Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

At this moment, Adalinda eyes were glowing a mysterious golden and her pupils had become completely vertical. The childishness that was previously there, could no longer be seen and was replaced with a dead serious face.

When the golden glow in her eyes reached a sudden intensity, they suddenly dimmed down followed by multiple sounds of something hitting the ground.

One by one, the bodies of these bandits silently fell down on the grassy floor and from their unmoving bodies, it was not hard to guess that they were no longer alive.

The chill wind of the night blew over and brushed past the delicate body of the little girl, rustling her hair in the process. After settling the matter, her face became jovial once again.

She puffed her chest and spoke haughtily "Hmph, that's what you get for messing with me. Hehe, judging from their words it's going to be more interesting soon. This boring trip will soon become heated".

Adalinda smiled cheekily before disappearing from the place leaving behind a slowly mending space distortion.

The bright rays of the sun shone down onto the forest from the horizon, dissolving the darkness. Sounds of numerous footsteps and the churning of wheels could be heard early in the morning.

With the first rays of the sun, life sprang into action and the convoy of wagons after a few hours of rest started marching forward. At this moment, in one of the wagons at the forefront, a young man with black robes could be seen sitting languidly on his seat. Seated beside him was a little girl with doll-like beauty and exquisite features.

Simon unhurriedly moved his eyes towards the little girl beside him as he curiously asked "Where did you disappear to at night?".

After his intervention, the Battle grizzly was swiftly defeated and the remaining battle bears swiftly fled. Although his intention was only to gain enough contribution, he ended up impressing these rough tough adventurers and guards of the Serene Palace Merchant Guild.

Afterwards, he was surrounded and bombarded with questions and praises for his prowess that was able to take down a battle grizzly. Was it not for the client and Alvara dispersing the group, Simon surmised that their excitement wouldn't have died down even until the morning.

When he finally had the room to breathe, he noticed that Adalinda was nowhere to be found around the campsite. This little grand aunt who was hell-bent on finding her disciple wouldn't have left him alone if she did not have something else on her mind.

Hearing Simon becoming suddenly inquisitive, she acted innocent and dodged his question. Her current self was too focused on savouring the chicken drumstick that he had purchased for her from the shop.

Of course, he made it seem like he had stored the food in that emerald ring of his. Needless to ask, the contents of the emerald ring, the Forest Spring Spirit orbs was stored in his inventory and the ring only had a few low tier weapons, money and ration provided by the convoy.

<br/>At this moment, whether it be guards riding on Bane Moose or the adventurers, they would all look at him with fawning expressions and greet him cordially whenever they passed by. That was how much of an effect, he had created with some simple flame spears of his.

Naturally, there were some gazes that held ill intent but since he was currently the crowd favourite, they did not dare to do anything rash.

After the big fight yesterday, the rest of the journey went pretty smoothly and when the sun showed signs of setting, the group hurriedly dispersed to search for a good place to camp.

The time was of dusk and the sky was coloured in the crimson hue of the sun. Around a large table groups of adventurers and guards alike were discussing something while looking at the map strewn over.

"Our team discovered a small pond around a large clearance not far away from here. Perhaps if we move now it is possible that we can reach there by night and use the place as our campsite" one of the adventurer leaders whose class seemed more suitable for scouting, reported.

The other members contemplated the option discussed it over with one another. Bignosio who was aware that he had lost his standing after the misinformation he had provided, decided to take up this chance and provide some useful information.

"I say using the area around the campsite would be quite dangerous. We do not know how many monsters use that pond as their water source therefore if we set up a camp around there, we risk monsters attacking us at night".

His tone was a little conceited, nonetheless, his words held some truth. The other members around the table thought over it and felt the reasoning was quite plausible.

All the eyes focused on the purple-robed woman who was also the person in charge of this convoy.

Cynthia arched her crescent brows and thought over her options, suddenly, her eyes drifted over a direction where a certain adventurer was. Everybody noticed her shifting her gaze and the direction where she was looking at, was the place where Simon was standing.

Noticing everyone's gaze suddenly focusing on him waiting for his input, the young man sighed internally before asking a bizarre question to the man who reported his discovery.

