Izuku was fairly certain that Megumin had lied to him.
It had been 3 days since they had finished the frog quest, and even with Megumin levelling up from killing the 3 toads (apparently she had been close to a level up already) and her insistence that she put the points towards her mana, not explosion, Izuku couldn't see any changes.
He sighed as he carried Megumin back to Axel. She had asked him to help her 'practise' with the spell every day, so when he woke up, he would drag her far away from Axel, to be considerate of the citizens, and let her use |Explosion| on an old, rundown castle on top of a nearby hill.
"Hey, Izuku? Thank you for this! I need to get an explosion out every day or I'll go insane!" She said, and Izuku sighed, knowing that if she could move, she would be doing an over-the-top flourish of her arms and staff.
"Really? Or is this one of the absurdly dramatic backstories I see you writing every night?" He laughed softly as he heard her sputter and tried to defend herself, but he tuned her out. He might have gotten a bit stronger while he had been in Axel, but it was still a bit of a struggle to carry her every day.
They arrived back in Axel, and Izuku smiled and nodded as they passed people in the street. Izuku had become something of a celebrity in Axel, and he wasn't really sure how to deal with that.
On the one hand, people liked him. People didn't just tolerate his existence, people liked him. Back in Japan, he would most likely either be ignored or abused for trying to be a hero, but in Belzerg, he was being actively encouraged to be one.
On the other hand, he really missed a few people from Japan. He wished he could have said goodbye to his mum, and even Kachaan's parents. He didn't know if Kachaan would want a goodbye from him, but he still wished he could have given him one.
He was snapped out of his musing by a tap on the head. Megumin had regained enough energy to move her arms and had a worried expression on her face. "You alright Izuku? You've been standing in front of the guildhall doors for the last 5 minutes, spaced out."
Izuku yelped and shook his head, pushing open the door. He walked over to one of the tables in front of where Aqua was performing and placed Megumin down on one of the chairs. He smiled at her. "I'm fine. Just thinking about some people I left behind when I came here."
Megumin nodded, sort of understanding. She had left her family behind when she left her village. While it might be a normal occurrence for Crimson Demons, she still missed her parents sometimes. (Not that she would ever admit it!)
Izuku sat on the other side of the table and pulled out a small book. It was a blank leather-bound book, with a golden symbol of a rabbit's head on the cover. He didn't know why this one in particular stuck out to him, but something about the rabbit design just felt right to him.
On the inside of the front cover sat his adventurer's card, as well as one of the 3 infusions he could place on the item. He had given the book an infusion called 'Increased Durability', a fairly self-explanatory name, and was eagerly awaiting the day when he would be a high enough level to add one called 'Summon and Dismiss'.
It would allow him to summon and unsummon the book out of a small pocket of space at will, meaning he would never be without his journal ever again. Something he would have killed for back in Japan if only to keep them safe from people like Kachaan.
He was currently on his 3rd idea for his 'artificer outfit'. He was sick of people asking him where he got his clothes from. It wasn't his fault that he died in his school uniform!
He was in the middle of drawing his ideas when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He yelped and spun around to see a blonde woman with blue eyes, in bright yellow crusader armour. Izuku hadn't been in Belzerg long, but he could spot good quality armour which he attributed to his gift.
"Greetings, Ar…art... Artificer! It is good to meet you!" She said, and Izuku couldn't help but notice how flushed her face was while she stuttered, nor the way she fidgeted as she did so.
"Miss? Are you OK? Your face is really red, do you need to sit down?" He stood up and reached over to her, holding onto her shoulder. He didn't want a repeat of what Megumin did when they first met. He couldn't have more people face-planting from starvation.
He recoiled though when the second he placed his hand on her shoulder, she let out an extremely loud moan and shuddered. She looked at the ground for a moment as she squirmed, before looking back up at him and beaming.
"I knew it! The tales of your pure mind had to be false! Grabbing a lady the same minute you meet her, I knew that your fabled purity could only be an act!" She grabbed his arm and bounced up and down a few times.
"I must be a part of your party! A closet pervert like you would probably humiliate your teammates daily if given the chance! I must take their place and protect them from you!" Izuku took a step back from this lady… he didn't know her name. Damnit Izuku! You should have learned from the Megumin incident!
Izuku pried her from his arm and took another step away from her as she blushed and mumbled something about 'ripping himself roughly from her grip'. "Uh, pardon me Miss…" She just smiled at him harder, which was somehow possible.
"My name is La- Darkness! I am a crusader, and I wish to join your Party, Artificer Izuku Midoriya! Tales of you have already spread to my home, and I knew that I must join with the newest Legacy Adventurer!"
Izuku nodded. "I got that bit, by why should I let you join our party? All you have done is show up, get all red in the face while calling me impure and a liar, and then demand to join our party. I had to ask for your name before you even introduced yourself."
