Chapter 2: A New Dawn and New challenges
It was finally morning in the kingdom of Melromarc as the four Cardinal heroes were woken up from their beds and escorted back to the throne room where the King awaits. There were also twelve different individuals in front of the King: Knights, Adventurers, and Mages of different shapes and sizes waiting for their cardinal heroes to come in and begin to follow them.
The throne door opens, and the four heroes come into the large room where many of the nobles of the kingdom were watching from above as an audience. Once the four of them were at the center of the room the King finally spoke, "We have gathered the best warriors of the land. These brave souls will fight the waves alongside you."
The other three heroes we're wondering how the process will exactly work to pick team members, with Motoyasu in particular excited about the ladies. But Bakugou just had his arms crossed with an angry look on his face not impressed by the party members.
The king speaks up again, "Now future champions, the time has come to begin your journeys!"
The large group of champions all walked toward the four heroes picking whoever they want to follow.
Itsuki had three champions, Ren had the most with five, and Motoyasu had four all who were girls.
Bakugou had no one, none of the champions chose him so he continues to stand there with no one willing to follow him. Despite this Bakugou continue to stand in silence with his arms cross not acting upset about it.
The King took notice, "Well it seems no one has chosen the Shield hero. I loathe to admit it but even I didn't expect this."
"Not from me, after how he acted in front of the King yesterday, I can understand why no one wants anything to do with him," Itsuki says quietly to himself.
The King spoke up again after an advisor whispered to him, "I've been made aware of a rumor that has been spreading around town that the shield hero is a loud violent mentally unstable individual. It looked like it influenced the choice of the champions."
"Rumor!? Ha, it's a definitive fact that Bakugou is a psychopathic asshole. All it takes is just a good look at him and it's clear as day." Motoyasu mocks Bakugou while he rubs his bandage covered nose from the headbutt yesterday.
Bakugou continued to remain silent making everyone weirded out, they knew how explosive the hero acted yesterday and yet here he has no reaction to the fact he has no party members.
It even drew the king's attention, "Sir Shiel...Bakugou are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine, can we just get on with this already?" Bakugou finally speaks up.
This somewhat confused the king, "Are you not upset that you have no party members?" he asked
"I don't need any "party members" right now. I will be fine by myself." Bakugou answers back.
Motoyasu decided to mock Bakugou again, "With just your shield? Ha, you're not going to last long out there. Not that I care if you get eaten by a giant toad or something."
"Want me to break that nose again?" Bakugou threaten him
Motoyasu didn't say anything else but he did growl and gave off an angry face at Bakugou for reminding him of the incident last night.
Ren had also decided to speak up, "I honestly don't blame Bakugou. I prefer to go at it alone myself. Those that can't keep up will be left in the dust." he says to himself and then to his crew behind him.
Itsuki also commented, "I would say we should split the team's 3 a piece to be fair, but I hardly call having to constantly be with Bakugou to be fair."
"If I wanted anyone to fight with me, they will have to be worthy to even be next to me and understand my power and strength, to know that I'm the best, and can actually contribute in my quest to be the world's best hero ever rather than having a bunch of ass kissers surrounding me." Bakugou insults out loud to everyone including the champions to hear. The champions all looked angry at him deciding to move closer to their respective hero leader submitting their decision that they would never get involved with the shield hero.
The King then spoke again, "Well alright then if no one wants to volunteer and if the Shield hero Sir Bakugou is content with it then we should..."
"Excuse me!" shouted a feminine voice, everyone looked toward it and also saw a hand raised. It was a beautiful young woman with red hair and green eyes, who was one of the champions behind Motoyasu, "Sir spear hero, mind if I switch parties? I wish to be with the shield hero?" she asked him.
Everyone especially Motoyasu was surprised that anyone would be willing to join Bakugou, but Motoyasu couldn't bear himself to argue with a beautiful woman like her, "Uh yeah, are you sure?"
The girl gets herself closer to Bakugou and was about to put her hand on his shoulder to be friendly, "Of course, a hero should never be by himself and I can provide him with anything he..."
But Bakugou quickly slaps her hand away from him, "Back Off." he rudely says to her. This shocked the entire court, especially the King and the girl for such a reaction.
Itsuki speaks up for her, "Hey Bakugou she's just trying to be nice with you and is willing to be your partner and you're just going to be rude to her like that?"
The girl attempts to comfort Bakugou again, "Yes sir shield hero I just want to help you and..."
"I said, BACK OFF!" Bakugou yells and pushes her away and she falls to the ground on her butt.
The entire court was horrified and all the nobles were whispering to themselves from the event.
Itsuki immediately came to the girl's defense, "What the hell is wrong with you!? She wanted to be your partner and you just push her off like that?"
Bakugou finally speaks up about it, "I told all of you already, I don't need the help from a bunch of ass kissers picked by an idiot King. Especially not her." on the last part he looks back at the redhead girl who got herself back up and looked angrily at Bakugou, "I can easily see it through her eyes, nothing is genuine about her. I want absolutely nothing to do with her." Bakugou saw through this girl's real personality quickly, just as he once saw through Shindo Yo's before the provisional license exam when he played up being the nice guy to get his class off guard. He doesn't trust this girl one bit.
The two stared at each other for a few seconds with angry contempt, the girl then made a subtle small smirk and finally spoke, "Alright fine! If that's how you react to somebody wanting to help you. Then I want nothing to do with an asshole like you." The girl shouts to Bakugou as she moves back behind Motoyasu and remained at his team.
"Good," Bakugou says to himself.
Motoyasu saw this as an opportunity to mock Bakugou again, "Wow I'm impressed. You must feel good about making yourself into chick repellent. It's almost like being alongside women creat..." and Bakugou quickly backhand's his arm on Motoyasu's nose with his shield, "Ahhh! Not again! Ow!"
"Can we get on with it already!" Bakugou shouts again to the King with Motoyasu growling back at Bakugou doing the best he can to not murder him in front of the whole court.
The King just sighs and continues speaking, "Very well then if the shield hero doesn't want party members right now, I see no point in furthering the issue. Bakugou will have to recruit party members for himself. Now on other matters, all four of you will receive funds every month from the crown to help you with your journeys. For this one time however, sir Bakugou will have a payment higher then the others for his lack of party members. Here are your war chests, accept them with our thanks."
Four servants then walked out toward the heroes with bags of this world's currency and hand them over to the four, "The shield hero will receive 800 silver coins while the other three heroes will have 600 each." the advisor says to them as they grab their coin bags.
The King then makes his final speech to the group, "Now procure all necessary equipment and set forth."
"Sir!", The three heroes shouted
"Hold on a second?" Bakugou interrupts
"Uhhhh! what now?" the three hero's sigh together.
Before the King could say anything else Bakugou speaks up first anyway, "Is this really it!? Why the hell are we even buying our equipment and been given no other preparation for this stupid quest? You're literally throwing us out there with just pats on the back?"
