Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Please excuse me for a second master"

Alric who was standing straight and motionless like a pole beside Maybell, lightly stepped aside. At that very instant, his figure disappeared, he reappeared next to Jordan like a ghost.

He was fast, faster than one could even perceive him. In the split second that he disappeared from the side of his master, he appeared next to Jordan, removed the gloves from his right hand and lightly scratched the other party's skin with his claws before reappearing next to Maybell.

Afterwards, he took out an umbrella from his shadow and methodically unfolded it to cover her behind it.

What just happened? Jordan who was still in mid motion, felt the weretiger's movements. However, the latter was just too fast for his eyes and even his senses to perceive clearly. Before he could understand what had happened in that split second, everything was over.

His body suddenly swelled with heat and in the blink of an eye, his entire body started ballooning. Like a disfigured monster, he looked ugly and hideous as he kept on expanding.

And then pop, just like a balloon he popped, his blood and gore flying everywhere.

Jordan was killed as easily as that. Even until his last moments he was unable to figure out what just happened.

"Are you alright master?"…

"Yeah, thanks for taking care of me Alric?" Maybell smiled.

"It's my duty"…

"Hey, if you are gonna do something like that, you should say something beforehand"

Ariel complained, stopping the blood and gore that was about to splash in their direction, mid air. None of the parties got soiled thanks to her.

"It looks like the High Elf is at least somewhat useful" Drow passed a snide comment ash she walked by her.

"What did you say you stupid Dark Elf?"…

"Enough you two, it looks like they are also done over there, let's regroup" Theodore stopped his two kindreds from fighting again.

Over on Cynthia's side, everyone was catching their breath now that everything was over. Adventurers regrouped with their friends and tended to the injured.

"Blake, are you alright?" Frida rushed to the warrior's side and tightly hugged him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?"…

"Thanks to Her Highness and the others I'm alright" she pointed at the people behind her.

"Thank you your highness for saving Frida. If not for you all, I might have… " Blake thanked.

"You don't have to thank me, I saved her because both of you are my friend"…

"That's right Blake, Frida… you are treating us as if we don't know each other. Did the short years of separation make you forget all about us?" Piling up on Cynthia's words, Alvara and the others started making fun of the couple.

"Haha, what can I say, I am so glad to see you all and Her Highness alive. That said, how did you survive inside the dungeon for so long?" Blake curiously questioned.

"Now is not the time, I plan on telling you all about it later. For now, we need to plan our next course of action. Although we have won here, it's not like the criminal organisations have been defeated. To make sure of that, we need to take them out from the root"…

"Are you saying that…"…

"That's right, we are going to help you save your dear ones who have been held hostage back. Only then, can we unite all the adventurers and destroy the criminal organisations in the Tower Town" Cynthia explained.

The cause that brought the adventurers of the tower town together was to save their dear ones. However, they had little chance of winning the battle they were fighting.

It was for this reason that many of the adventurers either did not support them or were afraid to. Even the ones who joined were only doing so because they had no other choice.

Yet here was Cynthia saying that she would help them save their dear ones. How could Blake and the adventurers not be surprised? They looked at Cynthia as if she was their saviour.

"I don't know how I can ever repay you for this…"

Blake who became a little at the thought of being able to save his sister, was stopped by Cynthia mid sentence.

"I told you already, you don't have to thank me. Besides, it's not like I am doing it without any strings attached. I have my own reason for doing this" she spoke in an unequivocal voice.

"No matter what reason you have I am still thankful; no, we are all thankful for your help. I'm sure everybody here would no doubt agree to help you in return if we are able to save our dear ones. Am I right?"…

"Yeah, leave it to us"…

"We will do anything if we can save our loved ones".

When Blake gestured at the adventurer behind him, all of them showed their gratification for helping them, promising to aid her in return no matter what.

"It looks like things are going accordingly on your side too, your Highness"

At this moment, while Cynthia and her group were becoming familiar with the adventurers, Annette and Theodore's group who met up with each other earlier, joined them.

Annette was dragging two people behind her, one of whom was the female assassin Arnet.

"Yeah, that's right. We were just done here" Cynthia nodded.

"If I may ask, but who are those people, your Highness?" Blake asked the question that every people here wanted to know. The overwhelming strength these people had shown, their identity cannot be ordinary.

Blake expected them to be some famous adventurers from the distant Mainland. However, the answer that he received, took him by surprise.

"They are people who are going to aid us to take the tower Town back".

To take the tower Town back? Putting aside the fact of how difficult of a task it would be, the fact that she mentioned taking the tower town back, meant that she was not here to simply save the people who have been taken hostages by the criminal organisations.

Instead, she was here to defeat them and kick them out of the tower town. If it was anyone else telling him that, Blake would have no doubt questioned the sanity of their mind. However, the one to say this was none other than Her Highness.

Plus, he had witnessed the strength of the people on her side with his own eyes. As such, it was definitely not an undertaking they had no chance at.

Understanding some of the plans and power behind the princess, even Blake started to feel like it was possible to defeat the criminal organisations. He was finally starting to see light in this dark tunnel.

"Now that our task here is done, should we return back to our base?" Bert questioned.

"Not yet, when I was chasing these two, I heard from one of them that there is a hidden underground cellar here somewhere that is used to keep the hostages. After they regain their consciousness, they can lead us to the exact location"

The one to answer him was Annette as she pointed at the two people she brought back. Hearing her response, everyone was surprised.

"So there really was a hidden cellar here. Our information wasn't wrong?".

Given the fact that they were double crossed by their own comrade, they thought that this place was just a trap to contain them. Who would have thought there was actually an underground cellar here?

"It's surprising but not unexpected. Since we now know that there are hostages here that can be saved, our next course of action is clear. We will wait here for them to regain consciousness and lead us to the exact location"

After saying that Cynthia looked at Annette and the others and asked "Is this alright with you all?".

"Hehe, don't worry princess, master told us to follow all your orders and aid you in any way possible. As such, no matter what you decide, we will follow you through" Annette replied in a mannerly voice.

"I see, that's very helpful" Cynthia thanked before looking at the unconscious unknown figure beside the female assassin.

"Right, who is this person? I believe I haven't seen him on the battlefield before?" Cynthia glanced at the unconscious figure beside Arnet.

"I found him in the forest, he was observing the whole battle from afar. I think he was an agent sent by the criminal organisations to spy on the people on their side, keep a tab on the whole thing and report it back in case things went south"…

"Is this the reason why you didn't join the battle?"

Annette nodded her head at Theodore's question. It turned out that the criminal organisations did not trust their own people and had sent a spy to track their actions.

It was not an unusual thing but it was a good call from Annette to have foreseen something like this happening and thus intercepting the spy before they can reveal any information back to their side.

With Cynthia making the calls, everyone decided to rest here for the time being. Given her status and influence, not to mention the promise she made to everyone, it was no wonder that everybody started seeing her as their leader.

They all followed her instructions unanimously. Before long, Arnet and the other less injured ones regained their consciousness.

The moment they saw Cynthia and the others, they tried to run. However, they were restrained by Emma's sturdy strings making it impossible for them to break out.