"Hehehehehehe… Finally…" Ren was feeling very peculiar at this moment. To say the least, he had achieved the one thing that had been taking up so much of his time for over a month.
'To think I needed to dumb down my way of thinking to be able to achieve my goal.'
In actuality, he didn't actually dumb down but might have even thought at a higher level to come up with the solution of discarding the complex path for something simpler.
[Detective's Sight]
Look at the world in a different light and break down all complexities to a simpler form.
Level: 1
Proficiency EXP: -experience bar-
. .
The skill wasn't exactly what Ren was thinking of, but it was going to do the trick just fine.
Aside attaining the new skill, Ren was now level 25 and would be able to challenge the dungeon at its most challenging difficulty yet, where even elite teams may find it hard to clear. Since this was a rather popular dungeon, information about it wasn't lacking at all, so Ren was able to check up on it to know what he was to expect. Previously, he didn't need to check on anything since he knew what to expect inside the dungeon because he had read it in the original story, but for the higher level of 25, which was the limit established by the military, Ren had no idea what to expect since it wasn't mentioned.
There was also some new development now that Ren was above level twenty, and that was the fact that from then on, every level up would give 5 extra free stat points. This was the one thing that widened the power gap between different level brackets when counted in twenties. For every increase in twenty levels, there is an increase of 5 free stat points. Well, that was only up until level 100.
'This has to be one of the most underestimated dungeons. You can literally just use it as a grinding station and level up a bunch of times with perfect strategy and benefits.'
Ren went to the portal station as normal and straight into the portal that leads to the dungeon of fallen warriors.
"Good morning, how's work?" At this point, Ren had become familiar with the guard that seemed to always be on duty. Maybe it was because this was not a dungeon that people frequent, that was why the guard didn't change much? Ren wasn't sure.
"Oh, it's you, Ren, right? Come to raid today, huh? What's your level now? Since you've been raiding regularly, you should be at a sufficient level by now, right?"
"Hahaha, that is normally the case." Ren said embarrassingly as he made his way into the portal before he was asked another question.
The students could update their levels on their own from time to time for proper record keeping and all, but even in the event one forgot, there was a necessary update taken regularly. Of course, most of the time, it feels like there isn't any need for the compulsory update, since students always come for the update themselves. Being a higher level gives a lot more benefits, from opening new accessible areas in the campus that one might not be able to enter at lower levels, to finding better teammates of higher levels and leveling up even faster; and much more.
As for the new skill, Ren wasn't opportune enough to get to test it out, since his current agenda was taking care of the dungeon raid and leveling up.
Once he was inside the dungeon, Ren received the regular message;
[You have entered a dungeon]
.
[Dungeon of Fallen Warriors]
-Clear condition-
Kill all fallen warriors and kill the commander.
. .
Based off the info he collected, Ren was a little disappointed, or to put it clearly, it turned out to be easier than he had thought it to be. Unlike when the special character appeared before and he had to face two armies at once without any waves of them, this one was similar, only that it was just a single army without waves.
There wasn't any need to change strategy. With the AOE attack, Ren was more than confident under any situation. These enemies ran head first towards the invader without a care for their lives or any form of strategy, so of course, it would always be easy to kill them with such powerful AOE skill.
'Seems like some made it through this time.' Ren could also tell that the fallen warriors were a little bit higher in number than what was to be normal. It didn't matter though, all that mattered was that he was getting his EXP.
As for the survivors who made it through the lightning field, all Ren needed to do was use his slash skill to finish them off. He was getting a little worried since the level of enemies was rapidly increasing because of his own increase in level, and he was concerned if his skill would still be effective against stronger enemies.
In total, thirteen fallen warriors charged towards Ren as they had survived the AOE skill's offensive. Ren didn't even wait for them and charged towards them instead, cutting them down easily as fast as he could. He could tell that the enemies were all around similar level to him, around level 20 to 25, or at least their stats were similar to his in different aspects.
Since Ren was yet to distribute all his stat points he had gotten upon leveling up, he found himself to be slower than some of the fallen warriors. Well, he could easily transcend that boundary with the activation of his skill, but then again that wasn't necessary. Using his slash skill, Ren quickly took care of all of them by strategically placing himself in a position with just enough range that on activation of his skill, it severed everything around a 10 metre radius.
.
[Congratulations! Your skill 'Slash' has leveled up!]
.
'Oh? Finally! Who said beings strong was an easy job?'
Even though Ren had used the slash skill the most and literally every single time he came across an enemy that needed to be killed, well, before he got the AOE skill, he would use the slash skill. Despite using it so much, it still never leveled up, so Ren was starting to think if it was one of those skills that required special conditions to level up.
Since the skill didn't have any proficiency bar in its description, Ren only half-believed that using it over and over again would help, luckily it did this time.
"There's no guarantee that it will work in a similar way next time, so I may have to look into it more." Just when he was free of having to visit the library often to read on skills and how they worked, and he had to go read on skills and how they can be leveled up…
'That's by the way, then…'
Ren looked at the remaining enemies that were all charging towards him, this time with the commander leading them. This was to be expected and Ren knew this already. He could easily delay a little bit and wait for his AOR skill to cool down before he could use it again, which would take like 15 minutes, but that really wasn't necessary.
. .
[Slash]
Cut through everything within a 25 metre of attack. The full power is exerted regardless of medium due to an extremely high affinity with the sword.
Level: 2
Range: 25 metres
. .