This document presents a new proactive routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) that uses a depth-first iterative deepening (DFID) approach combined with an adaptive hello messaging scheme to improve data forwarding efficiency. The proposed protocol aims to conserve topology information while reducing average delay, overhead, and energy consumption during communication between nodes. Experimental results, conducted with the ns-2 simulator, indicate that the new protocol outperforms existing lightweight protocols in several performance metrics.