Sora leaned in close to Ren Isana and asked slyly, "Class Rep, are you forging a set of armor for Asuna? Can I order a set too?"
Ren glanced at her and replied, "I don't take orders under two hundred million Valis."
Sora rolled her eyes, complaining, "A thirty million order is still an order! You can't play favorites, Class Rep!"
She had been tempted ever since she heard Ren was making gear for Asuna. With his divine forging skills, the equipment was bound to be top-tier.
"No, for low-level orders, you're better off finding Tsubaki. There's no need to come to me. Besides, if I make one for you, everyone else will want one too. So, I'm not taking any orders under two hundred million," Ren refused with a straight face.
It definitely wasn't just because Asuna was paying a premium. The main reason was that making just one piece was a breeze for him and wouldn't take much time.
Rejected, Sora felt a bit gloomy but had no other choice. She decided to follow his advice and commission Tsubaki.
*I'll just wait and see what kind of clothes he makes for Asuna, then get one made for myself,* she thought. *It might not be as top-tier as his, but copying the basic functions shouldn't be a problem, right?*
"Then you won't mind if I plagiarize your design, right, Class Rep?" Sora asked. She figured Asuna's armor was guaranteed to look amazing.
"If I charge you a licensing fee, will you pay it?" Ren shot her a look. If she wanted to copy it, what could he really say to stop her?
"Nope! Then it's settled. Once you finish Asuna's, I'll have someone make an exact replica. The functions might not be as strong, but as long as it looks similar, it's fine." Sora chuckled, completely devoid of guilt.
Ignoring her, Ren went over to greet Tsubaki and asked her to start upgrading everyone's weapons. Of course, this wasn't free labor. Her Familia needed to grow, so he wasn't expecting her to cover the materials.
Ren paid them twenty thousand Valis per weapon as a crafting fee and provided the rest of the materials himself—primarily the Juggernaut's corpse. Once he prepped the necessary components, he let Tsubaki and her smiths handle the upgrades.
Meanwhile, Ren began his own preparations. Crafting Asuna's armor required processing certain parts, like the front plating. As he got to work, Asuna wandered over.
Seeing the shape of the armor plating he was forming, she quickly realized what he was doing and asked in confusion, "Will that fit? Don't you need to take my measurements?"
If it didn't fit right, it would be uncomfortable and affect her combat performance.
Ren shook his head. "No need. We have magic. Besides, my eyes are rulers. I already know your measurements: 82, 60, 83, D-cup."
He gave her a brief glance after rattling off the numbers.
Asuna's eyes widened in disbelief. How did he know that?!
She was completely stunned because he was exactly right. Snapping out of it, her face flushed bright red. "You jerk!!" she glared at him angrily.
This was too much! How had he observed her so closely? Asuna felt entirely exposed, a terrible feeling of being completely seen through washing over her.
"So don't worry, there absolutely won't be any issues on my end. I even know your shoe size. I guarantee you'll be satisfied when it's done tomorrow," Ren said, lowering his head to focus on his work.
Asuna's mouth twitched, a wave of helplessness washing over her. *Great, just great. I guess I don't have a single secret from you, do I?* If it weren't for the fact that the [Perception Magic] Ren taught them couldn't detect such detailed physical traits, she would have suspected him of using it to peep on her.
She decided not to dwell on it, chalking it up to Ren just being unusually observant. Glancing at him hard at work, she left him be and went to check on her weapon's progress.
Once Ren finished forging the necessary components, all that was left was to assemble them back home, add the fabric, and enchant it.
Since the others' weapons were still being upgraded, Ren found himself with some free time. On a whim, he sketched out the design for the Knights of the Blood Oath uniform—though strictly the female version.
As for the guys? Ren had zero interest. The male Knights of the Blood Oath uniforms were lackluster and offered poor protection, so they could wear whatever they wanted.
After finishing the blueprints, Ren called Sora over and shoved the papers into her hands. "Here. The clothes you wanted. Go get someone to make them."
Sora's eyes lit up. She eagerly took the papers and unrolled them. Seeing the design, she marveled, "Whoa, as expected of the Class Rep. This looks really good!"
After studying it for a moment, she was highly satisfied. It was decided—she would ask Tsubaki to custom-make this armor set for them. It was stylish yet practical for combat, though they would definitely need safety shorts underneath.
