28 Chapter 27
With Pixie-bob's Quirk, Earth Flow, allowing her to manipulate, shape, and even 'program' soil to do whatever she wanted, Izuku had a functionally infinite supply of beast-like golems, known as Earth Beasts, to combat for Experience. They weren't nearly as intelligent as the clones produced by Ectoplasm, but their sheer numbers had Izuku running around the forest, dodging and counterattacking with a smile on his face.
"This is insane..." muttered Izuku, narrowly evading the whip-like tail of an Earth Dragon. In the same motion, he spun his body, executing a spinning back kick that tore through the dragon's soil-comprised body like a fragile sand castle.
Though his attacks were a lot weaker since he reduced his Strength and Agility, Izuku's elevated Intelligence and Dexterity more than made up for it. Dexterity was an attribute that influenced a person's senses, balance, and spatial awareness, so Izuku was quickly getting used to controlling the output of One-for-All on the fly. This was of paramount importance as, fairly early on in his training, he discovered the link between One-for-All's energy output and his physical attributes.
Since One-for-All only got stronger over time, Izuku could theoretically tap into the full power of All Might whenever he pleased. However, much like the original Izuku, doing so would have disastrous consequences. In the worst-case scenario, his limbs would burst apart, forever crippling or outright killing him.
To condition his body to accept all of One-for-All, Izuku had intended to experiment with various stat distributions. As fate would have it, setting his Strength and Agility to 10 while his Vitality was at 100 was the perfect balance of attributes. So long as he didn't exert himself, he could maintain a 'permanent' 10x modifier to all his physical stats. More importantly, as a 10:1 ratio was extremely easy to work with, Izuku was able to quantify his 'limit' without the need for guesswork.
After some experimentation, Izuku learned that every time his attributes doubled, the burden it placed on his Vitality tripled. At 100 Strength and Agility, a 10x enhanced punch wouldn't have any detrimental impact, but if he increased the multiplier to 20x, he suddenly began hemorrhaging 200 points of Vitality every second. If he then doubled his physical attributes a second time, effectively granting him 400 Strength and Agility, the cost increased to 600 Vit per second.
Fortunately, whenever Izuku used One-for-All's power to strengthen his physical attributes, his Vitality received twice the amount. A 10x increase in Strength/Agility/Dexterity would result in a 20x increase in Vitality, so if he was smart and only intensified his power at the exact moment before his attacks, he could increase his power to a truly ludicrous extent without needing to fear sequelae.
With a base Strength and Agility of 10 and a Vitality of 100, Izuku's current limits were something along the lines of:
100/2,000(no notable side effects)
200/4,000(200pps for 20 seconds)
400/8,000(600pps for 13 seconds)
800/16,000(1,800pps for 8.8 seconds)
1,600/32,000(5,400pps for 6 seconds)
3,200/64,000(16,200pps for 4 seconds)
6,400/128,000(48,600pps for 2 seconds)
12,800/256,000(145,800pps for 1 second)
While these numbers might seem ridiculous, Izuku knew he still had a long way to go before he was anywhere near All Might's strength in his prime. The man had feats such as guiding a stadium filled with 50,000 people safely to the ground and dispersing a literal tidal wave before it could make landfall. Thus, while increasing his attributes to 12,800 with a meager base of 10 was undeniably insane, Izuku didn't let it get to his head. After all, the boost barely lasted a second, and if he made a mistake in his timing, he was unquestionably fucked.
Having stumbled across the 10:1 golden ratio early on, Izuku's best path forward was to grind Strength and Agility utilizing the burden One-for-All placed on his body. He could then repurpose those points for Vitality and Luck, the former to increase the power he could draw out of One-for-All and the latter to bolster his Experience gains. Every ten Levels caused the Experience between Levels to become the total of the previous ten, so it was only a matter of time before he plateaued. Increasing his Luck would offset this, but even that wouldn't help him when the Experience between Levels reached the trillions...
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A week before the UA Sports Festival, Izuku was advised by Toshinori to take some time off to enjoy Golden Week, a period where several national holidays transpired in quick succession. Izuku was hesitant at first, as his Level had increased significantly in a short period, but he relented fairly quickly when Toshinori pointed out there were several girls that probably wanted to spend time with him.
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Name: [Izuku Midoriya]
Quirk: Digitalization, Transfer, Stockpiling, Singularity, Gearshift(sealed), Fa Jin(sealed), Danger Sense(sealed), Blackwhip(sealed), Smokescreen(sealed), Float(sealed)
Current Level: 19->27 (91,069->811,502 EXP)
Effective Level: 34->39
[Attributes]
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 100
Intelligence: 100
Dexterity: 100
Luck: 22->75(40 from Levels, 13 from grinding)
Free Attributes: 0
Rerolls Available: 2
[Perks]
[Lesser Regeneration], [Healthy Body], [Sharp Mind], [Eidetic Memory], [Nimble Fingers], [Keen Senses], [Lucky]
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Though he was hoping to reach Level 30 by the time of the Sports Festival, Izuku was fairly content with his progress. He had confirmed a lot of things during his training, so it was only a matter of time before he attained the strength necessary to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, he wouldn't have Pixie-bob to rely on as she ultimately had to return to her team.