"Sir Bakugou the crown is providing you funding and support for this quest what more could you possibly want?" says the King now getting irritated by Bakugou again.
"How about just giving us the best equipment you have in this giant castle and large armies? How about teaching us about this world and actually training us to fight with these stupid weapons? Your answer to that is just giving us an allowance every month like that is suppose to properly prepare us for anything?" Bakugou scolds at the King who was growing angry at him for his ungratefulness.
Ren tries to talk to Bakugou to calm him down, "Look Bakugou this is just how RPG's work. Just go along with it."
"This isn't a damn game! This senile bastard said himself yesterday that millions of lives are dependent on us and he's just making us go out with nothing but money, no god damn training or anything." Bakugou yells at Ren who just sighs and shakes his head.
The King however was starting to lose his patience again with Bakugou, "This is how you heroes are supposed to get better. Just giving you everything won't help any of you especially if you don't have the stats for the equipment and weapons yet. And I have a nation to run still so I can't just lend all of you the entire Treasury to spend on stuff you can obtain by your own skills. And besides, the legends state that the Cardinal heroes that are brought here will already have a general knowledge of our world so there's no need to teach you anything unless you're really that clueless sir Bakugou?"
But Bakugou continued to angrily argue with him, "You god damn kidnapped us to be your stupid cardinal heroes! I expected that you would at least train us to fight in this world! But I see your just a damn hack wearing a tiara!"
"Quiet!" the King yells having about enough of Bakugou as he slams his fists on the throne chair. The court was silent for a few seconds until the King calmed himself down after some deep breaths, "Shield hero Bakugou, I'm already giving you free money to be able to buy anything in our world, I've spent all night and morning getting champions for you, one of whom you immediately rejected when she offered her help, and I allowed you the luxury to sleep at my castle for no charge. If you do not appreciate what I'm doing for you I will be glad to take back my 800 silver. So, unless you want to start as a beggar on the street it will be wise of you to stop talking and just start your damn adventure already. Am I clear?!"
Bakugou could've continued to argue with how stupidly the King is preparing the heroes for this world, but he can see that the King was at his final straw to take away his money for real so he decided to stop, "Alright fine, I just want out of this inbred cesspool already."
The King was relieved, "Good, now again set forth and good luck to all of you heroes."
"Sir!" the three other heroes shouted again with Bakugou still silent.
The four heroes finally left the castle as they go on their adventure, with Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu leaving with their parties. Bakugou was by himself, just him with his shield and he was happy that way.
Bakugou figures the first thing he should do is to dress more appropriately in this world. His black tee and blue jeans make him stick out among the regular peasants and he knew he required some form of armor to survive this world of monsters since the idiot king has refused to give him any.
After some window shopping through town looking through a few armor and weapon shops as well as reading some of the "help" instructions his status magic provides, he found the largest one and went in it.
The store was filled with many different types of weapons and armor hanging above the shelves and walls like any store. And at the end of the shop was its owner. A middle-aged bald man giving a welcoming smile, "Welcome good sir first time to a weapon shop I see." he gleefully welcomes Bakugou.
"Yeah yeah whatever, I'm just looking around," Bakugou responds as he looks across the shop for any weapon he can use to compensate for his shield as well as any armor.
"If you need of anything specific, I can show it to you." the shop keeper says.
Bakugou looks directly at the shop keeper, "Ok, show me the best weapons you have. Or at least anything under 600 silver." he demanded.
The blacksmith then came out of his shop keeper area, "Eager huh, alright then, let me show you some of the best we have for your budget."
He then showed Bakugou a table with multiple different types of swords on it, "Here we are, some of my best cheap swords made up of iron, magic iron, steel, magic steel, etc."
An excited Bakugou decided to pick the iron sword up, "Hell yes, now time to..AAAHHHHHH!" but the sword electrocutes Bakugou forcing him to drop it confusing him and the blacksmith, "What the hell was that!? Are these damn things cursed!?" he yells at the blacksmith.
"No no these swords are not cursed, booby trapped, or anything." the blacksmith defended himself. He quickly picks up the dropped sword and swings it around to prove it, "See perfectly fine."
Bakugou picks up one of the other weapons but it shocked him again as the other sword did before, "Damn it! What the hell is going...huh?" Bakugou then noticed that his status screen was popping up glowing red with a caution sign on display and it reads, *Caution: rule violation, item restricted.*.
"What the hell does this mean!?" Bakugou shouted and then the menu quickly changes to a new screen that reads *help* Bakugou hasn't read this one yet and goes on to read the text below it, *When a hero is set up with their class cardinal weapon they are not allowed to use any other weapons. So a spear hero can't equip a sword nor can a bow hero use a shield.*, "What kind of bullcrap is this!?" Bakugou yells at the magic screen.
"I guess it means you can't use anything else but a shield because of your class. So sorry." the blacksmith says to him.
"Well, then where the hell can I change my class to something that isn't stupid," Bakugou says out loud as he scrolls through other help texts to see if he can fix this problem but he had no luck.
"It's usually as simple as using a different default weapon but I'm not sure what to do with you if you can't even do that?" the smith answered not knowing what this was all about.
Bakugou continues to read over some more help texts for anything to change his class but when he found nothing else he had enough of it, "Ggggrrrrr... You know what, to hell with the damn rule I'll just tolerate the pain!" Bakugou yells then grabbed hold of the steel sword and it shocks him like the ones before but Bakugou was determined to keep the sword and grips on it as hard as he can as the electricity continues to course over Bakugou's body giving him great pain.
"Sir please I think you need to stop." the smith warns Bakugou but he continued to hold on to the sword as it continues to electrocute him to force him to let go.
But it becomes harder and harder for Bakugou to hold on to the sword as the electricity gets more and more intense the longer he holds the swords, "Damn it!... I... I can… do... do.. this..." Bakugou grits in pain trying his best to hold on, but even with his pain tolerance he still had his limits and it was getting harder and harder for him to hold on.
The sparks continued until Bakugou couldn't take it anymore and had no choice but to drop the weapon and fell to the ground on his knees and breathed heavily.
The smith attempted to help him out by reaching his hand out to him, "Sir are you alright!?"
But Bakugou just swipes his hand away from him, "Yes I'm god damn fine don't try to pity me!" Bakugou yells as he struggles himself back up.
But as he was getting up the smith gets a closer look at the shield and was curious about it. He uses his magic magnifying glass to get a better look at it which Bakugou noticed, "What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm just getting a better look at your weapon, it's nothing I've ever seen before. It looks a little like... Wait a second? Are you one of those heroes that got summoned?" he asked Bakugou.
"Yeah, so what?" Bakugou asked rudely thinking it was going to be another insult.
"Well it could explain why you can't change your class; it seems this cardinal shield can't just come off."
