Chapter 6
A few days after Kacchan revealed he could use magic, All Might got back to us about... whatever he had to do about the fact that we'd discovered that magic existed. Apparently, he'd had to contact some government higher-ups, though he didn't go into too much detail about it. "If anyone's discovered magic before you two, whoever did it kept it a secret," he told us. "The official ruling is that 'magic' and 'Quirk usage' are legally synonymous for the purposes of public Quirk usage laws. Additionally, you two are totally allowed to teach other people magic, but the suggestion is to only allow people who can be trusted with that power to learn about it, for obvious reasons. I've been asked to tell you that they need some notes from the both of you about the details regarding magic, like how to use it. Some scientists are going to do some serious research on the subject."
We agreed to do what he asked. Aside from that, we went on as normal, training for Yuuei. Kacchan decided to focus more on practicing his magic, with some physical workouts. I mostly did conditioning for One For All while training what magic I could at night and occasionally during the day, plus constantly having Halitus out to level grind Summon Basic Elemental without having to put in any actual effort. Aside from that, I decided that, while I would only have as many elementals as my skill's level would allow me to have out at a time, I should at least have the affinities for the other two elements just in case. Getting water had been as simple as just sticking my hands in the ocean until I got it, but I couldn't figure out how to safely get fire affinity (Kacchan smacked me on the head when I suggested just layering up buffs and then sticking my hand into a fire while using Healing Hands) until Kacchan had the bright idea to have me see if I could use Pyra instead of fire. Despite the fact that Pyra was made of fire in her fully summoned state, she would only burn things if she wanted to and was just warm to the touch when she didn't. I felt a little weird placing my palm on her forehead, but it did get me fire affinity. I found that Fire Aura gave me a 30% boost to attack damage, a 15% boost to movement speed, a 10% STR bonus, and the ability to generate heat. Water Aura, interestingly enough, gave me a 30% increase to magical defense, a 15% increase to magical attack, a 10% INT bonus, and the ability to both condense water from the atmosphere and generate it with MP. Their respective elemental weaponry skills gave similar bonuses. While I did occasionally use Elemental Aura in my physical training to see how they affected my abilities, I mostly just used my natural strength in the hope that that'd be the best for upping my VIT. It took most of the ten months before the entrance exams, but eventually...
Through rigorous exercise, your VIT has increased by one!
Congratulations! The quest Roaring Muscles was completed!
Completion Rewards: One For All (speak to Toshinori), 5000 EXP, 5000 Skill Fragments, Increased closeness with Bakugou, Increased closeness with Toshinori
Your level has increased by one! (x3)
I got my VIT up to 50. I looked at my stats.
STR: 44
VIT: 50
DEX: 46
INT: 73
WIS: 69
LUC: 49
I grinned. Most of my stats were either already past the fifty benchmark already or close enough that I could hopefully get them up to it within the next two months. But first, I had to do something. "All Might!" I called out.
"What is it, young Midoriya?" he asked, currently in his civilian form.
"I got my VIT to fifty!"
He switched to his hero form, then gave his trademark grin. "That's great, young Midoriya! Now I can pass my power on to you!"
"About that," I said. "How do you pass your power on to someone?"
"You see," he pulled off a piece of his hair and said, "for you to receive my power, you have to eat my hair."
"What the fuck!?" Kacchan asked as he walked over from the inferno that he'd made, with the fire dying down as soon as he left it. "Why the hell does Deku have to eat your fucking hair?"
"I can pass my Quirk on to someone through making them eat my DNA. I feel that the best thing to use for that is my hair."
I gulped, then took the hair that he offered me. "Down the hatch..." I muttered, then placed the hair in my mouth. It was hard to swallow, so I used the first step of a water spell that I'd made, Water Gun, to condense some water from the air to wash it down. I shuddered when I'd finished the water and, thankfully, the hair. "That was a little unpleasant..."
"I still remember how weird it was when I had to do it," All Might commiserated. "Now we just have to wait a few hours for your new Quirk to come, young Midoriya."
"Why the fuck doesn't it come automatically?" Kacchan asked.
"Does it have to digest first?" I theorized. "And maybe the Quirk factor has to take time to grow in even after it-" I was cut off my a ping.
A skill has been created by gaining the power of All Might! By having All Might pass his Quirk to you, the skill 'One For All' has been created.
One For All (Active and Passive) LV1 EXP 0.00%
When Quirks first started to come into existence, there was chaos. In that chaos, one man born with the power to take the Quirks of others and give them to others or use them for himself took advantage of the situation to amass power. This man had a brother, who was born with the rather underwhelming ability to pass his Quirk, the ability to pass his Quirk on to another, on to another. While it is unknown whether it was out of malice or compassion, the man forced the Quirk Power Stockpile onto his brother, and from the combination of the two Quirks, the Quirk known as One For All was born.
