Title: Advanced Playtesting
Author: Timothy Wren
Series: Ready, Player: Number One Hero
Episode: 03
Fandom: BNHA/Boku No Hero Academia
Relationship: TBD
Word Count: 10,662
Warnings: Video game style violence
Author’s Note: Ao3 has been stressing me out lately re: WIPs so I’m going to see how I feel just posting a bit to my site for now. It’s a bit more comfortable and less pressure, which is good for my stress levels.
Summary: Izuku enters his first Dungeon.
He opened his eyes to a scene quite unlike Dagobah Beach. In fact, it looked more like the Meadow. He was in a story-book picturesque forest with a little path meandering out in front of him. Behind him the portal lurked, a hold in spacetime.
It was like he’d entered another dimension.
And then he realized, given his quirk’s penchant for creating pocket dimensions, he likely, quite literally, had.
Alert!
[Welcome to Galen Forest, a Fantasy-class Dungeon. Your mini-map now reflects the Dungeon. Enlarge if necessary. Monsters fill the Dungeon. Slain monsters yield items. Chests also contain items that may be of use to you, so keep a weather eye!]
He clicked away the alert, only for another chime to sound.
Quest Alert!
[Clear Galen Forest Dungeon!
The Dungeon is full of monsters. Clear it and defeat the boss to return home.
Reward: +500 EXP
+10 Essence Fragments (Forest)
+1 Title
Bonus Objectives:
Slay every Monster and open every Chest (+100 EXP, +1 Potion of Minor Healing)
Combine Magicites to produce a new effect (+1 Potion Recipe)
Accept Quest?
YES // NO ]
Izuku accepted the quest. He could see no reason not to, since it basically rewarded him for what he was going to do, anyway.
It was also the first quest he’d seen with more than one bonus objective. And how was he supposed to craft potions, anyway? But so far his quirk hadn’t challenged him to do anything he wouldn’t be able to do, somehow, so he wasn’t too worried about it.
“Okay, so. Mini-map.” He drew it up and expanded it. The Dungeon was larger than he’d expected it to be, with a few different turns.
“Okay so if I’m here, then I should clear this left path before moving on, since the boss area is further along the right path.”
He minimized the map and took in his surroundings. The reason why his first impression was of a story illustration was because of the giant mushrooms.
They were as tall as the trees around them, except for a few that were level with or shorter than Izuku, so low that he could see the top of their caps.
If he squinted a bit, the dungeon looked like a double-U.
He was aiming to clear the left ‘arm’ of the double-U then retrace his steps and start on the right, whose ‘tip’ ended with the boss area. He walked forward, determined, and was almost immediately thwarted by a harsh truth.
The mini-map was not infallible. At the end of the right fork was a dead end, an impenetrable wall of mushroom stalks and trees. Well. Good thing he was planning on going left anyway.
Izuku headed left, around a small curve. There was a square indication on the map that he hoped was a chest, and as he turned around he saw it nestled in the corner of the path.
“Nice!” He said out loud, only to belatedly spot the monster wandering next to it. He crouched down, determined to go at it with a plan. He hadn’t ever killed a monster before, but it was right in the way, so would have to—to say nothing of the quest.
Besides, everything the Game had given him so far was interesting and useful, so he wouldn’t give up the chest even if it wasn’t a requirement.
The enemy was about half his size, obviously inhuman. When he paid attention to it, a label appeared above its head, along with a health bar.
Summer Aspect
It looked like a fuzzy green shrub with a black face in the middle, much more rotund than a human. He was actually relieved that it was so unmistakable for a person.
It was holding a wooden stick or staff and as Izuku looked closer, he was able to make out arms and little stubby legs, tipped with black hands and feet. When it wasn’t moving the arms looked like part of its shrubby little body.
He didn’t really want to hurt it, but this was a video game.
At least it was only one to start out with.
Izuku nervously called forth the [Simple Sword] from his Inventory.
Then he ran forward and swung.
“Ahhhk!” The thing shrieked, but Izuku was able to surprise it. The sound was familiar and Izuku realized at once that the big arms were meant to be simian in nature. Grass monkey monster!
He hit it across the body with the sword and watched its health bar go down by about a fourth.
“Oh good!” He breathed, then barely got his sword up in time to block the staff coming down at him.
He had never used a sword before, but had obviously seen one in use. They weren’t a popular hero weapon but media tended to focus on them anyway and they appeared often in movies and games.
He pushed hard and knocked back the staff, then tried to swing down again, a diagonal slash aimed at the Aspect’s shoulder. It hit but Izuku was unprepared for the knockback, stumbling slightly.
Falling back a little allowed him to accidental dodge the next hit from the monster, wooden staff arcing an inch away from the tip of his nose.
Izuku slashed again, but this time the Summer Aspect nimbly moved out of the way. Unexpectedly, it picked up intense speed, spinning around and whacking Izuku hard in the leg so fast the staff whistled through the air.
“Ow!” Izuku cried, shoving his sword forward in retaliation. It wasn’t very neatly executed, but he was able to pierce through its chest. The Aspect hissed and Izuku jerked the blade, rapidly watching its health decline until it dissolved into black particulates, which vanished before they ever made it to the ground.
Victory!
[+50 EXP!]
New Skill Created!
A crystal blue orb appeared on the forest floor, about the size of a grapefruit. It was very clearly magical.
Izuku picked it up, Observing it curiously.
New Item Type Discovered!
His quirk informed him cheerfully, blocking his view of it with the translucent screen.
[This magic orb is a Magicite, a type of Materia found in some Fantasy-type dungeons. Combining Magicites changes the magic affect to a higher-tier spell. Mix and max Magicites to discover the combinations, or combine multiples of the same type of Magicite for a more powerful single affect!]
He waved it away and looked at the Magicite.
Cure Magicite
He wanted to know more details about it but didn’t want to go all the way to the Meadow for that, if he even could while inside a Dungeon. He glared at it.
Your Skill [Observe] has leveled up!
He felt his eyelid twitch.
Cure Magicite
[A Cure Magicite. Restores a small amount of health to nearby allies.]
It wasn’t the full item card he got in the Meadow, but it was kind of helpful of his quirk, even if he was beginning to get the sense that it was messing with him.
Izuku put the healing item in his quick-draw inventory. He then went over to the chest.
Fortunately, it wasn’t any kind of locked. He opened it and it released a little chtkt sound, emitting a bright glow from the mouth as it opened.
