Ripple

We entered the building through the window, rather than the front door, expecting monsters to be instantly awaiting us. However, when we hopped through there was no monsters there to greet us.

It was silent, dark, and ominous. The whole dark part was basically eliminated under the use of my mask, but the building still wasn't what I expected it to be.

I turned to Dabi, wordlessly nodding. He held out his hand and a blue flame came to life within it, lighting up the room for his use more than mine. Dabi took the left side of the building while I took the right.

We slowly skulked through the building, listening closely for any signs of monsters.

[Due to a specific action, you have received a new skill. Skill: Stealth.]

I swept away the notification with a small huff. I was glad to get the skill, but it wasn't very good at reading the room.

Through Vasukak, I could see that the mana of the building was dense, denser than any other building I'd been in. And yet, despite this, no monsters seemed to be in it.

Why weren't there any monsters…?

I couldn't come up with any answers, so I pushed on.

I used the chat feature of my ability―which was indeed an incredibly useful ability, seeing that we didn't need to rely on the internet like phones and unless someone could breach the bounds of my ability, it would be untappable―and advised Dabi to continue to the next floor, receiving an uncapitalized agreement from him.

I told him to keep me updated on anything he may've found, but I wasn't sure how well he'd be doing that.

I checked the water within the building through one of the faucets, but as expected, nothing came out. The electricity was similar, but I did see some sparking once I tried to turn on the lights, but I turned them off before they could catch anything on fire.

I did keep the information in mind though in case I needed to use my most expensive attack to date.

I really wanted to avoid such a thing, but it was entirely possible that I'd be forced to use it, so I wasn't going to leave myself high and dry if things went wrong.

We went up and up, trying to keep ourselves fast enough to not run out a 30-minute timer, but trying to move slow enough to not set off any monsters.

We stood at the final flight of stairs that led to the roof of the building. We both let out dejected sighs.

"We both really found nothing on our way up here?" I asked Dabi, causing him to shake his head.

"Besides what you expect―graffiti, beer bottles, sleeping bags―nothing," He shrugged.

It made sense, but it also didn't make any sense at all. Upon doing any length of research of this building, you'd learn of the ghost and horror stories that related to the building.

The building was basically a tourist spot for anyone who had some internet presence. People would try to figure out the hidden mystery of the mysterious ghosts, or they'd spend the night in the building, or they'd try to get to the top floor―which was universally locked, barred, or otherwise unreachable.

The problem was that this place has the exact same energy as a dungeon yet has been here for literal years.

How long was my Quirk affecting things?

Maybe that was a bit self-centered to think, but if I could open this door that civilians, nor heroes could open or get into, maybe this place has been waiting for me.

Oh, the building couldn't be toppled or destroyed either. It's an odd mystery, but the building was resistant against machinery and even superstrength Quirks were stopped in their tracks when attacking the building. I assumed it was because of the mana surrounding the building.

The biggest issue was certainly the levels of energy radiating from the roof. I couldn't feel them―or even see them―from the outside, but I could feel it now. Every few seconds, mana pulsed from the roof, pushing through the door and shaking me down to my core.

If there was no enemies for this entire dungeon… that could only be from the….

"Can you feel those?" I asked my partner, receiving a nod from him.

"It feels like wind, but it's… stronger than that. Is this… mana from the boss?" Dabi asked. I silently nodded.

This was dangerous, too dangerous.

But… where danger lied, so did success.

"We'll push forward," I nodded. "We don't have the luxury of backing out. With our time limit, we need to get stronger, even if that means throwing ourselves into some frankly dangerous situations."

I spoke with conviction, and Dabi caught onto said conviction. He nodded, growing focused as I approached the door to the roof.

Please, please, please, open.

I softly grabbed the handle to the door, and as soon as I had a firm hold on it, purple energy rushed out from my hand and washed over the door.

[The Trickster has been detected. Opening door.]

Yes, it worked!

I couldn't hide my foolish grin as I read over the notification, but my grin slowly faded as I caught the word usage.

The Trickster? Not the Gamer?

