A Prehistoric Game (Patreon)

Fuck it, we’re doing it live.

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Chapter I:

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“Good morning, Izuku!” Inko called out to her son, trying to put some cheer into the day. She knew her son likely didn’t have an easy time at Aldera. Kids could be cruel. She knew that first hand, what with her nervous nature. For her little Izuku to be Quirkless likely put a lot of pressure on him. Still, he never came home bruised or utterly despondent, even if he never actually brought friends over. Or went out with them. Or talked to anyone on the phone…

Okay, so she was worried about him. But hopefully, once middle school was over, wherever he went next would be kinder. Less likely to care about him being Quirkless.

“Are you feeling excited for your last ye-” She turned around and balked a little at how exhausted he looked. “-Ar! Izuku! Are you okay?! What’s wrong, honey?” She walked over and hugged him, brushing his hair with her fingers.

“Mmmmmm” He let out a groan and slumped against her.

“Oof! Izuku, I’m not that young anymore!” She playfully chided, feeling his weight. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“Haven’t been sleeping well.” He mumbled against her neck, “S-So tired….” He yawned, the sound rising above the noise of the food cooking.

“Hmmm…” Inko frowned, “Any reason in particular? Anxiety? Too hot? Too cold?”

“It’s weird…” He slumped into his chair, “I feel exhausted and mentally just want to go to sleep, but my body feels like it wants gym class. It’s been getting worse over the past week. Last night I just couldn’t sleep at all. Tossed and turned the entire night.”

“That’s weird.” Her frown was more pronounced, “Did you eat or drink anything you normally don’t?”

“N-n-” He opened his mouth, making her snigger lightly that at least his teeth were clean. He looked like a lion with how wide his mouth was. “No.” He finally managed to say, “I haven’t done anything different.” He itched his arm, “I don’t know… it just… feels like I have lightning dancing inside me.”

“We’ll take you to the doctor after breakfast, okay honey? Maybe it’s nothing, but even if it is, you definitely can’t be this tired next week. You’ve always had top grades in your class, and I know you won’t be able to keep it up if you’re so tired you can’t stay awake or focus.” Inko said, walking back over to the stove and starting to plate up breakfast.

“Good idea. I feel awful…” Izuku mumbled, before his tired face lit up, “Oooh, fluffy pancakes and tamagoyaki!” He smiled as he grabbed his chopsticks, “Thanks mom!”

“You weren’t the only one craving!” Inko giggled, before starting to eat. The two weren’t really talking much anymore, and Inko was scrolling through her phone. She then started to furrow her brows, “Is it getting brighter?” She mumbled, before the intensity increased.

“What the?!”

She looked up, and dropped her phone, “Izuku!”

“Mom?!” Izuku was glowing. Brightly. He starting to glow like a flashlight, “What’s goin-”

BOOM

“GAH!” Inko screamed in pain, clapping her hands to her ears as what appeared to be a sonic boom ripped through the dining room. She groaned in pain as everything was ringing. It was like she had been flashbanged. “IZUKU!” And then the light went away, and Izuku was gone, “IZUKU! HONEY?!” Only ringing met her as she started to hyperventilate. She scrambled for her phone, hoping the police would be able to get to the bottom of this.

Only there was nothing the police could do. Nothing they did turned up any evidence at all. All they could do was have her transferred to the hospital to treat her for the sonic boom… and to stuff her to the gills with relaxants.

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The return to wakefulness was slow. Rough. “Ugh…” He breathed out, feeling like he’d been asleep for a week. Why did his damn pillow feel so weird? Why was he sleeping on his stomach? He never slept on his stomach. What was that crinkling sound? He opened his eyes as he pushed himself up, slightly. And then he blinked, resting his head down again.

And then he shot to his feet, “WHERE THE HECK AM I?!” He blurted, his head on a swivel as he turned around and around. Around and around, he spun and stumbled, and even fell down before scrambling to his feet. Nothing made sense. None of it. He was on a beach. He’d been lying cheek first on sand. Behind him had been the waters, and in front of him looked like… grasslands???? And beyond that, forests?! “What the heck is this geography?! I can see mountains!”

And then a loud bray shocked him silent as he dropped to a crouch, eyes wide. “What are those…?” A large group of… mammals? had just started strolling nearby, and he could only watch wide-eyed. They were some sort of… deer. But they weren’t like any deer he had seen before. Their antlers were very large, and looked almost carved rather than grown. The leader of the group even looked like it had glowing tattoos.

Oh, and they all had levels above their heads.  “What is this…?” he breathed, feeling himself start to panic.

And then a sense of calm came over him, and he had his answer. A glowing blue screen popped up in front of him, and a whole new level of panic started to rise inside of him.

You have awoken and found yourself in an unfamiliar land. You must find shelter.

No. No, this couldn’t be happening. A game prompt had not just opened up in front of him, giving him a quest. He had not been thrown into some sort of video game. The little text box floated before him, mockingly, with nothing more than an ‘okay’ below the text. He moved, and the box moved with him. “Nonononononono, there must be an explana-”

That braying interrupted him again, and the lead deer… thing… was glaring at him, its head lowered.

He clicked the okay and started backing away slowly. Or rather trying to go around it, since the only thing behind him was ocean. It brayed and charged, and Izuku yelped in terror, rolling out of the way at the last second and getting back to his feet. He ran like the devil was on his heels, into the trees. He had no idea if it was safer or not, but he sure as heck wasn’t going to sit there and get gored. He ran and ran and ran, until the trees were thick, and then he put his hand on one of the trunks, gasping for breath. His legs and lungs were on fire, completely unused to that level of exertion. He wasn’t unhealthy but it wasn’t like he was the top scorer in gym. Like everything else, that was Kacchan.

He shook his head as the surprisingly bitter thought raced through him. Now wasn’t the time for that. A tree wasn’t shelter, after all. Not unless they were like those California trees you could drive a school bus through, and these clearly weren’t. He continued on, and eventually the trees thinned out, revealing a river. He sighed in relief. He was exhausted and thirsty, and knew that fresh water was the most important thing to find if out in the wild. A human could survive weeks without food, but only days without water. And standing water could be fouled, and obviously the ocean was salty. He made his way there, cupping his hands and gratefully taking a drink.

He got to his feet, looking around to hopefully find something close. “Ooh!” He spotted something a couple hundred meters away. It looked like an outcropping of rocks, with a possible cave! Hopefully it wasn’t occupied already, because he really wasn’t sure what he would do if it was. There was no way he was fighting off a bear or even a small ‘big’ cat. Not without a Quirk.