There was gold inside. Izuku stuck his hand in and swept it up, depositing it into his Inventory as his palm moved.
You have gained 25gp.
Alright then.
He straightened, then looked at the chest curiously. Could he take it?
Warning!
If you take this chest, it will not be here to respawn loot the next time you enter the Dungeon.
Izuku snatched his hand back, yet couldn’t help but laugh.
“So I can come back in here and do the dungeon over and over again, huh? I wonder if the loot is random. I wonder if it scales with me, as I level up?”
That seemed to good to be true, but if the monsters also got harder and harder with every playthrough, he could believe it.
He was starting to get the idea that he could do this. Not just become a hero, but use this quirk and be good at it! He’d already killed a monster with a sword, and he was even starting to think ahead.
He shut the chest—it seemed like the thing to do, though he felt silly right afterwards—and opened up his [Menu] to see this new Skill.
Skills
ID Create LV- 1 (0%)
Observe LV- 3 (3%)
[Swordsmanship] (New!)
He indicated the new Skill.
Swordsmanship LV- 1 (30%)
[Through steady use of a new weapon, you have developed a Skill! +1 DMG with swords.]
Well that opened up a whole slew of possibilities. It heavily implied he’d be able to pick any weapon he wanted and slowly gain benefits from using it. In fact, given enough time and practice, he could be good with any weapon he tried his hand at.
He wondered if he would get any different weapons soon to test that theory.
Closing the [Menu], Izuku moved on to the next leg of his journey.
He made it a little ways down the path and was surprised to see the entire left ‘wall’ of trees vanished. It was like he was walking laterally along a cliff, below which he could see more mushrooms and trees, even other paths down there. They weren’t on his mini-map so he wasn’t sure he could access them, and it seemed stupid to try.
He had no idea what fall damage was like in his ‘Game’, and what if it was fatal? Izuku had no desire to find out if he could ‘respawn.’ That was a yes or no question he couldn’t afford to answer.
He pressed forward, mindful of the edge and its drop.
Soon there came a fork in the path, one that wasn’t on his mini-map at all. The road curved left and right along an island. On the map, it was one straight road, so he assumed cautiously that they met up again right after the split.
[+1 WIS!
Keep it up, make good choices!]
He took the leftmost path, idly thinking of that old tip about mazes.
A monster greeted him, ostensibly a plant but more violent-purple than green. It spat acid at him and screeched.
Or well, he assumed it was acid. A purple orb sailed toward him and he dived out of the way, barely managing not to land on his own sword.
Hell Plant
A low-level monster.
Thanks a lot! He’d worked that much out for himself! It had a plant body but he discovered pretty fast that it wasn’t rooted to the ground, coming towards him on little plant legs like a quadruped.
Two pink petals bigger than Izuku’s entire head were visible, on its back like wings, and its ‘face’ was some kind of giant maroon pitcher plant or flytrap. He didn’t have time to process details.
He scrambled to his feet and took up his sword, ready to fight. It shot another purple orb at him that splattered with a hiss against the rock wall bisecting the pass.
Right, he really didn’t want that to hit him.
Izuku ran forward with his sword raised. He slashed downward with it, piercing leaves.
It screamed at him, purple spittle flying from the mouth. He disengaged and backed away to have room to sidestep the acid orb. Thankfully, they weren’t incredibly fast.
The Hell Plant snapped at him angrily, lunging forward. He met it with steel and sliced off part of its body. It rammed into him in rage, knocking him over, and rose up to bring its forelegs hard onto him, pinning him.
Izuku got an up-close-and-personal look into the maw, which was teeming with acid, ominous bubbles forming.
He jabbed up, catching it in the chin, and rolled out of the way when it reared back. Some of the purple spatter got on him, sizzling through his clothes and burning briefly. It took some of his HP, but the Hell Plant was barely at a quarter health.
He decided to rush it and do as much damage as possible in a flurry of strikes. It worked. The head fell off completely and he swiftly scrambled backward to avoid any more acid getting on him.
Victory!
[+75 EXP]
The body dissolved into another Magicite. He picked it up.
Raise Magicite
[Wakes and restores health to an unconscious Ally.]
That kind of Magicite would be useful in hero work. He had no allies with him, obviously, so Izuku dropped it into his main Inventory.
The path now cleared, he checked around the rock wall and discovered that it did indeed meet up with the rightmost fork, which had no monsters on it. He was glad he picked the left one, so that he didn’t miss the monster, but resolved to definitely go back and check any further untraveled paths. The bonus quest objective had specified every monster, after all.
A little ahead was a small clearing with another Summer Aspect. Glad he already knew how tough this type of monster was, Izuku kind of wished he had a ranged option to take it out from a distance.
Although he’d always dreamed of being a hero like All Might in real life, Izuku tended to play more archers and ranged magicians in video games. It was just easier to do combat that way.
Still, at least he wasn’t caught literally barehanded like he had been against the Sludge Villain. He counted his blessings, girded his loins, and charged forward for a surprise attack.
This time he didn’t hesitate to press the advantage, and got in two separate strikes before the monster could turn around.
[Your Skill [Swordsmanship] has leveled up!]
He was just going for a third when something hit him from the side.
It knocked him wild, wild and burning against his clothes, and Izuku hissed as he realized what had happened. The clearing wasn’t empty. Beyond his line of sight from the edge of it, another monster waited; another Hell Plant.
It didn’t charge this time, content to keep to the range combat Izuku had wished for earlier. The thing looked almost smug to have hit him, which was impressive since it didn’t have a face.
The Summer Aspect hit him hard in the shoulder with its staff and Izuku pulled his thoughts back to the task at hand. He couldn’t pay attention to the Hell Plant while fighting the Aspect, so he had to finish the closer one off as soon as he could and then move on to the other monster.
He slashed at it, the creature not able to block in time with its staff, though it did bring it up to parry Izuku’s second hit.
A whizzing sound through the air forced Izuku to disengage and dash back, successfully avoiding a purple glob of acid.
He had a moment to size them up, the armed Summer Aspect and the ranged acid-spitting Hell Plant.
An idea formed.
Ducking around to the left, he came at the Summer Aspect from an unexpected side, slowing its reaction time and—most importantly—placing it between the Hell Plant and Izuku.
He locked the green monkey in another exchange of blows, neither landing as they met in the middle, and the plant hissed as it launched another attack.
It didn’t seem to care that it hit the Aspect point blank. The ball of acid exploded on impact, stray drops hitting Izuku. He hurriedly turned his face into his shoulder, protecting it, but the Aspect screamed its terrible monkey yell.
