Ren Isana had gotten the full picture from Natsuki Minamiya, and at the same time a suspicion had taken root in his mind — that for a great many people, if the situation ever demanded it, Pandora could push their strength up at a moment's notice.
These people had almost certainly signed contracts with the world. Whenever they ran into trouble, they simply borrowed power from Pandora directly. Put that way, did this world actually have quite a few Tier 10s running around?
"So has anyone genuinely carved out their own path?" Ren Isana couldn't hold back the question. If the answer was yes, that was something worth looking into properly.
"No one has walked that road yet. Most of them are in secluded training, and some have given up on it entirely." Natsuki Minamiya didn't hide anything from him and answered honestly.
At the end of the day, their foundation was simply too shallow. This world's Spiritual Energy Revival was barely a decade old. Even with the accumulated knowledge harvested from other worlds to reinforce themselves, it was still far too thin. That was precisely why so few could genuinely walk that road.
Having heard all this, Ren Isana felt a twinge of regret. It seemed the road ahead was one he would have to walk alone. Perhaps he could ask Pandora about it some other day.
With that settled in his mind, Ren Isana looked up at Natsuki Minamiya. "So, Natsuki, what did you call me over for?"
He didn't linger on the previous topic and moved straight to business. After all, she had summoned him here for something else.
"What kind of world did you visit this time? The world's will didn't give us much of an explanation and told us to ask you instead." Natsuki Minamiya's expression turned serious.
A brand-new world, and a distinctly high-grade one at that — that alone warranted serious attention. Ren Isana had been the only one to go over, so they needed a clear picture of conditions on the other side. When the two worlds fully connected down the line, they had to be prepared.
Ren Isana understood immediately and launched into an explanation of that world. "Honestly, that world is already under our control."
He laid out the basics of the place, along with the fact that Pandora's will had already taken hold there. So long as a passage was opened, relations between the two sides would be perfectly friendly — after all, that world was incapable of resolving anything by force.
Natsuki Minamiya listened to the end and asked in open astonishment, "That world can't use force? Everything is decided by games? That sounds a lot like Little Garden. Or rather, it sounds even purer than Little Garden?"
Hearing the name Little Garden out of nowhere, Ren Isana froze. They had a connection to Little Garden? He was stunned. Was it the Little Garden he was thinking of?
"Natsuki, this Little Garden you're talking about — is it a world?" Ren Isana couldn't contain his curiosity and asked outright.
Natsuki Minamiya shook her head. "I don't know much about that world myself. The passage has never been opened, and it's stayed entirely in the hands of the world's will. All we know are a few of its rules. It's a stage crowded with gods and buddhas."
Ren Isana's eyes lit up as he took this in. So this world had a route to Little Garden after all. If he could actually go there... that was unambiguously good news.
That was a far larger stage. The thought alone sent a jolt of excitement through him. If it turned out he could go, he would simply ask. Clearly this world was hiding a great deal he still knew nothing about.
"Understood. I'll ask her about it properly sometime. As for the new world, there's nothing to worry about. I've got people over there — the leader of the Imanity stands with me. And on top of that, I'm the second-generation God of War over there now." Ren Isana let out a smug chuckle at that last part.
Counted carefully, Ren Isana had a lot of allies over there. The Elves, the Flügel, the Imanity — those races would absolutely stand on his side. It wouldn't be a problem.
Natsuki Minamiya nodded thoughtfully. Ren Isana hadn't said what he had actually done in that world, but from the sound of it, he must have pulled off something extraordinary.
Otherwise, how could he possibly have broken through to this degree all at once? Either way, it was good news. It also meant the kid now had a power base of his own — and not a weak one.
The special class was, in effect, Ren Isana's own crew, but it seemed the kid had gone and acquired far heavier hitters. That worked out nicely. Any world that needed a full raid team, they could just send him in.
They were badly short on manpower over here — otherwise she wouldn't be the one handling every single thing herself. Natsuki Minamiya turned the thought over in her head.
The two of them talked a while longer, and afterward Ren Isana spent some time playing with the pack of little girls. It wasn't until evening that he finally left the faculty apartments and returned to his own dorm.
For the next few days Ren Isana rested alone in his room. As the new term drew close, everyone else finally began trickling back. Asuna and the others had barely stepped out of the No. 3 Dimensional Rift when they saw Ren Isana's message in the group chat.
