Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"P-please spare us… we will leave this place, we will never enter this forest again" one of the adventurers, who had his spirit broken after the bloody display, said.

With him taking the initiative, the other adventurers too started begging for their lives. Bolan and his team watched those adventurers they used to look up, with cold eyes. It was completely foolish to beg in front of their enemy who was a monster who enjoyed killing and torturing.

As if the example earlier was not enough, the adventurers inside the prison fell for its ruse once again.

Hearing them beg for their life, a smile of delightment bloomed on the red orc's face. It was very much enjoying the current attitude of the humans.

"Spare you?... GUGAGA—I would rather eat you alive than spare you hateful humans. However, that would be too merciful for you all, don't you like enslaving others? This is the perfect opportunity, let me try the slave seal on you all. That way, at least you will understand what it feels to be enslaved".

The red orc took out slave collars from the many space rings that decorated its wide fingers.

KLANG… the moment, the prisoners saw the slave collars, their faces turned pale white. They finally knew what their fate was going to be. There was no redemption for them once they were enslaved by that collar.

The slave collar was enchanted with a slave seal that forced one to obey all commands from its master. They could only cower in fear and hope that the adventurers in the town would come to save them before they are enslaved.

Bolan and his teammates made an ugly face when they saw the slave collars in the hands of that red orc. Slavery although something that was common in the mainland and the other kingdoms, their Kingdom of Ellesmere did not have this custom.

Of course, it was not like none of the cities practised this but slave trading was relatively low in their kingdom.

From the words of the red orc, it was clear to them that it hated the humans because of this very reason. It must have seen members of its tribe getting enslaved or was a slave before. That is why, it wanted to re-enact that very same humiliation back at humans.

Perhaps, all its actions were to enact revenge on them from the start? While Bolan and his group were thinking all that, the red orc started dragging prisoners out of the prison and forcing the collar upon them.

After that, it ordered the enslaved humans to collar the others, while it stepped back and enjoyed the show. The sight was by no means something that one wanted to watch; however, the red orc was enjoying the show.

Slowly, more and more humans were enslaved and soon it was the turn for Bolan and his group. In fact two of their members, Norr and Dridan had already been enslaved. When it seemed like their turn would soon come, a huge explosion echoed out from the southern side of the camp and a fire that was easily spotted in the darkness of the night, blazed from that area.

Sounds of footsteps could be heard all around the camp as the orcs around here started running around frantically. Another red orc ran over towards the one that was wearing armour made of pelts and bones and was clearly the leader here.

"What going on?" It asked, its tone a little sour after its fun time was interrupted.

"General Berimal, it seems like there are some intruders attacking the camp". The red orc that was called as general Berimal, sniffed at the air a few times before tilting its head in confusion.

"Their smell is too thin… How many intruders are there Beldoom? And what happened to Belloom's group, how could he allow intruders near the camp so easily when he was monitoring the area?".

The orc commander that was referred to as Beldoom, replied—"About that, we are unable to contact Belloom… it is most likely that he is taken out by the enemy".

"Heh!! Interesting, so they are the ones who took him out huh? Are they the humans from that town?" Berimal displayed a fierce smile, battle intent radiated out of his body in droves.

"Judging from their appearance, it seems to be the case. Their numbers are however very less… probable around three" Beldoom added.

A diluvian High Orc's sense of smell was very strong thus it wasn't very hard for someone of their level to easily scout out their enemy just by their smell.

"A group of three humans dared to barge in our camp alone, how foolish. Command all the orcs to engage them, tire them out to death with our numbers" Berimal ordered.

"What about you, General?" the commander asked. Berimal glanced at the humans inside the prison whose eyes showed that they had suddenly found a ray of hope in this darkness and smirked.

"Of course, I'll be joining you guys. I will squash their hope and bring their heads to show these humans. GUGAGA… even after being given such a long time, the most that town of humans could assemble were three people".

Since Berimal and his commander Beldoom were speaking in a common language, of course, the prisoners could understand it.

When they heard that the intruders were humans, they started thinking that might really be hope left for them. It was not like their tower town lacked strong adventurers, if it were those guilds and teams who usually roam the lower floors of the dungeon, they might really get saved this time.

However, their hope was soon drenched in a bucket of cold water when they heard the intruders were only three people. Chattering and murmuring started as soon as the prisoners saw the two red orcs walk off and disappear towards the southern side of the camp.

"It's over for us… there should still be many strong adventurers inside the dungeon and all the adventurer association sent was merely three people. I don't know whether I should laugh or cry".

"That may not necessarily be the case. Have you forgotten about that guild? If the ones here are the top executives of that guild, it might be possible".

"You are right… If it's them, they can defeat those red orcs".

Conversation rang from every corner of the prison. Even during a dire time such as this, the humans still clung to any hope they could find in this darkness.

"There is no point, I can't get it off," Bargo said trying to get the slave collar off of his teammate.

"Idiot, it wouldn't be an enchanted collar if it got out that easily. You need to be a much higher level if you want to break out of one of these" Bolan commented from the sides. Including him, Bargo, and ken only a handful of people remained that weren't enslaved with the collar yet.

"Leader do you think they are from that guild?" his teammates asked.

Bolan could only shrug his shoulders and give a positive reply to keep their morale from breaking. "It is hard to say since there are only three people attacking the camp as the red orc have mentioned. However, if they are the top executives of the Tyrant Mountain guild, there is a possibility that we might be saved".

STEP… STEP… Suddenly, the chattering inside the prison halted alerted by that sound as all heads turned towards the direction where the sound of footsteps came from. Although it was the time of night, the light falling on the camp from the three moons hanging overhead was enough to see around.

As all eyes focused on a particular area, a person's silhouette could be seen coming out of the shadow of a crude building.

------

Tower Town, inside the hall of the adventurer's association. A group of adventurers wearing armours and gears that were at least [C] tier, could be seen sitting on a big bench created by joining a few small benches and surrounded by a crowd of other adventurers.

"So you are saying that… it was the work of Diluvian high orcs?" the man that spoke just now had broad shoulders, muscles that were rimming power and a hawk like eyes, qualities that were the indication of a top notch warrior.

And indeed, he was not just anybody, but the vice guild master of the Tyrant Mountain, Xandros Amadeo. He was a warrior above level 500 with a rare class.

"Yes, Sir Xandros. The features about the enemy that they have mentioned, precisely matches with that of a Diluvian High Orc" the one talking to him, was none other than Mason, the guild master of Moonlight guild.

"That is weird, from the information that I got from the adventurer's association it clearly said that monsters of that level resided far deeper inside the forest" Xandros deliberated.

The ghastly winding forest was one of the adjoining points between the Central continent and the Demon continent. It was big enough to engulf their kingdoms and a few more. Thus it wasn't unnatural for a guild like theirs who were situated in far the south of the Ellesmere kingdom to be aware of the geographical distribution of the ghastly winding forest.

All the adventurers calmly listened to Xandros' thought process without daring to interject in between.

"That is true, there must be something going on inside the western region of the forest. However, at the present, the orcs have already discovered the location of our town. If nothing is done, they will keep on sieging it until all the humans here die".