Yukino Yukinoshita fiercely protested Ren Isana using her as a unit of measurement for Magic Power. After a bit of playful bickering, the group finally settled down to camp right there in the 37th floor's Floor Boss room.
They planned to begin their ascent the next day. Given the sheer scale of the lower floors' maps, making it all the way back up in a single day was impossible. It would likely take them a little over two days to reach the surface.
Once the tents were pitched and everyone had eaten dinner together, they turned in for the night. The next morning, roused by their alarms, the group packed up and began their journey back up.
Since they had practically wiped the floors clean of monsters on their way down, their return trip was relatively peaceful. Though a few monsters would occasionally spawn, it was nothing compared to the swarms they had faced during their descent.
The group slowly made their way from the 37th floor back up to the collapsed section on the 30th floor. By the time they arrived, it was already dusk. Ren and the others decided to spend the night on the 27th floor, resuming their trek the following morning.
After two days of traveling up from the deep, they finally reached the Safe Floor on the 18th floor. To their surprise, they actually ran into other people.
The strangers looked equally surprised to see Ren's group. *Someone actually came up from the deeper parts of the Dungeon?* The young man leading the group hurriedly walked over. "Hello there. We're students from Hualan University. Excuse me, but since you're coming back from below, did you happen to draw a map?"
Ren and his classmates were a bit taken aback. Hualan University? That was a college in the neighboring city. *Are they letting university students in first?* Despite his inward curiosity, Ren gave a straightforward answer.
The university student's eyes were incredibly clear and naive—he looked like the type who would be exceptionally easy to scam. Ren simply nodded. "We do."
Hearing that they had a map, the group's faces lit up with joy. The student who had spoken to Ren couldn't help but ask, "Could we possibly get a copy? We can trade you for it."
He pulled out a few Magic Stones they had hunted. Ren glanced at the items with zero interest, then turned to his classmates. "Let them take a picture of one of your maps."
Hearing Ren's instruction, Sora giggled and stepped forward. She pulled a notebook from her Spatial Backpack and handed it to him. "Here, Class Rep, use mine! I made sure to draw it really well."
Ren took the notebook, flipped through it briefly, and handed it to the university student. "Just take pictures of it with your phones. But I'll warn you now—if you don't have the strength, don't go too deep. We only made it down to the 37th floor and didn't go any further."
He was genuinely trying to do them a favor. If this group went any deeper, the monsters on those floors alone would be more than enough to wipe them out.
"The 37th floor? Good lord. Are you guys university students too? Which college?" Hearing that Ren's group had cleared down to the 37th floor left the party stunned. A rather pretty female student couldn't help but ask.
"We're actually high school seniors! We won't be starting university for a while," Sora answered cheerfully on Ren's behalf. "If you're heading down, you'd better stick to the floors above the 37th. It took us a whole week just to push from the 30th to the 37th floor. It's completely crawling with monsters down there."
Sora's words left the university students reeling. *They're just high school seniors? Wait, don't they have the college entrance exams coming up? Why are they all down here?* Despite their shock, they were far more concerned about the situation on the lower floors.
Out of the goodness of her heart, Sora gave them a brief rundown of the lower levels. She even mentioned how the floors below the 27th had been completely destroyed—meaning that once they reached the 27th floor, they could literally just jump straight down to the 30th.
After photographing the map, they returned the notebook to Sora. The leader of the group bowed deeply in gratitude. "Thank you so much for the map. Please, take these Magic Stones as payment."
Sora waved off the offered items. "No need! It's always good to help each other out when traveling. Besides, if I hadn't already been accepted into Dimensional Nexus University, I might have ended up as your underclassman!"
After rejecting their payment, Sora tucked her notebook away. The university students, however, were even more astounded. *Accepted into Dimensional Nexus University?!*
"Since that's settled, we'll be taking our leave," Ren said, glancing at the group. "Oh, and one last piece of advice. The Dungeon repairs itself, so the destroyed areas will probably be fixed soon. Also, starting from the 17th floor, there's a Floor Boss every ten floors—so the 17th, 27th, and 37th. The 18th floor you're standing on right now is the only Safe Floor between the surface and the 37th floor."
With that, Ren turned and headed toward the passage leading to the 17th floor. These people had come down here with no maps and no guides, forced to figure everything out on their own. Ren was finally experiencing the sheer satisfaction of being a closed-beta tester flexing on the new players.
"Floor Bosses... a Safe Floor... no wonder monsters don't spawn here..." The university students exchanged bewildered looks. They didn't try to stop Ren's group from leaving, silently committing the invaluable information to memory.
They had thought they were the very first batch of explorers to enter. Who would have guessed that someone had not only beaten them to it but had already pushed all the way down to the 37th floor? It was completely absurd.
As they watched Ren walk away, one of the girls in the university party suddenly spoke up. "Captain, those people are insanely strong. Are they really just high schoolers? Aside from two Tier 1s, the rest of them are all Tier 4! And... that handsome guy you were just talking to? I think he's Tier 5!!"
