Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

A variation of his [Thousand Piercing Sowrds] that he had created.

BOOM'¦ BOOM'¦BOOM'¦ the land trembled and quacked from the might of his technique and before long all the high orcs was engulfed by the flames. However, after finishing the twenty or so high orcs, Simon did not stop there and quickly flew towards a different area in search of new prey.

He continued with his hunt for as long he could or before he became tired. Time flowed quickly while he was engrossed in his training and five days had passed in a blink of an eye.

"Huff'¦ huff" Simon was currently deep inside the high orc's territory and a mountain of corpses could be seen lining behind. His breathing was ragged and his body tattered, evident of the gruesome battles had gone through in these five days.

Blood trickled down from all the wounds on his body and stained his skin red. Although he looked haggard and frail at this moment, the wide smile and piercing crimson eyes of his told a different story.

Even now the light in them seemed alive and raring to fight even more. Because of his demonic nature, he felt exhilarated whenever he went through a difficult battle; however, the smile on his face was for a different reason.

These past few days of constant battles had given him a newfound enlightenment and he was finally able to glance on the mysteries and obtain the skill he was so eager for. Yes, Simon had finally acquired the skill [Mana Lines] that he had constantly trained for the past few weeks, now it was finally in his grasp.

He could feel the massive difference in the mana flowing within him in the manner that now they constantly circulated in a fixed path without having him focus on it. A new set of lines had been established within his body when he acquired the [Mana Lines] skill and the mana flowing within him instinctively followed the path created.

The changes he had undergone before and after obtaining the skill was extremely noticeable. For instance, the speed of activating all of his skills and magic had increased drastically and not only that, but even their might have increased by a fewfold.

If before it took him a few seconds to cast hundreds of flame spears, now it only took him an instant to manifest all of them. One could imagine how precious those few seconds were in a life and death battle where even a slight delay could decide the outcome.

Him saving up those few seconds opened a brand new window of opportunity and also sealed any opening his enemy could capitalise on. During the time frame of five days, Simon had leveled up quite a bit and was even able to improve on his existing skills.

Currently, he was level 311 after defeating many high orcs, a stark difference from his previous level. Deciding that it was time to head back, he swiftly unfurled his wide bat-like wings before flying across the sky.

From his viewpoint, he could see multiple groups of high orcs rushing to the place he was moments ago trying to pincer him with their numbers. In these five days, Simon had dived quite a bit deeper into the territory of the orcs and by now they were naturally aware of his existence.

They had quite the keen nose and were very sentient even amongst the multitudes of monsters residing within the western region of the forest. It would be quite unusual if they didn't feel his presence even after he cut their numbers by so much.

While he was observing them on his way back, one group of high orcs that seemed to be different from the normal high orcs, also spotted him and stopped their march. The colour of their skin, height and even their weapons and aura had a different feel to it.

Leading them was a orc more than three meters tall, red skin and wearing various accessories on its body. The extremely intelligent light in his eyes appeared to be observing Simon until he was out of their territory.

Midway through his flight, Simon felt an extremely piercing stare on him and hurriedly turned his head only to find that the feeling had swiftly receded. Locking his brows in a frown, he looked at the direction where he felt the stare from before discarding it in the back of his mind.

-----

Dungeon Laplace, on the main floor inside one of the halls of the white palace.

Cecilia and Maya were happily chatting when the door was knocked and Simon came in. Cecilia delightedly sprang up from her seat while Maya bowed her head and greeted him.

"Hehe'¦ welcome back big brother" Cecilia happily chirped. Patting her adorable head, he nodded his head and replied "Im back".

Opening the [Main Menu] he sat at the head seat and inquired "Did any problems arise while I was gone?".

Cecilia puffed her chest and replied excitedly "Rest assured big brother, I looked after the dungeon as you had asked me and watched over the progress of the adventurers. The dungeon big brother created is amazing, they still weren't able to breach the 10th floor yet".

Simon observed with his [Main menu[ and saw that everything was working well with the dungeon "I see you did a good job".

Hearing his praise, it immediately went into her head and she haughtily said "At first it was very difficult to understand all of these options but elder sister Irene had taught me how to use the [Main Menu] and everything became easy".

Seeing that the little girl wanted to brag, he helplessly went along with her antics before asking "So where is Irene now?".

"Ah!!" Cecilia made a face as if she suddenly remembered something.

Maya made a helpless face before replying "About that my lord'¦ Lady Irene went to the 15th floor".

Simon frowned, there could only be one reason for Irene to go down the 15th floor. "Did something happen on the 15th floor? Was it the variant?" he asked.

Nodding her head, Maya replied detailing the events that had transpired while he was gone "As per your orders, we thoroughly observed the floor for the traces of that creature and two days ago we finally found the one that was eating the flesh of the stormwolf. However, it seems we were mistaken, the creature wasn't the only entity eating the flesh".

When he heard the last of her sentence, Simon couldn't help squint his eyes, confusion evident on his face.

"I came here to report our discoveries and the peculiarities to Lord Simon but it seemed that you were away for a while. Hence Lady Irene decided to come and investigate it herself" Maya added.

Simon slightly nodded his head, he was finally aware why Irene was on the 15th floor while Maya who was one of the [Helpers] was here. After hearing the report, he could no longer sit still without knowing what the actual situation was on the 15th floor and thus Simon decided to check on it.

"Big brother I'll come too. It's boring without elder sister Irene here" Cecilia said tagging along.

"Then allow me to guide you all there since the topography had changed quite a lot and also Lady Irene has tasked me with bringing you there upon your return" Maya stated appearing calm and collected.

It appeared that she no longer acted nervous and tense in front of him or maybe it was because of Cecilia presence. In any case, it was a welcoming change.

Opening the [Main Menu] he used the teleport function to swiftly teleport onto the 15th floor. Arriving on the floor, Simon immediately understood why Irene sent Maya to guide him. the entire topography of the floor had changed since the last time he came here.

The Forest was no longer verdant and lush, mountains had crumbled and flames ignited as far as the eye could see. The place was so in contrast to what he was used to seeing that he couldn't help but be at a disbelief for few seconds.

The entire floor had changed drastically in the span of just five days. Although the dungeon was doing its best and mending all the destruction, it just couldn't keep up.

Cecilia opened her mouth wide 'O' surprised by the scene in front of her. Her face looked embarrassed and she couldn't help but scratch her head. Just a while ago, she confidently said to Simon that no problems had arisen while he was gone.

Now looking at the condition 15th floor that was experiencing an absolute disaster, she could only avoid her big brother's questioning gaze.

'Well, it was not like I was being lax or anything. To my defence, it's just that I'm still not accustomed to using all the functions of the [Main Menu]' She thought nervously looking at the mess that was the 15th floor.

Simon glanced at Maya and beckoned her to guide him where Irene and the other was. He couldn't leave the situation be and must find the culprit behind all of these before it gets out of hand.

After walking for a while, they came in front of a large clearance of burnt trees and a heap of rubble that was previously a mountain. The place vaguely seemed familiar, it was the very same place where the cave of the stromwolf that had died was.

The place to have become a disaster zone, what exactly happened here? Simon quickly spotted the two [Helpers] and Irene observing and inspecting the mess.

"What happened here? Did the mutated creature go out of control?" he asked while looking at them.