She recoiled from him and gasped again, making Izuku slightly uncomfortable. But he knew better than anyone what it was like to be judged for something he couldn't control, so he tried to push it to the back of his mind.
"Such brutal criticism! I see now that I must prove myself to you! Come, artificer, grab a quest from the board, one with dangerous monsters and I will show you how useful I can be!"
Izuku looked over at Megumin, who just gave him a thumbs-up, and Aqua, who was finishing up entertaining the crowd and was too distracted to notice the conversation. He turned to Darkness and shrugged.
"Sure, why not? We gave Megumin a trial run, might as well let you have a go."
Aqua stepped down off of the table.
She had been performing for the last hour, and was starting to get tired. She gathered up the Eris that had been placed down in front of her table and counted it up. Today, she had gotten around 14 Eris just from performing party tricks.
She looked over and saw Megumin sitting on a bench, obviously suffering from Mana overuse with Izuku on the other side of the table being… shaken? She walked over to them and heard Izuku's last sentence.
"Sure, why not? We gave Megumin a trial run, might as well let you have a go." She sighed as she looked the newcomer up and down, before realising what her class was. She sat down next to Izuku and tried her best to look serious.
"Now, now Izuku, don't be hasty, shouldn't you introduce her to the rest of your party before offering her a spot?" Megumin piped up and said that she heard her introduction, and Aqua glared at her for a moment for undermining her statement.
"Oh, yeah of course, sorry Aqua! This is Darkness. She says that she's a crusader. And while I'm fairly new to this, I'm assuming that just means she's just a high-level knight or something like that?" He asked, smiling at her.
Darkness smiled, her blush returning as she heard him refer to her as 'just' a high-level knight. Aqua gave her a concerned look before turning back to Izuku and shrugged.
"That's basically right. Although, while knights and paladins are slow and heavy hitters, Crusaders specialise in taking a lot of damage and drawing the enemy towards themselves." Izuku's eyes lit up as she explained.
"Oh! Like a Tank! I might not know much about this stuff, but I've heard about Tanks! They take the damage while the other party members deal the damage!" Izuku's smile was infectious, leading to Aqua smiling back at him.
"Exactly! Now Darkness-" She stopped as she noticed the way that the crusader was squirming and muttering about them 'talking about her like she was a tool for their use'. She shook her head, facepalming. Of course, Izuku would get the weirdest people coming to him.
"Yo, Darkness!-" She was pulled out of whatever she was thinking and turned to Aqua, nodding with a gleam in her eyes. "Can we see your Adventurer Card?" Darkness just nodded again, handing it over.
Izuku's eyes widened as he scanned over her card, making Darkness feel a little proud of herself. He pointed at her card and looked up at Aqua, his eyes sparkling. "Aqua! She's got legendary defensive skills! I don't know if she can even be hurt by normal level monsters anymore!"
Darkness puffed her chest out in pride. It felt good having a legacy Adventurer praise her amazing abili- "But she has like, no offensive skills Izuku." At that, she dropped, sitting on the chair and pouting.
"Well, neither do you, Archpriest. It just so happens that I focused on protecting others rather than dealing damage." That was one reason why, but she didn't want to just outright say the main reason. (2 parties had already sent her away for doing exactly that.)
Izuku's eyes sparkled as he heard that. "Wow! To voluntarily focus on your ability to protect people better instead of your ability to fight back yourself. You're a real hero Darkness!" Aqua sighed as she realised he was going to go through with the trial run.
Darkness blushed at this, but not in her usual way, which really confused her. Why was a compliment of all things making her like this? Was it because he was a Legacy Adventurer? This was very off-brand for her. Izuku stood up and walked over to the board.
He looked around the board for a bit before seemingly deciding on a quest to do. He grabbed the piece of paper and walked over to the table to see Megumin up and walking around it to sit next to Aqua. He waved his hand to the seat, and Darkness sat as well.
"I didn't want to do something too hard, as even with her amazing defensive capabilities, I don't want anyone to get hurt" He showed them the quest. Aqua immediately shook her head.
"Uh uh. No freaking way are we doing this one Izuku. Even with Darkness, are you trying to get us killed? We're like level 4!" She glared at the two others when they raised their hands, about to comment on how Megumin was level 13, and Darkness was level 12.
"I mean, you and I are level 4, but these two are much higher! And I mean, we can totally take out one mid-level ogre camp…"
"Cmon Aqua, It'll be fun!"
They could see the camp.
It was dusk, the setting sun giving the camp below them an orange glow, contrasting with the grey-skinned ogres. There were about 12 of them, all armed with clubs of various sizes.
Izuku deactivated |Farsight| and turned back to the group while his vision zoomed out. He turned to the group and grabbed a stick, drawing what he could see in the dirt.