‘…Only…’ the traitorous thought ran through his mind, ‘Maybe you weren’t so Quirkless after all.’

He did have to cross the river, but there was a convenient bridge made by a fallen tree. He slowly crept his way there, making sure to take care not to step on any sticks if he could avoid it. He looked into the cave, and saw that it was actually a decent size. It was empty too, which was a relief. After carefully looking around to make sure nothing was hiding in there (or at least nothing he could see), he stepped inside and slumped against the back wall, letting out a sigh of relief.

Congratulations! You have survived your first foray in this new world!

The pop-up was mocking him.

You have found a safe shelter, with a source of water nearby. This area will serve as a home base. Outside of special events, you will be unable to be attacked while at home base.

Oh, praise the sun. What a relief! With that, he allowed himself to relax fully. He put his head in his hands, trembling from the adrenaline as he let himself think. Something cold lanced through him, “Oh man… Mom must be going crazy! I vanished when I was right in front of her! I hope she’s okay… I need to figure out if there’s a way to get a message to her, or something…” He rubbed his hands down his face, before focusing on the screen again.

You have unlocked: The Menu.

“Menu?” Izuku asked the air, feeling quite foolish. Of course, it worked.

Another glowing blue screen popped up, and this one had options all over it: Character, Equipment, Inventory, Skills, Shop, etc.

He closed his eyes, pursing his lips. This was real. This was really happening. What in the world was he going to do? What kind of game was this? Minecraft? RPG? MMO? Oh no, please no. Please not a Soulsborne.

And again, he felt calm all of a sudden. “What the hell is doing that?” He swore, though it wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful for whatever was causing it. He jabbed his finger at the ‘Character’ option.

Immediately, the screen changed, and he stared at all of the details before him.

Midoriya Izuku

Class: The Gamer

Race: Human

Title: N/A

Talent: N/A

Level 1 [0%]

HP: 140

Mana: 200

STR: 5

INT: 10

WIS: 3

END: 4

AGI: 8

LUK: 10

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points: 1

Perks: Gamer’s Body, Gamer’s Mind

“What the hell is this?!” He asked indignantly, “Why is my Wisdom so low?”

You consider Bakugō Katsuki a friend.

He stared at the insulting screen in disbelief. “Fuck you.” He cussed for the first time in quite a while, jabbing his finger at the message and closing it. Great. Now he was in a bad mood.

He might as well find out what was up with this game’s stats. No need to assume and be wrong. Oh, also he had a mana stat. His eyes bulged, “HOLY SHIT, I HAVE A MANA STAT! Does this mean I can learn magic?!” He hoped so! He would forgive the first fourteen years of being Quirkless(?) if that was true.

First, he decided to look at the Talent, which he apparently didn’t have. Man, this game was rude. Talents were apparently things that could be ‘equipped,’ which would give him permanent passive modifiers to his stats earned per level. Right now, he was a base human, and so wouldn’t earn any passive points per level. All of his increases would only come through conscious use of the stat points earned per level.

“That’s… annoying.” He groaned to himself.

Strength: This determines your physical power. It governs how much weight you can physically lift and carry, how hard you can hit, etc.

Intelligence: This governs your magical power. It determines the strength of your magical attacks

“YES!” he cheered, though part of him was annoyed. He really hated when games split physical and magical power like that. Was being a battlemage really that much to ask for?!

… as well as the amount of mana you have.

Endurance: Your stamina, and is linked to your HP. The more endurance you have, the more damage you can take. Additionally, this judges how long you can be physical for, as well as how long you can cast spells for before you need to take a break. There may not be a stamina stat, but that doesn’t mean you have unlimited energy. This can be fortified with skills and passives.

Agility: This is how fast you move, how fast your reflexes are, how quickly you can process information and react to different circumstances.

Luck: This determines how likely something is to go in your favor by random chance, and how likely you are to find very valuable items. This one has a very low cap unlike the other stats and can only be further modified by external modifiers such as perks and equipment. Should you choose a crafting expertise, you will also have a chance of both higher and lower quality crafts, depending on your luck.

“Okay, good to know.” It had been basically what he had expected, other than endurance. He wasn’t expecting it to govern magic as well. He then checked [Gamer’s Mind] and [Gamer’s Body.] [Gamer’s Mind] made him immune to fear, insanity, and any mental attacks. Which was really useful. It was like an instant control switch for his anxiety! Score! “Hmm, [Gamer’s Body] is also really useful.” That one made it so that his HP and Mana would be fully rejuvenated every time he slept in a safe zone. Even outside of a safe zone, it would still regenerate fifty percent. But it also made him feel a little cold. It mentioned nothing about what injuries would feel like. Would he still get cuts and bruises even though he had HP? “Oh no, What if there are crocodiles?!Does this mean a death roll would really rip limbs off?! I hope there aren’t any of those lying around!” He paused, “Ba dum, tshh.”

He then paused again, “Oh no, I’m already going insane. Gamer’s Mind, you suck!” Izuku whined, “I better not find a volleyball around anywhere.” He mumbled, before shaking his head and closing the screen. He then skipped the Equipment and Inventory sections, seeing as he hadn’t collected anything, and went straight to the Skills section. As soon as he did so, he swore he felt like he was ascending. “Okay, that was straight out of Skyrim.” He mused, feeling a pretty out-of-body experience. It was like he was in a nebula, with a single constellation in front of him.

Welcome to the skills page. Any skill you acquire through the use of the shop as well as through your actions in the wider world will appear here, creating a new skill tree. Each skill tree has branches which you can spend skill points on. These branches can be flat upgrades to damage, unlock new effects entirely, and even evolve the skill into a new form once a branch or full tree is complete. Each upgrade is always a single point, although some ‘flat damage’ or similar effects have multiple levels per ‘star.’ Leveling a skill will provide a skill point that may either be spent on the skill itself, or banked for use in the Shop.

He found a way to ‘close’ the screen despite not feeling like he was actually inside of his body, and saw that there was only one available skill tree currently.

Observation: through your hobbies and actions prior to arriving in the new world, you are skilled at identifying the world around you. This also gives you access to your first spell: [Observe]. [Observe] allows you to instantly ascertain more information from objects and enemies than you would normally be able to see. This will be useful for foraging and identifying useful materials in the world.

“Awesome! Take that, Kacchan! My hobby wasn’t useless!” He cheered to himself.