Skill grants the user a second MP bar. When skill is not in use, this second MP bar fills over time when the first MP bar is filled, using the same MP regeneration rate. This second MP bar has no upper limit.
When activated, user can draw upon the second MP bar in place of the natural one.
User can expend MP to increase the power of most stats and skills.
"Wah!" I exclaimed.
"What is it, young Midoriya?" All Might asked me.
"I just got One For All. I think that my Quirk sped up the process of me getting One For All, which actually makes sense when you think about it. In most games, whatever effect food and other edible things have is applied immediately, despite how it would logically require time to digest. I guess that that also means that I can use food to... Wait, that's not everything." I looked once more at the description. It was weird. The skill felt a little more complicated than what it said. Aside from that... "The description of the skill states that it was made by someone with a Quirk that can steal other people's Quirks and give them to others. Do you... know anything about that?" I asked.
All Might sighed. "Sit down, the both of you. This will be a shock." Kacchan and I sat down on the sand as All Might sat on his chair. "That man was called All For One. He was probably the most dangerous villain in the history of the world. He gained many followers in the early years of Quirks thanks to his abilities. Thankfully, his own brother, the first bearer of One For All, disagreed with him and stopped him. Unfortunately, however, All For One survived and, I'm assuming, took some form of life-extending Quirk. I know this because he was the reason why I got this wound five years ago. I'd like to say that he's dead, but we never found the body, so we can't say for sure."
I... didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. Even with the Gamer's Mind, it was a lot to take in. I think that if I could have said anything, it would have been exactly what Kacchan was saying. "Fuuuuuuuuuck. That's... fuck."
"I understand if you have reservations," All Might said. "I hoped that this wouldn't come up just yet. I wanted you to have a school experience unmarred by worry about All For One."
Kacchan scoffed. "Well maybe you still should've fucking said something about that shit before Deku ate your gross fucking hair, dumbass."
"It's fine, Kacchan," I said. "I was already prepared to be a hero, so learning that I already have an arch-nemesis isn't that bad. I'm still going to need some time to process this, but for now..." I got up and walked over to an area where there was only a stretch of sand so as to avoid collateral damage. "I've always wanted to do this." I cocked my arm back. "DETROIT!" Energy flowed through my whole arm, and for some reason I got a Sense Danger warning. That really should've been a red flag, in hindsight. "SMASH!" I punched the air, the simple force of it causing a shockwave that sent sand flying. It wasn't as strong as All Might's, but it was still a Detroit Smash! My excitement was almost immediately destroyed by the fact that my arm felt like I'd punched the sound barrier, which I had.
System Warning: Using One For All at full power is inadvisable in current condition. Usage should be limited to lower power. Level up skill to decrease damage taken.
The level of the skill Physical Endurance has increased by one!
I looked at my health, then winced and activated Healing Hands and Regeneration. "I think that my body still isn't completely up to the task of using One For All yet," I said. "My health dropped about a quarter from that one punch. I think that I should probably train my physical stats a bit more in the next two months as well as One For All practice. That might be for the best."
"Deku you better not fucking break yourself in half," Kacchan scolded.
"Yes, I would prefer that you not kill yourself, young Midoriya. That would be bad," All Might agreed. "If that's the case, then you should get back to work.
xoxoxo
I stared at the school. It was huge! I got the vaguest feeling that, if not for Gamer's Mind, I would have been shaking. "We're here..." I said.
"Yup," Kacchan said to with a toothy grin. "It'd suck pretty hard if you fucked up now and got no points at all, huh?" I looked at him. Sometime during the last two months of training, his title had changed in addition to the levels and points of INT and WIS he'd gained.
Art is an Explosion
LV 27
Katsuki Bakugou
"I doubt I'll get zero points, Kacchan," I said. "My stats are all above fifty, and INT and WIS are both approaching one hundred. I'm probably the most powerful person taking the exams, and that's not even counting One For All." It had taken a tremendous amount of effort, but I felt great about myself for managing to get all of the fifty point skills before the Yuuei entrance exam.
The skill 'Heroic Strength' has been created through STR rising above 50.
Heroic Strength (Passive) LV2 EXP 2.14%
Some are endowed with the strength to move mountains. This skill grants enhanced physical ability.
10% increase to STR.
10% increase to physical attack.
50% increase to strength-based skill effects.
The skill 'Iron Body' has been created through VIT rising above 50.
Iron Body (Passive) LV5 EXP 7.21%
Some are bestowed with the vitality to endure any punishment. This skill grants enhanced physical durability.
10% increase to VIT.
10% increase to HP.
50% increase to HP-based skill effects.
The skill 'Fleet Foot' has been created through DEX rising above 50.
Fleet Foot (Passive) LV 3 EXP 3.21%
Some are bestowed with the speed to rival the wind. This skill grants enhanced swiftness.
10% increase to DEX.
10% increase to movement speed.
50% increase to DEX-based skill effects.
The skill 'Born Lucky' has been created through LUC rising above 50.
