Creating a Loophole to Cheat

"What the hell happened here?", shouted Ayano.

She and Anna stood next to Dave, who was shooting one 'Apprentice Hero's Punch' after another at an on the ground lying lava-stone-monster. Big cracks were visible on the monsters back. Even though Dave bombarded Rock with a chain of strong attacks he only groaned slightly and didn't give up.

"Apprentice Hero's Punch!"

'Ding'

A window popped open in front of Dave.

[Apprentice Hero's Punch A -> S]

'Nice now I am breaking even. I produce now as much Heroism with each punch as it costs.'

Dave stopped punching Rock and made him an offer, "Give up and I will stop hitting you. If not..." Dave let his knuckles crack.

"I won't give up."

An evil glint appeared in Rock's eyes. He somehow managed to free one of his hands and pointed it to the side. Lava blasted from his hand directly in the direction of the two women. Both of them ducked to the side and evaded the attack by a hair's breadth.

"Kill him, he burned my hair!", yelled Anna.

"You better stomp his dirty face in the floor!", added Ayano.

"No problem."

Dave swished his hand and more bubbles rose around Rock binding him even tighter.

"But first please heal him up for me, Ayano," asked Dave.

"Why would I do that. This damn stone attacked us..."

The angry glare in her eyes was replaced by a knowing smile. Dave thought for a moment she finally understood, what his intention was, then she spoke.

"Ahh, I see. You have an evil character, Dave. But I like the fact, how far you go for your friends. Beating the shit out of someone and healing him back up to prolong the torture... True friendship!"

Dave hearing those words was flabbergasted. When did he ever say he wanted to torture anyone. He didn't care about the girls' hair. It would grow and Ayano might even be able to repair it with her powers so, who cared about it. Nevertheless, he thought it might not be necessary to tell her that and destroy the good impression he made on her.

Dave and Ayano focused on the conversation didn't take notice of the fact, that the audience that ran away before, came closer after Rock was bound and could overhear their conversation.

A man with a leather jacket and a green mohawk whispered to a woman wearing a tight dress with pink hair at his side with a fearful facial expression, "Did you hear that. We better don't cross paths with them. We have to inform the others of the gang."

In a matter of days, the fact that Dave tortured someone to avenge his friends would spread trough the Underworld earning him the reputation of a person, who would go against anyone that went against him or his friends.

In a couple of years, what was once just a rumor would turn into reality!

Ayano activated her healing powers and the cracked back of Rock turned back into one piece.

"Time for round number two!", shouted Dave but just as he wanted to start, Ayano stopped him.

"Wait, let me first heal your hand."

A green glow surrounded Dave's hand when Ayano took it in hers. The broken bones healed and after only a minute it was back to normal.

"Apprentice Hero's Punch!"

Just when Ayano was done with her healing Dave started his next barrage of attacks. This time he could fire his attacks twice as fast because he could use both hands to activate his ability.

10 minutes went by and the rock-monster was in a horrible state. Then another message window popped open in front of him.

[Apprentice Hero's Punch S -> SS]

Finally, I did it. Dave checked the skill description of [Apprentice Hero's Punch].

[Apprentice Hero's Punch] [SS]

[When push comes to shove the only thing a hero can trust is the power of his fists. Unleash your strongest punch.

If your punch hits a villain then your Heroism rises by +8.

Effect: 115% increased attack power

costs: 4 Heroism per use]

'Yeah as I thought now I will gain every time I hit with this punch a villain +4 Heroism. I can fire one attack every 0.5 seconds. So I can earn 8 per second and 480 per minute. That sums up to 28.800 per hour.' calculated Dave.

"Ayano, can you heal him once again?" asked Dave.

If he kept hitting him he would cross the border between life and death and that wasn't Dave's intention. He wanted to further level his skill up.

"Damn you. Why would you even come looking for me? I don't even know someone like you," cursed Rock at Dave.

He was finally back to his senses after Dave beat him up for quite some time.

"You know it is a hero's duty to bring justice to those, who harm the innocent."

"Let me up. I surrender. Okay! You have what you want.", said Rock.

Dave freed him from his bindings.

"You better never again think about harming a woman otherwise I will come back and look for you."

"Paaahh." Rock spat blood on the floor.

Dave and the two women turned around and wanted to leave.

'Something is suspicious. Why is the quest not over yet?'