He took a look through the tree, and saw that he actually had a few skill points automatically invested into the skill, putting it at level three. Three of the ‘stars’ of the constellation were lit up, powering up [Observe]. He would be able to see enemy stats and perks, and even find weaknesses as long as the enemies weren’t too high level compared to him.

He closed the screen and went to Titles, deciding to save the shop for last.

Titles are earned through actions as you live in this hostile world. These will give you permanent increases to your stats. Additionally, they can be equipped, though this is merely cosmetic.

“Title hunting it is.” Izuku mused, grinning. Hopefully there were some really good titles that gave a lot of stats.

There was also a Map option which he ignored for now, and settings. He furrowed his eyebrows. What kind of settings would there be? He clicked it, taking a minute to see the options. Apparently he could enable a sort of HUD for himself which displayed mana and HP, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted them there. They could get distracting, so he left it off for now. He’d experiment later. He also saw that there was a frequency option for how often notifications and other things would pop up. He quickly set them pretty minimally so he would only get important notifications in battle. The last thing he needed was to have a screen he needed to swipe away pop up in a fight to tell him that his WIS had gone up by one or something like that. Outside of battle, he specified that skill pop-ups and warnings could appear whenever, but to keep anything else out of his face until he called for it.

And finally, the thing he had been waiting and restraining himself for: the shop. He could just BUY stuff! And since there didn’t seem to be a money stat, that meant it was likely a shop for skills! He couldn’t wait! He clicked the shop…

And immediately went cross-eyed.

“Holy shit!” he yelped, his jaw dropping as he stared at the UI. It had grown to the size of a seventy-inch screen, and an absolutely incomprehensible list of skills popped up. It truly looked like if the concept existed, you could buy a skill for it! He had quickly scrolled, and the list of things looked to be infinite, for all intents and purposes.

He closed his eyes, holding his hands out palms forward, as if warding off the screen. He took a deep breath and felt [Gamer’s Mind] activate. He opened them again, and pressed the ‘?’ at the top of the screen.

Welcome to the skill shop, where the universe is at your fingertips. Each level, you get one Skill Point, allowing you to buy skills. Each skill can be broken down into one of three main branches: The Warrior, The Mage, and The Craftsman. Warrior skills are martial in nature, and cover Martial Arts, Swordsmanship, Archery, and the like. Mage skills are magical in nature, and can be anything from Conjuration to Elemental sorcery to Purification. Craftsman skills have to do with working with the world around you. They cover everything from Cooking to Hunting and Gathering to Crafting Specialization like Leatherworking and Swordsmithing.

Additionally, each skill has a Tier it belongs to. Common skills such as Swordsmanship take a single point to unlock, while Legendary skills such as Meteor Strike take seven.

Izuku’s eyes almost popped out of his skull.

Be warned, all skills can be purchased freely provided you have the points for them, but that does not mean you will have the ability to use it. Additionally, some skills and skill combos will unlock Talents, and some go even deeper and can outright modify your physiology. Take care when making your choices.

Izuku paled drastically as he read the warning message. That sounded pretty ominous. He wondered exactly what it meant. Was it something like permanently changing his nasal cavities if he chose a skill that gave him enhanced senses? Or was he thinking too specifically? Could the changes be broader than that? What was he even doing here? Why had he been dropped into this world and told to survive? Would he be here, alone, for the rest of his life? Would he ever be able to get back home?

“No!” Izuku said, smacking his cheeks to get him out of his rabbit hole. He then noticed another screen popped up in front of him.

The Grand Game: You have been dropped into a hostile and unfamiliar world. Find a way to survive, and maybe, just maybe, find a way home, taking all your hard-earned skills and talents with you.

He smiled. “If it gave me a quest, then it can’t mean I’m stuck here forever!” He cried out in elation, “I’ll be able to go home, and I won’t even be Quirkless when I do! Maybe this won’t be so bad…” Still, he needed to survive. And surviving in a hostile world meant choosing skills and leveling up. But what to choose? What could he possibly choose in this list of thousands… maybe even millions of available choices?

He needed to assess things. He was extremely glad that there were at least filters (and even a search bar!) so he wouldn’t be going through the entire list at once. He doubted he ever would see every single item there was to see. “And there’s no possible way to get everything.” He realized, “Even if there’s no level cap and you earn at least one point per level, AND even if you can earn points by leveling skills up and skills through actions, it’s literally impossible to get every skill. There are thousands minimum.” He mumbled to himself, reaching for his pencil and notebook, only to be left grasping for air. He pouted heavily when he realized that they were nowhere to be found, throwing his hands in frustration. He started rubbing his chin as he talked to himself, working things over with his other hand occasionally twitching, as though itching to write, “Okay, so it’s impossible to get every single skill. That means I need to focus on making a build that works with itself. Generalist classes are fine and all, and can work really well, but specialized ones work better in most games I’ve played. Stupid Magical/Physical split. Also, the fact that I can level skills without having to spend my level up points means that it could make sense to buy a few skills as soon as possible and start grinding. I also need to decided where to go mostly physical with magical for utility, or mostly magical with physical for utility. Since the power stats are split into STR and INT it will be hard to becomeextremelystronginboth-”

And… he was off to the races.

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He only pulled out of his mumbling brainstorm when his stomach declared its protest loudly. He grunted, grabbing his belly, and realized he was starving. “Oh crap, I still haven’t chosen a skill!” He ground his teeth, smacking his cheeks multiple times, “Damn it Izuku, you need to pick something!”

It wasn’t that he had no good options. He had some pretty great options! And several that were fantastic, but were not Tier One skills. He was definitely making a beeline for [Lesser Regeneration] when he could. That would be invaluable to have. Unfortunately, it was a Tier Three skill, and that meant it was out of his reach for now. There were some other really interesting ones. [Beast Soul] for instance, would not only allow him to transform into animals, but even summon them to his side if he wanted. Unfortunately, he needed to ‘consume’ the animal in question to be able to use it, and there were limited ‘slots’ for their souls. He would need to kill something to be able to use the skill, which meant it would be of no help right now. And obviously, wasting such a slot on a level one ‘trash’ mob would be stupid.

There were also the various elemental spells and the trees they would unlock, but nothing really called out to him. The cooler ones were also higher tiers, and while getting fire had some utility, somehow he felt it wasn’t the right move.

