They are actually somewhat worried about Toga when she’s about to leave their Dungeon. Even Izuku, he doesn't want her to die, just… get jailed and receive appropriate therapy, okay? But, she does that and nothing happens.

Outside of the dungeon is… a forest. There are trees there.

That’s all they can tell, because not only are Toga’s eyes kinda horrible with colors filtered into various shades of yellow and everything past ~ten meters at best is just blurry , there are also not a lot of things to see, really.

It’s clearly a primeval forest. Large trees, very uneven ground dotted with a lot of other obstacles, like old tree trunks now completely covered by moss. It was traversable, but it definitely wasn’t going to be an easy trek.

Theoretically.

The moment Toga gets out of the dungeon, she takes a deep breath and then immediately does a three meters long leap, somehow managing to grab the side of a giant tree with one hand.

She was pushing herself off said tree so that she could then also rest her feet on its slightly bent part on an angle, managing to give herself a very good vantage point. All of that thanks to the [Cat Leap I].

It was a surprisingly powerful movement technique. She was already fairly quick and agile as a human, making her a catgirl just made things even more powerful. And yet, she still couldn’t see an awful lot.

Well, she couldn’t see it. But she had other senses and they got much better.

“I think there’s a river somewhere near us!” Toga announces. “I can definitely hear water, somewhere in… that direction.” She points her free hand somewhere in the opposite end of the entrance of the dungeon.

That is good to know, but could you, please, look in the direction of the entrance? I’d like to see exactly how it looks.

Yeah, I’d like to know it as well.

“Everything for you, Izukun!” Toga says cheerfully before turning her head around and showing them the cliff face. It seemed to be slightly higher than the forest in front of them, but the difference was really minimal.

The cliff itself seemed at least ten meters tall, and was made from limestone. That’s all there was to be said about it.

Wow, way to ignore my existence

Alright, you can continue to explore the area.

“Alrighty!” Toga jumps off the tree and easily lands on the ground. “Let’s go on a trip! It’s like the night I’ve met Ochako-chan for the first time, except it’s day! It’s so romantic!”

Does she even remember that she tried to stab Uraraka that night?

Yes

…

You know what, most of what I know about her comes from Uraraka-san, as we only really had a very brief encounter when she tried to stab me during the Shie Hassaikai raid and when she impersonated Camie Utsushimi.

But this is still a lot to swallow.

Welcome to my world, she was always an annoyance

Somewhat useful, but annoying

Somewhat useful?

Shigaraki, you’re an idiot.

What?

You had my blood.

You had someone who could transform into me by drinking that blood

No one knew that you had such a person at the time, at least until the Shie Hassaikai raid.

So?

You could have just lured me somewhere right after Toga killed someone there while wearing my face and fingerprints! You could even record her killing someone while wearing my face, and if I was there right after or almost at the same time, I wouldn’t be able to present any alibi!

You could have completely ruined the heroic career of a One For All holder, potentially driving him into vigilantism or even villainy, denying him all forms of support from his own side, easily cornering him with no way of defending himself.

What

WHAT

WHY DIDN’T I THINK ABOUT IT

Yeah, that’s kind of my point.

You’re dangerous in combat but when it comes to planning a strategy, you’re absolutely atrocious.

I

I literally can’t deny that in this particular case

This is so awkward

“Guys, I found a river!” Toga announces, interrupting their brief exchange. “Wow, what clear water. I can see myself in a reflection! Those ears look super duper cute! ”

That’s great, but could you please look up for a moment? I’m only seeing your face in the water.

“Alright, alright.” Toga replies immediately and does as told.

In front of her was a fairly wide mountain river, at least ten meters wide but one that didn’t seem to be very deep. Trees on both sides, mostly beeches and oaks. The larger opening of the river let them see some of the landscape and while Toga’s eyes were awful , she could spot things the size of a mountain.

And there were mountains around them.

Alright, so we’re in a river valley up in the mountains.

That tells us a lot.

There seems to be a complete lack of any signs of civilization, which only makes it more strange that the catwoman showed up here to begin with.

Might have been a villain

Villain?

Criminal on the run, outcast, outlaw, exile and so on

Makes sense.

She was hiding away in the mountains or traveling from one place to another through the area where she couldn’t encounter local equivalent of law enforcement, and randomly seeked shelter in our cave when it started to rain.

Yes, my idea exactly

There’s a problem though

That being?

Survival training thing, remember?

