Kill The Old Ones!

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For beginner-level dungeons, just because a dungeon level is higher doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s more difficult or has stronger enemies.

Take the first ten dungeon levels, for example—stages 1 through 3 had ordinary slimes, but it doesn’t mean that the slimes in stage 2 were stronger than those in stage 1 and weaker than those in stage 3.

The only strength scaling that matters here is the variant hierarchy. Elites are stronger than ordinary monsters, Lords are stronger than Elites, and Bosses are the strongest.

It’s the same for the goblin stages—stages 6 through 8 had ordinary goblins. The ones on lower levels aren’t weaker compared to those at the higher levels; they’re the same monster type.

The difference comes with the quest’s demands. Mainly, the number of monsters the explorers needed to kill to ’clear’ the dungeon.

Take Stage 3 of the dungeons, for example, the one Ren is exploring right now.

To clear this stage, Ren needs to kill 50 ordinary slimes. Compared to the first stage that only required him to kill 15 for a clue, it’s a massive jump. The time limit was increased to two hours. These kill requirements and time limits double when the stage is challenged by a party.

Still, though, this didn’t pose any real problems for Ren.

Sure, there are more slimes bouncing around stage 3, but the area has also been massively expanded.

In stage 1, the usual diameter of the area he could explore was 20 kilometers; at stage 3, that jumped to 50 kilometers. So, even though there were more slimes around, Ren never felt crowded since the area was so large.

This also meant more resources to pick from. A bigger dungeon area means more resources generated. And the higher one climbed in the dungeon levels, the more abundant the resources were. The rarity also increases.

The exposed ores and minerals Ren harvested had much better quality, as did the herbs, plants, and fruits around. One trip to stage 3 could easily earn him hundreds of thousands of credits at once due to the sheer density of resources available for him to sell.

And this is with him only going for the exposed ones. Ren doesn’t dig deeper or deliberately search for specific resources. He just picks the ones he could reach and doesn’t complain about it.

As for clearing the dungeon, that’s still not a problem for him.

Sure, he needs to kill 50 now, but that’s just a number. Ren was energetic enough to hunt down all 50 at once without stopping. It will tire him a bit afterwards, but he doesn’t mind. Such is the life of a dungeon explorer, after all.

Besides, the slimes weren’t stronger. They’re still adorable as they were in stage 1; their numbers just increased. Sure, some of them fought back, but Ren’s got way too much raw strength to simply overwhelm them.

Ren doesn’t even mind fighting five at once. He’s fast enough to dodge multiple tentacles and projectiles at once. He could blow one off to clumps before the rest even saw what happened.

So, yes. Stages 1 through 3 were never a problem for Ren. He could solo them just fine, and he had.

He never missed a day spending his exploration quota since he was able to. It’s been a week since Ren got his license, and every day, he goes out early to grind in dungeons and collect resources.

You could say that exploring dungeons had replaced his morning routine.

Once he returned after his morning expeditions, he’d go on about his usual training as well as his potion lessons with Raymond or his research in the afternoons.

This was going to be how his schedule would work from here on out...unless a change was necessary, but that shouldn’t be a problem since Ren could easily adapt.

One thing that Ren did about four days ago was to visit the GMU branch again. He didn’t go straight to Nathan this time, as he didn’t want to abuse the man’s kindness and willingness to help; he went through the official channels and requested help in joining a party.

In his requirements, he indicated that he needed a party for stages 4, 5, 9, and 10.

The reason why he specifically indicated this was to imply that he’s not looking for a permanent party, not even ones that would help him all the way to stage 30 should he need it.

Ren was on guard about the misgivings that he might receive with his accursed physique. In his mind, he thinks that it’ll be easier for him to join a party when others know that he isn’t going to be a permanent stay.

Obviously, his information was required. And his ’unique’ circumstances cannot be hidden; the GMU won’t let him get away with that since they need to uphold their reputation.

His cursed physique won’t make him a prime choice for parties, that’s for sure. It doesn’t matter how strong he was or how good his character or work ethics were. People held internalized dislike for curses.

Even if Ren’s curse wasn’t contagious per se, it wouldn’t be surprising if others felt reluctant around him because of his condition. That’s just how it is sometimes.

It doesn’t matter if practicing martial arts makes one stronger and smarter. Their inner voices speak very loudly sometimes.

Ren just hopes that at least some people amongst the hundreds of parties searching for prospective members out there won’t reserve their judgment and will give him a chance.

He hasn’t received any contacts yet, which was normal. This process usually takes time even with the advanced technology of GMU. Besides, the most that the GMU could do is to include him in the list of potential picks for parties in need.

It’s up to the party leaders and managers to choose who joins them, not the GMU itself.

Ren could only hope that he gets a contact soon; otherwise, he might just have to go solo all the way.

**

”Another member, gone just like that...”

In some corner of the Letter Kingdom, within a spacious room, a man with thick-rimmed glasses sighed and massaged his temples in stress.

There were at least four individuals sitting on chairs behind him, their heads lowered and their faces ashamed.

”I just don’t get it. We’ve gone through this process about what? Fifteen times, already? And a month barely passed! Seriously!? Are you guys fucking with me? You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

The man sharply glared at the young men and women sitting behind him in irritation. He saw them flinch at his sharp accusation, which indicates their guilt, but the man in glasses wasn’t moved; he didn’t feel guilty at being angry at them either.

”Go on, out with it!” He spat. ”I now realize that I shouldn’t have acted as if nothing happened. I forgot I was dealing with some inexperienced and naive brats here instead. That’s totally my fault; I’m used to working with professionals, people that are obviously not like you four.”

”So, yes. Let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about what happened. Let’s talk about ’him.’ Out with it; voice your frustrations. Be angry; throw a tantrum. Start pointing fingers. Start blaming others or yourselves; I don’t care. Hell! You can even blame me! Just fucking talk!”

”Because honestly? I’m sick of this crap. I don’t deserve this. I’ve already got a lot on my plate.”

”In case you all forgot, I don’t need you.”

”I’m a skilled party manager with a bright future ahead of me, one that I still haven’t let go of, unlike some people here,” he scoffed.

”The only reason why I took you in was because ’he’ begged me. And I owed him a favor. I’m a man of my word, and I gave ’him’ my word that I will help when he’s in need.”

”I fucking turned down a promotion just to take care of some brats. I could’ve been a senior party manager now, working with actual professionals, veterans!”

”I should be stressing about figuring out a way to wiggle my way into legal stuff so that my veteran clients could get more permits to raid high-level dungeons!”

”You know, the ones that actually mattered? The ones that poses a grave threat to humanity? The ones where real profits were at?”

”I shouldn’t be here stressing over complaint files because one of the brats ’he’ left behind couldn’t hold his fucking temper and couldn’t be professional enough to work with a fucking stranger!”

”I shouldn’t be here stressing over potential lawsuits because of verbal harassment, discrimination, and bullying! Hell, I shouldn’t be dealing with complaints and lawsuits period because my clients should be professional enough to fucking know how to be goddamn professionals!”

At this point, veins were protruding out of the man’s forehead and neck, evident that he was enraged and thoroughly done with holding back. He couldn’t care less that he’s basically verbally assaulting people half of his age. They had no problems doing it to others, so they must be able to endure it too, right?

”God fucking damn it!” He spat as he threw the stack of documents at them, the ones of complaints and lawsuits.

”I’m going to try, one last fucking time. If you lot can’t still accept the truth, forget it. ’He’ can curse me from the afterlife; I wouldn’t care anymore. I’m dropping you all off, and I’m taking that promotion.”

After he said this, he marched out of the room to cool off.