[You have completed the Daily Quest]
[Rewards:]
1. Status Recovery
2. +3 Stat Points
3. Random Item Box
It was only the third day since Izuku's run in with the penalty zone of the System, but since then, he'd become extremely familiar with it. Though the daily exercises tired Izuku to the bone, the first reward of the Daily Quest allowed him to refresh himself, clearing his exhaustion as if it was never there. And the three bonus stats each day were a nice boon. The only lame part of the rewards so far was the Random Item Box, which only ever contained small amounts of coins or weird knick knacks like pens.
"Such an odd thing for a magical System to give out…" Izuku thought to himself as he grabbed that day's rewards, putting them between Strength and Vitality.
Izuku Midoriya:
Level: 5
Strength: 20
Vitality: 19
Agility: 35
Intelligence: 15
Sense: 15
Available Points: 0
[Mana: 150/150]
[HP: 600/600]
He had dumped the 20 Stats he'd gotten from the Secret Quest into Agility. He'd always been slower than the Villains he fought, having to rely on instinct to be one step ahead of them and most of the time that wasn't even enough. Although, he might've gone a bit too far with it, because now people gave him shocked looks as he darted past them on his daily run. Even at a light jog, he was far faster than any olympic athlete giving it their all. So when he cranked up the effort, he nearly surpassed 60 mph.
As he opened the Random Box, he expected very little, but this time, instead of a random writing tool, a thick green key dropped into the palm of his hand.
[Item: Dungeon Key]
Item Class: E-Rank
Item Type: Key
Description: May be used to open an Instant Dungeon at Tatooin Station's Third Entrance.
"Instant Dungeon? Does that mean I can make Gates?" Izuku was immediately hesitant to take on another Gate so soon after the recent incidents, but upon checking his bank account on his phone, he realized that he'd be late on rent if he didn't make any money soon.
And really, it was just an E-Rank. Even if it was too dangerous to Izuku to handle, he would've been able to outrun anything and just leave. Was it irresponsible? Maybe… probably. But Izuku didn't exactly have a lot of options for making money considering that he just barely graduated high school and went onto Hero work immediately. Besides, what was the point of getting those new gauntlets if he wasn't going to use them?
So, Izuku made a quick stop in Yaoyorozu's room. By now, most of her outward injuries were healed, but the doctors were keeping her in a medically induced coma to make sure she wasn't in pain, pain that not even morphine could properly counteract thanks to the severity. On top of that her incredibly serious injuries, such as ruptured organs or broken bones could heal properly without her moving and disrupting the process.
Izuku had known her for some time, meeting constantly in lower Ranked Dungeons, but he'd never gotten much out of her in terms of her life story. He never knew why she only participated in weaker Raids despite having such power. He also didn't know why her room was so empty.
For Izuku it made sense. His sister had visited him, his mother was in a coma, his father was missing, and he spent so much time Raiding and worrying about money that he didn't make many friends. Was the same true of Yaoyorozu? Could her parents be dead or gone? Could she really be worried about money when she had the ability to make anything?
It all seemed too eerie for Izuku. He just hoped he'd have more time to talk with her later. It was strange, but he felt a sort of kinship with her, being the only two survivors of such a disturbing sight. The doctors had mentioned waking her up soon, so Izuku hoped this E-Rank Gate would earn him enough money for rent and maybe a dinner with her.
Izuku scoffed at the thought before making his way down to his floor's front desk to ask for a day pass. He hadn't been officially discharged yet, so protocol like that was necessary. It was a simple matter, however, and he was walking the streets of Japan once more in no time flat. Not just that, but the same area he had been in before that fateful raid.
Nearby workers were paving the road, fixing the area that Mount Lady had damaged with her massive steps. And even days later, the Gargoyle's head, which had been blown to pieces by Lady Nagant, still littered the streets in tiny pebble-sized fragments.
"Lots of names with 'Lady' in them," Izuku smiled to himself as he reached the stairs that descended into the subway station.
Taking out the grass-green key, he hesitated for a moment, not sure if he would cause a panic by opening a Gate. Although, it wasn't all that busy and even if a few people saw it, Izuku could write it off as the Gate popping into existence of its own volition.
Assuming how it worked, Izuku jabbed the key at the air, finding something solid and turning it.
Green lightning shot out in all directions, a rectangle of energy forming in front of the station. It was quite the display, yet no one seemed to notice, as if it was visible only to Izuku.
"I put points into Agility for a reason… If need be, I can do the good-ole tactical retreat."
And without any more contemplation, Izuku stepped through the energy barrier.
[Instant Dungeon: E-Rank]
[You are not allowed to leave until you beat the Boss Villain.]
