Uraraka Ochako was thoroughly enjoying her new life as a barbarian warrior with some moral boundaries left untouched.
When she was applying to UA she thought of herself as a potential future rescue hero like Thirteen. However, by the time the Battle Trial and the Sports Festival were over, she realized something about herself. Something that back then surprised her greatly.
She loved fighting. And now that she was isekai’d as a Dungeon servant, there was almost no limit to her prospects on that field. In this world she could fight to her heart’s content, and against many, many things that she couldn’t even hope to meet back on Earth.
The list would only grow further once she’d properly processed the fact that she enjoyed killing the witches that invaded the Dungeon. Oh, she didn’t enjoy the act of killing people in itself, mind you. But fighting back evil with lethal means, for as long as there was no way of solving the problem peacefully or non-lethally?
Oh, she could get behind that.
The rush of adrenaline brought by fighting to the death would only be sweetened by the feeling of doing it for a good cause. And she has a strange feeling that sooner or later she would be addicted to this mix.
Oh, well.
But this wasn’t the entirety of Uraraka Ochako. Not at all.
Getting to watch Izuku Midoriya repeatedly break his body and push himself to the very edge of death in pursuit of saving people awoke something in her. And no, it wasn’t the same thing that it awoke in Himiko.
It made Uraraka realize that even the greatest heroes might need help. That they might need someone to support them, to make them feel wanted, to make them understand that they and their lives were just as important as those of the people that they saved.
Because Izuku kept going too far. He had to, if he wanted to save people. Without doing that, she would probably be severely injured during the Entrance Exam, Kouta would be killed during the Training Camp, Eri would still be in Overhaul’s hands and so on. He needed to do that, and she accepted that fact.
But what she couldn’t accept was him coming back more and more injured, more and more in a hurry to help everyone he could as if he expected his flame to burn out quickly and wanted to make his time in this world mean something.
But to her, he always meant something. And she was dedicated in her second life to make him understand that. And to her surprise, now that they were lovers, there was finally progress on that field.
Because Izuku finally opened up to someone about his own pain and stress, about his own needs and fears. He finally accepted… her. And this made her life in another world bearable, because he was here for her just as she was there for him.
Take what was happening right now as an example.
Izuku had problems dealing with all the stress from the cultists’ attack and the fact that the attackers actually died. Not only could they have all died (and as he was the same Izuku she knew and loved back on Earth, he felt responsible for them all) they’ve also technically killed someone, and that made him feel even more responsible.
And then Shigaraki - like the awful bully he was - decided to throw a burning match at the powderkeg by insulting Izuku’s mother. Making Izuku very adamantly voice his sincere disapproval of such a behavior.
Yes, she knows just how serious he was about keeping his mom safe. And yes, it’s impressive to her. She respects him for that. After all, she loves her own parents and wants them to be safe.
All of that led to the current moment. She was lying on her back on her bed, with Izuku right next to her. He was clothed (they both were), partially resting on top of her, his head right beneath her chin, lying on top of her chest on its side.
Izuku was fast asleep, hugging her tightly in his sleep.
They haven’t done anything sexual this time. If Uraraka was to be honest, everything that happened the last time was just to… make the situation between them clear. No misunderstandings and no tiptoeing around the subject.
What she did was unbelievably embarrassing, but with someone as (cutely) dense as Izuku cupid had to put down their bow and pick up a missile launcher to have the tiniest of shots at getting through to them.
She looked forward to having sex again (she would totally stutter if she had to admit that aloud!), but she was in no hurry. If anything, she felt like taking a step back and doing the relationship things that they’ve overlooked on the way there was a good idea.
As a result, what led to their current situation was pretty much a date. A lengthy walk together, holding hands and chatting. Izuku venting about his problems with Shigaraki and talking about his mom. Ochako telling him more about her own family and talking about breaking Shigaraki’s kneecaps if he kept bullying him.
So, a nice time. That just kept being nice even after Izuku fell asleep in her embrace.
Her wolf nose told her everything that she needed to know. Izuku smelled… content. Relaxed. Happy. In love. Finally, finally, he was taking it slow and enjoying himself instead of breaking himself piece by piece.
