David and Kurimuzon seemed happy to see him.

"Hey there, newbie! Glad to see you back! And with quite the haul, too! Need help carrying all that?"

Izuku shook his head and gave the pair a smile. "No, I should be fine. Where do you want me to put the goblin's body? Do you have a special harvesting area?"

Seemingly accepting that he could carry the body on his own, David smiled and shook his head. "Nope! Just hand it over and I'll be able to use one of my abilities to harvest it here and now!"

Wanting to see that in action, Izuku immediately turned and shook his shoulder, letting the goblin body fall off of it, into David's waiting hands. There was silence for a moment before both David's hands and the goblin's body started to glow with red light.

The body faded out of existence like a menu that you forgot to close for too long, and in its place appeared a small bag and a handful of bones. David smirked as Izuku's eyes widened, a smile forming on his face.

David showed Izuku the inside of the bag that had appeared and Izuku was amazed to see that it was already filled to the brim with powdered bone. "Put a few levels into a craftsman class when I was younger, means I can harvest my own resources. My Grandpa taught me that trick actually, he used to be some bigshot adventurer before Emperor Yagi was even born."

Izuku could feel his smile growing even bigger. "That's amazing, sir! Having that kind of synergy between your classes so early on is almost unheard of! Your father must have been very forward-thinking!"

David chuckled, nodding. "It helped that I knew that I wanted to be a spellcaster ever since my brother in everything but blood declared that we would be adventurers together. Yagi had a way with words even then…"

Izuku nodded and was about to comment on something when what David said registered fully in his head. "Wait! Do you mean Emperor Yagi? You can't! That would make you David… Shield…"

"Identify"

Sir David Shield, High Mage of Mightia

Level: ?

Class: ?

Izuku almost fainted at the sight. Almost immediately, Izuku was down on one knee, bowing his head to the man, who was quite literally best friends with the Emperor. Oh gods above, he bothered Sir David Shield for a quest!

He kept his head down, not wanting to look the man in the eye in case he insulted him, you never really knew with noblemen. "I'm sorry for not realising who you were sooner, Sir! I hope I didn't annoy you and I apologise for wasting your time earlier!"

Even with his head facing the floor, Izuku could see the people in the entrance hall stopping and staring at him. Or at least, their boots were facing towards him. He couldn't really see faces at the moment.

David was silent for a moment, and Izuku started to get really worried. But then, he heard a chuckle. The chuckle grew into laughter, more people joining in. Izuku risked a glance up and saw David with a hand over his face, looking exasperated, while Kurimuzon leaned on the man's shoulder, doubled over with laughter.

Izuku was about to fall further into his panic at that when David squatted down and put his hand on Izuku's shoulder. "Hey, stand up alright? I know I'm kinda famous for being in Yagi's main adventuring party, but here in Mustafu? I just wanna be David Shield, Town Guard and father."

Izuku blinked and followed the man's request, standing up and looking him in the eyes. He saw no traces of deception in the man's gaze, none of the spark Bakugo and his cronies would get before playing a trick on him.

"Are you sure, Sir?"

David sighed, patting Izuku on the shoulder and nodding. "Yea, I'm sure. After Yagi kicked the Demon King's ass, I requested to be stationed here, so that I could protect young adventurers like you and help out wherever I could. It's nice to get back to your roots. This is where I started my journey, too."

Izuku had known that Emperor Yagi and his party had once fought through the UA Dungeon, but he didn't know that they had started here! None of the books he had found on the subject had mentioned it!

Izuku didn't even realise the smile coming back onto his face, but David and Kurimuzon did. David took a step back and grabbed a small bag from around his waist, passing it to Izuku. "Now that that's all out of the way… I think you have a quest to finish up."

Izuku nodded, and as soon as the bag hit Izuku's palm, the soft 'ding' of his menu sounded out through his mind once more.

Congratulations!

Quest Completed: Goblin Bones

Option [1] completed

Reward: 5 Copper Pieces | 400XP

David's eyes flicked to the screen that appeared on Izuku's palm before returning to his eyes. "Well done kiddo, maybe I'll make this a regular thing. Saves me from having to go into the Dungeon's first floor every few days. Can be quite boring once you hit my level…"

Izuku gasped. "If you would be willing to keep giving me quests, Sir… I would be more than honoured to complete them for you!"

David let out another sigh and patted the top of Izuku's helmet. "You're a good kid. Now, go get some proper rest, I'm sure you'll be going back in tomorrow. Come find me tomorrow and I'll see what I can do about giving you another quest."

