First Boss [2]

Yeah, no.

I looked over to Manami and she was already running away, so I assumed she either knew who we were facing or could guess the danger that she was facing. If it was the former, it would've only confused me that much more as to why she was here.

If it was the latter, well, I'm glad she and I were on the same page when it came to that, at the very least.

Manami dipped behind and through the trees, popping in and out of my sight, and more importantly, the boss's sight.

A small―stupid, honestly―part of me wondered if I should try to slow the boss down. Manami was in an even worse position than I was. Yes, she had more HP and MP than me, and even higher stats than me…. Wait, she totally wasn't in a worse position than me.

At level 7, I was totally in a worse position than the level 21 Manami. In fact, I was questioning why she couldn't even beat the skeletons from earlier. Yes, her physical stats were lower than theirs, but she probably could've created a plan of some sort. But then again, she may've been surprised by literal skeletons chasing after her.

I could feel my thoughts change directions, so I tore them back into the actual problem at hand.

Slowing down the boss was a stupid idea. It was 40 levels higher than me, had stats far higher than me, and clearly wanted me dead. I also didn't even have the element of surprise I had against the skeletons earlier.

Basically, there was no way I was winning a fair fight against this monster. Holding it off was a dream as well.

With that mental confirmation, I was quick to start running as well, not forgetting to grab my dropped bat.

Ducking behind and around several trees, I felt genuine terror as I heard rushing water followed by the sounds of trees being torn down behind me. That same terror should've stopped me in my tracks, but a grin grew on my face as I ran for my life instead.

I looked around as I took a quick left around a tree. Manami was still ahead of me, we were deep in the forest, and the night was lit up by the moonlight. Trees were knocked over behind me with reckless abandon, which certainly made enough noise to create an important question within my mind.

Why weren't any heroes here yet?

I wasn't a hero fanboy in any sense of the word, but I kept up to date with a few of them. Most were… all were women, but I still kept up with heroes regardless. Because I kept up with heroes, I was positive, Midnight's Agency was around here.

There were a few options.

One, they were still currently figuring out who should come, which was entirely possible and honestly felt likely. Two, everyone was elsewhere, which felt less likely but still was possible. Three, somehow, someway, the information hadn't gotten out to them yet, which I really hoped wasn't the case. Four, the information hadn't gotten to them and wasn't going to, which was the absolute worst situation possible, but felt entirely likely.

Honestly, even if things were odd and there was no sort of order to be heard of, we lived in a world filled―absolutely filled―with heroes.

Whether it was a Pro-Hero, Hero-In-Training, a Vigilante, or a rival Villain, someone should've appeared by now. Manami's screams should've brought someone into the forest.

Or… I could've just been unlucky. The stat was at a whopping 5 after all.

Either way I sliced the cake of unfortunate events, we either weren't going to receive any help, or we weren't going to receive it fast enough.

Fine, I thought. I'd do it myself.

I pulled up my stat points with haste, grinning as I could hear several more trees being pummeled over.

Strength was an automatic no. With my 25 points, I could bring it to a whopping 32 as my highest stat by far. However, that wouldn't compare to the boss's strength―which was easily double that.

Vitality was also important, but even with 25 extra points, I could only imagine being able to tank an additional one or two blows. Either way, it wasn't going to help me beat the boss.

Dexterity was looking good right now. Dexterity was the monster's lowest physical stat, but it still eclipsed mine. The only reason the skeletal martial artist didn't instantly catch up with me was because we were running through a forest, and I was constantly making it hard to catch me.

With that thought, I slammed my bat into a thick branch above me, causing it to fall and further slow down the monster behind me. With Manami in front of me, the fallen branch guaranteed even the smallest bit of extra space between me and the boss.

If I used the blind spots of the forest effectively and used the environment to the most, I may be able to defeat the boss. But… that's still a big leap in logic. The skeleton would still be faster than me, and if it had any sort of intelligence―which it did as far as its stats say―it could probably guess where I'd jump out from to get the drop on it.

What looked like a lot of good spots were dwindled down by efficiency, and that smaller number of spots would be dwindled down even further by the increasing darkness combined with my lack of speed and the boss's intelligence level.

So, Dexterity was a good idea, but not that good.

I'm just gonna preemptively give Luck the boot. I still have no idea what it actually does and even if I did, "Luck" was very subjective. It's entirely possible that my Quirk doesn't want the same thing as I do.

If my newest ability wanted me to get stronger and decided that the best way to do that was making my enemy stronger for more experience points, it could not only put me in danger, but put Manami in danger too.