"I can rip it off and throw the damn thing but it just reforms back and sticks into its place again like a damn leech." Bakugou answers
"hmmm... I can sense great power coming from the shield, but my appraisal magic doesn't detect much else, so I don't know what to do about it?"
Bakugou was pissed off by all of this and the shield's rules, but his tone change when he facepalms and looks back at the palm of his hand and remembers he still has a quirk and a very powerful one at that. His frown immediately turned back into a smile, "Eh forget the damn weapons, I don't need those damn things anyway. I can handle myself without them."
The smith finally stops looking at the shield and got himself up, "Well if you say so, but do you still want to buy some armor?" he asked.
Bakugou immediately answers, "Yes, but make sure it's an armor that doesn't cover the arms."
The request confused the smith, "Uh why do you not want to protect your arms?"
"I have my reasons just show me the merchandise already."
"If you say so sir hero." the smith says as he shows off his armor merchandise.
About a half an hour passes as Bakugou looks at and wears various suits of armor and clothing, he was very picky about what he wanted to wear. He wanted armor that exposed his arms for his quirk, but he also doesn't want anything too heavy either to restrict his movement, he also wanted something that was intimidating looking so when he fights bad guys and monsters they would be scared of just looking at him just as his old hero costume was designed to do before.
Bakugou tries out another outfit to wear as the smith patiently waits for him to finish after trying out the 15th suit already in the change room, "Man this kid really wants the right armor doesn't he? Haven't seen anyone this picky since..."
But the smith stops when he hears, "Yes! Perfect!", and out quickly comes Bakugou in his new outfit, though it may hardly look like armor at first glance but it was the real deal, he appeared shirtless exposing his muscular torso but has a dark red cape on with a fluffy and furry white top around his neck, had dark black trousers with a golden buckle black belt on, and had light silver boots with small fluffy tops on matching his capes fluffy top.
The smith was impressed, "Woah... Now that Barbarian armor matches you perfectly. I wouldn't say that is what regular adventurers usually wear but as long as it will protect you in any battle that's all that matters."
Bakugou continues to look at himself, "Now you said yourself that despite that I look like I have nothing on my chest, I'm still protected if something attacks me there right?" he asked the smith.
"Of course, your cape acts as sort of an invisible chest plate that protects your entire torso despite it looking like it you're not wearing anything there." the smith answers.
Bakugou looks toward the smith, "Mind testing it?"
"Of course." the smith grabs a sword and swipes at Bakugou's torso with it bouncing off him and showing no mark on him proving the capes magic does work, "I told you so. It may not be the strongest armor, but it will allow you to move quickly around as you requested as well as protecting you from various environmental hazards like ice, sand, fire, and poison."
"Perfect, I'll buy it," Bakugou says excitedly.
The smith then heads to his counter awaiting Bakugou's purchase. "Alright then, so your special made armor with a nice hero discount will cost you about, 300 silver.".
"300 is a bit much. How about you make it 250 silver and I'll be a permanent customer to your shop for armor." Bakugou bargains with the smith, wanting to haggle the man for a cheaper price.
The smith understood his games and played along, "I don't think so, that armors magic isn't cheap or easy to make and the man-hours should be compensated for it. For being unappreciated of a man's hard work I'm increasing the price by 10%." The smith haggles back at Bakugou.
"250," Bakugou says back
"increasing to 20%"
"250"
"increased by 40%"
"250"
"50% increase"
"250"
"75% increase"
"250"
"90%"
"250"
"Ok then smartass the price just doubled to 600 silver"
"250"
"Triple"
"250"
"Quadruple!"
"250"
the smith knew at this point he wasn't going anywhere and decided to concede
"Alright alright, how about 275 silver for the armor. But no more if you really promise me that I will for now on be the main provider of any new armor, deal?" the smith bargained
"Sounds good, 275 it is." Bakugou agrees and pays the smith 275 silver for his armor.
But after paying Bakugou wasn't done yet, "Hey I'm also wondering, what was that little magnifying glass you had earlier, is that anything special?"
"Oh this thing, yeah it helps me to get a closer look at armors and weapons, looking for flaws, and can even look through magic and other means of concealment for those that try to rip me off ." the smith answers sparking Bakugou's curiosity.
"You got any spares?" he asked
"Yeah, I got plenty. But if you're interested in getting one, you have to pay for it." the smith tells him.
"How much?" Bakugou asked
"25 silver and I'm not going any lower than that." the smith bargains
Bakugou understood he had played his haggle card and knew it wouldn't work on this guy twice so he pays the amount for the magic magnifying glass.
Once in his possession of it, Bakugou puts the glass on his shields gem as it dissolves inside it. The shield opens up a screen that shows *Skill unlocked: Magnifying shield.*
The smith was impressed, "Whoa that is some interesting magic that shield has, how did you know it can do it?" he asked Bakugou
"I've read it over from some of the help screens while I was window shopping. They told me of the mechanics of how this stupid shield works and this was the first test of it."
"I guess you didn't read enough of them that told you about not being allowed to use other weapons." the smith jokes making Bakugou growl in frustration.
"Whatever, tell me, baldy, where are the other shops that I can buy useful items at? Maybe a place where I do some minor quests as well?" he asked him.
"There is a marketplace down the street with many stores surrounding it. As for minor quests, I don't have any myself but I think just asking people if they need any help may get you some around town if you don't want to do anything big right now." the smith answers. Bakugou turns and immediately leaves the shop, "Come again soon." the smith finally says to him.
Bakugou was out of the shop and heads toward the marketplace, "Alright then since this idiot King refuses to train me or tell me anything I'm going to have to find it all out the old way, the RPG way."
Bakugou had spent most of the day traveling shop to shop and talking to person to person asking what they were selling and how useful they were for adventuring. This ranges from simple food to health potions, magic trinkets, armor enchantments, etc. And of course, Bakugou tried to haggle with all of them with varying degrees of success.
He would also ask them about some quick quests or minor help they might need and a few did need some help. Most were simple things like transporting items, escorting some people, quick fetch quests, opening jammed doors, etc where he would have to just travel around the town doing various favors for people. Most were easy to do and the reward was usually only a couple of bronze coins or a few silvers at most. Though money was a secondary factor in doing all of this, what he valued more was learning new information and gaining new skills.
With the other heroes after they got their equipment, they all quickly went outside the city to immediately grind for monsters and level up. But Bakugou was smarter and more genre-savvy than that, he hasn't played many video games since he started training for U.A. but he had played his share of RPGs before and from what he knew when playing them it was always wise to talk to all the NPC's if possible before going out for combat or to rush forward with the story. One needs to do all of the quests no matter how minor to help you find new skills and to learn more about the world. The other 3 heroes' methods might work on easy difficulty settings if it was a game, but on harder settings, it could mean life or death from getting slaughtered by enemies especially as time goes on. Bakugou being a completionist type and always likes to play on the hardest difficulties knew better and he did do everything to beat those impossible difficulties, willing to do the tedious work just to build up his character better.
