Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The crystal had an irregular shape and fit perfectly in his hands. It was smooth to the touch and glossed just like a polished gem.

This gem was releasing a scarlet light from the bottom of the pond which had attracted his eyes and that was why he dived inside. Touching it all over, Simon felt the terrifying amount of energy through which it was formed.

Irene who was beside him, rest her gaze on the crystal that he was holding and just when he was about to use Analysis on it, Irene commented with a slight shock in her voice "Scarlet mutation crystal!".

"Hmm? You know what this is?" Simon asked surprised by her knowledge.

Irene silently pondered for a moment before musing "The pond was able to form a Scarlet Mutation Crystal after a single day. The pond might even be more of a treasure than I thought".

"Scarlet mutation crystal?" Simon furrowed his brows and used Analysis on the crystal, the name he got was exactly what Irene had described.

Scarlet Mutation Crystal grade [1]:- a [C] rank crystal formed from the condensation of vast mystical energy and contains an enormous fire attribute. The entity that assimilates with this crystal will be able to undergo a mutation of the fire attribute.

Simon was stunned by the information displayed by the Analysis. It turned out that this crystal was able to mutate any entity suitable enough to assimilate with it.

Mutation occurs when a variant bearing distinctive features is born from a race. The variant is always stronger than the standard ones and are also higher ranked.

Simon had even met one not too long ago. Gourd the Great Blood Ogre who was the subordinate of the Demon Viscount Gelgar was also a variant from the ogre race. The Great Blood Ogre was much stronger than the average ones from its tribe and he was even a rank above at [C] tier.

Simon was in a state of disbelief, the pond of serenity could not only assist him with his growth but also produce crystals such as the Scarlet Mutation Crystal. Though it was just a grade [1] [C] rank item, the mutation crystal was much precious than what its rank signifies.

He could use these crystals to mutate the spawned monsters of his dungeon making them even stronger.

A spawned monster's strength was restrained to the rank of the dungeon. The higher the rank of the dungeon, the powerful the monsters that can be spawned.

As of now, Simon's dungeon was still a low rank [D] tier dungeon and the monsters he could spawn were all weak. They were no match for anyone level 180 or higher. From a point of view of Demon Viscount, they can only be considered as nothing but cannon fodder.

However, it would be a different case if he used this scarlet mutation crystal to make his spawned monsters stronger. The monsters in his dungeon would no longer be constrained to the rank of his dungeon and would be able to mutate as a stronger species.

Although these crystals were precious, with time his pond of serenity would be able to produce even more and there was a possibility that a higher grade crystal could also be produced. The crystal in his hand was just a grade [1] which meant that there are other grades too.

The altered pond of serenity turned out to be a great treasure and Simon could finally see its value.

A [D] rank dungeon spawning mutated monsters. If word of this got out, everybody would be gobsmacked and pass it off as nothing but a lie. After all, mutated monsters only start appearing in dungeons above [C] rank. There was no way a low-rank dungeon and a newly emerged one at that would be having mutated monsters inside it.

It wasn't that the pond of serenity that Simon installed was special since all the dungeons [C] rank and above might already have dozens of it installed. However, the pond of serenity in his dungeon was not the same as theirs and had been altered greatly.

Simon welcomed all these changes but what confused him even more was how did these changes occur. The progress of his dungeon was going smoothly but it wasn't enough to warrant such great changes.

"What could it be?" as Simon pondered over the question, Irene gave a mysterious smile before dropping a hint.

"It might be someone with great potential in your dungeon that you recently picked up" She turned around and did not bother to explain anymore before disappearing just like how she appeared.

"Someone with great potential'¦ is she talking about Cecilia? But didn't she say that her powers haven't awakened yet'¦ could it be that her abilities have already started to manifest?" Simon recalled the miraculous healing ability of Cecilia's tears and was convinced.

Other than Cecilia who was a Forest Spring Royal Spirit, no other can bring about such exaggerated changes in his dungeon. Her powers to influence the nature was starting to display and it had already benefited his dungeon so much. He could only imagine what sorts of heaven-defying powers she would display after all of her abilities manifested.

Simon finally understood why Irene had such great expectations of Cecilia. It turns out Irene was already aware of the power of a Forest Spring Royal Spirit.

Although Simon would be lying if he said that he did not care, but even if he was given a choice to rescue a Cecilia that had no such power, he wouldn't hesitate to save her just like he did back then.

After examining the changes around the pond for a while, Simon decided to head back inside his palace.

By now, all the forest spring spirit children have awoken and were all jittery. How could they not be? After suffering at the hands of those adventurers, they were suddenly brought into this dungeon. They did not know what they should do or what would happen to them thus they were constantly on edge for what the future holds for them.

The only reason they weren't panicking was because the dungeon master has not treated them poorly after bringing them in and also because Cecilia trusted the other side.

When Simon entered the hall, he saw all of the children lining in attention as they anxiously stared at him. Seeing this scene, Simon gave an awkward laugh. Did they think this was some military drill and he was their instructor?

Forcing a cough, Simon thought of ways to dissolve this tension. Suddenly an idea struck. These children were on edge too much and need to relax. What better way to unwind all of your stress than a hot water bath.

Simon in his previous life used to be a big fan of a good bath until he started engrossing himself into perfecting the last game, the assignment he put his heart and soul into completing.

Even the palace that he had installed, was influenced by a hotel that he was fond of. The bath of the palace was big and wide, it could easily accommodate dozens of people at once.

Deciding on the action, he was just about to order the children to go take a bath, when he realized a problem. The palace only had one bath and amongst the twenty forest spring children, eight were boys and the remaining girls.

Thus he could only allow the girls to take a bath first while he had a chat with the boys. "I know you guys have a lot of questions and so do I but before that why don't you all take a relaxing bath first. Cecilia show these girls the way to the bath".

Cecilia readily nodded then suddenly tilted her head asking "What about the boys?".

Simon pointed at the boys before saying "They will take it after you guys finish with yours. Till then I would like to have a chat with them".

Since there was no reason to deny, Cecilia took all the girls and headed for the bath. Right after they headed out of the hall, Simon looked at the boys who were the only ones remaining. As he looked into their eyes he saw them glaring at him.

'Huh? Why are they glaring at me'¦ could it be they wanted to bathe together? There is no way that's true right? They aren't mature enough to think about all those things.. Then the only possibility is that'¦ they are wary of me' Simon thought.