Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Nine hours into the exploration of the 45th floor, another piece of news came to light, some unknown people hiding their identities, were targeting guilds and stealing the rewards amidst the chaos.

At first, the other guilds ignored it but when they themselves became the next victim, things became more chaotic. It wouldn't have bothered them much if it was just some ordinary treasure; however, if the news were to be believed, the treasure chest had spirit orbs inside them.

An unparalleled treasure like that was a loss that was hard to swallow. Not to mention many guilds had also suffered numerous casualties because of the masked people stirring things up while they were fighting the monsters.

Such reports started coming from everywhere and soon things started going out of proportion. Although the guilds were unable to identify these masked people, they were at least aware that it was the doing of some guild.

Bitter at their loss and filled with frustration, these guilds became more prejudiced against the other teams so much so that many battles broke out whenever two or more teams stumbled upon each other.

These clashes led to injuries and injuries led to casualties. Unknowingly the two twenty guilds started sinking deeper into a mire that they had no hope of returning from. The fragile bond or the link that was holding these guilds together finally came loose.

The expedition force fell apart.

-----

White Palace, Main Hall. Everybody was silently looking at the expedition force with pity and loathing in their eyes. The ones comrade that had worked together to clear multiple floors, were now doing their best to kill, rob and impede each other.

No form of unity or coordination could be seen within them. They acted just like barbarians who were blinded by greed and only knew how to shed blood. They had no camaraderie nor any trust left in each other.

The expedition force that seemed so formidable before, was on the brim of falling apart and scattering. The powerful members of the primary teams that could solo any spawned monsters on this dungeon were falling one after the other.

The funny thing about this situation was that most of the casualties that the primary unit of the expedition force suffered were dealt to them by their comrades or on their own. Monsters and traps had little to do with it.

The ones that helped Simon cull their numbers, were the adventurers themselves.

"They are surprisingly so fragile from the inside" Bea commented, a small smirk on her face.

"Yeah, it's like they never had any trust in each other in the first place" Annette added maintaining an indifferent face.

The other Valkyries nodded their heads in agreement.

What was happening on the 45th floor was the very definition of chaos. And all it took was some small misunderstanding and the greed of these people to cause that fire. It was not like they had used some mind encroachment skill or anything.

"But my lord is it alright?… Using those fakes isn't it just telling them that we have the spirit orbs?" Coleus questioned.

The spirit orbs that the adventurers were making so much fuss about, was in fact a fake that was prepared by Cecilia when Simon was rummaging his head thinking about what treasures should he put inside those treasure chests that can blind their eyes with greed.

He didn't want to strengthen them by putting high ranking weapons and artefacts there, so he could only put the treasures he got after clearing the third trial of the forbidden grounds and from the Diluvian Orcs territory.

At that time, Cecilia came to him and told him to use the spirit orbs shocking all of them. The hundred or so spirit orbs that were harvested from their friends and families, was still resting inside the space ring on Cecilia's hands.

The forest spring spirits had insisted that Simon kept it; however, he adamantly denied it and handed them the space ring back. Ultimately it was given to Cecilia who was the daughter of their patriarch to keep.

She kept it close to her and treasured it like her life so when she suggested that idea, many were shocked.

Simon was too, he was about to shake his head saying it was not necessary when Cecilia explained her plan. According to her, she can now create a faux spirit orb that gave off the same aura and energy any real spirit orb would using her powers.

The Faux spirit orb that she created, looked very much similar to the original one so much so that even Simon was fooled for a second. However, he who has seen the original ones soon spotted a few differences and was able to recognise the faux from the original.

Be that may, for the adventurers who had never seen an original one in their life, they would be unable to differentiate the original from the fake.

Using [Analysis] also didn't help since it was a perfect imitation that none other than Cecilia, a forest spring royal spirit had created. Nevertheless, it was not like the faux was completely flawless, as it was made with Cecilia's energy, once that energy runs out, the faux spirit orb will disappear.

According to Cecilia, the energy inside those faux should barely be able to last for a day. That is to say, the spirit orbs sitting inside the space rings of those adventurers, would disappear soon enough.

Simon wanted to see what kind of reaction they would have when they realise that the treasure they spent so much effort into, even going as far as killing and betraying their own comrades, goes missing from their space ring after a couple of hours.

Would they realise it was fake or would they in their hot-headedness start blaming one another? or would this be the end of the expedition force?

"There is no point in keeping the spirit orbs a secret from them since I'm sure they are aware of it" Simon explained. From the intel he gathered from the members of the seven swords guild responsible for destroying the forest spirit village, they had already revealed this secret to Benny Beckerman, the guild leader of the Sea god's trident guild.

That is to say, one of the top five guilds of this kingdom was aware that the dungeon Laplace was harbouring the Forest spring spirits and had hundreds of spirits orbs.

Simon did not know how many guilds were aware of it but given that the top twenty guilds of this kingdom were attracted to tackle a mere [D] rank dungeon, he would say that their objective was fairly obvious.

If it was an intermediate tier dungeon, Simon would have understood but other than the spirit orbs, a low ranking dungeon like Laplace didn't have much allure for big guilds like them. Hence revealing the existence of the spirit orbs didn't matter much at this point.

On the contrary, if him revealing its existence could sow discord amongst them, Simon was more than willing to use this Faux.

However, even he didn't imagine that using those faux spirit orbs would have this much of an effect to the point where these adventurers would kill one another to get their hands on one. Especially those three guilds, their action was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Thanks to them masking their identities and attacking the other guilds the whole incident had blown out of hand. Even if they tried to control it, it wouldn't be as easy as that time on the 40th floor when only two guilds were fighting amongst each other.

"Hehe, it would be wonderful if they wiped each other just like this" Alice commented laughing merrily.

"That would be a naïve thinking Alice. The expedition force isn't an easy opponent that could just be dealt with with small mind tricks. Sooner or later they will snap out of it and realise that they had fallen for our trap".

"At that time, they would start putting their efforts together and become a stronger force than before. Perhaps what we should be wishing from this chaos is for them to wipe as many of their numbers as possible".

Irene looked at all of this more objectively. Divide and Conquer, Simon's plan was good and all. The expedition force wouldn't be a threat to them if they were scattered and dealt with separately.

However, if through the trials they manage to eliminate their prejudices against each other, work like a single team, and focus their strengths together, they would become a serious threat to their dungeon.

The possibility was low, but it was not like it was none.

Simon understood what Irene pointing at nevertheless he believed that it was impossible for them to come together at this point. A mind was often the hardest thing to read, thus he failed to take one aspect into consideration and made a fatal mistake.

"Alright, it's time for us to initiate the second phase of our plans… 'Hit where it hurts" Simon ordered.

-----

Nineteen hours into the exploration of the 45th floor, the silent scenic floor, had turned into a complete mayhem. Sounds of explosions broke the silence and destruction spread everywhere. No matter where one looked on this floor, one wouldn't find a place where there was no battle occurring.

Near the entrance to the next floor, a couple of guilds with a gloomy atmosphere around them, had gathered together. The air around the place was heavy and suffocating to the point where any low levelled person would instantly faint.

"So tell me who is responsible for this madness?" At the forefront of this group, was the grey haired man who was looking at the distance where all kinds of battles was occurring.

His eyes that was peeking through the mask, glared at the seven guild leaders beside him who had gathered here along with their guilds at his call.