Born Lucky (Passive) LV1 EXP 87.56%
Luck can be a very fickle thing. This skill is bestowed upon those who luck favors.
10% increase to LUC
10% increase to loot drops.
50% increase to LUC-based skill effects.
Kacchan scoffed. "Like I'll let you just take that title without a fight," he said, lightly punching me on the shoulder.
"It's a contest, then!" I smiled. "Let's see who gets the most points!" "I feel really good about this!" I mentally exclaimed. Then I tripped. "Or not." Before I could even have Halitus try to stop my fall, I just... stopped. I felt odd, like gravity had stopped working on me.
"Sorry for using my Quirk on you without asking," a female voice said, "but I thought that you might not like going through your exams with a bloody nose!" Someone pulled me into a position where I wouldn't fall, then gravity reasserted itself on me and I landed on my feet. "I hope that's okay!" she said. I turned to see a cute brown-haired girl with rosy cheeks and a bright smile.
Space Kid
LV 19
Uraraka Ochako
"Oh no, it's fine!" I said. I probably would've just frozen up and blurted out nonsense words if I didn't have Gamer's Mind. I used to get really nervous when first meeting attractive people like that. "So your Quirk is some sort of gravity-manipulation power, right?"
"Yeah!" she said, then showed me one of her hands, or rather the pads on the ends of her fingers. "I can make objects weightless if I touch them with these things. It makes me all kinds of nauseous if I use it too much, though..."
"Even with that, it seems like a really powerful and useful Quirk," I said. "You'll probably be a great hero!"
She beamed. "Thanks! I'm Uraraka Ochako, by the way. Are you two here for the hero course too?"
Kacchan did that thing where he punches his fist into his other palm and makes an explosion to look cool. "Yup! Deku and I are gonna dominate this thing, so you'd better watch out."
I sighed. "Kacchan, could you please be nice to someone who could be our future classmate?"
She laughed. "It's nice to meet you two! I'll see you two in the hero course!" Then she ran off.
A few moments later Kacchan exasperatedly said, "Son of a bitch she only knows me as Kacchan now."
"We have to get to our exams, Kacchan," I reminded him.
"Yeah, yeah," he sighed.
xoxoxo
The written exams were... well, I suppose they were difficult, but my INT was so high that I breezed through them. After that, all of the hero course students had to attend a presentation (By Present Mic!) about what the practical exams would be like. The answer was robot-fighting, apparently. During the explanation, a boy stood up to ask a question and decided to scold me for muttering as well. That was embarrassing... After that, they escorted us to the fake cities where we'd be taking the exams. Unfortunately, Kacchan was sent to a different training ground than me, probably because they didn't want people who know each other working together. Present Mic announced that we'd have a few minutes to get ready for the exam, then clarified that that meant things like stretching but also things like preparing our Quirks. At that moment, I got a new quest.
A quest has been created!
Start Line
The Yuuei entrance exams include a ten-minute mock battle against robots. Get as many combat points as you can!
Optional objectives: Destroy the zero-pointer.
Completion: 100 EXP per combat point, 100 Skill Fragments per combat point. Optional: 2500 EXP, 2500 Skill Fragments.
Failure: You don't get any combat points, decreased closeness with Bakugou.
I readied up my buffs, holding them so that I could use them the moment the exam started but also regenerate my MP and use One For All to charge them up. As I looked over the crowd, I saw Uraraka. I started to walk over to her to thank her for earlier when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "What do you think you're doing?" I turned around to see the boy who scolded me earlier in a tight-fitting shirt that really showed off his muscles, unlike my tracksuit. He also appeared to have engines in his calves, which was probably his Quirk. "She appears to be getting ready for the mock battle." You could tell from his voice alone that he was really strict. "Were you going to use your Quirk on her to soften up the competition?" He looked at my left hand. I looked at the four balls of colored light in my hand. That probably looked bad, didn't it?
"It's not what it looks like!" I blurted. He raised an eyebrow. "The balls are for me, not her!" I clarified. He was actually really intimidating.
His face softened up a bit, then he bowed at a ninety-degree angle. "My apologies," he said, then came up. "What were you going to do with her, then?"
"I tripped earlier and she caught me. I don't think it would've been too bad thanks to my Quirk, but I wanted to thank her anyways," I explained. He nodded. I took a look at his name.
Class President
LV 24
Iida Tenya
"I see," he said. "I apologize for my harsh tone. It seemed at first that you were trying to distract the others."
