Izuku froze, flinching as Bakugo leaned closer. On instinct, Izuku whispered to himself.

"Identify"

Bakugou Katsuki

Level 19

Class: Flame Knight

Traits: Prodigy, Determined, Slayer, Fire Touched

Current Target: [None]

"Eh? I didn't fucking hear you, Deku. Speak the fuck up."

Izuku glanced at the people around Bakugou, realising it was just his regular party of cronies. So no help from any of them. "I'm... uh, heading to the dungeon, Kac-Bakugou…"

Bakugou threw his head back and laughed. "Really? You found someone who pitied you enough to let you tag along, did you? Fucking lying Deku. No one would take your dumbass with them!"

Izuku flinched again, unable to really refute that, and looked down. The cronies surrounding Bakugou started chuckling too, while Bakugou's smirk turned evil. "Fucking knew it. I don't know where you got that shitty rat-cloak thing from, but at least you finally look as useless as you are."

Izuku let out a small sigh internally. Bakugou didn't seem to notice that he was wearing magic gear. He must've just seen his name and flipped out. "I… I gotta go. Please leave me alone, Bakugou."

Izuku tried to step around him but was stopped, a hand on his shoulder. Izuku flinched as the hand ignited with soft flames, but it luckily didn't set his cloak alight.

"And who said you could just leave, Deku? You're too useless to have gotten it by yourself, so it seems to me that you must have stolen that cloak, and it's the duty of adventurers like me to… reclaim the stolen goods, don't you think?"

Izuku started to panic as Bakugou's hands lifted from his shoulder, and down to the pommel of his sword. He stumbled back a step, tripping over slightly, only to be held up by one of the cronies.

Izuku couldn't believe it. Why was this happening?! Why couldn't Bakugou just leave him alone? Hadn't he been tormented enough? Why wasn't anyone stopping hi-

"Hey! Blondie! You ordered the dual shortswords at Hatsume forge, right?. They were finished this morning, you should go get them now!"

Izuku almost sighed out loud as Bakugou's attention was instantly taken off of him when Mei barged her way into the 'conversation'. Bakugou glanced at him, the fire leaving his hands as he crossed his arms.

"Tch. Saved by the fucking bell, Deku. Thanks for the update, Squid Hair Jr. You two better not have fucked them up. Cmon, dumbasses."

Bakugou stormed off, and his cronies followed a second later, not even glancing at Izuku as Bakugou brushed past him, smacking him in the shoulder. Izuku stumbled as hit the floor, getting a laugh from Bakugo and his party, but they ignored him otherwise.

He rubbed his hands on his face, hyperventilating slightly as he felt the roughened texture of the cloak around his shoulder. It wasn't gonna break anytime soon, magic items were a bit more durable than that, but Bakugo could have broken it if Mei hadn't intervened…

"Izuku? Are you ok? We couldn't hear what he was saying but that didn't look very friendly."

Izuku let out an 'eep!' in shock as he took his hands off his face, seeing Melissa squatting down in front of him, with Mei to her side. It took him a moment to get his mouth working due to the stress of the last 5 minutes but eventually got it together.

"Y-yea… I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. Trust me, that was nothing."

Izuku noticed that neither of them looked very convinced, glancing between each other, but neither of them pushed it. Instead, Melissa stood back up, holding her hand out. "Well then, if... If you're sure."

Izuku took her hand and let her help pull him to his feet. She patted him on the shoulder as well, and he gave her a smile. "Thanks, guys. Bakugou is a bit of a jerk, so I'm glad you were able to get him to back off."

The group had started walking on instinct, heading towards the dungeon, with the girls on either side of Izuku. He noticed a guy walking past give him something that almost looked like a jealous glare, but he had no clue why he would get something like that.

Mei grinned and held out her hand, giving him a thumbs up. "No problem dude! I wasn't even lying, either. Otto finished the swords after he got up."

Izuku sighed. "Well, that's good I guess. At least that should make it so he doesn't get angry at you or anything. He doesn't really like being lied to."

Mei huffed, crossing her arms, frowning as she looked down. "I don't care how mad the asshole gets. I'd just call the guards. God, adventurers are insufferable…"

Melissa coughed, reaching behind Izuku's back and poking her in the arm. Mei's head snapped back up to Izuku. "Present company excluded! You aren't insufferable! I'd suffer you for ages!"

Chuckling, Izuku shook his head. "Thanks, I guess. I know you don't mean that in a bad way. And please, try not to piss Bakugou or his party off, alright? They probably already don't like either of you, because you made them leave me alone."

Melissa waved her hand at him. "I don't think he even noticed me when Mei spoke up, so I should be fine. And Hatsume forge isn't exactly without its defences against adventurers."

Izuku titled his head to the side. "Defences? Have you actually had to fight an adventurer before?"

Mei shook her head. "Nah, but Otto paid some high-level [Golem Lord] to make a [Summon Stone] for the shopfront when I was little. I've got one too, but it's not as powerful. I don't doubt it could probably take someone like Blondie, though."

Izuku's eyes lit up at that information. "That's amazing! Can I see the stone?"

Mei nodded, a grin on her face as she pulled out a necklace from under her shirt. Izuku noticed that wasn't in her blacksmith gear, wearing a plain white shirt with brown pants tucked into her boots, both of which looked just a tad too big for her. Hand-me-downs, maybe?

She didn't take the necklace off, but Izuku didn't need to hold it to marvel at it. The black stone glinted in the light of the sun, and Izuku could feel the [Earth] mana flowing through the carvings on the [Summon Stone].

