Izuku sat in one of the Sleeping Boar's booths, with Melissa and Mei sitting across from him, a sheepish smile on his face.

Melissa's glare had softened slightly, but it was still sharp enough for Izuku to wait for her to speak first. They might be friendly, but now that he was out of the dungeon, Izuku was slightly panicking over the fact that he had missed a meeting with an actual, proper noblewoman.

Now that he was safe and had a chance to think about it further, there were many, MANY stories about what happened to the fools who spurned or wasted Noble men and women's time. At best they were punished, at worst executed.

And while he was fairly certain Melissa wasn't going to order him killed, it really wouldn't surprise him if life threw him a curveball like that after the streak of good luck he had been on since arriving at Mustafu.

He jumped, startled out of his thoughts, as a plate of food was placed in front of him, and thanked the waitress, reaching for his coin pouch to pay, when Melissa's hand flew out and plopped a small pile of silvers into the waitress' hand.

"Keep the change for yourself."

The waitress' smile was huge as she practically pranced away, and Izuku turned to Melissa and Mei. Mei was already stuffing her face with the beef stew she had ordered, while the crumbed chicken Melissa got sat in front of her.

"Izuku."

Izuku was startled out of his thoughts again when Melissa spoke to him, instinctively straightening his back and looking down at the table. "YES!"

Ah, that was much louder than he intended to be.

Melissa shook her head. "You don't need to be at attention, Izuku. I assume that's why you're so nervous because you didn't show up for our meeting?"

Izuku just nodded, causing Melissa to sigh. "You do remember what I told you when we met, don't you? I asked you to speak to me like any of your peers. That applies to this situation as well. I am not here as a noblewoman, I am here as a worried friend."

She waved between herself and Mei, who seemed only vaguely aware of the conversation, now drawing something on her napkin while eating her stew. Melissa continued. "We had a meeting, and you didn't show up, not even a day after we saw you being harassed. We were concerned for you, not angry that you didn't show."

Izuku froze as she finished, his mouth open in shock, and he wasn't able to hold back his tears for very long. The best he could do was to quiet himself down so he didn't disturb the other people in the dining area.

Through his blurry vision, he could see Mei now looking at him, her goggles over her eyes, and Melissa seemed spooked by his crying, as she nervously wrung her hands together, before awkwardly leaning over and putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Oh. You… you're crying. Mei, what do I? Wait, why am I asking you? Uh, pat pat pat… ah, no, this feels wrong."

Izuku laughed mid cry as he felt Melissa softly pat his shoulder, her entire body stiff with nervousness and indecision.

Shaking his head, he took a moment to calm himself down enough to speak. "I-it's alright, M-Melissa. I guess I'm just not used to… all of this really."

Melissa paused, her nervousness seeming to fade after a moment, and her hand coming to rest on his shoulder instead of patting it. "I, yes. Of course. You've recently uprooted your entire life to move here, so I can understand that it's been a... stressful time."

Izuku paused for a moment before nodding, and there was silence for a moment before finally, Mei's plate clanked against the table. "So, you said you were gonna explain why you were missing right? And what this rat-ghost-thing you got with you?"

Izuku looked over and saw his [Spiritual Rat Companion] laying against Mei's leg. "Ah! I'm sorry Mei, come here little guy…"

The [Spiritual Rat Companion] scurried over to him, and Melissa gasped as it peeked its head out over the table, its nose twitching. "Izuku, what is that?"

Laughing nervously, Izuku scratched the back of his head. "It's part of the explanation, I promise. So basically, it starts with me heading down to the second floor…"

Izuku spent the rest of the hour they had the booth for explaining his stay on Floor 2, and his fight with the [Great Mole].

Both of the girls listened intently, and to be honest, it was a novel experience spending time with people his own age that he was certain had no negative intentions.

Melissa had said he uprooted his life to come to Mustafu, but he had been so stagnant for so many years, stuck at Level 6 for so damn long, that in a few ways, he felt like his life had really only just begun when he got here.

Izuku sat in his room in the Sleeping Boar, his [Spiritual Rat Companion] racing around at (probably) top speed.

His 'armour' was off, inside the lockbox the Inn supplied, and his boots were next to the foot of the bed, leaving him in just his shirt and pants. The fur padding of the shirt made it a bit warm, especially as a [Fire Crystal] warmed the room, but he didn't really have anything else at the moment.

Wait… how much money did he have right now? Holding out his palm, he opened up his menu to check.

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya

Money: 91 copper, 25 silver, 4 gold, 0 platinum

He paused for a moment, reading it again. And then again. How... WHAT?! When had he gotten so much copper and silver? And 4 gold?! Was being an adventurer really this lucrative?!