Izuku took the opportunity to go for its throat, hacking at it with a two-handed grip while its health was low. His blade met resistance that abruptly vanished, and he found himself swinging a sword through a dissipating monster.
A yellow Magicite appeared on the ground just as another ball of acid flew through the air. Izuku didn’t stop to pick it up. Instead, he charged the plant, employing a zig-zag pattern so it couldn’t hit him on the approach.
He hit it hard, now aware of two things. One, that this was a ranged fighter that didn’t have many options for close combat. Two, and most dangerously for the Hell Plant, that he could tank one of those acid orbs point blank if he had to.
Now it was just a game of dodging if he could, but focusing more on getting in as many hits to its leafy body as he could between shots, because it didn’t seem to be able to fire them continuously, either.
[+1 WIS!
Athena was goddess of wisdom and battle tactics.]
The Hell Plant only managed to spit one more volley at him, which he ducked under, before he delivered the finishing blow.
Victory!
[+50 EXP!]
[+75 EXP!]
It gave him another Magicite.
Now that Izuku was at the center of the ‘clearing’, which was little more than a widened section of the road he was following, he could see another monster waiting around the bend, one he’d never seen before.
It seemed content to just take a few steps, wait, take a few steps, turn, and wait, as if it hadn’t noticed him at all, so he scooped up the Magicite from the Hell Plant and jogged back out of its sightline, to the yellow one.
He compared them both in his hands.
Thunder Magicite
[Deals minor Lightning damage and zaps enemies!]
And:
Blizzard Magicite
[Deals minor Ice damage and freezes enemies]
He stared at them in disbelief.
Just like that, his quirk had given him the equivalent to magic. No, more than that—each Magicite, including the healing ones he’d already received, were almost separate quirks all on their own!
He was suddenly incredibly versatile as a hero.
Izuku had to wipe his eyes a bit. A whole entire quirk later and he was still something of a crybaby.
He put both Magicites in his quick-draw and took a few deep breaths, centering himself. He clenched his fist next to his face, hardening his resolve.
He could do this.
He decided to get a running start and see how much damage he could put behind a moving blade. He sprinted around the bend at the new monster, a vaguely feline imp thing labeled [Gremlin] and drove his blade through it wholescale.
It was uglier than the last two, kind of Halloween-ish in its childishly monstrous face and body. Its neck and arms were humorously thin and what Izuku first thought was a tail was actually a braided length of hair.
He pulled his sword out of its chest and slashed hard against it.
It made a “wah!” noise of protest, shaking something in its hand, and all at once as Izuku pulled back for another swing, it felt as if he were moving through syrup. His Stamina bar, which hadn’t hit zero even among his flurry of strikes at the Hell Plant, was flashing red.
Warning!
[The enemy has hit you with a Slow effect. Movement speed is reduced for a time.]
What followed was an incredibly frustrating few minutes. Luckily, the monster’s health was low, and he could finish it off with just six more strikes. Unfortunately, it took him forever to land those strikes.
In the mean time, the Gremlin dodged out of the way, darting in close to attack Izuku with its claws. If it had had a weapon, he might have been in real trouble, because very early on he realized there was no point in trying to block. He had to commit to a swing before the monster was even in place, and hit where he thought it would be.
What should have only taken six attempts took closer to fifteen, and Izuku was ready to hit something by the time he clipped the Gremlin a final time and it shattered into black particles.
Victory!
[+50 EXP]
A large sack hit the ground.
Izuku could pick it up, but it would take him a coon’s age just to bend down and pull himself upright again.
[Slow’s effect has faded.]
Izuku screamed in frustration, then laughed to himself. It felt good to move around. Another good thing was that his [Swordsmanship] Skill had leveled up again, proving he didn’t need to hit something or even have an enemy nearby to grind the Skill.
While he wouldn’t be cutting grass with it any time soon, he could probably fashion some sort of training dummy, or even just work through some forms on his own.
Izuku checked his new Skill and saw that he now did 3% additional damage with a blade. That explained why his last strike, despite only clipping the monster, was enough to kill it.
He also, to his extreme surprise, had a new Skill.
Skills
ID Create LV- 1 (0%)
Observe LV- 3 (20%)
Swordsmanship LV- 3 (5%)
[Elemancy] [LOCKED]
Fortunately, he had a pretty good idea of how to unlock it. Based on the title, it looked like the word ‘element’, and there was only one new thing his quirk had given him that was elemental in nature.
He pulled up his Inventory window and looked hard at both screens—the quick-draw slots with the Cure, Blizzard, and Thunder Magicites, and the general window that contained the Raise one.
His quirk had told him he could mix and match them for special effects, and the bonus quest objective had mentioned it as well, though he hadn’t known what a Magicite was at the time.
Combining them would unlock the Skill, most probably, and he certainly had to do it to get his reward. However, it was surprisingly hard to make himself, knowing he only had one of each type and hadn’t even tested them yet.
Despite the hits from the Gremlin, his health was at three quarters and rising. He also had food with the power to heal him.
That left viable candidates for the second sacrifice as Raise and his two elemental Magicites.
He was probably a bad hero for finding Raise less valuable, at least in the short term. Part of him wanted to keep it in case he ran into a downed civilian or teammate, but—well. He wasn’t a hero yet and using his quirk like one could get him fined or even jailed as a vigilante.
There was also the facts that a) he really didn’t have any teammates right now, or even any civilians or friendly forces inside the dungeon, and b) these monsters seemed to only drop Magicites and gold, so he was likely to pick up another one. If he had to, it was also implied that he’d be able to run through the Dungeon a second time, and farm it for resources.
Blizzard and Thunder, however, were his only ranged options.
“Wait a second.” Izuku said, then smacked his own forehead. “I could have used magic while I was under [Slow]! Argh.”
He wouldn’t be making that mistake again, though he thought he could be forgiven for forgetting that he lived a life where “use magic” was quite suddenly a possibility and not a daydream.
With multiple monsters and a boss still left to fight, Izuku put Raise into his quick-draw inventory and closed the window. He mentally called on both at once, prepared to fuse them.
To his surprise, however, pulling two out at once seemed like enough of a clue to his quirk.
Alert!
