Hero's First Day (things fall apart the day after)

I kick Chuck or whatever his name in the nuts as Mark’s eyes peel over to me.

“Taking out the bad guy before they can hurt someone is always a good idea.” His eyes widen and his expression is faintly annoyed as he mutters something under his breath. 

“I’ll see you after school.” Someone had a bad experience with their ‘helper’ didn’t they? Gaia sends an affirmative my way causing me to pause. Didn’t know you were a voyeur. She wiggles her eyebrows causing me to let out a light laugh, the growing audience looking at me like I’m insane.

To be fair I might be!

I met Mark after school and he seems to have relaxed a bit but there’s still a fire in his eyes.

“I’m going to prove I can be a hero, I’d appreciate the back up.” I nod but question him a bit further.

“I’m glad you came to me, but are you sure?” He grits his teeth and hesitantly nods.

“This is something I need to do.” Well I’d rather keep an eye on him at least so I give a light smile.

“Change into a disguise and meet me in the sky. We’ll go looking for trouble.” I rush home and throw on my biker helmet, hoodie, boots, long pants, and gloves. I look like a real weirdo, but I’m definitely a bit safer with the helmet on.

Gaia makes it very clear this is a stupid idea, but there’s something that’s bothering me. A theory is brewing and I want to test it. I want to see if I can get rewards outside of dungeons as well.

I meet Mark in the sky and shake his hand.

“You got a codename I can call you?” He freezes, and I rapidly try to think of a name as well. Fuck it I’m going it Sky untill I figure out something better.

“Uh, just call me Goggles.” I nod lightly and cross my arms while he looks sheepish at the bad name he gave himself.

“Well then Goggles, I’m Sky. Pleasure to be working with you, what are your powers?” A bit of an on the nose question but I need to know what he can do before we get into a fight.

“I can fly, and I’m strong and tough.” So he’s a flying brick then? That’s not bad.

“I can fly too, but I’m not too strong or durable. Most of my power comes from these energy blasts I can fire off.” I channel a bit of purple mana in my hand as he looks at it with faint intrigue behind his goggles.

“You got a plan?” He nods, he at least thought this far.

“Follow the gunfire and then stop the bad guy.” My eyes narrow. That’s kind of a dumb plan, and could result in one of us getting severely injured. Gaia agrees and I shake my head.

“How durable are you?” He seems shaken up by the question but does speak out an answer.

“Strong enough to take a hit from Omniman.” What the hell? Omniman is basically superman so this guy is durable as fuck.

“Are you sure-” He cuts me off.

“Yes.” Did he get into a scrap with Omniman? That was probably traumatic as fuck. I softly put a hand on his shoulder as he flinches.

“You alright?” He doesn’t nod and instead starts to fly off.

“Let’s go.” I get next to him in flight and decide not to press him. We aren’t that close anyways, and I’d rather not make him angrier.

“Just keep a cool head if we get in a fight.” He gives a stern nod of agreement. At least he’s got that straight. We fly for a while and he nearly slams into a building as gunshots ring out. I manage to pull him back as we get closer to the attacks. We spot cops firing into an alleyway and I give Goggles the go ahead.

[Event: Rock and Roll in Chicago]

[Defeat Titan]

[Prevent Collateral Damage up to 20,000 USD]

[Prevent any Civilian Deaths]

There it is! I knew it! I’ll worry about this later though, we’ve got a bad guy to stop.

“You first, I’d rather not get shot by accident.” He flies around the corner and moves forward slamming into some guy with stoneskin as they tumble together on the ground. That looks like it hurts.

They start talking as I pull up behind the stoneman, he looks over his shoulder at me and I give a light wave.

“So who are the two of you supposed to be?” I speak up, it's time for our introductions.

“I’m Sky and he’s Goggles.” Mark puts a hand on his face in embarrassment and the rock guy lets out a snort.

“I’ve got something better. How about guys whose heads are about to get smashed?” He rushes at Goggles and I slam raw wind mana down on him to weaken his approach. The ground cracks from the pressure and the large figure lets out a yell. Before he can continue a fist slams into the side of his head sending the man spiraling outwards into the street and crashing him into a car causing me to wince.

