Chapter Text
Izuku Midoriya is quite lonely, his mom had died a few years back due to a car crash, and his father was never around. Being a college student for your second degree had put a strain on him, but thankfully the money from when his mom had won the lottery covered his tuition fully. While living alone, he developed a small crush on his next door neighbor and took out the trash every time this pretty girl went outside. Her untamed blonde hair and fierce red eyes gave Izuku a thrilling chill that ran down his entire body. Something about her presence made him curious on who she really was. Of course, he had never asked her name, as he was too shy to even hold eye contact.
Today was raining, the rain emitting a calming noise as it dropped onto Izuku's living room window. This boy was too lazy to get up and do anything productive, so he opted for scrolling on his favorite app, Picklock. While scrolling, a video of a popular pc game popped up.
“Speed run a Level 46 Dungeon with Me In FOS!”
The caption—which was vaguely short, with not many hashtags—read,
“This is your sign to start a FOS account <3 #fyp #FOS #viral”
It had gone quite viral, with over three hundred thousand likes and fifteen thousand shares. The comments were filled with praises as the video showed the streamer using all his tools perfectly. The video was 15 seconds long, showing the most impressive clips from their run.
He had seen this game many times before, the only difference now is that he actually downloaded it. Although it took around an hour to set everything up, the game itself was entertaining and attention grabbing. The loading screen had been calming, while also carrying a feeling of mystery.
It had started off with a cutscene of a young mage walking in a flower field. They seemed tranquil as she trotted through the fresh grass and blooming flowers, their fingertips brushing the petals as if in silent conversation with nature itself. Sunlight filtered gently through drifting clouds above, casting dappled shadows across the rolling meadow. A soft wind tousled their cloak, carrying the scent of lavender and wild thyme.
The story portrayed them as a young mage who wandered their planet, Naboo—a lush, ancient world steeped in forgotten magic and buried memories. With each quiet footstep, they carried both the serenity of a healer and the burden of a protector. Their purpose was solemn but vital: to find and seal the old beasts—primordial creatures twisted by time and darkness—that emerged from the entrances of ancient caves and long-abandoned citadels. These were remnants of an age when chaos reigned and the skies were thick with fire and thunder.
Along their journey, scattered ruins whispered tales of the past. Some spoke of ancient orders that once tamed the arcane. Others told of villages swallowed whole by creatures born from broken magic. The mage, still learning the full extent of their powers, relied on their staff and incantations, while whispers on the past victims lingered in the flowing air.
As they approached the edge of the meadow, the screen shifted. The peaceful field gave way to the crumbled remains of a tower half-consumed by vines and mist. Their staff began to glow faintly, reacting to the ancient energy stirring nearby. Something was waking. Something old. The player would soon take control.
As the story continued, it showed the user how to fight and equip different weapons while teaching them how to gain exp and better gear.
The long guide finally came to a stop at a small—but mighty—village. Izuku was granted a small house made of straw and brick, it was said to have sheltered many other mages as they first started their journey out in Naboo. It had looked almost abandoned, as the outside was covered is cascading vines that dropped down the ancient brick walls and stopped at the brittle grass. As he stepped inside, everything was covered in cobwebs, the furniture was scarce, and it looked as if it had been home to a bat. It took a while for Izuku to tour the whole place; his worn-out leather boots wandered along the aged floor. It consisted of a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom—that was smaller than the kitchen, and an area with a round dining table and two chairs which had looked as if they were going to crumble. His aged leather shirt had drifted through the wind as he stepped back onto his porch, heading down the road as he advanced to the main hall.
The main hall stood at the heart of the old village, tucked behind a grove of elder trees and worn stone walls laced with moss. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a weathered longhouse—its timber beams sagging slightly with age, the slate roof patched and uneven. Smoke curled gently from a crooked chimney, and the heavy wooden doors groaned as they swung open.
Inside, the hall opened up into a wide chamber lit by iron lanterns hanging from thick crossbeams. Their warm, flickering light cast long shadows across the flagstone floor. The walls were built from stacked river rock and ancient wood, their surfaces worn smooth by generations of footsteps and village ceremonies. Bundles of dried herbs and stringed charms dangled from the rafters—offerings to old spirits or remnants of long-forgotten rituals.
A dusty carpet ran down the center aisle, bare in some places. Wooden benches lined the walls, their surfaces etched with the initials and symbols of those who had once stood in this same room, faced with the same choice. Some said you could feel the presence of the ancestors in the floorboards—others claimed to hear whispers when alone in the hall at night.
The air was thick with the scent of old books, drying herbs, and smoke from the hearth at the back, where a gentle fire still crackled. Despite its age, the hall had a kind of humble magic—a living memory of the village and those who kept its ancient traditions alive.
He had been led to the main area by the village elder, a quiet man with clouded eyes who spoke of old paths and hidden callings.
“Night of the Crescent Moon”
A chuckle escaped Izuku as he thought about how ridiculous the name was. The description of the guild was straight forward, explaining how they all just need exp boosts and help with dungeons. Maybe it was fate, but there was one spot free as a member had left.
49/50 Spots Taken:
“Would you like to join this guild?”