She’s by a river.

That means water.

You can usually expect larger predators to pop up where there’s water, and this is a fantasy world, so you can’t be sure just how big those can get

Larger predators?

Oh, you know, wolves, bears, cougars, jackals, tigers, lions, the usual

The usual?

Shigaraki, where exactly was All for One setting you up for that survival training?

Randomly in Kurogiri’s range

Randomly in Kurogiri’s range?

Do I even want to know what Kurogiri’s outer range is?

You know what, no.

I don’t want to know that.

Toga, could you turn around? Head closer to the cliff’s edge, pick one direction and keep going there and see where it would bring you.

“Sure thing, Izukun!” Toga cheerfully announces. “I like it when you’re ordering me around!”

I’m just…

I’m just going to ignore that.

***

If there was one positive of getting to see the world through Himiko Toga’s eyes, it was that they could get something resembling a grasp on the chronology of the outside world. It took them a while to figure it out, and once again Tomura’s survival training came useful; it let him quickly and more or less accurately judge how much time had passed based on how the Sun moved.

For as long as the day here lasted for as long as it did on Earth, it seemed that they were producing about 110 units of residual mana per twenty four hours. Since it was such an uneven number, they were almost certain that the ten units added to it was thanks to the Node Room.

I was worried that we were losing weeks there

But it’s less then a day per timeskip

With this, we can keep expanding the first level rather quickly

Right.

Any idea how long she can be outside of the Dungeon?

No, but I think she’s far from running out of power

It might as well be so that she simply cannot rest outside of area of appropriate AML so she’ll just physically exhaust herself and that’s it.

That makes sense.

For now let’s have her continue exploring the area.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Speaking of, what about traps?

I’m alright with them in concept, they just rarely live up to the idea in real life

What?

what

What was that about?

Nothing

Go on

Okay?

Are we planning to add any sort of traps to our dungeon?

We have nothing in the system that can be used as a trap

Who said we have to use what the system provides us when there’s a perfectly fine environment to use?

Go on

What if we, hypothetically, make a four meter deep shaft under the floor of a corridor, and make it fall when something steps on it

Oh

Ooooh

Usually it would be a problem because to weaken support to the point where it holds up normally but falls immediately when stepped on we would need all that pesky calculations and it would be almost impossible to carve it correctly without making the trap visible

But we can do and redo the floor with enough residual mana

And we can do it at will so the edges of the fall trap can be like a millimeter wide, and hard to spot in darkness

That's right.

And we could, hypothetically, do a side crevice to that shaft and fill it with an obscene amount of slimes, so that whoever would fall into the hole would be immediately enveloped by them and be forced to surrender.

That makes a lot of sense

I’ll start working on it immediately.

***

I kind of expected more animals to be around.

It’s just some birds.

“Oh, there have been a few signs of bigger animals around.” Toga replies. She was currently still walking through the forest. It was at least three or four hours by now, although she wasn’t walking very quickly. “Deer tracks, for example.”

Really?

“Yup!” Toga exclaims cheerfully. “No idea how I knew those were deer tracks, but I know they were. Oh, and there were a few smaller animals too. Saw a rabbit a while ago.”

Must be those survival skills in play, huh? That and an improved kinetic vision.

“Yeah, seems so and…” Toga suddenly freezes, looking to her left and right. “Oh? That’s weird.”

What is?

“I think there used to be a road here.” Toga replies. “There is a line of trees here that seems to be younger than the ones surrounding them. And they are placed a bit wider, as if there was something in between them.”

I… don’t see the same thing, but I don’t think that I have the same skills as you do.

I’ll trust your word on this, are you going to investigate it?

If it’s a road, it has to lead somewhere, right?

“Sure, sure.” Toga says, and somehow, Izuku can feel that she was grinning at the prospect. “So, there is probably no need to head right, as that leads towards the river, right?”

You think that the road connected the river with something close by to it?

The river doesn’t seem like anything bigger than a canoe can navigate it.

“Uh-huh.” Toga agrees with him. “But the road wasn’t big either. Feels like a dirt road, really. It wasn’t anything large, so it didn’t require a large boat, right?”

Makes sense.

Can we possibly find anything at the river’s edge to confirm your theory?

“It was probably just a small wooden pier, if anything at all, and I really think that this road was here, like, at best decades ago. Might be even a century or so. Whatever wooden constructions that were made anywhere around are long gone.” Toga replies. Surprisingly lucidly. “Alrighty then, let’s follow the non-existent road and see where it leads us!”

