A/N: University me looking at pre-university me: Hey, that's hell you're walking into.

Story Start

This fanfic is inspired by various Issei with The Gamer's power fanfictions.

High School DxD is a Japanese light novel written by Ichiei Ishibumi, illustrated by Miyama-Zero and published by Fujimi Shobo. The Gamer is a webtoon written by Sung Sang-Young, illustrated by Sang-Ah and hosted by Naver Webtoon. I do not own any of them.

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

'Ddraig'

[BOOST or Game Text]

Seeing his skills, Issei's whole body collapsed on his bed, confident that his life was secure for now. With his survival confirmed, all the stress of the past few days and the tiredness he felt from burning the midnight oil all came back at once, knocking him out cold.

[You have slept in your bed for 2 hours. 25% of HP and MP restored. All ailments cured.]

When Issei finally woke up, the only thing he wanted to do was to lie in bed for the rest of the day. His whole body was aching from all the training he did last night.

"Skills." Lying in bed, Issei reconfirmed what he saw before he fell asleep.

Hide Presence - Passive Lv 5 92%

Conceals presence of the user

Stealth - Passive Lv 3 9%

Enhances all stealth related skills

Enhances skills by 5% per level

AGI + 1 per level

Related Skills: Silent Footstep, Silent Breath, Hide Presence

Relieved that it wasn't a dream, he let himself relax on his bed, resting while thinking on what he should do now.

After a rather frosty lunch (on a side note, it seems that Miki hasn't forgotten about Issei lying to her), Issei left his home with Matsuda's video in tow, wanting to return it to Matsusda's friend as promised yesterday. Feeling a vibration in his pocket, he found that Matsuda had sent him his friend's address, their phone number, along with a short message on not forcing himself and to just notify him if he was feeling unwell. Feeling grateful for such a great brother, Issei gave a short positive reply and left for the address.

[You have received the quest 'Delivery for Matsuda'.]

Deliver Matsuda's package back to his friend.

Quest Requirements: Deliver package by today.

Quest Completion Reward: Increased reputation with 'Matsuda Ogawa', 100 EXP

Failure Conditions: Fail to deliver package on time.

Quest Failure Reward: Decreased reputation with 'Matsuda Ogawa'

Do you accept? [Yes]/[No]

"Yes."

[You have accepted the quest.]

Using his phone map to locate the address led Issei to a part of Kuoh that he had only been to a few times. He was the most familiar to the area around his school and home, as well as a few popular locations around town but his current location was one he wasn't too familiar with. It was a short distance from his house, but he hadn't come here much since it wasn't on the path from his house to the school. It was a relatively large street full of shops that thrived due to their close proximity to the school but Issei never felt the need to come as he lived near the school and he could buy things from the mart near his house. Issei came here a few times during the breaks when he didn't bring a bento from home but it wasn't anything impressive.

[You have completed the quest 'Delivery for Matsuda'.]

[Reputation with 'Matsuda Ogawa' has increased]

[You have received 100 EXP]

[You have leveled up! You gained 5 unassigned stat points!]

Thanks to completing the quest, the exp he had exceeded the value needed, and he gained a level. However, it seems that nothing had changed other than the fact that he gained 5 unassigned stat points. His status page now had up-arrows beside his stats, so he assumed that he could spend his unassigned points to improve his stats that way, instead of torturing himself like yesterday. He would do more research on those before he spent any though.

[For making a smart decision, you have increased WIS by 1]

With nothing else to do, Issei spent his afternoon exploring this part of the town, learning of all the shops in the area since he was already in the area. When he came in the past, he was always limited by the break time, and since it wasn't on the way home, he never really felt the need to learn about the area. But since he was already in the area and had nothing else to do, Issei felt that this was the perfect chance to learn about this area that was near his house. Perhaps he would find a game shop or two that suit his fancy.

Walking around, he didn't really find anything of note. It was mainly a few food shops, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, karaage, the usual street foods. There were also some general shops selling all sorts of random items, manga cafes selling and loaning manga, internet cafes, stationary shops and arcades but nothing he didn't expect since it was near a highschool after all. He managed to find a game shop and was browsing inside of it when he heard his school's bell ring, signifying the end of the school day.

Looking out of the window of the shop, Issei saw the hoard of cute schoolgirls in their uniform walking past the shop. He was reminded of how lucky he was to manage to get into the school of his dreams. Too bad none of them wanted anything to do with him though.

Noting down the release dates of upcoming games, Issei left the shop and was met with students from all the different schools in the area all leaving in the same direction. He was honestly quite surprised to see so many people leaving in this direction and before realising that this was the street that led to the train station.

Feeling peckish, Issei strolled around looking for the most popular stall. With the students dismissed for the day, Issei followed the crowd to a taiyaki stand he walked past previously. Confident of the quality from seeing the long queue, Issei decided to join it and waited for his turn. But while waiting, Issei couldn't help but notice that the queue consisted mainly of schoolgirls, with more joining the queue constantly.

While he was lost in his thoughts, Issei finally reached the start of the line. The employee woke him up, saying "Good afternoon boy, what would you like!" Startled, Issei looked up to see a man in his 50s tending to the stall. "Ah good afternoon oji-san, 1 redbean taiyaki please." As the employee was preparing his order, Issei looked into the stall to see that it was a small family shop that was being tended by the old man alone. Taking his order, Issei left and stood at a corner, looking at the business the small store had.

