abilities. But I think you will understand soon enough why you received these. Don't think you are under some sort of constraints: govern the world if you want to."
That actually didn't clear much, but Izuku couldn't do anything but take his words for it. If something happened to him, if he was possessed or something else, well it wasn't really this fault. This strange entity could probably have possessed someone else entirely anyway.
"If you say so."
"Alright, it seems everything is ready for you to go back to the Boss room. Best of luck, I suppose." he snapped his fingers, which made noise, something that shouldn't have been possible, and everything went black.
…
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Skill: Fire breath - Acquired.]
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Skill: Fire wall - Acquired.]
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Passive Skill: Fire Coating - Acquired.]
[Skill: Fire Breath, allows the Player to, instead of re-activating a Fire ball, blow on it, creating a more precise and long jet of fire in the direction he blew.]
[Skill: Fire Wall, allows the Player to create walls of solid flames out of any fire he wants.]
[Passive Skill: Fire Coating, allows the player to surround any weapon he holds with flames.]
…
[Passive Skill: Flames of Life - Acquired.]
[Passive Skill; Flames of Life, allows the Player to keep living beings alive within a twenty-five metres radius around himself.]
[Passive Skill: Flames of Death - Acquired.]
[Passive Skill: Flames of Death, allows the player to create fire clones of dead beings.]
…
[Alarm: Title - The One who defied Death - Acquired.]
[The One who defied Death: Allows the player to create up to 15 clones, and to save up to 5 clones. Number of possible clones augments with the Player's level.]
…
- The Player will now awaken. Good luck. -
Jaggis were shrieking, as they tore into the boy's body. They grabbed every little piece of edible flesh they could, and started to eat his organs in his abdominal cavity.
The Great Jaggi was looking from afar, paisibly observing his pack as they ate to their heart's content. He laid down on the dirt, closing his eyes as he wished to go back to sleep.
Suddenly, he senses, just like when the boy had entered his territory all panicked, crying danger into the Boss' brain. If before, the boy had barely seemed to be a threat, now it was a real danger.
A little flame started to blossom on the boy's chest, as the Jaggis all backed off, shrieking in disappointment as they couldn't finish their dinner.
The Great Jaggi got up, slowly coming closer, taking a look at what was happening. The flame didn't seem to be very hot, and showed no sign of being any normal fire. But suddenly, it gained in intensity, and the Boss roared. Every monster started to take their distance, as the flame grew stronger and stronger.
Finally, it ignited. The boy was completely engulfed in the fire, and as the gigantic ball of flames started to rise in the air, the Boss knew the fight had started again.
Wings sprouted from within the ball, as it literally exploded, jets of flames leaving the boy's body and forcing the monsters to look away from the small sun in the room.
Izuku opened his eyes, analysing the situation.
'I'm in the air… So that's how it looks when I come back to life.'
"Status." he said calmly. As the black entity had said, he had gained immediately five levels, which explained why he felt so much stronger. For now, he decided not to question the sudden growth: he had problems just in front of him.
'I'm going to need to upgrade the Sense statistic, and I might as well put some in Intelligence.'
"15 points in Intelligence, 15 points in Sense, 10 points in Strength, 5 points in Agility, 5 points in Vitality." he said aloud, immediately surrounded by the yellow light.
[Passive Skill: Sprint - Acquired.]
[Sprint: +10 Agility when running in Normal form.]
'Useless for now, but I'll take it.'
He looked at the monsters under him. They seemed a lot more reluctant to approach him, and Izuku saw that the Jaggis' names were now grey instead of green.
'So green would be like monsters at my level, and grey under my level. They shouldn't be a problem. But him…'
The Great Jaggi was observing him, his name still bright red.
"That's why I didn't stand a chance." he said aloud.
- Notice: correct. -
Izuku had also noticed his Fatigue and MPs had been put back to zero and full respectively, which meant he could fully go on the offensive now. He smirked, a fireball appearing in his hand.
"Offensive Mode."
His wings ignited, and he felt the fireball in his hand grow bigger, as he gained the bonus. He threw the fireball, before letting it explode just before the Boss. However, the monster circled around the ball, and jumped on the left when it exploded, successfully dodging it.