“Dude! Collateral Damage!” Mark lets out a brief apology before flying after ‘Titan’. Said Titan picks up said car and gets ready to chuck it at us causing me to panic and call upon the power of Gaia.

I hold out a hand and send out a wave of earth mana, manifesting a large wall in front of us that stops the car from blowing us up. The wall fades away into mud after a moment and the guy we were chasing is missing. Then I spot a shadow above us and my instincts scream at me ‘DANGER’.

“You look ridiculous- and who is that?” The huge man- Omni man flies down towards us and sends me a glare reeking of hostility. I feel Gaia protectively embrace me as she eyes him wearily.

“Let’s go.” He says to Mark and before Mark flies off he holds out his arms towards me in confusion.

“You can make walls?” I give a shrug and lightly laugh.

“Guess I can!” He lets out a sigh and mutters a ‘see you tomorrow’ before flying off with the famous hero. Maybe Omniman was training him- Gaia seems to agree . . . are they related? She gives an affirmative and I look over at the completed event in interest.

[Defeat Titan. Partial Credit Given.]

[Prevent Collateral Damage up to 20,000 USD Succeeded.]

[Prevent any Civilian Deaths Succeeded.]

[Gain one Villainy]

[Gain two Heroism]

That’s quite a lot of stuff, even for partial credit against that guy. Mark is crazy strong, and I think I underestimated myself as well. 

[Villainy]

Harvested from the wicked and filled with a chaotic power. Use to gain two random attribute points.

So THIS is how I get stat points!? Shame they are random though.

[Heroism]

Gained through heroic acts of protecting the innocent and upholding order. Use to gain one attribute point of your choice.

That’s extremely good, stat increases are exponential and this is a lot for taking out a small time villain. Or at least I hope he’s only a small time, I can only imagine how much an actually strong villain would give.

Alright, I use the Villainy and decide to go gambling! I actually don’t really like gambling but what can you do when it's free?

Rolling 2d6.

+1 Strength Gained. +1 Intelligence Gained.

I instantly feel power flow through me, as though I’d been hitting the gym for the past month. My mind also expands quite a bit and I feel my own grasp of magic improve slightly instantly. However with this new upgrade I definitely feel as though I could push way farther with some studying. You know what, I’ll put both my points from my Heroism in Intelligence as well. Let’s get those brain juices flowing.

Name: Emile Shemmer

Class: Wizard 3

STR: 11

DEX: 10

CON: 10

INT: 17

WIS: 12

CHR: 16

Skills:

• Mana Flux II

• Planetary Heartbeat III

• Mana Boost I

• Formulization I

Equipment:

• Pure Jewel of Lead

• Walking With Birds

• Magic and How Not to Accidently Kill Yourself

• Mop of Cleaning

My eyes water slightly as they widen to such an obscene degree. Holy hell. That was . . . amazing! A massive smile breaks onto my face as I cast ‘Wind Walk’ I layer the spells twice under each shoe. This is what I was missing with this spell! It’s designed to be concurrent casted for each limb!

I can only push it to two right now, but my speed and control has already doubled. New ideas for spells start to brew in my mind, but I’ll still need to do some research to get them sorted out. I let out a maddened laugh as I gaze up to the sky. 

Looking at it now all I can see is a world for me to walk. This is the true form of Wind Walk. The literal Walking on Wind. Not whatever the hell I was doing before, it’s as though I was walking with one leg.

My mind even understands that I’ve barely reached the limit of magic, and it's awe inspiring. This is what three Intelligence did?

I smile as my mind wanders back to the fight. I can just focus on the little guys while the Guardians and Omniman take care of the heavy hitters. Smooth sailing to ultimate power for me!

Gaia laughs at my thoughts, and gives me a side hug and light kiss on the cheek. That’s right. I’m fighting for her and her people.

AN: Emile is whipped.

That mud wall I’d made wasn’t a spell, and I definitely am going to want a proper defensive spell. Maybe I can alter ‘Atmosphere’ in order to focus on defense as well? 

I spent the entire night working and I’m definitely not satisfied with what I made. While I can feel the difference it’s not enough to make a spell in a single night. Well at least I’m getting somewhere. I’d tried mixing the earth element into the mix because having a defense that relies on Gaia feels like the way to go.