Seeing her boyfriend's message, Asuna's face lit up. Ren Isana was back already? She picked up her pace and hurried back toward the school.
Ren Isana was out on the balcony killing time on his phone when Asuna suddenly vaulted up from below, startling him badly. Spotting him, Asuna beamed and asked, "When did you get back?"
Ren Isana found her enthusiasm funny. "Three days ago. Looks like you all came back with quite a haul?"
He asked because he could feel the Magic Power inside her — it had grown, and not by a small margin either.
Asuna giggled and immediately spilled the whole story. They really had slain a god this time, and every single one of them had taken part. At first, when Sora and the others went ahead alone,
they couldn't find a trace of any other Heretic God. It was only once everyone regrouped that their luck turned, and the group tracked down Quetzalcoatl over in the Amazon.
Listening to Asuna's account, Ren Isana was genuinely impressed. That was some serious luck — they had actually managed to find a Heretic God. He had been fully prepared for them to come back empty-handed.
"Not bad at all. Your Magic Power went up at least twenty percent." Ren Isana gave her a thumbs-up in approval. Right about then the others came piling in as well. His door was unlocked, so Sora and the rest strolled straight through.
"Class Rep! We're back! How'd your trip go? I heard you ran off to a new world?" Sora's face was alight with excitement. She had been thoroughly satisfied with their own trip, and she was dying to know whether Ren Isana had come away with anything good.
Looking at Sora bounding in, and the classmates crowded outside, Ren Isana couldn't help but smile. "Massive haul. My strength is at Tier 9 now. I've left all of you completely in the dust."
He had no intention of hiding his own strength. Everyone present heard him say it — and precisely because they heard it, every one of them was left slack-jawed and struggling to believe it.
"Class Rep, you're pulling our leg, right?" Sora's head was buzzing. Ren Isana was Tier 9 already? Was this some kind of joke?
They had been gone one month, not one year, and he had already hit Tier 9?
"I am absolutely not pulling your leg. This is the real thing. My strength is Tier 9 now." It was perfectly natural that nobody believed it. Anyone who knew what Ren Isana's strength used to be, hearing what it was one month later, would have been shaken.
The gap was simply too vast — vast enough to be genuinely demoralizing. Asuna stared at her boyfriend in disbelief. "How did you manage that? How are you suddenly Tier 9?"
She looked at him with a trace of nervousness. He hadn't done something insane, had he? And that was how he broke through? The thought dragged up what the world's will had told him before he left for that other world.
Crossing through space and time... Asuna's pupils shrank. Ren Isana hadn't spent years over there, had he? And then used his own talent to climb this high?
"Don't let your imagination run wild. I just came into a few unexpected windfalls. Either way, that trip was a huge net gain for me." Ren Isana found her stunned expression amusing, though he offered no specifics.
The short version was that he had gotten lucky. All they needed to know was that he was fine. The details weren't necessary.
The group exchanged looks, still not quite able to accept it. In the span of a single month, Ren Isana's strength had gone from Tier 7 to Tier 9. Who wouldn't be floored by that?
"Anyway, now that you're all back, get some proper rest. Classes start again soon, and if nothing comes up this term, we'll probably all be sitting in lectures for a while." Ren Isana said to the classmates gathered around him.
At that, everyone had to set aside any further questions. They said their goodbyes and headed back to their own dorm rooms.
Asuna, however, didn't leave. She stayed behind. Their relationship was hardly a secret at this point, and even if the two of them lived together outright, nobody in the class would have said a word.
"So frustrating. I thought my haul from this trip was pretty respectable, but next to yours my progress may as well not exist." Once everyone had gone, Asuna slumped into a chair and started venting to him.
The elation she had felt over slaying a god now felt like nothing at all. The gap was just too wide. Ren Isana had awakened at the same time as the rest of them, and yet the distance between them kept widening.
"Well, mostly it was a matter of good luck. And I picked up a whole race while I was over there." Ren Isana laughed and started filling her in.
That caught Asuna's interest, and she began pressing him for details about the place, wanting to know what "picking up a race" was supposed to mean. She was thoroughly curious about all of it.
Ren Isana held nothing back, chatting away about what had happened over there so she could get a feel for that world. One day, everyone might end up going.