"Ok, so it looks like there are 12 of them, with the largest wearing some sort of headgear, so I assume that's the camp's boss. Darkness will go in first and show off what she can do, with Aqua on standby for injuries. I'll cover her, and Megumin will be on the lookout for Ogres flanking us."
The girls nodded, and they started walking down towards the camp. Darkness pulled out her sword and shield as they neared the camp, Aqua readying a healing spell for her, just in case. She trusted Izuku and would trust his plan.
Hopefully, nothing would go terribly wrong.
Darkness reached the edge of the camp and started clanging her sword on her shield, causing the Ogre's to look over at her, before picking up their clubs.
Seeing as the clubs themselves were about as tall as she was, Izuku had a moment of panic as the first one swung at her, but that ended when Darkness didn't even move from the attack. She seemed oddly sad about that, which confused him. She pouted as she slammed her shield into another club coming her way.
"These Ogres are piss weak! You can easily take them out, Artificer!" She raised her sword as she ran further into the camp, using one of her crusader abilities called |Taunt| to gather up the Ogre's and have them attack her.
Megumin gave him a thumbs up, meaning that she had gotten them all, and Izuku walked into the camp, a |Firebolt| in each hand. He quickly released a small volley and noted that it took around three to four to take an Ogre down.
He had specifically chosen this quest because Ogres usually had high damage but fairly low health, meaning they could see how much Darkness could take, but also take out the enemies quickly in case of emergency.
He ducked under a club as one of the Ogre's broke free from Darkness' |Taunt| and charged him. Stepping away and getting some distance, he drew |Dawn| from its sheath and waited for the moment to strike.
Unfortunately, Izuku wasn't naturally good at fighting, like Kachaan, or All Might. He was a thinker, and while In a fight, that usually led to him getting a sense of tunnel vision on his opponent.
"IZUKU!"
While good for single enemies, like the Toads they fought, it was really bad to tunnel vision when in a crowd of enemies. He was about to run forward and slash at the Ogre when he heard Megumin's yell.
He turned his head just in time to get a club to the chest, definitely breaking most of his bones, as well as ripping up his shirt, and sending him flying into a tree a few feet away.
He heard Aqua's yelp as he made a giant THUD when he slammed into the tree. He could tell that he was starting to lose consciousness if the dark ring around his sight was any indication.
He vaguely heard Aqua yelling something to Megumin as she ran over to him and dragged him away from the campsite, and then a few seconds later, Darkness ran out-
And the camp exploded.
As Megumin collapsed Izuku could see that not a single Ogre was left standing, and all of the buildings had been razed to the ground, creating a large crater where the camp once was.
His vision was starting to fade to black, and he passed out, still in awe of the power that Megumin possessed. He knew that once she was able to cast |Explosion| multiple times, she would be a force to be reckoned with.
As his chest gave him another jab of pain, he realised that Megumin was probably not what he should be focusing on. He felt his eyes close, and he passed out.
He woke up in his room at the guildhall.
He tried to sit up, but the pain in his chest held him down for a few minutes. He eventually sat up and took stock of his condition. The last thing he could remember, he felt like most of his bones were broken, he most likely had a concussion, and he was bleeding a lot.
Now, while he was still sore and all bandaged up, he wasn't in any of the previous pain. He knew logically that healing magic existed, that was Aqua's whole schtick, but it still felt weird to break a bunch of bones and then be back to normal soon after.
He stretched out his arms and legs and found that while sore, he had his full range of movement, and it was painful. He stood up and saw that while he was still wearing his pants and shoes, his shirt was gone.
He awkwardly stumbled out of the room, leaning up against the wall while he got used to walking. His legs were still sore, but the movement was lessening the pain. He reached the stairs and headed down them, hearing the music and cheering.
He could see people drinking, a musician was over in the corner playing tunes on a lute while simultaneously flirting with a barmaid, and then he spotted his party.
Aqua was performing party tricks, obviously very drunk, Darkness was flat out unconscious on the table, and Megumin was inching her way towards one of Darkness' cups of ale. He noticed another girl that looked similar to Megumin staring at the group, hidden behind a pillar but pushed it from his mind as he walked over and sat down, startling the Crimson Demon.
"Ah! Izuku! You're OK! She poked Aqua and pointed at Izuku. "Aqua look! Izuku's awake and he came downstairs shirtless!" Aqua seemed to take a moment to understand what Megumin was saying, then her face lit up.
She jumped off the table, clumsily regained her balance, and crushed the boy in a hug. "IIIZZZUUUKKKUUU! You're OK! I was so worried when I heard you slam into that tree! I got you out of the way and told Megumin to explode the camp and then it all went boom! And then I healed you and then me and Darkness carried you back to Axel-"
Izuku just stared at her as she went on a 3-minute long rant about how worried she had been and how they had carried them back to town. Was this what people felt like when he muttered?
