Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

When he asked the latter where Berimal was, Belgarious told him that he had sent them to the eastern region of the forest where a certain dungeon was. It did not take time for him to connect the dots and figure out a few things.

Giz-Mogo had dismissed the oath of Berigard as nothing but some ruse, the other ogres seemed to think nothing of the demon. However, Giz-Bozo was different, he was still alert of the miasma that was slowly enveloping the battlefield.

The miasma and the demon appeared around the same time so it was clear that the latter had something to do with it. However, he couldn't understand what this miasma was nor could he feel even a tiny fluctuation of mana from the demon.

"I accept your show of fealty. From now on you and your tribe are my subordinates which means that you are also under my protection. The enemy of your tribe is also my enemy, don't worry I'll close this farce and put an end to this war".

Simon announced, he was aware that many of the orcs did not recognise this show of fealty from Berigard and would definitely show their dissent after the war was over. However, he wasn't worried about that.

Berigard had shown what kind of leader he was, he had fought with his life at the stake for them. This gesture was sure to move thousands of orcs. Even if they aren't from his faction, they are sure to follow his lead.

In the case that they didn't, he would just have to use force to show them who was in charge. Anyways, now that Berigard had sworn loyalty to him, all that is left is to show the orcs how powerful he was.

And to do that, what better way than to wipe out the ogres that they were unable to win against?

"Oi… Oi.. Oi… what is this demon babbling? The orcs are your subordinate? Put an end to this war? Listen to me demon, I don't know where you came from, but you shouldn't put your nose in something that isn't your business. Do you understand me? If so then fuck off from he… gugh!!".

Giz-Mogo jabbered causing the demon to kick him in the face before he could complete his sentence.

The kick from the demon was so powerful that Giz-Mogo's face instantly caved in and he flew back a good few meters. When he got back up in rage, everybody could see that multiple of his teeth were broken and one of his fangs missing.

"I'll Kill You…" Giz-Mogo hollered. He wasn't expecting the demon to suddenly attack him, a member of the ogre race and a crimson horn at that, thus he was unable to react in time.

He was about to retaliate back when Giz-Bozo extended his hands and stopped him.

"Stand down… you are not his match" a cold astute voice came from the ogre.

Hearing that Giz-Mogo protested saying that he was careless before and that he can definitely win against the demon. Though he quickly shut up when Giz-Bozo glared at him.

The ogre then turned to face Simon who had a calm expression even while facing an ogre army on his own. That was when Giz-Bozo noticed that purple-black energy emitted by the latter's body.

"This friend here… I'm sure that this is our first time meeting so why is it that you are willing to offend us and help our enemy? Our black ogre army came here with strict orders from our lord, one of the seven kings of this forest to subdue the tribe of orcs. I would advise you to reconsider this and instead ally with us".

Unlike Giz-Mogo who didn't take the big picture in consideration, Giz-Bozo was much more cunning and punctilious. He could see that the miasma surrounding the demon was unusual and he couldn't gauge their proper strength.

From what he could sense from the aura of the demon, they didn't seem particularly strong. However, somehow they were able to blow Giz-Mogo, a disaster class orc with a level of 570 back.

In fact, Giz-Bozo wasn't far from the truth. Simon's level was only around 418, there is no way he would be able to hurt a being that not only surpassed him in levels but also a whole realm.

However, that was not counting the fact that he was in possession of something that did not fall under those norms. The finger of Ozymandias and the curse energy that it produced.

Simon had experienced how lethal and dreadful the curse energy was in the forbidden trials. It was a whole different system of energy than the standard mystical energy. At first, Simon wasn't able to properly control the finger of Ozymandias and could only use it crudely.

However, with time as his mastery over the technique [Dominator control] increased, he learned the other secrets the finger held and was now able to freely manipulate the curse energy it produced.

Although he was now able to use the curse energy even outside the trial grounds, it did not mean that the drawbacks were not there anymore. Just like when he used the curse energy in the fourth trial, he was unable to access the mystical energy of this world. He could only use either energy at a time.

This is to say, that Simon who was using the curse energy cannot invoke his magic that needed mana to channel.

On a side note, Simon had once tried to see how his status looked like when he was using the curse energy since every time he used it he felt like he was multiple times stronger. However, it seemed like the status froze whenever he used the curse energy.

Therefore it was no wonder that Giz-Bozo wasn't able to properly assess Simon's strength in that state.

At Giz-Bozo's words, Simon turned around to face him. Due to continuously being affected by his demon lineage and his pride fragment, Simon was slowly being reformed. He now naturally emitted an aura of confidence and carried himself like a demon noble.

"The ogre tribe led by one of the seven kings of the forest huh. Indeed you guys are strong, strong enough to subdue the tribe of orcs. However, you are weaker than me. I shall give you all a chance, scurry away now or else face the consequences".

Such arrogant words, the ogre tribe who took pride in their strength, how could they take it lying down? They were immediately incensed by that remark and glared at Simon with hatred-filled eyes.

Even the always calm Giz-Bozo was also affected. He didn't think that the demon would be unable to judge the situation and not back down even when he mentioned the ogre army and their lord who was one of the seven kings of this forest.

He was trying to give face to this mysterious demon whose strength he couldn't gauge; however it seemed like the other party had taken them for granted. Since that was the case, there was on;y one thing he could do.

Giz-Bozo was an ogre who was on the borders of becoming an indigo horn. Someone as powerful as him was bound to be inherently prideful thus it was no surprise that he was offended by that remark. perfectly falling for Simon's trap.

"Since you are hellbent on becoming our enemy, so be it. We will stomp on that arrogance of yours and make you eat your words back" Giz-Bozo glanced at the three Gir brothers who quickly jumped towards Simon.

"Who did you say would eat their words?" a clear voice that had a tone of innocence, echoed out followed by three bangs of gunfire.

<strong>BANG.. BANG… BANG…</strong> immediately, something that travelled at a speed which was hard to perceive, hit the three Gir brothers making them stop in their tracks and lick their wounds.

Far in the distance, a maid in her teens wearing and armour on top of her uniform, could be seen holding a bow. She had a head full of golden hair and her smile was like the sunflower in full bloom.

Behind her were what looked like mechanised golems standing in a neat formation.

"So she finally arrived, what took her so long?" while everybody was distracted by the maid and the line-up of golems, two more maids at some unknown point in time arrived beside the demon.

"Alice, what took you so long?" Annette asked after Alice arrived in front of them.

"That… there was some issue with the tower town. Miss Irene was busy handling that thus the delay" Alice answered a little nervously when met with the questioning eyes of her elder sister who always had a stern astute face.

"What happened to the tower town?" Simon asked in concern.

"Ah, Master does not have anything to worry about, Miss Irene had already solved the issue. A few days ago, a few orcs had wandered near the vicinity of the tower town causing mass panic amongst the adventurers. Fortunately, backup from the surrounding towns had arrived by then and swiftly disposed of the orcs".

Hearing Alice's story, Simon guessed that the orcs she was talking about, were the ones that were sent by the orc king to investigate Berimal's whereabouts.

It was as he had surmised, they were really taken out by the adventurers who came after hearing the distress call. But even then this wasn't an issue that required Irene's intervention. What possibly could have happened after that?

Alice continued "It was all good up until that point but suddenly amongst the group of adventurers that arrived at the towe town after hearing the distress call, were a few groups that started using this opportunity to kill innocent adventurers diving inside the middle floors of the dungeon".

Adventurers killing other adventurers inside the dungeon? Well, it was not like there was no conflicts amongst the many groups of adventurers that dived inside the dungeon on a daily basis. There were many such precedences before.