[You are trying to combine Magicites. Combination options are as follows:
Gravity (Blizzard + Thunder)
Raise+ (Cure + Raise)
Curecast Blizzard+ (Blizzard + Cure)
Curecast Thunder+ (Thunder + Cure)
Raise+ Electric Resistance (Thunder + Raise)
Raise+ Ice Resistance (Blizzard + Raise)]
The math was right, given that single combinations of any four options would yield six results, but Izuku somehow hadn’t realized there would be so many options.
He clicked on [Gravity] and blinked as the Dungeon around him faded into his Meadow.
It was warm and sunny.
Izuku felt his shoulders slump as he relaxed, sitting down in the soft grass.
“Well that answers that question.” He said to himself, then paused to read over the full affects of all the Magicites and options. It seemed like [Observe] hadn’t leveled up as much as he had hoped, because even the base description of Thunder and Blizzard had left out they they offered paralysis and literal, temporary freezing as side-effects.
[Raise+] differed from Raise in that it affected every unconscious Ally within a five meter radius and provided a more robust HP boost. The Raise+ Resistances granted a temporary elemental resistance after raising the unconscious allies, again with more healing than a base Raise.
Both of the [Curecast]s added a provision for healing allies within the effect radius of their respective spells. It could be a useful elemental distraction to push enemies back while he healed teammates.
[Gravity], however, offered a different magical affect entirely.
Izuku wasn’t sure how ice and lightning merged into gravitational magic, but he decided to merge them anyway. It hurt to lose his only ranged options, and—more than that—his only real way to use his quirk offensively, but he told himself that he could always pick up more.
Izuku combined the two into Gravity and then placed it in his quick-draw, heaving out a sigh. He received the notification of a new Skill, as expected, but didn’t check it quite yet. He laid back in the grass and let his muscles unclench, watching clouds pass by, and trying not to think about the possibility that his quirk had made its own star. Surely that was just Sol, and this was just a small piece of reality set aside for him, pulled out of spacetime?
Which was still monumental, but not to the point where it was crafting stars.
Izuku decided to check his Stats.
Name: Izuku Midoriya, 14
Level: 2 (350/400 EXP)
Health (HP): 150/150
Mana (MP): 50/50
Stamina (STA): 100/100
Quirk: The Gamer
Title: None
Stats:
STR (2)
DEX (2)
END (3)
VIT (2)
INT (2)
WIS (5)
Unused Stat Points: 5
EXP until next level: 50
“Skills.” He said. He clicked through the new notification and read the definition of his elemental Skill.
Skills
ID Create LV- 1 (0%)
Observe LV- 3 (19%)
Swordsmanship LV- 3 (5%)
Elemancy LV- 1 (10%)
The good news was the skill had leveled up 10% just by combining two Magicites. It also gave him a quest, which seemed simple until he noticed it had better rewards than half the things he’d seen so far.
Quest Alert!
[Neophyte Elemancer!
Collect every type of stage one Magicite. Progress: 4/6.
Quest Rewards:
+600 EXP
+3 Stat Points
+5 Gravity Magicites]
He let his Stamina and Health regenerate in full before he sat up, examining his clothes. They were torn by claws and eaten through in places by acid. The full attack he’d bourn from the second Hell Plant had blasted a hole clean over his kidney, but he had nothing to change into—a flaw he’d be correcting as soon as he got home, to be sure. He now had infinite pockets, so why hadn’t he thought to carry around a change of clothes?
Takamagahara knew he was more-than-used to hiding holes just like that from his mom.
Izuku left the Meadow to the same place he’d entered from, immediately pausing to adjust to the lighting of the Dungeon, which seemed almost gloomy in comparison.
In front of him were no more monsters, and in fact, the path seemed to lead to another dead end. Then Izuku walked forward and noticed a stark difference between this “dead end” and the abrupt end of the first path he’d seen back at the beginning of the Dungeon.
Unlike the unflinching wall of tree trunks and mushroom sprouts down that first right fork, this path culminated in a single giant mushroom, its height reaching Izuku’s midsection.
It was, not to put too fine a point on it, climbable.
Izuku braced both arms and swung himself over, pleased to find that it was the correct choice. The material under him was not just spongey, but jumpy.
He hopped experimentally and when he landed, found himself springing up effortlessly. Izuku laughed, delighted.
For the first time, he realized how much fun this could be. Yes, he had been scared at first, and yes, he had realized it was possible to succeed when he first used his sword, but this was the first time he truly embraced that his quirk made real life a Game.
He was inside a video game!
He jumped until it started to have an effect on his Stamina, and then he looked to the future and properly aimed his feet. One big jump was all it took to spring him onto the cliff in front of him, inaccessible except by giant trampoline mushroom.
Naturally, he jumped right into a fight, but Izuku couldn’t even be bothered to get worked up about it. Still riding the elation of living a game, he focused in midair. It was a flying enemy, so he used the newly forged Gravity on it right out of the gate.
When he thought about using the spell, he felt immediately that there were multiple ways of doing it. The way that his quirk provided naturally was to summon the Magicite into one of his hands and point with the other, casting the spell at the indicated area.
“Gravity!” He called, and the spell detonated. First, it formed arcing black lines in the shape of a rune circle, then imploded in on itself, sucking in only to explode out in a black-purple sphere of magic. It looked almost like a small black hole.
The Ahriman was sucked into the area of effect, howling. It was a round monster whose body was its face, a giant eye taking up most of it, with little claws and feet added to that circle. It was completely orange except for its massive black wings, making it the biggest monster Izuku had faced so far.
He landed across from it and wasted no time striking while it was still disorientated from his spell. It had even taken some HP damage from the fall, which was more than he had hoped for.
It struggled to right itself for long enough that Izuku was able to whittle it down to three-quarters health, and then it lashed out with some sort of magic to give it breathing room.
Izuku got out of the way, head turning to track the crackling yellow effect. Lightning, then.
He waited for it to dissipate then dived in. He couldn’t afford to waste any time! The monster wasn’t able to fly again so soon, making it vulnerable, and he didn’t have another Gravity to pull it down to earth.
Izuku slashed at its eye, the vulnerable point, and the Ahriman used its wings to shield, hissing. He struck at those instead, getting a bit of damage before they spring open.
When they moved out of the way, he could see the eye itself charging some sort of attack. He dismissed his sword to the quick-draw Inventory and dove out of the way, certain he didn’t want to get hit by it.
The attack was golden-white and it lanced across the platform, turning as the Ahriman turned, but Izuku managed to stay ahead of it. He made sure to stay as close as he dared, so that he could rush in as soon as it finished, re-summoning his sword to hand.
