Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Simon resolved internally that no matter what happens, he would defend his dungeon. He looked at the determined faces of his subordinates and started handing out orders to them.

"Relay this message to the ones living on the 49th to 52nd floors. I want all of them to be ready with their subordinates and be at their peak state when the time comes".

On the orders of Simon, all safety measures that was put in place for the adventurers of the tower town, would be removed. All traps in the lower middle floors and lower floors would be changed to all lethal.

Manufacturing of Andromeda mk 9 would start early. Not only that, he also opened the operation mutation of the monsters again.

Simon assigned a good chunk of DP to the helpers to alter some of the areas of the floor to better suit the monsters. He even ordered them to create more hidden floors and increased the overall difficulty of the monsters and the complexity of the lands starting from the middle floors.

All the subordinates hurriedly left to carry out their orders except for Irene and the Valkyries. The Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse was responsible for managing the disaster class beasts and those who were close to breaching this class. Thus it hurriedly left to prop those beasts back into shape.

Simon could already imagine the scene on the deep sea alligator floor occurring once again.

After he handed others their orders, Simon suddenly remembered the words the spirit tree had said. It told them about a future danger that would befall them. He couldn't help but wonder if this was the danger it talked about.

"Where are you going?" Irene asked seeing Simon walk out of the hall.

"Back to training" Even if those guilds used the air engine which they will most likely use to arrive here, it would still take them more than a week to travel all the way from the capital to here. Simon had to make the best use of the time he had left with him.

After handing out the management of the dungeon to Irene, Simon arrived in front of the pond side once again and started training with even more fervour.

Unlike the last time when he could take it leisurely, he was pressed for time this time. He wanted to acquire the skill before those guilds arrived and add more cards to his battle powers.

Three days passed by in an instant as Simon was focused on his training. In the area near the serenity pond which was covered by a thick mist of mystical energy, a figure jumped out of the pond with a splash.

The tall and lean figure was none other than Simon who dived inside the pond. After his huge jump in level, he was now able to stay inside the pond for more than five minutes without feeling the pressure or experiencing his HP decrease.

Since that was the case, Simon took this opportunity to bask in the benefits of the pool. Irene had once told him that the water of the pond contained a high concentration of pure mystical energy which was increasing every day.

If he could dive inside the pond and bask in its effects every day for a few minutes, it would not only strengthen his physique but also optimise his body to its peak state. Not only that, as the effects of the pond start accumulating on his body, he would undergo a metamorphosis of some sort where his talent, aptitude, stats and basically all other values will receive a huge boost.

Although the effects that could be felt now were very subtle and couldn't be seen in the status, Simon could still sense that he was getting stronger every single day, even though his level stayed the same.

During the three days, Simon had basically started living near the pond-side and never left the place even for an instant. His routine constituted of training the [Mana flow] skill bitterly day and night and diving inside the pond to bask in its effects.

Of course, every time he dived inside the serenity pond, he did not forget to rummage up some mutation crystals and various other treasures from the bottom of the pond.

He would call one of the [Helpers] here and pass them the crystals every day during these past three days. On that note, since they were short on staff, Simon had increased the number of [Helpers] assigned to help manage his dungeon, from seven to fifteen.

Only the most talented forest spring spirits were chosen for this role. Coleus was still their leader and he was also the one that was managing the project mutation on his behalf. As he had followed Simon and spent quite some time observing the mutation on the monsters, he could be said to be a little knowledgeable about this stuff.

Simon did not shy away from assigning a sum of DP for him to summon monsters to experiment on. Failure was the mother of success, Simon knew that much of the DP would be burnt in a jiffy.

Nevertheless, every successful mutation added a new and powerful monster into their collection and increase their chance of surviving the upcoming expedition.

After passing the mutation crystal to the new [helper] named Reed, Simon arrived inside the white palace. At this moment, the palace was empty. Everybody was busy carrying out their tasks.

Irene was handling the numerous affairs of the dungeon, Cecilia was in the forest spirit village and the Valkyries were training. Of course, it was not like they had neglected their duty towards Simon, everyday one of them would be assigned to stay beside him and take care of him.

Simon sat inside the hall for a while before the space fluctuated and the beautiful figure of Irene appeared in front of him. When he saw her, he quickly got up from his seat and told Irene that he would be stepping out of the dungeon for a while.

"Where are you going?".

When asked that, Simon revealed a fierce smile, pointed in a direction north-eastern from here and said—

"I need to complete what I started. Only a little more than a month is remaining before the one year agreement with Aldebaran already comes to an end. Before that, I need to subdue the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon and complete the three overlords of the north set. With the addition of the Earth shattering Lower Dragon, the defensive might of our dungeon would increase".

Seeing that Simon had made up his mind, Irene was silent for a while. It was true that the situation looked a little grim, an expedition of this magnitude and size was a first for this dungeon.

All the top five guilds combined their strength and even roped a couple of dozen big guilds from the surrounding region to form a coalition against his dungeon. It wouldn't be wrong to say that this was the might of an entire nation.

It wasn't something a low rank dungeon like theirs can look down onto. Simon who had travelled to the capital of that kingdom, knew very well the might of these guilds.

Just a single Sea god's trident guild was able to corner him until he had to resort to using the transit to stone to flee. Much less needed to be said now when those powerful top guilds have allied together against his dungeon.

As the phrase goes—once bitten, twice shy, Simon who had experienced the humiliating experience first-hand, knew better than to underestimate his opponents. He would do anything and everything that was possible for him currently to boost the power of his dungeon.

The dungeon was a very important existence to him, he cannot allow anyone to destroy it. This also included the people living inside it. Thus he had no choice but to confront the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon a little earlier than he expected.

Irene looked at Simon, who was oozing confidence and had an atmosphere around him saying relax I got this. He might have been able to fool others with that, but not Irene. She knew that it was just a cover, he was masking his insecurities with a veil of confidence so as to not worry anyone.

Irene as a woman was considerate enough not to reveal it. However, the matter of the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon still made her worry. Of course, the reason for it was that Adult Dragon.

If the Irene of a year ago saw the current her, she would be amazed to see how she was displaying such concern and worry for a man. Nonetheless, the current her did not have the mind to pay attention to such things.

The earth Shattering lower dragon might just be a lower dragon and an overlord of the northern region but it was a dragon no less. Just this last fact alone was enough to put it on equal standing or even above those seven kings of the forest.

That was how powerful the dragon clan was, just having their bloodline made the individual extremely strong. This was also one of the reasons why a body of a dragon was considered a priceless treasure from the point of view of everyone in this world.

Given the fact that the Earth Shattering Lower Dragon was a genuine dragon and the blood of the dragon clan flowed within it, which made countless lives inside and outside of this ghastly winding forest covet it.

However, despite that, the Earth shattering lower dragon was able to stay alive inside the forest and without facing any trouble while it was just in its juvenile stage. There had to be someone or something that was protecting it from the shadows.

What the Lightning Draconic Serpent told them about the dragon clan, should be the truth. A mature dragon was silently protecting the juvenile dragon.