It was also not just for leveling up and trying to help his adventure skills but also to better his interaction with people, after blowing his provisional license exam in his old world. Bakugou is trying his best to be better with his attitude toward regular people to not angrily outburst at the people he is supposed to be helping. He would continue to hold his ever-present frustrated face when dealing with people but at least he doesn't explode on them for saying stupid things. Or at least 80% of the time anyway, there were four times where he exploded at some asshole shopkeepers and people threatened to call the guards from all the yelling and death threats, so Bakugou knew he had a lot more to go to be a better hero.
Most people hardly had any interesting or useful skills to teach, but he had learned some practical one's like lock picking, stealth to eavesdrop on people without them knowing, detecting magical traps, how to craft certain potions like those for healing and to temporary boost skills, how to properly mount a beast of burden though he wasn't interested in buying a filolial or any other riding animals in this world, and from a more shady person pickpocketing though he secretly reported him to the guards after learning the skill from him.
He learned a lot more about the world itself, learned about certain monsters and some of their weaknesses, that dragons are a thing, how crafting magic armor and enchantments work, and some of the more broad laws of the land especially laws on woman. This country was pretty gender liberal compared to real medieval societies back at his world with women having equal rights to men with sexual assault especially being a huge no-no.
Bakugou had also gained some general knowledge of this worlds geographic politics. He is right now on a large continent with dozens and dozens of different Kingdoms and republics of various sizes across it, though four large empires dominate most of the continent, Melromarc where he was currently at, Siltvelt the demi-human empire in the north, Zeltoble the mercenary empire in the east, and the great empire of Faubley in the west the largest and most powerful Empire in this world. Also in recent years, a new demi-human empire called Shieldfreeden had emerged after a rebellion with Siltvelt. People aren't sure what exactly happened but most of the people he talked to hardly cared about demi-human politics.
Speaking of demi-humans that was another thing he learned about, this world was populated by intelligent animal-human hybrid people, some are more human-looking or animal looking than others with the more animal looking referred to as beast-men. They are not treated the best in Melromarc, being seen as second-class citizens at best. Slavery is also a thing in Melromarc and the majority of demi-humans are slaves with Bakugou seeing many examples of their treatment by looking and walking around town.
Bakugou wasn't surprised to see such barbaric practices in this setting after being forced to read through human history he was aware of the horrors of human slavery of various groups of people. He finds the act just disgusting especially from what he sees the many demi-humans being treated across the city including little children. Bakugou may have always valued strength with the strong overcoming the weak, but this kind of power over weak helpless people regardless of race was something he can't stand. One of his many goals for this world is to somehow end slavery for good and to be there hero that liberated them. Even if he must beat it out of the king to end it, though beating up the king with any excuse would be good enough for Bakugou.
Though one of the strangest places he's been near was the nation's main church. For whatever reason Bakugou had a really bad feeling about this place. It looked like a typical Christian church that you hardly see in Japan. But when he looked at any of the church folk outside they always looked at him in disgust or just turn their head on his appearance.
He asked some of the shop keepers and locals about the church and according to them the church has existed for centuries in Melromarc though it has been increasing in power in recent years becoming more involved in the kingdoms politics since about 30 years ago with the support of the King. They are called the 3 heroes church, where they worshipped the spear, sword, and bow cardinal heroes as saints or Gods and would worship the three equally. Though Bakugou's big question was why the shield cardinal hero himself was left out of the cardinal heroes' church. But any time he asked it, no one would answer and sometimes show off a worried face as if they were hiding a horrible truth. Bakugou knew something was up about that church and he made sure for now to stay as far away from that place as possible and continues on his search for more useful skills and information.
One of the last stores he went for the day as it was becoming evening was a magic shop run by an older woman who was wearing a standard witch hat. He was there to send a letter from an enchantment shop keeper for another minor quest and figured that he should also learn about this world's magic while there.
"Ah yes, thank you very much for sending me this, I'm sure you deserve a little reward as well. Here are 5 silvers for your troubles." the shop owner says with Bakugou continuing looking through the store, "Is there anything you're looking for sir hero?" the lady asked.
"Yeah I'm aware this crazy world has magic or some crap here and I want to know more about it," he answers.
The woman gladly explains to Bakugou of the world's magic and how it works. She taught him what Mana/MP was and what kinds of magic exist in this world from complex battle spells to simple mundane casts that even small children can do. She also mentions that a lot of complex spells require one person to say a chant for the magic to work, beginners usually have to say it out loud but more knowledgeable magic users can just say it in their heads and instantly be able to use the spell.
For free of charge, she showed Bakugou how to do one spell, a simple artificial light spell that will help him if he was somewhere where there is no light, "Now just raise your arm out and say the chant of whatever spell you desire." she tells him.
"I am the hero of the shield who commands the origin of power. I have read and deciphered a law of nature. I call forth the power of nature of light!", and immediately after saying it a magic ball of light comes out of his hand making Bakugou smile and surprised the woman.
"Oh my, I would have thought it will take a few tries but you did it on the first one. You do seem to have some magic talent sir shield hero," she says.
Bakugou then clutches his fist, "Hell yeah, I'm going to show those losers how things are done in heroing. " he says excitingly.
He and the shopkeeper then went up to the store counter for her to use her magic crystal ball to see his magic potential, "Sir Shield hero, your magic infinities are quite diverse over multiple areas, but you seem to be the strongest at support magic and healing." she says to him making Bakugou smirk.
"I knew I would be best in everything," he says pridefully.
Though the woman wasn't finished yet, "Well just a moment your combat magic is almost nonexistent, so you can't do any offensive spells."
This frustrated Bakugou, "Grrrr... Damn the rules of this world! You mean I can't even shoot out lighting or anything!?" he yelled at the older woman.
"I'm afraid not, but don't let that discourage you to not learn magic, even if you can't use them to fight monsters many spells you can learn can be of great help too. Don't underestimate support spells they could save your life in the right circumstances," she says trying to cheer Bakugou up.
Bakugou couldn't deny that she had a point though begrudgingly admits it, "Sure I guess it's better than nothing. Say lady what else can those magic balls do?" he asked the storekeeper.
"They can help you with multiple things, it allows you to sense and detect magical objects, gives you a small boost to your Mana pool, and it can allow you to capture life events around you and can show them off later to others," she explains
It sparked Bakugou's curiosity, "So it's like a magic video camera?"
"What is that sir shield hero?" she asked
"Forget it, do you have anything that can help me learn more about magic?" he asked her.
"Well, I do have this magic grimoire that can teach you many different spells. It's perfect for any beginning mage." she offers.