She loved it. She loved every second of it. She just couldn’t have enough of Izuku being like this! Her potential career as a barbarian warlord pillaging her way through the world around her was over before it started, because she already had the most precious treasure sleeping right next to her.
Once he would wake up, they’d go check out the potential structure that Spinner said he saw and perhaps get a good fight out of it. But for now, she was going to let him sleep for as long as she could.
All while fighting against an overbearing desire to fluff his hair. Ugh, let him rest Ochako! Don’t be a dumbass!
Even if it looks so… fluffable. Was that even a word? She isn’t sure, but if it was, then what she could see in front of her definitely fit it. It should be illegal for your hair to be so damn tempting!
***
The location that Spinner thought that he saw was a wooden building somewhere up a mountain to the southwest. It was going to be a long trek, and not because of the height - the mountain itself at best reached about 2000 meters above the riverbed.
The bigger problem was the landscape. The forest they had to march through was a truly primeval one, there were many narrow valleys, cliffs and so on between themselves and their destination… and they had no map. And no compass.
Thankfully, they had Himiko who was always ready to climb up the tree and tell them if they weren’t heading in the wrong direction. And they also had to circle around a few smells that to the senses of their beastkin felt like danger.
In short, they had to camp in the forest for the night. Which made them discover something interesting… and important.
While the Dungeon satiated all their needs, it couldn’t do that at a distance. Spend enough time in the wilds, and you’ll still grow hungry and tired. Thankfully they had enough people with useful skills (such as [Temperate Forest Survival] and [Herbalism (Vestiria)]) to set up the camp and get themselves food and clear water even in the field.
Ochako, Himiko, Kirishima and Spinner of all people even started singing songs over the campfire which lasted until Monoma and Yaoyorozu made them stop to avoid drawing attention of the things that might have been hiding in the forest. Still, fun time.
But they should probably bring their own food and camping supplies for the next trip.
And then, they arrive at their destination.
***
It was a somewhat humble abode. A two-story house with a foundation made of cobblestone and the rest made of wooden planks. No windows, only wooden shutters. The whole thing didn’t look to be maintained, but also wasn’t completely dilapidated.
“Huh, so that’s what I saw.” Spinner looks at the building, with some rather complicated look on his face. “I guess that’s a bit of a letdown, sorry for that.”
No need to apologize.
You’ve seen something and there is something.
It might still be something interesting.
Wow, you’re surprisingly nice to him now.
I’m trying to be a better person, okay?
Great!
For more efficient villainy.
Sigh.
“That’s a bit… hasty.” Yaoyorozu replies to Spinner as she looks around them, checking out the building’s surroundings. “Something’s not right. This building is located in the middle of nowhere. Who brought the materials to build it here? It’s way too far from any civilization for someone to live here, unless they were a strangely rich hermit. I don’t even see any road leading here!” She tilts her head while looking at the building. “This is puzzling to me.”
“Let’s see if someone’s home.” Uraraka decides for their group. “And if it’s not inhabited anymore, everything inside is free for the taking, right?”
Izuku might be her most valuable treasure, sure, but she was going to give everything that she’d find in this building to him. And that made her interested in some… light pillaging once in a while.
***
The house definitely wasn’t inhabited.
Everything was covered in dust. The roof was leaking in several places, causing pools of water to form in a few places, beginning to erode the floor underneath. They’ve found nothing but furniture.
And even that was rather… austere. Empty cupboards, bed frames without the soft parts, tables without anything on them. It felt impersonal. It looked fine on the first glance, but when Izuku spent a few minutes analyzing what he saw, he noticed something weird.
Nothing in this building was unique.
Every object - from the smallest to the largest - existed in at least two copies throughout the building. And that was unnatural.
“Has anyone ever lived here?” Uraraka asks as she looks around one of the rooms on the 1st Floor. “It doesn’t feel so to me.”
I don’t know.
Maybe it’s someone’s hunting lodge? And for some reason they haven’t been here in years and it fell to disrepair?
“I don’t know.” Uraraka looks around one more time, checking even the space under the bed. “It just feels… ugly, you get me? Cold. Impersonal. Fake, even.”
I get a feeling that I know how you want our future h-h-h-home to look like.
