Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

At the centre of the orc territory, a narrow pass between two inconspicuous mountain, led towards a waterfall behind which rested a huge stone door. When Simon and the Valkyries discovered this huge stone door, they couldn't help but hold their breath for a while.

The stone door was more than thirty meters big and ten times heavier. It had many mysterious drawings and pictures carved on it. When asked what these pictures meant, Berigard simply shook his head telling Simon that it was something that their tribe of orcs found after they settled here.

This means that, the stone door was something that was even more ancient than the history of the orcs living here.

"The first orc king had placed a seal on the door, so only an orc king or an orc general can open it" Berigard explained. He touched the wall with his hand and exerted his mana.

Immediately, incomprehensible runes started appearing on the ground and entered the stone door.

"Runes?!" Seeing the runes appear, Simon muttered in astonishment.

TREMBLE… the huge door started shaking and moving aside opening a path to the treasury. Berigard led Simon and the Valkyries through a dark path and onto a bright open space lit up by countless phosphorescence stones.

"This is…" Looking at the treasury of the orcs, Simon's crimson eyes gleamed for a second. The treasury cannot be said as grand by no means since the orcs did not have the concept of keeping things organisedly.

However, even cumbersome, the sheer amount of treasures that the orcs had collected throughout the years was enough to make anyone flabbergasted for a second. No matter if it was gold, core stones, artifacts, rare ores or herbs, the orcs had those in abundance.

Their quantity was so much that they were lined up in heaps of mountains.

"These are all the treasures that our tribe has collected since the beginning. Now that my lord is our new ruler, everything in this treasury rightfully belongs to you" Berigard stated adopting the attitude of a subordinate.

Simon did not stand on ceremony and quickly got to business. He asked the Valkyries to sort the treasures for him and passed them a few space rings that he got from the adventurers that had died in his dungeon.

With that said, they quickly got to work, the mountains of treasures started disappearing swiftly and into the space ring of Simon. Before long, most of the treasures were hoarded by Simon except for a few miscellaneous items that couldn't be put into a category.

Among these items some were peculiar stones that he had never seen before, a couple of orbs with weird runes drawn on them, grimoires, materials harvested from the many monsters around the ghastly winding forest and last but not least, an old parchment of paper.

"Master what should we do with all this?" Alice asked perplexed.

The skill on the grimoires had the requirement of a class attached to it which meant that it cannot be used by anyone else other than someone possessing that same class.

The peculiar stones did not initiate any response from the [Analysis] and monster materials were something that they had no use for as of yet.

What remained was a parchment of paper in Simon's hand.

"Just keep them in a separate space ring, I'm sure they will come in handy someday" Simon ordered and opened the parchment in his hand. Probably because it was very old, it had many crumbles and was torn in many places.

The ink had faded slightly but the contents of the parchment, the map was still differentiable. Looking at the map, Simon was immediately stunned. That was because the map drawn on this parchment, was one of the missing pieces from the map that Simon had found from the guild master of the seven swords guild.

Taking out the other piece that he had kept inside his space ring, Simon tried to piece them together. However, since the last piece was still missing from the map, one still couldn't tell where this place was.

"It looks like some sort of mountain," Annette remarked looking at the map.

"It also looks like a waterfall if you turn it around" Alice added her observation.

"Master is this some kind of treasure map?" she asked, one could see stars lighting up in her eyes. The little girl was excited by the thrill of going on a treasure hunt.

Simon did not deny nor confirmed her words, he turned towards Berigard who was waiting for them in the corner and asked—

"Where did your tribe get this map? Do you know anything about it?".

Unfortunately for him, the orc general had no information regarding the map or where it lead to.

"I'm extremely sorry my lord. That map is something that had been stored inside the treasury since the time of our first king. We all were unaware of what this parchment of paper was thus we simply kept it in our treasury. It is only now that I was made aware that it was a map and the drawings on it was a coordinate" Berigard replied.

"I see…" Simon wasn't very disappointed, he knew that would be the case. After all, one wouldn't just keep a map rotting in the treasury if they didn't know anything about it.

"Ah yes, I can only say that the map was incredibly precious to the orc king so much so that he deemed it safer to keep it in the treasury rather than roam around keeping it in his space ring".

Simon's eyes glowed crimson for a second when he heard those words. something that even the first orc king deemed precious, the map no doubt hid some incredible secrets and if he wanted to find that out, he would have to search for the last piece and complete the map.

After they were done emptying the treasury, the group moved out towards the underground chamber where the orc king used to live. When they approached near the place, they found signs of destruction everywhere.

The underground chamber was empty and the orc king was nowhere to be found.

"That guy really did run away huh" Berigard clenched his hands in anger. The huge carcass that had been with their tribe since the beginning was gone and they found the broken pieces of the transmission conch at the entrance of the chamber.

With all the evidence present, there was hardly any doubt remaining whether the orc had fled away or not.

Simon on the other hand wasn't fazed to see the underground chamber empty. Given his understanding of the orc king from the words of Berigard, he already expected this to happen.

"Berigard can you tell me what are the things missing from the underground chamber?" Simon asked, this was his first time visiting this place, naturally he did not know the things that were kept here.

Berigard took a deep breath of air to compose the burning anger within him. He pointed at the altar at the centre of the chamber and said.

"The huge carcass of an ancient beast that had been with our tribe since the start, is gone. It was the material behind all our weapons and also the thing where the holy spirit resided. It is obviously taken by Belgarious before he left this place".

"Holy Spirit?" the word instantly intrigued Simon and he couldn't help but ask.

"Our tribe of orcs can only select a new king through two methods. The first way was by recommendation of the previous king and the second method is through the holy spirit's approval. The gigantic carcass that used to be here, harboured that spirit. The reason why we call it a holy spirit is because it has been protecting our tribe of orcs since the beginning and has been landing strength to all our previous kings.

Belgarious was chosen through the first method. However, what I cannot understand is how could the previous orc king not see how treacherous Belgarious was to have selected him to be his successor" Berigard spat his frustration out.

"Perhaps there is still an element that you are unable to see. Anyways, what is all that holy spirit giving you power about?".

Simon was more interested in the holy spirit than how Belgarious became the orc king. For some reason, he felt that carcass held some mysteries that the orc in front of him wasn't willing to disclose.

Berigard faced Simon bowed his head and answered sincerely "It means exactly what it means. The holy spirit of that carcass has been lending strength to all our previous kings, allowing them to step in the calamity class".

"Is that so…" Simon glanced deeply at Berigard for any signs of lies, seeing that the guy was telling the truth, he dropped the issue.

A carcass that resided a holy spirit who granted powers to others. Simon had many speculation and questions as to what it could be. However since the carcass was gone, there was no point in digging any further.

After seeing that there was nothing to loot in the underground chamber, Simon along with the Valkyries, decided to return back. Before leaving, he left a few instructions for Berigard.

Unlike the time when they entered the Diluvian High Orcs territory, Simon and the Valkyries did not bother to mask their scent while leaving since all of the orcs were now more or less aware of his presence.

There was no point in hiding his scent from them. Simon did not stop on the way back to his dungeon and hurried back at his full speed. The Valkyries were following closely behind him.