A week passed since Izuku "gained" his Quirk and while he had learned much about it, nothing about his daily routine changed. While he now held the power of literal magic in his hands, he was still nothing but a Deku to the people at his school.

Why?

To Izuku it was simply a matter of being cautious. Having been bullied and harassed all his life for being Quirkless had forced him to mature quickly and adapt to some of humanity's cruelty. He understood how people treated others based solely by the virtue of their Quirks. So, for him to go from Quirkless nobody to suddenly possess something as versatile as Alteration Magic…

He expected many who knew of his lesser-than status to grow jealous, or worse; some might even try to suck up to him now that he had a powerful Quirk with plenty of potential. Thus, he chose to keep his Quirk hidden. At least until he was confident in using the abilities it afforded him with to defend himself from the worst of his tormentors.

Fortunately, he learned over the first couple of days of possessing his Quirk that he didn't even need to risk using it in the waking world to develop it. It seemed that after that fateful night where he had dreamt of creating his "character," every succeeding night, when he went to sleep he would return to where he left off in his dream.

There, aside from killing slimes, he polished his Skills and wandered the grassy plains. Slowly, even more so than with regards to his Skills, Izuku found that continuous use of his magical abilities increased his Magic-related Stats in his Status. It took him nearly a whole week since receiving his power to figure out that his Physical Stats would only grow if he exercised in the waking world.

At the discovery, he expected it to be the last thing worth considering before settling on a routine. His plans to simply battle slimes at night and exercise during the day to train had to be thrown out the door almost immediately after they were made, for on his seventh night in the dream world, Izuku climbed a hill in the grassy plains and found a small settlement on the other side.

"There are people here..." Izuku unconsciously muttered. "And… Not just humans," he added with squinting eyes as he saw a boy with dog ears casually walking down the road.

Hesitantly, Izuku entered the small town and eased up as he found none of its inhabitants react with hostility. As he walked around, he assessed everything he saw which ended up giving him the feeling of being in an MMORPG's starter area.

The architecture, the people, the language… Everything was Western in aesthetics, though for some reason it seemed like an amalgamation of American and European with absolutely no regard for a specific time period.

One moment, Izuku was looking at a lolita dress in Victorian era gothic apparel and in the next he was looking at a knight clad exclusively in silver armor. There was a Guild styled like a Tavern, but right next door was a hypermodern building masquerading as a superstore for alchemical potions and pills, books, weapons, armor, materials, and everything in between.

Chuckling inwardly, Izuku couldn't help but think, 'At the very least, I can confidently say I fit in.' From a firsthand account, he knew for a fact that he wasn't the only one wearing a plain shirt and cargo shorts.

He shook the thought from his mind as he decided to enter the Guild. As he guessed, it was the best place for him to learn more about his no-longer-simple dream world.

After a short conversation with a Guild attendant, he learned that his dream world was an actually fully fleshed out world made up of a supercontinent. Right smack in the middle of the supercontinent were the Endless Plains wherein the town he was currently in sat.

To the north was the Chaos Country where countless terrifying natural phenomena plagued the land. To the south there sat that Eighteen Layered Abyss where monsters got impossibly stronger the further down the Abyss one delved. The east was split up into a desert region known as the Jhin Lands and a forested mountain range known as the Apachilies. Finally, towards the west, there lied the Stellar Zone, divided in exact halves where one side was plagued by constantly active volcanoes and the other side held a tundra that held an eternal blizzard.

Now, all of this information would be worthless to Izuku had he not learned right afterwards that through the Guild he could accept missions to journey around the world in search materials and to vanquish monsters for fame and fortune. Fame, he could do without, but with fortune… Suffice to say, he'd have access to more books on Alteration Magic as well as expert mages that could tutor him and thus improve his Quirk both in and out of the dream world.

To start, all Izuku would need was a detailed map which he bought from the superstore next door with the various coins he had collected from felled slimes and his new life as a guild-contracted mage was established. From that day onward, Izuku always had a goal to strive for; whether it be looking for certain materials or clearing out certain areas in the Endless Plains.

One month later,

[Status

Name: Izuku Midoriya

Quirk/Specialization: Mage

Sub Class: Alteration Mage

Stats

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

Magic: 100%

Strength: 7

Constitution: 7

Agility: 9

Magic Pool: 18

Magic System: 15

Magic Perception: 21

Skills

Name: Rune Sculpting

Grade: F → E

Rank: 1 → 5

Description: Demarks proficiency of a somewhat experienced Novice Mage. Allows Mages to manifest runes from Magic Energy into usable spells. The higher the Grade and Rank of this Skill the more cost effective and potent your spells become.