The skill he was eying right now had potential: [Spectral Summon]. That skill would allow him to summon ethereal versions of items. Swords, hammers, knives, and the like. It had some really good utility, didn’t cost much mana, and could probably unlock other skill trees for him. Like if he made a sword, he could possibly unlock swordsmanship. He could make an axe to chop down wood. It was really looking like a good possible first choice.

But was that the one he wanted? He-

Groaned in tune with his stomach, and looked outside. It looked like the sun was starting to make its way down. It would be night soon. He needed to find food and he needed to do so fast. Deciding that he needed to make a decision now and try to find some food while there was still daylight, he clicked on [Spectral Summon] and purchased it. “Hope I don’t regret that.” He mumbled to himself, and felt the knowledge of the spell rush into his mind.

He cast the spell, and a ghostly, green sword appeared in his hand. “Oooh, nice!” He smiled, “It has almost no weight to it! This is perfect!” And then he used [Observe] on it to learn more.

Spectral Sword

Durability: 1

A Spectral Blade. Due to the low level of the skill, it is extremely brittle, and is only good for one use before it will shatter. That said, it has a razor’s edge and will cut through most things quite easily.

Izuku stared at the sword in his hand in disbelief. ONE DURABILITY?! He ran his hand through his hair, “At least it’s sharp.” It had taken five Mana to use it too. With a sigh, he stood and made his way to the mouth of the cave. It was time for a new chapter on his life to begin.

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Izuku wandered out into the wider world, holding his blade. He had no idea what kind of wildlife this place contained, and the last thing he wanted was to get attacked by, like, a bear or something. “Hmmm, is a sword the best option? Weren’t spears better for hunting?” He mused as he walked, carefully looking around and using [Observe] where he could. He’d found a few mushrooms a few minutes earlier, but had grimaced and walked away when he realized they were poisonous. He carefully made his way through the thicket, and came upon a berry bush.

“[Observe]” he mumbled.

Elderberry Bush

Contains elderberries, which are edible. They have a tart, tangy flavor. Rich in Vitamin C and B6.

Warning: Can cause nausea if eaten raw. Cooking inactivates the compounds that cause this side effect.

Izuku grimaced. This survival thing was going to be a huge pain in his ass, wasn’t it?

…Apparently that was going to be more literal than expected. Couldn’t the game have at least given him a damn saucepot? “Map.” He mumbled, and the screen popped up in front of him. He was really thankful that there was an actual map feature because he was pretty sure he’d get lost really quickly if there wasn’t. His cave was marked off, and he really hadn’t discovered a whole lot of the world at all. Most of the map was covered by clouds. “Fog of War, huh?” He quickly made a pin for the elderberry bush before he closed it and kept looking. Elderberries were in decent supply in this part of the forest, but they weren’t what he was looking for. He made his way farther, closer to the beach he’d originally landed in, and smiled when he saw something new.

Mulberry Bush

Contains mulberries, which are edible. Mulberries are juicy and sweet and can be enjoyed fresh or in pies, cordials, and herbal teas. They’re packed with vitamin C and provide good amounts of B vitamins, magnesium, and potassium.

“Awesome!” He grinned, and carefully snipped one off the vine with his sword. He was curious as to what counted as a ‘durability use,’ because it didn’t shatter as expected. It was obscenely sharp, though. He barely felt any resistance. Looking at it, he sniffed the mulberry. It wasn’t something he’d ever tried before, and he took a small nibble out of it. The juices flooded his mouth, and his eyes widened in glee, “Oh, it’s great!” He jerked his head as some of the juice dribbled out, and hurried to wipe his mouth. He took another bite, before starting to cut more berries off.

But then he felt like he was running into a problem. He had already eaten a number of the mulberries… and he barely felt like he had filled his stomach at all. He was still very hungry. He grimaced, looking around in the dimming light. “Crap.” He said, quickly making a map pin for the mulberries. He picked a few more bunches and put them in his inventory, before he continued to look around. They weren’t very filling, but he really enjoyed the flavor and would definitely be back. He started making his way back towards the cave, but took a bit of a circuitous route in an attempt to locate more edible ingredients.

But it was getting harder and harder to spot things in the dimming light, and then dusk arrived.

Warning: Nocturnal Enemies are stronger than the normal enemies you encounter during the day, and are also more aggressive and likely to chase you.

Izuku took one look at the message, and instantly felt a bead of sweat run down his neck. And then he heard what could only be a wolf’s howl. It didn’t sound like it was close, but he wasn’t about to find out. He took off in a dead sprint, huffing and puffing as he hurried back to his home base and safety. He got a little scratched up by branches, but burst from the tree line relatively unharmed. His cave was close, and he managed to make his way there before collapsing, completely matted in sweat, and huffing like his lungs were trying to burst from his chest.

He panted for a good half a minute, before managing to catch his breath. He looked at his trembling hands and clenched them, before opening, squeezing, and opening. All the while, he took deep breaths. Finally, he was calm, and managed to relax. “Stupid game. Couldn’t you have told me about the night mode before I spent a bunch of time thinking I was safe?!” he snarled, running his fingers through his hair. He let out a sigh, “I should get…to…bed…” He felt a rush of cold run through him. Not because of any actual cold, though it was a little chilly. No, what actually had him shivering was… “Where the hell am I going to sleep?!” he cried out, looking at the hard stone of his cave.

Gulping, he chanced a look outside the cave, desperate to find something, anything that was relatively soft that he could use as a pillow. But there was nothing. He was stuck. He dejectedly made his way back in, and laid down as best he could at the back of the cave. His head touched the hard stone and he grimaced in discontent.

He knew people had survived conditions like this before, but he was starting completely from scratch! He didn’t have ANYTHING prepared. Nothing to sleep on. Nothing to keep him warm. No fire. Only berries to eat. “This sucks…” he said miserably, closing his eyes and trying to sleep. But he was incredibly uncomfortable, and sleep fought him all the way. It was only when he thought of taking off his shoes and using them as a ‘pillow’ that he was able to settle somewhat. Despite that, it still took him hours to actually fall asleep.

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The next morning, Izuku was as stiff as a board, sore, irritated, hungry, and just generally in an awful mood. He stood, feeling like his back was just not right, and he spent a few minutes just stretching out and trying to work all of the kinks out. He then took stock of himself, and of his conditions. He was wearing a thin shirt, shorts, and his sneakers. That was it. That was all he had on him. His phone had been in his pocket and had been transported too, but it was going to run out of battery and become pretty useless really quickly. Obviously, the calling function and the internet were not working.