"Oh crap…" Izuku muttered, the energy behind him coalescing into an opaque barrier.
The stairway was no longer clean and pristine. Instead, it was unkempt and covered in dried blood. The walls appeared as if they had decayed over the course of a hundred years, cracked, discolored, and barely holding up the structure they were apart of. Izuku found himself more worried about a collapsing ceiling than any Villains at the sight.
"It's different from normal Gates…" Izuku realized, seeing passerbys approach the wall of energy and disappear through it. They weren't entering the Dungeon, they were simply carrying on in the dimension they resided in. Because Izuku was only seeing the ruined subway station, as the Instant Dungeon, he didn't see the real world version that was somehow layered beneath this one.
"Well… time to get going." Izuku equipped his gauntlets, the chill permeating to his very core returning. "Just an E-Rank…" He tried to force the image of the giant spider-like demon out of his mind as he descended. "Not gonna happen again." But no matter what he told himself, his fists were still clenched tight, the rocky armaments grinding against themselves.
With the blood rushing in his ears, he began to worry that he wouldn't be able to hear the Villains coming. And when he reached the bottom of the staircase it was clear that the normally straightforward layout of Tatooin Station had been turned into a mess of twists and turns.
Realizing he was psyching himself out, Izuku began reciting all he could recall from his notebooks and years of struggling through Gates. "A Dungeon space like this is likely to contain Villains that are too weak to fight head-on, and their strategies will rely on confusing, surprising, and taking advantage of their prey's misguided senses in their Dungeon."
Izuku knew that talking out loud was probably a stupid thing to do, but he figured he'd run into a Villain sooner rather than later anyways. And he was right.
Passing by the shops, all boarded and chained up, Izuku stopped in his tracks, hearing a rumbling from behind the storefront to his right. Whatever it was, it was large, unwieldy, and judging by the grumbles it was making, it was hungry.
Izuku brought his gauntlets up to bear, posing like a pro fighter would, guard the chin, and be ready to move.
The rumbling grew louder, and louder, and louder! It was building up until… the shop behind Izuku burst open.
Hit from behind, Izuku was launched forwards with enough force to tear through the shop he had been keeping his focus on. The chain barrier and boarded up windows were smashed to pieces as Izuku landed inside, realizing that there had been nothing inside of it. He was certain he had heard something coming from this little shop, yet it was empty.
Pulling himself out of the rubble, Izuku stood to see what had hit him.
[Clicker Tortoise]
If there was something to compare the creature to, it would be an alligator snapping turtle. Dark, jagged shell, and massive mouth that came to a sharp pointed edge. The only difference was that this thing was the size of a car.
Izuku heard another grumbling roar off to his right, and had he not already been fooled, he would've instinctively looked towards it. But now he knew that this creature, like this Dungeon, was confusing. It was somehow throwing sound all over the place, an ingenious way to lead prey around by the ears.
Other creatures in the animal kingdom, or perhaps even other Villains would continue to be fooled by the tricks, but humans were extremely adaptable animals.
"Strong jaw, heavy charging force, thick armor, slow…" Izuku made a quick assessment, climbing out of the wrecked stand that he had been thrown into. Noticing it, the Tortoise charged forwards, aiming to crush Izuku whilst his movement was still restricted.
Thankfully, Izuku had put his Stat points into Agility.
"Woah…" Izuku breathed out in amazement as his body scampered over the top of the Villain, light as a feather. He had already tested the limits of his speed, he knew he was fast, but there was something so cathartic about this. A feeling so pure. After years of being outclassed by Villains and even other Heroes in just about everything, he finally felt… in control.
Of course, that wasn't to say that things would suddenly be easy for Izuku, and he didn't expect anything of the sort. He lived his life hanging by a thread, never taking anything for granted.
So when he landed behind the Villain, as it slammed its head into the shops, and threw a punch at its shell, he wasn't all that surprised to bounce right off of it, barely leaving more than a dent. He wasn't deterred in the slightest, because for the first time he'd visibly damaged a monster with high defense with nothing more than raw force.
"Probably should've put some more points in Strength… but at least I'm fast enough that this thing can't hit me anymore."
A shrieking noise emanating from Izuku's left. He almost didn't look, but with the Tortoise still working to extricate itself from the terrain, he took a momentary glance, and he was lucky that he did.
[Shrieker]
Between a bat's body, with four wings beating in quick succession, and the cougar head that it possessed, it was a bizarre combination. No bigger than a dog, it was faster than Izuku's top speed.
Without the time to think, Izuku swiped his gauntlets to the side, backhanding the creature as it rocketed towards him. He felt its brittle bones crack beneath the weight of his gauntlets.
[You have Leveled-Up!]
It was too easy, and that was just the problem.
