Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Cecilia was aware that she sounded ridiculous from their point of view and it was very hard for them to believe her. However, no matter what, she couldn't back out now. She must make sure that they get out of this place.

At this moment Irene entered the room. The moment she entered, the place became completely silent as all the children looked at her in a daze, charmed by her presence. The Forest Spring Spirits were a race blessed with good looks and pretty appearances and it could even be said that their race was among the top in terms of beauty in this world.

But even from their standards, Irene appeared to be an otherworldly gorgeous beauty. Even with the phoenix mask covering her face, she still radiated an ethereal and alluring presence.

They couldn't help but become enchanted the moment they laid their eyes upon her.

Irene could hear the discussion among the children from outside the room. It looked like it was difficult for Cecilia alone to convince the Forest Spring Spirits and that is why she decided to step up.

"What a beautiful person," Maya said in a daze smitten by Irene's presence. She had spoken the words out of everybody's mouth and all of them agreed with her judgment.

Irene gave a gentle smile which snapped them out of their daze and asked "Are you guys alright? Is anybody hurt?". All of them shook their heads instinctively, even if they were enslaved, none of them were hurt as they were a valuable treasure in the eyes of the adventurers.

"I see, its good that you all are alright. Now then, what little Cecilia is saying is true. There are no adventures outside, I have frozen them all. If you still don't believe her why don't you go outside and have a look".

Jarred who was the eldest of all saw that Cecilia was frantically nodding her head, and hence decided to brave it and have a look outside.

The moment he neared the door, a cold wind blew past his skin making him shudder all over. Looking past the door, he was flabbergasted to find a world of ice. Everywhere he laid his eyes were covered in a thick layer of ice, making it seem like a world encased in ice.

The other children who were waiting for Jarred saw that he had an astonished look in his eyes when he came back. They all became curious as to what happened outside and peaked out. Seeing a world encased in ice, they had the same astonished look as jarred in their eyes.

Cecilia who expected such a reaction couldn't help but smile in content. Maya was convinced by the looks of her friends that the beautiful lady in front of her was speaking the truth. She looked at Cecilia and Irene before asking "Who are you and why are you helping us?".

Her words were directed at Irene but also at Cecilia. She must have come here with that beautiful woman and it must be on Cecilia's behalf that the woman was willing to help them. It was Cecilia who answered the question instead of Irene "She is the mistress of the dungeon master who resides in the eastern part of the forest".

After that, she repeated the events that led to her meeting with Simon. This time it was Irene's turn to be shocked, she never thought that Cecilia would view Simon and her in that way and address her as his mistress.

Cecilia was a five-year-old child after all and wouldn't be able to understand the complicated relationship between them. At most, she did admire his courage and kindness, his determined and stalwart behaviour did make him a likeable person, but it was only that.

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A little girl dressed in bright green clothes zipped through the trees as she crisscrossed around them and led those pursuers behind her deeper into the forest. A group of adventurers followed closely behind her as they cast numerous spells and skills to stop the girl in her tracks.

BANG BANG BANG… dozens of spells flew through the air and targeted the girl. But she effortlessly dodged all of them and increased her pace even further.

From the initial twenty or so adventurers who were after her, now only thirteen of them remained. The rest of them were caught up by the monsters and were forced to fight them. They were no longer calm as traces of weariness and exhaustion was starting to overwhelm them.

One of the adventurers couldn't take it anymore as this constant chasing had taken a great toll on him and fired a lethal magic [Fire Pillar] onto the girl. A great flaming pillar dozen of meters in size took shape, the intensity of the flames was so great that it lit the entire surrounding brightly.

Radiating an intense aura the fire pillar flew towards the girl.

"Stop you fool. Are you trying to kill her?" Laris who noticed the casting of the magic a step too late couldn't help but rage out at him. The [Fire Pillar] was one of the strongest magic of the Novice tier fire magic. It had enough firepower to seriously hurt anyone below level 100.

Even a monster above level 100 and boasting high defense, wouldn't come out unscathed after being hit by this spell not to mention a little girl from a race that had far less combat power.

The [Fire Pillar] sped on and quickly engulfed the area where the girl was into flames.

BOOOM.... the ground trembled and a shockwave bringing along an intense heat pushed all the adventurers back. Those adventurers that were near the radius of the blast even suffered some injuries and were forced to flee back.

All of them looked at the one who had fired the magic with hate and fury. It was already decided earlier that they are not to use any lethal skills or magic that could kill the little girl they were chasing but despite the warning, that guy had used a wide area lethal magic and disregarded the order completely.

Finally becoming aware of what he had done, the man became pale white and it seemed like all the blood had rushed out of his body. His body started trembling from fear and horror when the consequences of his doing dawned upon him.

Laris looked at the area where the little girl previously was now covered in intense flames. He tried to spot the silhouette of the girl amidst the flames in hopes that he could salvage her Spirit orb before she died.

However, his hopes were cruelly smashed apart along with his lofty ambitions of becoming the seven swords. The figure of the girl couldn't be seen as the flames consumed everything in a few dozen meters.

Turning to look at the man who fired the magic, he gritted his teeth and his face was so reddened with fury that he could puke blood any moment. Laris gave a venomous stare towards the man and walked towards him. Right now he wanted nothing but to flay this man on fire alive.

Seeing that Laris was coming towards him, strength left his body and he fell on his knees "L-Leader p-please forgive me, it was a mistake please… please…". Without waiting for him to speak further, Laris roared in rage "You bastard, I'll kill youuuu".

Unleashing all his strength, he erupted will storms of punches and kicks at the person.. Like a ragdoll, the adventurer was flung around in the air and his body brutally skidded across the ground.