Chapter 2: Cast out
After a rigged trial Izuku Midoriya the Shield Hero is cast onto the streets his name and reputation ruined, with only a notebook and a very weak piece of equipment on him, given to him in order to appease the other three heroes.
He walks through the streets passing by the weapons shop where he got the armour.
Erhard sees him pass by and beckons him over. Midoriya goes over to the Weaponssmith, where he is confronted.
He gets closer as he does Erhard grabs him by the collar and pins him to the wall, raising his fist.
"So I heard what you did to that girl you were with! Couldn't believe it but the sources seem credible!" The Weaponssmith says, both anger and a bit of hesitation in his voice.
"I didn't do it!" Midoriya reaffirms a bit of anger even swelling up.
Looking into his eye Erhard sees that he's being sincere and lets him go.
"Yeah, I figured, seeing as how you were acting yesterday. Come to the shop, tell me what happened." Erhard says walking away. Midoriya follows.
At the weapons shop Midoriya tells Erhard the whole story.
After he's finished Erhard breathes a deep sigh "You got it pretty tuff kid, even if it's not true, rumors like that tend to stick. As for the armour I can lend you something better than what you have, it seems to be made by some apprentice, the workmanship is pretty basic and low quality." he says.
"Thanks for the offer but I'd feel bad if I can't pay for it." Midoriya replies.
"At least take this, it can help conceal your identity a bit." The weaponsmith says,pulling out a green cloak.
Midoriya smiles thanking him for his kindness and his help. He turns to leave, but before he reaches the door he stops. "Any advice on how I can get decent amounts of money. Or even experience?" Midoriya asks in need of some help.
The weaponsmith thinks for a moment and answers "You can always hunt monsters although I expect then to try and rip you off so be careful about that, otherwise going to the adventurers guild would probably be a good idea, but again they might not take you because of your alleged crime. Otherwise you can probably collect some materials around like herbs and stuff like that in order to sell them. As for XP I'm afraid the only way of raising your level is fighting Monsters. There are other ways of getting stronger though, I heard about this martial art that increases your strength called Hengen Mush, but there's only one master left. An old lady"
Hearing this, Midoriya takes down his notebook and writes it down. "Where can I find her?" He asks.
"I'm afraid that's going to be hard, Kid, nobody has seen her for ages." Erhard answers.
"That's too bad, thanks anyway!" Midoriya says, heading out.
He heads to the plains outside of the castle town popping some balloons to release some stress, before going to the forest.
There he starts looking around looking for more exotic materials, both to unlock new shields and that he might be able to sell.
As he looks down reaching for some medicinal herbs an Usapil attacks him from behind. Reflexively Midoriya reacts, activating one for all full cowl and sweating it away, the Usapil ends up impaled on a branch killing it.
Midoriya looks at his hand wondering "Why can... I use it now but not before?" Then before him a small screen pops up saying "+26XP Level 2 reached"
"Huh, this really is like a game..." He looks at his stats seeing that almost all of them have increased, excluding attack. "Oh that's going to be helpful." He continues.
Another screen pops up saying "New shield unlocked" He looks at the unlocked shield, which he had previously registered and says "Now, that's going to be really useful."
Midoriya looks back at where the Usapil came from, spotting two more along with two other monsters called "Mush".
"Well at least this is going to be easier than before." Midoriya says full cowling and running at them. After a moment he kills all 4 of the gathered monsters raising his level up to level 4.
Midoriya then grabs the monsters feeding them to his shield. Unlocking 2 new shields from the drops and 1 he copied beforehand, along with getting a couple of mid tier items from the item drop function.
He then turns his attention back to the herbs he was collecting, feeding them to the all to the shield unlocking yet another one.
He spends most of the night fighting off some monsters and collecting herbs, eventually falling asleep after eating some fish for dinner.
As he eats the fish Midoriya thinks "Man, Yaoyorozu could make this so much better. Cooking fish isn't really my speciality. Man having everybody from the dorms here would be great. I really miss them."
The next day he walks back into town, now being level 7. As he does he looks over his inventory realizing that he unlocked some basic recipes he can autocraft with the shield.
These being "Healing ointment" and "Basic medicine". Seeing those options available he decides to have the shield autocraft some using the materials that are in it. He arrives at a monster drop shop, where he tries to sell some things.
"An interesting variety you have here. I'll give you 1 copper for the orange balloon fragments and 8 for the rest. How does that sound?" The merchant at the shop asks.
