Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

He did not know why Irene asked such a question nor what kind of answer she was looking for. But if had to describe the changes that had occurred to his body after that experience, then it would only be that

Did he miss something? As Simon was deliberating his answer once again, Irene seemed content with his response.

She glanced at Simon's askance face and said "Right! Even if the change is minute, you must also look at the total time you had immersed inside the pond. All that change had taken place after only soaking yourself inside for less than half a minute".

Simon widened his eyes at that reply. Why didn't he think of that? The answer was right in front of him, in plain sight. He was too engrossed by his depleted HP and MP that he failed to realise the wondrous changes that had occurred inside his body.

What was more incredible was that he had soaked in that energy for only twenty or so seconds. What would happen if he was able to immerse inside the pond for longer periods of time?

Simon couldn't even imagine what kind of changes his body would go through at that time.

Although his body was still trembling from the experience, his heart was pounding like crazy with excitement. Seeing his reaction, Irene wasn't surprised and smiled to herself.

The pond changing to this degree was because of the many Mystical veins underneath the earth connecting with the pond. Being deposited with such rich energy, the pond was bound to undergo unforeseen changes.

All of it was thanks to Cecilia who had unknowingly manipulated the trajectory of the mana veins. Even now when Irene used her peculiar ability to gaze underneath the ground, she could see massive mana veins interconnecting with one another to form a huge network.

The degree to which they were being altered, was truly a surprising sight. The true abilities of a Forest Spring Royal Spirit was laid bare in front of them.

"I feel like I understand now why you said the pond would be a great asset to raise my strength in the future" Simon said as he marvelled at the pond.

A smile blossomed onto Irene's face when she heard that; she replied "You should thank Cecilia. That little girl is constantly thinking about how to be of some help to you".

When he thought about the little girl he had taken in as his little sister who was constantly worried about him, Simon couldn't help rub his nose as he said "Yeah, I'll do so".

Irene did not comment any further when she saw how serious he was. But when she thought about Cecilia who was steadily awakening her powers, she couldn't help but remark "Her abilities are slowly manifesting and it wouldn't be long before she can completely awaken to her Forest Spring Royal Spirit powers. At that time, the Pond of Serenity wouldn't be the only thing that would undergo massive changes in your dungeon".

Irene was well aware of how unusual an ability a Forest Spring Royal Spirit possessed. There were not many races that can manipulate the forces of nature to such a degree and even amongst them the Forest Spring Royal Spirit reigned supreme. What she had shown right now, was just the tip of an iceberg.

"Yeah…" When Simon heard that Cecilia was starting to manifest her powers, he was starting to worry a little.

Hearing his listless reply, Irene asked in a frown "What's wrong? Your reply was awfully unenergetic".

The words that Aldebaran said about Cecilia being a reincarnation of one of the Eight Emissaries of the primordial demon of pride, was still weighing on his mind. He was worried not because of her being a reincarnation of some Emissary but because of a possibility that she might become someone completely different.

Although they were not blood-related, Simon was starting to see her as his own sister. There was no way he would be happy knowing that she was steadily awakening her powers as that was akin to awakening her memories as well.

These complicated feelings of his had no outlet to go and seeing that Irene was still unaware of Cecilia's identity, Simon decided to spill all of it.

As Irene heard what Simon had learned from the Ancient titan Treant, she couldn't help but widen her eyes in shock. The more she heard, the bigger the turmoil in her heart was. It was the first time that Simon saw Irene being surprised this much by something and couldn't help but feel that she knew something.

When he asked her about it, she did not reply. No, it would be more appropriate to say that she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she failed to react to his question.

"What is happening? I have never seen her behave like this before?" Simon muttered as he observed Irene's reaction.

Although the noble and cold bearing that was inborn to her was still there, there was no hint of her gaining her composure back. Her eyes would be sometimes in a daze and sometimes focused, her crescent brows were locked in a frown and it looked like she was trying very hard to recollect something.

Her expression was constantly changing, sometimes it was in pain, other times it was happy, angry and sad. The expressions that Simon thought that he would never get to see from Irene constantly appeared on her at this moment.

It was also at this moment that Simon realised that Irene's temperament was not cold and aloof from the start. No matter how icy and noble one behaved, they would still have a time when they were as innocent as a child.

It seemed that Irene was going through a great emotional upheaval and all her emotions that had been encased in ice, was slowly surfacing.

"Kuh… ahn~" just when the emotional upheaval was starting to overwhelm her and she released a sound of agony, a resonant phoenix voice echoed out across the whole dungeon.

Simon who was starting to become a little anxious seeing that she was still not snapping out from her daze, was astounded to see the halo of an Azure phoenix appear behind her. The phoenix looked illusory and gave off a boundless aura that seemed to be able to encompass the whole world.

In front of the phoenix, the world looked tiny and its divine might made one to bow their heads in reverence.

Simon had never seen such a beautiful bird as marvellous and celestial as the one before him. That was not all, a mark that looked like the phoenix appeared on her forehead and glowed with a soothing azure light. The mark looked beautiful with all those intrinsic patterns and seemed just like a crown decorating her forehead.

The pain that was assaulting Irene, was instantly calmed with that phoenix cry. At this moment, from her countenance to her very being looked extremely divine.

The illusory scene disappeared after a few seconds and Irene's tightly locked brows finally loosened. The next moment when she opened her eyes, it looked extremely confused and lost.

Simon wanted to ask what happened to her earlier but kept his mouth shut when he saw how wavering and unsure her eyes seemed at this moment.

Even if he asked her about it, Simon was sure that he wouldn't get any answer. It was also at this moment that he realised that he didn't know anything about Irene. Her origins and her past was a complete mystery to him.

'Does she herself not know what just happened a few seconds ago' Simon felt like Irene herself was unsure about what happened to her earlier when looking at her lost expression.

The mood quickly became uncomfortable and Simon did not want to probe her about it anymore. Therefore he hurriedly changed the topic to their training.

"So what do I do next to train my skills," Simon asked trying to dissolve the weird atmosphere. There was no point worrying about something that he clearly knew nothing about. Instead, it was better for him to focus on getting stronger and raising his strength.

It seemed that his efforts were successful as Irene hurriedly recollected her composure. Earlier he dived inside the pond as he was asked and realised the current limit of his body. He was also made aware of how important the pond was for his growth.

Irene clearly had some plans for making him do something like that. But even he didn't imagine the next words that came out of her. She looked at him and quickly shifted her gaze away before saying in an indifferent tone.

"How long do you plan to stay like that?".

"Huh?" At first, Simon was confused but he quickly realised the meaning behind her words. Right now, he was still only in his shorts and was wearing nothing. Previously before he dived inside the pond, he removed all of his clothes except for his shorts and ever since surfacing from the pond, the event that happened one after the other totally made him forget about his current appearance.

It seemed that no matter how unbothered she acted, Irene was still conscious of his appearance.

Simon quickly swallowed his embarrassment and hurriedly wore his clothes. When she saw that Simon was done changing, Irene observed him with that mysterious glow in her eyes and nodded before saying:

"When you were immersing inside the rich energy within the pond of Serenity, how well were you able to circulate the energy that was wildly rushing inside your body?".