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Ren used all his exploration quota of the day, meaning that he cleared stage 1 five times just this day.

As expected, the area he arrives at and the layout of the map change every time; it had many iterations, and Ren seriously doubts that he’ll go through all of them ever.

That didn’t change the experience, though. He still gathered enough materials to get more than two stacks of each in his inventory.

The amount of materials he gathered would fetch him at least 300,000 to 350,000 credits. Not a bad haul, especially for a rookie like him.

Many of the things he gathered were just ordinary materials. He just got a lot of them because he’s prioritizing looting first before clearing the dungeons.

It wasn’t that hard to sell, either. The small stalls around the plaza might not look like much, but every one could handle large transactions at once, especially for ordinary materials.

He didn’t sell them all, though. At least, not everything to a single stall. He sold them in batches to different stalls. The price fluctuated, sure, but not so much that Ren was at a loss.

As for potion-making ingredients, Ren kept those for himself. He would, of course, use them himself. He thinks it’d be a waste to sell these ingredients cheaply when he can easily turn them into something more valuable.

Once he’d used up his daily quota, Ren didn’t stick around. Securing his knapsack on his waist, he exited the plaza and once again arrived at the dungeon gates of the Central City.

Upon his arrival, Ren felt some kind of relief. Living here for quite some time now, he had already begun considering this city his home.

Although he had never been in any real danger in the dungeons because of his excessive and careful preparation, Ren would admit that it still made him feel anxious.

Accidents can happen even in beginner-level dungeons. It was fortunate that everything went smoothly for him.

As for fighting experience, well...it could certainly be better, yes. Ren kills slimes with a single punch, no technique needed at all. Sure, he mostly ambushed them, but that’s a common tactic; of course he’s going to make use of that.

While it does feel different to slay monsters in person compared to what it’s like in the VR world, in truth, the difference wasn’t that much.

Ren was never in any danger of dying at all. He’s too strong for Stage 1. Even goblins wouldn’t faze him at all.

It’s the variants that remain a problem. But Ren didn’t want to think about that for now.

Instead, Ren made his way back to the clan.

He rode the bus and eventually arrived in one piece. The guards barely acknowledged him. They saw that he had the same sleeve tattoo as them, and that’s enough to allow him entry to the compound.

When he entered the clan, more relief flooded into Ren’s body. Now, he truly felt safe and secure. The atmosphere in the clan felt so familiar to him, and the sight of his house settled that feeling for him.

His return was without any fanfare. In his mind, he didn’t think he was missed. As far as he’s concerned, nobody even knew that he left at all, and that’s just fine with him.

He sat down on the table and drank a glass of water. He rested his back on the chair and thought deeply about his experience.

The total amount of time he spent was long, but in reality, because of the time difference, the total amount was about an hour and fifteen minutes.

He spent way longer than that, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t matter. What counts are the real hours outside of the dungeons.

Ren spent a total of two hours in the Archstone Plaza. He took breaks in between his exploration to gather his thoughts and prepare for the next run. He also tried to familiarize himself with the layout of the plaza so that he wouldn’t get lost. It’s always crowded in there, after all.

During his rests in between, a couple of people tried to make him join a party. They offered a lot of promises and benefits, too. But Ren rejected every single one of them.

The main reason being that, usually, it’s risky to join some randomly or on-site formed parties. There’s no familiarity, no synergy, and no knowing the real intent behind everybody’s motives.

Besides, the offers were usually a scam. They’d promise benefits and generous shares of the loot, but when it’s all said and done, they’d pull out and make tons of excuses to keep the shares.

The reason behind this is the lack of a binding agreement. And even if there were contracts involved, sometimes it could still be a scam.

Ren didn’t want to distrust people like this either. But in the story, it is repeatedly mentioned that most of the on-site formed parties were a scam. It has been depicted on numerous occasions throughout the story.

Hell, even the main character fell multiple times to their schemes despite being on the lookout for them. It’s not that he’s easy to fool; it’s because the scammers became way too good; they’ve discovered the loopholes and took advantage of them.

The only way that he could join a somewhat trustworthy party was by paying the GMU for help.

Parties that are formed with GMU as a witness must use a binding agreement. This ’somewhat’ forces the party members to abide by the agreement, which is a level of guarantee that no on-site formed parties could offer even with lawyers present.

Plus, parties formed by the GMU will be assigned to party managers, if they could afford it, of course. And party managers handle the legal side of things, allowing the team to focus on their training and exploration.

GMU may be many things, but they sure don’t play around when it comes to dungeon-related matters.

Speaking of parties, though...

Ren might have to visit the GMU branch soon if he wants to clear Stages 4 and 5 as soon as he wants, that is.

From stages 1 through 3, monster variants are practically impossible to appear in. The chances are extremely low and need not be considered.

But come stage 4 or 5? The probability increases sharply.

It’s almost certain that an Elite Slime would appear on Stage 4, possibly even a Slime Lord. On Stage 5, a Slime Boss will definitely appear, accompanied by Lords and Elites.

Strong as he might be, Ren still struggles with elite slimes, or elite monsters in general. They were too tough, too durable, and too powerful. It almost feels like they’re an unscalable wall that was determined to stop him from progressing.

Joining a party was one of the solutions for that.

Sure, the difficulty of a dungeon level increases depending on the number of people who challenged it; that’s true. But in beige or white tendencies, it’s not that outrageous.

Having more people working together to bring down variants was better compared to facing variants on his own. Sure, the variants will be tougher against a party, but it’s still more manageable that way.

After clearing stage 5, Ren will basically be done with slimes for a while. The next enemies will be goblins on stage 6 up to stage 10.

Again, stages 6, 7, and 8 could be soloed by Ren. He’s confident of killing ordinary goblins. But what about stages 9 and 10 where variants appear? He’s going to need the help of a party again.

It’s a pity that Alex doesn’t know any parties that would accept somebody on his level, but that’s fine. He’d just rely on GMU’s help.

It would still take some time before they could recommend a suitable party for him and even more before he could meet with ones that are willing to know more about him, so it’s better to apply sooner rather than later to save some time.

’I’ll clear stage 2 tomorrow, and then stage 3 the day after.’

’Then, I’d continue grinding stage 3 until I could join a party. Hopefully, it doesn’t take too long.’

Ren grimaced. He’s kind of anticipating that his meetings with prospective parties might not go so well because of his aberrant physique. His disadvantages are clear, and usually, parties are built to last, to grow and stay together.

They’d probably think that he’d fall behind. Which is fair, Ren supposes. But it sucks that he can’t do anything about this.

’If worse comes to worst, I’ll probably just solo it anyway. I’d just go all out, no big deal,’ Ren sighed.

Not being allowed to wield a weapon isn’t the only inconvenience he gets from being born with this martial physique. He’d also have to deal with discrimination, disdain, and mockery of others.

The appearance of the curse itself makes him look like a gangster or a delinquent. The disadvantages it brings were also a letdown.

This is why people from the clan usually find it hard to join parties or stick together.

Alas...he’d join a party with his clan members if he could, but there were none available.