Dave felt a tingling sensation in his stomach. He spun around on the spot and saw Rock flying at him his lava-stone fist raised to hit him in the back.

"Apprentice Hero's Punch!"

Without much thinking, Dave tried to counter Rock's fist with one of his own. Before when he tried to compare in strength to Rock it would never end well for him. But now his skill level was higher and he was curious to see if he could overpower Rocks attack.

Rock, who obviously didn't expect Dave to suddenly get a boost in his strength, didn't hold back and was sure to win this exchange even more though because Dave had to counter his attack hastily and couldn't build up momentum through his high-speed movements.

The fists clashed and Dave's triumphed over Rock's.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" Rock tumbled back looking at his hand with an unbelieving expression on his face.

"Why are you suddenly stronger than me? What kind of monster are you?"

"Hahaha, why would I have to tell you and now lay nicely down and ready yourself for another beating because obviously, you didn't understand yet.", mocked Dave Rock.

Ayano, who seemed to finally understand what Dave's reason was for his prior actions, said, "Ahh, that's why. Good idea Dave. You are right finding a tanky guy, who you can use as a training sandbag and, who poses no threat to you is really not easy. You should really use this opportunity to its fullest."

Dave laughed.

"If you can heal him from time to time, I might be able to hit him for another hour. I could probably do it longer but I guess my physical power has its limit.

"Dave and Ayano looked at Rock as if he wasn't a human being. Of course, it was hard to feel sympathy for someone, who abuses women. Rock didn't like this at all. He was rank 2 and was looked down upon by some random woman and a rank 1 ability user.He couldn't stand this anymore.

"Ultimate...", shouted Rock angrily but before he could completely activate his ability he felt a stinging pain in his stomach.

He looked down and saw two devilish looking eyes and a golden glowing fist. Dave canceled Rock's ability by taking the initiative and hitting Rock faster than he could react.

While doing this Dave noted that his prior thoughts were wrong. He would most likely be able to activate his ability every 0,25 seconds. His activation speed and control increased through the abilities level up and like this, he would be able to use it 4 times every second.

"Bubble Prison.", said Dave calmly.

Bubbles rose and pulled Rock to the ground tying him up for Dave. For him, Rock was nothing more than a scarecrow right now. He would use him to further increase his skill levels and test his strength.

Rock was bound up like Christmas present, unable to even move one of his fingers, when Dave started his next attack barrage.

"[Apprentice Hero's Punch]!"

"[Apprentice Hero's Punch]!"

"[Apprentice Hero's Punch]!"

"[Apprentice Hero's Punch]!"

"[Apprentice Hero's Punch]!"

This continued for 5 minutes then Ayano healed Rock for Dave. Now that she understood, what was Dave's plan, she was actively trying to help him.

Ayano healed him twelve times already. Dave and she were doing this for around an hour when Rock finally showed some insight.

"Wait, please, I promise, I will never again touch a woman. Please stop it.", pleaded he.

"How could we trust you. If I let you go, you will attack us again or someone else as soon as we turn our backs your way. Sorry, but I will keep hitting you until I feel more sincerity in your words!"

And that was when Dave continued for another 5 minutes to hit him.

'Ding.'

[Apprentice Hero's Punch SS -> SSS]

Dave seeing the window laughed happily.

"I guess if you show now some remorse I could consider letting you off the hook. But if I ever again hear a bad word about you..."

Dave left the sentence without an ending. He untied Rock who's face was covered in tears. What Dave did to him was a torture he would never forget during his entire life.

As soon as he was set free he started running obviously fearing that Dave might change his mind again.

Dave shouted, "And don't forget that I won the bet, so you better do what I told you!"

Dave was happy. Telling the truth he finished the quest already 5 minutes ago when Rock said he would give up. But Dave didn't want to stop so closely to another level up so he kept attacking.

"Let's go back. Time for another [Limit Breaking Quest]. I should have stockpiled enough Heroism.", said Dave with a happy grin to Anna and Ayano.

This time his harvest was really great. He started with 52000 Heroism. The number dropped for a short time but after a while, it started rising steadily. The use of [Apprentice Hero's Punch] alone earned him 62400 Heroism. Added to that number was another 15.000 as a reward for completing the quest. So in total Dave had right now around 128.000 Heroism. This wasn't enough to do all Limit Breaking Quests but for a single one, it should be enough.

So he and Ayano returned to Nakamura labs, a curious Anna following close behind them.