Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Laris smirked arrogantly when he saw Simon knitting his brows after he said his piece and he was finally sure of his assumption that the Forest Spring Spirits were inside the dungeon.

'So the attack from that time which washed away the effect of the Elixir of Metamorphosis gave me away huh' Simon thought inwardly.

However, it was no big deal for his enemies to find out it was him as he had already planned to take all of them out since leaving them alive would risk the possibility of the information about the Forest Spring Spirits reaching the ears of other adventurers.

"From your reaction, it seems that I was right. Hahaha, you tried your best to deceive us demon but it seems I was the better one. No matter what tricks you may use, you cannot deceive me, Laris".

"After I bring you down and make you spill everything out from your mouth, I will gladly take that item that you used to take the form of the royal spirit girl" Laris laughed callously.

He imagined how after defeating the demon, he would be able to take those Forest Spring Spirits that were hiding inside the dungeon, return triumphant with a Forest spring Royal Orb, and also able to get his hands on the item that can change one's form.

He was sure that the item was no ordinary treasure as even his brother, one of the seven swords and guild master didn't have one.Â

"Aren't you celebrating too early? Don't you know about this saying? One shouldn't count their chickens before they even hatch" Simon said as he looked at the smiling face of Laris.

The man already thought he had won, little did he know that the situation would be turned completely upside down later on.

"Yeah, you are right, absolutely right'¦ I should make this quick so that you don't run away again" saying that, Laris signalled with his hands, and immediately after the dozens of adventurers behind him started casting their magic and skills.

It seemed that Laris was planning to use their numerical advantage to suppress Simon without allowing him to utilise his abilities.Â

The air distorted as a huge amount of mana convulsed and gathered towards the adventurers. Fire, Electro, Wind, Earth different attributes of spells started taking shape and immediately flew towards Simon.

One could imagine the might imbued in all of these spells as they interlaced with each other and became a huge conglomeration of spells before targeting him. However, before the magic could come anywhere near him, a huge dark shadow of a demonic warhorse that had three pairs of crimson eyes and blood-red antlers could be seen forming in the sky.

The shadow was gigantic and completely made of a black haze.

The huge dark shadow charged towards the interlaced magic cast by dozens of adventurers and fiercely rammed into it with a BOOM.

RUMBLE'¦ the black haze and the interlaced magic met each other and generated a huge shockwave that sent all the parties dozens of meters back.

The huge energies in the sky kept on clashing before the black shadow started gaining more and more advantage before completely breaking through the opposing attack.Â

Puff... Many of the adventurers spew out a few mouthfuls of blood after seeing that their attack was broken through as the recoil from their magic being destroyed hit them. But before they could even reel in pain, the residual black haze hit them.

Dark circles started forming near their eyes, and black smoke started coming out of their bodies. Clearly, they were inflicted by the corrosive effect of the dark magic, one of the four rare forms of mana.

After the black haze settled, a demonic warhorse that bore resemblance to the huge black shadow came into view. It had a huge frame that was burning in crimson flames, wearing an ancient armour and a huge pair of draconic wings. Flames came out of its nostril whenever it neighed and with a stomp of its flaming hooves, the whole ground trembled.

"W-What is that?" with dread and fear in their eyes after they suffered a huge setback, the adventurers asked pointing at the Bloodthorn demonic Warhorse.

Laris who was also pushed back quite a few distances away by the shockwave gazed at the warhorse with shock apparent in his eyes. He didn't even feel the presence of the warhorse before it showed up not to mention its powerful might that was even able to overpower the collective of attacks conjured by his team.

After the Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse appeared, it swiftly landed near Simon and stared menacingly at his enemies. After it levelled up continuously, the warhorse became quite powerful and its stats were so great that even Simon felt jealous.

Its power was so great that it was easily able to overpower the combined might of these human adventurers and make them cower with just its appearance.

When the warhorse nudged his hand as if trying to say 'How did I do?', Simon swiftly patted its head in affection.

"You did an amazing job, the adventurers seemed to be more afraid of you than me".

The warhorse neighed and stomped its flaming hooves on the ground once again as if expressing its irritation over the human adventurers for underestimating its master.

As he patted the warhorse, he said "Alright, listen you take on these adventurers behind that guy, and I will take on the person in front".

Simon didn't keep his volume down so the adventurers clearly heard what Simon said as they stared at him with enraged eyes.

Laris who was at the front of the group got irritated by how the demon was looking down and unsheathed his [C] tier Twin Blades. This sword had been with him for a long time and had gone thick and thin with him. Not to mention the huge buffs it provided to his stats.

As lightning erupted from the sword and arced his body, Laris felt his body becoming lighter and lighter before eventually becoming completely weightless.

The last time he clashed with the demon, he was only able to injure him only when the demon had let its guard down, and utilizing that opportunity, he dished out a powerful attack. But that wasn't enough to keep the demon down for a while as it seemed that its defence was quite high and if Laris wanted to injure him, he had to use attacks powerful enough to penetrate through his defence.

'But so what, I didn't use any skills the last time. When I use skills, it's going to be a totally different story from back then' Laris thought inwardly as he reinvigorated his spirits before dashing towards the demon with lightning speed.

When Laris unsheathed his Twin Blades, Simon couldn't help but comment after analysing the sword 'That's quite a good blade'. The last time Simon didn't pay much attention to the blade and ended up getting his defence penetrated by those very blades in return.

However, now that he observed it carefully, he immediately knew that the blade was a [C] tier weapon using Analysis, and not only that but the blade was a cut above among the other [C] tier weapons.

Though the weapon was quite powerful among the [C] tier, as Analysis displayed it was still at refinement level 1.

The last time when they clashed, Simon didn't expect to have a dungeon notification pop up in front of him which made him let his guard down for a second. Utilising that slight opening, Laris was able to connect an attack that had enough power to injure him.

But now that he didn't have to worry about the dungeon, he can give all his attention to the battle. After all, you don't often get to fight a level 311 adventurer who had gone through numerous battles.

Simon was clearly aware of his weakness and that was he lacked combat experience. Unlike the adventurer he was facing, Simon did not have a rich battle experience and even on earth, he had lived a peaceful life never associating in any physical fights.

However, combat experience can be accumulated and Simon was not going to miss this opportunity to improve himself. Suddenly, the beautiful and alluring figure of Irene came into his mind. He wanted to catch after this person who seemed to be in a whole different realm than him, he wanted to bridge that huge gap in their status and someday reach the same height that she was in.

To do that, he needed to surpass this opponent here and at the same time make the enemy pay for all the transgression he had committed against his little sister.. With those thoughts in mind, Simon steeled his resolve and bared his fangs.