Izuku felt a sharp pain in his right side as the Tortoise swung its spiky tail into his side, sending him tumbling down the station's tunnels.
[HP: 400/650]
Izuku looked down to see that his side was bleeding. When the Villain had tackled him from behind, the blow had been blunt, probably intended to soften up his food, not expecting Izuku to survive it. Now it was going for serious damage.
The cry of other Shriekers emanated in the darkness and the Tortoise crawled back. It seemed that they had some sort of mutually beneficial relationship. The Instant Dungeon's ecosystem was more complicated than Izuku thought.
With the additional Villains heading his way, Izuku needed to finish off the Clicker while he still stood a chance.
"One good hit should do it…"
Izuku clenched his fists, standing and facing the Villain head-on. It grumbled in response and after a tense standoff, the two charged.
Unfortunately… for the Tortoise, it was unable to follow Izuku's movements and the teenage Hero appeared just to the side of the beast's head, jabbing out with all his power.
[Skill: Echo Attack has activated.]
[Mana: 125/175]
The Villain's head shot to the side, rocked by the force of the punch, and mere milliseconds later, before it could even recover, the Echo Attack was delivered. With so much lateral force exerted on its neck, it was no shock that it snapped, killing the creature instantly.
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have acquired items:]
E-Rank Villain Core
Chitin Hide
Spiked Boots
[Item: Spiked Boots]
Item Class: E
Item Type: Boots
Agility +3
Strength +12 when using kicks
Izuku hurriedly equipped the new armor as the bats approached, still bleeding from his side. It wasn't too large of a gash, so Izuku wasn't worried about bleeding out from it alone, but he didn't have a healer. If he accrued anymore damage, he'd be in big trouble.
Looking down the pathway, the hoard of bat-like creatures flying at him was astonishingly big. They'd swarm him for sure, and leech away whatever life he had left. They were easy to kill… but there were too many.
"Okay… time to get a little crazy," Izuku said, a feral grin on his face as he bent down and grabbed the corpse of the Tortoise Villain by the tail. "Just gotta hope my Strength Stat is enough." Izuku heaved against the weight of the body, but it barely budged.
"Not gonna work… I guess I can outrun them, but… I just got all this power. No, no running just yet." With the option in his back pocket, Izuku tightened his grip on the tail even further before lifting one leg.
"It says it adds 12 Strength when I kick, it doesn't say that strength only goes to my feet!" Izuku stomped on the ground, the momentary boost in Stats kicking in for just a moment and shattering the concrete floor. A moment long enough for Izuku to throw the creature like it was nothing.
It flew through the corridor, its mass crushing dozens of the bats like they were nothing. Their brittle bones broke from a weak backhand by Izuku, so there was no way they could withstand the weight of the Clicker Tortoise. And just like that, the mutually beneficial relationship became a malignancy to the Shrieker bats.
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
"I wonder…" Izuku let out a heavy sigh, "It felt so much lighter with just a dozen extra Stat points when before I couldn't move it at all." Izuku recalled math class. "Are these Stats weighted? I probably could've just kicked the thing like a soccer ball and sent him flying with that alone," Izuku realized. He had been needlessly creative in stomping the ground to activate the buff, but it had worked all the same.
After gathering up the item drops, just some cores and assorted material drops, like Shrieker Wings, Izuku took a moment to breathe. Just a moment though, because there was a Dungeon to clear out.
Izuku was ready for anything. But as it turned out, there was nothing left to adapt to. The Instant Dungeon was just a repeating cycle of Shriekers and Clicker Tortoises.
"This Dungeon is supposed to be E-Rank I guess. Maybe the System didn't want to overload me with too many challenges." Izuku shook his head. The concept sounded far too forgiving for the same System that had dropped him into an otherworldly desert just because he didn't do his pushups. "If it expected these guys to be a challenge for this long, maybe it thinks I'm weaker than I am."
Izuku made many guesses and theories as he crawled through the Dungeon, rinsing and repeating the same tactic of killing the Tortoise with Echo Attack and then throwing it at the approaching swarms.
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have acquired the title: Hide Piercer. All attacks against heavy armor deal 50% extra damage.]
Izuku Midoriya:
Level: 14
Strength: 29
Vitality: 28
Agility: 47
Intelligence: 24
Sense: 24
Available Points: 0
[Mana: 255/255]
[HP: 900/900]
By the time Izuku had reached the staircase down to the Boss Room, he had stopped leveling up. Just like his weighted Stats, the XP gain was also weighted, meaning that it was no longer efficient for him to hunt down more Villains. And now, it wasn't a question of if he could beat the Boss Villain, he had too.
