Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Ted was the direct subordinate of Boris one of the Seven Swords. He had always carried out the shadier task that the guild cannot do upfront.

Killing, kidnapping, coercing was just like a daily job for him. His ranking in the guild was by no means low and there were only Seven Swords above him. That is to say, there are only seven people that he considers are above him in terms of strength and position.

Ted was considered a rather powerful entity in the guild, after all, being a level 379 [Killer Assassin], there were only a few people in the guild who could match him.

This time he was assigned with a mission to look and monitor the actions of Laris who was given a task that was considered extremely important for the guild. If not for the fact that sending a team of experts consisting of Seven Swords inside the Ghastly Winding Forest would attract the attention of all the guilds in the neighbouring cities, they wouldn't have only assigned Laris for the job.

Unfortunately, their city of Morgress had many spies and prying eyes placed by the guilds to monitor their actions. Ted even believed that there were some moles among the outer members of their guild. However, since they have no way of identifying them, they can only send those that have been deeply tied with their guild and whose lives are in the guild's control for the mission.

On top of the rooftop of the bamboo house, Ted silently observed the conversation between Laris and his subordinate and couldn't help but knit his brows.

That was because, from the report he could tell that even before he had arrived, the plan set up by Laris had started going awry. The mission this time was extremely crucial for their guild as its success meant taking a giant leap and ruling the continent as one of its hegemons.

All the Seven Swords had placed enough importance on it. Failing at this point was not an option.

Ted sighed at Laris' inadequateness and thought 'Why can't the little brother be like his elder brother. If he had even one-tenth of the talent of his elder brother, it would make my job a lot easier.'

Anyways his master Sir Boris and also the elder brother of Laris had strictly told him not to interfere with the task and only help out when it is absolutely necessary.

That is why he only planned to observe the situation for now as for providing his help, he didn't think it was necessary after all Laris wasn't a weakling. Even among the guild, Laris would be ranked amongst the top twenty.

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In the far south inside the Ghastly Winding Forest, a group of ten people silently marched forth as they cut down any monsters that attacked them on their way. On the lead was a muscular man, who was a head taller than any of the people around him and whose body shined with a bronze lustre. The man had a bald head and was carrying a broadsword on his back. Unlike the warriors near him, he wasn't wearing any armour and used the broadsword on his back to quickly finish off a Windwolf that sprang onto him.

Splash… Awoooo....

A cutting noise was heard and the Windwolf was cleanly bisected into two. After cutting the Windwolf, the man looked at the people behind which consisted of four [Sword Knight], two [Silent Assasins], three [Wizards], and him a [Berserker] for a total of ten people.

As the group after finishing the Windwolves stopped for some rest, one of the four sword knights decked in a heavy warrior outfit asked the man leading the group "Sir Dale what are your orders,".

The name of the man was Dale and one could see the insignia of Seven Swords carved in his belt. Dale deliberated on the question for a while before issuing the order "We are gonna camp here for the time being. We cannot miss the expedition party sent by the Sea God's Trident guild if we stay on this side of the forest.

"Also send someone to tell Laris that we are here" the sword knight nodded and quickly executed his orders. Dale had a revolted face, in all honesty, he did not want to stay at the same place where Laris was as he didn't want to take orders from someone he saw as his equal in the guild.

He was here on the strict orders of the guild master who conveyed that the success of this mission assigned to Laris was quite important for the guild and they absolutely cannot mess it up. Hence he was sent here for backup.

Dale's job was to misdirect the expedition party sent by the Sea God's Trident to find the cause for the mass outbreak of monsters from the forest. "It seems that despite the orders from the guild master to not make any conspicuous move, Laris had done exactly the same and now I was sent her to clean up after his mess... tch" He clicked his tongue and got more annoyed the more he thought

Dale was one of the high ranking members of the Seven Swords guild. He was aware of some of the finer details of the task and that is why he was assigned for this mission. Fortunately for their guild, they have a perfect scapegoat to put the blame on for all the disturbance and that was none other than that newly formed dungeon.

His task was very simple and that was to lure the Sea God's guild towards the dungeon. Make them delay for as long as possible until Laris's team finish their task and moves out of the forest. It can be said that he was quite jealous of Laris because he knew that the task this time was kept very secretive and was very important. If Laris completed the mission successfully, his contributions and ranking in the guild was sure to skyrocket in the future.

However, there was nothing Dale could do to stop Laris from hoarding all the merit since his big brother was one of the Seven Swords. The name seven swords weren't just for show, they are the top seven members of the guild who held enough power that their position couldn't be shaken inside the guild.

Having one of such people backing you up, Dale naturally felt jealous of that. In his view, Laris was just riding on the tailcoat of his elder brother. No matter in terms of levels, power, or achievement, he wasn't behind Laris.

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Inside the hidden village of the Forest Spring Spirit clan, a group of people was currently gathered at the large bamboo house located at the centre of the village. They were all donned in different clothes. But one thing that they had in common was the insignia of the seven swords which was hidden inside their armours and robes.

They were the members of the Seven Swords guild and currently they all had a nervous and apprehensive face. Laris looked at his team members of which only thirty remained. Their initial number of forty was brought down to thirty after ten of them died, while the remaining had small while others had severe injuries.

He couldn't believe that they were so severely injured while hunting the Forest Spring Spirits who couldn't even be compared to a direwolf in terms of pure strength.

Laris thundered "Are you guys so weak that you can't even capture Forest Spring Spirits who are even weaker than direwolves. Did I bring you guys just to make fun of myself? What is with this pathetic side of yours? I have never seen our numbers being cut down like this before. I don't want to hear any excuses, tell me exactly what happened back there in the forest".

A man with his left hand missing and injured from head to toe, came up and reported " Sir Laris we tied our best but the Forest Spirits were determined to self-destruct their spirit orbs to allow the remaining ones to escape. Though we couldn't stop the ones self-destructing their spirit orbs, we still went after the ones that escaped deep inside the forest. But the territory they escaped into was the area of the Ancient Treants.. A single Ancient Treant was so powerful that even the ten of us were no match for it".