Izuku yawned as he and Melissa entered Mustafu through the south gate.

He and Melissa had inspected the second [Mana Spring], but no monster had attacked them that time. It was starting to get dark, so they had jogged back to town instead of walking, making their trip a little faster.

No one liked being in the wilderness at night.

Melissa was humming a tune beside him, much more energetic than he was. Which he guessed was fair, seeing as she didn't do a dungeon run, fight a bunch of monsters, and then decide that escorting through the grasslands for a few hours was a good idea.

He forced himself to stand up straighter as he spotted Sir Sheild walking towards them, a smile on his face. "Izuku, Melissa! Good to see you both back from your quest. Izuku, you can consider the quest completed."

Congratulations!

Quest Completed: Shield the Shield

Reward: 300XP | 1 gold

Izuku caught the gold coin that Sir Shield flicked his way, smiling widely as he looked at the coin. Melissa, however, just sighed, facepalming. "A whole gold coin, dad? I know you're all about helping out new adventurers, but this kind of quest would usually have a few silver as the reward."

Izuku gasped and turned to Sir Shield, who was looking smug. He winked to the pair. "Just think of it as me putting money towards a good feeling I have about him. And either way, you're far more precious to me than a single gold coin. I'd pay 100 times that to keep you safe."

Melissa pouted, crossing her arms. After a moment though, she started laughing. "Of course, dad. And hey, Izuku did protect me from a feral [Dire Wolf], so I won't put up any more of a fight about this."

Sir Shield turned to him, an eyebrow raised. "Did you now, Izuku. Tell me, what was that fight like? [Dire Wolf]'s are usually pretty tough for someone who only just got an elemental affinity for their first class."

Izuku tilted his head, confused. "Uh, it was alright? I only took 8 damage during the fight itself. But I was low on HP from my run in the dungeon without realising it. Melissa kinda grilled me for it afterwards."

Sir Sheild hummed, rubbing his chin. "Only 8 damage? That's impressive. How did you kill it?"

Izuku puffed out his chest, proud of his achievement. "I cut its head off, Sir Shield! Although I stabbed it in the side beforehand and it did a lot more damage than I thought it would. Could that be because it was [Mana Starved]?"

David shook his head, smiling. "No, but that does explain why it was so easy for your to kill it. Monsters that are [Mana Starved] aren't able to use any of their skills that require Mana, and their stamina is cut in half. That means that it probably wasn't able to use its [Ambush] skill."

He continued. "Your [Heroic] trait probably kicked in as well. Melissa doesn't have a combat class, so if the [Dire Wolf] was within line-of-sight, you got a 50% boost to everything, attack power included."

Izuku smacked himself on the forehead. "Of course! How could I forget about that! That makes so much sense looking back!"

Sir Shield and Melissa just laughed. Izuku huffed. "Well, it's not like I got many opportunities to use that trait much in my village. Most of the people who even got near the rare-few monster we fought were all [Fighter]s or [Rogue]s."

Sir Shield nodded. "Don't worry about it, Izuku. I'm just happy that you both came back safe and sound. Now, you look dead on your feet, Izuku. Go rest up, you'll be trying to go into the dungeon again tomorrow, right?"

Izuku nodded but frowned. "Yes, I am, but I wouldn't want to leave Melissa to give you the report all by herself."

Melissa waved him off, smiling at him. "I'll be fine, Izuku, don't worry. Also, I know way more about this than you do. Go rest, can't have you being exhausted and dying in the dungeon, can we?"

Izuku sighed but nodded slowly. "Alright, I'll go back to the Inn for a bit. It's still a bit too early to sleep, but I'll go grab an early dinner. I'll check in with Mei after that I think."

Melissa nodded. "Sounds good! Night, Izuku. Good luck in the dungeon! Say hi to Mei for me, please!"

He smiled at her and waved goodbye as she and Sir Shield walked off, before heading to the Inn. He couldn't wait to eat some food.

Maybe they had Katsudon?

David finished writing down everything that Melissa had told him about the [Mana Spring]s.

"So, a [Water] incursion next week, followed by an [Air] incursion 4 days later. Unfortunate, but not unmanageable. And that's it? You didn't see any others that might be a problem in the future?"

Melissa looked up from the rune in her hand as she sat on the couch in David's office, her feet up on the arm-rest. "Nope, there was one that was in line-of-sight while we were heading to the second one, but it was only around the size of an apple. The only reason I saw it was because Izuku pointed it out."

David nodded, humming. "And how do you reckon he did? Like, in general. Most people I've seen that have the [Heroic] trait usually become really good adventurers. Yagi has quite a few of them on his Royal Guard, as well. He's got a bright future, I reckon."

Melissa smiled. "You can't just pick favourites, dad! Just kidding, if anyone could pick favourites it would definitely be you and Uncle Yagi. Anyway, he did well. He's obviously pretty new at this, which is fair when you think about it, but he's got solid instincts and is very focused on doing his best."

David smiled. "I gathered that he was fairly new, but what do you mean that it's fair?"

Melissa froze for a moment. "Well, he asked me not to go spreading it around a lot, but I know you won't go blabbing it to anyone else, so I'm trusting you, alright?"

David just nodded, his curiosity piqued.

