Izuku frowned as he watched the floor of the room he had just reached.
He had fought through a few more goblins, and he had gotten to a room where the floor seemed to spike up every now and then, hitting anything that crossed over the floor from below.
It seemed like he had reached the Floor 1 Puzzle Chamber! Most floors of a dungeon had at least one, but there were usually a few floors that had more. This one should be pretty simple, as the difficulty apparently went up the further into the dungeon you went.
They didn’t seem to actually be a spike, more like cylinders about as round as the wheel of a cart, but they shot up fairly quickly, and would probably bruise really badly if you got hit. Which was something Izuku was definitely planning on avoiding.
To make things worse, there was some form of smoke drifting along the floor, making it nearly impossible to see any of the floor moving before it shot upwards. Weirdly, the sudden movement didn’t seem to even bother the smoke, either.
As Izuku sat near the doorway, he tried to think of what the solution to the room was. He knew from the books he had read that all puzzle chambers had a solution, even if it was odd or illogical or had clues only the most dedicated of adventurers could find.
Hell, he had even read that there was a pair of dungeons a few centuries ago where you had to have one person in each dungeons puzzle room for the doors to open. But first-floor puzzles? They were usually simple.
Maybe the spikes were created by an increase in weight?
He searched around the little area he was standing on for a rock, throwing it onto the ground in front of him. He waited a little while and frowned as nothing shot up from the floor where it had landed.
‘Alright, it’s not based on weight.’ Izuku hummed as he stared at the floor, hearing it rumble every now and then. Honestly, he couldn’t really detect a pattern. Maybe he was just supposed to leave it up to luck?
No, that wasn’t really a solution. There had to be something… He closed his eyes and rubbed at his face as he thought, before stopping as something entered the very edge of his hearing.
It was… a bell? Or at least something that sounded like one? It was coming from the left side of the- OH! Izuku watched as a second after the sound rang out, a spike shot out of the floor on the left side of the room.
A smile came onto Izuku’s face as he stood up, brushing some dust off of his butt, and stepped forward, closing his eyes, listening for the soft noise of the bell. He could barely hear it over the shifting noises of the room, but he thought that he might be able to do this!
His eyes closed, Izuku stepped onto the floor.
He started walking quickly towards the other side, trying to take light steps so that he didn’t make too much noise. A few steps in he heard the small ding to his right, and shifted over to the left, opening his eyes enough to see the spike shoot out of the ground beside him.
Smiling to himself, Izuku continued onward, having to dive forward for the next one as the bell came from directly below him. He huffed as he saw the spike that would have smacked into him return to the floor, and kept moving.
He pushed himself to his feet and tried to listen out for the bell again, but his foot slipped across the ground, making a loud noise that blocked him from hearing the incredibly soft sound of the bell.
His eyes flew open, and he saw that he was only a few steps from the end of the room. He dived forward again, trying to make it to the safety of the platform, when a spike shot out of the ground, slamming into his side, making his yell as he landed on the platform.
12 [Impact] Damage!
Groaning, Izuku coughed and stood up, rubbing his chest, knowing that a bruise was probably going to form there. It wasn’t the first time he had ever been hurt, but it was the largest amount of damage he had taken in a single hit.
Looking over to the doorway, Izuku froze as he saw a pedestal with 4 differently coloured gems on it and 4 slots in the doorway. He grabbed the gems and put them into the slots from top left to bottom right, and hoped that the door would open.
There was a loud ‘THUNK’ from behind the door, and Izuku was about to cheer when his vision flashed white. With a thud, he landed on his ass and looked up to see that he had been teleported back to the other side of the floor.
“WHAT?!”
Mei’s smile couldn’t be wider as she slammed her hammer down onto the chunk of [Enhanced Steel].
The contract with Izuku was still fresh in her mind, and she honestly was still processing the fact that after so many months of bugging Otto to let her use [Enhanced Steel], an adventurer of all people would be the one to help her!
Her smile immediately dipped a little as she thought about adventurers, so she focused on the fact that she now had a fairly stable source of metal to use for things! Which was amazing! Not even Otto had a deal with anyone who got stuff like that usually!
She didn’t know what Izuku could have done to get the dungeon's favour, especially since he had arrived the day before, but it wasn’t her place to question the whims of the UA Dungeon. Whatever the reason was for the Dungeon Core giving Izuku stuff didn’t matter to her, cause she profited off of it!
Her hammer smacked into the metal again, her [Magic Smithing] ability activating with each hit, changing the shape of the metal slightly with each impact. She had separated the chunk of [Enhanced Steel] that Izuku had brought her into a few smaller chunks to use for various things.
At the moment, she was working on a sword for the boy. Even with its fairly simple design, a simple shortsword with a wide handguard, she was excited. It would be her first weapon made entirely of [Enhanced Steel]!
She had just finished getting the lump of metal into a shape reminiscent of a baguette when she heard the bell from the front door ring. “Mei? You in here? Otto asked that I come to check on you!”