His [Spiritual Rat Companion] jumped up onto his lap, breaking Izuku out of his focus on how much money he had made in just over a week of being in mustafu. His hand automatically patted its back, and he shook his head.

"Should I just go buy some extra clothes?"

The [Spiritual Rat Companion], predictably, did not respond to him, and Izuku realised something. "Oh man, I should give you a name or something… what do you wanna be called, little guy?"

The spirit rat just stared at him for a moment, before flipping over and laying on its back, wriggling about. Izuku sighed. "Guess you're not going to be helpful with the decision process, are you? I guess I could do something ironic? What animals hunt rats?"

Off the top of his head, the only things he could think of that specifically hunted rats were cats, dogs if you trained them right, and birds of prey. "Maybe I can name you after an Eagle, or an Owl?"

Izuku chuckled to himself. "Or maybe I could just have a rat named Cat. Hmm, naming things is pretty difficult… wait! I have the perfect name for you!"

The [Spiritual Rat Companion] seemed interested now, so Izuku put on his best 'formal' voice and grabbed a pencil off of the bedside table and tapped it on each of the [Spiritual Rat Companion]'s shoulders, before tapping it to its head.

"I dub thee, Sir Ratsudon."

"You named it what?'

Izuku chuckled as Sir Ratsudon nibbled on the bottom of Melissa's outfit without actually doing any damage, as the [Spiritual Rat Companion] couldn't actually touch anyone else with any amount of damaging force without Izuku's order too.

"My [Spiritual Rat Companion] is named Sir Ratsudon. Because Katsudon is my favourite meal."

Melissa shook her head, pinching her nose as she sighed at him. Izuku couldn't help but smile. "No I got it, thank you, I was just… Mei! Adventurers are so weird!"

Mei just laughed, nodding as she threaded a leather strap through the shin-pads she had just finished. "I've been telling you that for years, Mel! Years!"

Melissa finally broke and started laughing for a moment, before finally shaking her head. "If that's what you want to call it, then I guess we can't stop you. But it's ridiculous, Izuku, you know that, right?"

A soft smile formed on Izuku's face. It was weird having someone tease him like that, without any malice. "Yea. Yea I do. I like it though."

Melissa seemed like she was about to say something when Mei let out a 'whoop!', jumping to her feet. "And they're done! Izuku! Come try these shin-pads on! I even added a kneepad!"

Smiling, Izuku moved over to her and grabbed the shin/knee pads, marvelling at their construction. Mei had done a really excellent job with this! "These are amazing!"

The [Enhanced Steel] plates covered the front and sides of his shin, hugging his leg tightly when he tightened the straps. The knee pad moved with his leg as well, not impeding his ability to bend his legs at all, something Izuku was very grateful for.

As he stood and walked around in them, his eyebrow raised as he felt something under his boot. There seemed to be a plate of [Enhanced Steel] underneath his feet. "Mei, what's with the plate on the bottom? Won't it give me less traction?"

Mei grinned as she bounced on the balls of her feet, looking incredibly happy that she got to answer questions. "Nope! Take them off and have a look! I made sure to replicate the patterns from the bottom of work boots, and I made sure that the bottom plate was fairly rough so that you wouldn't slip!"

Izuku nodded as he saw the scratchy surface of the metal plate, alongside the grooves that had been carved into them, a perfect match for the types of patterns he had seen on other boots.

Putting the boot-shin/knee pad contraption back on, Izuku couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Mei! These are really awesome!"

Mei puffed her chest out, a smug smile on her face. "Well duh! All my babies are excellent! My brother was a fool to stop me from using [Enhanced Steel] earlier!"

A cough caught the attention of Izuku and the two girls, as Otto stared at them, his eyebrow raised. "A fool, am I? Is that what you want to go with, Mei?"

Mei had frozen as soon as she heard Otto cough, turning around slowly, a sickly sweet smile on her face. "You must have misheard me! I would never refer to the person who owns the forge I use for free with any words like that at all, dear brother! I don't know what you're thinking!"

Otto shook his head, waving them off, before sighing. "Anyway, ignoring that. Izuku, I've got one of the town's guards in the storefront asking for you? Apparently, they checked the Inn already and the innkeeper pointed them here."

Izuku tilted his head, curious as to what the guard might want him for. "Alright, I won't keep them waiting, then. Goodbye Melissa, Mei. Thank you so much for your help so far."

Getting smiles and goodbyes from the two girls, Izuku followed Otto out of the forge area and into the storefront, smiling as he saw a large, shirtless man waiting for him, a frown etched into his face.

"Mister Kurimuzon! What can I help you with?"