I would have said something to him, but before I could, Present Mic yelled, "GO!" and a timer appeared on my UI, counting down from ten minutes. Everyone went quiet and started staring at him. "What are you standing there for, listeners!? You don't get countdowns in real life! Start already!" I panicked a bit, then popped my Speed Up and started using Air Aura. I dashed off into the mock city as fast as I could, looking at my minimap as I did. Now that the exam was starting, the robots were appearing as red dots on it. "Halitus, Dune," I muttered. My air elemental appeared, and next to him was my new earth elemental. I'd made her only a month ago. She had a very different style of clothing from the other two elementals I'd seen, with what looked like some sort of military desert camouflage uniform and a pair of goggles pushed up onto her hair. She had short, sandy blonde hair and dark brown skin that reminded me of rich soil. "Point me to where the most robots are," I told them. As I did, Iida ran up to me.
"A fellow speedster, I see!" he exclaimed over the wind. "I look forward to seeing what you can do if you get into the hero course!" Before I could say anything to him, he got even faster and dashed off. A few moments later, my elementals pointed me to a street where there were a lot of robots. I used the Attack Up, Defense Up, and Regeneration that I'd been saving for an encounter, then made a katana with Bound Blade and used Air Aura on it. Air seemed like it'd be the best for the mock battle because the speed bonuses meant that I could rack up a lot of points quickly. I proved myself right when I charged at the robots, carving through most of them in seconds. When there were only a few left, I shot my hand out at them and made a crushing motion, causing them to crumple like tin cans as Dune and Halitus combined their powers to destroy them with a combination of increased air pressure and their own armor pressing in on them. "That was so awesome," I muttered. I dropped my Air Aura and dissipated my Bound Blade to let my mana fill back up. I'd already gotten twenty-nine points and two level-ups in the span of... I checked the timer. Two minutes. "I'm doing great!" I exclaimed. As I ran to the next hot spot, a one-pointer surprised me by jumping out of the wall like an evil Kool-Aid man. I yelped, then pulled out my sword to slice at it. The robot managed to almost dodge my swing, ending up with me only chopping off its toe. Before I could utterly wreck it with a spell, a laser beam came out of nowhere and decimated it, resulting in me getting some, but not all, of the experience points from the kill. I turned to where the beam of light came from.
"Merci," a pretty boy (Was he... sparkling?) with blonde hair and a strange-looking belt said. "You and I make a great team, monsieur. You seem like excellent bait for les robots." He then ran off, likely in search of more robots. I decided to let it not bother me due to the exams being a bit of a competition and instead just continued on, destroying the robots I saw. I decided to use ranged skills to destroy them from a distance. "Air Slash!" I yelled. A blade of air shot at the three-pointer, cutting its "head" off. "Fireball!" The next robot I found was exploded and melted. "Water Gun!" The third robot was pierced by a bullet made of water, its delicate insides soaked into uselessness.
It continued on like that for a while until I found where most of the fighting probably occurred. Robot remains were everywhere. As I watched, Iida kicked a robot with his engine leg so hard that it just stopped working and Uraraka pressed her fingers together, releasing a bunch of robots to the cruel reign of gravity. It looked like everyone was resting before splitting up to find more points. I was about to leave when the ground started shaking. A towering, building-sized robot, the zero-pointer, rose up from the ground and started thrashing about. It goes without saying that this caused everyone to panic and run away. I was about to join them when I heard a familiar voice cry for help. I saw Uraraka trapped under a rock, with the zero-pointer coming closer. It wasn't even a question what I should do next. I ran as fast as I could, using Air Aura and another Speed Up to replace the one that ran out. As I ran, I used an Attack Up, Defense Up, and Regeneration on myself, then shot another Defense Up and Regeneration at Uraraka just in case. When I was close enough, I jumped, using a barely-harnessed Air Burst combined with some One For All to send me flying skyward. As I rose, I felt the glow of One For All rise up in my arm, and I let it go full-force, even added to it with some air mana. Because it was supposed to be a secret that I had All Might's Quirk, I didn't shout any of All Might's attack names. Instead, when I wound up my punch, I shouted, "LIMIIIT!" I punched at the robot with all my might. "BREAAAAAAAK!" The rush of air slammed into the zero-pointer, hitting it so hard that its face crumpled in. The zero-pointer toppled backward from the force of the punch.
Your level has increased by one! x7
I didn't feel as bad as last time, but it still hurt. I began to fall and gulped when I saw how far away the ground was. I really didn't want to know what would happen if my already low HP hit zero. I immediately activated Healing Hands, hoping to get my HP up enough that I wouldn't die upon hitting the ground. When I was closer to the ground, I made a sword and shield with Bound Blade. I crossed my metaphorical fingers and tried to use Earth Aura on myself and the shield while using Air Aura on the sword. It worked! Before I could begin the next phase of my plan (try to make a delayed Air Burst on the sword and then throw it at the ground), though, someone slapped me on the cheek and I felt myself become immune to gravity's pull for the second time that day. I stopped within half a meter of the ground and deactivated my skills as Uraraka released her Quirk. "Thank goodness!" she said sickly as the robot part that she was on touched down. "I was afraid you'd..." she started barfing before she could finish her sentence.
"Thanks, Uraraka!" I said. I jumped up to her and used Healing Hands on her. "I wasn't sure if my plan would work or not, so that was a relief."