His mouse immediately clicked on yes, and all the guild members came up on the side of his screen, coming up on top was a person whose user gave the same energy as the guild name.
explod044
His stats were almost insane, as he was light years above the whole guild, having almost reached the max level, 999. Izuku and looked to see where his name was, but not to his surprise he was dead last.
TOP FIVE:
level 998: explod044
level 922: foscaleia
level 567: thatashycat
level 456: ihatemath
level 311: midnightfiction
+47 more users…extend?
Izuku, on the other hand, hadn’t even reached level 100. After hours of steady grinding, he was still sitting at level 46. But it didn’t bother him—not really. If anything, it pulled him in deeper. The gap wasn’t discouraging; it was something to close, one level at a time.
Three hours had passed without him noticing. It was 5 PM now, and he told himself he’d log off soon. That was when a small notification blinked to life in the upper right corner of his screen.
“Guild Hosted Event now happening, 10 minutes until start”
Wanting to be included in his new community, joined without reading any description about this dungeon, he had some doubts, but they were ultimately pushed to the back of his mind.
DUNGEON LOADING IN
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
“You have now loaded, please enter the cave to begin.”
As the dialogue came onto his screen, Izuku decided to get a bag of chips while he waited, little did he know the game was about to get quite intense.
DAMAGE TAKEN
-2
-40 CRITICAL HIT
-13
-17
LOW HEALTH: PLEASE HEAL QUICKLY AS YOU WILL NOT RESPAWN
As soon as he saw his health, Izuku had started swinging his sword as his life depended on it. Unfortunately, the snake had four hundred health, and he was barely doing five. The snake bad been rapidly eating away at his opponent's health.
At this point, he accepted his fate and just focused on dodging. He weaved between strikes, barely keeping himself alive. But eventually, the snake caught on to his pattern—one step too slow, and it lunged. Just as the fangs were about to connect, a burst of color exploded across his screen. A splash effect scattered in every direction, followed by a swirl of orange particles that floated upward and filled the screen with light. When they faded, his health bar had shot back to full, and he found himself suddenly teleported to a safe, distant corner of the cave.
A message slid across the top of the screen:
explod044 has splashed a saving potion on you
Relief washed over him. He blinked at the message, realizing who had saved him—the top-ranked player. Izuku stared for a second longer, then smiled to himself. He didn’t know why explod044 had helped him, but he’d make sure to thank them once the dungeon run was over.
A while had passed by, and the mystery stranger ended up fighting the final boss all on their own. All the other guild members had been hiding as they were all low health from the different creatures.
While Izuku had been on the side, he enjoyed watching explod044 fight and analyzed their movements and took a mental note to try and mimic their movements later in the training area. The player seemed to grab a hand on the snake's pattern and made it seem almost easy to dodge. When the final boss came around—a high level dragon, the player had lured it to a corner and meticulously used his gears at just the right second. As the boss had once almost got them, they sprayed a smoke bomb to give themselves room to breathe and landed a hit on the dragon's weak spot. Instead of focusing on raw speed, they used the patterns and guessed where it would hit, their moves were almost slow as the dragon only managed one hit the whole fight.
He had also noticed that the beasts were quite well animated, he watched how smooth they fought and how put together the animation was, he was impressed to say the least.
Suddenly remembering he had to thank explod044, he snapped out of his trance and headed up to them. He found it quite odd that everyone was together except the top player. He expected all of them to gather around thanking him for basically carrying the whole last level.
As he walked up, he could tell this player was used to the isolation, and he felt a sense of pity washed over him. The others were excitingly showing off their new gear thanks to the drops from the dungeon, they did everything but send their thanks to the person who basically gave them their rewards. Izuku had been starting to reach the area where the top player was standing, glancing at his new gear.
As he started the conversation, a chain of messages started to fill his screen.
“Hi! I'm a new guild member; you can call me Izu!”
“K. Call me by my user, what do u want?”
“I just wanted to send you my thanks, as I was lowkey in a bad situation when you saved me!”
“Next time level up before going into a dungeon that's obviously out of your league so I don’t have to save that sorry butt of yours again.”
silence.
Izuku was shocked. He stared at the message on his screen, the curt and dismissive tone catching him completely off guard. He had expected at least a simple "you're welcome"—or maybe just a neutral reply. Instead, the response he got was cold, almost annoyed.
It stung a little more than he thought it would. After all, he’d gone out of his way to message them, to say thanks. For a moment, he frowned, slightly irritated at how they’d brushed him off so easily. But before the feeling could settle in, a new thought crossed his mind—unexpected, but strangely fitting.
If they were going to be rude... then he’d just have to make them his friend.
The idea was so ridiculous, it actually made him smile. Not out of revenge or spite, but because it felt like something he could do. If they didn’t know how to handle kindness, then maybe he could teach them, even if just by being persistent, patient, and annoyingly polite. He wouldn’t push too hard, of course—but he’d stick around. Help out when he could. Respond to rudeness with calm. Little by little, he'd wear them down until they couldn’t help but tolerate him.
Maybe it was petty. Or maybe it was just his way of turning an awkward encounter into something worthwhile. Either way, Izuku had made up his mind.
Challenge accepted, he thought with a small grin as he closed the message window and turned back to the dungeon chat.
With that a friend request was made.
itsnotdeku has sent a friend request to explod044.