Her innate talent was related to [Perception Magic], allowing her to sense the general strength and weaknesses of others. Because of this, she had managed to gauge the group's power levels.
Hearing her assessment, the captain couldn't help but mutter, "I remember hearing that there's a special school in this city. The principal gathered a bunch of geniuses and put them all into a single class. I bet that's who these guys are."
He had heard the rumors, so he knew about the existence of this special class. And given the size of the group, it matched perfectly. A class entirely made up of gathered geniuses—they were basically monsters in human skin.
No wonder they were down here. They didn't even need to take the college entrance exams; they had already been directly admitted to Dimensional Nexus University. Though he felt a pang of envy, he didn't dwell on it. Looking at the map on his phone, he quickly shared the photos with the rest of his team.
Even though there was no cell service in the Dungeon, Bluetooth transfers still worked. On top of that, they would need a notebook to redraw the map for themselves.
Sora's map was her own modified version, combining the maps they had acquired in Orario with the layout of this world's Dungeon. While there might be a few slight deviations, it was still incredibly useful.
She had even jotted down information about the various monsters. The Floor Bosses Ren had just mentioned were fully documented in the notebook, and the university students had read every word.
Armed with this knowledge, they felt much more confident about exploring the Dungeon. At the same time, they grew more vigilant. They hadn't forgotten the golden rule: the moment you let your guard down is the moment you die.
Would there be a lot of monsters in the deeper floors? Their party only consisted of eight people. If they ventured into the uncharted depths, they would likely be risking their lives. After a brief discussion, they decided to make the 17th floor their central hub.
They would only explore down to the 25th floor. As for the Floor Boss on the 27th floor? They glanced at the notebook's description: *Amphisbaena. A two-headed dragon. Breathes a red mist that erases magic and blue flames of extreme heat.*
Reading those two traits, the group immediately decided to nope out of there. Out of the eight people in their party, five were mages. How the hell were they supposed to fight that? It was literally impossible.
Furthermore, unlike Ren, they weren't dual cultivators who practiced both martial arts and magic. They were all specialized in either True Qi or Magic Power. That red mist alone would be enough to wipe their entire party.
So, they figured it was best to just spend their summer vacation farming materials on these middle floors to sell on the surface. They would leave the heavy lifting to the real monsters and stay out of it.
Perhaps if they ever ran into Ren's group again, they could tag along for a deeper dive. After all, anyone capable of pushing to the 37th floor was undeniably, terrifyingly strong!
"I really didn't expect this place to start opening up to the public," Sora marveled as they stepped onto the 17th floor. They had only been inside for a little over ten days in total, yet the Dungeon was already seeing outside visitors.
"The college entrance exams are about to start, and university students are gradually going on summer break. It's only natural to let them come in here to gain experience," Ren said, his gaze shifting toward the spot where Goliath spawned. "If I'm right, we'll probably run into more people on the way up."
They had seen the news about the upcoming exams right after returning from the other world. Considering how long they had been down in the Dungeon, the exams were likely happening right around now. It made perfect sense for university students to be exploring.
*Maybe even some high schoolers will start coming down soon?* Just as the thought crossed their minds, Ren's voice rang out again. "We got back at the perfect time. Goliath is about to spawn. Any of you want to kill it?"
Hearing this, everyone stopped in their tracks and looked toward the spawn point. Sure enough, the Dungeon wall was rippling strangely. Had Goliath's respawn timer really finished?
"Has it already been two weeks since we went down?" Asuna asked, looking at the impending spawn. She remembered that the Floor Boss's respawn time was exactly two weeks after it was killed.
Asuna pulled out her phone to check the date. It read June 4th. They had started their descent around May 20th, hadn't they? Looking at it that way, it really had been two weeks.
"Let me handle it this time! I want to try soloing it!!" Sora immediately volunteered, her eyes sparkling at the prospect of a one-on-one fight.
She was a Tier 4 combatant now and had even developed her own magic. How could she pass up the chance to solo Goliath? Today, she was going to chop that giant's head clean off.
Hearing Sora stake her claim, the others immediately voiced their displeasure. Plenty of them wanted a crack at soloing the boss—after all, taking on a boss one-on-one was every gamer boy's ultimate dream.
The group quickly devolved into a bickering match, no one willing to give up the opportunity. Ren watched the squabbling idiots with exasperation. "If you're just going to argue about it, I'll just one-shot it."
The moment the words left his mouth, his magic staff materialized in his hand. The instant Goliath fully emerged from the wall, Ren unleashed a [Piercing Magic Cannon] straight at it. Before anyone else could even react...
The massive beam of Magic Power fired. Amidst Sora's ear-piercing shriek of protest, Ren's [Piercing Magic Cannon] completely engulfed the newly spawned Goliath.
"Ahhhhh! Class Rep!!! How could you do that?! I called dibs on the solo! That's so mean! You're just bullying me!!" Sora's wails echoed out, only to be instantly drowned out by a deafening explosion.