"Class Rep, is this only for the girls? We could totally use this as a unified uniform!" Sora suggested. She felt it would make a perfect Familia uniform. It looked so good that she doubted any of their classmates would object.
"No need. The guys can wear whatever they want. Half the time, I can't even be bothered to wear armor myself," Ren replied casually. He genuinely didn't care.
Seeing his disinterest, Sora didn't push it. She examined the blueprint a bit longer before handing it back. "Never mind, then. Let's just keep this armor exclusive to Asuna. If I wear it too, our outfits will clash."
It would look great on Asuna, but what if it didn't suit her? She needed to think it over carefully. Designing her own set actually sounded like a fun idea.
She had designed her own weapon, after all. Even though Ren had tweaked it, it still proved she had talent! And her current weapon felt incredibly comfortable to use.
After a brief thought, she made up her mind: she would design her own armor and have Tsubaki forge it. Energized by the idea, she happily finalized her plan!
Ren stared at the fickle girl, utterly speechless. *Alright, fine. I draw it for you and you don't even want it? What a complete waste of my time!*
He snatched the blueprint back. "If you didn't want it, you should've said so earlier! Wasting my time... shoo, go away!"
Shooing her off in annoyance, Ren walked over to the forge and tossed the blueprint straight into the fire.
"Hehe, don't be mad, Class Rep! I just feel like designing my own set would give me a better sense of accomplishment!" Sora explained.
Ren gave her a weird look. He had no idea where she got her confidence from. Was she just going to make something overly flashy and impractical?
Remembering her previous weapon designs, Ren nodded and gave a highly perfunctory reply. "Right, right. Designing it yourself gives a sense of accomplishment. Go ahead and design it yourself, then."
He couldn't be bothered to argue. He just hoped Tsubaki wouldn't yell at her later. After all, a drawing and a physical object were two entirely different things, and Sora's drawings were in a league of their own.
Sora's art style leaned heavily into the abstract. Normal people couldn't understand it, and she loved adding useless, flashy details. Whatever she drew would probably be completely unsuited for actual combat.
Feeling slightly despised, Sora pouted and was about to say something else when a voice called out, "Sora-san, your weapon is ready."
Hearing the call, she dropped the subject, shouted a reply, and hurried over.
Watching her leave, Ren shook his head and ignored her. He walked over to settle the bill with Jimmy. The materials had already been inventoried, and Jimmy was currently discussing something with a dwarf.
Seeing Ren approach, Jimmy listed off the quantities and prices. "We've sorted through the materials you brought back. After deducting the cost of the materials you bought earlier, you've got two million Valis left over. Here's the itemized list; take a look."
Jimmy handed Ren a ledger detailing all the materials he had sold, categorized by grade, quantity, and price.
The price of Magic Stones had completely plummeted, stabilizing at roughly the same rates as the original Orario. Low-level Magic Stones were practically worthless now. Fortunately, Ren's haul consisted entirely of mid-to-high-level Magic Stones.
After all, the floors past the 30th yielded high-quality Magic Stones, whose prices hadn't been affected much. Only the low-level ones had crashed.
Ren had previously traded two of the Juggernaut's claws for materials and bought even more supplies here, spending over ten million Valis in total. Even after all those expenses, he still had over two million left.
That meant his total profit from this Dungeon dive was around fifteen million Valis. It was a fantastic haul. Ren nodded after reviewing the ledger.
"I'll transfer the funds to you in a bit. The amount of materials you guys brought back is insane. You made more from one trip than I do selling a whole batch of weapons." It wasn't just Ren; the others had also brought back a massive amount of materials, all fetching similar prices.
Jimmy had never seen anything like it. They were hauling Magic Stones by the ton. It was absurd.
"We just got lucky. The Dungeon is packed with monsters, and the deeper you go, the fewer people there are clearing them out. We completely wiped out every floor before moving down, which is why we gathered so much," Ren explained, shaking his head.
It was the dawn of a new frontier—who wouldn't be making bank? Ren also figured that since no one else was exploring the deeper floors yet, his group could just keep diving and treating it like a wholesale supplier.
To them, the monsters down there were basically walking piles of cash. The more they killed, the more they earned. Wiping out a few floors meant gaining both Excelia and money—an absolute win-win.