She bolted upright as my skill began to take effect. "I don't feel nauseous anymore!" she remarked as she wiped her mouth off with a wet wipe she pulled from her pocket. She turned to look at me with excitement in her eyes. "Can you heal people with your Quirk?"
I nervously rubbed behind my head. "I guess you could say that..."
"That's awesome! Thanks for getting rid of my nausea, by the way!" Her smile was infectious.
"TIME'S UP, FOLKS!" Present Mic's voice blared over the speakers.
"Eep! I forgot about the exam!" Uraraka said. We both sighed and sat down on the robot. "It's too late to do anything now... How many points did you get, by the way?"
I counted the robots I fought up for a moment. "Thirty-eight," I said.
"I got twenty-nine," she sighed. "I hope that that's enough to get in the hero course. You're totally going to get in, though." She paused for a moment. "I don't think I got you or your friend's name, just nicknames."
"Yeah," I said. "I'm Midoriya Izuku. My friend's name is Bakugou Katsuki. Those were nicknames we've had for each other for a while."
She smiled. "Great to meet you then, Midoriya!"
"Are either of you two hurt?" someone asked. I looked down to see an old woman with a syringe-shaped cane.
"Recovery Girl!" I said. I looked at my HP to see if I was hurt, then jumped off the robot part. "I'm fine, thanks."
"I'm good too!" Uraraka said and jumped off as well. "It's cool seeing a pro like you!"
Recovery Girl nodded and then gave us some gummies. "Neither of you look hurt, though I suggest the two of you go to the doctor if anything starts hurting. Eat those one at a time, they'll help you recover your strength."
"Thanks!" Uraraka said. As Recovery Girl walked off to treat the other examinees, Uraraka turned to me and said, "Can you believe we just met Recovery Girl?"
"I know, right!" I exclaimed. "I should probably go now, but I hope I see you in the hero course!"
"Bye!" she said. I waved to her as I left.
Chapter 7
"Do you think I'll make it?" I fretted. I knew I got a lot of points, but I couldn't help but worry I might not get in. At least completing the quest had made my level go up from eighteen to twenty...
"Guuuuh!" A sigh cut into my worrying. I turned to see an incorporeal Dune lying down on my bed and fiddling with an ethereal sniper rifle that I have no idea where she got. She was really fond of the rifle for some reason, so I just asked her to just not have it out when she's visible. "You do realize that you got like forty points, right, Master?" she asked, then pointed her rifle at me. "And I'd eat my rifle if you didn't get any bonus points for saving that one girl with the gravity hands."
"Disagree with harshness," Halitus muttered from where he was sitting on my desk, "agree with sentiment."
"Yeah, so stop worryin'," Dune told me. "Maybe you should look in that magic book of yours to calm yourself down."
I nodded. I had 11,300 Skill Fragments, which really wasn't anything to sneeze at. I pulled out my Skill Grimoir to see if there was anything that I might want to buy. Only one really stuck out to me that I didn't think I could figure out without the book, a skill called Illusion Barrier. It said something about letting me make enemies, which seemed like it might be useful. At least, it seemed like it could be a good way to level up, especially that part where it said that I could make monsters. I was only level twenty despite my stats being higher than even Kacchan's, so leveling for me seemed to only work from fighting and quests, which meant that getting the bonuses to HP and MP for each level up would be a little difficult without easy access to enemies. Plus, it wasn't really that expensive at 500 SF. I clicked it, pressed yes on the confirmation, then dismissed the book when I was done. I frowned as I looked over the new skill in my mind. "That's odd..." I muttered.
"What?" Halitus asked.
"The way the skill is performed, I don't really get how it does what it does," I answered, then thought for a moment. "Though to be fair, I'm pretty new to magic."
"Well?" Dune asked. "Use it!" She'd sat up and was looking at me expectantly. I did as she asked and... nothing seemed to happen, aside from a slight drop in MP. To be fair, I'd used the empty setting because I didn't want to be immediately attacked by monsters, but I was expecting at least something. I looked around to see if my room was any different, but couldn't spot anything. Still, though, something felt off.
"Update," Halitus muttered.
"There's something weeeeird here, Izuku," Dune added nervously.
"What's wrong," I asked.
"Everyone's gone," Halitus stated.
"What!?" I asked.
"They vanished when you used your new skill," Dune clarified. I looked at my minimap and saw that the dots that symbolized other people had just gone. I looked outside. Even the animals were gone. I ran downstairs to see that Mom had just vanished in the middle of cooking dinner, as evidenced by the unattended food. "I really hope that this is just Illusion Barrier," I muttered before dropping the skill. To my relief, I saw Mom standing there after a layer of reality seemed to shatter and drop away.
"Ah!" she shouted. "You scared me, Izuku!" She blinked and then asked, "Did you just teleport, sweetie?"