He was on his own. No looking up survival tricks or tutorials. No entertainment if he needed something to take his mind away from this strange land. No human contact of any kind, so far. There could be settlements or even towns, but he still had no idea what kind of game he’d been thrown into. There was a legitimate possibility that he was the only human on this land.

At least he probably wasn’t in a Souls world. He was pretty sure he would already have tested what happened if his HP hit 0 if that was the case. This was much more Minecraft… so he was pretty glad he had spent his point on the spell he did. At least he didn’t have to punch trees.

He sighed, sitting on the hard stone floor, “Okay, I need a plan.” He said, trying to keep his determination to survive high. He wasn’t sure it would survive a week of sleeping like that. “I have water, and even if it’s not filling, I have food. I will have to learn to hunt as well, because berries won’t be able to sustain me.” He mumbled, rubbing his chin. “My clothes will probably get worn out really quickly, and the first time I step in a big puddle, I’ll probably have a wet and cold problem.” He grimaced, knowing his beloved reds weren’t exactly proper outdoorsy shoes. “I also have no idea how the climate in this place works, so if it starts getting colder, this won’t suffice. That means at minimum, I’m going to have to buy skills that can make better clothes. I also need a bed. I need a place to make a fire. I need firewood. And I need to learn how to hunt, because berries for the rest of my life doesn’t sound great. And it didn’t really give me any EXP, so it won’t help me escape this place.”

He grimaced some more. Kacchan probably would have been right at home in this place, with his combat skills. Izuku meanwhile barely knew how to throw a punch or a kick, and hadn’t ever even landed a blow on the blonde. And now here he was, stuck in a survival ‘game’ with few, if any skills.

It was pathetic, he realized. Maybe this was why everyone had always been able to just walk all over him and his dreams. One night and he was already complaining. He clapped his hands to his cheeks, “No!” He said firmly. Almost harshly. He was not going to give up. This survival game was going to be impossibly difficult, and likely would take months if not years to complete. But it was also an opportunity. An opportunity to not be the useless Deku everyone said he was. He wasn’t going down without a fight. He was going to beat this ‘game’ and go back home.

He stood up, making his way out of the cave after eating some more mulberries. The area outside of the cave seemed a little misty, and there was moisture and dew all over. It was also still rather chilly. He would assume that winter would come, and that he would need warmth and a lot of it. He started using [Observe] on the trees, since he wasn’t actually sure what was good for firewood or for building. He was hoping the skill was good enough to tell him the info he needed.

It wasn’t. Maybe it needed more levels or points put into it?

“Well… in for a yen.” He mumbled, summoning a Spectral Axe. “Hopefully this ‘creating skills’ thing works fast.” He held the weapon in his best approximation of a good grip, making sure the blade was pointed where he wanted it. He wasn’t entirely sure if he had the right angle or anything about what he was going to do… but as long as it didn’t fall on him it would be fine, right? He stopped, thinking, and changed where he was going to start chopping. This way it would fall towards the bank rather than into the other trees.

He took a few slow practice swings, before grunting harshly as he took his first real swing. The axe pierced the bark, and Izuku felt the impact jar back into his arms and shoulders. The axe immediately shattered into motes of green light, revealing an axe mark on the wood. He shook his fingers and hands out in a bit of pain, and groaned when a ‘lumberjacking’ skill didn’t just magically appear to show him what he was supposed to do. “Owww….” He winced, rubbing his hands together and gritting his teeth. He breathed harshly through his nose, “Come on, Izuku. Tough it out.” He created another axe, again took a few practice swings, and then chopped. Again, the same thing happened.

The axes were just too brittle. Thankfully, they seemed to be leveling the skill. It took fifteen axes for it to level up for the first time, and when he checked on it, it revealed that the axe now had 2durability. Progress! Oh, and he also had another skill point! Awesome! But that was for later.

He created another and swung again… watching it shatter for a sixteenth time. He deadpanned, “…Ugh. That’s going to get annoying quick.” He rubbed his aching hands together, before creating another axe. He was not going to give up, and he was not going to let a damn tree beat him!

Another five axes had made a decent dent in the tree, but he seriously needed a break. His mana recovered decently quickly apparently, but not instantly. Maybe it was only important for higher mana spells. Like if he didn’t have enough mana, he straight up could not use a spell until he did. As he mused, he walked over to the river to take a drink. He also pulled a few berries out of his inventory to eat.

He went back over to the tree and summoned his tenth axe, aimed, and swung.

Due to repeated actions, the skill [Toughness] has been created.

Izuku blinked, and stopped what he was doing to look at the skill. It was a smaller tree, and he didn’t bother looking through it. He just wanted to find out what it did.

[Toughness] reduces the pain felt from taking damage.

His eyes widened. It was a miniscule 1%, but that could be really useful down the road. Especially if he could get [Regeneration] as well. It also created a pattern. The skills by themselves with low levels and no investment into them were pretty awful. Or at least these Tier One skills were.

“Still, at least this one should be easy to level!” He grinned… before it froze on his face, “…Shit, looks like I’m punching trees after all.” He groaned, letting his head hang, “Well… back to work.”

He continued to chop away at the tree, not really knowing if he was doing anything right about it. “Come on, I’ve been at this for ages! I’ve even had to take a break to recharge mana! Give me a damn skill already!”

But it stubbornly refused to happen. He chopped, and chopped, and chopped until his arms, hands, shoulders, and back were aching and he was absolutely covered in sweat. But finally, mercifully, the tree started to sway forwards. Izuku took half a second to realize that it was finally happening, and he immediately took off running in a different direction. He slowed and turned around, putting his hands to his ears. He still flinched when it hit the ground with a thunderous BOOM. He swore he felt a tiny little tremor.

And now… when the work was done… NOW was when the damn skill popped up.

Due to repeated actions, you have created the skill [Lumberjack].

“Well better late than never.” He sighed, rubbing his eyes as he walked back over to it. He had already been mentally flooded with some information and lumberjacking skills, so he didn’t bother looking at the tree or description for now. He had made quite a few mistakes chopping the tree, which he would be able to correct for next time.

He walked over to the fallen tree, intending on putting it in his inventory so he could carry it easily over to the cave, completely forgetting about weight. The second the huge tree vanished, Izuku abruptly felt like he had the whole world on top of him. He was overweight by thousands of kilograms. He tried to take a step and it was nearly impossible to even lift his foot. He struggled to lift a finger and hurriedly chucked the tree out of his inventory, staggering immediately once the feeling of being pressed upon vanished. He kneeled, panting on the log with his head on his arms on top of it. “Okay.” He panted, “Never do that again.” He then started knocking his head into his arms, “I’m going to have to chop this damn thing into individual pieces to move it… WHYYYYYYY! Couldn’t I just have gotten the Minecraft inventory?!”

