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"You should’ve let me pressure him more. You could’ve saved at least 10 to 20k from that purchase," Alex grumbled as they sat on the bus.

Ren’s purchase was complete; the leather armor was all he really needed. Anything else, he could have delivered to the clan, so they decided to return home.

"Well, yeah. I could, but that’s showing bad faith as his future customer. I didn’t want to make my impression of him worse," Ren reasoned out. "Besides, that’s probably his first sale of the day. It’s not good to squeeze him so much. It’s fine, really. I can make money now."

Ren wasn’t really concerned. Sure, Alex could’ve saved him 10 to 20k credits if he were allowed to continue pestering Old Sam, but there was no need to do that.

Old Sam had treated him rather well. He was thoughtful enough to bring out his good stock. If Ren didn’t leave a decent impression on him, he wouldn’t have taken out the Lion King Leather Armor Set at all. He could’ve picked something else entirely and not lost sleep over it.

The old man was more than aware of the value of the armor set. And like he said, he’s got a feeling that Ren would like it; that’s why he took it out. That shows sincerity from the old man at least, and Ren couldn’t tarnish that just for the sake of saving some credits...something that he could earn pretty easily now.

"Well, that’s that, then," Alex sighed. "So, what’s your plan? When are you going to the gates? Will you be going solo or with a party?"

This was something that every first-time explorer should consider very carefully.

Being a dungeon explorer wasn’t some easy task. People die in this line of work. Sure, the potential profits are immense. Earning millions of credits at once was nothing to veteran dungeon explorers, but that comes with a constant risk to their lives.

Every time they enter a dungeon world, they risk not returning, ever. Ren would know; his father of this life left that way.

Even when going to dungeon stages that ’should be’ weaker for them, there’s still a risk of dying and never coming back. No dungeon stage/level is ever ’safe.’ Even if it’s one filled with nothing but docile and non-aggressive monsters, it’s still a danger to one’s life.

This is why the GMU heavily regulates and monitors the dungeons. It’s their duty to reduce accidents and casualties. They made rules and regulations that must be followed and observed in dungeons. They even released guides online to ensure that the potential risks are reduced.

"I’ll take stages 1 to 3 solo. Come stage 4 onward, well...I’ll consider coming with a party. I...well, I don’t know. I don’t have connections or friends to form a party with, so I guess I’ll just go to the GMU to ask for assistance. They should be able to recommend a good party for me to join."

Ren didn’t have everything figured out. Shocking, indeed, but he can’t account for everybody.

Because of his reclusive lifestyle, he doesn’t know many people. He doesn’t even have friends since he is busy training most of the time. The people he knew were from the clan; his batchmates, which he had almost forgotten at this point; and the ones Alex introduced to him. That’s it.

Ren never even once considered becoming a soloist because that’s just going to make his life unnecessarily difficult.

Sure, there were conditions for the honor roll to enter as pure soloists, and entering his name in there could bring out potentially immense rewards. But that’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Ren’s age and speed of progress already raise eyebrows because of their contradiction to his perceived talent. He could indeed become a pure soloist; he’s strong enough to do that, but that would just attract more attention to him.

And at his current level, that’s dangerous. Ren’s got too many secrets already. One he can’t risk letting others know. He’s too weak to protect himself against the schemers behind the scenes.

So, he could only stay low-profile for now. Hell, if it weren’t so dangerous after all, he would’ve used his real name to take credit for his creation of the Green Lotus Technique. But he obviously didn’t, and for a very good reason.

"Ooh, sorry, cousin. I’ll introduce you to a party if I know some, but I don’t. At least, not ones that you can join. Yeah, GMU’s assistance should be able to help you with that. There’s also Nathan; don’t be afraid to bother him. He might not look like it, but he loves it when people visit him. It gives him an excuse to look away from his screen," Alex stated.

Ren would surely remember not to abuse the kindness of Nathan or to bother him. He wouldn’t go unless he had no other options really. But if he were to go, Ren would surely bring gifts along. It would be impolite to just receive help without doing anything in return. Nathan already helped him a lot by expediting the speed of his license’s production.

Eventually, they returned to the clan. Alex parted ways, and Ren made his way back to his house.

Once he was there, he went to his backyard with his armor on. Then, he began cycling through his stances to become more familiar with having them on.

The Lion King’s leather armor didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Despite it being a thick leather set, it’s breathable and flexible; it didn’t hinder his movements at all. It’s practically weightless too.

At first, it felt strange wearing it. But Ren chalked it up to him not being used to it. He’s more used to wearing a training gi in his practice. But since he’s about to explore a dungeon soon, he better get used to this fast. That’s why he’s starting now.

Ren would love to test the actual durability of this armor, but he doesn’t have a good way to do that now. He didn’t feel like bothering the adults of the clan to help him test it out, either.

All he knew was that this leather armor was enough to resist thousand-refined steel and had a high elemental resistance. It would be melted by acid, burned with fire, shriveled from frost, etc. This armor is good up to Stage 30, he reckons.

But Ren also has to take care of it. Gear can be damaged; this one was no exception. It will need repairs after some use. If he waits for too long before repairing it, there’s a good chance that its quality will deteriorate.

One property of armor sets like these is that they react to chakra well. Their users can spend chakra to do minimal repairs of their armor. However, it can never be a substitute for a real repair from an expert.

Obviously, this comes with a maintenance cost. And it usually varies depending on the quality of the gear. The rarer and more difficult it is to repair, the more expensive it’s going to be. That’s just how it is. Common sense, if you will.

Ren studied how to take care of his gear online. It came from official and verified channels so they wouldn’t lie to him. It’s not martial arts, so he couldn’t understand it all in one go, but it’s pretty easy.

It’ll only become difficult once he actually starts learning how to craft and forge, and as he is, Ren has no plans on doing that. Potion making as his side profession is good enough for now.

Ren decided to wear the chest piece beneath a shirt. He didn’t mind the leather pressing directly to his skin since it’s breathable anyway. Plus, he thinks that it would look better this way.

As for the rest, they could be worn as is. The pants looked okay; the gloves and sandals were fine too.

The more he practiced while wearing it, the more he felt comfortable with it. Ren felt his chakra making contact with the leather armor set and also felt it siphoning a little bit of his chakra as if it were imprinting itself to him.

This was more like an instinctual reaction. True imprinting was more intense than this. If a piece of equipment is imprinted, it means that it’s claimed and cannot be used by anybody it doesn’t recognize.

The Lion King’s Leather Armor set didn’t have an imprinting function. It’s too low-level to have that. It’s reacting this way because of the aforementioned chakra affinity. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

This was the same way Ren could do minimal repairs for his gear using chakra; it’ll also be easier to wash and clean this way. The gear itself didn’t recognize him as its sole wearer, but it did help with increasing his familiarity with it.

Once Ren had enough. He kept the armor on. Even though he sweated buckets while wearing it, it dried off pretty quickly, and it won’t smell so easily either.

Ren began preparing for his first trip because he’s going as early as tomorrow. He didn’t want to delay it, not because he’s excited, but because delaying only prolongs the agony.

"Alright, self, the true grind begins here."