Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Laris was eager to immediately head towards the dungeon but was stopped immediately by Dale. He said "The Sea God's guild is inside the dungeon, we cannot go in there carelessly lest we risk the word of us capturing Forest Spring Spirits gets out. Even the guild will not be able to save itself from destruction much less us who will be immediately disowned by them and hunted across the whole continent".

"Then are you suggesting that we do nothing and let the Sea God's guild get to those Forest spring Spirits first?" Laris snapped back and asked. He still couldn't believe that the guild didn't inform him of something so important.

"Calm down, it's not like I'm saying that we should give up on those Forest Spring Spirits assuming that they escaped inside the dungeon. What I'm saying is that we wait and see what happens".

Realizing that Dale was planning something, Laris asked "what are you trying to suggest?".

Dale clenched his hand into a fist and said nonchalantly "I'm suggesting that we wait and see what the Sea God's trident guild does. If they are able to conquer the dungeon and return above ground with those Forest Spring Spirits, then we kill them and snatch those forest spirits back. As you said earlier if that demon is a Demon Viscount then those Sea God's guild members would be quite exhausted after their fight and snatching the Forest Spring Spirits from them would be as easy as taking candy from a child".

Laris heard Dale's plan and felt that it was quite plausible, he said "Wouldn't killing them spell trouble for us? Even if those adventurers are from a branch guild, the Sea God's Trident guild is still one of the top five guilds in the Kingdom".

Dale sneered at Laris and pointed "Did you forget where we are right now? We are in the Ghastly Winding Forest of the Demon continent. Even if those adventurers died here, the Sea God's Trident would never suspect our guild and instead, all the blame would fall on the demons. This is their land, after all, it wouldn't be too farfetched to think that they were killed by the demons".

Laris deliberated for a while and felt that the plan was quite good but suddenly he remembered something and asked, "What if they don't conquer the dungeon and return without the Forest Spring Spirits?"

Dale caressed his bald head and slowly said "We kill them regardless and conquer the dungeon ourselves. We have to take in the possibility that those Sea God's members might take out their Spirit Orbs rather than bringing the Forest Spring Spirits out alive".

Saying that he turned around and addressed his team "You lot get ready we are gonna ambush those people as soon as they come out of that dungeon".

Laris gave a similar order to his team before the surrounding adventurers started all scurrying around and making their preparations.

Dale looked around at the village which was now encased in a thick layer of ice and lazily asked "What the hell happened here? From the looks of it, somebody had used an advanced magic here". He looked at the broken ice statues that were scattered around and smirked towards Laris.

Laris on the other hand could only endure the mockery after all it was his team that let the other party successfully cast an advanced tier spell that had a long cast time.

"Those fools they deserved this" he cursed and shattered a frozen head that was on the ground with a stomp of his foot. It was common sense in this world to target the one that is trying to cast advanced magic and disturb their flow before they pull off their attack.

Once the advanced tier spell is successfully cast, it can quickly turn the tide of the battle however, it takes an equal amount of time to cast one. Laris even in his wildest dream wouldn't have imagined that Irene had pulled off advanced tier magic in nearly an instant.

After a while, all the adventurers gathered near the centre and were ready to set off. The adventurers looked at the two leaders who ranked amongst the top twenty in their guild team up and couldn't help feel excited.

If they could successfully accomplish this mission, then the ranking of their leaders was sure to rise and even they would bathe in some of the glory.

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On the main floor of Laplace, inside the white palace, Simon was comforting the Forest Spring Spirit children as he played his piano for them. The atmosphere around them was dark and gloomy so he decided to play some light and uplifting music.

The tune was very soothing as it rang across the whole room quickly snatching the attention of all the children towards him as they listened to him with bated breaths. The music helped them put down their wariness as all the mental strain and exhaustion faded away and they quickly fell asleep.

Cecilia who was sitting beside Maya caressed her hair when she fell asleep. She was aware of how much pain and sorrow they had suffered as she had gone through the same thing. Looking at Simon who was silently playing his notes, she couldn't be anymore thankful.

Not only had he saved her, but he even risked his life to save her clansmen and got hurt in the process.

Though the wound had already recovered, she still felt a tinge of pain and guilt whenever she thought that it was because of her selfishness that he got hurt.

She came near him and gave him a deep bow "Thank you very very much… because of you I was able to save my clansmen. My mother and father will now be able to rest in peace knowing that their clansmen are safe now, it's all thanks to you… thank you… thank you…" Cecilia choked up on her tears and repeated the same words again and again.

Simon carresed her small head and gave his best smile which frankly looked wicked "You don't have to thank me anymore. I had my own selfish reasons for saving your clansmen".

"Even then master you got hurt…" as Cecilia was about to say he got hurt because of her, Simon quickly cut her off saying "I got hurt because I let my guard down for a second, it won't happen again".

He clenched his hands and declared but suddenly he remembered something.

"You… what did you call me?" Simon asked pointing at her. Cecilia tilted her and repeated "Master! Should I not call you that?".

Simon scratched his cheek and said "Master is bit…" how can he allow a five-year-old girl call him master. Though he was not even a year old after he got reincarnated in this world and theoretically that made Cecilia older than him, but his soul was still more than forty years old.

"Then what should I call you?" Cecilia looked at him with her bright emerald green eyes and asked. Simon deliberated for a while before replying "How about big brother? That way we would be a family and you wouldn't have to feel indebted to me all the time".

Seeing that Cecilia was looking at him with wide-open eyes which were about to erupt in tears, he hastily said "If you are not willing then leave it, call me in whichever way you want".. Cecilia wiped her tears and said, "Uhuh… Im happy, big brother is too good to me. Is big brother really a demon?"