He forced himself to his feet, sitting on his prize. He opened his stats page, hoping to see at least some reward for his hard work. Lo and behold, he DID increase his stats a bit!

Midoriya Izuku

Class: The Gamer

Race: Human

Title: N/A

Talent: N/A

Level 1 [90%]

HP: 170

Mana: 230

STR: 5 -> 9

INT: 10 -> 13

WIS: 3 -> 6

END: 4 -> 7

AGI: 8

LUK: 10

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points: 2

Perks: Gamer’s Body, Gamer’s Mind

Score! Four more STR, three more INT, three more WIS, and three more END! He’d only leveled [Spectral Summon] once despite all of that work, though by now he was pretty close to the next one. He hoped that skills weren’t exponential in EXP requirements.

“Huh, I suppose that’s how getting a skill point per skill level is balanced.” He mused, “It forces me to either put the earned point into the new skills so that it can be improved, or choose to buy a new skill. If I continuously just buy new skills, then my current ones will stay weak and useless. Also, it looks like every point in END and INT really do correlate with ten HP and Mana respectively! Looks like I was right!”

For your logical deductions, you have been awarded with one point each in INT and WIS.

“…I’ll take it, I guess.” He groused, wondering if it was actually being sassy or if he was reading too much into it. He stood, and summoned another axe, determined to put his new knowledge to the task ahead.

-]|[-

It took around four hours to chop the tree down, chop it into manageable chunks, and carry the chunks back to the cave. It also took multiple trips, and Izuku was pretty glad he had chosen a nearby tree because it would have been a miserable time waster otherwise. He currently had the logs split into neat little bunches, which he had arrayed out for them to start drying. His [Observation] skill had started displaying more information once [Lumberjack] had been unlocked, revealing that the wood needed to be dried because it was still a bit green. He HAD gotten a tiny bit lucky in his choice of tree, so it wasn’t too bad.

Unfortunately… now he was starving. He’d run out of berries quickly and even if he hadn’t, he would need to eat bunches and bunches of them to actually fill his stupid stomach. He was going to have to learn to hunt, no matter how little he wanted to hurt some poor animals. Stalling, he decided to look at the [Spectral Summon] tree. There were a couple branches for him to look at. One of the branches increased the number of summons he could do at one time, with the base level being two. It was definitely interesting, but he wasn’t sure it was worth wasting the points on such a basic upgrade. The next branch had to do with durability, and it was more interesting because the final ‘star’ allowed him to choose one type of construct that would be unbreakable, eliminating the durability stat entirely. It was definitely a cool idea… except for the fact that he needed to invest eleven points to get there. The final tree was the most interesting one by far. Any bladed construct was incredibly sharp and could no doubt do a lot of damage despite their durability issues. The first investment on this branch allowed him to summon his constructs in an area around his body. The second investment would allow him to control them telekinetically. Essentially, he could fire summoned swords like arrows if he wanted to!

He even had the two points necessary! All of his chopping had yielded two levels in the skill, meaning two free skill points! But did he want to spend them? He was very close to level 2, which would hopefully give him a skill point to spend like he was assuming it would. That would give him the three points needed to unlock [Lesser Regeneration.] That skill SHOULD be an instant buy, right? Except the methods of leveling had revealed themselves to him, as well as how weak skills appeared to be when freshly purchased. What if he spent the points and it turned out that [Lesser Regeneration] amounted to being able to heal from a cut in days instead of weeks?

He bit his lip. [Lesser Regeneration] was potentially really useful later, but spending the two points on [Spectral Summon] would be immediately useful for hunting and fighting by giving him a ranged attack. Additionally, it wasn’t too improbable that [Lesser Regeneration] would need a lot of leveling before becoming useful… and leveling it no doubt would involve getting himself hurt in some fashion. “Ugh, I wish I had a coin to flip.” He grumbled, thinking it over. While lumberjacking was useful, nothing in its skill tree seemed overly necessary. At least not at the moment. It had the basic functionality he needed, and more advanced stuff could be saved for later. He also imagined that skill was going to get a workout, so he would probably get some free points to spend in a hurry.

With that in mind, Izuku made his choice, and took the two upgrades on [Spectral Summon.] The new knowledge filled his mind, and he grinned brightly. Focusing, he summoned two spectral swords above his shoulders, and with a thought, they sped forward. Both of them impacted one of the logs of firewood he had drying in the sunlight, and the sharp blades gouged them deep before shattering. “Perfect!” he exclaimed, excitement ringing in his voice. The mana cost had doubled to 10 which was annoying, but this gave him a good option. Now… it was unfortunately time to stop stalling.

He quickly made his way back to his landing area, taking a look at the deer-like things that had confronted him when he had first arrived. “[Observe.]” He mumbled, staring at one from the trees.

Elk

Level 1

HP: 500

A mammal that inhabits the fields and meadows of this land. Hardier than the elk of Earth, they have no need to shed their antlers. They are also much more willing to fight if needed, rather than always fleeing.

“Huh, I guess it really is a deer. Or an elk, rather.” He mumbled, before looking at others. The Elk were of varying levels, ranging from level 1 to 3. And then he finally took a glance at the bigger one with, well, tattoos.

Ancient Elk

Level 5

HP: 1200

Mana: 500

A larger, stronger, and hardier version of the regular elk. Having reached an age beyond that of most of its herd, it has gained special abilities in order to protect the younger and weaker cows and bulls. That said, it will not protect one it knows is not likely to survive. It is more resistant to frost, has sharper senses, and is omnivorous rather than herbivorous like the rest of its herd, capable of digesting small animals.

Izuku gulped, “Resistant to frost… guess that’s confirmation that winter will come eventually. Oh man, how am I going to do this? I’ve never done anything useful in a fight! Every time I try I just get beat up! I don’t have a Quirk or-” On and on he continued to spiral, psyching himself out… until [Gamer’s Mind] kicked into overdrive, calming him down. He bit his lip, praising the skill and wondering what the best strategy for this was. He needed to do this!

The best thing to do would be to separate one from the herd, right? Or should he just go for the big one since it would stand and fight while the others fled?

No, that would be dumb. It was level 5. He still had no idea how much damage his weapons would do, or if there were hidden stats he still couldn’t see with [Observe] that would make the damage minimal.

