Looking at the Array Magic enveloping the camp, everyone couldn't help their curiosity and reached out to touch it. Upon making contact, it felt exactly like pressing against an invisible wall of air.
Someone even threw a punch at it, only to discover that the thing was absurdly sturdy. It was astonishing—a literal invisible wall.
"Let's go. If you want to get back inside, just activate the mark on your hand," Ren Isana called out, explaining the mechanism to the group.
Hearing this, a few students immediately tested it out. With their marks activated, their hands passed right through the barrier. The mark was the key to entry.
Now understanding how it worked, everyone followed Ren Isana. The group headed straight down deeper into the Dungeon. Leaving the 18th Floor, they entered a dimly lit cavern.
This was the 19th Floor. The caverns here were significantly larger than the ones above; the deeper they went, the more expansive the environment became.
"Are we splitting up like before?" Sora couldn't help but ask, noticing Ren Isana hadn't given any specific orders yet.
"Yeah, let's stick to the previous formation for now. The monsters on this floor probably aren't much different from the ones above," Ren Isana nodded. Until they reached the 20th Floor, operating in small squads was perfectly fine.
Only by going deeper would full-scale teamwork become necessary. Hearing his confirmation, Sora nodded and led her squad away from the main group.
The others followed suit. Watching this, Ais blinked in surprise. *This is how they explore?* As the thought crossed her mind, she heard the voice of her temporary teammate.
"Ais, let's head out too."
Ais snapped back to reality and nodded. Since she and Lefiya had joined their class, they were naturally willing to follow their arrangements.
As the various squads dispersed into action, Ren Isana, Asuna, and the rest of their group continued forward. Before long, only their four-man squad remained. Asuna looked at Ren Isana and asked, "Are we going to look for a Monster Room next?"
Knowing Ren Isana's personality, he would definitely choose the most efficient route. The regular monster spawns simply weren't enough for them to kill; only a Monster Room could provide any real pressure.
"Yeah, we're heading straight for a Monster Room," Ren Isana nodded. At that moment, a particular question began to form in his mind. The Dungeon's monster spawn mechanism was supposedly random.
However, adventurers possessed divine blood within their bodies—even if it was just a single drop from their Falna. Did that mean the Dungeon's hostility toward adventurers was entirely due to that divine blood? It was a question worth pondering.
If a deity descended into the Dungeon and released their Divine Power, it would trigger the Dungeon's wrath, causing monsters to spawn in a frenzy. If that was the case, didn't that mean simply condensing that divine blood and releasing its aura would also trigger a massive monster spawn?
Could they even use this method to force a Floor Boss to spawn? Just like the irregular Goliath that was birthed in the original story. At that thought, Ren Isana's heart skipped a beat, and he turned his gaze toward Yukino.
Yukino Yukinoshita, who had been using her [Perception Magic] to scan their surroundings, suddenly noticed Ren Isana stop and stare at her. Confused, she met his gaze. "What is it?"
"I have a bold idea," Ren Isana said slowly. Those words instantly gave Yukino an ominous premonition.
"The Dungeon's monster spawn rates are highly unstable, and the Dungeon itself harbors a deep malice toward gods. So here's the question: we have divine blood in our bodies, right?" As Ren Isana spoke, Yukino's bad feeling grew stronger.
"What are you trying to say?!" Yukino glared at him warily. She didn't understand why he was bringing this up, but whatever he was planning, it clearly involved her.
Ren Isana smiled brightly at her and continued, "Your innate talent is [Body Control], isn't it? Theoretically speaking, you should be able to control the divine blood that has fused with your body, right?"
Hearing this, Yukino's brow furrowed. She immediately realized what he was getting at and hurriedly said, "You want me to condense the divine blood and use it to... attract the Dungeon's monsters?"
The moment he mentioned controlling the divine blood, his insane plan became crystal clear. The Dungeon would fly into a rage at the presence of anything divine. If she gathered Hestia's blood back together...
Wasn't that just pulling aggro? Ren Isana wanted her to act as monster bait! But if she did that, what if the Dungeon completely lost its mind? The risks were glaringly obvious.
Feeling a surge of anxiety, Yukino asked, "If I condense the divine blood and the Dungeon throws a tantrum, what then? We can't handle the consequences of that."
She voiced her concerns, terrified of triggering a massive riot in the Dungeon. She hadn't forgotten what happened the first time they met Hestia.
They had been forced to run for their lives. If she did this, wouldn't they just be repeating that nightmare? She absolutely refused to go through that again, her entire body radiating resistance.