Melissa continued. "Well, his village was in a really mana-barren area. But he also uh, he's an orphan. And it seemed like no one was really willing to help practise with him. He told me that he got to Level 6 mostly by doing fetch quests for the adults."

David hummed. "Ah, that definitely explains it then. No parents to help teach him, and no training partners. Couple that with a mana-barren village and that's quite the unfortunate combination. You have my word that I won't tell anyone about this."

Melissa smiled. "Thanks, dad. I probably shouldn't have even told you, but if anyone would get permission to know, I'd guess it was you. I can tell he's kinda star-struck by you."

David groaned. "Yea, he is. And while I don't hate the respect that being one of Yagi's top mages brings, the damn formality is so annoying. I reckon that if everyone treated me like I was made of paper I would have left years ago."

Melissa nodded. "Yea, he called me 'Lady Shield' when he first arrived. I felt like I aged a few years just hearing it!"

David just laughed, before leaving her to practise her runes. After a while, he finished with his own work and moved out of his office and into his potion room, and started to work on some more of them.

He was glad that Melissa was safe. And he was glad that Izuku showed promise.

Now if he could just get whatever was nibbling at the back of his mind, telling him that he was missing something, that he was staring something right in the face, to go away, he'd be having an excellent day.

"Ah! Izuku! You're back!"

Mei smiled as she saw her favourite adventurer walk into the smithy. She had finished his sword around an hour beforehand, and she was excited to see what he thought! "Did you find any more [Enhanced Steel] in the dungeon today?"

He shook his head sadly. "Sorry Mei, none today. I did get this really nice cloak, though!"

Izuku turned around and showed her the cloak, but all she could see was a bundle of rat-chewed leather around his neck, and a tattered cape falling down his back. "Are you trying to prank me right now?"

He shook his head. "Uh, no? This is a [Rat-Leather Cloak]. It protects me from 15% of damage given to me by rodents of any kind. It's a magic cloak! And this hood does the same and makes it so I can basically make it so non-dungeon rats can't come near me!"

She flinched as he swiftly pulled his hood over his head, the blank eyes of a giant rat head now facing her. She only just saved herself from falling backwards off her stool and frowned. "That's a lot of magic items, Izuku. I knew that the dungeon liked you! Maybe you could ask it outright to give you more [Enhanced Steel]!"

Izuku hummed, shaking his head. "I don't wanna push it. What if asking for more stuff makes the dungeon think I'm greedy? Then it might not give me anything special again."

Mei paused for a moment, her finger pointed at him while she tried to give him a rebuttal. After a moment she lowered her hand, unable to think of anything. "Fine, don't ask the dungeon. Can't do anything to risk this supply now, can we!"

Izuku laughed softly, nodding. "Yea, I'd rather not do anything to make the dungeon mad at me."

Mei nodded to herself, before turning her back to him. "Alright! Follow me! I've finished all the metalwork for your sword! We just need to make a scabbard and a grip for it! You're going to help me, cause Melissa isn't here to help!"

Izuku hopped the counter and smiled, following Mei into the forge. "Oh, right. Melissa told me to say hello to you for her."

Mei hummed, pulling out a cloth-wrapped item from a bin next to her workbench. "Wait, when did you meet her? I was gonna introduce you two and put in a good word for her Runecrafting, but if you've already met I guess that means I get more time in here."

Izuku smiled, holding himself back from snatching the cloth-wrapped sword off the bench. "I escorted her to inspect some [Mana Springs] today. She's nice. And really amazing at Runecrafting!"

A smirk grew on Mei's face. "Damn right she is! I didn't spend so much time letting her practise on my stuff for nothing! She's the best damn Runecrafter in this whole town! Did she tell you about her new Rune?"

Izuku nodded. "Yea! It's awesome! I'm actually planning on getting it on this sword once she's decided on a price for it. The fact that you can stack it with combat or elemental runes is absurdly helpful."

Mei smiled. She was glad that Izuku knew just how awesome her friend was. Meant he was smart. She swung her smithing hammer and grabbed onto it with both hands, holding it out to Izuku. "Glad you think so! I've got it on my hammer here! It helped a lot to get your sword done on time."

She half-handed, half-threw the hammer at him to look at while she moved to the back of the forge, leaning into the bin at the back of the room, rummaging around for useable leather. She huffed as she bent over fully into the bin, her feet coming off the floor as she reached down to the bottom.

Damn, they'd have to go buy some more soon. She grabbed a handful of the remaining leather and pulled herself out of the bin, taking a deep breath as the side stopped digging onto her stomach.

She huffed, fixing her trousers, which had fallen down quite a bit due to her wiggling as she searched, and turned to see Izuku staring pointedly at the roof, his face a little red. "You alright there? I know it's hot in here so you can go grab some water if you need it!"

Izuku sputtered, waving his hands in front of himself. "No, no, I'm fine! I'll be OK. It's just.. Ah... I'm excited to see the sword! That's it! Just excited. About the sword."

Mei nodded. That made sense. She was excited about it as well! "As you should be, Izuku! This is probably my best work yet! Even better than that great-sword I made for that Orc!"

With a massive flourish, she pulled the cloth off of the sword, allowing the [Enhanced Steel] to glow in the light of the forge. Izuku's eyes were drawn to the glow as rainbow light hugged the edges of the blade.

Izuku was ecstatic, unable to do anything but stare at it, a smile on his face. "It's beautiful!"