***

A few minutes in, Izuku did start to recognize signs of some road being there at some point, if only because there was a fairly consistent line going through the woods, one where there were no large trees, and the ground was flatter than usual.

He would still miss it if Toga didn’t point it out.

Her suspicions are further confirmed when they reach the cliff face. There are definitely steps carved in it, going up, then turning around in a curve and going up some more, leading to what looked like a cave entrance.

The steps are weathered and covered in dirt that accumulated there for who knows how long. They definitely weren’t used by anyone recently.

Toga walks up the steps and it becomes immediately obvious that the cave wasn’t a cave at all. It was built by someone - the corridor on the other side was created not by rock erosion but by competent stoneworkers, ceiling, walls and floor perfectly smoothed out.

There were doors here at some point. Through Toga’s eyes Izuku can see metal hinges long eroded by water on both sides of the entrance. What happened to the door in question, remains unknown.

“Hmmm…” Toga hums as she peeks behind the corner of the door. What’s inside is a lengthy corridor disappearing into darkness. “I think it’s the whole ‘adventure’ thing that Shiggy and Spinner were all about, huh? Can I go in? There could be something funny or cute inside!”

I doubt it, but I don’t think that it’ll hurt to try.

I mean, hypothetically. You can absolutely die, just… not die permanently.

Remember that if you find anything interesting , you should bring it back to the dungeon.

“Sure thing, Izukun.” She says. Then she takes off her backpack and rests it on the stone wall by the cave’s entrance. That much Izuku can understand - it’s definitely large enough to restrict her movement somewhat. What he has problems with is what happens next.

Uhm, why are you taking off your shoes?

“To make less noise, obviously.” Toga replies, putting her shoes right next to her backpack. “With shoes on I’ll feel the ground under me less. This means worse feedback from it and me being more likely to have something crack loudly, if only because the soles of my boots are stiffer than those of my feet.”

…what if you were sneaking up on something in the forest?

“Hey, do you think I’m going to hunt any animals there with my shoes on?” Toga somehow finds that amusing. “Going barefoot makes you walk slower but forces you to mind where you’re putting your feet, duh. Anyway, I’m going in, so wish me good luck.”

***

One thing had to be said - Toga’s decision to go barefoot did make her move almost without making any sound. Which, considering the fact that Izuku was hearing her movements through ears much more sensitive than ones of a human, was saying a lot.

Unfortunately, a few meters into the dungeon(?) Toga found herself facing a perpendicular split… and an imposing set of decorated doors right in front of her. It was clearly made of metal that has long ago lost most of its polish and had images carved into it.

There was no door handle, but there was a keyhole. A bit oddly shaped. In Izuku’s opinion, the key to it was the door handle - you pushed it in, and then you could open the door while pulling the handle. Otherwise, you were facing what looked like a strongly reinforced set of doors with nothing to pull against.

It probably opened towards the outside, just to make it harder to open forcefully. Hmm.

Could you give the carvings a closer look?

And she does. A lot of flower motifs. Directly above the keyhole, a carving of a slender figure in metal armor, with a sword in one hand and what looks like a ball of flames floating above their other hand.

Huh.

Okay, you can continue on.

Toga picks the right turn but she doesn’t manage to get too far before she encounters an impassable obstacle. Namely, a place where the corridor has clearly collapsed. There is still just enough light for her eyes to easily pick up details, so she quickly ascertains that there’s no way to get through it and turns around.

Unfortunately, she runs into another collapsed segment of the tunnel on the other side. That’s…

…disappointing.

So, a dead end.

“Not quite.” She says quietly. “Look at this.”

She pointed towards a small, horizontal crevice under a large piece of rock. When she crouches in front of the collapse, it becomes obvious that you can see the other side of the collapse through it, except…

You think you can crawl through it?

I definitely couldn’t.

“It goes down and then up a bit.” She replies quietly. “I think I’m flexible enough to crawl through it. But…listen closely.”

She puts her ear by the crevice and…now that she points it out, he can hear some faint screeching sound coming from the other side of the crevice. It seemed to be…getting more distant.

So, it was moving.

We’re not alone in this place.

“Uh-huh.” Toga nods. “And it’s so exciting. Anyway, I’m gonna try to get there. But I won’t be able to make any sounds and it’ll be pretty dark, so, you know, giving you heads-up on that. And now I should get a bit thinner…”

Why are you taking off your…

Aaaah!