Having obliterated the boss, Ren turned back to his classmates with a look of utter bewilderment. "You guys were fighting over who gets to solo it. Since you couldn't decide, I figured I'd just one-shot it and save us the trouble."
His classmates stared at him in speechless disbelief. They highly suspected he had done it on purpose—reminding them the boss was spawning just so he could instantly steal the kill. And seriously, wasn't his casting speed a little *too* fast?
Kumo, who possessed the [Instant Cast] magic, looked at Ren with deep curiosity. "Class Rep, why was your casting speed so fast just now? It almost felt like [Instant Cast]."
She voiced the question on everyone's minds. From the moment Ren pulled out his staff to the moment the spell fired, only a few seconds had passed before the newborn Goliath was vaporized by the beam of light.
"I just skipped a few steps in the casting process. Plus, since I created this spell myself, I've completely mastered it. I can cast it rapidly, but it's not true [Instant Cast]," Ren explained as he stored his staff away.
His attack had been so overwhelmingly powerful that it completely vaporized Goliath, Magic Stone and all. But whatever. Goliath's Magic Stone wasn't worth that much anyway, so Ren didn't really care.
Hearing his explanation, Kumo felt a bit skeptical. *Is that really how it works?* But since she had never created her own magic, she had no way of knowing for sure. If Ren said so, it was probably true.
"Dammit! Class Rep, you owe me a boss!!" Furious at losing her chance for a solo fight, Sora ran up to Ren and loudly demanded he compensate her with a Goliath.
"Sure thing. Yukino, gather some Divine Blood and summon a special variant for her to play with," Ren called out to Yukino, glancing at the noisy Sora.
Aside from regular Floor Bosses, there were also special variants—just like the Juggernaut. If a drop of Divine Blood were introduced right now, the Dungeon would likely spawn a Black Goliath.
The moment Ren spoke, Yukino turned her gaze toward them. "Do you want me to, Sora? If you do, I'd be happy to help."
Hearing the two of them, Sora instantly chickened out. While she was confident she could beat a regular Goliath, she had absolutely zero confidence against a special variant. If it was anything like the monster Ren had fought earlier, she would probably die on the spot!
Sora quickly backpedaled. "Never mind, never mind! We've all had a long trip, let's skip the special Floor Boss! I'll just come back and camp the spawn in two weeks. I've memorized the timer!"
Following her survival instincts, Sora hurriedly pulled out her phone and set a reminder for exactly two weeks from now, logging the exact time of death. Next time, she was definitely getting her solo fight.
Watching her antics, the corners of Ren's mouth twitched upward. He didn't tease her any further and simply resumed walking toward the upper floors. "Let's go. It's better that I one-shot it anyway. It's getting late, so we need to pick up the pace. Otherwise, it'll be pitch black by the time we reach the surface."
With that, Ren accelerated his pace. The others hurriedly followed suit. Bell Cranel and Haruhime Sanjouno could only silently trail behind, their current speed just barely enough to keep up with the rest of the group.
After all, they hadn't been doing nothing for the past two weeks. Just keeping up with the group's daily travel pace had significantly boosted their stamina. Compared to when they first entered the Dungeon, the two rookies had improved by leaps and bounds.
As Ren's group left the 17th floor, the university students down on the 18th floor heard the massive explosion from above. Curiosity getting the better of them, they rushed up to investigate. However, by the time they reached the 17th floor, Ren and the others were long gone.
All that remained was a massive crater, proving that a devastating attack had just occurred. And from the looks of it, the crater had been blasted open in a single instant. The scorched earth was still radiating intense heat.
"Hiss... did someone just one-shot the Floor Boss?" Staring at the crater, the students' faces were painted with shock. Weren't Floor Bosses supposed to be incredibly strong? And it just got instantly obliterated?
Moreover, the culprits were already gone. How much time had passed between them hearing the explosion and running up here? And the area was already empty? It must have been an instantaneous battle. Weren't those high schoolers a little *too* overpowered?
Ren and his group paid no mind to the aftermath on the 17th floor. Once they reached the 16th floor, they kicked their speed into high gear. They passed by a few other explorers along the way, but Ren didn't slow down in the slightest.
Seeing a group sprinting madly through the Dungeon, none of the other explorers dared to block their path. Assuming the group was dealing with an emergency, everyone quickly scrambled out of the way. Thanks to this unimpeded sprint, they managed to exit the Dungeon just before the sun went down.
Stepping back outside, the sun was already dipping below the horizon. The group looked around the Dungeon entrance in surprise. Several shops had already been set up in the area, including a few weapon stores.
Ren even spotted a familiar signboard: Jimmy's Weapon Shop... That was Maya's store! She had actually opened a branch all the way out here? Right next to it was another familiar name—Baoshutang.
However, Maya's shop was currently closed. Baoshutang, on the other hand, was open for business, though it didn't have any customers. In fact, there weren't many people lingering around the area at all.