Izuku plunged the sword into its eye before it could react, making it scream out, animalistic. He drew it out and struck again, doing so much damage that it broke into black fragments immediately.
[+1 DEX!
Look at you go!]
Izuku huffed, noticing his Stamina was refilling as he waited.
Victory!
[+75 EXP]
It dropped a crafting item called Chunk of Iron that Izuku picked up curiously. Also on the platform was a chest.
He opened it.
You’ve acquired [Silver Spectacles]!
Under Observe, the item said it would protect him from a status effect called ‘blinding’ and raise his defense a little. He put them on.
They immediately flashed blue and disappeared.
“What?” Izuku asked, confused. He opened Inventory and there they were, Equipped on the figure of himself. The stat bonuses were there as well.
When he touched his face, he didn’t feel them.
“Alright. Nice, I guess. It would be a little cumbersome and awkward to walk around in those massive fantasy suits of armor I see in games. Wow, I hope I get one of those massive suits of armor I see in video games.”
He exited out of the interface and looked around.
There was a path but he actually had to walk across the mushroom tops to traverse it. He did so, noticing as he went that there was another ‘cliff’ he was walking along, with a far drop.
He took care not to stray too close to the edge.
Soon he rounded a corner and two enemies were waiting, another Summer Aspect and an Ahriman.
And Izuku without any Gravity Magicites.
He paused at the corner, still unseen, and considered his options.
Before, he’d used the bouncy mushroom to come out above the Ahriman. If he’d thought that through, he could have aimed from on top of it and plunged his sword into it, riding it down to the ground. Now he didn’t have a bouncy mushroom available.
His mind raced as he considered something.
He thought of a line from the Game system that felt like days ago, but was only from this morning.
He’d been so overwhelmed by the very existence of the Game at first–of his very own quirk– that some things just hadn’t gotten the attention they deserved. Likely he’d spend the next month (at least!) analyzing the different facets of his quirk, and that was if it stopped evolving right now.
Where you entered the Meadow didn’t have to be where you left the Meadow.
He could essentially teleport.
His brain tried to refuse to accept the concept, but a small part of him was already rushing ahead, arcing from thought to thought like lightning. He’d spent too many years analyzing quirks not to latch onto his with a willing heart, embracing every single possibility and advantage.
Izuku turned around and jogged back to the giant bouncy mushroom.
[+3 WIS]
[Oh my fucking god, you absolute madlad. I can’t believe you’ve fucking done this.]
“Yes!” Izuku shouted, jumping down from the earthen platform where he’d fought the first Ahriman to the mushroom below. The added height to his first jump sprung him high into the air, and when he came down a second time, he bounced even higher.
At the apex of his jump, Izuku thought hard of the air high above the Meadow—several stories into the air, just in case this didn’t work, so that he had time to leave the Meadow and come down on top of the mushroom again, rather than fall to his death against the hard grass.
He slid into the sunlit space just in time for gravity to take hold, but before he could even feel the wind, he concentrated on the space several meters above the new Ahriman.
Izuku appeared in the real world—or at least, the Dungeon—and braced his sword, driving it through the monster’s back with a scream. He’d only been falling for roughly three meters, so it wasn’t too rough when he landed, but the momentum drove his blade through the beast and they both hit the ground hard, the monster taking the brunt of the impact.
It had only been hovering a few feet above the ground. The one strike brought it to just below half health. Izuku laughed, panting. He pulled his sword out and thrust it through the back of the Ahriman’s head, enough to kill it.
[+1 STR]
[You know what you did!]
It burst, leaving him with a Thunder Magicite.
Izuku turned on the Summer Aspect, leveling his sword at the leaf-furred monkey.
“You’re next.” He proclaimed, wishing he had more Magicite so he could test another one out. He was eager to use more magic, and disappointed he couldn’t, yet found himself grinning anyway. There was something primitive and thrilling about using a sword.
Izuku approached cautiously, remembering that if this creature managed a dodge, it could retaliate incredibly fast, using some kind of reactive ability.
It might even be a Skill.
He chose to go for the broad center of its body while facing it head-on, so that it had trouble moving its entire body out of the way. Of course, Izuku himself would be vulnerable, but he was starting to get bolder now that he hadn’t been forced to use a single healing item.
It became a contest of blows. Izuku got in more hits, and did more damage with them, meaning that after a minute or two of furious exchange, he lowered the monster’s hit points down to zero, while he still had half of his own.
He was also starting to think he had more HP in general than most monsters, which made sense.
It vanished, leaving him another Cure Magicite.
Victory!
[+75 EXP]
[+50 EXP]
He almost sighed. It made sense that Cure was the most common drop, since objectively it was the one that he needed the least. Food and rest could heal him up to full health, but no amount of sitting on his ass would let him cast fireball.
There was a chest nearby that he opened eagerly. It was guarded by two separate monsters, so he was hoping there was something exciting inside.
He pulled out not one but two items, one of which was a weapon, and grinned.
Mage Smasher
[A special dagger designed for taking on mages. Chance to inflict Silence.]
The second item seemed to be an armor piece.
Silver Bracer
[An engraved metal bracer favored by mages. Improves MP, protects against Silence].
Izuku immediately put on the bracer. He had yet to spend a single magic point, but it was satisfying anyway to watch his MP jump up to 57/57.
Although, come to think of it, wasn’t he due to level up? He’d been awfully close in the Meadow.
Izuku hummed to himself and opened his Menu. The text he predicted he’d see was there, flashing innocently.
[Level up available!]
He accepted.
You Have Leveled Up!
+5 Stat Points
+25 MP
+50 HP
+50 STA
EXP to next level: 450
He accepted.
“Now, how do my stats look…” He muttered under his breath as he navigated back to that page. It was getting easier and easier all the time to navigate the interface.
Name: Izuku Midoriya, 14
Level: 3 (150/600 EXP)
Health (HP): 200/200
Mana (MP): 86/86/75
Stamina (STA): 150/150
Quirk: The Gamer
Title: None
Stats:
STR (3)
DEX (3)
END (3)
VIT (2)
INT (2)
WIS (8)
Unused Stat Points: 10
EXP until next level: 450
Vitality and Intelligence were his only stats that hadn’t improved much, but he had a good idea of how to handle those in the overworld. Frankly, he was worried about Intelligence least of all, because of who he was as a person and how his quirk tended to interpret rewarding stats.
He put the dagger into his Inventory for now, unwilling to start on a whole new Skill when he had already devoted a few levels into Swordsmanship. Maybe after this Dungeon.