"I'm going to need to get closer to him, otherwise he's just going to dodge around." he said, looking at his surroundings. There were a few things he had picked up from the conversation with the entities, noticeably one.
When entering the boss room, he should have been level 15, just after killing the Jaggis up in the wasteland. But the dungeons of the system were made for the Player's needs. And, strangely, he had gained a skill that allowed him to strengthen weapons just when leveling up to 15.
There was a weapon somewhere in the room. Fire and punching the Great Jaggi was doable, but he didn't want to try his luck against a monster far stronger than him and granted an ounce of intelligence.
He could profit from being safe as long as he was in the a-...
His train of thought was interrupted when he felt something chomp his leg, a silent cry of pain almost escaping his lips. He was thrown to the ground violently, where the Great Jaggi had now stuck him against one of his claws.
The monster had jumped, high enough to grab him. Izuku smiled slightly while trying to keep away by pure force the face of the monster just centimetres above from him.
He created a fireball, exploding it directly in his hands, the monster falling to the ground with a howl.
Fuck the weapon for now.
Izuku jumped on him, jets of fire escaping his hands with every hit, and exploded flames into the Great Jaggi's head. It howled, again and again, as the boy didn't leave him any opportunity for a response.
The monster tried to get up, his claws attacking the teenager to get distance, but he successfully dodged every blow the Boss tried to assess him, continuing, hit after hit, to punch the monster's face, fire exploding from his hands at every opportunity.
Izuku felt several presences behind him, and had to turn himself to dodge the Jaggis. However, his heavily damaged leg blocked his movements, and he was forced to fly up in order to not get hit, leaving enough room for the Great Jaggi to get up.
Over the chain of hits it had taken, his head had been damaged violently. His head-frills were torn, probably because they had burned, and there were several scars along his jaw, where serious hits reasoned on his bones. But he was still up and running, and far from dead.
'The Jaggis are a nuisance…' Izuku remarked. Another fireball appeared in his hand, and he threw it toward the ground, exploding just in front of the small monsters.
They immediately went dead, and the Boss was forced to dodge, jumping back as he did so.
The phoenix used this opportunity to, once more, look for a weapon. His eyes lit up when he noticed a sword was standing up on a tree, just waiting for him to pick it up.
He immediately flew toward it, landing, and grabbing it as he did so. He almost fell down when he did, his leg barely supporting him anymore.
"Normal mode," he started, the wings immediately disappearing into his back. "Heal."
It seemed one single spell wasn't enough to completely stop the pain, but he had to guess it was because he wasn't in Defensive mode. Nonetheless, he decided spending more MPs on it would just handicape him. If he had not been in Attack mode when hit chaining the Boss, he would have been out of points right now.
[Commander's Sword: The amount of money he put in it didn't change his fate. +15 Attack.]
'I think I can make it better…' he thought with a grin. He slashed it randomly in the air, and the sword was immediately covered in fire.
[Passive Skill: Fire Coating.]
He turned his head, still grinning, seeing the Great Jaggi he knew was running toward him had stopped when seen the fire.
"Heh, so I was right. You don't like fire." the teenager said, pointing his weapon at the monster. The monster just growled, as if it understood him.
Izuku had noticed, after hitting him again and again, that firstly, he had really tough scales, because his hands hurt like a bitch. But he had also seen at one point, that its neck had lost a few scales after hitting it repeatedly. That was where he could slash his sword: any other part would just make the weapon bounce.
[Passive Skill: Sprint.]
Izuku ran toward him. He needed to be close to the monster at every cost, and deploying his wings would just give a free way of grabbing Izuku like he had done so many times before.
He slashed the sword vertically, the weapon just bouncing on its scales. The Boss used his tail to hit Izuku, but at the last second, he managed to dodge by crouching. The monster tried to bite down, using the opportunity to aim for the free target, but the green-haired prodigy stopped him by using a fireball which he ignited in the monster's mouth.
His head went back, not howling in pain, as the fire circulating in his mouth probably stopped him from doing it, but he was in a bad posture.
It was Izuku's only chance. He had no MPs anymore, and his Fatigue was very high because of the hand to hand fight. If he didn't end it now, he would fail.