"Did you see any signs of monsters around or inhabiting that place?".

The adventurer blanked out when faced with such an abrupt question, nonetheless, he answered it appropriately.

"Me and my team searched that area for a long time but did not discover any signs of monsters coming near the pond. Hence we thought that the place might be ideal as a campsite".

His words made them consider the viability, they did not want to experience the same thing they did yesterday and get ambushed at midnight once again.

The faint rays of the sunlight was beginning to fade away and the darkness of the night started descending, everybody was waiting for Simon's input. After the events yesterday where he correctly predicted the race of the monsters and even defeated the Battle grizzly solo, his words clearly had more sway.

The young man nodded and stared back at all the expectant eyes before sharing out his knowledge.

"In that case, we shouldn't head towards the pond. No sign of activity doesn't mean that the water source is not being used by any monsters. Normally, you would find no such occurrences where the water source is not visited by any monster".

"This pond not having any signs of activity around it could either mean that the pond is contaminated or is already occupied by something or someone already. And that someone is strong enough to intimidate all the surrounding monsters. Our convoy has already suffered casualties after the attack last night by the battle bears. It would be in our best interest to avoid any fight that we could, especially when we know that the monster in that area is quite strong". 

The members around the table became silent after those words, their faces seemed like they were digesting the information.

Many sounds of exclamation and approval came from the adventurers and guards alike. Avoiding monsters where they can, was the best choice they could make and hence everybody unanimously nodded their head.

"Mister Simon is not only strong but is quite knowledgeable when it comes to surviving in this kind of environment. I also believe that we should avoid that pond" the adventurer, who had discovered the pond, said convincingly.

Seeing that there was no disagreement, Cynthia nodded her head and stated "Alright then we shall avoid the area around the pond and set our camps here. Although the place is not as wide as our previous campsite, it is all as long as we don't meet monsters at night".

After the discussion was over, Cynthia dispersed the meeting and went over to her wagon. However, instead of dispersing, these people instead crowded around Simon.

"Haha, young man you have my thanks, because of you we can now avoid getting involved in another trouble" one of the senior guards said showing his appreciation. 

"As long as we have Mister Simon with us, travel this forest will be like a walk in the park" one the adventurer who had become Simon's admirer said in a fawning manner.

"Haha, true… if not for sir Simon sharing his vast knowledge with us, who knew what might have happened?" another adventurer said.

While all of these people were laughing, one guy namely Bignosio had an ashen face when he heard those last few words of the adventurers. He had also given the same information and told everybody to avoid the pond, however, his voice was drowned out by the young provisional adventurer.

What made his mood sour even more was that the reasoning that the young man had provided was the same as him. Nonetheless, all of the praises were directed at that provisional adventurer while he was being ignored.

Even those people who were up until now giving him a bootlicking smile, were completely ignoring him or throwing some piercing glares. Bignosio's face was green due to all of the pent up frustration and he had the urge to strangle the neck of the fellow who gave him all that information.

Unfortunately, that person was already dead, squashed by the weight of an enormous tree. Remorse? There was no such thing within Bignosio, at this time all he felt was hatred and jealousy for Simon stealing his spotlight.

However, the current situation was so that the young adventurer, who was supposed to be beneath him, clearly had more influence than him. Snorting in contempt, Bignosio furiously glared at Simon and the people surrounding him before reluctantly stomping out of there.

When he went back to the wagon where his party was waiting, he simply slumped himself in his seat and shut his eyes. Naturally, the ones attracted by Bignosio and formed a team, were people just like him.

As they say birds of similar feather flock together. These people did not need to think hard to understand the source of their leader's foul mood.

One of his teammates glanced at where a group of adventurers and guards surrounded a tall young man in the middle and narrowed his eyes. He then sat beside Bignosio before speaking in a somewhat suggestive manner.

"Don't tell me leader that you are just going to give your position to some newcomer who hasn't been in this profession for long just like that? All that provisional adventurer did was say some few words of advice which might not even have been his own knowledge. How can he be compared to you leader?".