I also never heard of a Quirk that increased or decreased someone's luck, so until I gain some knowledge about that, I was going to continue ignoring the Luck stat.

I could almost begin to see a pattern as my eyes fell onto Intelligence and Wisdom. Earlier I'd chosen Wisdom, and it wasn't a bad outcome.

5 points changed my MP regen from 1 to 2, so 25 should bring it up to 7. Of course, that's the simple number changes, but there'd most certainly be more than that. Before, it felt like my vision became… clearer. The choices became far easier, and my future decisions became clearer to me in a difficult way to describe.

If I got 35 Wisdom, could I solve the situation with my mind and creative thinking? There's a chance I still couldn't win with that, but it was still better than Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, or Luck.

Stemming from Wisdom was Intelligence, that looked far better.

Honestly, I'd just thought of a way of explaining them as I ran for my life.

Intelligence is having more options; Wisdom is knowing how to properly use them.

Of course, that was overly simplistic, and I would bet that people would have problems with it if they could read into my thoughts, but… they couldn't, so I'm gonna run with it.

No matter how effective I was with my few options, they still were only a few options. If I looked at my abilities so far with a critical eye, I could do quite a few things, but none of them were good enough to triumph over the boss right now. I'm pretty sure it would just shrug off my Pop-Off balls as well.

If my current options weren't enough, why don't I just make some more?

Just dumping all my points into Intelligence wouldn't give me the results I wished for though. It may give me more options, but I may not fully understand how to use them so….

I heard the boss getting closer to me, so I dashed towards Manami and kept dashing around trees just to make the skeleton's day that much more difficult.

I tapped 15 points into Intelligence and 10 into Wisdom. With the crashing of trees behind me, I confirmed the changes, feeling my Intelligence and Wisdom rise to 21 and 20, respectively.

I could feel my MP pool get… larger, deeper? I could use more instantly, so I didn't have any qualms with that. I felt like brain… expanded? This entire experience was odd.

Despite getting―at least figuratively―smarter, I still didn't suddenly have a good way of explaining what I felt. Either way, I was stronger than before. I didn't know how, but I suddenly knew of more options. It's like the world became more… clear―again, I still didn't know how, but I wasn't trying to get answers right now either.

The Wisdom made me feel like I was just more… quick to understand things. It was like the world was puzzle pieces and Wisdom just created more smaller, intricate pieces for me to build a solution with.

With more puzzle pieces and more choices to pull from, I could create a better solution.

And with the pieces, I did.

I looked around and noticed a tree that looked weaker than the others near the base. Still an entirely developed tree, but weaker than the others. That was my chance.

I carefully created a Pop-Off ball and tossed it in front of me. The timing was gonna be weird, but I didn't have time to mess it up either. My metal bat glowed with purple energy before I slammed my weapon into the ball, sending it flying ahead.

The ball slammed directly where I wanted it to, into a weak-looking tree, sticking to it and pushing it ever so slightly. I repeated myself four more times, the loss of HP and MP doing nothing to dissuade me. Every time I aimed the ball somewhere slightly different, creating a large area of the Pop-Off balls.

The boss was closing in on me, it was getting used to me dipping in between trees already. It had been less twenty seconds, but my cheap tactics weren't gonna work for much longer.

I tried picking up as much speed as I could, dashing with everything I had in my 4'5" body. I had to count down carefully, three, two, one, now!

I slid to a stop and began bashing the base of the tree with everything I had. I could hear the tree creak and I still kept going. That sound of rushing water was right behind me again, probably less than 10 steps away, but I didn't stop.

With a few more Power Strikes, the tree began crumbling under its own pressure, falling towards me and the boss. I turned to face the boss, only to see it attempting to punch the tree. The boss's boney fist slammed into my Pop-Off balls, which effectively took the massive pressure of a level 47's punch and spread it over the entire tree.

The entire time the boss was knocking over trees, not just shattering them or destroying them. That told me that the boss probably couldn't do that, rather than wouldn't.

The pressure and speed of the skeleton's punch still pushed the tree farther back than it was originally, but that wasn't success for the monster either.

I barely rolled out of the way before the monster came crashing into the ground, its right fist stuck in the purple balls on the tree.

Trees were heavy things. Even extremely frail trees weighed up to 150 kgs, and that wasn't anything to doubt when falling.

A skeleton of an average human weighed about 9.3 kgs, and if I gave this monster extra weight since the horns on its head could've been a result of many things and it was a walking, moving skeleton, maybe about 20 kgs.