"It'll be fine, trust me. Just don't condense too much of it. At most, it'll just act as a lure," Ren Isana coaxed, eager to test his theory. *Just give it a try, what's the worst that could happen?*
However, Yukino remained incredibly hesitant. Who knew what kind of disaster this would cause? For the sake of safety, it was better to just drop the idea.
"If it's just a little bit, it should be totally fine. Think about it—the divine blood has already fused with everyone's bodies, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten stronger. Besides, it's not like female adventurers suddenly get swarmed and die whenever it's their time of the month in the Dungeon, right?" Ren Isana spouted his nonsense with a completely straight face.
*Think of how much blood is lost during a period! How much divine blood is mixed in there? If that doesn't trigger an apocalypse, what are we afraid of?*
Therefore, Yukino's worries were completely unfounded.
Hearing Ren Isana's bizarre analogy, Asuna and Megumi Kato both rolled their eyes. *Is it really okay to phrase it like that?*
Surprisingly, Yukino actually found the logic sound.
She activated her innate talent, sensing the traces of golden divine blood diffused throughout her body, and finally relented. "Perhaps we can try. You've successfully convinced me."
Although Ren Isana's analogy was incredibly weird, it made perfect sense. Furthermore, it wasn't like people didn't bleed in the Dungeon. The amount of blood spilled by adventurers every single day was immeasurable.
And yet, the Dungeon didn't fly into a blind rage over it. Having made up her mind, Yukino decided to give it a shot. Ren Isana's words had won her over, and besides, she was the only one capable of pulling this off.
If she could actually manipulate the Dungeon's spawn rate, it would be a monumental discovery. Whenever they needed to farm specific materials in the future, they could just force a horde of monsters to spawn on command.
She glanced at their surroundings and asked, "Should we start now? Or should we find a more spacious area?"
Seeing Yukino agree, the corners of Ren Isana's mouth curled up into a smirk. "Let's move to a wider area first. If this actually works, we can gather the rest of the class later and power-level together."
This was just a test, but to prevent any accidents, it was best to find an open space. Otherwise, if too many monsters spawned at once, things could get messy.
"Alright!" Yukino had no objections and followed Ren Isana's lead. With the plan settled, Ren Isana fully unleashed his [Perception Magic] and locked onto a suitable location.
"Let's go, there's a good spot over here." With that, Ren Isana took the lead, and Asuna and the others quickly followed.
Catching up to him, Asuna couldn't help but ask, "Is this really going to be okay? If the Dungeon actually gets angry, we'll be in serious trouble, won't we?"
Hearing Asuna's concern, Ren Isana shook his head. He wasn't panicked in the slightest; instead, he explained seriously, "Even if it gets angry, there's nothing to worry about here. We can easily handle the monsters around the 18th Floor, and we aren't the same weaklings we were back then."
The only reason they had turned tail and fled during that first incident was because Ren Isana had been too weak. But now, he had grown tremendously. Since arriving in this world, he had learned a vast arsenal of magic.
If they truly encountered a situation like that again, Ren Isana would show Asuna what a true infinite artillery battery looked like. His lack-of-firepower phobia was temporarily cured, and he was confident he could handle anything.
If things really went south, they could just call for backup. It wasn't a big deal—they had Ais, a top-tier powerhouse, nearby anyway. *The advantage is ours, no need to panic!*
"That's easy to say, but I'm worried about monsters from the deeper floors rushing up," Asuna sighed. She wasn't afraid of the monsters on this floor, but a stampede from the lower levels was a different story.
"It's not a big deal... don't panic!" Ren Isana reassured her calmly.
Hearing this, Megumi Kato couldn't help but mutter quietly, "You might not be panicking, but we are..."
As everyone knew, the gap between individuals could be vast, and the gap between them and Ren Isana was like heaven and earth. There was simply no comparison. What seemed like a walk in the park to him was a life-or-death struggle to them.
"Don't you guys want to level up and learn more magic? More monsters mean more Excelia. So... what are you afraid of? Just pretend Yukino had her period a few extra times," Ren Isana said, looking at Megumi and Asuna with exasperation.
His words caused a massive question mark to slowly form over Yukino's head. She glared at him in extreme displeasure. "How can you be so utterly shameless? What do you mean, 'had her period a few extra times'?"
*What a vicious curse! Is this guy even speaking human language?* If she wasn't absolutely certain she would lose, she would have marched up and punched him in the face. That was no way to talk to a girl!