"That won't do at all." Midoriya answers. "You offered the last guy 1 copper for every 2 balloon pieces, here I have 10. As for the rest I have some idea of it's value. Make it 30 coppers in total. Take it or leave it." Midoriya says asserting himself and trying to look a bit intimidating even.
"That's not gonna fly." The merchant says.
"Fine then." Midoriya responds "I'll take my business elsewhere."
He grabs all the materials prepared to leave, but before he can "Wait. 30 Coppers you say. Fine. I'll buy them." The merchant says giving in, knowing that he can resell them at a bit of a higher price.
Midoriya then heads to the weapons shop.
"Welcome what can I do for you today Kid." asks Erhard as Midoriya enters the shop.
"Not much, I'm here for information basically." Midoriya says.
"Look I'm glad to help you out kid, but you do have to understand I have a business to run."
Erhard comments.
"I know, which is why I wanted to ask you. How much do you charge for some of your weaker pieces of armour, oh and custom orders?" Midoriya asks.
"Well for pieces of armour I have anything ranging from 50 silvers and up, although I would recommend the ones above 100 silvers more, their more bang for your buck. As for custom orders it all depends on Materials, time and effort I'd say the range would be between 100 Silvers and 20 Gold Pieces depending, maybe even more if you bring me something really hard to work with, but I'm sure we can work something out if you need to kid." Erhard responds smiling at him.
Midoriya starts mumbling a bit, to organize his thoughts. A bit weirded out Erhard asks "So how's the level grind going?"
"Pretty well." Midoriya responds "I've reached level 7 this morning."
"Level 7 already, it must be pretty tough without any weapons, well except the shield, but it can't really attack." Erhard comments.
"I have some pretty decent skills myself so it's actually been going pretty well." Midoriya says.
"Is that so. Anything else I can do for you kid?" Erhard asks.
"Do you know anywhere where I can sell Herbs and medicine?" Midoriya asks, needing the information.
Erhard directs him to a shop and Midoriya goes there, selling both the Herbs he collected and some of the Healing ointment and Medicine he made.
"This is some really good stuff you have here, where did you acquire the herbs?" the pharmacists asks.
"Outside the castle town, they seem to be everywhere. At least in the forest." Midoriya responds.
Hearing this the pharmacist comments "I know there are, but I've never seen anything of this quality out there. And the medicines you're selling me are very well made as well."
"So how much can you give me for them? Oh and which one would fetch a higher price? Just curious." Midoriya asks.
"I'll give you 3 silvers for the whole haul. And to answer your questions, due to the waves impact medicines are flying off the shelves so I'd pay you more for the medicines Sir Hero."
The pharmacist responds.
Midoriya then leaves the shop heading back to the forest. However before he can leave the town he runs into 3 men wearing robes next to a carriage. They seem a bit unusual although he can't really put his finger on it.
"Pardon me, but are you the shield hero, sir?" One of the three asks.
Cuatios Midoriya answers "What if I am? What business do you have with the Shield hero?"
"We are emissaries from Siltvelt, here to take the Shield Hero back home with us. You must be him." Another one of the emissaries says.
"I am the Shield hero." Midoriya says "But I'm afraid I can't go with you. I kind of made a promise to defend the land against the waves. I kind of want to work on clearing my name here before I go anywhere. Plus I kind of get the feeling that if I leave now something bad will happen."
"Is there no way you'll reconsider coming with us oh great shield hero?" One asks
"We implore you please return with us." Another adds.
"Thanks but I kind of have my work caught out for me here." Midoriya responds not wanting to create any conflict.
One of the emissaries pulls out an item and hands it to Midoriya "In that case, when you finish your business here, please contact us using this. If you need our aid you can also use it." he says.
"What is it?" Midoriya asks, when he receives it.
"It's a device that will allow you to send a message directly to the Castle in Siltvelt anytime you need." The emicary answers.
"Thank you very much!" Midoriya says before leaving.
"All Hail the Shield Hero." They shout watching him leave.
He then heads back to the woods.
He spends the next two days grinding a couple more levels, collecting more materials, unlocking new skills and making potions while he does so.
When night falls he heads back to the town, at this point he has managed to earn about 75 Silvers from fighting increasingly stronger monsters and selling medicines. Now being level 17 and having acquired and unlocked a bunch of new shields he heads to the tavern to enjoy a nice dinner.
