'Ding! Ding! Ding!'

Izuku groaned as his ears started to pick up the dinging of his menu. Letting his eyes fall open, he winced at the sudden influx of light, sitting up quickly and covering them again.

'Ding! Ding! Ding!'

Shaking his head, Izuku wiped away the sleep in his eyes and opened them again, slowly this time. It took him a moment to remember where he was, before he stood up quickly, pulling the [Ratbone Dagger] out of its sheath on his hip and scanning the room around him.

Empty.

Letting out a sigh, Izuku resheathed the [Ratbone Dagger] and sat down against the wall he had been sleeping against. He unrolled his [Mantle of the Duke] and put it back on his head. It had been a surprisingly comfortable pillow.

Maybe it was the same kind of magic that made it shrink to his head? He'd have to ask Melissa later. But now that he was up and awake, he pulled out his menu, silencing the dinging that had been going off.

[10:32 AM]

[Status Screen]

[Friends]

[Party]

[Descriptions]

[Notifications] [3]

Blinking at it, he frowned. Three notifications? What could have possibly happened while he slept?

[2:22 AM]

[Melissa Shield] has performed [Tomoko's Ritual of Sentient Creature Location] on you.

[Melissa Shield] now knows your location and status.

[2:23 AM]

[Mei Hatsume] has performed [Tomoko's Ritual of Sentient Creature Location] on you.

[Mei Hatsume] now knows your location and status.

[9:03 AM]

You have slept for 8 hours in a Mana-Rich environment.

Gained buff [Energised] for [12] hours.

[Energised]: Mana spells/skills require 25% less Mana to cast.

[10.5] Hours remaining

Shaking his head, he yawned, feeling guilty. Both Melissa and Mei had been worried enough to use a proper tracking ritual on him… god, he was really going to have to figure out some way to make it up to them.

Mei he had sorted, bringing her all the [Enhanced Steel] [Steelbringer] created, as well as telling her how awesome it was, would probably be fine. But what could he do for Melissa? Buy her something? No that was stupid, she had more money in her bag than he had ever had in his life…

Maybe he could do a quest for her! Wait no, she'd have to pay him for that. Maybe he could do a non-menu quest for her! Yes! When he got back, he'd do something for her to make up for worrying them.

He pushed off the wall and stood up, holding out his palm and opening up his [Status] screen.

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya

HP: 85/95
Mana: 65/65

Stamina: 105/105

Current Buffs: [Energised]

Letting out a breath, Izuku smiled. While he wasn't back to 100% HP-wise, but everything else had recovered while he slept. He bounced on the balls of his feet and shook his arms out as he stared at the large double doors to the Floor 2 boss chamber.

Patting the hilts of both [Steelbringer] and his [Ratbone Dagger], he smiled to himself. Stepping up to the door, he placed his hand on it, looking over as his menu popped up again.

Warning!

Suggested Party Size: [3+]

Your Party is under the suggested Party size.

Do you wish to Proceed?

Rewards will be slightly increased due to superior difficulty.

[Yes] / [No]

He pushed [Yes], and cracked his fingers. It was time to face the Great Mole.

Melissa woke up to the sounds of a hammer on metal.

Yawning, she sat up from her spot on Mei's bed, ruffling her hair to get it out of her face. Grabbing her glasses off of the bedside table, she used one hand to put them on, and the other to tie her hair up into a high ponytail.

As she slipped her feet into her boots, she yelled out. "Mei! Is that you? I'm awake!"

She'd just finished tying the second shoe up when the door opened, Mei peeking around it, her huge goggles over her eyes. "Melissa! Good morning! I woke up super early so I started getting some work done on an order I got the other day."

Melissa nodded, smiling as she stood up, slipping her troll-leather cloak back around her neck. "That's fine, I'm always going to sleep longer than you are. Your trait, [Manic] is pretty cool. Very fitting, too."