I can choose to not go into dungeons, but I still want to be ready if something big happens. I trust the Guardians of the Globe but I’m the Guardian of Gaia! She practically gives me bedroom eyes at that, but she doesn’t have a physical body so while I blush the embarrassment fades quite quickly.

My thoughts pause as I realize something. I get tomorrow off! Gaia however still forces me to bed around one in the morning, I love her but can’t she just let me do my magic?

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

I pull out of bed and make myself breakfast. Toast and eggs, an American classic. I almost reach for my backpack on instinct and let out a smile. Then my eyes narrow. Gaia? Suddenly I hear crying and the vivid image of the woman in tears enters my mind. Her expression is that of overwhelming hate. That of a beast ready to destroy everything in pursuit of a single goal.

I shoot up. Gaia. What’s wrong? She sends me a glare that nearly sends me staggering back before her stare softens and she tries to speak to me but I just can’t understand her. We stay like that for a while as I clutch my fist in anger.

Did something really bad happen? She floods with agreement. Whatever happened must be bad. Really, really, bad. I go to throw on my uniform and she stares at me in fear, as though I’m about to throw my life away.

What the fuck? 

Who- what? I feel Gaia pull away again and I’m left alone. Dammit, I need to get stronger. I go back to my room and stare at my notes on my Atmosphere. I distract myself with them as I work.

Different types of mana have different properties. Air mana is elastic, earth mana is tough, water mana is easy to shape, and my null element has fluctuating properties based on how I structure it.

I need to mix the earth into the elastic wind while still keeping it as wind. Flipping through Walking With Birds I look for anything that might help me, and I get through the entire book beforeI pause at the last page.

‘Beyond Sky Aeriara’ it’s still too complicated for me but this spell . . . it uses mana property alteration alongside tons of other crazy stuff I don’t have a name for yet. This spell, its fucking insane. There’s like a million different failsafes for heat and tons of other stuff that you wouldn’t find in the sky- I look back at the name.

No fucking way.

This spell. This spell isn’t for flight. It’s for space travel. What the hell? How powerful were the wizards of other dimensions for this thing to be a public library? My jaw drops slightly at the realization.

This spell is quadruple layered. Double layering a spell feels about 10 times harder than making two single layer spells at once like I had last night. I’d tried to do it and failed instantly. However it looks like double layering is practically required to change the properties of mana.

Fuck, why couldn’t magic be easy?

I spend a while like that. It becomes noon and suddenly Gaia is back and screaming at me in distress. I throw on the outfit I’d kept close and took off in the way she pulled me. I didn’t care that her earlier stress caused her to take out part of it on me. I’d seen the fear in her eyes, and now the fear was back. Flying upwards I’d seen a new hero-

“Mark?”

“Call me Invincible.” Well that’s arrogant. Turning my eyes down I spot a massive portal and come to a conclusion. Army from a different dimension is invading. I look around for the guardians and I don’t spot them- Gaia sends despair to me. Something happened to the guardian. 

The despair and agreement sent my way confirms my worst fears.

All of them? Silent acceptance. A-are they dead? The simple nod of her head causes me to throw up at the city below. Earth’s strongest defenders excluding Omniman are dead- I feel hate. Overwhelming hate. What the fuck?

“You ok?” I don’t respond. Gaia what the fuck happened with Omniman? She growls and a suspicious forms. Did he do something- did he kill them? She stares at me and kisses me on the lips before a single word from her manages to break our bond through with our heightened emotions.

“Yes.”

My heart sinks. I stare down at the invasion in shock before Mark shakes me with vigorous force and knocks me out of my stupor.

“Get it together! We have to help them!” He starts rocketing down to the fight as a screen pops up in front of me.

[Flaxan Fiasco I]

[Defeat the Flaxan invaders]

[Prevent Civilian Deaths up to 100]

[Prevent Collateral Damage up to 100,000,000 USD]

That’s . . . this is going to be the worst. Gaia can’t help but agree with the sentiment.

AN: The truth gets out to Emile and he can’t help but feel horrified. Additionally we get introduced to how stats are gained and a bit more insight into the magic system this chapter! Hopefully he can complete those objectives before things go horribly wrong! 

Gaia and friends (only the one) might have their work cut out for them!

Anyways please leave some comments as your support helps push me forward. I appreciate them all! 

Thanks for reading and see you next time!