Melissa smiled as she watched Izuku walk around the [Mana Spring] for the umpteenth time.
"I can feel the [Earth] mana flowing from the ground! I can't feel the others, but that's probably just because I only have an [Earth] class. If I had more could I feel more at the same time? Or would I have to focus on one at a time?"
She could tell just from his reaction to the [Mana Spring] that he was a bit different to the adventurers she was used to dealing with. Not only did it show that he had come from a mana-barren area, but the fact that he even wondered about stuff like that wasn't like your typical [Fighter].
She stepped forward and caught his attention as he held his hand over the [Mana Spring] as if he was trying to warm them over a campfire. "I mean, I can't be elementally attuned like a combat class can, but I can sense the different types of mana depending on what kind of rune I'm using."
Izuku head whipped around to her. "Really? Can I see? I can go get something for you to carve a rune on to show me."
She laughed, shaking her head. She then held her hand up as if she was going to open her menu. "No, it's fine. Watch this."
"Summon Rune."
A mote of red light appeared in her hand, growing suddenly to become a detailed rune, radiating heat. She held it out to Izuku. "This is a [Fire] type rune, and whenever I hold it, the [Fire] mana in the [Mana Spring] becomes apparent to me, like its highlighted."
The colour changed to Gold, and the design shifted slightly, becoming a little bit more complicated. "And this is a [Light] type rune. As soon as the rune shifted I stopped feeling the [Fire] mana, and the [Light] mana became highlighted."
Izuku was smiling, wide-eyed. "That's so cool! I've never met a [RuneCrafter] before! If I hadn't chosen [Fighter], I'd probably have gone for that when I started!"
Melissa grinned. "It does let me do some fairly cool things. Mostly enchantment focused at the moment, but I'm only Level 16, so it's to be expected. I did create a rune the other day, though."
Izuku gasped. "You created one?! Like a totally new one? That's so amazing! What is it called? What does it do?"
Melissa changed the rune she had summoned, and the golden light faded into grey. She focused, allowing the patterns and lines to come into existence exactly right, before showing it off.
Izuku paused for a moment before his menu appeared next to him. He gasped again, obviously very excited. "Melissa Shield's Skill Efficiency. A 25% boost to all skills that are channelled through it!"
Melissa could only laugh as he went into a small rant about how useful that was, her cheeks a little red from all the praise. She was about to try and change the subject back to the [Mana Spring] when he stopped ranting.
"Wait! How much would you be charging to put it on gear? I've got an [Enhanced Steel] sword that should be done soon and I can't think of a better first rune to put on it!"
Melissa froze. How much did she want to charge? It was an insanely useful rune, that was why she had put so much effort into making it, but did she want it to be expensive because of the quality, or cheap for accessibility?
"I'm not sure, to be honest. Maybe we can discuss that another time? It's still fairly new and I'm not sure how exactly I want to use it."
Izuku nodded, looking only slightly disappointed, before standing up straight again. "That's fine. I'll need time to get used to the new sword anyway before I get any enchantments on it."
Melissa smiled. "Thanks for understanding. Now, keep an eye out, I'll be sort of tunnel-visioned when I start to check on the [Mana Spring]."
She laughed as Izuku gave her a salute before drawing his sword, standing next to her. Kneeling down, she placed her hand on the swirling colours of the [Mana Spring] and let a multitude of runes flow into her hand overlapping to form an even more complex pattern than before.
"Summon Rune: Deep Scan"
Izuku watched Melissa out of the corner of his eyes as he kept watch for any monsters or creatures.
Whatever she was doing, it seemed to have blocked any sound from reaching her, as she didn't hear him ask her if she was OK when she suddenly froze in place. The golden menu that had appeared next to her seemed to have a hollow rectangle that was slowly filling up.
Was it a timer? That would make sense. Not all spells and runes had immediate effects. He turned away from her and kept watch, scanning the tree line.
Melissa was much easier to talk to than he had expected. Most of the stories he had heard about nobles, their daughters especially, had painted them as stuck up and mean, but Melissa was nice, and really smart.
And she was a [RuneCrafter]! His old village hadn't had one of those. They hadn't had many spellcasters, actually. The lack of ambient mana made it hard for people to get the [Mage] class to begin with. The only magic user they had actually had been Bakugou's mum, Mitsuki, a [Magic Tailor].
Hell, Melissa had created a rune! That was honestly one of the most impressive things he had ever heard of someone doing that wasn't a combat class.
Glancing back at the menu, the white bar was just over half full. Humming to himself, he moved to the other side of her and scanned the hills to their left. He was about to turn away again when he heard a noise from behind him.
Spinning rapidly, he turned around and jumped forward, in between the attacker and Melissa. "Shield!"
Even with his ability, the claws of the creature slammed into his arms and stung a lot. Izuku yelled and shoved the creature back with the flat of his sword, giving himself a moment to breathe.
[9] Damage Taken!
Now that he wasn't running on instinct, he saw that it was a wolf. More specifically, a [Dire Wolf]. "Identify".
