Highest in the Room (2)
"This dungeon is the best for us, so I booked it ahead of time because it always has a lot of people at its doors." Since their levels were so far apart, Ren needed to make such preparations in advance for a dungeon that would allow them all to enter despite their level difference.
"I understand, but why is that? Are our levels so wide apart? Haha." Ash for one couldn't hold back the laughter and chuckled. Well, his statement did seem to sound funny to his ears to begin with.
"Just shut up and come along." They all chuckled knowing that Ash was a quite the master at making stale jokes that only him find the humor in.
"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, but we won't be the only ones going into the dungeon today, sorry, haha." Ray couldn't help but spread the word of what they had planned to do amongst their small group of friends, and naturally, everybody wanted a piece of it.
"Oh? No problem then. If so, we should wait until everyone's here."
'I already knew this would happen, and was hoping for it.' Ren planned to analyse as many skills as he could after all, so Ray inviting extra heads was very much welcome.
One after another, different classmates came, and even students from other classes were there as well.
'There are some faces I don't think I recognize, probably because they weren't in the original story.' Anyway, it wasn't anything bad since Ren didn't expect the original novel to capture every single aspect of the characters' lives.
By the time everybody was present, Ren could count up to 10 people apart from himself. Apart from Ray, Ren, Damien and Ash, Linda, Isaac, Yulia and Lucy were also present. There were three others, but they were mostly just extras.
"Ashley didn't want to come because she thought her class wouldn't be fit for what we are going to do. But at least, she should have been present to heal anybody that gets injured." Ray explained, and everyone agreed as they shared similar thoughts.
'Of course she can't, she's invested in something else, the second syndicate event should be drawing close too.'
With everyone gathered, they went into the dungeon. This dungeon wasn't one spotting an extermination theme, instead, it required for certain materials to be gathered before the dungeon was over. These type of dungeons weren't in similar availability like those that required for the monsters inside to be exterminated, and they usually don't have strict limits the level of challengers.
"We should be fine here, so we can proceed with clearing the dungeon after we are done here."
Since this dungeon could be raided multiple times, the position of the various materials to be gathered would naturally change every time it is raided, that much was expected. Even then, with the sheer number of times it had been raided, all possible spawn points had already been marked, so even then it wasn't a difficult clear.
"How should we begin?" Someone asked.
Following that question, all eyes fell on Ren. It was understandable, after all, everyone there more curious about how strong he had become and wanted to see what skills he had than they wanted to show theirs or see the skills and strength of the others present.
'I already knew this would happen, but not so fast.'
"Come on, let's save the best for last, right?" Ren said with a little smile. Normally it would come off as arrogant and cocky, but for some reason it seemed pretty natural and no one had any particular negative feeling about the statement. Well, sometimes power can warp others' perspective.
With that, they wasted no time pairing up amongst themselves in a way that seemed fair, and since without Ren they were ten of them, it lined up perfectly.
'Now, to get free samples.'
Ren activated his 'Detective's Sight' skill and began analyzing right from the first battle. Since Ray went up against Linda, it served Ren more material since Ray had actually improved a lot since last time he saw him engage in a fight seriously. To say the least, even though a bit unexpected, Ray was able to push Linda back a little bit. Everyone including Linda was surprised when they started seeing Ray use his full strength, but Ren already expected at least this much from the MC of the story…
'Well, he definitely hasn't been lazing around, it's well deserved.' Ren thought to himself. Unlike Ren who never stepped foot into the training room to do personal training to improve his stats, the others did, and Ray basically lived there. Well, he wasn't the only one who almost built a tent in there, but quite unfairly, he was the only one seeing this level of results.
'Seriously, if the world worked like that, everyone would be a super successful person.' What Ren meant was that if it took only hard-work to succeed in life, then there would be many people who would have been at the top half of the food chain. Anyway, as most would say, that view is subjective and Ren could careless at this point in time, since he just conformed one very important thing.
Because of how his 'Detective's Sight' worked, it had very good synergy with his innate ability, way more than he originally expected.
'If it's like this, I will have a far easier time recreating these skills, and if I add a little bit more from my own knowledge, I could even create something more powerful…'
In an instant, all the battles were finished, and everyone looked pumped and satisfied. Even though the gap between each person was clear, the margins weren't much for most of them, and it showed just how much they had improved. So far, the only ones who seemed alienated were Ray and Linda who showed such remarkable level of strength and overall prowess that it made the others seem lazy for not working harder. Nevertheless, it served as motivation to say the least, and pushed them to want to do more.
"Let's rest for a bit before we continue." Ray said as Ren brought out bottle water for everyone.
"Wow Ray, have you been doing some other training in secret? How come you got so ahead of us?!" Ash as always was unnecessarily surprised.
"Haha, come on."
'Well, even though he hasn't awakened his bloodline yet, it should still have some effect, so it's no surprise.'
"Yeah, and even you, Linda, even though you don't spend too much time in the training room, to think you could hold up against this meathead… quite amazing."
"Or are you just shitty and weak?" Damien responded to Ash. He was promptly reminded that he and Ash had similar level of strength, so his comment to Ash was also applied to him.
Throughout the little time they had on the break, Ren couldn't help but notice the soar sight of Isaac trying to get close to Linda, in distance…
'The only reason he's even here is because of her, but man, for a guy who never ceases to talk big and confident, he sure is a pussy in front of the girl he likes, huh?' Ren wasn't even irritated; the situation was just too uncomfortably familiar.
Once the break time was over, it was time for everyone to see what Ren was capable of. He certainly couldn't use any of his skills, as that maybe overkill, maybe if he had to, he would just use one that was safe, like 'godspeed'.
'I wonder what he will show us and how much stronger he has become. Even though others may not have noticed it, I haven't heard his footsteps since earlier, not even when I paid attention to it… Be it a technique or skill, that isn't something that can be easily learnt. I don't think any one of use can put in the level of hard work he does.' Linda though to herself.
Well, it was true that Ren put in subsequent amounts of hard work, so it couldn't be said that he just got everything for free.
Linda wasn't the only one to have noticed, Ray and Isaac also caught on to the peculiarity Ren exhibited. In actuality, the others who didn't notice anything were the odd ones, because even the way Ren moved and the vibe around him was different from what a normal academy student would show. Not only his soundless steps, but also his normal walking step was different now, and no matter how much the three who had caught on looked at it, they could not understand fully, it always seemed like Ren was moving while guarded, like he could not be caught off guard, it resembled the vibe a master swordsman would give off.
The reason for this was simple. It wasn't because Ren walked like that intentionally or wanted to show off all these. Ren himself had not realized just how much he had changed, probably because he wasn't paying that much attention to the little things, but those that paid close attention to him noticed right away.
Apart from having such a high affinity with the sword, Ren had also mastered the 'Guarded Swordsmanship and Extreme Swordsmanship' techniques. Despite being only techniques that Ren created himself, if someone was to try mastering it themselves, they would find it quite nearing impossible. To be exact, only master swordsmen would be able to master such techniques, or at least someone possessing a very high talent with the sword.
"Ok, let's get to it now. Who's first?"