The two just couldn't compare and based on how quickly the intimidating skeleton was pulled to the ground, my educated guess was entirely correct.

The skeleton writhed around, clearly trying to pull its arm back. It looked up to me and let out a screech, reaching out to me. I hopped backwards, a nervous grin growing on my face.

This wasn't just a result of that quick comparison either. The extra Intelligence increased the power of my Pop-Off balls, but it also allowed me to Observe the weaknesses of the tree and the weight of the tree.

Of course, Wisdom was the stat that helped me make this quick decision at all.

All-in-all, everything lined up perfectly. With just a few less points and less skills I don't know if I would've been able to do it. More importantly than that though….

I turned to Manami, who'd stopped running after the skeleton went down, and opened my mouth to ask her a question.

"Why'd you help me?" Manami's words came out a bit faster than mine did. I wanted to take a moment to just stare at her, not giving her any reaction and letting her fill in the blanks, but the writhing skeleton was stopping me from committing to that.

I looked back to the monster as I tried to form a decent answer. The boss wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon, but I wasn't going to let it recover either.

"You needed help and helping you just made sense to me," My answer wasn't amazing, or awe-inspiring, it was just how I felt, simple and honest.

I couldn't look at Manami's expression as I walked the far way around the fallen skeleton. It still had one limb that were a threat, and while it was stuck for the time being, I gave it about 20 seconds before it would make some sort of snap decision on what to do next.

So…. I stuck the skeleton's leg to the ground with a Pop-Off ball and slammed my bat into its ankle. I did it again, and again, and again, attempting to stop the skeleton from moving at all if it even could get up.

The skeleton's health dropped lower and lower, but it didn't have any plans of just laying down and dying. The boss's other leg came up and slammed into my bat, knocking me back.

I only felt the aftereffects of the kick, but my HP dropped by about 80%. I could feel a constant vibration shoot through my entire body, stunning me before I could shake it off.

That was terrifying, I noted. If an attack that didn't even hit me directly did that much to me, I wasn't trying to let any of those attacks even graze me in the long run.

[Due to taking physical damage, you have received a new skill. Skill: Physical Damage Endurance.]

The notification was interesting, but I didn't care to check it right now. I knew what the skill did automatically, so I would look for specifics if I wanted them later.

Looking towards the skeleton's HP, it may've had about 20% left, but that seemed like an awfully high amount of HP left.

The tree did a large number to it, but I didn't see any weaker trees that I think I could've knocked over. If I could just do the same thing again, I would've happily done so, but I guess I couldn't.

Just as I was about to try and stick the other leg and arm down to the ground, the skeleton let out a screech and began pulling its arm back.

What is it―

My thoughts were cut off as the skeleton pulled its arm back and entirely lost its arm at the shoulder.

"What the…?!" Manami's voice died in her throat as the skeleton rose faster than I could react.

All complicated plans went out the window as the skeleton rose from its spot. I took my bat and tried to take the neck of the monster in one fell swoop but was just a fraction of a second too slow.

That ominous sound of rushing water flooded my ears before the skeleton's fist came soaring towards my face.

I was pushed before the attack could reach me. Manami took the attack in my stead, and even though I couldn't be sure what happened to her, I heard a gasp of pain before I heard something hit a tree, then there was silence.

I quickly jumped up from the ground, looking to where Manami should've been, only to see a path of clear destruction and her body slumped up against a tree at the end of that path. Observe told me she had less than 100 HP and was steadily dropping, so I'd have about 10 minutes to find her some help.

With that in mind, I didn't dare to waste any more time. The skeleton was teeter-tottering, trying to regain its balance with only one arm.

I threw out seven Pop-Off balls and leapt from one to the other before coming up around the skeleton's neck. I spun with everything I had and with the additional power of Power Strike, I slammed my bat into the skeleton's neck. I could hear a crack, but it wasn't enough.

As I fell, I slammed my bat into the skeleton's leg, beginning to knock it off balance. When I hit the ground, I leapt up again with the help of my Pop-Off ball and I hit the skeleton's neck again, this time the additional energy pushing me past the skeleton.

I soared through the air towards a faraway tree. I threw a Pop-Off ball at the trunk and bounced off it, coming back towards the skeleton before it even knew what was happening.

Spinning through the air, I slammed the head into the left side of the skeleton's neck, and I could feel the neck begin to give way.

"Just die already!" I fell to the ground and leapt high into the sky, vertically spinning with my bat in my hand. With one last Power Strike―the very last bit of my already stretched MP―I slammed my bat into the skeleton's neck.