"Sorry," I apologized. "That wasn't exactly teleportation, but..." I thought for a moment. "Can I test something?" I asked.
"Sure, sweetie, but could you please explain what's going on?"
I nodded. "I got a new skill called Illusion Barrier and I want to see if it works like I think it works," I explained, then pointed to a cup on the table. "Could you please watch that cup for me?" When she nodded, I activated Illusion Barrier and she disappeared. Or rather, I disappeared, leaving her behind. I immediately took the cup, tossed it into the air, caught it, and canceled Illusion Barrier. The cup shattered along with the skill as I returned to reality.
"What was I supposed to be looking for?" Mom asked.
"I wanted to know what would happen to an object that I touch in the Illusion Barrier," I explained. "If you didn't see anything, then that means that using it causes me to exist on another layer of reality, which makes the skill useful for so much more than just grinding. I could use it for stealth, hostage-rescuing, dodging attacks, and possibly more if I could figure out a way to see the real world within the barrier..."
"Ummm… I have no idea what you're talking about, honey, but as long as you're being safe, I'm glad," Mom told me. "Dinner will be ready soon, so why don't you stay down here?"
xoxoxo
I stared at my Skill Grimoir, frowning. I wanted to find a way to see through the Illusion Barrier without dropping it, but I didn't really know how. "I can't really make skills out of nowhere," I muttered, half to myself and half to my elementals. "With the buffs that I'd made, I used the base of Healing Hands, and the other skills I was able to make with mana manipulation and perhaps Mana Affinity thanks to their simplicity. With this, however, I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do. I figured I wouldn't even need any sort of remote viewing-type spell after I got you guys thanks to how useful are." At this comment both of my elementals thanked me for the complement. "Even then, I don't even know if modifying remote viewing is even the right thing to use for that. Considering the fact that it's called Illusion Barrier, some form of truesight might be needed..." Before I could start figuring out some form of remote viewing or truesight, Mom burst through the door looking really frantic.
"Izuku, you got a letter from Yuuei!" she said, holding up a letter. I'm not sure, but I feel like at that moment my face matched hers.
"OH MY GOSH!" I said, then snatched the letter. "THANKSFORBRINGINGTHISTOMEI'MJUSTGOINGTOGOTOMYROOMTOOPENITUPI'LLTELLYOUHOWITWENTLOVEYOUBYE!" I shouted as I rushed to my room. As soon as I closed the door, I ran over to my desk, turned on the lamp, and ripped open the letter. A small, circular device fell out and began to emit light from the top. I gasped when the light projected into a screen showing All Might's smiling face.
"I'M HERE IN THIS HOLOGRAM!" He shouted exuberantly. "I'm sorry I didn't contact you sooner, young man, but I had paperwork to do!"
"Why are you-" I started to ask, then was cut off by All Might continuing, probably because that was a recording and not a holophone.
"I'm glad you asked, young man! See, I've been hired as a teacher at my alma mater, Yuuei!" A voice that I didn't quite hear came from somewhere offscreen, accompanied by a hand. "Hm? What's that? I've got to do how many?" He turned back to face me. "Sorry to cut this short, young man, but I have to make this quick! Not only did you get thirty-eight villain points from the robots you destroyed, but you also got sixty rescue points from saving your fellow examinee, for a whopping total of ninety-eight!"
"Rescue points?" I asked, despite the fact that it was a recording.
"Why yes, rescue points! It was the entrance exam for a hero school, was it not? Yes, a student's resolve to rescue others, even if they should lose out on the opportunity to get a few more points, is something that should be rewarded! And you, who was willing to destroy the monstrous zero-pointer to save someone, have shown a heroic spirit that the staff of Yuuei would be remiss to turn away!" I started to tear up as his grin grew wider. "That's right, Midoriya Izuku. Welcome to your hero academia." I cried tears of joy as the hologram shut off. I let myself cry for a few minutes from the sheer realization that I was going to the school that I'd wanted to get in to for almost all of my life, and had been told that I had no chance of ever getting into. When I was done, I dried my eyes and looked over the papers that were in the envelope. Just the standard hero school forms and a letter from the principal congratulating me on how I'd been accepted into Yuuei. I might have teared up some more from that. I signed my parts on the forms and went outside. Mom was standing in front of the door with a nervous look on her face. I smiled, answering the question that was written all over her face. When she was done crying, I handed her the envelope and said, "There's some forms in there that you need to sign and mail back, plus the designs for my hero costume. I signed mine, so I'm going to do some training to make sure that I'm ready for Yuuei."
