Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"However, with your actions we successfully retook the town, an action that would help increase the rank of the dungeon. That's right, it was an important accomplishment worthy of recognition. The one who made it possible, deserves a reward. Is there anything you guys want? If it's possible within my power, I'm willing to grant you your wish?"

Simon looked at his subordinates. An organisation's productivity was directly related to the satisfaction factors of its employees. It would perform well if its employees were adequately motivated and properly remunerated for their efforts.

Simon wanted to insinuate what he learned from his previous life to this slowly expanding organisation called the Dungeon Laplace. However, honest to the fault, his subordinates were just too damn loyal to him.

"We thank Master for his generous words. However, serving you is the greatest honour that we could ask for. We dare not ask for anything else, just that we want to keep following and devote our loyalty to you for eternity".

Haaa… Simon sighed, even Theodore and Mayebell were saying things like that. He would have liked it more if they acted a bit more selfishly.

That's right, they were usually much more relaxed and acted spoiled around him, why did they turn like all the others all of a sudden? Could it be because this was a formal audience with everyone present?

Simon realised that he needed to change his approach. It's not that they didn't want anything, it's just that they were in front of everyone and had to act their part. He made a mental note to ask his subordinates what they wanted when he met with them in private later.

For now, it was important that he progressed with the audience.

"Once we place a figurehead to govern the tower town, all the conditions to evolve the dungeon would be met. Just like usual, all the inhabitants of the dungeon would receive a gift based on their talent and aptitude. However, before that, I would like to announce the biggest contributor who made all of this possible and a very important revelation that we learned from this endeavour"

Saying that, Simon called forth the warrior who played the leading role. Mars stepped forward and kneeled in front of him. His stature even while bent, was towering when compared to all of his other subordinates.

"I would like to introduce everyone to Mars here. You might be confused by his change in appearance, but make no mistake, he is a very loyal subordinate of mine, the leader of all the beasts of the dungeon, Bloodthorn Demonic Warhorse that you all know" Simon introduced.

"I thought as much… but look at you, you really did change a hell lot" Theodore commented.

"What he was the Bloothorn Demonic Warhorse?" Cecilia being the clueless one, gasped in surprise. She tottered over to Mars' side and curiously started inspecting him.

"Woah, Sir Warhorse has changed a lot. Ah, I should call you Sir Mars from now. However, what brought this change?".

Even if not for Cecilia, Simon knew that everybody would ask this question. As such, he told them about his recent rank up and Mars' naming ceremony.

"Woah… big brother ranked up and gave sir warhorse a name?!! Hehe… it's such a good news. Everyone from the village would be overjoyed to hear this" Cecilia jumped with merry.

"Cecilia you are interrupting the audience" Irene quietly reminded from the side.

"Ah!" As if realising her mistake, the girl hurriedly backed away.

"Anyways, it is due to Mars and the others that the plan went as smoothly as it did" Simon resumed "Not only were we able to pull out all the plague infecting the tower town and take control of it in one go, we were also able to discover the objective of the Criminal organisation's which was much deeper than we had initially imagined".

At this moment, he turned towards Prime who was standing among the ranks of his subordinates and asked— "Prime please tell everyone what you have discovered from the pieces of equipment and machineries we found inside the underground chamber of the criminal organisations".

On his orders, the tiny Lumynar jumped on top of a large strange looking machine and began his explanation.

"This thing here is quite amusing. After opening it up and learning about it, I discovered that it runs on a large number of core stones. The energy it can hold can easily destroy a town as small as the tower town. However, that is what's not amazing about this thing. As far as I can tell, this thing can borrow the power that can isolate and lock space for a set period of time"…

"What?!!"

On Prime's explanation, everyone except for Simon, showed an astonished expression. An equipment that could lock space… This strange looking machine did what?

Their astonishment stemmed from the fact that the attribute of space was one of the most mysterious and fearsome attributes out of all the other elements. It was not only extremely rare, but much was still unknown about it.

Because of this reason, the fact that this machine here could do something that was beyond their understanding, came as quite a bit of shock to them.

"This machine can lock space? How is something like this even possible?" Coleus muttered, looking at the machine with intrigue.

"Fufufu… Even laws can be bent to one's will if one has a deep understanding of its workflow and mechanics. Why can't there be a machine that can lock space? Hmph, this thing is still in its early stages and needs much more work on it. However, I have already seen machines that are much more better than this, machines that can even lock time and space, create slip space and such. Compared to those machines, this thing is nothing"

"That aside, although I said it can isolate and lock space, this here is just one component of the real machine. The one which can lock space, is located somewhere else. This machine here is simply a transceiver, it receives and modulates energy waves sent by the actual machine"…

"Are you saying that this machine here is not the actual space locking machine?"…

"That is right" Prime nodded with confidence.

He was a Lumynar, a race known for its extremely high intelligence, not to mention he was also an inventor from a highly advanced race. There was no reason for Simon to doubt his words.

"It's a shame that we weren't able to get our hands on the real thing. But that is not important right now, actual or not, this thing can isolate and lock space. I don't need to tell everyone what that means".

Even without him needing to say it out loud everybody understood what it meant. A machine that could isolate and lock space, it was built to counter places or things that reside in a special space like the dungeons.

If this machine was ever used inside a dungeon, it would essentially lock the spatial laws of that dungeon, making teleportation or any form of communication practically useless.

A dungeon with its spatial laws sealed and isolated from the rest of the world, it was not hard for Simon to imagine what would be the fate of such a dungeon.

What's more the fact that such a machine was confiscated from the possession of the criminal organisations, left him with an uneasy feeling. He practically knew nothing about the objective of the criminal organisations, their reason for coming to the tower town and taking over it.

Fortunately, thanks to Mars' plan he was able to capture quite a few of their high ranking executives. Although it was a pity that he was unable to capture their two leaders alive as they self destructed their bodies after they lost, he should be able to get some information if he investigated the ones he captured.

"Bea, I leave the interrogation of the captives to you. Make sure they spill out every piece of information they have. I need to know what they were trying to do by creating an underground chamber and producing machines like this right under our nose"…

"Leave it to me, master" Bea dutifully nodded.

The captives were currently imprisoned in the underground prison of the training floor, at the deepest third layer.

Not only the place was extremely sturdy, but the cells were also made of material that constantly drained mana from the prisoners. Then there was also numerous traps and formations to make them weaker. As such, even if they rankers, escape was practically impossible from the underground prison.

'It's a good thing that I decided to intervene. Had I left the tower town on its own, I wouldn't have been able to unveil their plot. In any case, I hope it's all just my needless concern and has nothing to do with them' Simon thought internally.

The discussion from the Hexennacht still weighed heavily on his mind. The fact that even high ranking dungeons that have been there in the world for hundreds and even thousands of years, can be conquered just like that, gave him a heavy sense of unease.

What's more, the perpetrators who destroyed the high ranking dungeon, did it so spotlessly that they could even evade from the senses and pursuit of Demon Archdukes, making it all the more harder for low and intermediate dungeons and their masters to ignore this news.

Especially after hearing about the recent destruction of the [A] ranking dungeon which was the layer of an ancient Demon Duke. Moments before that dungeon was destroyed, all communication from that dungeon was severed and it was isolated from the rest of the world.