As one can imagine, carrying the giant, overweight corpses of daemons (probably) that they’ve slained in the mine back to the Dungeon was even harder than actually slaying them in the first place.
They were huge, they weigh a lot more than they probably should, and generally speaking, fresh corpses aren’t easy to carry. It gets easier when they’re stiff, but when their hands and body mass are easily bending around your body at random, they feel at least twice as heavy.
This sort of weight would have been cool for a workout, like something that Kirishima casually deadlifts (doubly fast when Mina is looking, of course), but not something that you want to drag through the forest.
Especially as they also need to cover their tracks. They can’t do a lot about the smell aside from hoping that the Cynocephali were the only type of enemy that could track prey by smell and that they’ve exhausted the enemy’s supply on those. That leaves the physical tracks.
They have Monoma and Yaoyorozu to repeatedly cast [Remove Footprints]. Contrary to the name, it seemed to be a more versatile spell, returning dirt to its earlier state, removing both footprints and drag marks.
There were plenty of drag marks to be removed.
They also had the two semi-skilled trackers - Toga and Compress - do their best to make their group leave as few other marks, and they also elected to approach the river at a different point, before spending a while walking in the water (to loud disapproval from Toga), to hopefully confuse any trackers attempting to find them.
They should buy themselves some time, even if the enemy did have some bloodhounds on them.
Hopefully.
Really, it was all a matter of faith at this point. They were almost certain that if the enemy tried to follow them seriously, they would, even if they wouldn’t be led straight to the Dungeon but only its general area.
Their only hope was a rain to happen today or tomorrow, which wasn’t impossible judging from the clouds, but it was still a coin toss.
And, of course, it'd take them more time to achieve that.
In the end, as Compress pointed out, their greatest hope lay in the fact that the enemy was clearly used to operating underground, meaning that the chances of them having skilled trackers who were familiar with the woods were slim.
Still, Uraraka Ochako had a lot of things on her plate, all of which has evaporated from her mind instantly when she returned to the Dungeon and then - right after dropping all the corpses in a random room to let the Dungeon digest them - she saw Izuku.
Truly, just seeing his face - his adorable, adorable face - immediately made the whole day brighter for her.
So, she immediately and without thinking approached him and then grabbed him into a tight hug, only to realize that not only was she still covered in blood (she didn’t manage to get all of it off, even when they were crossing the river), she was also wearing the Berserker Outfit.
Izuku, as expected, reacted to coming into close contact with her (while in said outfit) by losing his ability to think and going very, very red.
Yeah, wrong move, Ochako. And also, great move, Ochako.
“W-well, uhm, great to see you again, Izuku.” She decides to elegantly and subtly change the subject while taking a step back to give him some breathing space. There was no way that they were having an actual talk while he was like this.
Monoma, who just happened to pass by them in the corridor at the time, just rolled his eyes around. Truly, peak social skills. As expected from the 1-A rab…
Then he reminds himself that their classes no longer exist. Ugh. Awkward. Awkward! What is he supposed to do without a rivalry that he can then overblow into a truly ridiculous degree while letting himself be as DRAMATIC as humanly possible?!
Well, get a life, probably. Yeah, that’d do it.
It’s not like they’re part of the heroics business with its major focus on often ridiculous aesthetics and publicity stunts.
“G-great to see you too, O-Ochako.” Izuku stutters, his ability to think returning to him. Slowly. Naturally, Himiko (who was observing the scene from behind Ochako) finds it incredibly cute. “H-how was it?”
They are completely unaware of the moment of character development that they’ve given to Monoma. In fact, they seem barely aware of the world outside of them existing. Which is only going to get worse from here on.
“Pretty fun, if exhausting.” Uraraka replies while grinning back at him. “And, uhm, sorry for snapping at you earlier, you know, about the elevator. That was completely unneeded.”
It was really bothering her the whole time, and the attempts to apologize on her way here were for naught, as Izuku was clearly unavailable. Possibly due to already being in his Dungeon Lord form. Which was…
… a bit strange? Why would he be out the whole time?
“O-oh, it's alright.” Izuku replies, glancing to the side, still pretty nervous. “U-uhm, so, I figured out that you might be e-exhausted a-a-a-and…”
“And?” Uraraka asks when he’s clearly stuck.
“And I’ve p-prepared a little something for you.” Izuku gets promptly unstuck. “I… uhm… heated some water. For, you know, so that you could get yourself a warm bath after coming back from the fight, and, uhm…” Izuku shrinks a little more. “I g-guess that if your muscles hurt then I could, errr, massage them a little? I’ve been going through some very intense training before the entrance exam and, uhm, I have experienced dealing with sore m-muscles and so on.”
Uraraka just stares at him, emotionally floored at the realization that considering how kind and caring Izuku was, this likely wasn’t going to be the last time that this happened. And that was…
Probably one of the best things ever.
