Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"But why the Phantom Light guild? The ones that are responsible for the death of your son is the dungeon and the demon who controls it" The grey haired man reasoned. The guild leaders of the other guilds also found his reasoning baffling.

"I... am punishing the ones that are responsible. Donte don't think that I don't know, before entering the mysterious ruins, your disciple and my son had a scuffle. How is it that your disciple was able to reach the central chamber while my son didn't?"

"You want me to believe that they simply disappeared inside those ruins? Like hell that could happen… it's clear that he was targeted and only the people from your guild have the reason to do so. The tertiary team of your guild was also the last one to arrive at that chamber, why is that? Kuhaha… isn't it because they were held up by the ambush they set up for my team?".

Manuel spoke with an almost maniacal smile on his face.

"Damn you fucking lunatic, I told you already that it was not my people that ambushed your guild. The disappearance behind your son is not related to us" Donte retorted back.

"Haha, as if I will believe your words. You all too… do you really think the incident on the 34th floor was simply an accident? Don't you all suspect something in your heart? Hehe, in the first place, we cannot trust each other, it was our biggest mistake to leave our backs to another guild. Sooner or later you will find out that my actions were right… hahaha".

Manuel gae a maniacal laugh. His words may be out of line, but none of these guild leaders could refute it since all of them had their own concerns inside their hearts.

Even though it was not something tangible, the link that held this expedition force together could be seen snapping at this moment.

"Enough..." the grey haired man sighed "Brutus call the secondary team, ask them to look after these people. We will proceed forward without them".

It was a pain to get involved in the muddy waters of the top guilds of the kingdom. The grey haired man believed it was better to leave these people here than to take them along in this expedition forward.

It was still unknown how many floors and dangers lay ahead of them thus leaving them here so that they do not start another trouble was the best choice. or so he thought at that moment.

-----

Inside the main hall of the white palace. Everyone was looking at Simon in shocked silence. That action of his that manipulated the minds of the people without even lifting a finger was downright... "demonic".

Well, he was a demon so Simon took it more like a compliment.

"No wonder you didn't place any predatory monster on that floor. You were waiting for them to turn against each other, weren't you? This is also why you asked the Ogoraths to bring back all those armours and weapons belonging to those people right?" Irene muttered analysing Simon's action.

It was just as she had said, after the Ogoraths destroyed the tertiary teams of Baskerville guild and a few other guilds, they brought back their gears and didn't leave any evidence for the primary team to find making it look like they had disappeared.

A dungeon can only absorb the bodies of the adventurers, their gears and other materialistic things are left behind and becoming the possessions of the dungeon or the other adventurers. Usually it was the adventurers who pocketed the gears of other adventurers since they were valuables after all.

So to the primary teams, the disappearance of even the gears of the Baskerville guild and a few other guilds felt completely out of place and rose many suspicions.

If they were attacked by monsters, their gears would have been left behind; however, the primary teams couldn't even find a single gear much less any survivor outside of those seven doors that could tell them what had happened there.

In the first place, the pit and the mysterious ruins were designed in a long and winding way. So even if it was the survivors of the tertiary team who were personally involved in that incident, they couldn't say with certainty that no fight occurred among the teams.

"Correct" Simon nodded his head "My intention was to create discordance within the expedition force. They might look like a solid opponent to face at a glance, but they have many weaknesses and faults that we can take leverage of. For example, their prejudice against each other and their greed. Well, it seemed that the 40th floor had worked out quite well in my favour".

Everything that he knew about the expedition force and the guilds it was comprised of, was from the time he spent at the capital and the knowledge that he gathered there. The rest was from his experience as a game developer and a human.

Just as a famous war general and strategist had once said, if you know your enemy and yourself, you need not fear the results of a thousand battles.

Simon was aware of how capable the expedition force was and knew the ability of his dungeon. Thus he wasn't very bothered by the fact that he was currently facing the strongest guilds from the kingdom of Ellesmere.

"My lord, the other teams have stopped the fighting. Should we do something about it?" Coleus asked.

"Hmm… we will do something about it, but not now. The secondary team will look after the surviving member of those guilds. For now, let us enjoy and watch how the reaming members of the primary unit fare against our other floors and traps" Simon spoke with a smile.

Of course, he wanted to see how long this superficial bond that was holding the expedition force together would last. The upcoming floors were set up in a way that would challenge their fortitude and mental strength at every turn.

Starting from the 41st floor it was all deeper floors, and the monster that spawned there were all powerful. Many of them were mutated species or monsters that were brought from the northern and the western region of the forest.

Their powers were unlike the monsters on the middle and upper floors of the dungeon. With their numbers and strength, even the powerful expedition force would suffer some casualties.

The dungeon was also no doubt suffering some loss from the monsters that were being cleared on every floor but compared to the gains he was getting every hour, it was not even worth mentioning. That is why Simon's goal from the start was to delay the expedition force for as long as he could and milk every last profit out of them before ultimately killing them.

------

40th floor, after taking an hour long break to recompose their minds, the expedition army started moving once again. It didn't take them long to find the entrance to the next floor and dive deeper.

The 41st floor was a huge jungle covered in mist much like the 40th floor. However, it was not inhabited by Epsiloths and the mist here did not have any properties that could mess with your senses or navigational skills.

Though that may be the case, it couldn't be said that the 41st floor was any less troublesome. Due to the existence of Trihorns, monsters that looked like lions with three flaming horns on their heads. It took the expedition force quite some effort to clear it.

Trihorns were powerful predator monsters that could be classified as Super class beasts. Although their strength was under level 400, they moved in a pride and were quite the hunters. Plus they were also very intelligent, they knew how to take advantage of their habitat and attack the adventurers when their guard was relaxed the most.

The horns of the Trihorns worked as a radar using which they communicated with each other, so in a way, the 41st floor was like an ideal environment for them where these canines could display their full abilities.

Perhaps because what Manuel said was still in their minds, many of the members of different guilds made silly mistakes that they would never commit usually. These involuntarily led to injuries and finally to a casualty.

This was the first time the primary unit of the expedition force had suffered a loss from the monsters. It is true that after becoming an elite adventurer hardly anyone died in a low ranking dungeon but there has been some precedence before.

It was quite a shock for various reasons; nevertheless, the primary unit kept moving forward. Although it was a big loss for the guild that adventurer belonged to, but ultimately an adventurer's life was full of dangers and it was not an unusual scene.

It took the expedition force more than ten hours to clear the 41st floor and descend to the next. The 42nd, 43rd and the 44th floor was similarly filled with dangerous monsters and traps but in the end, it was still cleared by the expedition force.

Nonetheless, it came for a price and that was the life of several adventurers. Due to the thing in their mind weighing them down, the group was starting to become dysfunctional and everybody could see it but no one wanted to address it. After all, it was a sensitive topic and if it was approached with carelessness, the incident that occurred on the 40th floor between the Baskerville guild and the phantom light guild might occur again.

Although it couldn't be seen at a glance, with two of the big guilds missing, the efficiency and power of the primary unit have decreased by a lot.