Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The first image was from his time on earth, his sister talking to him. While the second image was of an adult Cecilia he had seen in one of his peculiar dreams.

What was going on? Why would these two distant and completely unrelated memories suddenly surface in his mind at this moment?

"Big Brother?" Cecilia's call woke him when he was about to drift away in his thoughts.

Simon looked at her and smilingly replied "Yeah, I promise".

Sometimes even a promise that was made casually, can become the binding force for someone to escape the grasp of death or return back when they are on the verge of losing sight of themselves.

At that time, Simon had no way of knowing what the future entailed and how the vow he made with her would end up playing a significant role.

48th floor, near the centre...

The primary unit of the expedition force could be seen landing on the ground, dusting their clothes and surveying their surroundings. Each of them had a stunned expression on their face, they couldn't believe that they had just dropped down from three floors above and it only just took them a minute or so.

When they looked up, they could still see the upper floors from the wide hole in the ceiling that was slowly closing up.

"Is everybody alright?" The various guild leaders asked the members of their guilds.

That fall earlier was from quite a great height, if not because they were able to use [Mana wings] that would have been very dangerous. Nevertheless, the falling debris was still a real threat.

"I can't believe we covered so many floors just like that. Isn't the new invention of the adventurer's association a little too good?" Dalton Lance remarked.

What would have otherwise taken them days to explore, took them only a minute or two to reach. If this wasn't absurd then what was?

With this new invention wouldn't they be able to explore the dungeons fin the future much faster now?

It was not only him, the other guild leaders were also thinking along the same line. This new invention called the Floor Buster, would be the pioneer of the new dungeon exploring era. The eyes with which these people were looking at the grey haired man, had a newfound respect and admiration for the organisation he came from.

"Do not misunderstand, this new invention is still in its developmental stage and it requires an astronomical amount of resources to build one. So is to say, the adventurer's association is in no position to mass produce and sell it to other guilds".

The grey haired man could easily guess what these people were thinking but he had no choice but to break this beautiful misconception of theirs.

'Now then what should we do? I didn't expect the Floor Buster to only be able to pierce through three floors of this dungeon. I guess this goes to show how closer this dungeon is to becoming a [C] rank' the grey haired man wondered.

He didn't know how close to the dungeon core they were, but given the density of mana here he guessed that they were pretty close.

"I guess I have no choice but to use it again" The grey haired man took out the apparatus from his space ring and set it on the floor once again. With the remaining energy the core stone had in it, it should be possible to breach through at least two floors if not one.

The members of the primary unit on orders of the grey haired man, started preparing for the fall once again when suddenly the monsters of the 48th floor started running wild.

The 48th floor was the territory of the elder lizardmen hence half of the floor was covered in water while the rest was land.

SPLASH… SPLASH… sounds of displacement of water continuously came from the distance along with the bellowing roars of the monsters. Reptilian humanoids that were much bigger than your average lizardmen came leaping out of the water and landed on the ground.

More and more came out of the water and before long there were thousands of monsters carrying pikes and other weapons made out of bones. These monsters didn't waste any time and directly charged towards the adventurers.

Of course, since this was a lower floor and one that was closer to the dungeon core, the monsters weren't weak. Not only that, they were quite intelligent and attacked in groups.

The Elder Lizardmen were a colonial race and are known as the children of the sea. They are Savage, cold blooded and very intelligent. Although extremely diluted, it is also rumoured that they have the bloodline of the sea dragon running within them.

It was fierce a clash but in the end, the Elder lizardmen were still not a match for the primary unit. Though that may be the case, they still fulfilled the task of delaying the intruders.

"Hm?" at that moment, everyone felt it.

As these adventurers were the elite of the elite the kingdom has to offer, they could tell the unnatural pressure engulfing the entire floor. Soon after the elder lizardmen were defeated, multiple spatial gates big and small, opened up all around the floor.

They were numerous and out from that spatial gates came all kinds of monsters. Orcs, High Orcs, Elder Lizardmen, Golems, Fire Demon Apes, Pterodactyls…

It was not just normal monsters but mutated monsters such as Killer Fire Bees, Diluvain High Orcs and other such species that came out of the gates too.

Their numbers were unbelievable and they kept on pouring out from the gates like an endless swarm. However, these monsters only came from the small gates, so what were the big ones for?

BAM… BAM…

With every step from them, the land for dozens of meters trembled. The beings that came out of those big gates were enormous monstrosities with powerful auras, intimidating features and worthy of the term boss monsters.

The former three overlords of the northern region of the Ghastly winding forest, showed their appearance at this moment.

The instant they appeared, the atmosphere around the entire floor changed as all the eyes quickly focused on them.

"Those are… Disaster class monsters!!" It was not known who but somebody amongst the expedition force exclaimed out loud.

"Wasn't there supposed to be only one disaster class monster in this dungeon? How come there are so many?"…

"The warhorse is not among them. Including him does that mean that there are four disaster class monsters here?"…

Four disaster class monsters, although for the primary team made up of a combined coalition of twenty top guilds, it was by no means a threat. But the same couldn't be said if they were to tackle this dungeon individually.

A disaster class beast poses a huge threat even for big guilds like them, not to mention there were four of them in this dungeon currently.

It was only now that some of the guild leaders were starting to realise how truly dangerous this dungeon was. It had completely hidden its fangs from the world above. If not because they allied together with other guilds and decided to tackle this dungeon, even they would be unaware of this great threat looming so close to their kingdom.

Compared to what they were seeing now and what was recorded in that transmission crystal, it was a day and night of difference. Had they gone diving inside this dungeon trusting the transmission crystal, they would have suffered a complete wipeout.

"Everyone… prepare for battle. The time has come, the master of the dungeon is finally making his move" the grey haired man spoke.

It was not only the three disaster class beasts, more and more monsters were pouring out of those gates. Their numbers were absolutely mind boggling.

It was clear to him, the time for the decisive battle has come.

'So you couldn't wait huh? I guess that's understandable since you don't know the potential of the Floor Buster. It would be foolish to wait for the intruders to bust through any more floors, after all, you don't want anyone reaching the floor where your dungeon core and the forest spring spirits are'.

The grey haired man watched as the master of the dungeon and the demon that he hated so much, walk out of the spatial gate along with what looked like maids by his side.

Behind him, riding on three wretched looking antlers, were beings donning long black hoods and carrying weapons like scythes and axe.

"A-Aren't those Diluvain High Orcs?"…

"They don't look ordinary, their levels are also far higher than the others. They should be on the level of generals"... The adventurers discussed.

Simon, Wisp, the Valkyries, Ogoraths, the overlords, Berigard, his two commanders… the entire lineup and the full force of the dungeon Laplace had been gathered on the 48th floor for the first time in a while.

"My Lord…" every monster, whether sentient or insentient, bowed their heads towards the master of the dungeon as he slowly stepped out of the gate.

Simon acknowledged everyone with his gaze before shifting his attention towards the group of guild leaders eyeing him from the distance. There was no need for any words among them, nor did Simon waste his time trying to talk with these adventurers, everything was conveyed to him by their hostile gazes.

This was not his first meeting with them, but those eyes with which they were looking at him and their current standings were vastly different than before. Right now, he was standing in front of them as the master of the dungeon and not some stray demon who had infiltrated their kingdom.