Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

With the excess negative feelings dwelling within the hearts of these adventurers that they did not know what to do with, he just had to divert it towards his goal.

The grey haired man called out to all the adventurers and asked them to take out their transmission conch whereafter they soon found multiple missed transmissions sent by the tertiary team.

All those messages were indistinct and vague but one could at least make some general sense from it. Request for help, the tertiary team sent the signal for backup. They must be facing an obstacle that they couldn't overcome with their power and hence were asking for assistance.

The guilds were so focused on their personal battle that the sound transmission had completely gone unnoticed by them.

Soon after the message from the transmission conch came to light, the guilds started panicking. The tertiary team was an important part of their guilds, its where the geniuses, the future pillars of their guilds were. Losing them would be tantamount to crippling the top twenty guilds. It would take them dozens of years to recover from a loss of this magnitude.

"This is bad, we must go back and help our tertiary team. Listen to my command Absolute Sea guild, we will ascend the floors and go assist our members" Layton Sea, the guild leader of the Absolute Sea Guild commanded.

"The Lightning Strom guild will ascend up"…

"The Typhoon Thunder shall do the same"…

They had forgotten or set aside the enmity they had with the other guilds at this moment, as their sole focus was on assisting the tertiary team.

One by one, the guilds started voicing their intention to ascend the floors and go backup their tertiary teams when the grey haired man spoke again.

"What good will that bring? The transmission was sent more than two hours ago. Even if you start ascending the floors now, it would take you hours at the earliest that is if you just sent a small elite unit. Otherwise, it would take you days just to reach them."

"Not to mention once you ascend back up, the monsters on the lowers floors would be spawned once again. Do you all want to tackle the floors from the starting once again?".

The guilds that were all set to ascend the floors had their winds knocked out of their sails at those facts thrown at their face. They all had a look asking what they should do then.

"You guys do not have to worry. Fortunately, some of the guild leaders were sane enough not to fall for the trap of the spirit orbs and were able to make a sound decision. An Elite unit comprising of the senior members of your guilds and led by Miss Karina and some vice guild leaders are headed over there as we speak right now. So you do not have to fret over the safety of your younger members for the time being".

The grey haired man explained; however, he could see that some of the guilds were still a little uncertain about not backing their tertiary team up. Hence he proposed the plan that he was waiting for all along.

When the various guilds heard his plan, their first reaction was to question whether he had gone insane. Even the guild leaders were all flabbergasted now knowing what to say.

"Is something like that even possible?"...

The guild leaders couldn't be blamed for asking such a question, the plan was so preposterous and out of the norm of anything they had ever heard, that it was difficult for them to believe even when it came from the grey haired man.

The plan he proposed was to clear the dungeon before anything could happen to the tertiary team. Destroy the dungeon before it could destroy them. It was something that they all understood.

Nevertheless, the plan was far too farfetched given that they knew they still had a couple more floors to go. Who knew what kind of other devious traps and monsters were waiting for them?

As they descended deeper, the bigger the floor became and it became more difficult to find the entrance to the next floor. If they followed the trend, wouldn't it take quite a while for them to clear the dungeon? Would the tertiary team be able to hold on for so long?

The plan might have sounded farfetched but not impossible, it was all good up till here. But when the grey haired man explained the next part of his plan, they all couldn't help but flash a look of disbelief. The pa was preposterous and unbelievable to say no less.

"Of course, it is possible, in fact some of the guild leaders are already helping me with it"

The grey haired man pointed at the huge mechanical apparatus standing behind him while thinking internally.

You might be quite a schemer, demon. But you have made one huge mistake. You have underestimated us humans too much. Did you know demon, we humans have a unique phenomenon called the Common Enemy Effect where we tend to cooperate with other groups regardless of our differences and biasness when confronting a common enemy?

By attacking the tertiary team of the expedition force, you have made all the guilds band together against you. The discord you have sown among the guild has been set aside at this moment and the bond holding the expedition force is now stronger than ever.

"Allow me to present the new invention from the headquarters of the Adventurer's Association… the Floor Buster".

-----

At the same time, inside the main hall of the White Palace. Simon who was watching the Wisp control the Andromedas, was surprised at their effectiveness. Even when the world was different, with the Null Elemental acting as the core, the andromedas displayed the very same fearsomeness and power they had in the game.

The current model that was fighting the tertiary team was the completed model with all their weapons and upgrades installed. The Mk9s were far more intelligent than the other models that came before it and were a true force to reckon with.

If not because the [workshop] took hours of time just to manufacture a single Mk9, Simon wouldn't have only sent fifty of them after the tertiary team.

"I wonder how far the Mk9 can corner the level 400+ adventurers who are said to be the genius of their guilds" Simon muttered as he saw the geniuses suddenly change their tactics.

As someone who had worked on the game [Rise of the Demolishers], he knew all about the Andromedas and the weaknesses of the each model. However, even he didn't see the next development coming.

Somebody from the geniuses, was able to accurately spot the weakness of the Mk9 and take leverage of that prospect to come up with a plan that even he found was praiseworthy.

"That assassin… why do I not have any recollection of him?" During his time in the capital, Simon made sure to observe all the finalists that were battling in the tournament at that time. So how come this person had slipped his mind?

What Simon didn't know was that the assassin named Gallio Stallard, had a very miniscule presence. When standing near the brightest participants, there was no way he could ever stand out. Forget about being a finalist, he wasn't even able to reach the top 30 rankings.

Naturally, he went unnoticed by Simon.

[BEEP-BOOP-BOOP]… the Wisp made some sad sonar noises now that the Andromedas were defeated.

"It's alright, that was not your fault. The adventurers were just better. If anything, it can be said that even after the Mk9 were defeated, we were able to gather some valuable information that can strengthen the andromedas" Simon consoled.

"That's right, Wisp is awesome. You are not only able to create these golems but you can also control them… Hehe," Cecilia added. She extended her hand to pat the Null Elemental but just like always, it evaded her approach and hid behind Simon.

This time, it was Cecilia's turn to become dejected. Simon smiled at this childish display and fixed his attention back on the window showing the 21st floor.

After the defeat of the Andromedas, it was just one surprise after another. The magic that girl cast in particular was so powerful that even Simon felt a threat to his life while watching that.

His subordinates too had different reactions, some were in awe, some concerned, and some made amused faces. Simon was concerned too; however, he wasn't overly worried because he knew the strength of the Valkyries very well.

Even though they still didn't have their Heirloom with them, the might of the Valkyries even without that could easily far outmatch the adventurers. As if to prove him right, Bea emerged unscathed from it.

Her appearance had changed shocking some of his subordinates; nevertheless, she easily overpowered the adventurers. After her, Emma and the Bloothron Demonic Warhorse appeared unscathed from that magic one after the other and took care of the adventurers.

Though at some point Simon got worried when he saw Emma reverting back to her original form and going berserk. In the end, however, the situation was salvaged and the plan was still fine.

"It looks like Bea and the others have successfully completed their first objective. I guess you were worried for nothing huh?" Simon smiled looking at Annette who looked the most concerned out of all his subordinates.

With the absence of Mercedes, she was currently the eldest sister of the Valkyries. Naturally, she would be worried about her little sister.

"Thank you master for believing in us. We will not make the mistake from the past again" Though it looked like Annette was more concerned about not making a mistake than about her sisters.

Simon could only nod his head at their dedication and shift his eyes onto the other windows.

"It looks like the adventurers on the 45th floor are up to something" Irene who has been keeping an eye on the primary unit of the expedition force, commented.