The System wouldn't allow him to leave, and eventually Izuku would run out of food. So his only option was to kill it. He didn't have room to question if it was even possible.
After the first Tortoise dropped armor, Izuku was hoping the others would as well, but so far, no other items had dropped. But he did appreciate the title he received from the System. Even with his gauntlets, it was hard to fully break through the armor of Villains like the Tortoise.
Checking his side, where the tail had nicked him, he felt a dried wound. It stung, but as he leveled up, the pain had lessened and mostly vanished altogether. So Levels didn't completely heal him, but they did help the process along.
Izuku considered farming the Villains for more and more XP, but checking his Stats page he knew he'd have to kill dozens upon dozens just to get a single level more and he was starting to grow exhausted. This was no place to remain for longer than he had too. So, he descended.
The steps led down to the subway platform, partially flooded with water and empty of the train cars that operated around the clock back in the real world.
The room filled Izuku with a chill, freezing him in place, the pressure exerting itself on his mind all too familiar.
"No… no it's not here," He told himself, the grinning mask appearing in his mind. "I can do this… I can do this…"
An influx of water exploded from one of the tunnels as a figure shot out from them, not even stopping at the platforms before rushing into the tunnel opposite the one it had exited. Izuku hadn't even caught the faintest glimpse of the creature as it hid itself in the subway tunnels, rushing from place to place.
But much like the Tortoise, it was all a trick.
The ground beneath Izuku exploded as he tried to focus on the subway tunnels, forgetting that these beasts were not keen on fighting head-on.
Izuku was launched away with the rubble, narrowly avoiding the spiny creature and its mouth.
[Rasaka's Mate, Thorny Devil: Anok]
Izuku scowled as the name appeared above the creature's head signifying its uniqueness.
The monster itself was a typical lizard form, covered in dozens of sharp spines, edges, and points. It was like a bus sized porcupine, but much more maneuverable.
Not waiting for Izuku to make the first move, Anok shot forwards, its back legs propelling it far faster than the eye could track. Even with his increased Levels and heightened Agility, Izuku had to rely on his classic instincts to tell him when to dodge. And without that feeling of Death pressing against his entire body, he wouldn't have made it in time.
"Even after all of this?! It's still stronger?!"
Izuku knew that Boss Monsters were leagues stronger than the fodder you had to kill to get to them, but this one felt like it wasn't an E or even D-Rank. This felt like he was back in the desert, running from the centipede.
"A C-Rank… in an E-Ranked Dungeon?" Izuku grinned bitterly. "It just doesn't feel fair. I'm the weakest Hero after all. You could cut me some slack." His tone was light, but his body was heavy, it was the only way he could cope, the only way he could stay moving and not collapse like when he sat on the altar. "I'm not waiting for Death to take me this time!"
[Skill: Echo Attack has activated.]
[Mana: 75/225]
Izuku lunged for Anok's head, hoping that the same strategy would work twice. Unfortunately, there was a reason Anok was a Boss Villain.
Its head whipped to the side, jaws open, ready to swallow Izuku whole.
Izuku had too much momentum, he wouldn't be able to stop in time and he didn't have enough strength to completely clear the lizard's height.
"This better work!" Izuku kicked at the ground with his next step, doing all he could to exert his will on the System and demand that this step be counted as an attack.
The System obliged.
Izuku launched from the floor, both his initial step and the Echo aftershock shooting him high, high above even Anok. In fact, Izuku didn't just clear the monster, but the entire room itself.
Barely maneuvering in time, Izuku's feet ended up on the ceiling, making it look like gravity was flipped for just a moment. He had enough Mana for just one more Echo Attack, and he used it.
Izuku hated the brutish idea of being nothing more than a pair of fists to wail away at Villains. He'd spent years just barely surviving with his wits. It felt insulting. All those higher Ranks than him, using brute force, not inventing, not doing anything more than punching or slashing harder than before. They could afford to relax, to sit back and use the old reliable strategy. Izuku never once had such a luxury, so he'd always been forced to use humanity's one defining advantage, creativity.
Launching off the ceiling, Echo Attack and his boots strength buff sending him flying like a rocket towards Anok, who looked up just in time to see two rocky gauntlets fill his vision. And with a thunderous crash and a shockwave that stirred the Dungeon itself, Izuku cracked its skull open like a watermelon, spilling its bloody insides out to mix with the water.
"Everything…" He panted, Bakugo's face appearing in his mind, alongside the others that had berated him for the weakness he was born with, "I'll use everything to become stronger. Expend it all… to beat you… just like you all scorned me…"
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have Leveled-Up!]
[You have acquired items:]
C-Rank Villain Core
Elemental Enhancement Gem (Earth)
Rune Stone
[You have defeated the Instant Dungeon!]