Our future h… oh . Uraraka knows that it’s not the best moment to think about it, but this really sounds great. Yes, they’ll never have windows in their home, but at least they won’t have to pay any rent, and all the stuff they’ll have is pretty much free, right?
Uraraka liked free stuff!
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“GUYS!” Their talk is interrupted by Monoma shouting from the ground floor. “COME HERE, I NEED TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING!”
Huh?
***
They found Monoma standing in a completely empty room somewhere in the middle of the ground floor. They have no idea what it was supposed to be. Storage room? Very empty one if so.
Monoma was staring intently at a random wall, thinking something over deeply.
“What is it?” Uraraka asks, glancing at him through the door, the others already gathered behind her.
“I did some quick math, and the numbers don’t add up.” Monoma replies while looking back at her. “This building is larger on the inside than it’s on the outside. And I think that it’s all about this room.”
Uraraka blinks at him in confusion. She isn’t the only person to be shocked.
“What are you talking about?” Yaoyorozu ends up asking for them all.
“I wanted to make sure that there are no hidden areas inside.” Monoma replies. “No secret rooms or hidden spaces in the walls. I roughly measured the length and width of the building from the outside, then checked its insides. The thing is, unless I’m horribly bad at math, then for some reason the insides of this building are two and a half meters wider and two meters longer than the building itself.”
“In other words…” Uraraka has at this point realized it herself. Her parents’ job has likely helped her obtain certain skills. Like being able to judge the sizes of the rooms. “... the exact dimensions of this room.”
“Yeah.” Monoma replies before shrugging. “I have no idea how it works, but it’s a world of magic, so it doesn’t have to make sense to me. But it’s definitely a thing. As to why it works like that, and why there is an odd magic thing in a building in the middle of nowhere, that’s definitely beyond me.”
“Well then.” Uraraka grins. Finally, something was happening! “Let’s check this place out. In detail !” And she already had some ideas!
***
It wasn’t a room. It was a well concealed elevator shaft. When they removed the floorboards, they found an empty shaft extending at least fifty meters deep, illuminated by a number of pale lights in the walls.
Four levels, maybe five. The suspected fifth one was obfuscated by a crushed elevator that seemed to have slammed into the bottom of the elevator and stayed there forever. No cables, maybe the elevator worked with magical levitation?
The surprising part was that it wasn’t made of wood, none of it was. The walls were made from a solid, seamless material that resembled concrete while the elevator frame and the elevator car itself were definitely made of metal.
That was… weird .
“Well.” Uraraka grins while carefully looking down the partially uncovered shaft to let Izuku see the details. “This looks like a jackpot to me. Any guesses on what we’ve just found?”
“Someone’s secret laboratory, perhaps?” Yaoyorozu pitches in an idea. Izuku can hear excitement in her voice - is it because she hopes that they’ll find books underground? “I strongly recommend not opening all the levels at once. We don’t know what we might unleash.”
“You think that there’s something alive down there?” Uraraka asks as she takes a step back and looks at Yaoyorozu.
“It’s always a possibility.” Momo replies.
“Make it a near-certainty.” Monoma cuts in. “I don’t know about you, but to me it looks as if this place required significant investments to set it up. You don’t abandon such a place if you don’t have to.”
Good point.
Stay cautious, everyone.
“That’s what we’re planning to do, Izuku.” Uraraka replies. ”Great job finding the elevator, Monoma-kun! Without you we might have as well missed it completely. And thank you, Spinner, for finding this building in the first place.”
“Errr, right.” Spinner nods nervously. Was he not used to receiving praise? “No problem. Just doing my best.”
“Same.” Monoma says dryly. “I have the lowest level, so I have to at least make myself useful for the party in another way, right?”
“Dude.” Kirishima says while patting him on the shoulder. “It’s about teamwork and succeeding as a group, not about pursuing higher numbers. You don’t have anything to prove.”
“Good point, I guess.” Monoma sighs. It was clear that he was a bit struggling with the concept. “C’mon, let’s see what we’ve found. I’m curious myself.”
…
Kirishima is another person that the League was lacking.
I assume that you don’t mean bulging muscles and physical durability.
Of course not, you asshole
I meant someone who could actually promote teamwork among our members
… and it wasn’t you.