Mom smiled. "Of course, honey. I'm so proud of you. Go, do your magic."
xoxoxo
I looked around from the roof of my house. With everyone gone and the sun down, it looked like a ghost town. The skeletons shambling around really only added to that. After having tested to make absolutely sure that Illusion Barrier left me completely divorced from reality and I wouldn't just randomly destroy things from within the barrier, which would be bad, I'd used the other setting: Skeletons. While the barrier was completely empty at first, small cracks opened in the ground that each allowed a single skeleton with no equipment to climb out before closing. After just a few minutes of that, skeletons littered the streets in all directions. They weren't very tough according to Observe, but there were a lot of them, so I bravely retreated to the safety of my roof, where thy couldn't climb and didn't seem to want to spawn. "You do realize that you're gonna haveta start fighting at some point, right?" a now-tangible Dune told me as she looked down the scope of her rifle.
I nodded. "I'm going to, but I want to try something first." I concentrated on my magic. I might not have been able to automatically find a way to peer through the Illusion Barrier, but I felt like finding some form of eyesight-enhancing skill might have been a good place to start. I channeled magic to my eyes in a similar way to my enhancement skills, making sure to not overload them because I could tell that that wouldn't be pleasant. After a few seconds of careful magic-working, my vision blurred and then sharpened, to the point where I could hone in on individual details on the closer skeletons and could see the farther skeletons clearly despite it being nighttime. Ping!
A skill has been created through a special action! Infusing your eyes with mana has created the skill 'Hawkeye' to enhance vision!
Hawkeye (Active) LV1 EXP 0.00% MP 50
One's eyesight is an incredibly powerful tool that is to be cherished. This skill allows the user to see with more clarity than normal, greatly enhancing the gift of sight.
Additional 50 MP used per minute.
The skill wasn't quite what I was looking for, but it felt like a step in the right direction. Even still, the ability to enhance my sight was definitely a useful skill that I wanted to cultivate. But first... "Did the skill I just got do something to my eyes?" I asked my elementals.
"Green glow," Halitus remarked. "Larger pupils."
I nodded. "So using Hawkeye in public is out of the question..." That just meant I'd have to get creative. I looked at one of the skeletons that was far away. "Could either one of you hit that one skeleton?" I asked as I transmitted the image to them.
"On it," Dune said as she cocked her rifle. The reason why I asked them was because, unlike me, they seemed to not have any drop in MP used for magic anywhere in their range, unlike me. As I watched the skeleton, I heard her pull the trigger, which somehow caused a spear of rock to protrude out of the ground and at the skeleton, launching its ribcage away and destroying it. I nodded. "Hey, how 'bout you try to to kill one of them now?" she asked.
I activated my Earth Aura in answer, then jumped off the roof to an area that was denser than normal with skeletons and used Earth Burst when I landed. Bones flew everywhere before dissolving into dust. From that, I got almost half as much SF as I'd spent on Illusion Barrier. Even with Born Lucky, the skeletons weren't worth much EXP and SF thanks to being weak, the highest being at level five, but there were a lot of them. My Sense Danger and Bloodthirst skills warned me that more skeletons were coming, so I activated Earth Aura again. The cracks in the ground that signaled the skeletons spawning opened up and the bony arms shot out. Before the rest of the skeletons could climb out, I stomped my foot, sending out a shockwave that killed the skeletons before they could even finish spawning. Unfortunately, the large amount of noise I'd made caused the rest of the skeletons to come after me. "Nope," I said, then switched to Air Aura and parkoured back up to my roof.
I looked down at the angry mob of skeletons looking up at me expectantly and said, "I really hope that these skeletons are as easy to kill as in Skyrim..." I thought for a moment about how to best make an AOE attack without dropping down there again to use Elemental Burst. I held my hands out and condensed air mana in the same way that I made Spiral Mana Bomb. When it was fully charged, I shot it into the crowd with surprising speed. The new spell, which I called Tornado Bomb, lived up to its name when it made a swirling wave of air so strong that it ripped all of the skeletons apart. As their bones disintegrated, I got 741 SF and another level up. After I dismissed the text boxes, I noticed that their dust wasn't disappearing, just swirling around in the last eddies of the Tornado Bomb. As I watched, the swirling of the dust picked up speed, then started flying towards the small crater from where the bomb hit. A crack that was much larger than the others opened up and the dust began to pour inside it. When all of the dust had poured into the crack, a large armored hand shot out of it. A skeleton clad in full samurai armour that was definitely over two meters tall climbed out.