I didn't really know a lot about Tricksters, so I couldn't say too much beyond they were seen as people who disobey normal rules and behaviors. I guess that didn't necessary conflict that I was the Gamer, but… was that really enough for my Quirk to give me an entirely new title.

I couldn't figure out why I'd suddenly be referred to as the "Trickster" rather than the "Gamer" like my Quirk had been calling me so far, so I dropped the thoughts with a shake of my head.

I turned back to Dabi, giving me a simultaneously informative and uninformative nod. Sometime nods were weird like that. Dabi seemed to understand my intentions though, mana heavily gathering around his arms as he nodded.

We rushed onto the roof, opening the door and preparing for the worst.

Well, the worst may've been what we ran into.

Air rushed towards us as our eyes widened. The area was filled with crystals―which a quick use of Observe told me were mana crystals―of different shapes and sizes. They were all shining but were especially vibrant under my masked vision.

In the middle of all the crystals stood an amorphous blob of water, shifting and changing in shape and size every second. It didn't attack though, seeming… dormant. The main thing that I noted was the shining crystal within its chest, which, if gaming knowledge was to be trusted, was probably the weak spot of the monster.

"Weak" spot, if there even was one.

[The Spirit of Water Gives Way to Life]

[Lv. 63]

[Water Golem]

The sheer level of the monster was higher than anything I'd run into, save for my dear mother and Midnight. Still, I didn't freak out. That was almost entirely thanks to Gamer's Mind, but I didn't freak out regardless.

Observe told me about the golem's basically perfect physical damage reduction, but it also noted that the physical damage reduction was due to liquid state of matter that the golem was. If that was the case….

I glanced around, counting the mana crystals. I counted about 30 of them, which was honestly less than I thought there'd be.

My Intelligence paired with my Wisdom sensed the possibilities, plotted a path, and allowed me to create a solution to the situation.

Those mana crystals were supplying the monster energy, or the golem was taking energy from the crystals, either way, the crystals were a problem. It wasn't very hard to craft a solution to such a problem.

"What's our―" As soon as Dabi spoke, the boss moved.

Dabi and I moved as fast as we could, and even with Manami's incredible buff, we barely avoided the attack, dodging to the right.

We rolled away, leaping up as we readied ourselves for a fight. I glanced towards where we once stood with three eyes, grimacing as the area was littered with perfectly spherical holes. They must've been created by bullets of pressurized water.

"Fuck," Dabi sighed. "Any plans?"

I looked at Dabi with my original eyes, leaving the other seven to Observe the water golem and the surrounding mana crystals. It wasn't attacking us again, so it must've been gathering up energy for an attack like that again. It wasn't entirely still though, the core within it was moving around.

The mana within the air being softly sucked towards the water golem was a good piece of evidence to back up my observations.

"It may have a cycle, but it's too early to know for sure. Those… water bullets are dangerous though. I'll try and tank the attacks for you, but I don't think I'll be able to take many of those either," I warned Dabi, trying to fit as much useful information in my words as possible. The boss was starting to move again, so I tried to finish everything quickly. "Alright, I've got a plan. The first step is to survive!"

More bullets came rocketing towards us, and we were gone before we even knew where the bullets would land.

With some electromagnetic forces, I was pushed away from the ground, and coupled with Vasukak and Ishikori, I was pushed far and fast. I flew into the air, hopefully safe from the onslaught of bullets. I didn't relax though, spinning around to look for Dabi.

Several eyes observed where we once were, while the other few were looking at new places. A trail of mana led me directly to a tumbling Dabi, who was quick to jump up and look around for me.

He checked left, then right, then finally, up. Upon seeing me, he looked back down at the boss.

I was already coming back down by the time he noticed me. And trust me, I was coming down fast. I slammed into a mana crystal, shattering it into smaller pieces underneath my shoe. The loss of a larger shape caused the mana from the crystal to become much more distorted and unreliable.

With some electromagnetic control that I'd never tried to do before, I launched the crystals into the air and caught them, slamming them into my Inventory. I turned towards Dabi, even when half of my eyes were firmly placed on the back of the boss.