He carefully made his way from the tree line, sneaking as best as he could. He was low to the ground, and making his way to one of the smaller herds where he had spotted the level 1. When he was close enough, he summoned a single spectral sword and fired it, aiming for its hind leg. The extremely sharp blade passed by it and sliced clean through the muscle on its hind limb, with the blade missing anything else and shattering on the floor.

The Elk lost just 75 HP, but  was afflicted with the bleeding status. It cried out in pain, a sound that made Izuku flinch in sympathy. The rest of the herd immediately bolted, and this particular one did not have an Ancient among them. It tried to run, but it was hobbled.

Izuku rushed forward, and it must have heard because it turned to face him, lowering its head, and pointing those deadly antlers at him. He slowed to a stop, watching it carefully. He summoned another blade in the air and launched it forward, but the animal jerked its head and the blade shattered on its antlers rather than doing anything useful. “Shit!” He cursed as he circled around it, and it just kept its weapons pointed at him.

He needed to get rid of those antlers, or he needed to kill it in one blow. He summoned a katana in hand, because he was Japanese and that was the sword he was most familiar with. The summoned swords he’d been firing had been just straight blades with vague wedge-like shape, designed to pierce. He wasn’t sure if they were analogous to any real swords, but they did the job. He carefully inched forward, ready to dodge at any moment.

It brayed angrily at him, having lost another 25 HP just from the bleed, and charged forward. That was what he’d been waiting for, and he threw himself to the left at the last minute. He tried to slice the elk’s neck, but hadn’t been anticipating the animal to have stopped short so suddenly. Rather than the neck, his sword hit its skull. It carved a nasty gouge into it, but shattered. He rapidly backed up and summoned another blade, firing at it to get some distance. This one buried itself into its shoulder, drawing a fresh cry of pain as it shattered. That cost it another 200 HP, and that seemed to put it into a hyper adrenaline mode.

It charged far faster than Izuku was expecting, braying its fury. It whipped its head up and to the right, and Izuku guessed wrong on the dodge.

“GAH!” He cried out, losing 70 HP from the attack, and crashing to the ground. It stayed on him, rearing back to stomp on him. He summoned an axe and swung it wildly from his back, gasping for breath. It caught the animal in its side and staggered it, wiping out the rest of its HP. It let out a death rattle as it collapsed backwards.

Izuku lay there next to the dead and bleeding elk as he took stock of himself. That had been terrifying! How had he survived getting gored by it?! ‘Maybe the two injuries made it weaker? Or maybe it was just the game system saving my butt…’ He started to cry a little bit, the emotions and fear and exhilaration getting to him until [Gamer’s Mind] took over and helped him relax a bit.

He sat up, still trying to get his heart rate under control, and looked at the elk.  And much to his horror, it wasn’t just dissolving into the ether and leaving behind some much-needed drops. “No…” He said in horror, “This stupid game isn’t seriously going to…”

It was. It very much was.

He took a deep, unhappy breath, “Okay. I’m going to have to do it myself. [Gamer’s Mind,] stop me before I fucking hyperventilate.” Happily, it seemed to calm him down further. He looked around, and the other elk were watching him carefully, but not approaching. He took stock and opened his notifications.

You have leveled up! You have gained five stat points and one skill point!

Through repeated actions, you have unlocked [Dodge]!

Through repeated actions, you have unlocked [Weapon Mastery]!

Through repeated actions, you have unlocked [Sword Mastery]!

Through repeated actions, you have unlocked [Axe Mastery]!

You have unlocked Challenges!

[Toughness] has leveled up!

“Oh, thank you!” He cried out, before opening up his stats page.

Midoriya Izuku

Class: The Gamer

Race: Human

Title: N/A

Talent: N/A

Level 2 [25%]

HP: 190

Mana: 240

STR: 9

INT: 13 -> 14

WIS: 6 -> 7

END: 7

AGI: 8

LUK: 10

Stat Points: 5

Skill Points: 2

“Wow! I got a few points from the fight!” He said, looking at his increased INT and WIS. “…Probably because I chose to not be stupid and go fight the Ancient.” He realized, his face going a little deadpan. He then looked at the deer, “…Please don’t get over encumbered…” he put the deer into his inventory, and immediately had to toss it back out when that feeling of weight and pressure engulfed him. “Damn it, I’m not even going to be able to carry the entire thing home!” He punched the ground in frustration, wincing in pain afterwards. “Ow! Stupid!” He rubbed his knuckles.

He pursed his lips, “Damn it, I really don’t want to just waste points on STR since training can help increase it, but it really would be the smartest thing to do, right? I’ll be able to carry more home in my inventory.” He looked at the deer, and looked at the small rock shelf sticking out of the ground that he’d originally fired from. He wanted to get his kill off of the grass and farther from the herd. He grabbed the elk and started to tug, straining. He couldn’t get the damn thing to budge.

He sighed, and dumped the points into STR, bringing him up to fourteen. After that, he was slowly able to drag the elk over to the rock. As soon as he had it off the ground, he started panting and took a seat. An errant notification informed him his STR had gone up to fifteen for his trouble, as well as his END going up to eight. And now, green in the face, he summoned a knife.

It was only [Gamer’s Mind] that kept him even relatively calm as he grew increasingly covered in the poor beast’s blood. Thankfully, a skill for [Butchering] appeared before he ruined too much of the animal, and he was able to get a good amount of meat from it. He really hoped this stupid game wasn’t so realistic that the meat would spoil in his inventory. His [Spectral Summon] skill was also getting a huge workout, because he kept having to replace his knives. He even ran out of mana as he worked, and had to wait for it to recharge. “I’m going to have to get better tools and weapons…” He grumbled under his breath as he worked. “They’re really good in a pinch but I just can’t rely on something that needs to be replaced every one or two swings…”

He didn’t butcher the entire animal, because frankly he didn’t have enough inventory space for everything and he was really worried that, for one, a predator would show up; and for two, the game really would let all his spoils go bad. He also took all of the hide because he was inevitably going to need to make new clothes and shoes, and that meant he needed leather.

Finally, once he wasn’t willing to risk anymore, he took off running back to his home base, stopping only to wash up in the river. “Ugh, I’m covered in it…” He had a very… unnerving thought as he washed up, wondering why he hadn’t been attacked by any predators yet. The river ran red as the waters passed by him, and he was glad it wasn’t so fast flowing that he was in danger of being swept away.