Izuku nodded faster than he ever thought he could, rushing off to the Inn. He was gonna be so well rested tomorrow, and then he would get another Quest from Sir David Shield!

He couldn't believe how awesome today had been!

The forge was hot, she was sweaty, and the [Enhanced Iron] she was working on was being stubborn, but Mei didn't care.

The clang of her hammer impacting the magic material rung out through her older brothers forge as she forced her [Magic Smithing] and [Material Enhancement] abilities into the metal. She was in the process of making the rim for a shield.

Adventurers liked shields, right? Honestly, even though she lived in Mustafu, she had never really paid attention to the adventurers that lived in town. Her passion was smithing and creating, not fawning over some egotistical jackass just cause they could kill monsters.

"Mei! I'm back! You better not have burned my forge down while I was out!"

There was only one egotistical jackass she could tolerate, and that was because he let her use his forge. She glared at her brother as he entered the forge, frowning as he saw her working. "You better not have used my supply of [Enhanced St-"

Mei interrupted him, pouting. "I didn't! You said I couldn't use your [Enhanced Steel] until you gave me permission and I didn't! What, don't you trust me, Otto?"

Otto sighed as he pushed back the bright pink hair from his face. "Your puppy dog eyes might work on the guards, but they don't on me. I do trust you, but I also know you get a bit… erratic when you smith things. I can't have you wasting [Enhanced Steel] on a project you never actually finish. It's expensive stuff."

Mei grumbled, dumping the circle of [Enhanced Iron] she had created into a pool of water, her goggles protecting her eyes from the blast of steam that rose as the metal cooled rapidly. She let it cool off for a few more moments before using some tongs to pull it out and place it back onto the workbench.

Her [Magic Smithing] ability, at the strength she had gotten it to, made it so that anything equal to [Enhanced Iron] and below was easy to manipulate. Unfortunately, anything stronger than that started to get pretty pricy, so Otto never let her use any significant amount of it.

As if to tease her, Otto reached up to the lockbox that he kept the stuff in and got out some, taking it over to his section of the forge. Mei glared at him, and he at least had the decency to look guilty.

Mei kept glaring at him the whole time he was setting up for his project, but after a while, he seemed to tune her out in favour of focusing on the metal. Mei gave up glaring at him after that, choosing to follow him around as he worked instead.

"So, what are you making? Another sword? No, too much material for a sword… Oh, you have the treated leather out! Maybe a Warhammer or Greataxe? Did one of the new adventurers commission it from you?"

Before she could go any further in her interrogation, Otto placed his hand on top of her head. "Look, slow down, alright? You'll never get anywhere as a smith if you ask questions faster than your client can answer them."

Damn! He knew what she was all about! She huffed, moving over and sitting on a stool to watch as Otto worked. "If you must know, some new adventurer brat with a god complex dropped a bag of silvers on my counter earlier and demanded a set of dual blades."

Mei frowned. That sounded like adventurers all right. Thinking that just because they could fight that they were better than people with non-combat classes! If people like her and Otto didn't make them the gear they used, they'd never get anywhere!

Eventually, the sunset outside, forcing them to turn the light runes on. Otto put the project he was doing onto the workbench and covered it with a cloth, making sure to lock the [Enhanced Steel] in its lockbox again, glaring at Mei as she pouted.

"Look, I know you need less sleep than I do, but if I find out that you broke into this box while I was sleeping and took some [Enhanced Steel] to use for some project of yours, I will stay awake just to prevent you from sleeping for a week."

Otto yawned and moved over to the doorway that led from the shop-front to their living area. Pausing, he turned back to her. "Look, this isn't me trying to be mean, but we don't have enough money to spare at the moment for me to let you go crazy with it."

She sighed, dropping her elbows onto the table and holding her head up with her hands. "I wouldn't waste it if you let me, I'd make some really cool things!"

Otto just shook his head. "You can make your cool things when some maniac is crazy enough to trust you personally with some [Enhanced Steel]. Until then, you follow my rules."

Ignoring Mei's final pout, Otto left the room and went to sleep, Mei following him a few hours later.

"Hello? I saw the sign out the front with the symbol for a magic smith on it, are you free to work on something at the moment?"

Mei, who otto had left in charge of the store for the day, looked up from the counter at the green-haired, nervous-looking boy smiling at her, a chunk of [Enhanced Steel] in his hands the size of a cannonball.

She smirked. She had found her maniac.