Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

As Simon was inspecting the ring which seemed to give off an unusual sheen, a furious roar came assaulting his ears "Ahhhhh'¦ don't touch it demon, it's mine give it back to me".

Seeing that Laris was getting infuriated with him inspecting the ring, Simon couldn't help but get curious.

He had never seen such a peculiar ring before that gave off a mysterious feeling.

"Could it be that this ring is some kind of artefact?... What!!??" while scrutinising the ring, Simon nonchalantly decided to insert some of his manas inside his ring and was amazed by his discovery.

The ring had a three-meter wide subspace and various items and artifacts could be seen lining inside. Just as he was marvelling at the features of the ring, he suddenly sensed the vast aura that felt familiar to him coming from the contents inside the ring.

Examining the items carefully, he soon noticed that the vast ocean like aura that excited every pore in his body was coming from the emerald green orbs inside. The aura that was emitted by these objects were quite familiar to him as he had come into contact with the same aura not too long ago.

It didn't take a genius to understand what those items were and where did they come from. Knitting his brows, Simon's eyes gloomed over and he looked at the grovelling Laris with revulsion.

BANG'¦ a furious kick came smashing to his stomach and Laris flew a meters back. Even while he continuously puking out blood, his eyes were still glued to the ring that was in Simon's hand.

"Give'¦ it'¦ back" He repeated continuously. The ring had the Forest Spring Spirit Orbs harvested from the Forest Spring Spirits and was an incredibly precious treasure.

Simon could see that there was easily more than seventy spirit orbs inside the ring that was giving off a vast natural aura. How many Forest Spring Spirits did they kill to gather that many?

From Irene, he knew that once the spirit orb is taken from the Forest Spring Spirit, their body would naturally die after some time. It's like taking a soul away from the body, without the soul the body would naturally die.

The pain and suffering the little girl had gone through because of adventurers like them who were blinded by profits and didn't even bat an eye to resort to such inhumane tactics.

Simon wasn't a humanitarian in his previous life and now after reincarnating in this world, he was no longer a human but he could still feel the pain, cries, worries and various other emotions from these spirit orbs.

The spirit orbs of Forest spring spirits are considered a priceless and extraordinary treasure in this world, one that is able to increase the purity of one's bloodline and make them reach a whole different realm and level which was previously impossible for them.

Simon was aware that such an extraordinary treasure would incite the greed of all the inhabitants of this world; after all, once one gets the taste of power and authority, they would crave for even more.

The forest spring spirit orbs was one such item that could fulfil their desires. The Spirit Orb of a forest spring spirit might be an unparalleled treasure in the eyes of the people of this world but to Simon, they were nothing but dirty treasure obtained by massacring the peaceful Forest Spring Spirit clan.

Sigh'¦ after letting out an audible sigh, he looked towards the direction where the forest spring village once was. The forest spring spirit was blessed with gifts bestowed by heaven; however, these blessings turned out to be the curse that shackled them and became the cause of their suffering.

As the saying goes if one did not have sufficient strength to protect their treasure, they would just be inciting trouble for themselves. The forest spring spirits were born with the treasure of nature but were a non-combatant race and didn't have the ability to protect themselves.

From Cecilia, he became aware of the treaty that the Dragon Lords along with several other races imposed on all the continents of the world to protect the species that were being hunted from the ancient times.

Despite all this, there are still many species in the world that are being hunted for their treasures, unaware and out of reach for the Dragon Lords.

These seventy or so spirit orbs were releasing an ocean-like vast aura but Simon didn't have it in him to possess such items. Thinking about it for a while, he decided to return it back to the forest spring spirits.

Seeing that the demon had kept the ring for himself, Laris became insane with fury and all the blood in his body rose up to his head.

"You bastard you dare take the treasure that belongs to me?... I'll kill yo'¦" he shouted like an aggrieved beast but before he could utter another sentence, a foot came flying on his face.

"Puah'¦" His face which was already beet red from all the anger became a deeper shade of red after being kicked on the face by Simon. Laris's nose cavity was smashed and all the remaining teeth he had left came apart.

Simon who was being heavily influenced by the pride fragment didn't have any mercy for a person who in his eyes was worse than a beast.

"I'll'¦ kill you, I'll kill you, I'll eradicate everything you have" Laris roared out those words with much difficulty and tried to get back up. Just when he got to his knees, a foot came bearing down on his back and smashed him face-first onto the ground.

"Kuh'¦ aaaaaggggghhh" No matter how Laris clawed and struggled beneath his feet, he couldn't even move an inch. The foot that was bearing down on him felt like a huge boulder sturdy and unmoving.

Simon wasn't someone who liked inflicting torture on someone but he deemed it necessary for this human to experience the same pain and suffering he had inflicted on Cecilia who he took as his little sister.

Though subtly, his demonic nature was coming to light and even while tormenting Laris under his foot, there wasn't any change in his emotions.

Getting tired of all this screaming and cursing, Simon finally decided to end Laris.

Flames, intense flames'¦ flames that could burn everything and anything in its path, flames that burned like wildfire, flames of arrogance overbearing to the extreme.

His intense emotion was starting to influence the mana flowing within his body and as the flames were compressed, along with the tinge of golden lustre, the flames seemed more animate and lifelike.

Laris who was pinned on the ground could feel his whole body shuddering at this moment and a fear that he had never experienced in his hundred plus years of adventuring, assaulted his every sense.

Even without turning back, he could tell from the intensity of the flames and his screaming instincts that the flames were dangerous.

"Experience the pain and suffering before turning into ashes'¦ [Blazing Flares]" Simon declared after conjuring the magic.

BOOOM'¦ as responding to his declaration, the flames erupted and was just about to engulf Laris when all of a sudden he cried out. "Still not helping me?... DAAAALLLEEE" his piercing shout rang across the whole forest and disturbed the previous silence.

.

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"Tch'¦ you don't need to shout, I am not deaf. Dammit, you just ruined the element of surprise" right after the shout rang out, a rough voice that carried some resentment sounded from behind Simon.

The voice was none other than Dale's who had gone insane after activating his skill [Battle Hunger] and was knocked unconscious by Simon before he could kill the pair of Lisa and Chuck.

Judging by the tone of his voice, Dale had come back to his senses and was no longer in an abnormal state. However, what surprised Simon was that even before he could sense the presence of the guy, he was already upon him with his blade drawn.

It seemed that he was already awake since a while ago but was hiding his aura in an attempt to catch Simon off guard.

Brandishing his long sword, Dale activated all of his skills and channelled the power into his swing.. Immediately, the sword took on a crimson hue and berserk power along with a fierce wind engulfed his whole body.