Spirit of a Fallen Warrior
LV 34
Skeletal Samurai
I gulped. Sure, I had pretty high stats, but this was my first time facing any enemy with such a high level aside from friendly spars with Kacchan. The samurai drew his katana and pointed it at me. For a second, I thought about running away, but shook my head and abandoned the thought almost as soon as it came. I'd be a horrible hero if I decided to run from any fight that looked like there was a chance for me to lose. The first thing I did was layer all of my buffs. Using Observe, I noted that it had a low DEX compared to its other stats. I turned Air Aura back on, made a katana of my own, and jumped at the samurai. I managed to land behind him and turned to swing my sword at him, meeting his blade as it came down on me. "Halitus! Dune!" I shouted. Spears of earth shot at the skeleton as the wind picked up and pushed it off of me. While it was off balance I swung at the elbow of its sword arm, hoping to cut it off. I cut through the armor and the bone, but the arm refused to fall. A quick Observe told me that that took a small chunk off its health, though. The skeleton swiped at me again and I jumped backwards before I could be cut. From there, I sent a volley of Air Slashes at the samurai. They didn't do much, but they did manage to take some more health off, which was a win. I exchanged the Air Aura on my blade for Fire Aura and dashed back at the skeleton. We struck swords again, but this time its sword started to glow red from the flames. I willed my fire to grow hotter and slowly cut through the softened metal. When I cut all the way through, I used Power Strike to make my sword swing faster as I chopped into its neck. Like with before, my sword cut through a bone but didn't disable the skeleton, probably because it was already in pieces but still held itself together with magic. Before I could get back, the skeleton cut me with the remnant of its sword. Fortunately, my Physical Endurance was already almost level one hundred from me biting myself over the course of ten months, so it didn't hurt too much. I jumped back and started to heal myself. The skeleton charged at me, but because it was so slow I was able to dodge easily and stick my sword in it again. This time I overloaded the Fire Aura and let go. I jumped back as the Fire Burst engulfed the samurai, making use of Hawkeye to keep an eye on it through the flames. Thankfully, the skeleton was almost out of HP, so I just shot Mana Bolts at it until it died, which was surprisingly effective. When its HP reached zero, it fell over from the force of the last Mana Bolt and started crumbling. Thankfully, this time the dust actually disappeared, leaving behind a scroll and giving me a level up. I picked up the scroll, which caused a window to appear.
You have picked up the skill book for the skill 'Vacuum Slice.' Would you like too learn it?
"Huh," I said. "I guess that this is another form of the Skill Grimoir," I muttered. "Does this mean that Illusion Barrier is working with my Quirk?" As I was inspecting it, I vaguely felt something roughly tapping me on the back, but I brushed it off. "I guess that that was where my confusion was coming from," I mused. "It wouldn't be the first skill of mine that works with my Quirk, but this is the first time that I know of that a skill was modified..." I was tapped on the back again. "What is it?" I asked as I turned around. I saw a group of skeletons pounding on my back as hard as they could, which apparently wasn't very hard. I checked and saw that I still had Defense up and Regeneration on for a few more seconds, so I was taking one or two damage from the hits and just immediately healing it off. "Huh," I said. I renewed my buffs to make sure they couldn't do anything to me and switched to Earth Aura just in case. Because the skeletons couldn't actually hurt me, I learned Vacuum Slice, causing the scroll to dissolve like the words in my Skill Grimoir. Vacuum Slice actually didn't seem like that bad of a skill. It was almost the exact same thing as my Air Slash, but it wasn't air-element and cost less. The only problem was that I could only use it with a sword or some other kind of blade as a medium. It seemed like I could also use it to enhance my sword by not letting go of it. I tested that theory by creating my trusty katana and slicing through the skeletons. I then realized that I had no baseline to how hard a skeleton was to cut with Bound Blade alone and ran over to another skeleton to cut it. "It does let me cut things easier," I muttered.
I decided that I was probably okay on fighting skeletons for the night and ducked into a bush so I could switch Illusion Barriers. Without the skeletons to impede me, I simply walked home. On the way home, I brought up my skill menu to to see if how my skills were doing.
xoxoxo
"Should water ever rise up to drown you, call me for help," the small girl in blue ninja garb said before melting into water.
"Of course I will, Rayne," I told her. Unlike the last two times, I didn't even feel tired. I immediately summoned her back, though. Thanks to Summon Basic Elemental upgrading to Summon Lesser Elemental, she looked like she was about ten years old, not eight. My other two elementals also looked older, and for whatever reason Dune had gained some gray spots to her camo. Rayne had light blue clothing, like Halitus, though she had navy blue as well as sky blue and her hair was the same colors as her clothes. Her hair was done up in two buns with yellow ornaments on them. She had a scarf made of some strange white material that made it look like it was made of seafoam or something and small white circular sunglasses that didn't cover her eyes at all. "Hello again," I said.
"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "What do you need me for?" she asked then unsheathed her sword what the heck? "Do you need me to stab anything?" Her tone was still totally cheerful even as she brandished the wave-themed ninja sword she'd pulled out of its sheath on her back.
"A-ah! That-that won't be necessary! I just wanted to talk!" I quickly explained.
"Awww," she complained. "I wanted to stab something!"
"Weapon buddies!" Dune shouted and waved her gun in the air in a way that I didn't even need to know anything about gun safety to know that that was the exact opposite of gun safety.
"Weapon buddies!" Rayne agreed. She waved her sword around with Dune. I was really glad that I'd decided to do the ritual in the Illusion Barrier.
I edged over to where Halitus was sitting. "I think we should let them finish before we start talking," I said.
"Yes," he agreed.