Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

However, the degree of injury that he suffered back then wasn't as severe as now. Nevertheless, with the power of the starlight, Simon's body quickly regenerated.

Along with this energy, a powerful aura of pride also radiated out from him. the aura was so mighty and unfathomable that the whole Main floor of the dungeon Laplace shook at this moment.

"W-What's going on?" the Valkyries that were inside the palace, bobbed their heads around in shock.

Irene who was silently sitting near the shore of the pond of serenity, hurriedly turned her head around and gazed at the palace. Before anyone knew it, her figure had already disappeared.

Lying on top of his bed, Simon marvelled at the rate at which his body was healing. His mana lines had already been repaired which meant that he could gather mana once again. But the dominant energy that was running inside him healing every corner of his body, didn't just stop there.

After running who knows how many cycles around his body, the dominant energy evoked another change shocking Simon once again.

[Ding… You have reached the max level of your rank]…

[Ding… the bloodline limit has been reached]…

[Ding… the experience threshold exceeds the limit. Unable to progress]…

[Ding… Character has met all conditions for [Promote]. Do you want to use Purifying Crystal Essence (Medium) to promote character?

Purifying Crystal Essence (Medium) needed- 100.

On hand-88.

Promote character—YES/NO].

Multiple notification windows popped up in front of him. Simon did not call out the [Main Menu], which meant that this change was something that was triggered by the dominant energy inside his body.

He read all the notifications but his eyes mainly stayed glued to the third one.

Promote character as soon as Simon read those few words, his heart started pounding. His blank despairing eyes suddenly started burning with a never before seen excitement.

The significance of that notification cannot be explained in a few simple words. It was something that he had been eagerly waiting for ever since he ranked up to a Demon Viscount. And as he levelled and inched closer to the level 500 barrier, his excitement only increased further.

Until today when he finally heard that notification.

Promote character, the implication that these words carried could only be understood by the term bloodline limits. The limits placed on each individual in the world of Althaea that shackled them from progressing further based on the purity of their bloodlines.

It was a wall that most of the people of this world arrived in front of after reaching a certain level. They despaired and anguished unable to do anything in front of it.

Only a small population of individuals ever manage to break through that wall and progress further.

From this, it was easy to understand how the bloodline affected an individual's growth. It was more so for Simon who had an impure bloodline to begin with. He had long foreseen this wall even before he stood in front of it.

The enormous gloomy wall that made most of the people in this world despair and heartbroken. However, unlike the others, Simon who was standing in front of the wall, felt nothing.

It would be more appropriate to say that he looked calm, there was no despair on his face. Why would he? after all, this was not his first time standing in front of one.

Yes, Simon had arrived in front of a wall before this one. Though the current wall was many times bigger and sturdier than the previous wall, he had nevertheless overcome one. So there was no need for him to despair against the current one.

No matter how the unwritten law of this word bound him, he had a way to slip past those restrictions, break the wall in front of him and proceed forward.

The way he was talking about was none other than the promote character itself. [Promote] was one of the functions of the [Character] option alongside [Constellation] which he created to help players break past their limit.

The purpose of this function is to break the level cap and allow players to reach new heights. That is to say, using the [Promote] function Simon can overcome the limiters placed on him and break through the despairing wall standing in front of him.

Simon himself knew well how impure his bloodline was, no matter how much effort he put, how many monsters he defeats, he would forever be unable to proceed any further.

The demon viscount was his limits; no, he should have reached his limits long before that. The Demon Baron should have been where his progress stopped. However, he overcame that challenge rose through the rank and arrived in front of a new wall.

It was all thanks to the [Promote] function.

Unlike the last time when he was unsure whether the function would work, Simon was more or less unfazed this time. He had already experienced how the function worked so he had no doubts in his mind.

Though that being said, his heart was still pounding and his blood was boiling in excitement. He was about to reach a new height, a new rank. After reincarnating in the world of althea and ever since becoming a demon noble, increasing his ranks had been one of his biggest goals.

Counting the time when he became Demon viscount, this would be his second time using the [Promote]. The way this function worked was simple, he just needed to gather the right amount of materials needed and the rest would be handled by the function.

The problem was that he did not have sufficient materials. In this world and even in the game, one needed a material called Purifying Crystal Essence to promote a character.

The purifying crystals are a special ingredient designed by Simon to be used for this process. Although it was something that he learned later after transmigrating into this world, but the purifying crystal essence seemed to hold some unique energy inside them.

Anyways, looking at the number of purifying crystal essence needed, Simon nodded his head.

He needed 100 crystals whereas he only had 88 of them sitting in his inventory. But that was no problem for Simon since the crystals can be bought from [Shop]. Other than the [Shop] they also dropped from the [G???????] option from time to time. The 88 crystals that he had gathered were from that option.

Simon opened the [shop] and quickly moved over to the miscellaneous section where he found the purifying crystals listed.

It needs to be mentioned that the purifying crystal essence needed for rank up this time was different than the time when he ranked up to demon viscount. The purifying crystal essence he used last time was only around 10,000 DP each.

However, the ones he needed this time were around 20,000 DP each. The difference was because of the size of the crystals.

The Purifying Crystal Essence (Medium) was twice as big as the crystals he used to rank up to become a Demon Viscount. It was not only their size, but the energy they held was comparatively higher too.

Naturally, it was twice as costly as the normal purifying crystal essence. Simon purchased the additional crystals needed. It cost him around 240,000 DP but to Simon who had nothing but Dp in abundance, this amount was nothing.

Now that he got the additional 12 crystals and met the requirements, it was time. With bated breath and accelerated excitement, Simon reached out and pressed YES.

[Ding... Purifying Crystal Essence (Medium) sufficient, commencing promotion].

Another notification popped up in front of him and immediately as if being swallowed by an unknown source, the hundred crystals disintegrated into tiny light particles before disappearing.

Simon had no mind to pay attention to that since the dominant energy inside his boy which had become stagnant for a while, suddenly started rampaging after combining with a new energy once again.

The temperature of his blood started rising and before long, perspiration started dropping down from his head. His body had become so hot that he felt like he was a human furnace.

Under that heat, his newly formed bones and regenerated muscles, started dissolving. He felt like his entire body was wiggling and going through a metamorphosis of sort. Just like a caterpillar before becoming a butterfly, the state of Simon's body couldn't be any different.

His organs, veins everything had melted, even his outer shelf was visibly wiggling just like a slime. Of course, intense pain accompanied that change.

However, Simon who had gone through a similar change before, endured the pain of a destroyed body for who knows how many days, silently endured the pain.

He fell flat on his bed and squirmed like a worm. He had expected the process to be extremely agonising; it was far worse than he thought. Yet even so, Simon grit his teeth and endured on.

Unlike the last time when he lost consciousness due to the intense pain, he stayed awake and during the whole process never once did he utter a peep.

"Master"

At this moment, all the valkyries hurriedly entered the room. They had felt a vast amount of aura descend onto the main floor a few moments ago. Unable to contain their concerns, they ran towards the room where their master was recuperating only to become shocked the next second.

"Master..." they called out in fear and were just about approach him when Irene appeared in front of them and stopped them from doing so.

"This state... do not approach him carelessly"...

"B-But Master is.. he look like he is in extreme pain"

The valkyries protested, their concerned eyes rested on Simon and became most with tears threatening to flow down any second.