Even though she had seen it before, Melissa whistled at the [Summon Stone] as well. Izuku's smile grew even wider as he tilted his head to look at it from different angles. After a few moments, Mei tucked it back into her shirt.

"That's really cool! I'm guessing a [Stone Golem] from all the [Earth] mana in it? I mean it could be a [Wooden Golem] or a [Metal Golem], but those are either not durable enough to fight the average adventurer, or really expensive."

Mei nodded. "Yea, it's a [Stone Golem]. The perfect middle ground, or something like that. Otto bought them before I had even really knew what a [Golem] was, so I can't really tell you much about that."

Izuku was about to assure her that it was fine when he heard another voice. "Miss Shield, Miss Hatsume, what brings you here? Oh, that is you, Izuku. Still getting used to the rat hood."

Izuku looked away from Mei to see that they had reached the hall in front of the UA Dungeon without any of them realising it. Kurimuzon smiled down at him, and Izuku pulled back his hood.

"Now, I doubt your father would be happy with you if you and Miss Hatsume entered the dungeon, Miss Shield. You know non-combat classes lower than Level 30 aren't allowed inside the dungeon without an escort at least 10 levels higher than theirs."

Melissa smiled and waved her hands in front of herself. "Oh, no. Mei and I aren't going with Izuku into the Dungeon. We just met up while he was on his way and started talking. Don't worry, Kurimuzon."

Kurimuzon glanced between them and nodded. "Good to hear. David would probably kill the both of us if I let you all in and one of you got hurt, you know?"

Izuku shook his head. "I wouldn't do anything to draw Sir Shield's ire, sir. He's been far too kind to me for that."

Kurimuzon nodded. "Alright. Good luck with your run today Izuku. Do you two ladies need anything from me while I'm here?"

Melissa waved him off. "No, thank you. Mei and I will be on our way. Good luck Izuku! You have a room at the Sleeping Boar Inn, right? Maybe we can visit you tonight and you can tell us how your new sword worked!"

Mei's smile grew at that. "Yea! That'd be great!"

Izuku nodded. "Yep, the Sleeping Boar. They've been pretty nice, and they're not stupidly expensive, so far. But I've been here less than a week, so I don't know if I'll stay there permanently."

Melissa smiled, shrugging. "I'm sure you'll figure something out. Anyway, goodbye! We'll see you later!"

Mei waved to him as Melissa dragged her off, and Izuku waved back, a goofy grin growing on his face as he watched the girls exit the hall. After a moment of looking back towards them, he was bumped in the shoulder.

"Cmon, kid. Let's go see if any of the guys have a quest for ya. You can catch up with those two later, so set your mind to fighting mode. When you're going in a dungeon solo, you have to have a lot of focus on what you're doing."

Izuku nodded, following Kurimuzon as he walked towards a small gathering of guards.

Izuku huffed as he got to the other side of the spike-trap-thing only getting hit once, moving towards the coloured gems.

The order this time was Green, Orange, Purple, then Blue. At least that confirmed that he would have to focus on the gem every time he crossed, instead of just remembering the correct pattern.

He hadn't been able to get a quest for today's run, but he guessed that not every day could be a super-efficient levelling blitz, could it? The door opened to the [Duke of Rats] arena again, and Izuku unsheathed his sword.

This time, with better gear and a higher level, the [Duke of Rats] wouldn't stand a chance!

"So, we can both agree that blondie wasn't doing 'nothing' to Izuku, right?"

It was a few hours past noon, and Mei and Melissa had spent the time after leaving the Dungeon Hall around the town, eating their fill as Mei gushed about how cool the weapon she forged was.

Melissa was absurdly proud of her and made sure to spoil her a little bit by buying her favourite dish at the restaurant they stopped by. She did have to deal with the owners coming to personally greet her when they arrived, but that was just the consequence of being her father's daughter.

After the meal they had headed back to the Hatsume forge, luckily avoiding Bakugou.

Mei looked up from the shin guards she was forging for Izuku and frowned. "Yea, they were being super mean. I didn't actually hear what they said, but Izuku didn't look very calm."

Melissa nodded. "Good to know your eyesight is as good as ever. Now, what do we actually do about it? I 'appraised' the blonde guy, his name is Bakugou Katsuki, by the way, and he's a pretty high level for his age. Just under getting his second class."

Mei huffed, slamming her hammer down onto the shin guards. "My golem could still take him. I think Otto said that anyone under Level 30 would probably lose."

Melissa shook her head. "I don't think attacking him is the right idea anyway. We technically don't even have proof that he did anything. We'd be the ones in trouble."

Mei let out a groan, her hammer on her shoulder as she turned to Melissa. "Then what should we do? You could tell your dad about this 'Bakugou' and see what he can do?"

Melissa hummed. "We could, but until we can get proper amounts of suspicion that Bakugou actually did anything, dad doesn't have the authority to investigate him. We should ask Izuku about it further tonight."

Mei frowned, slamming her hammer back down onto the shin guard. "I guess so. I really wanna know how the sword went, though. So can we at least wait until after I've gotten the info out of him?"

Melissa nodded. "Sure, I'm actually really interested to know how [Steelbringer] goes as well. Dad has a few truly magical items in the manor, but none of them are weapons, mostly tools and utility stuff."

Mei hummed, placing the finished shin guard to the side and grabbing the next bit of [Enhanced Steel], and placing it on the workbench. Slamming her hammer down onto the piece, she smiled.

"Now enough of this worrying stuff! Grab me some leather out of the bin! I gotta make the straps for these new shin-guards for Izuku!"