Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"You guys are not wrong; however killing them at this point would only result in me levelling up a few couple of times. Besides, if I initiated a bloodbath on them, those orcs that were going to become our subordinates, would forever be under the impression that we are no different than the ogres".

"Since I'm taking them as my subordinates I want to slowly ingrain loyalty towards the dungeon and myself within them" Simon explained.

"I see, so if we had initiated a bloodbath there, it would have adversely affected Masters plan" Alice murmured finally understanding why Simon had stopped her at that time.

"Right... but there is another thing, I'm not so merciful as to let them live after all the pain and efforts I had to go through to defeat the ogres" Simon added.

"Does master mean that…" Annette who was smarter than all her sisters, had some ideas as to what her master was planning.

"Yeah, they are the bait. The war is not over, the ogre army deployed by the ogre tribe today is not their strongest force. I don't believe that the tribe led by one of the seven kings of the forest is only this strong. They have got to be hiding much of their strength".

"The ones that ran away from the battlefield were sure to report what had transpired on the battlefield back to their superiors. This would surely incite the anger of the ogre tribe and one of the seven kings towards the orcs and me".

"When the time comes, they are sure to retaliate for what happened today with their full force. We must be ready for that. Fortunately for us, we have these orcs who will work as our sentry and decoy, their deaths will be the perfect signal to warn us when the ogres are coming".

Sparing them to maintain his reputation, was just an excuse. The real reason why he didn't kill them and made them into his experience was because he needed them to serve another purpose.

After the attack on the tower town, Simon had learned his lesson. He couldn't just sit still and allow the monsters of the ghastly winding forest to ruin the town and the dungeon that he had built up over the past year with much difficulty.

If he had to have a way of knowing when an attack was coming beforehand, then he would be able to prepare in advance and stop any unnecessary destruction of the tower town.

The adventurers living in the tower town are the main source of income for his dungeon. It has to be said that, if the town is threatened again and again it was sure to be deserted by the adventurers.

After all, nobody liked resting and leaving their backs open in a place that could be besieged anytime.

Simon would have to prepare multiple countermeasures for that in the future. For now, the territory of the orcs, served as an ample warning for when the ogres are attacking.

Other than that, there was another thing bugging Simon's mind that he didn't speak about to the Valkyries. It was the motive behind the ogre starting this war. Simon wanted to know what was driving one of the seven kings to attack the orc tribe which did not even have a calamity class as its protector.

Could the tribe of orcs have something that even someone on the level of a seven kings coveted? Simon couldn't help but think around that line. It was also because of this reason that Simon wanted to forage through their treasury and the place where the orc king lived.

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A thousand kilometres east of the Blackfield was a vast sea of woodlands filled with exotic plants and trees. Unlike the Blackfield and the territory of the orcs, this place was filled with carnivorous plants, monsters and various insects inhabiting the place.

The mana here was dense enough to form mist around these parts which lasted year long. Thanks to the many mystical veins flowing underneath the ground, various treasures of the nature could be found growing around here.

At the depth of this place, was an ancient ruin which was covered by the dense foliage of the forest over the years. Every house around this part was broken, growing out of their roofs were many trees of mana crystals.

At the centre of the ruins was an enormous temple which looked quite grand even when most of its splendour was degraded with time. Inside the temple, hordes of mana crystals, core stones, artefacts and other various exotic treasures lined up the place.

If any ordinary adventurer saw that, they wouldn't be able o help but droll with their mouth seeing this much wealth. At the end of the hall was a gigantic carcass of an ancient beast.

Unlike the one that was in the underground chamber of the orc territory, this one did not release any aura.

The carcass was enclosing a small pond in the centre. The ceiling around this area was completely broken thus allowing the sunlight to penetrate through and fall on the pond. Peculiarly enough, the water in the pond was crimson in colour like the blood itself and a small exotic flower was growing at the centre of it.

The flower had an outlandish shape and had the power to ensnare one's soul as it released a violet fragrance all around it.

Not far away from the pond, sitting like a statue was an ogre with flame like bright crimson hair. They were wearing sturdy looking armour, pelts of monsters as clothing and strapped a heavy sword on their back.

The ogre was leaner, smaller than even the crimson horn and looked no different than an average human. That is if you ignore the deep purple horn the ogre had on its forehead.

The ogre must have maintained that position long enough for the dust to settle on his armours and clothes. His presence was so minimal that one wouldn't even be able to tell that he was here without approaching a few meters near him.

The ogre was so still that if not for the occasional rise and fall of his chest, he might have been considered dead. At this moment, the slight dust that had accumulated on his shoulders fell down and the ogre finally opened his eyes revealing two fierce beast like dark brown eyes.

The ogre extended his hand and two small crimson stones the size of a pebble appeared on his palm from inside his space ring. There was a small crack in the stones and the energy inside was slowly seeping out.

"What?!" due to the slight disturbance in his concentration the entire ruins shook for a moment causing dust and debris to fall down from the ceiling.

Whoosh… wind rustled and a figure appeared behind the ogre like a shadow.

"Lord Gil-Garna what is the matter?" the figure asked calling forth the name that was the lord of all the black ogres and one of the seven kings.

Gil-Garna turned his eyes towards the shadowy figure and said "Gish-Bagh… Giz-Bozo and Giz-Mogo are dead. Their soul stones just broke".

The shadowy figure was none other than the ogre with the indigo horn that was communicating with the two crimson horns before the war. Gish-Bagh's eyes went wide the moment he heard those words; nevertheless, he quickly composed himself and bowed his head in apology.

"I am extremely sorry to have disappointed my lord. I thought that sending two crimson horns against that orc king would be enough to bring the tribe of orcs down, who knew that Giz-Bozo and Giz-Mogo would turn out o be so useless. I shall make preparations and send someone there immediately…".

"There is no need, the ogre army there should have already been wiped out. If there is an enemy there who can kill even a crimson horn who was about to break through to become an indigo horn, then no matter who we send there to, it would be the same" Gil-Garna turned down Gish-bagh's suggestion.

"Could the orc king be the one o defeat them? But he didn't strike me as that strong.." Gish-Bagh mumbled frowning his brows.

"I don't think it's the doing of that orc, this should be the doing of a third party" Gil-Garna affirmed his suspicions.

"Could it be someone from the seven kings?" Gish-Bagh asked putting his words very carefully.

Gil-Garna was silent for a while before he shook his head once again "I don't think that is the case, however, I cannot be entirely sure. Someone had tempered with my plan and they did it just when I was about to procure that inheritance".

His first suspicions went towards Gufardus who had an inkling about his plan. But before he could ponder on that any further, the flower on the pond suddenly started sending ripples through the water and emit an ear piercing cry like that of a hundred babies crying at once.

Immediately, Gil-Garna stood up from his place and started walking towards the pond making the dust that had accumulated on his body, to fall down on the ground.

"Gish-Bagh I need to focus on growing the Six Nether flower and cannot leave my position. You go and find out who was behind all of this" Gil-Garna ordered.

He used his nails to slit his hand and drop his blood on the pond. The pond immediately started boiling while the six nether flower released a bewitching violet colour.

Seeing his king getting busy, Gish-Bagh obediently nodded his head and swiftly left the hall.