Confessing to him was the best choice that she ever made. Or, at least that she ever made in her second life. Her first life’s self was likely still tiptoeing around the subject despite being in a position to obtain… this .
Seriously, though. She can only congratulate herself on having a great taste in boys. And in… girls?
That’s when she remembers that Himiko was there as well. And was very busy looking at them both with a mixture of ‘they’re so cute, I want to hug them!’, ‘they’re so sexy, I want them to bang me’ and a healthy chunk of ‘god I wish that was me’ referring to nothing else but the prospect of a warm bath. Or at least a shower.
Or, well, a warm water to clean herself with, considering how allergic she seemed to water as a concept.
This was awkward. It would also quickly make Himiko feel excluded , which felt like a recipe for a total disaster, especially for someone who was this impulsive and so driven by attention they were getting from their two loved ones.
“Did you, errr, prepare it for Himiko too?” She decides to ask, banking it all on the really high chance of Izuku preparing something for his other girlfriend as well. The chances are pretty high, knowing his kindness, but the risk that he sort of forgot due to being new to love triangles.
Just like she was. And just like she briefly forgot about Himiko. Ugh, awkward.
“O-of course!” Izuku quickly replies, and not only Himiko’s ears perk up at this, Ochako also feels herself being fully vindicated in her gamble. Izuku’s kindness, truly the company worth buying the stocks of. “T-there’s water for two, one of you can get washed now, then I’ll heat the r-rest of it for the s-second one.” Or maybe not, because there’s no way that this particular company could grow since it was impossibly large? “S-sorry about not mentioning it earlier, Himiko, I’m kind of new to the l-love triangle thing and…”
Himiko doesn’t let him continue by throwing herself at him, giving him a hug and a surprisingly prolonged kiss. Water, it seems, was acceptable when it’s Izuku that was bringing it. Or, well, when it’s not dunked on her all in one go, but the Izuku version was definitely cuter.
Uraraka finds this… acceptable. But not optimal. They can improve upon Izuku’s genius idea in a way that Izuku himself was a bit too embarrassed to even consider. Thankfully, Uraraka is way past having any sort of restraint when her relationships are involved (it’s not like there’s any salvaging of her public image either way), and is there to fix this oversight.
“Alright then.” She announces while wrapping her arms around both of them. “I guess that it’s time to go back to our cozy little home and get ourselves ready for the best bath in our lives… as of yet.”
She was certain that it would only get better from here on!
“O-okay.” Izuku, having come into contact with her [Tribal Berserker’s Outfit], starts losing his ability to speak words once again. “W-who g-goes i-in first?” He then says, having managed to soldier on and speak.
“What are you talking about, Izuku?” Uraraka says, pretending to be surprised by his words before grinning widely. “Why would we waste time by taking bath separately ?”
Izuku goes red in embarrassment (and perhaps slight horniness born out of realization that something will likely end up happening in the process). Himiko goes red in horniness (and perhaps slight embarrassment born out of that something will likely end up happening in the process).
Absolutely perfect.
***
Something did end up happening, which has definitely prolonged the process of taking Uraraka’s first warm bath in her second life but also made it even more enjoyable. And the massage was… an absolute delight.
So, Izuku could also act as her personal masseur? Not to mention being ready to prepare her a bath when she was coming back from a lengthy expedition, tired and dirty, and that’s without even being prompted?
Simply because he wanted to surprise her and make her day a bit brighter? Simply because he felt happiest when he was making other people happy?
Seriously, just how perfect that man could get? Each and every time she thought that he couldn’t get more perfect than he already was, he pulled off something like this. If he didn’t have his Superpower quirk, she would suspect that being a Perfect Boyfriend was his quirk, it was just that supernaturally powerful.
And all of that leads to their current situation. Izuku lying in the middle, facing the ceiling. Himiko was curled up by his side, her head resting on his shoulder, allowing him to pet her head, at least while they were both awake.
They clearly fell asleep while doing it, judging from his fingers still being stuck in her completely messy hair.
Judging from the soft brush she felt on her thigh earlier, Himiko wrapped her tail around his own thighs. Cute.
Ochako was to his right, lying on her side a bit higher than he was, just enough to wrap her arms around his neck, his head resting somewhere between her breasts and her chin. And oh boy, if he was awake, he would immediately go full strawberry.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
They didn’t really have any pajamas to wear, alright? Just another copy of the [Tribal Outfit] that worked as their civilian outfit (at least for people like Toga who wore something resembling an actual armor that was stiff enough to make them want to wear something else occasionally). And it wasn't the best sleepwear out there.
Moments like this were just great. They really made her second life much more bearable. It likely made it bearable at all.
She was… she was less ‘impulsive’ about the whole relationship and more ‘coping with the situation in an only slightly unhealthy way’, let’s be real about it. And the only ‘slightly unhealthy way’ was involving Toga in it, especially considering her past.