Bakugou picked up the book to read its contents, but as he turns the pages over he realizes that it's in a completely different language, this world seems to speak Japanese (yes let's just pretend that everyone is speaking Japanese in this context) but their writing was something completely different, "Great I can't even understand anything in here. What good is this to me?" he complains and throws the book back on the counter.
"You may not be able to read our language now but if you can learn magic as quickly as you did, then perhaps you can learn to read our language just as quickly as well. There are so many spells in here it would be unwise to just ignore them." the woman says.
Bakugou understood her point, he will probably have to learn or gain the ability to learn this world language eventually so it would be nice to have a reference book to practice magic with and learn many of this world's spells. Of course, the crystal ball also has it's use to and would be an immediate benefit to him, "How much are the book and the crystal ball?" he asked the shop keeper.
"They both cost 100 silver pieces, but if you buy both items now you will get a small discount on one of them so it will only cost 175 silver pieces altogether," she explains.
Bakugou was starting to run low on his disposable income, only 300 silver pieces left and he wanted to at least have 100 left, so if he buys this stuff now it will be the last thing he will buy for the day other than food and a place to rest for the night. It would've been just 200 silver he had left but due to all the minor tasks he did in town today he gained an extra 100 silver from all of it. Bakugou thought it through a bit, but he knew he probably wouldn't get a better deal on items this useful this early so he finally agreed, "Ok witch you got me, I'll buy both."
Bakugou pays the woman 175 silver and inserts his ball and the book into his shield gem, gaining the Crystal ball shield which gave a passive 3% increase to his mana and the magic grimoire shield that he can read from for now on.
He turns back at the woman to ask her something, "Say lady do you know much about the King?" he asked figuring he should finally learn more about the man he's forced to work for anyway.
She willingly tells Bakugou what she knew, "Oh King Aultcray, yes he is a very interesting man. He may not look like it but he used to be a hero himself, though not a cardinal hero obviously but he was quite famous in our country, so much so he won the heart of our beloved Queen."
The last part caught Bakugou's attention, "Hang on a second? Won the heart of the Queen, you mean he wasn't Royalty from the start?"
"Well, I've heard he originally came from a noble bloodline from Faubley, but wasn't of Melromarc until he came to our country in his adventuring days. He was quite the famous hero and he would eventually win the heart of the Queen when she was just a princess and became her consort when she was coronated." she continued.
Bakugou just laughs at that, "Ha, so the old bastard isn't even the real one running this joint, that's too hilarious. So where is this old Queen at anyway?" he asked
"The Queen left the country a few months ago to visit the neighboring empires, and she hasn't come back since."
"What is she doing that is so important to leave the nation that long?" he asked
"I honestly don't know; I don't keep track of the Kingdoms politics so I'm sorry for not telling you more." she finishes
"Don't worry, I've learned more than enough I need. If I need any more magic stuff I'll come visit again, but make sure you get better stuff later on witch." he finishes and proceeds to leave the shop. Though he was still confused by the Queen stuff, if she is the real head of state why has she left when he and the others were summoned, he figured that she would've been the one to meet the heroes first and had her idiot husband go out to do the less important diplomacy work but at least he knew more about the country and had more to use to insult the King.
"Thank you very much sir shield hero have a good time." the shopkeeper says as Bakugou leaves.
The sun was starting to set on Melromarc, while usually this is a time for heroes to go back to civilization to rest for the day after grinding monsters. Bakugou saw it as his time to get some experience for himself and not have to worry about competition. And by this time all the outside shops were closing anyway and he had already visited almost every inside store in the area so there was no more business with them.
But as he was walking out of the town's border wall he sees Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu's parties coming back from there day of grinding and they notice Bakugou as well.
"Look who is finally coming out." Ren comments
Itsuki was disgusted by Bakugou's armor, "Could he make himself look any more like he is going to beat someone up? He's not even wearing a shirt." though the three were pretty surprised to how muscular he was, it made them look like twigs in comparison if they were out of their armor. It somewhat made them envious of such a body especially since he's the youngest of them.
When Motoyasu's group got close to Bakugou he saw to himself to mock him again as they walk, "Well now look who it is, Mr. Edgelord finally getting the guts to come out after being afraid of the monsters for so long with his useless shield. Oh, how is he going to survive the dreaded balloons."
Bakugou didn't say anything at first but as he was right beside Motoyasu he quickly sticks his foot out and made Motoyasu trip and he fell on his face, "Ow! Damn it!"
"You should watch where you're going nerd. You might end up breaking what's left of your face." Bakugou mocks back as he walks away from the groups, Ren and Itsuki just roll their eyes as Motoyasu gets himself up with a bruised forehead and just walks away trying so hard to not kill Bakugou.
Once out in the open fields, Bakugou looks around and observes all of his surroundings. While he was focused on trying to find monsters he gave himself a good look at the area. Having lived at Musutafu city for most of his life he hardly got to see much vast grassland landscapes like this having only been to parks and visiting the woods when he was a kid that hardly had any grass to begin with. It was somewhat majestic for him to see especially with the sunset.
But he had enough of sightseeing and got back to find whatever was out there and gain experience points. And he wouldn't need to look far as he looks through the grass and sees the first monsters for him to attack, evil-looking living balloons jumping up at Bakugou to attack him.
Bakugou grins and starts punching the balloons, "Die you air-filled bastards! Die!" and goes on punching the various balloons. He punches them and punches them over and over. Bakugou was excited at first to finally kill something, but as he goes on punching the balloons he was growing tired seeing the monsters still alive despite how many times he punches them still with a large amount of HP according to his status magic, "Why won't you stupid bastards die!"
He continues punching multiple balloons over and over, until he had enough and just grabs hold of one that had full health, "How many punches do you need to kill these stupid things!" he proceeds to punch the one over and over again until after many many hits the balloon's health drops to zero and dies, "30 damn hits just to kill fodder?! Screw this damn shield class and the one-point attack power!" he yells at his shield arm but as he looks back at his hand and quickly remembers that he still had his quirk and created a small explosion to see if it still works.
It may have been unusual for him to forget his quirk like that. But he was originally so excited in wanting to kill things without consequence in a RPG like setting, his quirk that really sticks out in a setting like this had temporarily slipped his mind.
He quickly gained his confidence again and grins at the number of balloons attacking him, "Let's see how much you little bastards can take now?" and when one jumps toward him Bakugou grabs hold of it with one hand as it struggles to get off Bakugou as he sadistically smiles and then shouts, "Die!" and with his quirk, he instantly blows up the balloon with his hand and still gained the experience points for it, "Hell yeah! Now it's time to show off the true power of the shield hero!" he looks and sees more balloon monsters coming his way. And every balloon that got close to him ended up instantly blow up as Bakugou goes on a killing spree with the monsters, he no longer had to hold back on killing villains so he can now kill what he sees and blows up small monster after small monster.