He looked around carefully and noticed a path leading up. Based on the direction, it was almost certainly a circle with the path he’d just taken, but he’d walk it to make sure there was nothing hidden over there.
Closing the chest and palming his sword hilt, Izuku headed over. He was immediately correct; the corner he turned led right back to the path to the giant trampoline mushroom, and it did indeed have a monster lurking.
It was another Hell Plant, but without a monster to act as a distraction he could go right for it. He decided to try something interesting. Getting its attention with a low whistle, Izuku braced himself for the purple blob of acid. The plant with the large wings, though seemingly incapable of flight, hopped onto its haunches and spit the acid at him.
Izuku waited, watched, and stepped back into the Meadow. The actual stepping wasn’t necessary, but it used significantly less concentration if he didn’t move his actual position. He stepped forward exactly where he left, no need to adjust or plan.
The ball of acid crashed into a tree trunk behind him.
He smiled. While actually moving himself in three dimensions was difficult and required precise, detailed images of where he wanted to appear, keeping his position the same and just changing the environment made no difference at all.
He could dodge anything if only he was paying attention and timed it right.
Izuku ran at it and tried to see how many slashes he could get in before it recharged. The answer seemed slightly faster than before, but then again, he’d leveled up.
The mouth flap opened and Izuku took a half step back. He took a breath, waited an extra second to be sure, and then raised his sword high over his head, stepping hard into the Dungeon with his leading foot to put his hips into it.
The metal arced through the air, slicing deep. He’d cut through two-thirds of its health. Izuku jerked his sword back and resumed pressing himself to be faster, to hit harder, making each strike count and increasing the number of strikes. His arm started to ache.
His Stamina bar pitched below the quarter mark.
The Hell Plant opened its mouth once more but its health was so low, just a little more…
Izuku saw the acid orb form, but he knew he could tank it, even as he got nervous from how close it was to his face and eyes. Theoretically, he was immune to Blindness right now, but he didn’t want to test it. He got in one more hit and the Hell Plant turned to dust, but Izuku was already gone.
He didn’t even take the time to move physically, just mentally jerked himself into the Meadow, collapsing to his knees. He’d seen the ball of acid collapse in on itself before it could fire, but that was too close.
Izuku took a minute to catch his breath, letting his Stamina rebuild a bit.
Then he looked up and the notifications started flooding in.
[+1 STR]
[+1 DEX]
[+1 WIS]
[Your Skill [Swordsmanship] has Leveled Up!]
[+75 EXP]
[+1 Thunder Magicite]
[+1 Vial of Acid]
Izuku dismissed them each, surprised.
He was also grateful that the Game saw fit to just hand over the loot dropped, instead of letting it fall to the ground like it sometimes did. Apparently when he was in a hurry or in the wrong dimension, it would just give him the loot like this.
Izuku was already in the Meadow so he opened the Inventory to check out his recent items in detail.
Mage Smasher
A dagger designed to take on mages. +10 DMG, 15% chance to inflict Silence.
He pulled out the new vial.
Vial of Acid
A vial containing a Hell Plant’s Acid. Crafting Item. Does 20 points of Poison Damage on contact.
He placed the vial back.
In the Equipment tab, he looked a little closer at his new vambrace.
Silver Bracer
An engraved silver brace favored by mages. Wearer receives 15% boost to MP. Wearer is immune to Silence. +15 DEF.
He kept with his decision not to switch to a dagger fighting style just now. Especially since, when he checked, Swordsmanship now gave him a 3% attack bonus when wielding a sword.
That affect was just going to get more and more powerful as he leveled up the Skill.
Izuku stepped out of the Meadow at the chest he had last opened, mostly because that was a definite place he could picture. It was either that or spend a few more minutes playing on the bouncy shroom, but Izuku was growing more conscious of time passing, and wanted to get to the Boss sooner rather than later.
He traveled east, the only way the path offered, and came upon two more enemies clustered together. One was a Hell Plant, so Izuku crouched down to stay unobserved and therefore out of risk of its ranged attacks, but the other was new.
Galen Hedgehog, said its header. Izuku didn’t think it looked like much of a hedgehog. It was bipedal but extremely round; red-skinned with a face taking up most of its midsection. It did have purplish spikes coming out of his back, but where hedgehogs were bespined all over, on this monster were only a handful, almost cosmetic.
It was an unknown, so Izuku decided to be cautious. Usually, he might rush the Hell Plant, taking it out even if he had to tank the attacks from the new monster, so that he wasn’t fighting that unknown with poison globs targeting him.
Instead, Izuku kept something crucial in mind. He could do magic.
[+1 WIS!
Familiarizing yourself with and actually USING everything the game gives you is crucial to progress.]
Izuku waved the interface away. His DEX wasn’t very high, so he didn’t lob the Magicite as he knew he could. As near as he could figure, based on his instincts when he held the thing, there were three ways to activate one.
First, simply hold it in your hand and use it as a power source for casting the spell, choosing where to activate it. Second, use it as a grenade to detonate where it lands. Third, prime it and set it somewhere carefully to activate after a set period of time.
The third required the most focus, so Izuku went with the simplest method, summoning Thunder to his hand. He pointed, eyes glowing electric blue.
“Thunder!” It hit the Hell Plant, detonating on the ground next to it in a wave of lightning that surged up and around in a wild pattern. The area of affect caught the Hedgehog, which spasmed hard, and Izuku lurched into action while they had the Paralysis effect active.
He still went for the Plant first since it was a confirmed range hitter, and he didn’t want to suffer any more acid. It went down to a well-placed flurry of strikes. He didn’t give it the time to recover from the Paralysis, much less open its mouth to spit acid.
It went down just as the sparks were dying down.
Izuku turned to the new enemy without even checking the Hell Plant’s drop.
The Hedgehog still glowed with crackling yellow lightning marks, indicative of its status condition. Izuku sized it up. It spat a fireball.
“Woah!” Izuku jerked to the side, heat passing him by close enough to singe the little hairs on his arm.
He should have gone to the Meadow. His hand tightened on the sword, grip digging into his palm. He’d have to practice reflexively ‘teleporting’ out, until it was his first instinct. But that was a thought for later.
If the thing could shoot fire, Izuku wanted to be in close range. He charged. He didn’t slow down, using the momentum to carry his sword. It struck through the Hedgehog, injuring it. The pig bent its legs and this time Izuku did go to the Meadow. He didn’t know what attack the thing was planning, so he barely stayed long enough to register the colors. He exited ten feet to the right of where he’d disappeared from, just in time to watch the Hedgehog body slam his previous position.
