Dungeon of Pride, Laplace



The nightmarish training continued every day. The only time Simon got breaks was when his taskas as the dungeon master caught up with him or during the time he spent diving inside the serenity pond. 

Even the mind numbing pain of the serenity pond became something of a delightful escape for him. One could imagine what sort of hellish training regime Irene had prepared for him.

It was not only Simon that was training wholeheartedly, all of his subordinates were affected by this atmosphere and devoted themselves to get stronger. Whether it be the Valkyries or even the unsuitable for combat [Helpers], they all came to Irene for guidance and polished the skills and gifts they received from the dungeon.

They trained diligently not for themselves but for the sake of one person, Simon.

Days passed by with the dungeon transforming every day. New floors, new rewards popped up attracting more and more adventurers even from the distant kingdoms. With the rise of the fame of the dungeon the tower town along with the neighbouring cities flourished.

Ten months later...

Deep inside the western region of the Gasthly Winding Forest, a group could be seen fighting a horde of Harpies that came swarming at them from all directions.

Harpies were one of the top predators of the Ghastly Winding Forest, having a body that was half-human, half-bird. They had razor sharp talons and feathers that could even pierce an armour made of BlackGold like it was butter. 

With a flap of their wings, they generated intense gales and were called the rulers of the sky. They were also known as the personification of the storm winds and although they had beautiful bodies, their face was like an evil, malign ghost.

Fighting these hordes of harpies that could tear even an adventurer above level 500 with their talons and feathers, were none other than Simon and his party. He was currently accompanied by three of the five valkyries, Annette, Bianca, Emma, the Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse and several Mk8 Andromedas. 

Not only that, flying in the sky with their raven black body and breakneck speed, were the Revenant Crows edition 5. They were surveilling the area from high up in the skies and helping Simon clear the Harpies.

With the expansion of the [Workshop], it became possible for the Third Guardian to create more variations of the warmachines from the game [Rise of the Demolishers]. The Revenant Crows were just one of many warmachines that were currently being mass-produced in the [Workshop].

During this period the industrial floor that was the [Workshop] had seen a revolutionary growth. With Wisp unlocking more of its spirituality, the Null Elemental was starting to showcase some of its logic breaking powers.

The wonders could be seen on the floor it monitored. Factories producing war machines 24X7 lined up the floor with more and more popping up every week and the Revenant crows were just one of the many wonders that came out of the [Workshop].

Revenant Crows, a high-tech drone equipped with wide area destructive weapons, powerful sensors and stealth. In the game, they were a powerful force that often backed the [Gigantomachia]. T

he current Edition 5 although not as powerful as Edition 1, was still quite a help. Not only can they fire powerful wide area ammunitions, they can also spy on enemies.

Learning his lessons from the orc invasion, Simon had deployed quite a number of them around his dungeon and even across the ghastly winding forest. Everything that the drones saw, was transmitted back to Wisp who then compiled and summarised the information back to him.

Now that the Revenant Crows were surveilling the area around his dungeon, Simon was now quite at ease. He would immediately be alerted if any enemy or a group trying to harm his dungeon approached ten kilometres area around his dungeon.

"Master, all the harpies that were sent as a part advanced scout unit have been eliminated" Annette reported finishing clearing the harpies from the skies.

Simon nodded his head, activated his skill mental map and ordered. "Let's proceed forward, the nest of their queen shouldn't be very far from here".

As was obvious from his words, Simon and his party were currently inside the Harpy's territory and have already fought with several hordes of Harpies.

This begets the question, why were they fighting with the harpies? The reason for that was simple, a few months ago Wisp appeared on the [Training Floor] to report something to Simon.

Even though it was super busy remodelling the floor and mass producing all those war machines, it still took the time out from its busy schedule to appear personally. One could clearly tell that something was wrong and it was indeed as such.

According to the reports that Wisp gave him, one of the races living inside the western region of the ghastly winding forest, the Diluvian High orcs were completely wiped out by the Black Ogre clan.

All the Andromedas mk11 that were mining the territory at that time, were destroyed. Not only that, but from the partially destroyed Andromedas who were still somehow able to send a transmission back, it was able to learn that the clan of black ogres were acting peculiarly.

Their high ranking members like the crimson horns repeatedly travelled to the territories of the other clans residing within the western region. And slowly, a large mob comprising of different races of monsters, was starting to gather inside the black ogre's territory.

What's more, their objective was none other than the dungeon in the eastern region of the forest.

Simon who heard Wisp's report immediately deployed the Revenant Crows towards the western region of the ghastly winding forest to spy on them. And after a few months, he was able to learn more about this movement of the several clans residing inside the western region of the forest.

It appeared that some kind of alliance was being formed to topple the still budding threat of the east which was him.

The leader of this alliance was the Black Ogre clan who he had already antagonised by interfering in their war with the Diluvian orc race. At that time, Simon aided Berigard and his faction to wipe away the army of black ogres after they were betrayed by the orc king.

Since he failed to completely wipe pit the remnants of the ogre army, he knew that a day like this would come when the black ogres would attack him. He didn't think that a clan that was led by one of the seven kings of the west, was going to let this humiliation lying down.

The counter of the black ogre race was something that was bound to come, Simon had already expected it. Though what baffled him was them trying to gather allies to besiege his dungeon.

The king of the black ogres who he had spied on with the Revenant Crows, was a powerful ruler commanding great respect and authority from his subordinates. And from the way, he handled the situation slowly gathering allies, and formulating plans, the crimson haired ogre seemed quite intelligent too.

He wasn't someone that Simon could take on lightly. Hence from then on, he kept a close watch on the movement of the back ogres, especially the red haired one who had a single purple horn on his forehead.

He wasn't very bothered by the movements made by the other clans since he knew he would be able to handle them. However, that was up until a few days ago when another clan joined the alliance.

Had it not been for this clan, Simon wouldn't be here right now, hunting the Harpies. That's right, the other clan that joined the alliance of the black ogre was none other than the Harpies, one of the seen king clans of this forest.

Just like Aldebaran and the king of the ogres, the queen of the Harpies was also one of the seven kings.

It was one thing if it was just the king of the black ogres, Simon believed he would somehow be able to handle him. However, the matter completely changed once the queen of the harpies also got involved.

Not to mention the individual strength of two of the seven kings, just their combined forces were a huge threat to his dungeon.

From the Revenant Crows stationed near the territory of the black ogres, he saw the messenger of the Harpies arrive a few days ago and spied on their subsequent talks.

It seemed like the king of the ogres was somehow trying to pull the clan of Harpies to his side by bribing them something. Although he wasn't able to spy in detail about their plans and if their talk had gone successfully or not, what he knew was that he couldn't allow this alliance to form.

Because once this happens, their forces would increase to a size big enough to pose a threat to his dungeon.

"How are the movements of the other kings?" Simon asked after seeing the Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse who had been sent to scout the areas of the other king clans, return back.

"Reporting to master, the other king clans seemed to be oddly quiet. It doesn't look like they have any plans to answer the call"…

"Hmm… that's good then" It wasn't only the harpies, the other king clans were also invited by the kind of black ogres to join the Alliance.

Had all the king clans joined their forces against him, the level of threat they would represent would be unprecedented. Fortunately for him, the seven kings weren't a unified group.