Name: Bronze Hands

Grade: F → E

Rank: 1→ 2

Description: Coats one's hands with Magical Energy before transmuting it into faux Bronze.

Effect: For one minute, one's hands gain the properties of tempered bronze with 60% integrity.

Name: Fortification

Grade: F

Rank: 7

Description: Uses Magical Energy to stabilize and strength targeted materials. Not usable on living things.

Effect: For a minute and ten seconds, the target of this spell becomes up to 110% stronger than it was brand new.

Name: Degradation

Grade: F

Rank: 5

Description: Uses Magical Energy to destabilize and weaken targeted materials. Not usable on living things.

Effect: For fifty seconds, the target of this spell becomes up to 10% weaker than it is in its current state.

Name: Reverse State

Grade: E

Rank: 1

Description: Uses Magical Energy to erase lesser status ailments and reverse one's physical state.

Effect: Immediately stops Lesser cases of Bleeding, Burning, Blindness, Deafness, Frostbite, Paralysis, and Poisoning.

Name: Unarmed Combat (General)

Grade: F

Rank: 9

Description: Demarks proficiency comparable to a novice brawler without formal training. The higher the Grade and Rank of this Skill the easier you will find openings in your enemies and take advantage of them without a weapon.

Inventory (18)

Money: 88 Silver, 51 Copper]

For as game-like as his Quirk seemed, Izuku did not improve at a broken game-like pace. A month of consistent effort proved he wouldn't be turning into a powerhouse overnight, but he did not mind it for a second. He knew better than to wish for more when "what little" power he had already amassed turned out to be insanely more versatile than the average Quirk of the waking world.

He had four spells down and a whole life ahead of him to learn more. The most pressing matter at hand was the Entrance Exam for U.A. which would take place in about nine months and for that, he was already confident in succeeding with his current skill set. How much more capable he would be by then eluded him as he knew full well that he was only scratching the surface of what his strange Quirk could grant him.

If he was being honest with himself, he wasn't even pushing himself to the utmost limits since he didn't feel the need to go that far. He wasn't charging into battles with monsters well above his ability in the Endless Plains nor was he torturing his body in the waking world with hours of nonstop physical exercise.

It's not that the thought had crossed his mind; he had actually almost gone through with such plans the following night after gaining his Quirk. It was simply the fact that he was already doing everything required to prevent conflict in the first place — in the waking world, that is. By hiding his Quirk from his peers and keeping to himself at school, nobody would bother him beyond throwing a couple hurtful words his way, anyway.

Not like his life was ever in any danger…

At least not until it was. 'Because, of course, the day I just happened to decide to go get a debit card at the bank, I had to get caught as a hostage to some two-bit villains,' Izuku sighed as his eye twitched in annoyance. The idiot holding Izuku hostage seemed to take pleasure in jamming the barrel of his gun as harshly against Izuku's forehead as he possibly could.

Fortunately, moments prior to being noticed by the villains, Izuku managed to pull off casting Bronze Hands and Fortification on his clothes. It probably wouldn't be enough to make him bulletproof; at least, not unless he also casted Degradation on the villains' guns.

Sadly, there were five villains staging the bank robbery and not only was Izuku not the only one caught in the crossfire, but even if he was the only one whose life was being risked, he wasn't confident in being able to cast five consecutive Degradation Spells quickly enough as he was. Despite his Magic System Stat increasing, the secondary nervous system in his body hadn't been trained to do something like that, yet.

Moreover, Izuku wasn't even a licensed pro-hero in training. He wouldn't deny that being passive in this situation bothered him immensely, but so long as nobody was at risk of getting seriously hurt, he couldn't risk acting out and squandering this chance he had been given to become a pro hero. It'd only been a month since he got his Quirk, so the last thing he wanted to do was act like a vigilante and mar his own record; he wanted nothing more than to get into U.A.

So, even if it meant having to endure some idiot with piss-poor trigger discipline threaten him with blowing his brains out, Izuku didn't mind it so much as the alternative. To others, he probably looked like he was scared out of his mind, too shocked by the situation unfolding to move a finger. In reality, the only thing Izuku somewhat feared was the safety of everyone else being held hostage beside him; it was why he volunteered himself to be held as a direct hostage while the robbers negotiated with the police in the first place.

He had no doubts in being able to live past today even in the worst case scenario, having survived veritably worse engagements on several missions for the Guild in the Endless Plains. But, as he had already deliberated, he couldn't say the same for everyone else. Thus, the best course of actions was to just wait until the robbers got what they want and leave.

So long as nobody acted up, the heist would end up like it always does. The robbers would get what they want… for a while, and then a pro hero or group of pro heroes would catch them.

