Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Her words pulled everyone's attention back to that window.

Simon observed the grey haired man who was covering his face with a mask. For some reason, he felt uneasy and restless whenever he looked at him.

"They have realised that the spirit orbs were fakes" it was something that was bound to come to light sooner or later. But the fact that the guilds who were up until a moment thirsty to draw each other's blood, to suddenly stop fighting each other was what fazed Simon.

According to the plan he had drawn up in his head, they shouldn't be able to stop their fight so soon much less gather around together like this.

What was going on? What did the grey haired man do? Since the window didn't transmit any sound, there was no way of telling what he told each of these guilds.

The adventurers started behaving in a way that Simon was unable to comprehend. He felt like the gears he had been controlling for a while now, suddenly shift out of place at this moment. Something was very wrong and he didn't like where it was going.

"Big brother… what is that?"

Cecilia pointed at a huge weird mechanical apparatus that was displayed in the window. It was something that was taken out by that grey haired man and was more than ten meters in size.

It had six wide legs attached to the ground, an upside down spiralled shaped body and numerous gauges. Apart from that, its top end had an enormous core stone the size of a football embedded in its body.

From what Simon could understand by looking at its structure, the core stone seemed to be acting like a battery while the six legs were there to hold its entire body in place.

Then what was that spiralled upside down frame for? It didn't look like a cannon or else it wouldn't be pointed at the ground or could there be a different purpose for it to be pointed at the ground?

Simon carefully observed the apparatus, its shape was almost like an inverted cone, a ten meter huge cone. The core stone was currently charging energy which meant that something was about to come out of it.

Could it be… an auger machine?

The moment he came to that realisation, he suddenly stood up. Everybody was surprised by his action but he had no mood to pay attention to that right now. He studied the machine more clearly and finally came to an understanding.

It really was what he thought it was.

"What's wrong?"…

"Big brother?"…

"Master?"…

Irene, Cecilia and his subordinates asked in concern.

"It looks like there is a need for change in plans. I haven't counted that possibility, I have made an error".

Hearing Simon mutter to himself, Irene couldn't help but ask "What do you mean?".

Simon explained what he believed the machine was and hastily ordered all of his subordinates to get ready.

"It looks like we cannot sit still anymore. Gather everyone, the time for the final battle has come".

If the machine worked the way it was designed for, then Simon was unable to predict what kind of development it would lead to. That is why he needed to make his move before whatever that grey haired man was planning.

Nevertheless, it looked like he had realised that a step too late as the core stone in that machine started shining brighter and brighter and after a while,  a brilliant ray of light spinning in a corkscrew manner was fired by that machine which dug into the ground.

Since they were watching that through the window of the [Menu] they were unable to hear any sound but by the large vibration that could be felt even on the main floor, they could tell that the sound was earth shaking.

That ray of light fired off by that machine created an enormous hole in the ground and disappeared underneath.

Cracks and fissures started appearing on the floor for a few dozen meters and before anyone knew it, the ground that the adventurers were standing on, collapsed.

Yes, the ground of the 45th floor crumbled apart and a hole spanning for dozens of meters connecting to the floor below was created. However, that was not the end, the beam of light after breaking the floor of the 45th floor dug straight into the ground of the 46th floor and created another similar hole.

The vibration that could be felt on the main floor, came after repeated intervals. That is to say, the beam of light didn't just stop after breaching the 46th floor and kept on digging deeper.

The 47th floor, the 48th floor… finally after reaching the ground of the 48th floor and breaching through a few layers of its crust, the beam came to a stop and dissipated.

Simon watched with a stunned expression as he saw adventurers falling from the huge hole in the ceiling and landing on the ground of the 48th floor.

He was gobsmacked, why would he not? That auger machine, that beam packed so much power that it was able to destroy three layers of floors of his dungeon. It was not just one or two, but three.

If the beam was anymore stronger, perhaps even the 48th floor would have crumbled.

It was not just any ground or layer that could be found on the surface that beam of light drilled through, but a floor of his dungeon. It needs to be mentioned that they are many times denser and sturdier than the deepest layer of bedrock.

Breaching something like that, not to mention multiple layers of floors at that… anybody would be surprised after seeing that.

Although Simon knew that breaching the floor was possible after seeing Alice almost destroy through the ceiling of one of the floors when fighting the Aberrant, he believed that it would be a long time before a person capable of doing that would show up.

At that time, his dungeon would have become stronger and increased in rank. However, who knew that there was this kind of machine capable of breaching through multiple floors of a dungeon like that in this world?

This was a completely new realisation for Simon, something that stunned him to no extent. After his shock resided he was relieved that this possibility was shown to him earlier than possible.

The reason for that was simple, imagine if this machine had shown its appearance on the 50th or the 52nd floor while he was still thinking everything was going according to the plan. With the power this machine packed, wouldn't they be able to breach through the boss floors and reach the [Workshop]?

The [Workshop] was one of the key floors of the dungeon Laplace, any damage dealt to it would be like breaking the limbs of the dungeon. Worse, what if they reach the forest spring village that was directly underneath the workshop?

Simon couldn't let this happen.

"Annette… gather everyone, it's time to clear the intruders" He had sucked as much benefit as he could from the expedition force already and besides now that he was shown what the auger machine was capable of, there was no way he could sit still and allow them to use that once again.

"Irene protect the core and the dungeon, others will come with me to intercept them" On Simon's orders everybody started moving.

"Big brother… I-I want to come with you all too" Cecilia asked while clasping her hands in nervousness.

"No, you will go back to the forest spirit village with Coleus" Simon did not allow Cecilia to tag along, it was far too risky for a non-combatant to show their face on the battlefield.

The intruders this time were far more powerful and trickier to deal with than any other adventurers that have dived inside his dungeon before. So much so that even Simon cannot guarantee his own safety, so it would be utterly foolish to bring Cecilia who cannot fight with him.

Besides a part of him didn't want his little sister to get hurt so even if he have to be a little crueller and strict with her, he wasn't going to bend to her wishes.

"B-But even little Wisp is helping big brother, I want to be helpful to you too" Cecilia mumbled while drooping her head down dejectedly.

Seeing her like that, Simon bent down, matched his eye level with hers and spoke.

"Cecilia… why do you feel like you are not helping me? Is it because others can fight while you can't? Let me tell you something, you are one of the most helpful people in this dungeon who is helping me take care of it".

"Your existence both as my little sister and the Guardian of the dungeon is something that no one can replace. I cannot even begin counting how much of a help you are to me already Cecilia. Everybody has something they can do and can't, you cannot just measure your worth based on things that you can't".

"Look at this dungeon Cecilia, if there is anyone who has changed it, it is you. The dungeon, I need you… so please continue to help me in the way you have been doing up until now. What do you say, Cecilia? ".

Simon consoled patting her head.

Finally, Cecilia propped her head up and nodded at his words "Un… Leave it to me big brother, I'll make this dungeon the very best. But before you go, can you promise me something? Please promise me that you will win and return back safe and sound"…

[[[["Please… brother… come back to your senses. You cannot let her death devastate you"]]]]…

[[[["Brother you must not falter… what happened to her was not your fault?"]]]]…

For a second there, Cecilia's image overlapped with two other people in his vision.