So, it had a physical attack, too?
Okay.
Izuku ran towards it, striking it in the back while it was down, then disengaging. It bounced back to its feet and shot off another fireball. Izuku crouched, sword down, and held his body still and his breath as he phase-shifted without taking a single breath. He counted to three and then reappeared, the fireball crashing against something behind him.
He pushed off like a sprinter, going from a crouch to a run as he pulled his sword back and jabbed up from underneath, like it was a spear, just as the Hedgehog executed another slam in his direction.
His momentum met with the pig’s and it made a croaking sound, impaled on his blade, which Izuku held up with two hands above his head. His hands were shaking from the weight. It slid grossly down the metal, hung there for a heartbeat, then dissipated.
Izuku panted, his arms still locked and faintly trembling with the tension.
Victory!
[+1 DEX]
[+1 STR]
[+1 INT]
[+75 EXP]
[+75 EXP]
Izuku let his sword dissolve into light and take up its spot in his quick-draw Inventory, manually dismissing each notification. He’d gained a lot of stats—for thinking outside the box, or for trying new things? Or maybe for pushing himself to extremes.
He imagined the Intelligence must have come from calculating how and when to phase-shift. And maybe that fed into Dexterity, too; the precision was nothing to scoff at.
No reason to complain over free Stats, though. Izuku would take them gladly.
The drops were a Cure Magicite and a Thunder, which was nice because it replaced the one he lost.
He decided to press on, even though his Stamina wasn’t back up yet. This Dungeon was taking a lot longer than he expected it to, though he hadn’t really had time to form that many expectations. Certainly it was taking longer, subjectively, than he would have taken if he were playing a video game on his game systems, where he could just press a button a few times and defeat an enemy.
Still breathing a little hard, Izuku crept forward along the path slowly. He wanted to be aware of any enemy before it noticed him. His prudence paid off; there was another Ahriman ahead, orange-gold and just floating there with its one eye. Every now and then it would flap its wings and change position, looking in another direction.
The last one had died easily to a sneak attack that grounded it. He was also aware that a flying enemy was easier to take out when it was on the ground.
Izuku considered his earlier stunt with the mushroom. He bit his lip. He didn’t want to go all the way back—progress was slow enough as it was, which he was impatient with now that some of the novelty had worn off—but he also didn’t have another Blizzard to combine with his single Thunder Magicite, to make Gravity.
He thought about his options. The teleport hack of his Meadow was yet another part of his quirk that could be an entire quirk on its own, and a powerful one at that. His Inventory and its pocket dimension were scarily useful. More than that, though—they were near infinite in possible uses.
Izuku looked around, remembering that first desperate fight where he had no weapons and only his environment to utilize against the enemy. This Dungeon seemed to have nothing like that. There were not even any branches around–not that they would be better than his sword. There were, however, a lot of tree-sized mushrooms that he’d already proven were capable of taking his weight.
Izuku eyed the top of one likely mushroom thoughtfully. Then he took two steps; the first placed him in his meadow, the second onto the mushroom cap, seamlessly. He hadn’t removed his eyes from it. Izuku sighed, relieved.
He didn’t have to keep the Meadow in mind when he phase-shifted, because any random arrival point within it would do; therefore, he only had to visualize his destination, and use the Meadow as a kind of hiccup between.
It was much neater than what he’d done before, and opened up a world of possibilities he would frankly be taking great advantage of once he had a few days to just experiment with that feature.
For now, he turned around—he was, naturally, facing the wrong direction, having traveled in more or less a straight line; the path was now behind him—and focused on the enemy, now waiting unaware below.
It was somehow more daunting to fling himself off a height than to just teleport mid-jump. He had a painful thought of the monster moving out of the way and Izuku plunging his sword into the ground, or the sword skittering off the hard ground and plunging into his arm or torso as he hit the earth.
Well, the good news was his life was measured in HP now, and he could heal instantly with food or a Cure Magicite. Or, he rationalized, he could dematerialize his sword in midair. He could even blur into the Meadow mid-fall, hitting the soft grass instead of the cruel path. It wouldn’t be much better, but it was an improvement.
Maybe he could drag a mattress in there, for just this purpose.
Or have a safety net installed, to fall into.
He reigned in his thoughts with effort. The possibilities would span on forever if he let them. He swallowed hard, took up his sword, and jumped. Almost immediately he realized he had the wrong angle, arm flailing too far to the left. Izuku had a split second where he thought about correcting in mid-air—blurring to the Meadow, and blurring out of the meadow a foot higher and a foot to the right—but that kind of adjustment was more than he could do in the time he had, so he panicked and plane-shifted back to the mushroom cap instead. The monster, below, was none the wiser.
Izuku’s heart was racing in his chest. He sighed shakily. It was so much easier when he was jumping, and teleported himself before gravity could take hold, where he had time to adjust in the air before the plunge.
Like this, it was just falling from the get-go. He had to jump and get the angle right to actually hit, not just materialize automatically in place.
He could use Thunder, but there was a serious dearth of Magicites. Already he was envisioning a future where he had a ready stockpile.
Izuku looked at his hand, then his sword, thinking hard. Then he facepalmed.
“So obvious.” He said. He took a horse-riding stance, sword in both hands like he was about to stab downwards.
He pictured the sky above the meadow, anywhere would do, and phase-shifted. Then he flickered back into reality above the Ahriman before he could properly start to fall.
He didn’t need to jump to place himself above an enemy. He just had to hold his sword correctly and teleport into the sky.
It was more like the Ahriman appeared under him. Izuku hit its yellow back before he’d had time to really build momentum. He’d been ‘falling’ only a few inches. His sword barely glanced off the Ahriman’s neck, barely doing any damage.
He had to do the work himself, plunging the weapon down before it could shake him off. Luckily, the monster had been hovering just above the ground; instead of a wild flight where Izuku could easily fall off, his very appearance and weight forced the monster down immediately, impact with the ground helping his stab from the other direction.
Now would be an excellent time to shove his hand forward and finish it off with some magic, but Izuku’s magic was incredibly limited. He had to save it, for now.