Yes, it wasn’t me and you don’t have to point it out
I know I wasn’t the best leader for them all
I’m going to treat my isekai adventure as an occasion to change that for the better.
***
With his affinity for vertical maneuvers, Spinner of course gets sent as a scout down the elevator shaft. With simple orders of approaching the nearest set of doors and open it, allowing the others to climb down to the highest level of the facility.
He succeeds without much trouble, and soon they all find themselves in what was definitely a reception area.
Large room with one of the walls being composed of a lengthy counter with a glass window above it, a few aged paper documents scattered around. The rest of the walls were made of a material resembling a smoothed out concrete.
The room was lit by more of those magical(?) lights in the ceiling, even if some of them seemed somewhat faded. There was a corkboard on the wall opposing the counter with some documents pinned to it. Izuku could even see something resembling a computer on the other side of the glass!
The situation was definitely escalating.
The desiccated corpses scattered throughout the room - on both sides of the glass panels - were one more reminder that something in the facility went seriously wrong. Most of them were wearing what looked like black military uniform, ones remarkably untouched by the passage of time.
Since something tore most of them to pieces, finding one that was largely untouched to bring it back to the Dungeon was going to be a challenge.
Izuku could also see a few swords lying on the ground, some of them still in the hands of the corpses wearing uniforms. In some cases, said hands were no longer connected to the rest of their body.
Before any of you ask
Years
They are almost completely rotten.
Makes you wonder if whatever killed them is still here.
And whatever this place even is.
Just what sort of technology level this place is on.
“That’s something that I wonder about myself.” Yaoyorozu comments as she approaches the counter to take a better look at the things on the other side. “We should stay as vigilant as possible, pick as much stuff as we can hold and get out. We need more information about this place before going too deep. Uraraka-san, do you hear anything?”
“Not right now.” Uraraka replies. She doesn’t sound angry over Yaoyorozu speaking out her mind. Besides, it was just good advice. “Let’s search through this level before we move over to looting.”
***
The doors at the end of the reception area open up to a perpendicular corridor. The lights on the ceiling are still on, although some are flickering and others seem to have faded out, shedding light upon more and more scenes of carnage.
A massacre occurred here. Was this the reason for the facility’s abandonment? There were way too many corpses here for the size of the level, so Izuku was ready to guess that some of the people fled here from the lower levels before getting torn to shreds.
This is starting to become weird.
We’re exploring more ‘Dungeons’ than we have actual incursions into ours
Do you want to have more invaders visiting us?
No
I’m just saying that it’s weird, that’s all
On one side of the corridors there’s a series of rooms that turn out to be offices, filled with workdesks… and a plethora of loot waiting to be taken.
Stacks of documents that could - maybe - tell them something about the nature of this facility. Bookshelves filled with books, the sight of which made Yaoyorozu squeal lightly. A variety of office supplies. Hell, even more of those computers(?).
They weren’t sure what they were dealing with in the case of the suspected computers. There was something resembling a flat screen on top of some desks, and a box underneath that somewhat resembled a PC, yes. But while the two were connected with a single cable, the PC(?) wasn’t connected to any power source.
Extremely confusing.
At the very end of the corridor there is a stairwell going down. They only slightly open the door, but Uraraka immediately whispers that she can hear some movement on the level beneath them. So, they quickly close the door (as quietly as possible), and elect to not go down there.
Not yet, at least. They needed to become stronger before risking that. This place was giving them extremely bad vibes.
I feel as if we’ve accidentally stumbled into an endgame dungeon from some old Might and Magic game
Where you spend the whole game in a fantasy setting only to find out that game is about to end with some wild shit happening when you start seeing sci-fi stuff
I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I do feel like you might be onto something.
Let’s just check the rest of this level, grab as much stuff as we can and leave quickly.
They find two more things on that level. One of them was what looked like a break room, the other one was the toilets. Two of the latter, one for men and one for women. Whoever built this place was very civilized.
“Alright.” Uraraka nods while turning towards the group gathered up behind her. “We’ve confirmed that the place is safe, and it’s the time to pillage it, but we have to be organized about it. Monoma-kun, you look for documents. We need something that can help us figure out what this place was. Yaoyorozu-san, your job is finding the writing supplies that you need. Izuku, is there a point in carrying the corpses back?”
