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Ren recovered faster this time after the teleportation. And when he opened his eyes, he was greeted by a vast and lush greenery stretching as far as his eyes could see.

He spawned in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by trees; no monsters in sight. The crisp and cool air ruffled his hair and clothes, and the ’charged’ feel of the atmosphere here was stronger compared to the one he felt when he was inside the clan compound.

In front of him was a stone-paved path leading straight ahead; it was his way out of this spawn point. Once he went out, he would be able to see slimes bouncing everywhere.

First things first, he took out the essentials from his knapsack and threw them all into his inventory. He really can’t put the knapsack inside his inventory when it contains something, so he had to empty it out.

After doing that, he checked himself before going out. He made sure that his gear was secured. He tested putting in items and pulling them out from his inventory as fast as he could.

Once he made sure of these, he began warming up to get his chakra flowing.

He didn’t need to do this, actually. Surely, as he moves into the dungeon, his chakra will flow on its own; it’ll be ready when he eventually chooses to confront a smile for real this time. But for Ren, this is habit. He didn’t want any accidents.

Just in case something unexpected happens, he wants his chakra ready to respond; that’s why when he’s still safe in this spawn point, he’d make sure he’s ready before going out.

As for other things, Ren would improvise along the way. He knew that he couldn’t account for everything. Besides, he’s also on a time limit here.

Ren could only stay here for an hour and a half.

Actually, that’s plenty of time for a starting dungeon like this one. The chances of slime variants appearing here were practically non-existent, and it’d stay like that up to Stage 3; that’s why Ren was confident that he could take them solo.

Having sufficiently warmed up and glowing faintly with chakra, Ren didn’t continue delaying. He marched out of his spawn point and made his way out to meet the slimes.

Once he got out, the forest biome greeted him in full.

Truly, it’s a vast and lush forest teeming with life. There were common animals around here, too. Ren could see streams of water and some amount of wildlife as well. The sky was clear, the clouds were large and puffy, and the sunlight was bright and felt gentle.

Of course, the slimes showed themselves to him as well.

There they were, bouncing around without a care in the world. They’re in their natural habitat, and Ren’s presence didn’t do anything to disrupt them at all.

Beep!

As soon as his heart settled, a sharp beeping sound echoed within his mind. Then, a flash of light flashed past his eyes and expanded to a system window.

[Quest: Kill 0/15 Slimes to clear Stage 1]

That’s it. That’s what it all said. The quest to clear stage one of the dungeons. It’s simple, direct, and straightforward. There were no hidden puzzles, clues, or complicated chains. Just this: kill a certain amount of a specific monster, and it’s a success.

It doesn’t specify a reward either, because there’s simply none.

The first 30 stages of the dungeons don’t offer a reward because they’re considered beginner level. The ’rewards’ come from monster drops themselves and whatever they could gather in their surroundings: ores, minerals, herbs, fruits, etc. That’s what they get, and they have to get it themselves.

Typically, first-time explorers will immediately charge at a slime and begin killing to clear the quest. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

That’s not wrong. That’s what the quest wanted them to do, and it’s wrong to follow that.

But Ren had a different idea.

By now, some Slimes have noticed his presence. But aside from giving him a ’strange look,’ they mostly ignored him. This is what they’re like in a beige-toned shade. They’re not aggressive. So long as Ren doesn’t attack them or aggravate them in some way, they’ll leave him alone.

And Ren plans to take advantage of that.

You see, giving an hour and a half to kill 15 slimes was too generous. Sure, it can maybe be chalked off to the fact that this was just a beginner-level dungeon, but even still, an hour would do to complete the quest.

In fact, if a party enters instead, this time limit becomes three hours. The whole party must collectively kill 30 Slimes to complete the quest and clear this stage. So even then, there’s still too much excess time.

Ren could kill 15 slimes immediately and be done with this. However, by the time he completes the quest, he’ll only have 30 seconds to stay before he’s teleported out. All of the resources and materials that this stage generated this time will be out of his reach.

And even if he were to go to the same dungeon level immediately after clearing it, the environment wouldn’t be the same. A new design will be generated, and the resources will be scrambled as well. Included in these changes was the amount of available resources around, too. It’s not fixed. It’s based on luck and dungeon tendencies as well.

This is a lesson taught to prep schools of the modern era and something that veterans remind the rookies of before they go on their first dive.

Don’t complete the quest right away. Explore, discover, gather resources, maximize the benefits.

People at Ren’s level could only enter the dungeons five times a day. And since the martial arts progressively become more expensive the stronger one gets, maximizing profits of every dive was crucial. This was one of the best ways to support a martial artist’s lifestyle.

So, Ren explored. He jogged around the area.

Despite what it looks like, Ren only has limited space to work with; it’s not truly an ’open world’ per se. There’s an invisible wall somewhere that cages him into this specific area; he can’t go beyond that. That’s what Ren wanted to discover first, and it wasn’t really hard to find it since, when he got close, this invisible wall reflected light in a strange way, indicating that there was something there.

Once he figured that out, he ran to the opposite end of the wall and calculated.

"...20 kilometers in diameter. A bit small, but I can work with that."

He can’t go past the invisible wall, but what about everything within it? Fair game.

On his way, he also kept an eye out for resources, and as soon as he discovered how large the area he had to work with was, he didn’t waste time.

He took out a pickaxe from his inventory and began picking the protruding ores from a nearby crater.

Most of these were common iron and copper ores. They have no special attributes but are so common and rich in dungeon areas like this that they’re basically poking out of the ground.

Although they won’t fetch a high price, it’d be better to take them instead of letting them become food for the slimes.

Ren also discovered some common herbs as he jogged around the area. He marked those in his mind, making sure to remember where they are so that he could get them later.

Once again, there’s a limited amount of resources generated at once in every dungeon dive. The ores and minerals exposed above ground don’t necessarily mean that there’s more underground. There might, or there might not be.

Ren wasn’t interested in knowing. Just because he’s picking some ores with the proper tool, it doesn’t make him a miner. Besides, he’s on a time limit here. Although it’s generous, digging deep in search for common ores and minerals doesn’t seem like a good way of spending that.

He would do a thorough search for resources. He’d pick the ones within his reach. If it needed more effort, he’d think about it. If it’s worth it, he’d do it. If it’s not, or if he just couldn’t be bothered, he won’t. It’s that simple.

And so, Ren began picking away at the exposed ores. By the time he was done, he had 32 stacks of raw iron ores and 35 stacks of copper ore. He also discovered some raw gems, like ruby and sapphire, in the mix. There weren’t a lot, but they are priced higher than common ores, at least.

Ren didn’t dig deeper. He couldn’t be bothered. Once he’d gotten all the exposed ores, he began gathering herbs, fruits, and other resources he recognized along the way.

Sometimes, they even had to move faster since the slimes were aiming for them as well. Although this caused the slimes to be upset at him, Ren ignored them and evaded their tentacles.

All in all, Ren spent about 40 minutes running around collecting resources within his reach. And as he did it, all he could think about was how weird it felt to start looting before killing monsters.

The dungeons in RPG games he played before worked the opposite way.