Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The decaying property of the curse energy did not have an instant effect. Instead, it slowly stuck to the target and spread like a disease from that point. In another word, the curse energy had a powerful D.O.T (damage over time).

It can decay through anything given the time. So what was a mana armour in front of it?

As Giz-Bozo was exposed to droves of curse energy coming out of Simon, the quality of his mana slowly degraded from within and Simon was able to easily pierce through his [Mana Aura].

'Not Good' feeling the danger, the beastly instinct of the ogre kicked in and he hurriedly moved his body aside. Although he was able to dodge the claw, nonetheless, some part of his skin still made contact with the curse energy.

Giz-Bozo opened up a good distance between him and the demon before staring at him cautiously. This was the first time that he had met someone who did not break or cut through his mana armour but instead melt it down.

The fact that he couldn't get any reading of that peculiar miasma around the demon made him even more alert.

Simon did not pursue his target after his attack failed to land. Instead, he flashed a wicked smile and continued his staredown with the enemy.

The ogre thought that he was safe after dodging his attack and opening a distance from him. But he couldn't be any more wrong, the little bit of curse energy that he got exposed to had dozens of strands of curse energy that got stuck to his skin like maggots and was slowly decaying and draining him from within.

Since the effect was not too apparent yet, the ogre failed to realise what was going on nevertheless, he should soon start feeling some effects.

Simon had no hurry to attack his enemy, after all, the power of his curse energy relied on its D.O.T and the more the time passed, the better for him.

Simon used this time when his opponent was cautious of him to glance at his subordinates and see how they were doing.

Even with just ten percent of the power, the Valkyries who were each level 699, were a force for the ogres that the latter were unable to contain. They slaughtered the ogres with finesse, brutality and expertise. Finally forcing the brown horns to butt in.

The Gir brothers mounted on their beasts, were completely different enemies than before. It was as if their powers had suddenly doubled as they executed attacks that utilised the full potential of their beast.

Gir-Rago, the eldest of the brother riding atop a hawk with three talons called the Fierce Siliantos was facing Annette. The second eldest brother, Gir-Rugo riding atop a stone HIde Mammoth beast called the Mountain Dozer, was fighting Bianca and last but not least, Gir-Rego riding on the Fire Breed Hound was fighting Alice.

For the first duo, both their attacks comprised of fast attacks and high agility. Annette was quick on her casts as she barraged Gir-Rago with non-stop attacks, while the orc used his aerial advantage to dodge and manoeuvre around the magic.

His counterattacks came from the skies and were deadly enough for Annette to have some form of defence around her or so Simon thought. However, he couldn't be any more wrong.

The reason why Annette protected herself with earth barriers, was because she didn't want her maid dress to get dirty by the attacks of the ogre not because the attack was capable of hurting her.

From her perspective, the maid dress was given to her by her master. She couldn't probably forgive herself for staining or damaging it even a little. Because of this concern weighing at the backside of her mind, the fight looked more or less even.

The second duo, their fight was a pure clash of strength, a display of force. Gir-Rugo mounted on his Mountain Dozer used the skill [Mountain Crumbling Charge] which could even trample down mountains to trample the maid in front of him.

But to his surprise, the maid that he thought was just a pebble on the path of his prided beast turned out to be a titan who couldn't be moved no matter how much pressure they exerted.

Frustrated and unresigned to back down, Gir-Rugo channelled all of his powers into his beast using the skill [Beast Link].

Bianca on the other hand simply used her shield to stop the beast and his charge. For an [Imperial Aegis Knight] like her whose stats and abilities were purely focused on defence and strength, this level of pressure was nothing.

If she wanted to, she could have used her immense strength and sword to cut down down the mammoth along with the ogre mounted on top of it. However, her order was to defeat the ogre who was on top of the beast and not the beast too.

Because of her comprehending the order inaccurately, she was locked in a standstill that she herself created.

If there was a subordinate amongst the Valkyries that followed his order to the book, it was Bainca. Thus if not instructed otherwise by Simon, Bianca would never hurt the beast to end this match which should have ended a long time ago.

It was a good thing that Simon wasn't aware of what these valkyries were thinking or else he would have plucked his hair out due to frustration.

Perhaps the only fight that did not go wrong was the third one. Alice whose opponent was riding on his Fire Breed Hound, was agile and was a close combat fighter. They would try to cover up the distance between them and their opponent before using their deadly teeth and fire-breathing ability to tear apart the target.

Unlucky for him, Alice was the very bane of these kinds of close combat fighters who did not have any long or medium range attacks.

Using her bow, high agility and situational awareness to manoeuvre around the crowd of ogres, she bore holes after hole into her opponents.

She would blend in the crowd and make it difficult for Gir-Rego to find her. She would then besiege him from every direction making the ogre regret being ever born.

Looking at that Alice, Simon was genuinely surprised. Alice was a Wood Elf and according to the setting, wood elves were known for their ranger skills and craftiness.

'Who would have thought beyond that pretty face, would be a mischievous devil' Simon thought internally. Although the Valkyrie's battles didn't go the way he thought it would for some reason, the experience today would nonetheless, become a cornerstone for their growth in the future.

DING… another notification sounded out alerting Simon that he had levelled up once again.

"This should be the fourth alert of the day" Simon murmured. When he looked at the ogre army, he could see that their numbers had declined by more than a thousand. Which meant that he needed the experience of more than a thousand 350+ level ogres to level up a total of four times.

Then what if he absorbed the experience from all of the surviving forty-six thousand ogres? Doing the match shouldn't he be able to level up a total of 184 times?

However, that calculation was wrong, levels do not work like that. The amount of mystical energy that one needed to absorb becomes greater, the higher the level one reaches as time goes on.

For example—let's say Simon needed to absorb 1000 mystical energy to become level two which he got from defeating one direwolf. However, to reach the next level, that is level three, he would need around 3000 mystical energy and would have to defeat three direwolves to collect the necessary energy.

The same was the case here, although it took around 250 ogres for him to level up once, that number would only keep on getting bigger as his level goes higher.

That is if he only defeats ogres at around that level. Weren't there more juicy ogres with higher levels present such as the ogre in front of him?

The ogre that was clearly the leader of this army, was according to his [Analysis] around level 599. Such a fat lamb was sure to give him a ton of experience. An excitement like never before started rising within Simon and he started chuckling which soon turned into a bellowing laughter.

Giz-Bozo who was keeping every action of the demon within his sight was enraged when he saw the latter laugh. The other party was having fun laughing at the army he was given by lord Gil-Garna dropping down one after the other.

"You…!!" he shouted but before he could take any action, he suddenly felt his power drop down by a lot and his mind growing agitated. Giz-Bozo fell on his knees and coughed out a mouthful of blood.

"Bozo… what going on?" Giz-Mogo near him called out.

The former did not answer since he himself was puzzled as to what was going on. He did not take any damage than why? It was then that he noticed his body was realising a faint purplish-black miasma.

"When did he…"Giz-Bozo suddenly clutched his body in agony as the miasma slowly started eroding his body from within making his power drop even further.

"So you finally realised huh…. though it's already too late. Isn't it agonising to channel your mana? Doesn't your body react violently whenever you activate your skill? The curse energy had invaded deep within your body and has corrupted your core stone. The more you try to struggle the more painful it will get for you. Just give up… you have already lost".

The voice of the demon sounded like an evil spirit at this moment. It strangely had the hypnotising effect of making weak-spirited individuals instantly lose their minds and obey his commands.