Probably not. They seem about as aged as the corpse we’ve found in the Dungeon when we were born, and assimilating that one has given us, well, nothing.
You think that you can find any untouched clothes?
And maybe pick a sword or two while at it, they don’t look rusted.
“Good point.” Uraraka nods. “Himiko, you have a special mission. Pick up a sword and find as many clothes as you can. I think I’ve seen some lockers in the break room, so try to open them.”
“Alright.” Toga salutes her. “I’ll do it for you, Ochako-chan!”
“Great.” Uraraka replies. She was really good at organizing mass-pillaging of places, it seems. Izuku is amazed. And slightly concerned. “Kirishima-kun, do you think that you can carry one of those computer-things?”
“Sure thing!” Kirishima looks pumped up. “I’ll carry it as gently as possible!”
“Great.” Uraraka nods. “The rest of us, as in me and Spinner, will pack up as many books as we can. If the others have any leftover capacity, they’ll carry more books. Let’s get to it! We’ll meet in the reception area once we’re full.”
***
Thankfully, nothing has gone bad with the plan. They've filled their backpacks with books, documents and writing supplies, and even brought that one Maybe Computer with them. Himiko also used her lockpicking skills to crack open the lockers and get themselves a decent selection of clothes.
Not just the uniforms, but also a number of mostly modern-style clothes, like T-Shirts and underwear. That was definitely going to be useful in making their day-to-day life in the Dungeon.
Comfortable clothes? Yes please.
Once they’re done pillaging the area, they quickly climb back up with aid from Yaoyorozu’s [Float] spell. And once they are done covering the entrance, they begin their return journey.
***
They succeed in returning to the Dungeon without any further troubles. Which is greatly reassuring, as it confirms to them that the area surrounding the Dungeon is as empty as they thought.
This is reassuring. Their past track record of finding new locations has grown somewhat worrying .
As expected, they’ve got some unlocks out of the deal.
First was the partial unlock of a completely new Biome, titled [Northern Wind Laboratory], currently at measly 16%. To get the full thing they definitely needed to get a lot more stuff from that place.
They’ve unlocked a new [Room], which made Yaoyorozu squeal loudly. Why? Well, because it was a [Library]. Why was it a separate room? Well, books were probably reading to the Dungeon system as some form of a treasure.
The Not-Computers were listed in the list of potential furniture for the room, under the name of Memory Terminals. They could place them in the Dungeon, but it required waaay too much ambient mana for them to be able to do that right now.
Welp. They’ll figure those out eventually.
They’ve also gotten a total of 67 books, and no, Izuku isn’t listing them all. Most of the titles make precious little sense for him to begin with. He expected Yaoyorozu (and maybe Monoma) to eventually make sense out of them. They were all written in Itavian, which was the local version of Latin. And guess what, they had that language in the database.
Yaoyorozu also knew some basics of Latin. Because she learned that in their old world. Because of course she did.
They’ve decided against assimilating the documents, as they likely weren’t going to give them anything more than just some further percentage unlock on the [Northern Wind Laboratory]. Instead, they were moved to the 6th Level, where Monoma and Yaoyorozu were eventually going to read through them.
There was also the [Northern Wind Uniform] and [Northern Wind Eagle-Pattern Shortsword]. Applying both to a single character elevated their ETS by about fifteen, so it was definitely beyond their current limits.
The name of the biome and those two items told them that the laboratory they’ve found belonged to an organization called Northern Wind. Before something occurred there, something that led to death of everyone inside and the place being sealed and left to rot.
There was also a partial unlock of a sixth grade material called [Imperial Steel], likely thanks to the sword. What was that steel? Yaoyorozu guessed it to be some local variant of a steel alloy, but they knew no details.
And that was all. An interesting trip that would eventually have a follow-up (once they’d grow much stronger to delve deeper and more hands to carry things from the Top Level), but it was time to have a quick rest and decide what to do next.
Especially as Uraraka was clearly anxious to fight something.
Should they eliminate the Mourner in Aeonia’s graveyard? Maybe another foray into the elven mines and taking on the Cynocephali roaming it? Or maybe looking for yet another location to visit and pillage?
Beastkin are back.
Nevermind, they’re going to be pretty busy at home. Lovely.