Dire Wolf
HP: 75/75
Condition: Mana Starved, Feral
He knew what [Feral] meant, and [Mana Starved] was fairly self-explanatory. Had it been drawn to the [Mana Spring] after Melissa interacted with it? Whatever the reason was, it was time for Izuku to do his job.
"Lunge, Double Strike!"
He flashed forward, aiming for the space behind the [Dire Wolf], and swung his sword horizontally when he stopped. The two swords bit into the side of the [Dire Wolf], causing it to howl out as his sword embedded itself deep into the [Dire Wolf]'s gut.
[34] Damage dealt!
Izuku was a bit surprised by the amount of damage he had done in one, technically two, attacks. Maybe he cut into an organ? That usually increased the damage dealt. He watched as the [Dire Wolf] finished howling, turning to him with blood-red eyes.
Izuku dove backwards as the [Dire Wolf] swung at him. It clipped the side of his boots, but they were thick enough to stop it from cutting skin. He rolled at got back on his feet, just in time to side-step a lunge from the [Dire Wolf].
The [Dire Wolf] had overextended itself a bit with that lunge, and Izuku capitalised on that, swinging his sword down at the neck. It might have been the same tactic that he had used on the [Duke of Rats] but it had yet to fail him.
"Double Strike!"
The [Dire Wolf] wasn't as durable as the [Duke of Rats] had been, and Izuku watched as the two swords crashed down onto the [Dire Wolf]'s neck, and then continue through it with less effort than he had expected it to take.
Critical Hit!
[80] Damage dealt!
You have killed a [Dire Wolf]!
100XP gained.
Izuku sighed as the body of the [Dire Wolf] dropped to the floor. He was very tired now, having to fight both the [Duke of Rats] and this [Dire Wolf] in one day had taken a toll on his stamina.
Even if his class and level-ups had given him a max total of 100 Stamina, using his abilities in quick succession always made it feel just a bit more stressful than usual. He walked back over to Melissa, who seemed to be almost done.
He was right, and a few moments later there was a 'ding' from her menu as the bar filled up entirely. She blinked, before gasping as she saw Izuku sitting beside her, his sword and gauntlets covered in [Dire Wolf] blood.
He just pointed to the [Dire Wolf]'s corpse. "Had a visitor. I kept it away from you. Did it work? How long until the [Mana Spring] ruptures?"
Melissa just looked back and forth between him and the [Dire Wolf] for a few moments before shaking her head. "It's uh. It should be fine for at least a week? I can say that when it ruptures it's going to spawn [Water] type monsters. There's way more [Water] mana than any other in this one."
Izuku hummed. "That's good info. Did your rune get anything else that we should know?"
Melissa shook her head. "No, the other information is just things like how big the orb is, the exact colours of the mana, etc. Useless, but potentially interesting information."
Nodding, Izuku pushed himself up to his feet. He reached down to help her up before realising that his gauntlets still had [Dire Wolf] blood on them. Pulling them back, he held out his elbow.
Melissa chuckled and grabbed onto his arm, pulling herself up as well. "Thanks for protecting me, Izuku. Was it just the one monster?"
Izuku pulled out a cloth and cleaned off his sword, before sheathing it. "Yea, just the one [Dire Wolf]. It was [Mana Starved] though, so that was probably why it came to the [Mana Spring.] I'm assuming your [Deep Scan] rune made the mana more apparent to monsters and stuff?"
Melissa nodded. "Yep, that basically it. Did it hurt you? I've got a few small healing potions, you can have one if you took damage."
Izuku smiled. "That'd be great, actually. I've still got some left-over damage from the [Duke of Rats], the Floor 1 Sub-boss, and the [Dire Wolf] did like, 8 damage."
As she unhooked their arms, he checked his menu, seeing how much HP he had left. The menu told him that he had 46/90 HP left. "Oh… uh. Melissa? The [Duke of Rats] did more damage than I had realised. I'm on about half of my HP."
Melissa gasped, reaching into her pack and pulling out 3 [Minor HP Potions]. "What?! Here, drink these! How could you go into a fight not knowing what your HP was on? What if the [Dire Wolf] had ambushed you!"
Izuku smiled sheepishly as he drank the potions. "Sorry, I was just really excited about reaching level 10, I didn't register that I'd taken so much damage."
[20 HP Gained!]
[20 HP Gained!]
[20 HP Gained!]
[You are at max HP]
Melissa frowned. "Well, you need to be more careful next time. Monsters are dangerous no matter how strong you are."
Izuku pulled down his hood and smiled. "Yes, I'll be sure to keep track of it better from now on. Sorry for using so many of your potions. I can pay you back for them if you like?"
Melissa shook her head, grabbing the bottles off of him. "Don't worry about it. Just think of it as payback for keeping me safe. Now, are you alright to do the other [Mana Spring] this afternoon, or should we head back and do it tomorrow?"
Izuku smiled, patting the hilt of his sword. "I'll be alright to go for one more. Sir Shield needs to know what kind of monsters we'll be facing as soon as possible so he can prepare the town properly!"
Melissa smiled, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. "Alright! The next one should only be around a 20-minute walk from here, so let's go!"
Izuku nodded, following behind her as they set out to the second [Mana Spring].