Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Inside one of the large bamboo houses located at the centre of the hidden village of Forest Spring Spirit Clan, Laris lazily sat on his couch. His face was sour and wrapped in frustration. All his hopes had gone up in smokes. He believed that Dale's team had encountered the girl, but it turned out that wasn't the case.

Laris couldn't tell whether Dale was lying to him or not and more so he couldn't disclose the identity of the girl to the other party. Therefore he had to keep his questioning vague and short.

"If it wasn't Dale's team that fought with the treants then who was it? Is there someone else besides us in this forest?... Could it be the adventurers from Mountmend?" after considering the possibility for a while, Laris shook his head.

"No it can't be. If there were adventurers other than us in this part of the forest, then I would have already gotten a report from the guild".

He massaged his temples as he thought about various other possibilities, but no matter how much he mused, he couldn't find the answer he wanted.

Laris in his sane mind could never have imagined that the one behind the incident was the demon residing inside the dungeon his guild planned to use as their scapegoat all along.

"Tch" He clicked his tongue and glanced at the cellar deep inside the house. It wasn't like that their haul was bad. On the contrary, it was quite the big haul. They had already collected more than eighty spirit orbs from the Forest Spring Spirit. If they include the children that have been enslaved, then the spirit orb they had in their possession would be more than a hundred.

As for the remaining ones that managed to escape, some of them self-destructed their spirit orbs while the rest successfully managed to run towards the Ancient Treants Territory.

In the current timeline where coming in contact with even one spirit orb was extremely rare, one could imagine the kind of storm these many spirit orbs would bring. The Kingdom... No, the whole continent would be shaken to its core.

Hundred of spirit orbs harvested from the Forest Spring Spirits were by no means a small amount in the present world. Spirit orbs that sometimes come up in auction secretly, go for more than eighty million gold each and maybe even more.

The allure that the spirit orb held for the people of this world could only be imagined. After all, every individual in this world wants to raise their bloodline and rise to a higher realm.

Even if Laris brought hundreds of these spirit orbs back to the guild, the guild would have immensely profited and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that their guild would be amongst the top, even across the whole central continent.

However, Laris wanted more. He wasn't content with only these hundred spirit orbs. If he could get his hands on the Royal Spirit orb, he would immensely contribute to the guild.

His contribution would be so huge that nobody in the guild could outshine his achievement. At that time, ranking among the top seven would become an easy task.

"Do I have no other choice other than to lose the royal spirit orb?" Laris deliberated long and hard and just when he thought he had no other choice, a hurried sound of footsteps could be heard coming near him.

Laris was quite amazed to see that the subordinate didn't even bother to knock on the door before barging in. The subordinate who rushed in while huffing, said with an excited face " Sir Laris we have found the little girl. You were right, placing sentries in that same place where she disappeared last time was a brilliant move. She came back again and fell right into your traps. We currently await your orders."

"Wha...?" Laris stood up from his couch, his face was so shaken that he even forgot about the misdemeanour of his subordinate and said with an agitated face.

"Keep a few to watch over the Forest Spring children, order the rest to come with me immediately. I shall personally take action this time and make sure that there are no further blunders". Fate has given him another chance to make up for his mistake, how could he give up on it that easily.

He had decided this time to personally take action and ensure that the royal spirit cannot escape, this may be his last chance after all. The subordinate bowed his head and immediately left to carry out the orders.

After a few minutes, more than twenty people assembled as per his orders and immediately set out towards the place where the royal spirit was seen. After ten minutes of constantly zipping through the forest, Laris and his team finally reached the place.

He immediately asked the sentry about the whereabouts of the girl. The sentry silently pointed towards the distant huge tree. There amidst the thick foliage of branches and leaves, sat a little girl on top of a tree.

The girl had emerald green hair and two pairs of fairy-like wings that were rather unusual than the common Forest Spring Spirits protruded from her back. She was dressed in bright green clothes and her eyes seem to shine like an unblemished crystal.

Laris couldn't help but marvel at the scene. This was the first time he laid his eyes upon the legendary Forest Spring Royal Spirit that are described in so many ancient books and records.

Forget about him, even the guild master of the Seven Swords guild had never seen one. The Forest Spring Spirits are an extremely rare clan that lives in seclusion, hidden from the outside world. Therefore ninety percent of the population of Althaea had never seen a Forest Spring Spirit in their entire lives much less a Forest Spring Royal Spirit.

"This is it. She is a genuine Forest Spring Royal Spirit. HAHAHA, the heavens are favouring me. Surround and capture her at any cost. Do not let her self-destruct her Royal Spirit orb at any cost, do you understand? The one who messes up, I'll kill them myself."

With an energetic nod, the group of adventurers covered in black robes immediately sprang into action. They silently crept near the tree where the little girl was sitting on and surrounded her from all directions, cutting off any escape route.

While all this was happening, the girl silently sat on the tree, clueless and unaware of the greedy adventurers creeping near her.

Simon secretly watched the actions of the adventurers as they silently surrounded him. Currently, he had morphed into Cecilia and one could say that he looked exactly like her.

A surreptitious smile crept up to his face as he saw that all of them had unknowingly fallen into his trap. But his work was not done yet. He had to lure as many of them as possible, away from the village. Especially the stronger ones.

Therefore he patiently waited and scouted out the adventurers surrounding him. Using Analysis on everyone, Simon was surprised to find out that there was even a level 311 that got baited. He silently sat on the branch of a huge tree biding as much time as possible.

To the adventurers, Simon looked just like a clueless Forest Spring spirit, unaware of their surroundings.