The loud explosions continued to attract more balloon monsters and Bakugou proceeds to kill more and more of the little things slowing but surely leveling up, "Come on and get me you little bastards, see what a real hero is made of!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
After a few hours of blowing up balloon monsters, Bakugou had enough for the night. It was 10:00 pm and it was completely dark other than the moonlight and Bakugou's light spell. He knew he had to eventually rest or his performance will start to suffer by morning. So he collects the remains of the last of the balloons he's killed to sell later with a bag he bought early to stuff in items that won't go into the shield storage like his old world clothes.
He killed several hundred balloons from just those few hours as well as killing a couple of other minor monsters like giant mites, giant grasshoppers, and giant ants that were the size of dogs. And gained a few new powers by putting in their remains in the shield. He has also leveled up to 5 from just his first day. All of his stats had all increased to some degree, all except for his attack power that was still at one.
Bakugou wasn't sure how it doesn't apply to his quirk since it can make quick work on at least the low-level monsters compare to just punching them or bashing them with the shield. His only guess is that the game world never took account of his quirk and is basically a bug outside the system which he didn't care as he was going to be exploiting it as much as possible.
Bakugou for the first time used his own fast travel that instantly took him back to the outside of the blacksmith's shop in town that was closed for the night. He learned to fast travel after reading some of the help instructions and discovered the map shield after putting in a map of the known world he bought earlier in the shield. He played many RPGs before that had fast travel in it so he knew that this world would've had at least some equivalent of it.
The instructions state that he can travel to locations that he has been to before unless there are monsters close by or is indoors. It will also bring along companions who haven't been to the places already but the hero has. But it won't work for escort quests where the one's being escorted have to be manually escorted to their locations.
Also according to the help text that Bakugou read there are other ways of fast travel, one other method is with the sand of the dragon hourglasses, but the only place where this hourglass sand was at is the 3 heroes church, where Bakugou wants to stay as far away from it as much as possible. So he just found his own way of fast travel.
Bakugou then goes to stop by at the cheapest inn he can find and eat the cheapest meal for his dinner. The food was hardly much to brag about but Bakugou knew better than to waste his money on overly expensive meals and overpriced beds like the other heroes have and knew he had to conserve as much money as possible to buy actual important stuff to become this world's best hero, he'll be able to buy whatever luxury he wants once he has the money and income to do so.
He finally finishes eating and goes up to his room. Too tired to even take off his armor and bags he lays on the bed and falls asleep quickly, ready for day 3 of his quest to be the greatest hero of this world.
"Shield Hero, open up!" a voice outside the door shouted who was also banging on said door.
Bakugou was woken by the noise still tired from that long day yesterday and was not happy being woken up from his nap.
He stomps toward the door and slams it open, "What the hell do you idiots want!? Don't you see I'm trying to sleep here!" he yells at the person at the door who turns out to be a knight along with a dozen other ones surrounding the hallway of the inn.
"Sir Shield hero the King has ordered a summons for you boy, you are to come with us." the Knight ordered.
Bakugou didn't know what was going on but he didn't like it at all, "For what reason?" Bakugou demanded from them.
"You'll find out once you get there, now let's move!" the knight ordered.
But Bakugou continued to argue, "Not until you god damn tell me why that inbred hack wants from me!"
Another guard had enough of him and attempts to grab his arm, "That is an order hero, stop this crap right..."
But Bakugou quickly slaps the hand away, "Get your damn hands off me!"
The guard attempts to grab him again, "I told you it's an order..."
"I SAID GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF ME!" Bakugou punches the knight right in the face. After that, the other guards in the hallway all attempt to restraint Bakugou but the young hero wasn't going out without a fight and as the guards attempt to hold him down, Bakugou dodges, punches and kicks all the guards that attempt to grab him.
Bakugou was a fierce fighter and continued to fight against the multiple guards that were higher levels than him and had better equipment. He was also doing his best to not use his quirk to keep that as a secret and that blasting his quirk at a small hallway inside a populated inn like this could mean endangering the regular people resting here including children. Bakugou continued his fight with the dozen guards in the hallway until all of them grouped up and began grabbing on to Bakugou and finally forced him on the floor, "You bastards! Get off of me or I'm going to kill all of you! GET OFF!" Bakugou yells
But the knight commander had enough of it, "Tie this animal up and send him to the castle as soon as possible!"
Bakugou knew something was up and he also knew it was going to get ugly fast.
At the throne room the three heroes along with Motoyasu's terrified redhead female partner and the King who all looked angry as they wait for the shield hero to be brought over to get him to finally talk.
The throne door finally opens revealing Bakugou who was covered up in steel chains with a dozen guards surrounding him with 2 other knights holding on to the chain ends to restrain him, "Let me go you tin covered bastards! I'll blast off all of your damn armor off and collectively kick your asses!"
Ren was surprised to see him in this state, "You have him in chains?"
"The shield hero refused to cooperate and had to be dragged here by force, we originally used rope, but he chewed through that so we had to resort to steel chains." the knight commander answered him with Ren just shaking his head in disgust.
Despite his struggling Bakugou was finally dragged to the middle of the throne room, "What the hell do you want from me you inbred bastard!?"
"Shut the hell up for once you ungrateful brat!" the King yells at him finally having enough of Bakugou. He then looks toward the girl in a calmer tone, "Malty I hate to ask you again, but can you give us your testimony again."
'Testimony for what?' Bakugou thought to himself, he still had so many questions but was getting an idea of where this was going.
The crying girl finally spoke up, "Ye... Yes, it was early this morning at about 4:00 am, I wanted to get something from the market early and get a surprise gift to Motoyasu. But... But while I was walking toward the market. The... The shield devil came right out of a alleyway, he grabbed hold of me and dragged me into that very dirty alley. He... He said "How... How sexy I was and he always likes it rough." He was touching me across my body and... and he was even kissing me."
"What kind of bullshit are you trying to say!?" Bakugou yells knowing this whole thing was nothing but lies.
"Silence shield devil!" the king ordered with Malty continuing.
"He... He then began to take all of my clothes off and said, "Your all mine now bitch." and was about to pull down his pants. But thankfully with all my strength I was able to kick that bastard off me and run back to my inn and got to Motoyasu as soon as possible and told him everything."
"Had Myne not told me to wait until dawn to call the guards I would've cut you down myself," Motoyasu spoke up.
Everyone in the throne room looked horrified and disgusted by Malty's story that a hero would resort to rape, the King then spoke up again, "To think the cardinal shield hero would commit one of the country's greatest sins."
"Even attempt rape is a crime punishable by death." the advisor says.
"If you weren't a cardinal hero, you would be executed at once!" the king yells at Bakugou.
But Bakugou wasn't going to let this slander to continue on, "Then show me the god damn proof that any of her garbage is even remotely true!"
One of the knights then brought something up, "We found this at the scene of the crime.", and the knight showed off a torn-up bra that originally belonged to Malty.