He got out of the river, soaked, and realized he didn’t really have a way to dry his clothes other than to just leave them in the sun. He winced when he realized his basic modern wear already had some battle scars and holes in them. He trudged back to his cave, soaking and really glad he had been able to at least keep the insides of his shoes blood free.

When he got back, he managed to quickly scrounge together a rack and grabbed a few stones for a makeshift firepit. And then he realized to his great annoyance that he had no idea how to start a fire. “Ugh…” he whined, “Come on Izuku, think back… does the Minecraft Flint and Steel thing work? Or can it be any rocks? Wait, I don’t have any steel! How am I supposed to do this?! Wasn’t there something about spinning a stick too?” he groaned, wondering if he wasn’t just going to have to buy fire or lightning magic just to be able to start stupid fires. Not that they wouldn’t be cool and all, but there was a big issue he had thought of. The fact that there was really no easy and surefire way to raise INT (there were no books, no schools, etc!) meant that magical spells very likely would stay weak unless he invested ALL of his skill points into INT! That wasn’t something he was willing to do at this juncture.

For a well-thought-out deduction, your INT has increased by one.

Snarky rewards like that were not consistent means of increasing the stat, thank you very much. “No.” he said, before he started wandering around, gathering up dry kindling, pine cones, fallen branches, dry grass, etc. from the forest floor. Once he had gathered a good amount, he took it back to the cave and grabbed one of the smaller branches. It was pretty dry and soft, so he figured it could work out. He first chopped it in half lengthwise, and essentially made it a tiny board after he got the bark off the other end. He then slowly carved a small notch into it. “Please be remembering this correctly…” He mumbled. Hey, he was a nerd with no friends! He had a LOT of time for YouTube. Unfortunately, this was a video he’d watched quite some time ago, but the gist was pretty simple. No need to waste time or points learning fire magic when friction would be a good friend! He then quickly whittled another into the best rod he could.

When he was done, he grabbed one of the flatter stones, stuck a bundle of dry grass on it, and took out one of his pieces of meat. He cut off a small bit of the fat, and then rubbed it gently on the dry grass before putting it to the side. He then put his board on top of the grass “Hope this works!” He put his rod on the notch and clapped his hands on the rod, and started to spin it between his hands, putting as much pressure as he was comfortable with on the stick.

This… took a while. He had the theory and idea pretty much spot on, and had even made sure that the pieces of wood he was using were pretty dry using [Observe.] But he was not used to the motion or exertion, and kept tiring out or checking his work before he should have. Frustrated after ten minutes of nothing, he decided to just keep spinning until he was completely exhausted and incapable of spinning any more, or until he saw smoke. It was one or the other.

Finally, with his muscles screaming, he finally saw some smoke. He lifted the stick and dropped it, before starting to pat the holding board. The hot embers fell below onto the grasses, and he knew it needed oxygen. Carefully lifting the bundle of grass, he blew on it, and even waved it around in the air. Finally, blessedly, the bundle lit on fire, and Izuku let out an ecstatic cheer in response. He quickly brought the bundle over to the makeshift firepit and started laying the other dry kindling on it, making a bigger fire as the wind swept by and added oxygen to it.

When he felt cautiously ready, he placed one of the bigger logs on the growing fire, and even threw the small piece of fat in for good measure. “Ugh, that was exhausting!” he let out a groan and took a small break, before getting back to work. His makeshift rack was ready, and he had found some vines in a different part of the forest. He wound it around the rack, and pulled one of the sharp antlers from the elk he had killed from his inventory. Using an axe to chop it a bit, he pierced and secured it to the vine, before grabbing a much larger piece of meat. He pierced the meat with it like it was a hook, and carefully let go, making sure the vine would hold, and that the meat wouldn’t just fall into the flames.

Satisfied, he finally took a seat, “I’m so tired…” He groaned, wanting to fall back and just rest.

He opened up his menu and went to his stats page, checking the number of skill points he had. After all of the usage, he had actually leveled his [Spectral Summon] skill a few times, which was why his blades had actually survived more than one cut when he was careful. That meant he had a few skill points available, and he immediately went and bought [Lesser Regeneration.] As predicted, it only worked by healing him, and the effect wasn’t that great. It regenerated HP in battle, and any wounds he had would fully heal over, given enough time. Essentially, it just improved his natural healing and meant he would likely have few scars, if any. He used his last point on his first crafting specialization, much to his chagrin. He wanted to just naturally learn all of these things, but this was just something he really had no idea how to even start in. He clicked on [Leatherwork] and accepted his purchase before he could second guess himself.

As much as he wanted to just stay seated and watch his food, he still had work to do. He got up and got to work on sticking a few more posts into the ground. It was hard work, especially with his stupid, brittle tools, but eventually he got it done. He then took out the most difficult of the items he had butchered from the elk: the hide. He’d managed to remove it in… decent condition, and now he used those vines and its own antlers to stretch it out in the air. He then went to work with his new knowledge, scraping off all of the gore and sinew from it. That was all he could do for now since he needed to figure out where he was going to find tannins.

Finally, he went back to the meat, practically drooling. A cleaned and mostly flat rock was used as a plate, and he let the meat rest for a few minutes. It was nicely charred and had a pretty great crust, and to his relief, he’d definitely cooked it enough. It looked nice and pink, rather than red and bloody. The smoke had added some decent flavor, but it definitely was missing salt. He would need to find some.

…

It also tasted vaguely like beef for some reason. He had been expecting something different. He ate the entire thing, and sated for the first time in a while. By now the day was gone and night had set in. He was no closer to an actual bed or anything resembling comfort, which was annoying. But he was doing the best he could. “Things will get better. I WILL get back home!” He said out loud, firmly. “I miss you already, mom. Don’t drive yourself too crazy before I get back…” he mumbled as he turned in for the night.

-]|[-

Welp, I hope you enjoyed this one! It was definitely a bit of a stranger concept, and very unga bunga in some respects. LOL When I first conceptualized this one, it was basically me going, “This would be fun to ‘build a character’ completely outside any sort of canon plotline.” The main fic was a survival one, with the game elements added in so that I could actually build up a powerset.

Now, Izuku won’t be alone forever here, with the same power that brought him there bringing in more and more companions ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) as he progresses.

As for why he went for the choices he went for? Well, I’m sure the eagle-eyed readers will see the Storm Approaching. LOL In all seriousness though, if I go back to this at some point, I definitely think I’m going to rework him to be more Kratos than Vergil.