He put his hand on Aqua's shoulders, and she stopped talking. He tapped Darkness a few times on her shoulder and she woke up, still very groggy. "Darkness, do you already have a room at the guildhall?"
When the girl finally shook her head, Izuku sighed. He walked over to Luna, who was watching the festivities with a smile and purchased another futon for his room. He went back to the girls just in time to move an ale mug away from Megumin.
"Well we can't have you sleeping outside can we Darkness? Us party members have to stick together!" It took Darkness a little while to process that as he and Megumin led her and Aqua upstairs. But when she did, she crushed him in a hug and bounced up and down.
"Ah! Thank you, you scrawny little spellcaster! You will not regret adding me to your party Artificer Izuku!" She continued on like this for a little while longer.
They reached their room, and Izuku placed Aqua on one side of the proper bed, Megumin placing Darkness on the other side. He smiled to Megumin, said his goodnights, and moved to his futon.
He tapped his stomach, remembering that he was shirtless. Damn. Guess it was time to make that outfit he had designed.
Izuku stepped out of the tailors building, feeling proud.
He had just spent the last 5 hours making his outfit from almost scratch, and not to toot his own horn, but he thought that it turned out really well. It was no hero suit, but wearing his new outfit made him feel powerful.
He had a scabbard on his hip that allowed him easy access to |Dawn|, he had some high-quality leather boots, as well as some thick, brown woolen pants, a forest green woolen tunic with silk lining on the inside. He clenched his fist, admiring his leather gloves. He had a hardened leather band going diagonally across his chest, with a lightweight leather shoulder pad on his right shoulder.
He had been thinking about making himself some sort of metal helmet, as he didn't want to get his head hurt very often, but quickly found that he preferred lightweight armour over slow, heavy suits of full plate.
Instead, he went for something reminiscent of an aviator's hat that fighter pilots would wear during WW2. It was made of thick leather, which had been treated to allow for both flexibility and protection, and was lined with wool, helping with both keeping his head warm and adding more padding for his head.
He had also crafted himself some eye protection, as it would come in handy in both combat and crafting. He had searched through his mental library of blueprints for a while until he eventually came upon a set he liked.
They were a pair of snowboarding goggles, and the lenses had been the focus for most of the 5 hours he had spent making his outfit. It took him a full 3 hours to make them just right, allowing for them to be both clear and strong enough to be valid protection.
As he exited the building he was greeted by his party members. Darkness had forgotten about him letting her into the party the night before, as she had been very drunk at the time. Aqua had proven herself useful and had purified the alcohol out of their systems, eliminating their hangovers completely.
When Izuku arrived, Aqua let out an ear-piercing squeal, making everyone in the street give her a look of confusion and pain. "Wow, Izuku you look so much cooler now! Your other outfit was kinda lame, to be honest…"
Izuku just shrugged, smiling at the praise. Even simple compliments made him feel on top of the world. So what if he was starved for positive interactions? Sue him. "Thanks, Aqua! Although I didn't really have a choice with the old outfit, it was my school uniform."
Megumin and Darkness shared a look before Megumin bounced over to him. "She's right you know, you do look much more like an adventurer now that you're all geared up!"
She shuddered for a moment. "Maybe another time you could add a bit more armour though. I don't want a repeat of the Ogre camp incident…"
Izuku rubbed the back of his hat as he laughed sheepishly. "Maybe. I'll look into getting some better materials to make armour out of later, but this will be fine for now! Trust me, I don't want a repeat either. I honestly thought I was gonna die for a moment there."
He shook his head, dispelling the memories. He knew that repressing all the stuff that had happened to him wasn't healthy, but he was very well practised. Totally not able to backfire on him in the future. Totally.
As he finished clearing his head, he noticed a small flash of red to his right. He turned quickly and saw the girl from the previous night quickly duck behind the wall she had been spying on them from.
Izuku turned to his party members and pointed to the wall, placing a finger to his lips, asking them to stay quiet. He walked as silently as he could up to the wall and quickly rounded the corner.
The girl that had been hiding screamed as he appeared and fell over landing on her butt. Izuku put his hands up to show that he wasn't going to hurt her. "Hey there, I couldn't help but notice that you have been watching me and my party for a few days now… what's up with that?"
She seemed like she was about to answer when his party rounded the corner. Darkness had her sword out, Aqua's hands were shrouded in golden light, and Megumin was flourishing her staff like a club.
Izuku shook his head and asked them to stand down, before hearing Megumin groan and mumble; 'Goddamnit, thought it would be able to get away from this…'
"What are you doing here YunYun?"
AN: For those people who think that Aqua didn't get much Eris from her performing, i stated earlier that I would be using Eris as if they were equal to Australian dollars, to let me focus more on the story and less on the exchange rates. Basically Aqua earned $14 from busking for an hour. Sorry if that confused anyone!
See you guys next chapter!