Malty looked scared and cried behind Motoyasu, "You animal!" he yells at Bakugou standing in front of Myne fully committed to thinking Bakugou attempted to rape her.
Itsuki spoke his mind, "What a terrible shame, I knew something wasn't right about Bakugou, but I wouldn't have thought he would be this bad.
"He thought being a hero meant that he could do whatever he wants. Disgusting" Ren also comments.
Motoyasu then raises his spear along with his voice, "This place isn't some consequence-free playground you evil bastard!"
Bakugou was largely silent through most of it but he heard enough, "Are you idiots really that stupid." Everyone wondered what the shield hero was even talking about.
The King spoke up again, "What nonsense are you going to babble on this time shield devil?"
Bakugou quickly makes his case, "Do any of you think that one testimony and some cut up bra is enough to prove me of this crime. And none of you even thought of the lack of witnesses was suspicious or see through some of the holes in that cheap testimony."
"Like what?" the King asked
"Like how she claims I was able to capture her in the first place? I don't even have any attack power as a shield class so how would I even be able to grab her by force in the first place!?" of course Bakugou did have the means by his explosion quirk, but no one else knew about that so as far as they knew he was just a useless shielder with no attack power.
The King or the other heroes weren't impressed, "Clearly as shown by Motoyasu's nose that pure attack power alone doesn't prevent harm to other opponents so you still could've easily rape my daughter if you got away with it."
'Daughter!? So the bitch is some spoiled Princess appealing to daddy just as I expected.' Bakugou thinks to himself seeing the nepotism coming out of this trial. But he wasn't done yet, "Then how about other holes, like explain to me why this slut was out that early in the morning!?"
"She already explained, she was going to get a present for me," Motoyasu says.
"Really? Then explain what the hell kind of store would be open that early in the morning, she would have no means of getting a gift if she wasn't lying!?"
Despite it being a good point that even some of the nobles there were discussing it, the King, Motoyasu, and Itsuki weren't interested in what he had to say and were too biased in their hatred of Bakugou to understand reason. All but Ren who did understand Bakugou, 'That is right, from most the stores I've looked at, they weren't open until 6:00 am so what was Malty even doing out there that early?' he thought to himself.
The king just shook his head, "I don't see how that is relevant?"
But despite the kings stubbornness Bakugou continues, "Then how about the fact that despite the torn up bra she hardly looks like she has been through any kind of struggle, the fact I have no visible injury from her so-called escape, the fact that I somehow have a desire for her despite me rejecting her as a partner yesterday morning, or how about the fact that she waited until dawn to get me arrested. Why the hell would a victim of attempted rape wait until morning to call the guards to arrest me? Explain all of that?"
But just as before despite those valid points the king and the two heroes refused to listen and wouldn't answer him. But Ren did listen and knew that those were all good points that should be addressed but saw that the king wasn't pressing things further as an unbiased judge should do.
The King spoke, "I think I heard enough out of you, your points are all irrelevant to this attempted rape and nothing more than mad ramblings. I think this trial is already over."
"Hold on a second sir." Ren finally spoke out.
"Do you have something to say Sir Ren?" the King asked
Ren then spoke, "Yes, don't you think it's too early to end the trial?"
"What are you saying sword hero?" the king asked
"Those are not irrelevant points; they do bring up holes in Malty's testimony. Don't you think we should at least allow Bakugou to say his side of the story first to clear things up?"
Itsuki was quite disgusted by what Ren said, "You're not seriously trying to defend this bastard, are you? Just look at him." Itsuki points to Bakugou who still looked angry as ever, though he did calm down a bit when he sees Ren trying to defend him.
Ren quickly reacts to that comment, "Uh no, I'm... I'm just saying that there is clearly more to this story then we are looking at through one perspective. For all we know this could've been just some sort of messed up misunderstanding?"
The king just shook his head, "Sir Sword hero are you committing yourself to defend the shield hero? Because if you do, you should be warned that by doing so you will be counted as an associate to the crime and you will suffer the same consequences of the accused if found guilty." this fact shocked Ren making him stay silent as he was now unsure of himself.
Bakugou couldn't believe what he just heard, "What kind of brain-dead legal system are you running here!? You're more of an incompetent ass then I thought!"
"You god damn be quiet!" the king yells at Bakugou and turns back to Ren, "So sir sword hero are you going to be on the defense of the accused?"
Ren's mind was completely conflicted, he can bluntly see how unfair this trial has been, the King was being completely biased against Bakugou and was too consumed by his hatred of him to see reason and the holes in Malty's testimony. Motoyasu and Itsuki were just as uncooperative who were both already looking at him angrily for even trying to defend Bakugou. He wanted to genuinely help, but he knew with such an unfair trial he would be found guilty himself anyway and would've had his name be dragged into the mud along with Bakugou's. All to help a guy he never liked to begin with.
After a minute of silence and thinking Ren finally made up his decision, "No, I'm sorry Bakugou."
"You spineless cowardly bastard! I hope you rot in hell with the rest of these incompetent idiots!" Bakugou yells now seeing everyone was against him. Ren could only look down in shame.
And as he continues his yelling Bakugou noticed the "victim" Malty behind Motoyasu, despite all her crying she was finally showing her true nature, mocking Bakugou by making a childish face at him with her tongue out and her eyelid down, Bakugou thought to himself 'I knew she was a bitch from the very start, but I didn't think she would've done all of this to spite me. She took advantage of everyone's hate and to make a fool out of me. She is no better than a villain in my world, no she is a villain, the worst kind of villain the one that hides under a mask of lies to think herself as a victim. I hate her!'
Bakugou finally outbursted out loud, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU EVIL ROTTEN BITCH!"
Malty cowards behind Motoyasu still pretending to be the victim, "You are not going to lay a finger on her, she's under my protection and if you try anything monster then I will not hesitate to kill you!" Motoyasu threats while holding on to Malty.
"Is that a fact! Why not try me now!" Bakugou yells and was about to use his quirk to blast out of the chains and start attacking everyone in the court and beat up Motoyasu, the King, and the bitch into bloody pulps. But as he was about to explode, he looks around at the crowd as well as some the knights. They all looked scared and unsure of what to expect. From their point of view, they saw him as the villain and if he started attacking the whole court it would just confirm their beliefs of him and he wouldn't be any better to the people the heroes fought in his world. He finally stopped himself and calmed down a little.
The nobles that were watching were all pretty conflicted some saw the shield hero as nothing more than a devil others saw some of his points and thought the trial sounded fishy, but their opinions were irrelevant when it came to the King's decision, "I would just throw you in jail and let you rot, but with the waves incoming we can't afford to hold back our heroes. But the word is already spreading of your crimes shield devil, everyone will know of what you did. You'll never be able to live a decent life in this country. That is your punishment."