Have you ever heard the word ‘modesty’?!

You’re literally taking off your clothes!

“Uh-huh.” Toga nods again. “Feel free to describe everything you like to Ochako-chan when she’s with us! Hmm, they really grew bigger.” She adds as she gives her breasts a quick feel.

I

I’m going to think about something else

Oh, yes! I’ll quickly list all the public fights that All Might was in since his debut in my mind, and occupy my thoughts that way

that makes sense

If he could feel what she felt at that very moment, he’d know what sort of cheeky grin she let herself display on her face. She couldn’t even see his reactions, and yet they were sooo super duper cute!

She was deeply enjoying her second life. No society around them meant that she could be doing whatever she wanted! And she couldn’t even die, so she was finally, truly free! And that was awesome!

Well, yes, she had to theoretically listen to those two, but Izuku was so much of a cutie that she didn’t mind, and Shiggy’s orders were always more of a suggestion to her, so that was fine too.

She grabbed the hilt of one of her knives with her teeth, and the other one with her hand and crawled into the crevice. It was really tight, but it was rather chilly in this place, and now a good portion of her body was covered with short black fur, which was odd at first but by now she decided that it was pretty cool and she was okay with it, so it definitely wasn’t the comfortable type of tight.

Still, she managed to fit through. Barely. And she would have definitely tore her clothes if she was still wearing them.

The knife she held in her mouth transfers to her other hand. She takes a good look of the corridor ahead of her and begins to slowly move forward. Even with her nightvision she could barely see anything deeper into it, there’s only so much that improved eyes can do when there’s almost no light whatsoever

Slowly. Cautiously. All while hearing the scratching sounds getting closer and closer with every moment. She passes by two more doors identical to the first one on both sides of the corridor, before another split shows up on the horizon.

The scratching is coming from the corridor on the right. The one in front of her goes on until there’s not enough light to see something.

We’re definitely going to need a party to explore it. And also a light source and a way to clear up that passage too.

Not everyone is as agile as you are.

She’s going to take that as a complement! So quickly into her second life, and Izukun was actually complimenting her! Awesome! She should totally wait with confessing her undying love to him until he gets a body, otherwise he might feel bad about not being able to shower her with love and say no to her!

Toga freezes for a moment right before the corner, before cautiously grabbing an empty torch holder by the corner (without looking beyond it for now, although the scratching does seem to be approaching them now and it’s definitely not far from them) and pulling it.

Izuku almost inhales loudly (figuratively) when she suddenly leaps forward and somehow manages to stand on the torch holder. She makes the landing, barely. She’s forced to bend by ninety degrees with her back resting on the ceiling to keep herself steady, it's risky but still.

That’s one crazy way of obtaining the high ground on someone. As for who said someone is… they discover a few seconds later, when something emerges from the corridor right next to her.

It’s a skeleton. It’s a walking skeleton armed with what looks like a largely rusted spear and a round wooden shield.

Alright so I think that I’m almost done with the basic design of the trap and

WHAT THE FUCK

WHY IS TOGA ON THE CEILING

IN ANOTHER DUNGEON

NAKED

AND WHY IS THERE A WALKING SKELETON RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER

I WAS OUT FOR MAYBE A FEW HOURS

Things escalated.

I CAN FUCKING SEE THAT

Toga takes that very moment to attack the skeleton, falling at it from above. One of her knives pierced its skull, but in the end, it’s the sheer impact that seems to have done the job. Skeletons had no soft flesh to absorb that, and her fall made it slam into the rocky ground.

It might also have been rather brittle from the passage of time. Hard to say, it’s their first encounter with a walking skeleton.

It does seem to rattle a bit and tries to rise up from the ground, but Toga’s knife goes between the vertebrae and severs it completely in the neck with the aid of [Sharpen Claws I]. And that makes the skeleton go immobile.

For a few seconds, Toga doesn’t move, just… listens. They made some loud noise, but it clearly wasn’t too loud. They can’t hear anything closing in on them. Looks like they’re safe for now.

Put the skeleton in your backpack, wherever it is, and bring it back to the Dungeon. We might unlock some necromantic minions and that will be very useful. And for fuck sake, tell me when shit’s happening next time.

***

image [https://i.imgur.com/zd7y5YD.png]

1. Entrance, 2. Collapsed Passage, 3. Collapsed Passage (partially navigable), ?. Rooms behind closed doors.