Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Do you even know what harm it might bring if you can't control that energy? The curse energy is completely different from the standard Mystical energy of this plane without the appropriate knowledge, technique and affinity, one shouldn't even be able to harness it. I don't know if I should be amazed anymore or simply get used to your unusualness".

Irene quipped admitting defeat. From her perspective, Simon shouldn't even be able to survive an encounter with the curse energy, much less be able to harness it.

The fact that he could stay sane even when exposed to it would already be a miracle but to even control the energy, Irene had given up midway and decided to just accept his unusualness.

"I was thinking maybe you could tell me if there was a way for me to use this thing. Now that it no longer has any intent of its own, it's just a dead piece of flesh that produces its own supply of curse energy. After experiencing how dominant the energy was, it felt like a waste to just leave it there" Simon explained his reasoning behind bringing the thing with him.

Hearing his words, Irene narrowed her eyes and approached the finger sealed within her magic.

"How did you even bring the thing with you?" she asked, technically it could be considered a corpse and one cannot bring a dead body inside the subspace of a space ring. Unless Simon carried it physically, it was impossible to bring the thing with him.

"About that… I found a loophole in my [Inventory]" this was not the world of his game, there are bound to be some bugs and loopholes popping up now that he had reincarnated in a world with his menu.

Irene arched her crescent brows, although she did not understand what he meant by loophole, she got the gist of it.

"What do you think?" Seeing Irene carefully examine the finger inside the ice coffin with her phoenix eyes, Simon asked. The earlier awkward atmosphere between them was long gone and an air of seriousness had taken its place.

"I didn't think it was possible for you who haven't even mastered the true essence of the mystical energy to manipulate the curse energy. However, if you say that you are somehow able to harness its power, it's not like there is no way you can't use the finger" Irene said finishing her examination of the finger.

"Is there really a way I can use the finger?" Simon asked back excited. He only brought the finger with him since he felt it was a waste to leave it there after he had worked so hard to clear the fourth trail.

He basically did not have much hope for using it as a weapon. However, Irene's words ignited a new hope within him.

"How much do you know about techniques?" all of a sudden, Irene asked him a peculiar question.

-------

A couple of hours later… inside the white palace.

The moment Simon and Irene walked inside, they were greeted by the line-up of five maids, each wearing a beautiful maid dress underneath their armour.

Simon was a little astonished by this welcome, his previously empty palace was starting to become a little more alive now with the addition of the Valkyries. Also since they were absolutely loyal to him, he had no qualms with them staying here.

The white palace had more than enough room to accommodate them. On the off chance that it was still not enough, Simon could always add a few more rooms to the white palace.

"Master please excuse us, we took the liberty to enter the kitchen and cooked a meal for all of you" Annette said stepping forward.

Simon was not amazed, the Valkyrie sisters besides being good at combat, had excellent housekeeping skills. He designed them in a way that they not only aided the players in their adventures but also served them in doing all the menial chores.

Some of their skills were also created keeping them in mind. Be it from cooking to taking care of the palace, perhaps there was no one better than them. Simon was not surprised that they had already familiarised themselves with the kitchen; after all, he was the one who created them thus he knew how seriously they took their work.

He thought over it before deciding that he would have the meal later, right now he was just too tired from his training and needed a warm bath to relax his fatigued body.

When he mentioned that to his maids, they immediately replied by telling him that the bath was ready.

"We thought that after training for so long, Master would want a bath. That is why, we had already prepared the bathhouse for you".

The moment Simon he heard that, he was stunned. "All of it?" he asked.

"Yes Master, all of it".

The bathhouse of the white palace was enormous and a place of extravagance. Not only was it based on the things he experienced on earth, but it might also be one of its kind on Althaea.

The bathhouse was divided into sixteen zones in total and was further subdivided into nine for the two genders. Not only did it have large changing rooms, but it also had different kinds of baths starting from the Roman Bath, the Jungle Style Bath, Carbonated bath, Jazuzzi and so on so forth.

The reason that the bathhouse of his white palace was so extravagant was because Simon was a huge fan of bathing in his previous life. Thus when he installed the palace, bathhouse was one of the things that he vividly pictured in his head.

Since there were so many baths and there was no telling which one Simon would use, it came as a surprise that the valkyries prepared all of them.

It seemed that he had underestimated the work of efficiency of the maids, it had even been one day since he summoned them, but they have already started taking care of the palace.

HAAAA...

Simon was thinking all of that while lying inside the Roman bath. Ten golden statues of the lions that constantly released water from its mouth were placed around the bath.

As he allowed his body to lie inside the tub, he felt all his exhaustion dissipate away as if it was never there.

After he was done taking a bath, he went to the dining hall where they all had a meal. Simon asked the maid sisters to join them but it seemed that they were too stuck up with their work ethics.

After that, Simon went back to the pond of serenity to continue his training. As a demon viscount, his body didn't need much sleep, simply taking rest was enough for him to recover from his fatigue. Thus Simon trained near the pond of serenity day and night and just like that three days had passed.

During these three days, Irene would be constantly guiding him and showing him all the mistakes he committed in his training.

"Alright, it seems like you more or less got it. With that, you should be able to control it. Now you just need to...".

As usual, today too Irene was beside him checking on his progress. She was just him some advice when from the corner of her she noticed one of the [Helpers] hurriedly walking towards them.

Even before they gave their report, Irene immediately understood what it was about and narrowed her eyes. She looked at Simon who was calmly sitting on a rock after finishing his training.

"Huff.. Huff… Lord Simon, I have an urgent message…" the one who came to report was Jared.

Looking at the distressed face of the boy, Simon first told him to calm down before giving his report.

Jared did as he was told, took a deep breath to calm his anxious heart and reported "Lord Simon the adventurers you have told to keep an eye on, have reached the thirty-fifth and will soon arrive on the thirty sixth floor. Sir Coleus and the others are on the thirty sixth floor, awaiting your orders".

So the time has finally come huh, the opponents were about to reach their last line of defence, its time he made his move too. Simon stood up and steadily recited out orders.

"You all did a good job monitoring them. Tell coleus and the others that I'll be soon arriving on that floor. Do not do anything and stay in your stations till then. Additionally, avoid bringing the news to the Forest Spring village, your clansmen will be needlessly troubled because of this. You may leave now".

"Yes" Jared bowed once before walking towards the teleportation gate located on the main floor.

"What are you planning?" Irene asked standing beside him.

"Since the enemy has gone through so much trouble to arrive on the thirty sixth floor, naturally, I will welcome them with our full force. Make them understand that dungeon Laplace isn't a place that they can simply conquer on a whim" Simon declared, his crimson eyes burning with a brilliant radiance.

Seeing him raring to go, Irene sighed and stated "In that case allow me to come with you too".

Simon turned towards Irene who wanted to follow him in their last stand at defence on the thirty sixth floor. As one of the Guardians of the dungeon, it was only but natural for her to safeguard it and given that she was the strongest being inside the dungeon, Simon felt more safe when she was guarding the main floor.

He wanted to change her mind and tell her to protect the dungeon core instead but when he saw her determined eyes, he gave up on the thought and nodded.

Simon knew how protective Irene was of the Forest Spring Spirits, there was no way she was just going to sit there and do nothing while he and the other fought for the survival of their dungeon on the upper floors.