Ren quickly made up his mind: they would head back down tomorrow or the day after. He just needed to see what the rest of the class wanted to do. They could just spend the rest of the summer break diving. Consider it a summer job!
After finalizing things with Jimmy, Ren looked over at his classmates. They had borrowed Jimmy's office to update their statuses. Thanks to Hestia, everyone's Falna was now set to update automatically.
This meant they no longer needed to return to the surface just to update their stats. Ren walked over to Leo and the others. "Are you guys planning to keep diving? I'm thinking of clearing out the monsters on the lower floors. It's basically free money right now."
Hearing Ren's plan, everyone's eyes lit up. Leo immediately replied, "We were just discussing that. I think it's totally doable. We can go down and clear out the unmapped floors."
They all knew this was a golden opportunity to make money. Especially now that their Falna updated automatically, no one wanted to waste their summer break. Earning money while grinding Excelia? It was a dream come true.
"Are we really going back, Class Rep? And pushing even deeper?" Kai asked. If Ren wasn't going, they probably wouldn't either. They all followed his lead now.
"Of course we're going. I was actually going to ask if you guys wanted a few days of rest, but it looks like you've already made up your minds. Talk it over with the others. If there are no objections, we head out tomorrow," Ren said, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Curious, Leo asked, "Are we pushing for the 50th floor this time? Or just operating around the 37th?"
Ren thought for a moment. "Let's use the 37th floor as our base and push down from there. We probably won't clear too many floors. Don't forget, the deeper you go, the larger the floors get. Reaching the 50th floor might be a bit difficult."
The 50th floor was a major milestone because it housed the second Safe Floor. However, they had only reached the 37th floor so far. There were still thirteen floors between them and their goal, each one massive and swarming with monsters.
Pushing all the way to the 50th floor before summer break ended would be tough. Unless they brought more people, their Spatial Backpacks wouldn't even be able to hold all the Magic Stones.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Kai thought about it and added, "If that's the case, we'll just have to take it slow. We'll get as far as we can. My only worry is that our Spatial Backpacks won't be able to hold all the materials."
They knew better than anyone just how many Magic Stones the lower-floor monsters dropped. They might have to run back to the surface every few days, which sounded like a massive headache. Would they really have to throw away lower-grade drops just to make room for the high-end stuff?
Honestly, no one wanted to do that. Every little bit counts, after all. As Kai pondered this, he glanced over at Jimmy, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
"Class Rep, do you think we could get Jimmy to send some people down?" Kai suggested. "We could hand off the materials inside the Dungeon and have his people transport them to the surface."
If they could offload their inventory mid-dive, it would make things infinitely easier. Plus, they could resupply on the go. Jimmy definitely had the manpower for something like that, right?
Hearing the suggestion, several classmates turned to Ren, thinking it was a brilliant idea. However, it was up to Ren to negotiate the logistics with Jimmy.
Ren considered it for a moment. "I'll go ask Jimmy. Even if they take a cut of the profits, it's fine. After all, they'd be the ones doing the heavy lifting."
He wanted to set expectations early. You had to let others wet their beaks. It was better to agree on a lower price upfront than have people feel cheated later.
The group nodded in understanding. If someone was trekking into the Dungeon just to haul your cargo, they deserved a cut. It was far better than throwing valuable materials away to free up inventory space.
With the plan settled, Ren walked back over to Jimmy and pitched the idea.
Jimmy listened intently, falling into deep thought. "Tell me about the situation down there," he said, not agreeing immediately. He needed to understand the Dungeon's current state before sending his people into danger.
Sensing an opening, Ren pulled a notebook from his Spatial Ring and handed it over. "This is the map of the lower floors. For the earlier floors, as long as you move fast enough, you can completely ignore the newly spawned monsters."
Jimmy took the notebook and began flipping through it. It contained detailed records of every floor. He quickly skimmed the information before handing it back.
"You guys are planning to go even deeper, right? If my people only need to go as far as the 18th-floor Safe Floor, that shouldn't be a problem. But sending them all the way down to the 37th floor would be tough." He simply didn't have the manpower for that.
The deeper the floors, the larger the map. But the 18th floor? That was manageable. It was a Safe Floor, after all. This gave Jimmy a brilliant business idea. He could have Maya set up a transit station down there—literally opening a branch inside the Dungeon. They would make an absolute killing!