The Shadow Monarch Izuku Midoriya

Ch 36: Class Advancement Part 6

"Talk"

'Thought'

[System]

The reason why he targeted the mages first was simple. It was to confirm the theory that had he had thought up in the Penalty Zone. The knights fiercely charged toward him. Izuku calmly used the knight at the head of the party as a stepping stone and leaped off of its shoulders. He overlooked the enemy army in the air and looked around and thought, 'Where are the mages?...Found one!'

In a distance, he saw a lone mage.

What he saw earlier was correct. In the Penalty Zone, he had considered if he was mistaken, but now he was sure. It was during the time he was being suffocated by the mass of the knights, only able to hold up a hand to the sky. In that moment, through the tiny gaps of the soldiers before him, he saw something that made no logical sense.

It was a lone mage that was continually casting spells. If it was just a mage preparing a spell, it would've been nothing out of the ordinary. But in that brief moment, something felt off in Izuku's mind,

Was there not a single spell that came toward him?

The attack on him was solely relegated to the knights. The mages were continuously casting spells but their completed spells did not display any effects on him. Well, except for the time they used a detection skill to break his 'Stealth'. And during that time, the knights around him paused for a moment. At first, he had thought it was because they had lost their target. But while hunting the centipedes in the Penalty Zone, he realized something very important.

Was it after the 8th centipede? When he took down the monster, he celebrated at the level-up message that followed. And the level-up was followed by a complete recovery of his health. In that moment of joy, a thought had occurred to him, 'Wait, I just leveled up this easily, why didn't I gain a single level back there?'

The System had warned him that the level-ups back there would not recover his status, but it did not warn him that he would not level-up at all. In fact, he leveled up five times before reaching the boss room. But during the actual class advancement quest, he did not gain a single level. In the 6 minutes that he endured, he had destroyed nearly a hundred knights.

Mages that did not use their spells on him. Knights that did not give any experience points.

He had not given much thought on these two facts and placed them in the back of his mind. But after some time, the two facts combined into a theory in Izuku's head. Every single knights in that area were all fake?

What if the reason why all the knights stopped when the mage used 'Eye of Detection' was not because Izuku had disappeared, but because the mage had stopped the casting of its other spell?

Now was the time to confirm his theory. Izuku ignored the outstretched hands that were trying to grab him and used the knights' heads and shoulders as a pathway to the mage.

He felt the mage that noticed him panic. Its casting sped up. The knights that had previously focused on swarming him suddenly changed pattern and formed a protective wall around the mage. Izuku practically received the confirmation of his theory with this.

The Hunter landed in front of the mage. Without an ounce of hesitation, he stabbed the mage's chest with the dagger in his right hand.

'Vital Stab!'

Without a sound, the mage disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

[You've defeated a mage.]