Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Simon experimented with his newfound powers on the north side of the forest and quickly discovered that most of the monsters here were no longer any match for him. Even the experience they give him didn't feel as satisfying as before and the pace at which he gained experience had slowed down to a crawl. If he wanted to level up and reach the next rank, he had to either challenge the three overlords of the north side, the Earth-Shattering Lower Dragon being one, or delve into the west side of the forest where the strongest monsters lived.

Currently, his level was still quite low compared to the Earth Shattering lower Dragon and if the other two overlords had similar levels or even more than challenging them with his current strength would be nothing more than a fool's errand. Hence he decided to avoid clashing with the three overlords for now and instead decided to explore the western region of the forest. Simon was not afraid of these three overlords but was biding his time since he knew that given enough time he would be able to surpass them. With that said his only choice was to delve and survive amongst the strongest monsters of the Ghastly Winding Forest.

Now that he had already set his eyes on the west side, he immediately called his Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse and flew towards the west. A week passed by as Simon explored and continued grinding levels, his [Mental Map] had also helped him chart out the parts of the forest he explored. In these last few days, he learned quite a bit about the monsters inhabiting the western region of the forest. The levels of the monsters he encountered at the edges of the region were lower than the Earth-Shattering Lower Dragon but their levels were still around 200-250 and the numbers in which they appeared were in hundreds which made them quite challenging in their own way.

These monsters did not just hunt in numbers but were all quite sentient and use tactics and tricks to immobilise their prey before going for the kill. Many a time during his exploration, Simon and the Bloodthorn Demonic warhorse were surrounded and pounced upon, exhausted fighting in addition to being chased by the monsters day and night they had to run back towards the dungeon.

This past week of exploring the western region, made Simon aware of how dangerous the western part truly was and why these monsters were the strongest monsters around. The perils and dangers hidden inside the western region of the forest couldn't even be compared to the other regions of the Ghastly Winding Forest.

He also learned that the monsters on the west side were very aggressive as they chased after him and even inside the dungeon. Moreover, since they weren't classified as weak, the Elixir of Enticement didn't work on them. Hence, even after burrowing inside his dungeon he still had to fight against these monsters who were after his life.

The spawned monsters inside the dungeon also helped in repelling the invading monsters albeit the spawned monster were quite weak compared to the monsters that chased after him from the western region of the forest. Thus most of them ended up dying. Simon didn't feel any regret over their death as these monsters were supposed to guard the dungeon and since they can be spawned again using DP, he did not have to worry about their numbers being decreased.

Thankfully most of the invaders were repelled or died before they even reached the twelfth floor. however, it made him realise that how weak he and his dungeon was and if anything unexpected happened, he might have lost the dungeon core along with his life.

This event made him aware once again that how important the dungeon was to him, it was not only his home but also a place that he must guard with all his strength as his life was connected to the dungeon. Therefore in the past few days, Simon renewed his efforts as he focused on increasing his level as well as added new floors and improved the defensive mechanisms of the dungeon.

After the improvement, the dungeon now had twenty floors and every floor was filled with deadly traps that could easily kill a lower-level monster if it was careless, winding paths that would keep interfering with your sense of direction and hidden areas filled with monsters and traps. The fifteenth and sixteenth floor was a vast forest with orcs, direwolves, and windwolves spawning on these floors. Their levels individually were low but the numbers in which they appear is what makes them a threat to any invaders. The seventeenth and eighteenth floor was a vast swamp loomed by rain clouds all the time along with the white fog that covers most of the land. The monsters spawning on these floors are adept to this habitat and make it quite a perilous task to breach this floor.

The nineteenth floor was a vast winding cavern that leads to the wide central colosseum. Simon made it so that if any invaders did manage to get past all the floors, they could have a final showdown here. Beyond this was the twentieth floor which had the dungeon core that made it all the more obvious to stop the invaders here before they could reach the core and destroy it.

"Well twenty floors should be enough to protect the dungeon for now" he made a satisfied smile but his naïve thinking was soon broken as a new window popped in front of him.