"Basic video game boss. It has a simple pattern so we don't need to―" I could barely see what happened as an attack destroyed my Scales and pierced directly into my HP. I sucked in through my teeth as I barely dodged another water bullet by tilting my head.

Dabi and I dashed in the same direction, barely avoiding the bullets that destroyed the building behind us.

"Alright, what's step 2?" Dabi snarled, groaning as a water bullet slammed through his leg. As he began to stumble, I grabbed his wrist, healed him three times, and threw him in front of me. He flew for a few seconds but fell into a roll and hopped back up.

He really knew how to roll with the punches, kind of impressive.

"Uh, destroy the crystals!" I Tore into the mana crystal, and with Talons, Crush, and Mana Empowerment, the crystal fell to pieces before I stuffed it all in my Inventory.

Dabi stood silent for a moment, eyes darting between the boss's core and the mana crystals. He muttered something to himself before nodding, and I could see mana begin go gather around his arms.

"It's water, so I'll just turn it into a gas. Even if that doesn't kill it, it should leave the core open, so you can handle it," Dabi noted, looking deadly serious. "But it's gonna take a while to charge―longer than your attacks."

I nodded, absentmindedly hopping to another crystal and destroying it only to put it into my Inventory.

"How long?" I asked, keeping a firm gaze on the boss. It wasn't going to attack yet, at least that what it's mana was telling me.

It was a monster made of water, so Dabi's thought process was entirely viable. It held more substance than trying to slowly take the golem's source of power away, but only because the latter would take too long. Taking too much time coupled with heroes showing up soon enough was a recipe for disaster, so I'd take the quickest option in a flash.

A plan like Dabi's made sense, but it all heavily relied on his abilities. If he couldn't get hot enough, the plan would fall to pieces. But I trusted in his abilities, whether I'd seen them or not.

"Forty seconds?" Dabi mumbled, sounding very uncertain. "It may be longer though. If we're trying to take it out in one blow, a minute at least."

If I could keep the boss's aggro and save Dabi some time, I could still attack the mana crystals as insurance. If I collected enough mana crystals, I could do it, even if I really wanted to avoid it.

For a situation like the current one, I'd have to use everything I had. Holding back would certainly land me a personalized meeting with the Grim Reaper. Even if it were dangerous, I'd have to do it.

I could buy a minute… probably.

All I'd have to do is irritate the boss and destroy the mana crystals without dying. Easy as pie.

If the pie were hanging over a pit of poisonous spikes and monsters that could only survive on my blood, but still.

"Got it," I nodded, Dashing away from Dabi as a hailstorm of pressurized water bullets rained on me.

I dodged most of them, but several of them still slammed into my body, destroying my Scales and cutting directly into my HP. In no time at all, I was there before eight mana crystals, all shiny and bright.

I became a flurry of destruction as used my bare hands to tear into the crystals without a bit of hesitation. The crystals were stored directly into my Inventory, sitting there for later use. Later may've very well been in a few quick seconds though.

With 20 crystals left, I created a plan of attack and carried through with it in an instant. The boss was on its recharge, so I Flew towards the next batch of crystals and shredded them in an instant.

15 left, and I was suddenly getting reminded of the kobolds.

The thing was the next batch was getting pretty close to Dabi. I threw away the idea of finishing off the crystals in a quick instance. They'd be too dangerous to destroy without pulling Dabi back into the fight, especially when I easily see the amount of focus, he was building up as mana gathered around him.

Okay, I'd just have to operate with what I had.

As I stopped my charge, I laid all my eyes on the boss.

Physical attacks wouldn't work on the boss, that much was obvious. They wouldn't work because the boss was made of water. Attacks like Mana Javelin and Mana Blast would work, but Mana Javelin had too much of charge time to use effectively and Mana Blast wouldn't do any damage that was worth the boss's attention.

Now that I wasn't going to be destroying it's sources off power, it's entirely possible that it doesn't see me as an important opponent and it may turn it's attention back to its other crystals, and with them, towards Dabi.

I'd have to keep the boss's attention, even if that meant….

I sighed before grinning.

"Let's see how immune you really are."

I cloaked my hands in mana, activated Talons, and Flew towards the monster with everything I had.