She is intelligent enough to realize it.
For now, though, she’s just going to lie down and take advantage of the other two being asleep to just… take in all the warmth and comfort. Before they wake up and go on another adventure to…
… well, go and kill something.
Not very heroic, she knows that. But she’s no longer a pro-hero, and now it’s all about finding a new way of life that won’t feel unbearable wrong to her. And the current one feels pretty good.
And yes, she carried a half-melted crossbow of one of the creatures back to the Dungeon in her backpack and she offered it to Saevius. It was definitely a good fight. She hopes she’ll have more like it in the future.
***
I’m back.
I’ve been, errr, busy doing things.
Wow, so Uraraka and Toga are just ‘things’ to you, Midoriya
How heroic
… stop that.
It makes you suffer, and thus I am obligated to do that
Sigh.
Anyway, what did we get out of it?
Six spirits called the Gore Munchers.
Rapturous Ecstasy, ETL 16.
So we can put it anywhere on the level that we were planning to put the Cynocephali either way.
That’s… nice.
Yeah, but we’re still a bit too early into it to place anything on the Fourth Level, as we don’t want the beastkin to ask too many questions
Still, progress
I think that we could use them for the Floor Guardian fight, as in, we still need something stronger than them to act as the boss but we could have those creatures support said boss
Alright, makes sense.
You’ve also missed an update from Spinner.
Oh?
***
Three Hours Ago
“Oh, so I’ve seen it correctly.” Spinner nods to himself, congratulating himself for the job well done and on the time that he didn’t waste. “That’s freaking cool.”
In front of him was a set of heavy, wooden doors on the side of the cliff. He was still in the same river valley, just a solid distance to the north-east from the Dungeon. It definitely resembled the entrance to the Murakai Burial Site that Aeonia resided in.
Unlike it, it wasn’t on an elevated ground. Instead, the entrance was much better concealed. He almost missed it, really.
Speaking of the directions, the river was definitely flowing in the northern direction, by the way. The Dungeon was on its western side, Aeonia’s graveyard was further to the northwest, while the mine was to the east, and the suspected domain of the Webmistress’ Family was even further to the east from her.
The Northern Wind facility, in the meantime, was to the south-east of the Dungeon. Far further than all other locations that they knew off.
They had no map of the area, only a general understanding of the area.
And now, the area has another location to be aware of. Another Muraekai Burial Site? Perhaps they should rename the one they knew to just ‘Aeonia’s Graveyard’? Well, that’s not for him to decide. He’s just the party’s scout.
He sneaks upon the door to see them locked. Well, that’s pretty much what you should expect from such a burial site. If anything, Aeonia’s tomb being opened wide is unusual.
Well. It’s probably a pointless inquiry to begin with. Midoriya is going to veto the very idea of robbing graves that aren’t inhabited by murderous undead. And, to be honest, Spinner saw no problem with that.
He would definitely not try to argue against Midoriya on it, that’s for sure.
Look, robbing graves is sort of a shitty thing to do, okay? Unless it’s in a videogame. In videogames, the graves are just differently looking treasure chests nine times out of ten. There are no actual corpses there.
All such games treat this sort of robbery as a natural thing, and in hindsight, it wasn’t a very realistic take on the subject. You just can’t expect to be liked in the area when you do stuff like that, right?
No one liked grave robbers in their past world, not even other villains.
And for this one, well. No one likes seeing some random adventurer walking around with your grandpa’s favorite sword or your grandma’s jewelry on him/her, alright? Spinner can understand that.
He’s something of an expert on being hated by the public, and this honestly sounds like an actually valid reason to be hated.
Anyway.
That seemed to be all for now. But just in case… no one is looking, not even Tomura, so Spinner can at least try that, right? There’s no one to laugh at him for being stupid or anything.
He loudly knocks on the door… and then quickly runs away and hides behind a piece of rock.
In quite a distance, and making sure that he can see the entrance to the burial site in such a way that should let him maybe remain unseen.
The worst thing that can happen is that he’ll die, which is temporary for him, right?
Still, no one is more surprised than he is when after a minute or so, the doors actually open.
The first thing that emerges from the other side is a large, black dog of undetermined breed, with glowing red eyes and a leash attached to the collar that disappeared somewhere behind the door, where its handler was likely standing.
The dog was clearly scanning the surrounding area, making Spinner immediately congratulate himself on picking the place that was downwind to the graveyard entrance. Smart move, Spinner.
For some reason, he doesn’t feel like coming out to pet the dog and tell him/her that they’re a good boi. That feels like a great way to get your face bitten off. And yes, he’s willing to admit to Tomura that he saw a dog and didn’t do that.
They’re friends, right? Tomura will only be slightly salty. Not the murderous type of salty, the other one.
