Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Master, would you like me to prepare a bath for you?"…

"Ah, that would be ideal, please do so Annette"…

"Leave it to me, master".

Simon enjoyed a hot bath and felt his muscles and body relaxing. Inside the forbidden grounds, he was constantly surrounded by dangers, he couldn't even relax for a single second as every mistake there meant death.

His senses and nerves had been stretched taut every single second that he was there. Now that he was out, he could finally relax a little.

Simon glanced at the golden lion head that was gushing hot water from its open mouth. There were eight of them all around the bath. This was the thing about the bathhouse of the white palace, When Simon created the palace, he designed the bathhouses with the most extravagance of things.

It was not only the bathhouse, the other recreational areas were the same.

After spending an enjoyable time and washing away all of his exhaustion, Simon arrived at the dining table where everyone was waiting for him.

"Master... sit here, we have prepared all sorts of dishes that we know you like"

Annette led him to his seat. The battle maids were programmed by him to be excellent maids, as such, they knew how to cook all kinds of dishes.

After sharing a delicious meal with everyone, the mood became light-hearted. Everyone started chatting in a cheery and carefree manner. Simon savoured these small happy moments, allowing himself to indulge in it for once in a while.

Afterwards, they moved back to the Main Hall to discuss some important matters.

"Irene, is the dungeon alright? Is it in danger?" Simon asked the question in his mind. The message that Irene sent to him had an urgent tone to it. Given that he had instructed her to use the Echomir Plates during an emergency, he believed that something must have occurred while he was gone.

However, the answer he received shocked him.

"The dungeon is operating fine, it cannot be said that the situation has reached a point where it would be considered in danger" Irene replied.

Hearing her answer, Simon blinked in a daze "Then about the urgent message you sent me?"…

"That was because you have been gone for more than three months, everyone was worried about you. When you left, you said that you were going out to train. However, you didn't say that it would take you a long time. Naturally, I contacted you to know if you were safe or not".

Gone for more than three months? What is she talking about?

Although there was no day and night in the trials of the Forbidden Grounds, Simon still made sure to keep track of time. From what he could tell, it should only be a little over a week that he spent there.

However, Irene told him that he was gone for three months. Remembering the anxious and delighted faces of his subordinates after he came back, he felt like the emotions they showed were much too intense for someone who had been gone for only over a week.

There was no reason for Irene to lie too which could only mean that he was really on the forbidden grounds for more than three months.

Simon hurriedly opened his [Inventory] and saw three shiny emblems sitting there. Before he left for the Forbidden Grounds, he had no emblems with him. Now there were three sitting in his inventory.

This was conclusive proof that he really spent three months there without even him noticing. However, how was it possible that so much time had passed and he did not even realise it? Unless…

Simon recalled the words that the second fragment told him… [Don't just stand there in a daze, quickly get out of here. This place isn't something someone of your level should have come in contact with it. Time holds no dominion here, for past, present, and future are all merged in the existence that is the River of Destiny].

[To traverse these waters is to witness the birth of galaxies and the fall of civilisations with but a glance. You might feel like only a few seconds have passed here, but days or even weeks might have already gone by in the outside world. If you stay here any longer, you will be affected by its Mnemonic Pull]…

How could he have forgotten about those words? He was pulled into the River of Destiny and had to manoeuvre his way out. Although it was a very short journey from in and out of there, who knew how long had passed in the outside world?

The Sixth Trial being in a state of standstill, also distorted his sense of time, causing him to completely forget about those words. If it was the Mnemonic Pull of the River of Destiny, no wonder so much time had passed.

It also made sense why Irene's message contained a sense of urgency and why his subordinates were so delighted to see him again. It was because for them, he was gone for over three months after saying that was going there for training for a while. Naturally, they would be worried.

"From your expression, it looks like you weren't even aware of the passage of time. Did something out there?"

As expected of Irene, she was quite sharp and quickly noticed the unusualness in his behaviour. Since Simon thought that his experience might help them, he told them all about the River of Destiny and what happened in the Forbidden Grounds.

Of course, he made sure to tone it down and omitted a few parts so that they wouldn't overly worry for him.

GASP… Annette and the maid sisters covered their mouths as they gasped, their eyes filled with curiosity and wonder for this unknown place. Others sat there marvelling at the adventure their master had gone through.

As for Irene, she was making some strange expression as if she was trying hard to recall something.

"Is something wrong? You look like something's troubling you" Simon asked.

"No, it's nothing, I just felt my head aching for some reason"…

"Are you alright? If you are not feeling well, you should take some rest" Simon held her hand and spoke with concern.

"No really, I am alright. I don't know why I felt a headache, but it's gone now" Irene showed a reassuring smile.

Though he could tell that there was still something bugging her, Simon did not press her. He knew that not having one's memory can be quite strainful for someone. It would only get worse if he pressed her to remember.

Instead, it would be better if she gradually recalled her memories.

"So I was gone for three months huh? Did something happen in the dungeon during that time?"

Simon changed the subject. Three months wasn't a short period of time, it was enough for many changes to occur inside an intermediate dungeon like Laplace. There were bound to be many new adventurer groups popping up and overtaking the old ones.

Simon was curious to know what floor the adventurer had reached during this time. However, when he opened the [Dungeon] option of the Main Menu and glanced at the exploration progress of the adventurers, a frown appeared on his face.

The reason for that was…the highest floor cleared was till 71st floor, there was no progress made even after so long had passed.

The Adventurer's guild who reached the 71st floor was still the only Blades of Ascension and no new group or guild was able to overtake them.

Something was wrong, by now the exploration progress should have reached the 78th floor or higher. Sure, it was true that the difficulty of the floors increased as deeper one delved down and one would need more time to clear it.

However, the difficulty of the lower floors shouldn't pose too much of a challenge for the adventurers that their progress comes to a complete halt. After all, the statistics after dungeon Laplace increased to intermediate rank, showed that the average level of the adventurers and guilds diving inside his dungeon was around level 500.

What's more the statistics even showed an incline trend to the average adventurers level. Given all that, there is no way, a bunch of level 500+ adventurers would be stalled on the 71st floor and below.

Something had to have happened while he was gone. Simon glanced at his subordinates and seeing their unnatural expressions, he knew that he was right.

"Regarding the halted progress of the dungeon exploration, we believe that is due to some kind of organisation or force's intervention. Maya and Jarred are currently investigating it. However since it poses too much risk to go to the upper floors which are filled with adventurers, it is taking some time"

Irene answered the doubts he was having in his mind.

"When did this start?"…

"A few weeks after you left. We saw exploration progress slowing down and that fewer and fewer adventurers were clearing the floors. At first, we thought that it might be due to some problem that occurred among them and that it might be solved on its own if given enough time. However, things only became worse from that point on and we had no choice but to investigate this matter"

Irene who played as the proxy dungeon master in his absence filled him in on the matter.

"Hmm… you did good by not sending them to the upper floors. We cannot expose the existence of the Forest Spring Spirits living in our dungeon to the outside world"...