There simply wasn't a reason to risk the wellbeing of everyone else at the bank. Or, there wasn't until a small cylinder canister somehow found its way crashing against the floor with a distinct metallic ring, getting the attention of just about everyone in the building.

Tink…

The canister bounced slowly enough in Izuku perception for him to realize it was a flashbang before he cursed internally, 'Are you freaking kid—'

BOOM!

The flashbang exploded with enough potency to instantly deafen everyone in the room to varying degrees, while anyone unfortunate enough to not look away in time was blinded as well.

Gratatata!

Unsurprisingly, following the flashbang, some of the startled robbers misfired a couple rounds from their automatic weapons; including the one who had been shoving at Izuku…

To Izuku's surprise, however, he failed to get shot even once as someone had rushed up to smack the villain as well as his gun into submission. Every bullet shot either hit the floor or the ceiling.

Of everyone present, none recovered from the flashbang faster than Izuku after he immediately casted Reverse State on his person and witnessed the tag team of teens who couldn't have been much older than himself almost immediately takedown the remaining robbers.

They disarmed and knocked out four of the five robbers with practiced ease as the would-be villains couldn't do anything while blind and deaf. But, the last villain, while definitely still deafened seeing as his ears were bleeding, wasn't blinded as he took point and aimed his gun directly at the black-haired individual who had taken out the villain holding Izuku hostage.

"Yaoyorozu!" The other hero cried out as he sprinted towards the remaining villain. The despair in his voice told Izuku all he needed to know to decide to intervene.

Izuku peered at the villain's gun and casted Degradation while shuffling over to take the shot himself just as the sprinting hero jumped right between the gun and his comrade.

Click… click…

The gun jammed to the surprise of both the suicidal hero and the villain. Reacting at the exact same time, the hero performed a roundhouse just as the villain pulled out his pistol and shot the hero once his left calf.

With adrenaline rushing through his veins, the hero ignored the pain of the gunshot as he pursued the villain and followed through with knocking him out. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of release, Izuku muttered, "Wait a minute… These guys aren't pros." Because the room had been consumed by total silence, the words uttered under his breath were heard by everyone.

People start wake up from the shocked stupor, some reacting more positively than others, while Izuku shook his head and added, "Well, whatever. All's well that ends well, I guess..." Addressing the wounded wannabe hero, he offered, "Hey, do you mind if I use my Quirk to stop your bleeding?"

"Er… Please do so," the teen winced as he finally seemed to be registering the fact that he had been shot. Luckily, he had only been grazed by the bullet, so Izuku's Reverse State Spell managed to instantly stop his bleeding. It didn't exactly heal the wound, just restored the presence of any damaged cells similar to if the man had waited and survived long enough for the wound to clot and close naturally.

Having finished attending to the only wounded person, bar the villains, Izuku moved on to approach one of the still shocked bank attendants. "Say… I don't suppose you know if or when the bank might resume functioning, do you? I mean, I guess work for you guys will be over for today, seeing as this has probably been a traumatic experience and you'll need to fix up the appearance of the bank, but..."

Sadly, the bank attendant did not react positively to his "innocent" question. Apparently, he should be ashamed to even ask her that when she had almost lost her life, or something. At least Izuku got a laugh out of her complete over reaction.

'Not like I wasn't one of the three people facing the barrel of a gun,' he chuckled before walking over to one of the corners of the room to wait for the police to finally leave. He didn't follow the example of most of the other people in the bank, of harassing and chastising the two people who had taken it upon themselves to resolve the bank heist.

He saw no point to doing so, seeing as their plan had been solid enough after extensive consideration. Having learned of the two wannabe hero's Quirks, their plan, and how bad they felt after the fact was enough for him after the mob of former hostages verbally beat the information out of them.

Eventually, the police showed up and questioned him before letting him go along with the wannabe heroes. While he had been praised for using his Quirk to heal a gunshot, the two wannabe heroes were let off with a warning to not be so reckless in the future.

They probably only got off so lightly as the situation had been resolved without anyone really getting hurt. However, for their actions the two wannabe heroes were entered into a police system for recording possible future vigilantes. They wouldn't face any negative consequences this time, but if there happened to be a repeat, they might be fined or even prosecuted; depending on the outcome of their actions.

Izuku didn't dwell on the incident for long, evident by the fact that he had walked from the scene of the bank robbery to yet another branch of the same bank a bit further away from his home to get his debit card. He reasoned that he likely wouldn't see those two wannabe heroes in a long time, if ever.

This bump in is routine in preparation for U.A. seemed to be just that; a bump in the road. There was no possible reason for it to affect the grand scheme of things moving forward.

Then again, what were the chances of his life getting any simpler after gaining his Quirk?