Dismissing such thoughts from his mind, Izuku was staring intently at his phone as he stood outside a movie theater, patiently awaiting the arrival of his date. At a glance, his phone appeared to show a somewhat messy picture of a girl's bed, but if you looked closely, you would notice a clear indentation in the mattress surface and the faint outline of a naked, lightly powdered girl in some 'very' risque poses.
Breaking Izuku from his focused state, the increasingly familiar voice of Toru asked him, "What'cha looking at~?"
Instead of feigning innocent, Izuku revealed his screen to Toru, smiling as he teased, "You tell me..."
Recognizing the photo as the one she had sent shortly after Izuku asked if she wanted to see a movie together, Toru blushed up to her ears and attempted to snatch the phone from his hands. Izuku quickly raised it out of her reach, so she ended up grinding against him for a pleasantly lengthy period before stopping, stamping her feet, and saying, "If you're going to bully me, I'm not going to send you anymore!"
Adopting a faint smile, Izuku locked his screen and slid his phone into his pocket. Then, catching Toru by surprise, he took advantage of their close proximity to wrap his arms around her, his smile broadening as he said, "I just couldn't wait to see you, so I needed something to keep me occupied until the real deal showed up..."
Though it was the first time Izuku was touching her outside their training, Toru didn't attempt to break free from his grasp. Instead, she leaned into him, her invisible face and eyes turned up as she said, "I really mean it...if you bully me, I won't forgive you..."
Interpreting Toru's words as her way of saying he shouldn't play with her feelings, Izuku's smile softened as he whispered, "I won't...I promise..." in a sincere tone. Pixie-bob's teasing during their training had nearly caused him to pounce, but he managed to endure since it was fairly obvious Toru had caught feelings. He would be fooling himself if he said he felt nothing in turn, so he was ready to make things official if she was...
With Izuku strengthening his hold on her body, the fluttery sensation in Toru's chest compounded greatly. If she were being completely honest, she thought things were advancing too quickly. However, as Izuku was the first boy she seriously had a crush on, she eventually closed her eyes and puckered her lips. Unfortunately, Izuku had no way of noticing this, so she ultimately had to summon even more courage to kiss him directly...
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After returning home from a movie he couldn't even remember the name of, Izuku collapsed in his bed and stared at his ceiling with a completely blank look on his face. He and Toru hadn't made things official with their words, but they held hands throughout the movie and he even walked her home, the complete opposite direction of his, after the fact.
Recalling the parting kiss Toru had gifted him, the listless look on Izuku's face gradually gave way to a smile. It was chaste and very brief, but the feelings within weren't lacking. He could tell that Toru 'like-liked' him, so most of his short-term plans came crashing down around him. He would still accept an Internship with Mirko if she gave him the option, but now, even if he 'did' have a chance with her, it seemed fate had other ideas...
*bzzzz*
Feeling his phone buzz in his pocket, Izuku was unsurprised to find the message originated from Toru. Seeing it caused the smile on his face to broaden, but the moment he opened it up, his expression became fixed like a statue...
'Sorry, Izuku-kun, but I don't think I'm ready to take our relationship to the next level. Spending time with you makes me the happiest I've ever been, but I know there are a lot of girls in our Class who like you. Going around behind their backs and sending you lewd photos makes me feel like I've stolen you away from them, so, at least for the time being, I think we should remain good friends. If you're still single come Winter break, I promise to confess to you properly then...'
"..."
After reading the message multiple times, Izuku hesitated for a moment before replying, 'I understand. I also know this couldn't have been easy for you, so I won't make things harder by trying to convince you. Instead, if we're both still available come New Year's, I'll give you a lot more than a simple confession...'
Finished with his message, Izuku pressed send before tossing his phone aside. He had heard that High School romances were filled with drama, but this was beyond his expectations. It almost felt like Toru had betrayed him, but he knew that wasn't a fair assessment. On the contrary, she was giving him a chance to figure things out before their relationship crossed a point that couldn't be backpedaled. It was a 'sensible' decision from a girl who very clearly had intense feelings for him, so Izuku did his best not to overthink things as he got out of bed, sat at his desk, set his headphones to their max volume, and got to work securing his future...
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Reading Izuku's response, the tears that Toru had barely been able to get under control came back in full. Breaking things off with Izuku was one of the hardest things she had ever done, but she couldn't stand the feeling of having 'betrayed' the other girls in Class 1-A. It was obvious to her that Ochaco, Tsuyu, and even Yaoyorozu had feelings for Izuku, so she didn't think it was fair to them that she had gotten close to him while they were distracted and preparing for the Sports Festival. There was also the girl named Mei Hatsume, who Toru had secretly approached while Izuku was conducting his special training, so, even if it pained her heart, she did her best to push down her feelings for everyone else's happiness...
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(A/N: I'm aware that the MC could increase the potential for attribute gains and the ratio for multiplication if he decreased his base Str/Agi even further, but I'm running with the premise that he 'needs' at least a certain degree of physicality to make use of One-for-All at all.)