A moment later, when the dog sees nothing dangerous in the vicinity, its handler emerges.
It’s an elven woman wearing a short black robe, barefoot, holding a lantern staff in her left hand and the other hand of the leash in her right, looking around, clearly searching for whoever knocked on the doors.
There is something… otherworldly about her, especially in how her face and hair seemed to lack pigments, both being weirdly white. The same strange vibe that Komori’s new form was giving Spinner. Is it some sort of spirit that he was facing? It seems that those are pretty common in the area.
She looks around, and so does the dog. Spinner does his best to stay hidden, and it seems that he has succeeded, as after a quick check of the surroundings, the duo returns inside. And judging from the sounds that Spinner hears from the other side, they bar the door from the inside.
Huh. Interesting.
He’ll report it back to Shigaraki once he does a routine check up on him, and keeps looking for interesting locations in the area.
He kind of likes scouting work, to his own surprise. It’s fun. A bit lonely, but that’s why he has a place to return to to socialize. And Tomura to talk with, occasionally.
***
Now
Another burial site?
What is it, the Valley of (Elven) Kings?
Yeah, I thought so as well
Then again, this is clearly a place that used to be on the verge of elven civilization, but wasn’t populated
that’s kinda the right place for this type of secret burial site, right?
Yeah, I guess so.
Tokage and Kaminari are back, too
Wait, you can do stuff like this when I’m not there?
Yes, but
I think (it’s one of those moments when we just know some shit and we don’t know why) it only worked because even if you were absent, you still unconsciously agreed to it and in fact wanted it to happen asap
Huh, still finding new things about ourselves, interesting.
Anyway, we have to decide on the next move.
We should visit Aeonia
…why?
We’ll get that Mourner, we’ll get to find out if we’re strong enough for another chamber, we’ll get to ask Aeonia some questions about stuff like that other burial site and so on
And also Yanagi-san might enjoy meeting Aeonia. Because, you know, undead.
Hmmm?
Oh, yeah, I guess.
Sigh.
I’ll suggest that to everyone.
Though I think that they’d like to rest for a while after this.
Fine
***
To Izuku’s surprise, they all decided to go for another trip. Izuku spending some sweet time with Uraraka and Toga (and then the trio falling asleep for some time), has given them some time to rest.
And socialize.
Tetsutetsu and Kirishima threw a small party to celebrate their newly discovered (or at least severely suspected) brotherhood. Of course, they lacked alcohol and their only food was roasted meat, but that wouldn’t stop them.
Toga was experimenting with some herbs that could be used as spiced and that they were growing on Komori’s level, but the effects were meager and she wasn’t even there for the party.
Izuku, Uraraka and Toga weren’t present, although they were invited to it. Well, Uraraka was - Kirishima told her about his idea to have a party on their way back to the Dungeon, and she mentioned wanting to spend that time with Izuku.
Kirishima originally didn’t realize the implication of what she said, but after Ashido took advantage of it happening during a break and pulled him aside to quickly whisper a few words of explanation into his ear, he realized that Uraraka meant spending the time in that way.
Look, if all the bloodshed made her long for some… snuggles, to chill, relax and generally speaking get her mind to focus on something else, it’s her private matter, alright? It’s nothing illegal, either way.
Neither Toga nor Compress showed up, the former for an obvious reason, the latter because he seemed to realize that his presence wasn’t exactly welcome, and he was invited mostly because Tetsutetsu and Kirishima were too manly to cause further divide between former heroes and former villains.
They both needed each other in the current circumstances.
Apparently the funniest part of the evening is Monoma suggesting to the two to change their surnames into either Tetsushima or Kiritetsu which led to the intense debate on what their new surname should be, that seemed to become the highlight of the evening.
Both options had their own supporters, a civil war looming on the horizon the whole time.
In the end, they didn’t change their surnames, but it was still a fun time for everyone involved.
Izuku somewhat regrets the fact that he missed it. At least before he remembers why he missed it. Then he… then he realizes that he doesn’t actually regret missing it out, even if he would prefer both activities to occur at different times.
He has to be honest with himself. His, well, snuggles with Ochako and Himiko? He likes it. He likes it a lot . To be even more honest with himself, he absolutely loves it.
He’d still die of embarrassment if someone walked upon them doing it, and he is still knocked out by such simple acts as Ochako hugging him in that outfit, but in private… in private he can do it.
It’s great.
He’ll never admit it to anyone, though. Even telling that to Ochako or Himiko in private feels too embarrassing.
And so, they all, minus Spinner, Komori and both Midoriya and Shigaraki, for obvious if different reasons) departed to Aeonia’s graveyard. To ask her some questions, and to get to fight something new.
That’s how they grew stronger in this world.
And it seemed that they were all getting accustomed to it, even their newest recruits. Truly, humans can adapt to everything.