But Bakugou had enough of this sham of a trial, "Go ahead! Slander me as much as you want! I don't care what the hell you say to me or what you tell the people, I will prove to them myself who is a real hero out here in this dump of a world! And I especially don't give any damns about the insults of a consort!" the last part actually shocked the King for him to know about that.
"What the hell are you talking about!?" the King demanded
"I know how things really work around here, you're not god damn royalty! You married your way into that chair! Your wife is the one running the show, you're just pretending to be a King!"
The King started to get extremely angry by this, "You shut up about my wife! She has nothing to do with this!"
"It has every god damn thing to do with it! She is the one actually in charge here! She's the one who rules this country! And only her word should matter to me! YOUR NOTHING MORE THEN GOD DAMN BREEDING STOCK!"
"ENOUGH!" The King finally had it with him as he slams his fists on the arms of his throne and finally stood up and pointed his fingers toward the doors, "Throw this monster out now! Get him out of my sight!"
And with that order the guards pulled on his chains and drags him despite his resistance, "I'll show you! I'll show all of you! I will be the best hero in all of Melromarc and I'll beat up all of you liars! You will see! You will see!" he continues to yell until he was dragged out of the throne room with the door shutting.
The nobles continue to gossip with one another over the trial, however, the King, Motoyasu, and Itsuki were all satisfied that supposed justice had finally prevailed.
All but Ren, despite his silence he felt completely ashamed. Despite all of his loud and ungrateful nature Bakugou was still a victim to an unfair trial and he knew it. But he didn't even have the guts to protect him and allowed the king to just steamroll Bakugou. He thinks to himself, "If I can't even stand up to someone who needed my help, could I even call myself a hero at all?"
Bakugou was finally thrown out of the castle by the guards and had to unravel the chains by himself.
He stomps out toward the nearest gate out of town, he didn't want to be near anyone right now who were all horrified to look at him, the king did seem to be right about rumors spreading quickly about what the shield hero did.
But Bakugou didn't care what they think of him now. He was going to show all of them who is the best hero in the world regardless of all of that.
Even the people he helped yesterday were reluctant to talk to him, they were in the same boat as Ren, they were afraid of ridicule if they tried to help the supposed rapist regardless of how things were in reality.
He also had a quick encounter with the weapons merchant who was waiting to beat him up, "Hey you! I heard what you did to that girl! You think someone like you can just get away with it!" and attempts to punch Bakugou.
Only for Bakugou to easily grabbed his fist and gave him an angry look at him, "I'm not the villain here. You know that."
And after that, he gets a quick look in his eyes, the blacksmith now knew that Bakugou was being genuine and backs down, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I sort of believe you. I may regret saying this but your still welcome to shop if you need anything." the smith says as he walks back to his shop with Bakugou continuing to walk his way toward out of the capital.
He finally makes his way to the fields. He was so consumed by anger and hate he doesn't even care that a bunch of balloon monsters was biting on his body, due to his high defense he wasn't suffering from any pain or damage anyway.
So much was clouding Bakugou's thoughts right now, not just over here in this world but over stuff back in his old world as well, "What the hell is wrong with these idiots, they judge me before truly knowing me, it's all the same in Japan and U.A, everyone gets one good look at me and see a few moments of me yelling and they assume I'm some evil person. Entire agencies didn't want anything to do with me after the sports festival, children mock me on patrol duty, and even the league of villains thought they had a chance to make me join them. And everyone here in Melromarc, people blindly listen to that bitch over a stupid rape accusation just because they don't like me and those that aren't blind are so full of their own petty ego's to even lift a finger. Those bastards!" Bakugou finally rips off one of the living balloons off his body and looks at it as it tries to bite him until he finally shouts, "DAMN THEM ALL!" and immediately blows up the balloon monster into pieces.
He quickly starts to blow up all the monsters on him killing every single one in an instant. The sound of the explosion attracted more balloon monsters as dozens of them started to gather up around Bakugou, but he didn't care, he hardly cared about anything anymore. He was so consumed by anger he threw all he had on the balloons no longer holding back as he blasts them away like nothing as more and more gather around him by the sound.
"I'll show them! I'll show them all who the shield hero really is!" his explosions got bigger and bigger as his anger grows out of control not caring how many balloons he was attracting when dozens upon dozens of them were all coming toward him, until Bakugou had one more outburst and blew a big explosion that killed the grass around him as well as most of the balloons.
He breathes heavily in deep anger finding this world disgusting. But as he looks for more balloons to blow up, he heard some cracking in the ground and wondered what was going on until about 20 feet away he saw something giant pop up from the ground.
It was a giant balloon monster that was over 9 feet tall with a large mouth with multiple smaller balloons in its mouth being woken up from Bakugou's loud explosions. According to his status magic, it was labeled as a balloon queen and it was a level 15 monster. Other beginner warriors would be terrified by such a beast but Bakugou wasn't remotely afraid, it just made him angrier, "Is this some joke universe, God or gods, or whatever!? Are you testing me, or are you making fun of me?! Either way, bring on as much as possible!"
He quickly engages the queen as it jumps toward Bakugou intending it or it's babies to eat Bakugou. But as the Balloon attempts to bite or jump on Bakugou he continues to dodge the beast, still with his head in the game as he blasts at the monster with all the rage he has on the monarchy and the other heroes as he could only picture them as he blasts at the giant monster.
The Queen starts to spit out dozens of her babies at Bakugou as an attack but just as usual he was immune to their damage and continued through blasting at them and the Queen, with dozens of more balloons not from the Queen start coming out of the grass to attack Bakugou.
But they couldn't contain Bakugou's rage as he gets angrier and angrier at the world until he finally had enough, "I'll show them! I'll show them!" The numerous balloons all latch on to Bakugou as his body becomes completely covered in orange with the Queen about to get a bite as well as it jumped in front of him, but Bakugou finally had it, "I'll SHOW THEM!"
BOOOOOM!
Bakugou released a giant explosion that consumed most of the area surrounding it in smoke for almost over 100 feet as debris of balloon fragments fall to the ground.
The smoke finally cleared with Bakugou standing on a burnt ground with a large amount of fragments surrounding him, including a large one that use to be the Queen balloon. Bakugou managed to kill her along with hundreds of drones with her. He even leveled up to 6, the Queen was worth 100 XP alone.
After that explosion, Bakugou finally calmed himself down after being able to let out all of his rage. He puts away all the balloon fragments to sell later on when things calm down enough in town to be able to at least talk to the shop keepers again. He also placed a Queen fragment in his shield as it dissolves into the shield and displays *Queen balloon shield unlocked* Bakugou wasn't sure what it meant but he wasn't in the mood to be experimenting right now.
After that he turns around and heads toward the nearby forest to find and kill more powerful monsters and maybe find a dungeon or two, he didn't care he just wants to get stronger, as he walks into the woods he says to himself more calmy, "I'll show all of them, what a true hero really is.".