Kill The Old Ones!

Chapter 179: Back in the Dungeons; Thunder Apes

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"Ah, feels good to be in the dungeons again."

Ren had his hands on his waist as he stared at the stormy skies of his current environment. The weather sure doesn’t agree with his bright and sunny disposition, but it didn’t matter to him; Ren was just happy to be here.

He couldn’t go out of the clan without wearing a disguise anymore. He practically became a celebrity. There are a lot of people waiting outside the clan compound for him, trying to occupy his time with their nonsense.

Thankfully, Ren knows a disguising technique. He learned from the spies from the City Lord’s Mansion—the ones who observed the clan for a bit for any strange occurrences.

Ren learned it from them through watching; his unparalleled comprehension allowed him to not only understand the technique but also use it way better than those spies could.

Because of this, Ren easily avoided the nuisances outside the clan. The best part is that he didn’t even have to do much. He just needed to change his hair and eye color, as well as his skin tone, for a bit. After doing that, nobody pays attention to him anymore.

Sure, the clan had gained some attention quite lately, but it was Ren who mostly had the attention. The other members of the clan still flew under the radar. By blending in, Ren easily avoided everybody’s gaze.

And just to make sure that nobody’s on to him, he changes his appearance a few times before arriving to the Archstone Plaza.

He’s in disguise when he arrived, but when he’s inside the dungeons, he gets rid of it. He’s going in solo, after all, so he doesn’t need to hide anything.

Still, all this hiding made him annoyed. But he couldn’t do anything about it for now. When he participated in the tournament and decided to take the #1 spot, he was practically asking for this too.

That’s why he was in a good mood when he arrived inside the dungeon. He didn’t even mind the stormy weather within. He was just relieved to get rid of his disguise. Not that it was uncomfortable in the first place.

"Now, then..." Ren looked around and squinted; the smile on his face still hadn’t faded. "...what do we have here?"

This was an expression. Ren obviously knew what he was up against.

Stages 51 to 55 is the home of Thunderclap Apes—big monkeys with tough muscles and sinews that had thunderous speed. They could also be empowered by lightning.

This stage was a wall to many dungeon explorers, as most people experience deaths here, which stalls their progress for quite some time.

There are several reasons why, most of which are because of the environment and the monsters around.

First and foremost was the environment.

Stages 51 to 55 were filled with tall and steep mountains. The storm above is permanent, and so were the sounds of thunderclap, lightning strikes, and also, rainstorm.

It’s quite cold out here; the breeze is chilly and energized from all the thunderous activity happening in the skies. The rain was strong; it’s also making it hard for anybody to see clearly.

In turn, the rain also caused the mountains to be extra dangerous—making it muddy and slippery. It’s harder to get a solid foothold when climbing the mountains. Each step must be careful and precise; otherwise, it’d be a long and painful way down.

Why must one go up the mountains and not just stay on flat ground? Well, because the Thunderclap Apes won’t come down.

Even if one were to wait until the very last minute of their time in this dungeon stage, those big monkeys won’t make their way down.

At most, they’d go halfway down their respective mountains. And that’s only when they saw or smelled an intruder nearby. They’d go down that far to start hurling rocks and boulders at the intruder, ones that are charged with lightning and travel as fast as the sound of thunder.

And there’s rarely just one of them who do so. Thunderclap apes are pack creatures. They don’t venture out alone. At least, a pair. Commonly, there are three to four. Depending on the situation, it might be the whole dozen in a single mount who comes down to strike down the intruder.

Worse is that the mountaintops are nearby. If one pack were disturbed and started attacking, the sound would travel across the nearby mountains, alerting the ones in there too.

Soon, every single ape in this dungeon will be alerted, and there will be nowhere for the intruder to hide.

This precisely shows the scaling difficulty of the dungeons. It’s a sign that says, ’You’re halfway through the archstones.’ If you still haven’t learned anything, this is as far as you can go.’

It’s only going to get progressively harder from here on out. Even the ’safe zones’ wouldn’t be as safe anymore. The dungeons will continue to minimize avenues that could be exploited the further one goes.

This is why Ren didn’t bother hiding his presence upon arriving here.

Sooner or later, he’ll be discovered anyway. Even with his means, it’s impossible for him to remain hidden from all of the apes here.

He spotted some people spotting him the moment he arrived. He had to squint because of the rain to see them. After all, the Thunderclap Apes, in their calm state, blend really well with the dark and gloomy surroundings.

But it didn’t take long for Ren to start spreading his sensory network. Even with the harsh rain and the sudden and unpredictable lighting strikes, his sensory network was able to expand without any obstructions.

Its expansion speed is even faster than before, especially now that he stepped into the 1st Transformation of the Inhuman Realm.

"Oh, I’ve already alarmed two dozen apes? Gee, can’t really hide anything, huh?"

Ren smirked as he discovered this. He literally just arrived a minute ago, and the apes are already upon him.

As if they’d already assessed the threat he possessed, the whole pack went halfway down their mountains to begin harassing him.

Ren stared as he saw giant boulders raining down on him. Each one was charged with lightning; some were even struck by lightning coming down from the sky, making them more dangerous.

He clenched his fist, and a blazing blue light erupted on it, covering his whole arm as well. He cocked back his fist and threw a punch.

His fist didn’t make contact with any of the charged boulders, but the impact it made sure did.

Ren’s punch was slow, but it did break the sound barrier, and the impact released from it caused all the boulders to be pulverized. It didn’t matter that they were charged with lightning and flying at the speed of thunder. They were dealt with all the same.

He didn’t stop there, though.

While the apes were shocked that a puny creature was able to erupt with so much strength. Ren disappeared from his spot.

He arrived before the base of the mountain, wearing an unprecedentedly serious expression. His aura swelled, his chakra boiled and condensed into a miniature sun enveloping his fist.

Ren took a deep breath and, with a loud ’HAAA! ’He crashed his fist to the base of the mountain.

The whole mountain shook, scaring the living shit out of the apes. They scrambled and held to anything they could hold onto.

When the shaking stopped, they were relieved. But that turned out to be a mistake because as soon as they did, the whole mountain began falling apart.

The cracks at the base expanded and caused the whole thing to collapse. It started falling apart, crashing through the nearby mountain as well.

If the sound of the provoked apes hadn’t alerted the others nearby, then a whole mountain falling apart certainly would have.

Meanwhile, Ren whistled to himself and winced. He felt the dull pain after that punch; the Black Adamantium protection still wasn’t thick enough to completely get rid of it, but that’s fine. The results were already far above his expectations.

Ren didn’t really think that he could collapse an entire mountain in a single punch. He just tried it out since he got curious if he could.

Well, it turns out that he really could.

In fact, for Inhuman Realm martial artists, feats like this are common. They don’t endure that much pain for nothing, after all. But this was for those at the 4th Transformation and beyond.

Ren was still at the 1st transformation, making this feat incredibly outstanding...and normally, impossible.

Usually, looting comes first, but here? It’s a bit different,’ Ren thought to himself as he stared at the falling mountain.

The alert and restless apes will never allow thieves to come and go as they please. So, usually, one would have to clear one mountaintop at a time.

But what he did was different. Ren didn’t follow the mold. Or in this case, because of what he did just now, it’s not applicable.

"Oh, well...we improvise then." Ren declared.

That’s when time seemingly froze around him, leaving him unaffected.