Kill The Old Ones!

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Don’t be fooled by Ren’s current state; dungeon overflows are no joke.

He’s safe and secured at the bunker of the clan; he’s far from any real danger. He’ll be released when all the monsters are killed and when all the danger has passed.

Ren was a lucky person because he had reliable adults and a background that would ensure his safety. Ordinary people won’t have as nice a place as him.

Dungeon overflows don’t just unleash monsters in their berserk state; they also multiply their original number from anywhere between ten to fifteen times. It’s random, sure, but it’s dangerous nonetheless.

Although the danger has passed now and Ren has been released from the bunker, he is aware of how close it has been for him.

According to the local news, the number of blademane leopards that broke out of the dungeon and attacked the city amounted to at least 110. Amongst them, there were elites, lords, and boss-level monsters.

Elite monsters are about 30% stronger compared to regular monsters, and they carry a unique ’status.’

This ’status’ could be aggressive, armored, berserk, demonized, immovable, etc. Monster statuses could appear in many, many ways.

Lord-level monsters are about 50% stronger than regular monsters and have two statuses. And finally, boss-level monsters are 100-120% stronger compared to ordinary monsters and bigger and more menacing too, and they have three statuses attached to them.

The Central City suffered at least 15% of total property damage because of this one accident. At least 150 people died: young, old, women, and martial artists combined. Most of them didn’t even have the time to scream before they died.

All things considered, the number of casualties and property damage could be considered to be at a low end, considering the threat level posed by the blade-maned leopards.

That said, just because the casualties are considered ’low’ for an accident of this level, it was still unacceptable for the GMU and the royal family of the Letter Kingdom.

Although there were no actual reports of how the king reacted to this accident, everybody drew the conclusion that he must not be very happy about this. How could he when such an accident shouldn’t have happened in the first place? There are laws and regulations passed to ensure that dungeon overflows don’t happen.

All these casualties and property damage could’ve been avoided if the ones responsible were doing their damn jobs!

Suffice it to say, some people will definitely feel the heat very soon, and it’s almost guaranteed that they’re not going to have a good time for the next couple of weeks or months.

Well, considering that the casualties are in the low end, it kind of makes sense why this incident didn’t show up in the story. Plus, around this time, the Hero was busy licking his wounds and gritting his teeth to prove that he wasn’t useless. He couldn’t care less about anything else.’

’The overflow only happened in the Central City, meaning that the men in charge of maintaining the dungeon threats came from the Central City too. If it was a kingdom-wide overflow, it’d be more devastating, and it’d be something that not even the hero himself could ignore.’

’Tch. Why am I even thinking about that trash? ’

Ren clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. He rolled his eyes and peeled his attention away from the local news.

It’s already the day after the whole accident. Things are starting to calm down now; the city has already been being repaired since last night, and appropriate compensations are already being sent to the aggrieved parties.

Because of the safety and security that the clan provided, Ren didn’t lose sleep over this. His sleep was shortened, sure, but at least he had some decent rest. It’s completely unlike those civilians who probably had their lives flipped upside down because of this accident.

The good news is that no blade-maned leopards would be seen roaming in the streets within the next five years. That’s one of the rules of dungeon overflows; the same dungeon stage won’t overflow for the next five years afterwards.

The bad news is that this rule only applies to that specific dungeon stage. There are about 100 dungeon stages around, and each one could definitely overflow if the people in charge weren’t doing their due diligence.

Another piece of good news is that, after this overflow, it’d make sense for the GMU to review the clearance records to see if there are dungeons at risk of having an overflow. Anything close will definitely be raided pretty soon to prevent any further accidents.

’Well, Uncle Mikel and the Elders are probably going to be drafted too, I think. If they don’t, fine. If they do, it’s not surprising. However, that might mean that my medical training might be delayed for a bit.’

The Banished Arms Clan, although not as famous as the other local clans in this city, are still citizens of the same area. They’re even older than some other clans out here.

It’s not that surprising that one of the reasons why they could continue staying here, even at the edges of the city, is because they’re willing to contribute to the city and the kingdom. They can’t be exceptions just because they’re an old clan.

And although the Banished Arms Clan doesn’t have a very strong individual that could intimidate or serve as a deterrent to other parties, the clan can contribute in ways that most could not.

Because of the curse of the abberant physique, the clan didn’t have many strong people. But the clan knew healing arts and could make decent potions for dungeon raiders and explorers.

If the clan leader and elders weren’t forcibly drafted to the dungeon raids, they’d be expected to concoct large quantities of potions and elixirs in exchange. They might even be called to the hospitals for additional help.

This, however, had nothing to do with Ren.

Sure, he’s of the Banished Arms Clan, but he’s too weak to be counted. He only just recently entered the Foundation Strength Stage. His puny arms and legs couldn’t even be relied on to bash the skulls of monsters. He also hasn’t started yet with the clan’s healing arts and potion making.

He’s just a random straggler for now. A random and useless NPC, if you will. He doesn’t just count just yet.

Therefore, instead of thinking too much about this, he’d much rather spend his time practicing and honing his skills.

There was no problem with his comprehension; hell, nobody could compare to him in this regard; his was unparalleled, after all. But comprehension was one thing; execution was another.

He still had to put in the work to produce actual results. Just because he understands how a martial technique works doesn’t automatically mean that he has mastered it.

At most, it could prevent him from going astray and shortening the time it required for him to actually master the techniques to perfection. But that’s about it.

Simply put, even with his outrageous gifts and talents, Ren still had to put in actual effort to progress.

And Ren didn’t really hate that.

**

While others would definitely be bored and tired of practicing the same bland, tasteless, and repetitive technique, such as the basic combat technique, Ren was different.

Well, he’s not enjoying it as much as before anymore, but he’s far from being bored or tired of it.

What prevents him from feeling this was was the rate at which his chakra seed pulses to produce nourishing chakra to strengthen his body.

With the little adjustments and corrections he made with the technique, one that works well for him, he also increased the quality and quantity of chakra being fed to his chakra seed and pulsing out of it.

What surprised him a little bit is that his body was certainly voracious for chakra. He could tell that he’s still very far from reaching the sublimation of his physique or feeling that ’bloatedness’ that signifies one’s readiness to enter the next level.

His body was very greedy for chakra. Every time his chakra seed pulses, it never gets the chance to go far before being voraciously absorbed by his body.

It would seem that it would take more chakra, compared to others, before his physique starts feeling full.

Maybe it’d take a whole month or two before he generates enough chakra to reach the peak of the Foundation Strength Stage.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The hungrier his physique was for chakra, the more it meant that his potential was massive.

With this much potential, it’d be a damn shame if he didn’t try to pursue perfect breakthroughs. Fortunately, it’s something he’d have to do anyway.

So what if his advancement speed was slower compared to others? Don’t forget that Ren had the Limitless Martial Physique, which guarantees that he will never be weaker than folks on the same level as he was.

Hell, it might even be possible for him to fight someone at the higher realm as he was and still win in the end.

But of course, practicing a single technique alone was bound to get stale after a while. So, Ren set his eyes to another one...maybe two, actually.