“Hurry up, Deku!”

 

Izuku grumbled as Bakugo yelled out at him, hoisting his pack higher onto his back. They had been travelling for almost a week now, and they were getting close to the town of Mustafu, home of the UA Dungeon.

 

Izuku didn’t know why it was called that, but apparently, Dungeons had name tags over their entrances that helped differentiate them. He finished adjusting his pack and looked up at the rest of the group in front of him.

 

There it was! Mustafu! Even though it was almost night-time, he could tell they were still about an hour’s walk from the town, but still! They were so close! Izuku couldn’t wait to go on his first Dungeon crawl! He’d been dreaming of this before he even got his class!

 

He almost tripped over in his excitement, but steadied himself, the extra weight of his bag helping him from falling onto his face. He looked around to make sure no one had seen his blunder and was glad to see that everyone was ignoring him, like usual.

 

“Alright everyone, listen up!”

 

Izuku raised his head again as the caravan leader, a lanky [Traveller] in leather armour named Koichi, yelled out to all of them.

 

“At the pace we’re going, we’ll reach Mustafu within the hour! Now I know you’re all excited to rush right into the Dungeon straight away, but I highly suggest taking the night to rest! We’ve been travelling for a while now and even the first few levels of the Dungeon can be dangerous when you’re tired!”

 

Izuku nodded, even though he knew that Koichi couldn’t see him. The man continued to yell as they walked. “I know very few of you are actually going to take me up on this, but if you actually do wait until tomorrow morning, I’ll pay for your room at the Inn, tonight only.”

 

A smile crept onto Izuku’s face at that. He had managed to scrounge up a couple of silvers before they started travelling, but having his first night at the Inn be paid for him was a really good thing. It meant that he got to get at least one dungeon run in before he had to draw out of his savings!

 

Koichi fell silent again, and Izuku ignored the chattering between the other adventurers, knowing that none of it was directed at him. Instead, he held out his palm and allowed his stats to show, giving them a check to see if anything had grown over the course of their travel.

 

---

Izuku “Deku” Midoriya

Level 6 

Class: Fighter

HP: 65/65

Mana: 30/30

Stamina: 80/80

 

Strength: 11

Agility: 15

Endurance: 12

Intelligence: 18

Luck: 7

Available Abilities:

> Double Strike: 

 

• Your attack does double damage, before any reductions. 

• 2 Stamina per Attack.

 

> Lunge:

 

• Instantly dash forward a distance equivalent to your [Agility] and perform an attack.

• 4 Stamina per Attack

 

> Defenders Shield: 

 

• When standing within 5 metres of an allied creature, you can reduce the damage they take from an attack by an amount equal to your [Endurance]

• 2 Stamina per use

 

> Identify: 

 

• Allows you to see the stats and abilities of anything below a danger rating of 2.

• 1 Mana per use

 

Traits:

> Prodigy: 

 

• You learn things more quickly and more easily than others. 

• 50% boost to XP gain.

 

> Determined: 

 

• Nothing can stop you from achieving your goals.

• Resistant to the [Fear] effect.

 

> Heroic: 

 

• You are naturally inclined towards the protection of those who need it. 

• Gives a 50% boost to all stats when a sentient creature with a non-combat class is within the line of sight of your opponent. 

• Grants the ability to set and accept quests for added XP.

 

---

 

He pouted. Nothing had gained any benefits!

 

He guessed that even with his [Prodigy] trait, it seemed that just tagging along on a trip wasn’t any good for XP. Oh well, it didn’t matter too much. As soon as he started making regular trips into the dungeon, he should start to grow really quickly!

 

Now all he had to do was arrive in town and sleep for the night, and he could get up nice and early to go dungeon diving! He couldn’t wait!

 

---

 

The sun streamed in through his window and right onto his face.

 

He groaned, rolling over and pulling the blanket the Inn had provided him over his eyes. Was it morning already? Wait. It was morning already! Hell yea!

 

He flung the covers off of himself and quickly rushed over to the locked chest the Inn provided to keep valuables in while sleeping and pulled the key out from his night pants. He pulled his gear out and double-checked that his Dungeon Pass was still there. Seeing that it was, he quickly changed, pulling on the makeshift armour he had collected.

 

It was mostly thick cloth, only slightly more protective than his everyday clothes, with a lot of fur padding around his chest and forearms. It made it fairly hot to wear, but Mustafu was a fairly chilly area so it balanced out.

