Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

This change was something that Simon had personally noticed when his dungeon evolved to a [D] rank after his war with Gelgar. Yes, the only option that he could think of right now was increasing the rank of his dungeon.

Fortunately for him, it was not so easy to destroy a floor and the current adventurers weren't powerful enough to do something like that. He had enough time to upgrade and increase the rank of his dungeon before powerful adventurers came swarming inside his dungeon.

When Simon opened the door to the main hall, he saw that Irene and the other Valkyries were already present there and were engaged in a discussion of their own. Seeing them smile and converse like that, Simon was pleased that the closest people to him were getting along with each other.

The Valkyries, were set to have their own unique personality and temperament but they were all proud and upright characters, to begin with. The only reason they were talking so respectfully to Irene was because they respected her.

The same went for this noble icy cold woman, she would only talk and converse with those who gained her recognition. Even Simon had a lot of trouble dealing with her at first.

In a way, it was quite a sight to see all of them converse like this.

The moment the door was pushed open, all eyes focused on him. The Valkyries hurriedly stood up and welcomed him while Irene calmly glanced at him walking inside with Alice.

Simon looked around and saw that Cecilia was missing, thus he asked "Where is Cecilia?".

"Princess Cecilia is currently with her clan, it seemed like elder Fennel called for her to check on the Spirit Tree" Annette answered while brewing a tea for him.

Simon nodded his head and made himself comfortable on the couch.

"You look quite worse for the wear, did the experiment on the forty-fifth floor not go as expected?" Irene asked glancing at his clothes that were a little dirty after he came back from the forty fifth floor.

"Ah! About that…" Simon received his tea from Annette and recited the event that occurred on the forty-fifth floor. How the mutation led to an aberrant being born and the fact that a monster was able to resist the authority of the dungeon, surprised them quite a bit.

Their eyes became a little concerned when he told them that he had fought the fire demon ape who was rampaging around the floor.

"Alice did you protect master well?" After his story was over, Bea from the side asked Alice who was grinning ear to ear. The little girl was started by the assertive and serious tone of her elder sister, she was just about to answer when…

"Yeah, she helped me quite a lot. In fact, she was the one who took out that monster and protected the [Helpers]. She was a big help" Simon spoke on her behalf.

Hearing their master's high praise of Alice, all of the Valkyries became surprised for a moment before smiling adoringly towards her. They were proud that their little sister was able to earn such high praise from their master.

"It looks like the monster rejecting the control of the dungeon has something to do with the mutation" Irene stated analysing the information she heard from Simon.

"At first I thought so too but there was no problem with the new race since the ones I spawned later were obedient and submissive to me" Simon discussed.

"Are you saying that monster was special?" Irene asked perceiving what was trying to say.

"Right, the one fire Demon Ape that managed to undergo the mutation, according to the [helpers] ate the other members of its race and was behaving quite peculiarly ever since waking up. I also noticed that it had some dangerous sounding skills such as [Cannibalism] and [Taboo]" Simon explained.

Although it was just his guess and he had nothing to back his words, Simon believed that the dungeon notifying him about the aberrant was somehow related to these skills.

"I see, then there is no other choice but to eliminate it. Fortunately, you sent Alice there in time and the [Helpers] weren't injured in the process" Irene closed her eyes and sighed in relief.

Simon nodded his head in agreement, then he turned towards her and asked "Enough about my side, tell me how is everyone's training going on".

"How about you guys tell him that yourselves" Irene smiled mysteriously and looked towards the Valkyries standing on the side.

"Master's suggestion was wonderful, after fighting with others I know now what I am lacking in and what areas I should make progress towards," Annette said trying to avoid his gaze.

"Master, I will try my best to not embarrass myself again" Bea commented, one could feel her frustration from her words.

Except for Alice, all the Valkyries acted strange, even Emma and Bianca who had little to no emotions were no exception. How could Simon who was their creator and knew them extremely well, not see through their peculiarity?

"Did something happen?" Simon asked frowning.

"Uhh!!"

"Guh!!"

"You see they are frustrated because they lost during the training" Irene explained shaking her head.

"What?!" Simon's eyes went wide when he heard that the Valkyries had lost. He was right to be surprised, after all the Valkyries were all incredibly powerful [A] rank subordinates. Except for Irene, Simon didn't believe that there was anyone else in this dungeon who could possibly defeat them.

When she felt his questioning gaze, she shrugged her shoulders saying "Its not me".

"Then…?" He was now even more confused, if it was not her, then who? Surely it can't be that the valkyries ended up defeating each other right?

"It was the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse" as if to answer his query, Irene explained with a peculiar smile on her face.

"Huh?! Bloodthorn demonic warhorse? But that is not possible, even if he has become powerful after his evolution, he is still not the Valkyries match" the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse was around level 540, whereas the Valkyries were all level 699.

Even if he used some tricks, he was still not their match. Perhaps due to the disbelief that generated from his trust in them, the Valkyries became even more strange with their conduct.

"You are right in thinking that, normally it wouldn't be possible for that child to defeat them. However, the premise of the training that I set for the valkyries to gain combat experience restricts them from using more than twenty percent of their strength and their racial or class specific skills".

"Under this condition, the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse who has been honing his strength every single day was able to gain an edge over them. His diligent and hardworking personality is very much like certain someone. Even now it's training with Lightning Draconic Serpent not wanting to be outdone by anyone" Irene explained.

It was only now that Simon finally understood why the Valkyries behaved so peculiarly when he mentioned the training and how the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse was able to gain an edge over them.

Though even he was surprised when he heard that the latter was able to come out on top against a Valkyrie. Even if their power and skills were restricted, the Valkyrie's basic stats and abilities were still the same.

One had to wonder how much effort and training the Bloodthorn demonic warhorse had to go through to defeat a Valkyrie.

"Kuhh" hearing from the sounds that the Valkyries made intermittently, it seemed that they were still not resolved to this defeat.

"I see, I guess that works in the favour of Valkyries. That way, they can gain experience in combat first hand while the others can also grow at the same time" Simon nodded understanding what Irene was trying to achieve with this method of training.

Anyways it looked like the training floor that he had created seemed to be working wonders since he could see the fire of not wanting to lose and the frustration from a defeat blazing inside the eyes of the Valkyries.

Simon discussed about the other aspects of the training floor with Irene and the Valkyries before moving onwards to something else.

"By the way, didn't you use your provisional adventurer card to enter the dungeon from the front gate? Will it be alright if you are missing for so long?" Irene asked picking up a subject he had almost forgotten about.

Now that he thought about it after coming back from his trip, he had entered the dungeon as a provisional adventurer with the pretence to go and mine the ores from the eighth floor. After that one thing led to another and now he was back on his main floor.

Since to the adventurer party, it might look like he had disappeared, there was bound to be some people looking for him. However, a week had already passed since then, the adventurers association might think he had died inside the dungeon already.

Even if they didn't it was not a problem since Simon could always use the identity of a provisional adventurer to see and roam around the town built around the tower on top of his dungeon.

"It's shouldn't be a problem, I will occasionally show my face around the town. That should be enough to get off their list of deceased people" Simon said after thinking for a while.

There was also the events from the capital and his face being known, thus he cannot be too complacent and rely on his alternate identity too much. Since Simon himself said that it was not a problem, Irene didn't comment further.