Mei smiled as she heard her friend’s voice and poked her head out of the doorway, grinning widely. Melissa waved to her from the front door of the Hatsume forge.
She was tall, with bright blonde hair and blue eyes. As she brushed her hair back, Mei glanced at her pointed ears. Half-elves had cool ears. She had some new outfit on that Mei didn’t recognise, but it seemed to match her eyes, which was pretty cool.
Melissa was a Runecrafter, able to add the magical enchantments to weapons, armour, and trinkets that Adventurers wore to increase their capabilities.
She and Mei had instantly hit it off after they realised that Mei’s [Magic Smithing] meant she could make weapons capable of handling Runes without breaking.
“Melissa! Come in! I need to show you this!” Melissa yelped as Mei pulled her into the back room, but didn’t complain. It wasn’t the first time it had happened.
She smiled as Mei slammed her hammer down into the lump of metal one more time before turning to her. “Look at this, Melissa! I have [Enhanced Steel] to work with!”
Melissa raised her eyebrow as Mei showed off the lump of metal, and the air in front of her seemed to come to life as a circle of blue light appeared above her palm, the Rune pointed at the lump of metal.
“Appraise”
Enhanced Steel Shortsword
(In progress)
A simple shortsword made out of [Enhanced Steel]
Forged by [Mei Hatsume]
Whistling to show her surprise, Melissa smiled as Mei danced about in excitement. “How did you convince Otto to let you use the supply you have?”
Mei’s smiled was gigantic as she grabbed Melissa’s hands, bouncing up and down. “That’s the thing! He didn’t! I have my own supplier now! An adventurer named Izuku arrived the other day and the dungeon seems to like him!”
Melissa perked up at that and laughed. “That’s amazing, Mei! What are you going to do with the material?”
Mei pointed at the in-progress sword. “Well, here’s the thing! I get 90% of the metal he finds for free, and in return, he gets free gear! It’s a win-win!”
As Mei smiled, Melissa just stared at her, shock on her face. “What? I thought you hated adventurers. Why offer one a deal like that?”
Mei paused and frowned. “Well, I don’t hate adventurers. They just annoy me. Or at least most of them do. Honestly, I don’t know much about Izuku but he doesn’t seem rude like all the others that have come in to buy stuff from Otto.”
Melissa frowned as she heard Mei’s reasoning. “Whatever you say, Mei. But are you sure that this ‘a good idea? Free gear for anyone is a risky thing. What if other adventurers start bugging you for free stuff?”
Mei hoisted her smithing hammer onto her shoulder. “I’ll just smack them with my hammer! Otto once told me that using my [Magic Smithing] ability when hitting metal armour can do some really hefty damage!”
Melissa still looked sceptical but didn’t push it any further. Instead, she pointed to the hammer Mei was using. “Oh! I just remembered, that Rune I told you I was trying to create a while ago? The one that increases skill use through a tool? I think I figured out how to make it work!”
Mei’s eyes sparkled. “Really? Did your menu tell you that it worked? You know that’s usually how you can tell.”
Melissa nodded. “Yep! My [Curious] trait pinged once I finished up with a design last night! I didn’t try it out at home, not after that fire shield Rune I attempted burnt my bedsheets, but I thought that maybe you’d let me try it on a hammer so you can use it? Think of it as paying you back for letting me practise my Runes on your old [Enhanced Iron] stuff.”
Mei’s smile grew even wider as she gasped, rummaging through a toolbox in the back of the forge. “I would love that! Here! I have an old hammer you can test it on!”
Mei thrust the hammer into Melissa’s hands, smiling as the girl started humming a tune, light appearing in her palm, as well as on the hammer. Melissa was such a good friend!
Melissa pulled her hand away and smiled at Mei. “Alright, I think this will work! Go ahead and give it a try!”
Mei grabbed the hammer off of the table and turned to the lump of [Enhanced Steel] she was turning into a sword. Placing it down next to it she used some tweezers to put the lump back into the fire for a little bit, before placing it back on the bench and slamming her hammer down into it.
She activated [Magic Smithing] as she did and marvelled at how much smoother the changes in the metal were, almost like a constantly shifting image instead of jagged changes.
“Melissa! This is amazeballs! I can feel how much better the hammer is transferring my skill! You’re a genius! Wait, you guys get to name the runes you create, right? What are you going to call the Rune?!”
Melissa hummed as she tapped her chin. “Probably something simple, don’t want it to be too hard to remember. I’m thinking something like [Utility Rune: Skill Efficiency]. How does that sound to you?”
Mei grinned. “Sounds awesome! You’re 100% going down in the history books for this one! Let me get to a point where I can stop smithing and we can go celebrate with your dad!”
A few minutes later, the chunk of metal, now looking a lot more like a sword, laid on the workbench unattended while Mei dragged Melissa off towards her father’s post, gushing about how helpful Melissa’s creation would be.
