Izuku huffed as the final Goblin of the room dropped to the floor.

He did a quick scan of the room, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything, and other than 2 bits of faintly glowing [Enhanced Steel], everything was gone. His breath wavered as he inhaled deeply, dropping to the floor and leaning up against one of the walls.

He was fucking exhausted.

He had severely underestimated how much his bruised ribs actually impacted his ability to fight, especially after the adrenaline of the previous fight wore off while travelling through the Floor 2 hallways.

His chest was stiff and sore, making his sword feel heavier and harder to swing effectively. He had to rely on his abilities more than he was hoping to have at this point, [Double Strike] and [Earthen Shield] being his current saviour.

[Lunge] had been less helpful, putting strain on his chest because of the speed of the skill. And because he had to rely on his [Double Strike] and [Earthen Shield] so much, his resources were all but depleted.

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya

Level 12

HP: 24/95

Mana: 12/65

Stamina: 22/105

He was roughed up, basically out of Mana, and running on less than a quarter of his Stamina, but he had cleared out everything in Floor 2 except the boss chamber. But nothing could go in or out of that room until Izuku opened it.

As he huffed and puffed, leaning against the wall, he opened up his menu again to check the time, wincing as he saw how late it was.

[1:03 AM]

[Status Screen]

[Friends]

[Party]

[Descriptions]

[Notifications] [1]

He sighed, leaning his head back against the wall, before tapping on his 'notification' tab to get rid of the small white number next to the words.

[Healing Fatigue 1] has ended.

Healing Items will now work as intended.

Izuku smiled shakily at the screen. At least that was a good thing. Should he eat some more of the HP Mushrooms before going to sleep? He thought about it for a moment before deciding not to.

'It might mess up the natural regeneration of sleep. And if it does, I'd just be shooting myself in the foot.'

Even with this in mind, it turned out it wasn't really up to him, as his eyes shut on their own, and sleep called out for him. He tilted over and laid on the soft dirt of the Dungeon floor, already drifting to sleep.

"Dad!"

"Mr. Shield!"

David looked up, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as Melissa and Mei burst into his office. He pulled up his menu to check the time, raising an eyebrow when he saw it. "What are you still doing up, Melissa?"

Melissa huffed, putting her hands on her head. Had the two girls sprinted back to the house? "Izuku is missing."

Mei frowned next to her, crossing her arms. "Yea! We were gonna meet up so we could talk about [Steelbringer], but he didn't show up! And earlier, he was being pushed around by this blonde dude named Bakugou!"

David paused for a moment to take in what they had said. "Have you looked around town? Checked in with the Inn he's staying at? I'm assuming someone without familial connections wouldn't have a place to stay other than an Inn."

Melissa nodded. "Yea, we were going to meet him at the Sleeping Boar, that's where he's staying. But apparently, he never came back to his room tonight. We stayed and waited for him for about an hour, but he never showed up."

David hummed as he stood up from his desk, moving over to his bookshelf and searching for a specific book. "And have either of you added him to your [Friends] list? If you're within a kilometre of a friend, you can see their HP, Mana, and Stamina, and if you're within 100 metres, you can see active buffs or debuffs."

Both of the girls froze, looking at each other and slightly shook their heads. David nodded. "That's fine, I wouldn't have expected you to have added him so quickly. Well, maybe you, Mei, after that deal you made with him, but it's fine that you haven't. Ah, there it is."

He found the book he was looking for and pulled it out of the bookshelf, holding it up and showing it to the girls. Both girls immediately had menus pop up in front of them, showing off the name, but David didn't need to [Appraise] it to know the title, [Tomoko Shiretoko's Tome of Tracking Magic].

"I'll let you borrow this, girls if you're sure that he might be in some sort of trouble. Locating spells used on people are a slight invasion of privacy, and because he's less than 10 levels lower than your own, he will be notified that he has been located."

Both of the girls paused for a moment, and David hummed, happy that they were at least taking this seriously. "So before I give it to you, are you sure that he's in trouble? Mei, you said he was being pushed around earlier, can you elaborate?"

Mei frowned, sitting on the couch, Melissa plopping down next to her. "Well, we both fell asleep at my workstation last night after finishing his sword. We were really excited about its Innate effect, and we-"

David held a hand up, stopping her. "I'm sorry, did you just say that a sword you made had an innate effect?"

Mei's frown turned into a grin almost immediately. "Yea! It does! It's called [Mei's Wish] and it makes it so every kill has a 5% chance to drop a chunk of [Enhanced Steel]! It's my greatest baby ever!"

Sitting down in the chair across from them, David groaned as he ran his hand down his face. "Alright, we'll come back to that later, please continue."

Mei nodded, putting her elbows to her knees and her hands to her chin. "I woke up earlier than he did, which is to be expected, to hang out with Melissa, and we headed back after a while to see Izuku, being surrounded by a guy named Katsuki Bakugou and his party."

Melissa frowned, leaning back in the chair. "Yea and they didn't look too friendly. Bakugou had his hand on Izuku's shoulder and I could feel a small amount of activated [Fire] mana coming from the group. I think they might have been threatening him?"

It was David's turn to frown now. Sometimes he forgot that adventuring brought in all sorts of people, not just heroes like Toshinori. "That is worrying. I can ask some guards to keep an eye out for anything further with the two of them. And you think that he might have done something to Izuku?"

Both of the girls paused before Melissa spoke up. "Well, I don't actually know. I hope not, because Bakugou's level is higher, and doing anything further than what he did earlier in a town filled with guards and other adventurers is a really stupid idea. But I really don't know."

David sighed, nodding. "That wouldn't be the best decision, you're right about that. Alright, I'll let you girls use the book, as long as you're alright with him knowing you did so. You'll probably have to explain it when you find him."

Both girls nodded quickly, and David passed over the book to Melissa, who opened it up immediately, looking through it. David smiled. "The spell that you'll probably want to use is near the back."

As Melissa thumbed through the book, David hummed. "I don't remember the components to complete the spell off by heart, but I do know that you'll need something the target touched in the last 24 hours."

Mei raised her hand, and David chuckled, waving his hand to her in acknowledgement. "Do I count? He's touched me within the last 24 hours while we were making my baby!"

There was a beat of silence before Melissa blushed, spluttering beside her as David pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing deeply. "One, please never say anything like that in my presence again. Two, no, you do not count unless you want to vanish into the ether as all ritual components do once used."

Mei looked confused for his first point and paled at the second. Nodding her head rapidly, she saluted him. "Yes, sir! No vanishing for me! We can just use one of the tools he grabbed for me off my workstation!"

Melissa stood up quickly, her face still red at Mei's words. "Alright then! Let's go grab it and do the spell so we can make sure he's okay!"

She grabbed Mei by the arm and almost physically dragged her out of the room, the pink-haired girl waving goodbye to him with the other arm. David just sighed, shaking his head at their antics.

Turning back to his work on his desk, he plopped down into his chair. He was glad that Melissa had Mei as a friend. The girl's upbeat energy and mind for crafting had been just what Melissa had needed after her mother…

Ah, he went and made himself sad again. Oh well. Mei was the friend David had been hoping Melissa would make when they moved to Mustafu, and he was almost equally glad to see the two girls finally branching out a little and making friends with an adventurer.

He was fond of Izuku himself, the boy reminding him of Toshinori when they were kids. Bright, determined, willing to help no matter what, and had the [Heroic] trait. He glanced at the doorway that Melissa and Mei had run out of and hummed.

He sincerely hoped the boy was alright as well. He had already seen far too many young adventurers taken before their time.