With Power Strike, Blunt Weapon Mastery, Mana Empowerment, and every last bit of strength I had left in my body, I struck the monster's neck, causing the head of the skeleton to come flying from the body.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

Honestly, it's kind of impressive how momentary boosts of power could entirely change your outlook on things. Those levels were necessary for me because of how low my HP and MP was getting.

I stopped using Fling just to save any possible MP during the fight and I still almost messed it up.

Still, even though I was tired―and trust me, I was tired―I couldn't stop yet.

I needed to get Manami some help as soon as possible. I ran to her side, Observing her condition once again. She was bleeding from a pretty intense wound on her head, she had several broken bones, and she had a few severe lacerations as well.

All from one of the boss's punches. She was in bad condition, plain and simple.

I hadn't even noticed just how quiet everything was. The sounds of people walking in the distance, the wind blowing through the trees, and even the sounds of small animals and insects, it was all just gone.

The eerie silence was pierced with the sound of a notification.

[You can now leave the dungeon. Don't forget to pick up the dropped items from the fallen boss.]

I swiped away the notification and left in the place of the fallen skeleton was just as the blue screen said. Several different books and some Yen were left behind.

"They really are drops…!" I wish I could spend my time being shocked, but I had other things to worry about. I stuffed the Yen in my inventory with momentary thoughts of it being counterfeit before I shook the thoughts away.

Every bone in my body basically begged for me to just take a minute or two to check the skills, but I pushed aside that curiosity because it directly interfered with Manami's safety.

Well, until I didn't. I succumbed to my own curiosity extremely quickly. I combed through the books, causing a flurry of notifications to fill my vision.

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Azure Dragon's Dash"?]

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Talons of the Azure Dragon"?]

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Azure Dragon's Flight"?]

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Azure Dragon's Scales"?]

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Azure Dragon's Roar"?]

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Azure Dragon's Ascension"?]

[Would you like to learn the skill: "Azure Dragon of the East"?]

As cool as some of these skills sounded, I felt dissatisfied. If any of these were healing skills, I might be able to heal Manami right now and call it a day, but that wasn't happening.

I didn't even know how my ability would interact with healing skills, but I had to do something.

Getting Manami to a hospital in good time was extremely difficult at best, and I wasn't willing to chance this on anything. If that's the case….

I pulled out my phone, trying to not soak the screen with the sweat on my hands. I search up nearby libraries or bookstores and I found one right around the corner named "Haneyama Bookstore: The Source."

It was a bookstore, and I was absolutely willing to give it a try. If it failed me, I'd just have to take the risk and bring Manami to Midnight's Agency building.

I clicked yes on Azure Dragon's Dash and Azure Dragon's Flight, hoping they'd be skills heavily based on speed more than anything else.

[Azure Dragon's Dash (Active & Passive) Lv. 1 | MP: 10]

The movement skill personally created by the Dragon King Seiryu.

Passively increases movement speed by 10%.

Increases movement speed by 50% when active.

Costs an additional 20MP per minute.

[Azure Dragon's Flight (Active) Lv. 1 | MP: 40]

The central technique to Seiryu's ancient martial arts, made to combat the Vermillion Bird's overwhelming speed. Through this technique, he moved from one enemy to another without ever stopping for a break. People would say it was as if he was flying, which is where the name of the skill stems from.

100% increase to jumping distance.

50% increase to movement speed.

50% increase to attack damage.

I… damn. The Azure Dragon, Seiryu, was intense. This was only a few of his skills and they were still crazy. They felt like unfinished pieces to a puzzle, but I couldn't focus on that right now.

These skills gave me what I needed, speed.

I carefully took the bloody Manami onto my back and began Dashing and Flying with everything I had. I rushed through the trees, trying to control this new speed as best as I could.

To be honest, it felt amazing to be fast. I was easily twice as fast as normally, but each step took another chunk of my MP.

In no time at all, I was out of the forest. I jumped over―yeah, cleanly over―the street and kept to the alleyways. Two minutes later, I barged into the Haneyama bookstore.

Behind the counter was a girl that looked like she could be in highschool, probably just a little bit older than I am. With her magenta hair and eyes, it would be easy to spot her in a crowd. That would be the most striking thing if―

[Hidden Vigilante]

[Lv. 48]

[Kazuho Haneyama]

―she couldn't turn me inside out with a simplistic thought.

I didn't know how to really approach this situation. My first thoughts―which weren't very hero-like―was to just threaten Kazuho with the information I had over her.