"Don't sweat the details. Get ready, we're almost at our destination." Ren Isana blatantly changed the subject, quickening his pace as he walked ahead.
Yukino took a deep breath. *When will I finally be able to get my revenge? I really, really want to beat him up!* But that bastard's talents were simply too absurd, leaving her with a profound sense of powerlessness.
After complaining internally, she sped up and followed him. The group soon arrived at a relatively spacious cavern. It wasn't a Monster Room, just a wider section of the tunnels.
Stopping there, Ren Isana turned his gaze to Yukino and gestured. "Go ahead and start. This shouldn't be too difficult for you."
Yukino nodded, her expression turning serious. "It's not hard. I can usually sense the presence of that blood anyway. There are traces of golden substance mixed into my bloodstream. Even though it's sparse, I know exactly what it is."
With that said, Yukino sprang into action. She activated her [Body Control], drawing the golden substance from her bloodstream and condensing it directly at the tip of her index finger.
Slowly, her fingertip began to glow. A faint aura of Divinity began to radiate from Yukino's body, and the sudden appearance of this aura instantly provoked the Dungeon.
Within Ren Isana's [Perception Magic] range, Dungeon monsters began spawning in rapid succession across multiple locations, and in significant numbers. Noticing this, Ren Isana quickly shouted, "Stop!"
Hearing his command, Yukino hurriedly dispersed the blood. Asuna and Megumi, who had kept their [Perception Magic] active, clearly sensed the sudden influx of lifeforms.
"Looks like we don't need to bleed you dry after all!" Feeling that they were already surrounded by monsters, Ren Isana grew excited. Asuna shared his enthusiasm; the number of spawned monsters was still well within a manageable range.
"With this, we've essentially mastered a way to force the Dungeon to spawn monsters," Yukino said, equally thrilled. Plus, not having to actually cut herself was a huge bonus.
She drew her weapon and instantly entered combat mode. The four of them took one direction each and began clearing out the newly spawned monsters.
The monsters on this floor were indeed stronger than those on the 16th Floor, but the group hadn't been standing still either. In combat, their movements had become sharper and much faster.
When it came to the art of killing, Instructor Yor had taught them well. Every strike from Asuna, Yukino, and the others was aimed precisely at the monsters' weakest points.
Megumi Kato had also changed her previous combat style, opting for direct confrontation. In the past, she had relied on her innate lack of presence to sneak up and silently backstab her enemies.
Now, she was charging straight in and slashing away. Even though the monsters still barely noticed her, her fighting style had undergone a drastic transformation.
As the group was finishing off the last of the monsters, Ren Isana called out, "Yukino, try it again! Don't stop, let's see if we can keep the spawns coming."
"Understood, starting now," Yukino quickly replied.
With that, Yukino activated her [Body Control] again, re-condensing the divine blood. The Dungeon was more than happy to oblige, spawning an even larger wave of monsters this time.
It was obvious the Dungeon felt provoked. However, just as it deployed a fresh batch of monsters, the divine aura vanished again, only to reappear moments later in a continuous cycle.
Although the Dungeon possessed its own will, it operated on rigid, mechanical rules. The moment it sensed a god's aura, it would deploy monsters, spawning powerful creatures to purge the anomaly.
Ren Isana and his team were exploiting this exact mechanism, repeatedly forcing it to spawn monsters. In just a short amount of time, they had already triggered the cycle several times.
After confirming there were no issues, Ren Isana suggested, "Yukino, try increasing the intensity. Condense all the divine blood you can and hold the aura for a bit longer."
Hearing this, Yukino hesitated for a brief second before deciding to comply. Without any further delay, she followed his instructions, gathering all the divine blood she could muster into her hand.
This time, she didn't immediately disperse the condensed blood, letting it linger at her fingertip. Because of this, the Dungeon's monster spawn rate skyrocketed.
In just a few short seconds, over a hundred monsters spawned around them. This time, without needing Ren Isana to say a word, Yukino instantly dispersed the divine blood, letting it flow back into her body.
"We're surrounded..." Asuna said, slightly speechless as she looked at the horde of monsters that had spawned in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, Ren Isana silently put away his weapon and pulled out his magic staff.
The next moment, a Magic Circle appeared beneath all four of them. The sight caught Asuna and the others off guard, but they quickly realized they were now cloaked in a layer of radiant light.
This was none other than [Liv Illusion], the spell Ren Isana had learned from Riveria. It was a magic that boosted both physical and magical resistance while also providing a slight healing effect. In other words, Ren Isana had just cast a massive shield over the entire party!