He took the sword in his two hands, and swung it as hard and fast as he could toward the Great Jaggi's neck, yelling as he did so.
Silence reigned, as the monster's head fell.
[Alert: You have defeated the boss of the dungeon!]
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
[Alarm: You leveled up!]
Izuku took deep breaths, finally out of danger. He fell on his knees, holding himself with his shaking arms, the adrenaline rush stopping. He smiled slightly: so this was what it felt like to be in power.
- Notice: This was a poor display of your different abilities. -
"You're saying this like it was easy for me," he replied. The System was quickly going to become an annoyance, it seemed.
- It should have been. You didn't use the Defensive mode, nor did you use the fire wall or fire breath. Flames of Death would also have been useful. The Player just put himself in danger when there was no need to. -
"Oh yeah, that thing, tell me how to use it." Izuku remembered. It seemed too elaborate to discover the new skill mid-fight, so he had waited for the end of it to understand what it really did.
- To use Flames of Death, the Player needs to be next to a corpse, and use a keyword to try to extract a clone. -
"Any word?"
- As long as the System recognizes it as possible, any word is possible. -
"Fine."
He put himself just in front of the Great Jaggi's dead body, putting a hand over the corpse. It probably wouldn't help, but it would give him the impression he did.
'A word… I'm just going to use what the System used to describe it.'
"Extract."
Black flames, just like the one the second entity used for his body, started to leave the monster's corpse, as if they had been stored in him for a long time. However, it wasn't impacting his skin, or anything, it just… appeared. The flames weren't even hot.
Though, this may be because he had gained Heat Resistance. Dumbass.
Suddenly, the flames disappeared.
[Alarm: You failed to extract the individual 'Great Jaggi'. 2/3 attempts remaining.]
"Huh?"
- Notice: The stronger the monster, the harder it is to extract it. The Player has a total of three attempts to extract it, before it becomes impossible. -
"Fine. Extract."
Just like it did before, the black flames started to rise. They grew higher, and Izuku really thought it had worked, before they vanished again. He sighed, closing his eyes.
"Extract… Please?"
As his eyes were closed, he just waited. Maybe, if he didn't look, it would work.
[Alarm: 'Great Jaggi' has been successfully extracted.]
He opened his eyes, meeting the red shining eyes of the new Great Jaggi. It had the exact same form as the monster when he was alive, however, his entire body was made of solid black flames that were dancing on his skin, just like the second entity he had encountered while being dead.
And this clone was also bowing in front of him. He was about to ask what was happening, but the System beat him to it.
- The clones vow absolute obedience to their creator. -
"Hmm. I guess." he answered.
He looked above the clone, seeing the [Normal Grade: Great Jaggi.] above him.
- Summons have a ranking system on their own. Normal Grade monsters are the weakest ones, from E to C ranks. -
"Oh yeah, I forgot these monsters were the weakest ones." he sighed. It was an E-ranked dungeon. Meant there were stronger ones, by far. But he smiled: it promised a lot of things for the future.
"So, I can save up to five summons?" he asked.
- Indeed. -
Izuku walked to the corpses of the Jaggis, extracting four more. He had no problem with them, but that maybe was because he was now far stronger than the end, he had a variety of dinosaurs following him, with a big ass one in the lead.
"There's no way I can, like, make them disappear before I need them? I'm already shirtless and covered in blood, I don't need people calling the heroes on me." he asked.
- Just ask them to. -
"Disappear?" he asked, turning to the monsters. They nodded vehemently, before their flames all seemed to vanish quickly into his back.
Oh, yeah, true. He was the source of the flames. He passed his hand through his sweaty hair, before smiling slightly again. He then noticed that, at the end of the room, a portal had appeared. He walked to it, entering it without a single thought.
Explaining everything was going to be… special.
[Name: Izuku Midoriya - Level: 17]
[Job: None - Fatigue: XX]
[Title: The One who defied Death, +1]
[HP: 440] [MP: 190]
[Strength: 35]
[Vitality: 30]
[Agility: 30]
[Intelligence: 30]
[Sense: 30]
[Remaining points: 20]