“Ugh.” He said, and let go of the sword to call his only other weapon, the Mage Smasher, to hand. The Ahriman was screaming. It reared its head back and shot a wild beam attack out of its singular, giant eye. Further ahead, a monster he hadn’t noticed got hit by the beam. The beam skated across the ground like a laser before smacking into a Galen Hedgehog, whose movements immediately slowed dramatically. Izuku realized the beam inflicted the same Slow effect as the Gremlin from earlier!
[Take +1 WIS for your leap of logic]
Izuku mentally shoved away the window, making several hacking slashes at the available skin of the Ahriman, which was still pinned by his sword. Its legs, under the main body, were nowhere near long enough to reach him, but the tail was; it whipped at Izuku, chipping away at his health, and the wings buffeted them as best they were able.
He ducked the sharp talon atop each wing joint and kept slashing until the monster disappeared from under him, rewarding him with a Raise Magicite.
His fingertips brushed it, sending it away with a swirl of light into his Inventory.
Alert!
[A skill has been created through special action! Using a dagger has created the Skill: Knifefighting.]
Izuku dispatched the Hedgehog without much trouble. It had a slam attack, which was easy enough to dodge, and a fireball that it didn’t try to use in close quarters.
He got a Blizzard Magicite in reward.
Next to it was another chest, so Izuku opened it and was pleased to find more weaponry. This time it took the form of 10 Shuriken.
Finally, some range!
Izuku checked the mini-map and saw he only had one leg of the dungeon to go before the boss room, the final ‘line’ of the double-u. His path was clear except for one Hell Plant that he practiced the same tactic on as earlier, hitting it as hard as he could and phase-shifting to avoid the tell-tale ball of acid, which it seemed to prepare and launch every few seconds.
It delivered a new item, a Plume of Phoenix Down, which appeared to him as a soft red feather that radiated a gentle heat. He squinted at it.
A Plume of Phoenix Down
[This rare item can act as a Raise spell, automatically reviving you if you have one in your possession.]
Izuku placed it in his Inventory.
Alert!
[Due to continuous use, your Skill [Observe] has leveled up!]
He looked around. There wasn’t much of the path left. It continued in front of him to the boss area. However, one of the mushrooms near him was bigger and flatter than the others, and climbing it he realized it led to a hidden area of the Dungeon. It bounced him up to a grove with a treasure chest, which contained 100gp when opened.
The same mushroom dropped him back down to the path.
Izuku followed it west and met another two enemies, a Hell Plant and a Hedgehog. He fought them easily enough, dodging their ranged attacks and focusing on high-damage slashes. He picked up a hunk of silver and a fruit seed.
The metals seemed simple enough as crafting items, but the fruit seed stumped him. He Observed it.
Fruit Seed
[Plant it in the Meadow and water it daily to grow a Fruit Tree! Fruit Trees produce healing Fruit.]
Okay, but there had to be a catch, right? Then he remembered that his mom’s Katsudon could apparently cure all injuries and he pocketed it without complaint. It was a source of healing items he didn’t have to work for, and they might garner some sort of magical affect besides, being from a Dungeon and all.
He ran into a Gremlin next. This Dungeon seemed to be less about puzzles and more about slaying your way through the lesser monsters to a boss fight.
Wary of the Slow ability, he didn’t engage immediately. Now that he had a chance to observe one while it was unaware of him—the Gremlin merely taking a circular route along the clearing in the path, like a guard– he could see that some sort of ball shaped charm rested at the end of its braided hair. That was what had caught him off guard last time.
He decided to try out his shuriken instead of rushing it.
The first throwing star went wide, because he had no idea what he was doing. After that it was a little better, though, because his quirk let him gain a special ability just by trying and failing.
His head spun with the implications.
Alert!
[By throwing bladed stars, the Skill [Shurikenjutsu] has been created!]
[By trying to hit a target, the Skill [Zuboshi] has been created!]
The third throwing star actually hit its target, which promptly turned to Izuku in a rage. He ducked down and saw the Gremlin’s Slow spell was a beam, much like the Ahriman’s, and the laser skated the ground before it hit him. He was able to avoid it without going to the Meadow.
Izuku stayed wide and continued throwing the stars until he ran out, dodging the Gremlin’s ranged attack when it came, after which he drew his sword and engaged closely.
The monster died with only a few hits, health whittled away by the ranged attacks already. It didn’t seem to have that much health to begin with.
Pleased that he hadn’t got caught with the annoying status affect, Izuku collected his wayward shuriken and a Blizzard Magicite for his trouble.
Izuku continued onward. Very quickly he realized he had finally come to the end of the Dungeon. He didn’t even need the map to confirm it for him. The path opened up into a wide clearing, where two Hell Plants waited on either side. Behind them was a hole in the giant mushrooms and trees, leading to what could only be the boss arena.
For the first time, though, he noticed he could see the level of the monsters.
Hell Plant (LV-1)
Only level one this whole time, huh? Well, that explained Izuku’s increasing ease as he fought and leveled up, himself. He remembered this entire Dungeon was recommended for someone around level 3-5.
Two Hell Plants at once, however, was still not ideal. Before this he had been focusing on a single plant one at a time, in order to predict and avoid their poison attacks. Like this he had twice as many to worry about and limited options for range. He would just have to take one out as quickly as possible.
Izuku took cover behind a mushroom stalk and threw every one of his throwing stars at the rightmost plant.
Alert!
[Due to continuous use, your Skill [Shurikenjutsu] has leveled up!]
He could immediately see the difference. From the third star onward, when the level up took place, each one of the last seven stars did more damage than the first three combined.
The plant hissed as it was damaged to a quarter health. Both plants fired acid at his general position, but neither left their post guarding the entrance to the boss arena. That made things easier.
He could use a Magicite, but he still only had a few, and thought he should save them for the boss itself.
Abandoning his cover, Izuku rushed forward at the weakened monster. He finished it off in three decisive slashes, leveling his Swordsmanship Skill as he did so.
Alert!
[Due to continuous use, your [Swordsmanship] Skill has leveled up!]
He waved away the alert and took out the second plant, much easier now that he could just phase-shift out of the way, without fear of getting hit by its brother’s acid attack right as he re-materialized.
Once more he employed the strategy of blinking out of reality without actually moving his position, basically turning invisible and intangible as the attack passed through where he should have been. He had just enough time to feel the Meadow’s sun warm his face, before he was shoving steel into the plant’s featureless one.
It fizzled out of existence.
Izuku collected one more Thunder and Blizzard Magicite, pleased to build up his arsenal.
Then all that was left was the boss itself.
Izuku took a moment to compose himself, rearranged his quick-draw, and went in.