 

Alongside the padded shirt, there were some leather wraps around his chest. Leather and Fur gauntlets protected his forearms, and a small cloak made from a Direwolf protected his upper back.

 

It had taken him a lot of minor quests to earn enough money to buy that cloak, but Direwolf skin and fur was more than strong enough to stop arrows from piercing his back. A basic helmet was strapped to his head as well, his face mostly uncovered by the leather.

 

And finally, he got to the most expensive part of his equipment, his sword. The blacksmith at his old town wasn’t a Magic Smith, so it was mundane, but Izuku had fought an owlbear to gather up enough funds to buy it, so he didn’t really care.

 

He strapped the scabbard to his belt and readjusted the thick cloth that wrapped around his waist, before heading out of the Inn.

 

Mustafu was a fairly prominent town in the Mightian Empire, mainly because of the UA Dungeon. The dungeon had been around even before Emperor Yagi had struck down the Demon King All for One, and most mages seemed to agree that it didn’t have the usual degradation most other dungeons had after a few hundred years.

 

---

 

It made the dungeon, and the town around it by coincidence, a very valuable place to be for starting adventurers.

 

Izuku stumbled down the stairs of the Inn and sighed contentedly as the smell of cooked food and the sounds of laughter flowed through the air. According to the timepiece on the wall, it was just after 6 in the morning, which meant breakfast was being served.

 

Izuku tapped at the coin pouch he had on his waist and frowned. He only had around 12 silvers, and a proper breakfast would take 2 of them. Should he just use rations for today and have breakfast tomorrow, when he’d have some more coins from the dungeon?

 

No, it was his first day, and he would need all the energy he could get. He ordered and paid for his food, eating it quickly. A few of the older adventurers around him glanced his way and smiled at him, and he nodded in return.

 

“Guess you’re one of the newbies in town, right? Whole caravan of low levels here to try out the UA Dungeon?”

 

---

 

Izuku turned to the Innkeeper and nodded. “Yep! I’ll be heading in with some of the others later, I’m really excited!”

 

The Innkeeper got a weird look on their face, before frowning. “What do you mean later? The rest of the kids already headed over. Said that they had everyone they planned on bringing.”

 

Izuku froze as what the Innkeeper said registered in his head, and he lowered his head, pushing a tear back as he bonked his forehead on the counter. Of course. Of course!  Of course, Bakugo would do this! He knew how much Izuku was looking forward to going to the Dungeon! Izuku was even willing to be in Bakugo’s party! He just wanted to be an adventurer!

 

He raised his head again after he felt like his tears weren’t entirely obvious, and forced a smile onto his face. The Innkeeper didn’t seem to be buying it, a worried look on their face, but Izuku ignored it for now.

 

He was going to go into the dungeon, even if he had to do it alone. He was going to level up until he was so strong that no one would ever have to be scared of monsters ever again! Not even Bakugo and his cronies could stop him!

 

Letting out a soft sniffle, Izuku put a smile on his face. “I know this is weird to ask of you, but do you need anything from the dungeon that you’d be willing to pay for? Giving me a quest, even a minor one, would really help me level up faster.”

 

The Innkeeper blinked at Izuku’s question, seemingly thinking for a moment. He reached down and rifled through one of the shelves behind the counter and brought something back up, handing it to Izuku.

 

It looked like a small iron knife with a wooden handle. The Innkeeper smiled. “Running low on cutlery after a scuffle a few of the tougher guys had a few nights back. We usually just recycle the weapons the first floor goblins use, so if you bring me some of them back, I’ll pay you uh, 3 copper per weapon?”

 

Izuku waited for the Innkeeper to finish, and smiled when he heard the small ‘ding’ he got whenever he was given a quest. He opened his palm and allowed the quest to form on it.

 

Cutlery Resupply:

 > Bring the Innkeeper goblin weaponry that they can repurpose into cutlery.

Rewards:

> 3 Copper Pieces per Weapon

> 50 75xp per Weapon [Prodigy]

 

Izuku nodded to himself and set the knife back down on the counter for the man to take back.

 

Now that he had the quest officially set up in his system, he ran out the front door, the last remnants of tears disappearing from his eyes. He had gear, he had determination, and he had a Quest. If Bakugo and his cronies didn’t want to take Izuku into the Dungeon with them then that was their loss. 

 

Izuku would just go in by himself and do better than any of them ever could!