Mei nodded quickly, ducking back into the forge, and after a few moments, the hammering of the metal started up again. Melissa sighed as she left, summoning a blank rune to play around with as she headed out into the living area.

A grey circle appeared in front of her, the rune lines moving towards each other, shifting and changing, as Melissa fixed herself and Mei something to eat. She hadn't technically checked with Mei if she'd eaten or not, but Melissa was more than confident she hadn't.

The meals ended up being much simpler than what she was used to for breakfast, but she didn't mind. She couldn't expect the Hatsume's to have the gourmet ingredients they had at Shield Manor.

With two bowls of porridge in her hands, she pushed open the door to the forge with her hips, calling out. "Alright Mei, come here and eat something."

Mei pulled her goggles off of her eyes, glancing over to her before zeroing in on the food. Sitting down next to her, Melissa passed the bowl over, handing her the spoon. Leaning on the workbench, Melissa started on her own bowl, frowning.

"So, what's got you up so early?."

Melissa paused mid-scoop and sighed. "Couldn't sleep, least not very well. You hear all sorts of stories about the inside of the dungeon, and well, none of them really suggest it's a great place to sleep."

Mei nodded slowly. "Right, yea. Goblins and stuff on the first floor, right?. Never really listened to Otto when he went over what kind of Monsters each floor has. Maybe I should know, now that I'm more… connected to an adventurer?"

Melissa hummed. "I mean, it couldn't hurt to ask around. I know that the first two floors are goblins and rodent monsters, and most floors have a theme like that. I can help you go over what floor has what if you want? I think we could both benefit from the distraction from our worrying."

Melissa waved over to the gauntlet Mei had been hammering, showing off a metal thing that could technically go around someone's hand, but with quite a bit of damage given, not protected from.

Mei huffed, dumping the gauntlet into the bin beside the workbench and shooting Melissa a glare that disappeared a moment later. "Alright then. Goblins and stuff on the first two floors. What about 3 and 4?"

Melissa smiled. "Well, if floors one and two are more focused on [Earth] type monsters like basic goblins and rodents, then floors three and four and said to be focused on something else…"

"[Dark] type monsters."

With a flash of light, Izuku appeared in the centre of a metal platform, a podium adorned with a brown gem in front of him.

He looked around, seeing the dirt floor and walls all dotted with the entrances and exits to tunnels, for something about twice the size of someone like Kurimuzon, who was already quite a bit larger than Izuku himself.

You have entered the [Den of the Great Mole]

Objectives:

Defeat the [Great Mole]: 5 Silver

Optional: Destroy all 3 [Rat Nests]

Boss Chamber Effect: All [Rodents] are aware of your location at all times.

[The earth is your friend, adventurer. Listen to its warnings.]

Izuku took a deep breath as he looked over the menu. The Boss Chamber Effect was going to make this a little harder, especially as the Bosses name suggested that it was a [Rodent] type monster as well.

The secondary objective, to destroy the [Rat Nests], confused him though. He couldn't see anything like that? Or did they spawn in after the fight started? Wait… he remembered the [Secret Rat Den] from Floor 1, how there had been a near-constant trickle of rats from it.

Looking at the tunnels around the walls, he realised where the [Rat Nests] would most likely be. He shook out his arms a little to stretch them and placed his hand on the light brown gem in the podium. The instant he did, the room shook.

A new tunnel appeared in the dirt in front of the metal platform, and Izuku drew [Steelbringer] as the [Great Mole] pulled itself from the ground. Izuku crouched down, getting ready to fight.

"Identify"

The Great Mole

[True name unknown]

Floor 2 Boss, UA Dungeon

Commander of all living [Rodent]s in the depths of the [UA Dungeon]

HP: 250/250 | Mana: N/A | Stamina: 150/150

That was… Woah. Izuku could see now why the Dungeon had told him to rest. He would have been annihilated. Placing his free hand on the floor, Izuku watched as the [Great Mole] finished pulling itself out of the ground fully, smiling.

"I am listening, friend. Your help is greatly appreciated."