Dungeon of Pride, Laplace



Levelling up would also help him and increase his chances against the Abomination that he would have to eventually fight.

Resolving himself, Simon continued to fly forward and explore the snow lands. Whenever he found himself surrounded by monsters, he would use them as stepping stones to increase his level.

And so just like that, one day went by. Apart from his level continuously increasing, he did not make any progress towards finding the target or the other challengers for that matter. Heck, he was even starting to believe that he was the only one here.

If not for the notification informing him, he might have believed so. This only went to show how vast the place was.

The second day was also not any better. Apart from being tackled by the native monsters of this place, there were no signs of the Abomination anywhere. Simon did not falter, he continued to fly around and scout the place. His level increased further.

Inside the Forbidden Grounds, there was no difference between day and night. It was always as bright as a day, as such, it was very easy to lose one's sense of time. When the second day was almost coming to an end, Simon suddenly had a thought.

He now clearly believed that four days was simply too little of a time to clear the trial. Given the vastness of this place, four days would be over from just exploring the place and it would still not be enough to map it out in its entirety.

That was how big this place called the snow lands was. In a situation like this, it made no sense that he only had four days of time to clear the trial. It was only logical for Simon to think that something must be up.

Something happened that had affected his trial.

"Could it be because of the other challengers or is there another unknown variable here?" Simon muttered to himself. Just as he was deliberating this inside his head, his ears suddenly picked up a noise.

The sound of blowing snowstorm was enough to drown out any noise. However, this noise was clearly very deafening and travelled through a very long distance.

"This… someone is fighting!!" Simon's eyes lit up and at the same time, a sense of urgency also assaulted his heart. This muffled rumbling noise was definitely from a magic going off.

Someone was fighting, Simon's first thought was the other challengers.

"Did they find the target?" Not wanting to be left behind, Simon turned around and immediately flew towards the direction he heard the noise coming from.

.

.

Far in the east, a fierce battle broke out. Hordes of Snowsquall Drakewing surrounded a group of adventurers who formed numerous small teams to fend them off. The side teams held the monsters off while the main team led by Godwin, was busy fighting an enormous black shadow in the middle.

The black shadow had a terrifying appearance, it stood more than twenty meters tall and had aspects of various races stitched into its body looking very disturbing, like a weird lab experiment.

It had six legs, a scaled tail like that of a dragon, a human's upper body and demonic wings. It did not have any skin and its inner muscles were visible. Green scales protruded from the muscles and covered some vulnerable areas of its body.

It had three heads, each of which was glaring menacingly at Godwin.

ROARRR… the creature opened its mouth revealing jagged pairs of incisive teeth and gave a deep guttural roar. At that instant, all the magic started going out of control and even the falling snowstorm was affected.

[Mana Disruption], a skill possessed by a few extraordinary beasts. Thanks to the skill, all the mages suffered a fierce backlash as the mana inside their body went haywire. However, looking at the way they moved even after suffering an unexpected blow, it was clear that they were used to such a tactic.

None of the mages panicked and hurriedly drew back on orders of Godwin and started casting magic once again.

One of the ways to deal with [Mana Disruption] was to either stop the enemy before they can use it or to estimate the area of effect of the skill and get out of it.

Seeing from the way the mages behaved, it appeared that they knew how to counter the skill. Numerous magic formed and assaulted the Abomination. Its three pairs of eyes shifted towards the magicians in the backlines as it started charging towards them.

One could imagine how terrifying the charge of a hulking creature as big as the Abomination was. It was like an avalanche that threatened to drown them. However, before the creature could reach the backlines, an overpowering force came battering and forced it to slide back.

[Bulwark Bash] The lion on Godwin's shield released steam as he used his powerful rare skill to stop the creature in its tracks.

Right after that two blades shining with a deadly light, appeared out of nowhere and dug into its eyes. The creature released a powerful aura, stopping the blades in its tracks and forcing Raven to blow back and crash into the snow.

Before the Abomination could connect Godwin rushed forward and started brawling with the creature. His shield deflected all of its attacks, as if he could predict all the moves of the creature.

His sword did not stay still and executed complex and extreme sword skills that were each powerful enough to bypass its defence and injure it.

The rest of his team followed his lead and attacked the Abomination. However, it was clear that they were unable to deal any significant damage to it.

When the warriors were done dealing damage, they swiftly retreated and allowed the magic conjuring in the distance to let loose their magic.

Advance and retreat, the team were in perfect sync. As one would expect of a group that was led by a ranker. These adventurers have fought numerous battles, they were a veteran when it came to how to deal with monsters.

BOOM… BOOOM… BOOM… As the magic bombarded, the Abomination blocked. Numerous twisting thorns looking all sinister, started growing out its body.

After the magic ended, it was the warriors and Assassin's turn once again. They repeated the cycle, keeping the creature cornered and slowly chipping away at its strength. However, the situation did not last long and changed after a while.

The aura of the Abomination spiked all of a sudden, greenish liquid seeped out of its body and melted the snow.

The adventurers all predicted this and swiftly retreated except for Godwin. As the most powerful warrior in the group and a genuine Ranker, he was the only one who could handle the creature when it was going berserk.

ROAARR… The Abomination gave a loud roar, peculiar pattern started growing on its body causing its aura to reach a terrifying level. The sky was turned green and all the snow in a few hundred kilometres was swept away.

Even Godwin and his team were forcefully blown back.

On the other side, Simon who was making his way over was suddenly hit by a strong gust of wind and was nearly smashed into a mountain. After barely stabilising himself, using [Flash Steps] to constantly move away, he saw an unusual scene.

In the distance, the sky was suddenly turned green and waves of snow each rising to a height of couple hundred meters were swept away like a tsunami. They came crashing into the mountains causing earthquakes to appear in the snowlands.

Simon saw the bodies of numerous Snowsquall Drakewings and even some adventurers buried in the snow. Just like he had thought the other challengers had already found the target and were in the midst of currently engaging it. It was a good thing that he rushed here at the first signs of battle.

Simon hurriedly took out the [Ice Phoenix Sigh] and ducked into a corner of a mountain to monitor the situation. He found a shelter from which he could perfectly oversee the battlefield.

He did not recklessly dive into the chaos, instead he first monitored the situation and tried to make sense of what was going on. Given that the other party had the qualification to be recognised by the master of the forbidden ground and accept the trials, it was all the more reason for Simon to be cautious.

Apart from that, there was also the finger of Ozymandias which was behaving quite peculiarly recently. Ever since he arrived at this place, it was as if the finger was suddenly trembling in excitement, releasing streams of curse energy that overflowed out of his space ring.

Something was resonating with it but what was it? Could it be the target? Simon narrowed his eyes as he looked into the distance. There he could see a terrifying green energy storm brewing. It was so overwhelming that even the mana in the surroundings started getting affected.

The aura flowing from the green storm had reached a level that caused the surrounding adventurers to take a step back in fright. The battle had reached a point where it was no longer possible for just anyone to intervene.

Simon focused his eyes and noticed a man standing in between the storm and the adventurers. His posture was straight and his aura was calm. His back profile gave one a sense of security and assurance.

The moment Simon saw the man, his pupils suddenly dilated and his body trembled as if he had pricked by a needle.

How could he not recognise this man? Even though from his position it was difficult to see the other party's face, that aura, that presence and that charisma clearly belonged to someone that he recognised.