As he eats the nicer dinner he thinks "Now this is more like it, really reminds me of lunch in the cafeteria at UA."
He enjoys a decent meal and pays while he finishes eating. When he does a group of thugs walks up to him.
"Oh great shield hero... We'll join your party if you want." Says one of the thugs.
"Yeah, that's right. Thank your lucky stars." Adds another.
Sensing that they only want to profit from him, Midoriya declined their offer, leaving the tavern.
But keeping their distance they follow him.
Once he's alone on the street they show themselves.
"Hey Shield Hero!" says one of the thugs.
Midoriya turns to them saying "I thought I told you I didn't want you to join me."
"Forget the party crap and give us your money!" Demands one of the thugs.
"I decline your offer." Midoriya says.
"The hell, you decline." says one of the thugs while pulling out a knife and charging at Midoriya.
Skillfully, MIdoriya ducks, evading the attack, he activates one for all, hits the man in the elbow making him drop the knife and then in the chest pushing him back.
The man lets out a shout in pain and coughs up a bit of blood.
"What the hell is he, he's a monster." Says one of the thugs while running away, the other following.
"Wait for me!" shouts the one who fell on the ground, getting up and running after them.
Midoriya then turns around and continues walking. He hears some clapping.
He turns his attention to the source, seeing a well dressed man, with a tophat clapping.
"Bravo, Bravo, Sir Hero. An incredible display." He says with a grin on his face.
"What do you want?" Asks Midoriya, wanting to move on.
"I can see you don't have any..." Says the merchant wanting to peek Midoriya's interest.
"You mean party members right? I don't really need any either way. Not that I can seem to trust them." Midoriya says
"I heard of what happened sir Hero, but what I have to offer is much better. Yes sir." Beloukas says becening him to follow.
Curious Midoriya follows, reaching a tent that's in some alleyway.
"You see I offer a service that is most essential to the way this world works. There are countries that even run on this. And the nobility seems to really enjoy it." The slave merchant explains.
"What exactly are you trying to sell me here?" Midoriya asks, curious.
Reaching the tent. The merchant opens it up showing the interior as he answers "Why slaves of course!"
Hearing this Midoriya can't help but show a twinge of disgust, he then steels himself remembering that he's already hated here and that throwing up a scene wouldn't accomplish anything.
Entering the tent Midoriya can't help but feel sick and sorry for all the cruelty around him.
"I assume that you keep them under your control with some sort of magic correct?" Midoriya asks the merchant a serious tone in his voice.
"Why of course. The slave seal prevents them from disobeying their masters orders." The merchant responds.
"We have anything and everything in the Beastmen and demi human categories, any particular type of slave you might be in the market for?" the merchant asks.
With a serious tone Midoriya answers "No!", he turns to leave, but the Merchant says "If you aren't interested in any slaves we also have some more conventional parts of the business."
Having Midoriya's attention once again Midoriya asks "Like what?"
"We also sell Monsters, to ride, fight and for things like that. If you are more interested." The Merchant says.
Midoriya starts mumbling a bit and the merchant says "Ah, I see I have your attention, Yes sir. Follow me then." the merchant says.
While walking to the more legitimate part of the business they pass by a girl who's violently coughing and looks in a lot of pain. Catching a glimpse of her, Midoriya stops and turns to get a good view.
"Ah, Interested after all are we?" The merchant asks.
"How much for her?" Midoriya asks.
"I'd suggest looking at another, this one is not long for this world I'm afraid." says the merchant.
"How much for the girl?" Midoriya repeats with a bit of an intimidating tone.
Beloukas tells him "She's worth 30 Silvers."
"Make it 28 and you have yourself a deal." Midoriya says.
Beloukas lets out a pleased smile and says "Right this way sir."
They go to the main tent where the girl is against her will registered to Midoriya.
Midoriya curiously pokes around, asking if he can use some of the ink, which he then feeds into his shield after getting the go ahead.
After the ritual is performed.
Midoriya looks at the girl with a gentle smile "Time for the introductions I guess." He says. "My name is Izuku Midoriya, I'm the Shield Hero. What's yours?"
The girl hesitates for a moment, before speaking "A... Are you really the shield hero?" She asks, scared that she might be punished.
Midoriya puts his shield up and says "Yes I am, and you are?"
"Ra... Raphtalia" the girl answers.