Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Well, given that they were able to corner our enemy this much even though they were produced hastily, I would say they were a success. Although the unfinished version cannot be compared to a level 400 yet, they aren't too far either I would say they are around level 380".

The window that depicted the scenes of the first door, was devastated beyond recognition. Smoke and dust rose everywhere, metallic scraps and pieces littered the ground causing sparks and fire everywhere.

There was no hint of the previous greenery in the place anymore, it was replaced by gorged earth and large craters everywhere. In the middle of this mountain of scraps, were a group of people maintain a tight formation.

In the forefront of this formation leading the group was a young man with bright crimson hair and fur on his body. His hands had enlarged into claws and his overall frame was more than double the size of the people around him.

His eyes were beastly and crimson stripes like that of a tiger, formed some kind of complex pattern on his body.

SHIIING… with a swipe of his sharp claws, he slashed numerous missiles before they could come near them. From time to time he would give a loud roar that would disrupt the mana around the place and cause interference in the air.

This sometimes affected the weapons of the Andromedas leading them to miss or malfunction.

"Hmm… is it because they are not tuned yet? Anyways, they were just unfinished versions meant to be used to collect information and perfect the Mk 9. Make sure you collect as much information as you can and retrieve the scraps later. Although they are broken, they can be processed again".

After giving his commands, he turned his eyes towards the other windows. Out of the seven windows that depicted the scenes within each of the seven doors, only four still had some activities. The remaining three were completely silent with no movements to be seen anywhere.

The scene inside those windows was a complete bloodbath with corpses littering everywhere. No survivors could be seen within those windows.

"I guess that many number of monsters was just too much for those teams from the big guilds to handle. But I must admit, the newly mutated Blaze Wolves and Pyrodactyls are quite powerful. You did a good job coleus".

The monsters chosen to attack the different teams of adventurers that came exploring the pit, were the mutated Direwolves and Anemodactyls. These monsters were only recently added to the dungeon after the mutation and much was unknown about them.

Hence Simon decided to take this chance and use these monsters to pit against the adventurer teams.  This way not only will he be able to cull the numbers of the adventurers but also be able to collect data from both sides.

Apart from that, another reason why Simon used the Blaze Wolves and Pyrodactyl in this fight was that they were cheaper to spawn.

Unlike the standard way of spawning evolved and powerful monsters (like the Elder Lizardmen and pterodactyl) using the [Spawn] function, spawning the mutated monsters was much cheaper. Not only were they far stronger than their pre-mutated species, but the DP they required to spawn was also the same.

That is to say, not only spawning the mutated monsters saved a ton of DP, they also matched up to the standard evolved monsters in terms of power.

Not to mention, some of the mutated species were even stronger than the standard monsters that could be spawned by a [D] ranking dungeon. The mutation crystal was a powerful weapon that broke the balance.

It was a common knowledge that powerful monsters beyond a certain level, cannot be spawned in a low ranking dungeon. It was something that everybody knew and was the parameter that decided the ranking of that dungeon.

However, with the appearance of the mutation crystals on the bottom of the serenity pond, this notion was turned on its head in dungeon Laplace.

Imagine encountering a monster powerful enough to match minotaurs and hellhounds from middle ranking dungeons. Would it completely break the common conception of this world?

The dungeon Laplace led by demon Simon was starting to become such a place. Even if Simon was restricted by the laws of the dungeon and unable to spawn highly evolved and powerful monsters, with the aid of mutation crystals he can easily circumvent this restriction.

"Haha, Lord Simon is praising me too much. Although I was able to mutate the Direwolves and the Anemodactyl, they are still around level 300-350. If not for the effects of the Crimson Aggression Stalk, Poison detoxifying Clover and Draining Mercury Vines, the monsters wouldn't be able to achieve the result they did today. The credit should go to Fay, Maya and her team".

Coleus humbly passed the praise towards the two females.

What he said was the truth, these mutated monsters weren't powerful enough to overwhelm these teams without the backup of items such as the Crimson Aggression Stalk and such. Fay, Maya and her team who diligently cultivated these plants around the mysterious ruins and made it so that they aren't easily noticeable, did a greater job than him.

The Crimson Aggression Stalk and the other items in question were items that were found inside the bottom of the pond. The Crimson Aggression Stalk was the burning tree that the adventurers saw in the grassland.

Apart from its enthralling burning look, the tree had the effect of driving monsters with elemental affinity to fire, berserk. In this state, the power of the monster increases and they are driven into a state where they do not care about their life and simply seek to slaughter their target.

This anomaly in the monsters was also noticed by the adventurer teams; however, what they didn't know was that the burning tree referred to as the crimson aggression stalk was the cause of it.

Apart from the burning tree, the four leaf clover that the adventurers found was the cause of the poison, was another item that was brought out from the pond.

The effect of the item was to detoxify poison was storing them within it. However, when the clover grows to become a four leaf, the poison stored inside is expelled.

"That is not true, if not for Cecilia's assistance in concocting such an effective poison, we wouldn't have been able to…" Fay and Maya in turn passed the praise towards Cecilia who wasn't expecting to be involved in this relay of passing the credit around.

"H-How can that be, Miss Bea, Uncle Coleus, Miss Fay and Maya worked hard too. I on the other hand simply asked the Deep Sea Alligator King and Lightning draconic serpent to simply share some of their poison to concoct one. I cannot take all of the credit".

Cecilia shook her head and passed the credit back towards them. Seeing these people not want to take each other's glory and accomplishment, Simon involuntarily smiled.

"In that case, I take my words back. It was my fault to praise you individually when all of this was a group effort. I'm proud of you all. All of you deserve my praise".

He stepped up and praised everyone for their efforts. Although the battle for the defence of their dungeon was far from over, from this endeavour one could tell how diligently his subordinates had worked to fortify and secure the dungeon.

The 34th floor was just the beginning, there were far more trickier and dreadful traps waiting for these adventurers on the lower floors. The dungeon Laplace was fully prepared to receive the guests who came from the top and the most powerful guilds of the kingdom.

Seeing the confident and relaxed faces of the people around her, a small smile blossomed on Irene's face. In the beginning, the master of this dungeon Simon, was all alone. Most of the management of the dungeon was done by him and the burden was also shouldered by him alone.

Yet with time, he gained new comrades that are willing to share this burden with him, help him manage this place and create an abode for its inhabitants. Slowly but surely, a group with him as the core was gathering around him.

Irene's smile had a trace of melancholy but more than that there was this unknown emotion of sadness and pain. No one was able to notice her smile or know what the reason for her sadness was.

"Master I believe your idea to add the draining mercury grass deserves the most credit" Annette stated.

If there was something that had the most effect and was the key to their victory, it would be the last trap that Simon had set. Yes, the Crimson Aggression Stalk and the poison detoxifying clover weren't the only taps that were setup in those places.

The reason why the multitudes of traps and the newly mutated monsters and incomplete andromedas Mk 9 were able to achieve what they did, was because of the draining Mercury grass.

This trap which was nigh impossible to detect, turned the situation completely in their favour and swept the adventurers off their feet.

The Draining Mercury Vines wasn't an item that was brought out from inside the serenity pond. Far from it, it was an item that was drawn out from the [Ga??????] in one of Simon's random sprees.

Of course, being an item that he himself had created, he knew all about the draining mercury grass and how to bring out the best of it. As a result of that, the adventurer teams that dived inside the seven doors, suffered massive losses.