With Observe and her title, it wasn't hard to figure out that she was a Vigilante as a side-job of sorts. According to her background, she was also an illegal street performer and kept in contact with at least two other Vigilantes that went under the names "The Crawler" and "Knuckleduster."

I could threaten her to get a skill book for 100% free.

That's assuming several different things. One, I actually succeed in blackmailing her, and she doesn't just fold me in half. Two, she even has any books that are over healing. Three, those same books are counted as a skill book by my ability.

My second thoughts seemed more likely, which was to just say the truth.

It wasn't special, it wasn't super unique, and it wasn't especially cool either. It was simplistic and, in the end, guaranteed nothing more than normal, but….

"Welcome to the Haneyama bookstore―" Kazuho suddenly stopped as she looked up to see me carrying Manami on my back. She quickly leapt over the counter―which was uncharacteristically energetic compared to how shy she looked―and ran to my side.

"What happened to her?" Kazuho asked, her eyes flickering between me and Manami.

"We got into a… villain attack, and she's got hurt. I got away scot-free, but I needed to get her some help," I could tell Kazuho was about to ask a question, so I continued. "I brought her here because my Quirk allows me to… learn things that are within books for a short amount of time, and I needed a book so…."

I was surprised that Kazuho was running to the back before I could continue.

From the back, she yelled, "Check the books that are out already! I'll grab whatever I can find!"

Well, she certainly knew how to move when she needed to move.

I was quick to Dash towards the nearest shelves, combing through the books for anything that was over healing.

No, no, no, no. I moved to the next shelf.

No, no, no, no. I moved quickly, checking on Manami on my back. Her breathing was slowing, I was running out of time and wasn't finding anything good.

"I found a few…!" Kazuho came barreling out of the back with a few books in hand, but she didn't look satisfied. "These three talk about healing Quirks, repurposing Quirks, and the abilities of average people. Will they be good enough?"

"Here, let me see them," I held out my hand, and Kazuho was quick to hand them over to me.

The one on top didn't cause a notification to appear so I sat it aside. The second one though, gave me much more desirable results. The second one was a storybook, oddly enough.

[Would you like to learn the skill book: "The Art of Devotion"?]

[Yes/No]

I was quick to press yes, but instead of the book disappearing, another notification appeared.

[You cannot learn this skill. Required: 40 Intelligence.]

I let out a low hum.

"Is… Is something wrong?" Kazuho asked, causing me to shake my head.

"No, my Quirk is just… overly specific at times," I explained vaguely, turning my attention to my status screen.

I had gained 30 points from the six levels I got after defeating the skeleton boss. I was looking forward to keeping the points for later use, but Manami's life was far more important. I'd continue to try and not use the points unless I was forced to or until I figured out where I'd be specializing in.

All those thoughts were irrelevant at the time being, so I shook my head and put 19 points into Intelligence, bringing it up to 40 perfectly.

I tried to absorb the skill again, and this time, I succeeded. The book disappeared as purple energy covered my hands and the book, vanishing when the energy subsided.

[Mortal Restoration (Active) Lv. 1 | MP: 50]

Through complete devotion to an ally, a Quirkless and powerless man awakened to a power to heal those he deemed worthy. Whether this power was a Quirk or something else remains lost within time.

Without Mana Crystal, 50 HP restored, low-ranked Illnesses removed.

With Mana Crystal, casting is free, 50 HP restored, 50 MP restored, low-ranked Illnesses removed, low-ranked Status Effects removed.

Whoa. This skill was certainly the biggest whoa of the day.

This was healing 50 HP at level one, and if it grew at a fairly good pace, would heal 1000 HP at level 20. That's… invaluable.

I would get into the specifics as to why, but with a bleeding out woman on my back, I decided that would be smart to keep in mind for another time.

"What happened to the book?!" Kazuho stumbled, shocked.

"Ah… that's a side effect of my Quirk. I'll pay back the book later!" I checked the last book just in case, and to my surprise, it was another book by Tokotachi.

This time, it was named "Healing the Body and Mind Through Mana." The book may've been worth reading later, but because I'd gotten Mortal Restoration, I sat the book aside.

"Don't worry about it, it's on us. Someone's life is worth way more than a book that was sitting in the back and collecting dust," Kazuho shook her head.

I laid both of my hands on Manami's shoulders, taking a calming deep breath before casting Mortal Restoration. Purple energy came from my palms and raced over Manami's body, and I could see her wounds begin go close.

According to her HP bar, she needed at least another 12 castings to top her off, and I'd have just enough to do so.

I casted Mortal Restoration again and again.