Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Dale was pleased as his mission had gone exactly as he planned. After he saw the adventurer team heading inside the dungeon, he was preparing to camp in a distant peek and observe how long the dungeon was able to stall the elite adventurers from the city of Mountmend.

However, a few hours ago he was contacted by Laris with a transmission shell to urgently come to the Forest Spring Spirit village.

Though he didn't like to take orders from someone who was not superior, he felt that something was wrong on the other side and hence decided to rush towards the village.

On his way, Dale felt that Laris's tone sounded quite urgent and he couldn't help but think of the worst-case scenario of Laris messing up and failing the mission. "He better not sabotage the mission or else…" he cursed Laris while quickening his pace even further.

If Laris failed the mission, it would end up also affecting him and he didn't have any powerful backer inside the guild like laris' brother. That is why he couldn't mess it up or else the consequences would be more dire for him than what it is for Laris.

Before long he arrived near a gigantic dead tree, a wide hole inside the trunk led towards the hidden village of the Forest Spring Spirits. According to the intel, this was the hidden entrance that the forest spring spirit clan used to travel around.

Even before reaching the village, a cold burst of wind assaulted him and his team. They all shuddered as the extremely cold wind brushed past them making them feel as if they were in the snow valley.

The scene inside was more abrupt than what they have imagined. Everything inside the village was covered in a thick layer of ice, the bamboo trees, the houses, the land. It was as if the land was encased in a layer of ice for thousands of years.

A man with an ash pale face came to greet before leading them towards the centre of the village where the cold was more extreme than the rest of the village. Sat at the centre of the village was the only house that wasn't frozen. The atmosphere around the house was completely silent and none of the adventurers inside dared to even let out a peep.

Heading inside, Dale saw the gloomy and lost face of Laris and immediately knew that the situation was more dire than he thought. He sat opposite Laris and asked, "What happened? What is the situation?"

There was no point in hiding it anymore and thus Laris decided to reveal everything from the moment he was made aware of the Royal spirit and up to the events where he came back to the village to find it encased in ice and the Forest Spring Spirit children missing.

"Dale, I ask you one more time. Did you see that little Forest Spring Royal Spirit running towards the eastern part of the forest?" Laris looked right into Dale's eyes while emphasizing every line.

"How many times must I say that I saw no such girl. Did you really think I would miss something so unusual as that little Forest Spring Royal Spirit girl?" Dale asserted. He grabbed laris by the collar and shouted "You bastard, you wanted to hoard the achievement of catching a royal spirit all to yourself and hid the fact from all of us. And now that you have made such a huge blunder, you want my help?. Isn't it all your fault to begin with, neglecting the security of the enslaved forest spring spirit and even falling for the trap".

Laris broke free from Dale's and roared back "It's not my fault. Who wouldn't want to hoard the achievement of catching the royal spirit to himself? You can easily join the ranks of the seven swords with that achievement in the guild. If you were in my place you would have done exactly the same".

"Y-you…" Dale became speechless and couldn't refute the reasoning put forth by Laris. Changing the subject, he snorted and said "Not only were you not able to catch that Royal Spirit, but you even lost the twenty or so Forest Spring Spirits that were to be enslaved and sold in the auction. Do you even know what kind of consequences you have brought forth upon yourself? Because of your greed, not only have you failed but you have sabotaged the whole mission. Even if it's your brother, he cannot save you from this blunder".

Laris ground his teeth as he listened to Dale, if he could he would have silenced this man, but he knew that it wasn't the time to think like that.

Laris calmed his mind which was about to erupt in rage and said "It's not the time to fight among ourselves. Do you really think I will be the only one held accountable for all of this? Nope, you too shall face some of the consequences and I believe that you don't want to shoulder something you didn't do right?".

Knitting his brows, Dale asked, "What are you trying to say?". A crafty smile crept up to Laris's face as he said "It's simple I want your cooperation in finding those Forest Spring Spirits back. If we work together then I'm sure that we can make the situation so that this blunder never happened. What do you say?".

Dale observed the arrogant smile on laris's face that said that he was in control of everything and couldn't help but get annoyed. "You really believe I will fall for that childish trap? Fine then, let's report it to the guild. I'm ready to face the punishment for something I had not done, but mark my words the punishment you gonna face will be far worse than mine".

"Tch" Laris clicked his tongue as his smile became sour. He thought that he could manipulate Dale after that coercion but it seemed that didn't have any effect. Tapping his finger on the chair, he pondered for a while and finally made the biggest concession he could offer to salvage the situation.

"How about this, if you help me find the Forest Spring Spirits and that little royal spirit girl I'm willing to share this achievement fifty-fifty".

Dale deliberated at this offer and carefully observed Laris as if to see through any deception before finally making up his mind and saying "This better not be one of your ploys. We share this achievement fifty-fifty regardless of whether we find the royal spirit or not. If you can't accept that, well then you should find somebody else to salvage this situation for you".

"Alright, but I will not have you giving up on the Royal Spirit girl that easily" Laris made sure.

"Fair enough, but do you where those Forest Spring Spirits are?" Dale asked the main question that had been on his mind for a while. If they didn't even know where the forest spirits had disappeared to, then there was no meaning for them to join hands.

However, even he didn't expect to hear something this ridiculous from Laris. "I have got a clue as to where they might be?" Laris said after he organized his thoughts for a while. "Ooh, you have a clue you say? Do you know who the perpetrator is?" seeing Laris nod, he hurriedly asked, "Who is it?".

Laris hesitated for a while before saying "It's that demon that I confronted at that place". Dale made a face that seemed to be saying 'you are joking right?', it was not only him but all the adventurers who were listening to their conversation made a similar stupid face.

"That demon? Why would that demon do something like that?" Dale couldn't help but ask as he held the laughter that was trying to burst out of him. Laris knew what he was saying and going to say would sound ridiculously stupid and would even make others question his sanity but he was pretty sure that his conjecture was the real answer.

"It is the demon, or you could say it was the demon all along. He made us fall into his trap and he was also the one who took away the Forest Spring Spirits while our focus was diverted". Everybody present made a dumbfounded face as if questioning his sanity, some of them even became red due to excessively holding onto their laughter.

Dale made an amused face as he asked "Alright, assuming that it was the demon all along, then where did that royal spirit girl go? And if he was in front of you, then how did he steal those forest spring spirits?".

The more they thought, the more ridiculous it sounded.