Munching on his taiyaki, Issei was happy to verify that the taiyaki was indeed delicious. Crisp on the outside, yet soft in the center. He was also happy to note that the old man didn't skimp on the filling. The store must be one of those that prided themselves on perfecting their craft. Scarfing down the remainder of the taiyaki, Issei was surprised to see that the queue was still going strong. The customers seemed to happily chat with the old man, making small talk while the old man was preparing their orders. Most of the customers seemed to be regulars and close to the old man.

Perhaps he could work here and become friends with the schoolgirls? Maybe one of them may even become his girlfriend! Unfortunately it was way too dangerous to waste his time on that right now. Perhaps if he saw this shop a week ago he could have gotten a girlfriend that way but as of right now it was just another fantasy. Feeling melancholic, Issei chuckled as he went back home.

When Issei reached home he was surprised to hear his mother chatting happily to someone. Just a friend of hers he thought. Unfortunately, he was proven wrong when he walked to the kitchen to greet them.

"Mom I'm... home." In front of Issei was Miki and Sona Sitri, sitting around the kitchen table making small talk. Seeing the last person he wanted to meet in front of him, Issei quickly put on his best poker-face and concentrated on his abilities, hoping that his newly added stealth skills would hide his powers from the devil in front of him. He had thought he had the rest of the week to practise his skills before meeting another devil but as the saying goes, man proposes, god disposes.

"Welcome back Issei! We were just chatting about you. Sona-chan had brought your homework for you but you were out. How could you make such a cute girl come to our home and not be here to greet them!"

"Miki-san, I've already said it's not his fault! I was the one who didn't mention ahead that I was coming today after all."

Miki couldn't help but shake her head when she heard her defending her son. Sona was such a kind-hearted, innocent and hardworking girl. Everyone knew that if you got injured,it was the prime chance to trigger bedside nursing flags. You would think that Issei would know that after playing so many games. Unfortunately her dumb son missed the opportunity to rope Sona in, losing yet another chance for her to get a daughter-in-law. She was truly losing hope at her son ever getting married.

Issei, oblivious to his mother's musings, apologised to Sona for making her wait so long. "I'm sorry Sona-san, I had to run some errands just now, I hope you didn't wait too long for me."

Sona chuckled and reassured Issei "I wasn't here long at all and was enjoying chatting with Miki-san so you don't have to apologise. In fact, I should be the one apologising since I came unannounced." With the social niceties out of the way, Sona arrived at the reason for her coming. "Anyway, like Miki-san said I brought the homework I mentioned 2 days ago. I would have relied on your friends to pass them on to you but today they are… occupied. Shall I put the papers in your room?"

"You can just put them here, no need to trouble yourself. I'll bring them to my room later."

"Nonsense, it's no trouble at all. No need to force yourself. I can bring them up for you."

"Uhh alright then, follow me" Saying that, Issei got out of his chair and slowly walked to the stairs.

After Issei and Sona went into his room, they spent the time making small talk. Issei only knew her in passing because she was the student council president and was surprised that she wasn't as cold as she portrayed herself being.

In the middle of their conversation Sona asked Issei "I'm getting a little thirsty. Is there anything to drink?"

"There's some juice in the kitchen, go let me get that for you."

Thanking Issei, Sona waited until Issei left the room, and after hearing Issei stomping down the stairs, she stood up and started saying something under her breath.

A glowing magic circle started forming in front of her, lighting up the room in a soft blue hue. It then dispersed into motes of light, moving to Issei's bed, then spreading around the room and reconvened in her hand as a ball. The ball was the same shade of blue as the magic circle but there were some specks of red flickering in it. She was considering what this meant when she heard Issei returning and sat back down, pretending nothing had happened.

They continued talking after Issei returned with her water but he noticed that Sona was a little absent minded. She left not too long afterwards, saying she had student council duties she had to finish.

Did Sona figure out something about him? Perhaps she found out that he knew that she was a devil? Or did she manage to detect the mana in his body? Other than being absent minded nothing seemed to have changed. Perhaps he is just overreacting and she was just bored.

There were too many things he didn't know. He needed a way to gather information...

With no idea what to do Issei was stuck. There was only an hour or so left before dinner so he didn't want to exercise and he wasn't in the mood to play games. In the end he decided to get started on the homework Sona had brought him.

As time went by… Issei was honestly astonished. The homework he used to agonize over turned out to be much easier than he remembered. He barely had to stop to think about the question before answers from his memories started to appear. He could remember his teachers teaching about how to solve those questions. Could this be the power of INT and WIS?

An hour had passed since he started and he was already through with almost half of his homework. Granted that was about a day's worth of homework but he used to have headaches over his homework for hours before giving up and just putting any answer that came to mind. Compared to now, it was night and day.

Seeing that it was near time for dinner, Issei decided to stop for now and go downstairs to help his mom. Just as he decided to do so, a pop-up appeared.

[For exercising your brain and doing your homework, you have increased INT by 2]

Happy with the new information that homework helped increase his stats, Issei grabbed his crutches and went down the stairs.

A/N: Honestly this chapter was so hard to write. It struggled with me so much, I had to keep rewriting it over and over again. Fortunately for you guys ideas just kept appearing in my head, and I kept trying again and again. Hope the next chap just comes peacefully without resistance.