Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

One could only imagine what condition Gufardus would be in after taking an attack like that.

Whoosh… right after sending his word slash at Gufardus, Belgarious swiftly turned around and fled. The reason for that was simple, a being on the level of Seven Kings was in a realm of their own. He did not believe that his attack would be able to hurt them.

Thus using his sword slash to delay them for a while, he quickly left the place. His speed was further bolstered by [Bile] a skill that converts the frustration and the amount of damage the user has taken into temporary agility.

Using this skill, his speed had reached new heights using which he quickly arrived at the boundaries of the orc territory. He was just about to exit when suddenly he heard a thundering roar echo out from the horizon.

<strong>"Amalgamation magic… [Infernal-Thunder Mastery]— [Flamma Volt Lion]"</strong>.

A huge lion made entirely of flames and thunder, split the sky in half and landed in front of Beglarious with a heavy thud.

Looking at the lion that was more than ten meters big, one could feel a heavy pressure and the intense radiation of heat from the flames and thunder that it was made of.

Even though the lion was made of magic, it looked so animate and its eyes shone with an intelligent light that one would even mistake it for an actual beast.

Sitting on top of it cosily, was Gufardus whose mane was actually on fire. "What's the rush Belgarious? Aren't we old friends?".

Gufardus laughed and initiated a conversation.

Belgarious had an ugly expression at this moment. Knowing that he cannot outrun the guy, he looked for other ways of saving his life.

"Why are you coming after me? If it's the inheritance of the ancient beast that you want, you should know that it is in the underground chamber. If you dilly-dally too long, the ogre army would arrive and snatch it before you".

Belgarious made an excuse, he thought that he would be able to dupe Gurfardus into returning back to the centre of the orc territory. However, all his words managed to do was evoke a burst of laughter from the latter.

"GURARA… Belgarious, do you take me for a fool? I know that the inheritance is no longer inside the underground chamber. You wouldn't have left the thing there and fled otherwise".

A droplet of sweat trickled down his face, Belgarious commented—"How can you say that without even looking? See, you can even check my space ring, there is no inheritance there?".

Gufardus extended his hands and Belgarious' space ring immediately flew towards him. Nevertheless, he did not check the contents of the ring and simply kept it.

Seeing this, the orc arched his brows; nevertheless, he did not comment anything and simply asked to excuse himself. He walked around the huge Infernal thunder lion and was about to walk off when Gufardus spoke out.

"Wait".

Belgarious slowly turned around and asked in a shaky voice "I-Is the-there still something else?".

"This isn't the only inter-spatial pocket on you is it?" Gufardus remarked making Belgarious even more anxious.

"W-what do you mean? I have already handed you my space ring?".

"Ah, so you did. But I'm not talking about that space ring, I'm talking about the inter-spatial pocket that is the exclusive skill of an orc. It is a very rare skill and is said to be a Rare Ancient skill that only a handful of powerful orcs could learn. You have learnt it didn't you?" Gufardus stated with a smile that wasn't a smile.

At this moment, Belgarious's face was a sight to see, his eyes were continuously trembling and it looked like all the blood in his body had frozen.

"I-Im afraid I don't understand".

"Oh c'mon… Belgarious I know that you have stored the inheritance in your [Stomach Glutton]" Gufardus mentioned. This caused Belgarious who had halted his steps, to run without looking back.

'H-how does he know that? this is a skill exclusive only to our orc race. He shouldn't have any information about that' Belgarious thought internally as he desperately ran away.

Fight? There was no way he was idiot enough to think he could best Gufardus in a fight. The only option he had in this situation was to tuck his tail and run in hopes that he would be able to somehow outrun the latter.

[Stomach Glutton] as Gufardus had mentioned was a Rare Ancient Skill that allows an orc to store any kind of items or things in a special dimension. The things stored inside the skill are unaffected by time and stay the same exact way as when it was stored.

The space inside the [Stomach Glutton] can be enlarged with mana. However one has to constantly supply the skill with mana to maintain that kind of space or else the thing inside would break out.

Since one cannot store the dead inside the space ring, Belgarious had used this skill to store away the inheritance. Never did he imagine that Gufardus would be aware of the skill that even most of the orcs aren't.

The inheritance was his only way of reaching higher classes, the key to breaking through his restraints. There was no way he was going to give it up just like that.

Behind him, Gufardus shook his head in disappointment and commanded the lion to turn around. The lion opened its mouth facing Belgarious and a beam of what looked like a combination of inferno and thunder erupted out, flying straight for Belhgarious.

The beam quickly engulfed the latter and travelled forward destroying everything that it touched.

------

"Who are you?".

Giz-Bogo asked, a figure with a pale white skin, long black hair and wings like a bat, appeared in front of Berigard out of nowhere.

Looking at the two horns decorating his head and the features that was only special to a certain race, everybody present immediately recognised him.

"So you are finally willing to take me up on the offer huh? I assume you are fine with the terms and conditions?".

Simon did not bother replying to Giz-Bozo and started conversing with Berigard. He spoke like a shady insurance agent that wanted to sell you a very dubious policy.

Berigard revealed a self-mocking smile and responded "What a hateful demon… so you really were watching the show. Before I agree to your conditions, can you tell me no tell me one thing? What will become of us if we submit to you?".

He did not bother to keep his voice low, thus every ogre and orc near, could hear him clearly. Simon immediately understood what Berigard was trying to do and thus played along.

"If you swear your loyalty to serve me, then you all will become my subordinates. Being my subordinate means that you would have to follow my commands and complete the tasks I give you. You cannot betray or try to go against me or else the consequences would be far dire than what you are facing now".

"Of course, being my subordinate means that you will also have my protection and a certain level of freedom. Punishment and reward come hand in hand so of course if you do a good job, you all will be rewarded according to your merits". 𝑓𝗿𝐞𝘦𝘄ｅ𝘣n𝘰𝘷eƖ.c𝘰𝗺

Simon stated, he did not put out too many sugary words and only gave them the bare minimum of what they should expect. He did not try to win over them by showing them a bright future and instead set their expectations low from the start so that when the time comes and they become his subordinates, their hearts would be won over him after seeing the perks.

This was one of the strategies the company he used to work for, Astro Revolution often employed to retain the interest of the new and old employees alike.

Unsatisfied and frustrated with their previous jobs, many new employees flock to their company and are instantly smitten by the perks the company gives them.

Simon was employing that strategy on the soon-to-become new employees of his dungeon. The orcs and the ogres who heard what Simon said, displayed a bewildered face. Their expression seemed to say 'what was the demon babbling about?'.

"I see… it's not the best future that we can hope for but it is not quite bad. At least it is a thousand times better than becoming the slaves of the ogre tribe. In that case, I agree. I cannot say that I can speak for the entirety of the orcs but I believe they will understand and definitely stay by my decision. I'm willing to swear loyalty to you in exchange that you save the lives of my tribe".

Berigard announced making sure that his voice is heard by everybody.

"Gururu… what is this orc talking about? Have you gone mad… the one that you should swear loyalty to is our king and the tribe of ogres, not some demon who just suddenly appeared out of nowhere".

Giz-Mogo waltzed towards the demon and the sprawled Berigard and snickered. Now that he had recovered some of his strength, he was back to his usual cocky self.

The ogres laughed while the orcs looked at Berigard sceptically.

'Berigard… what are you thinking?' Berirock muttered, he had never seen the demon nor did he know where they came from. In such a situation it was very dangerous to make a decision that concerned their race.

Nevertheless, they had no other choice, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. As Berirock wondered where and how Berigard had met a demon, the words of Belgarious suddenly appeared in his mind.

It was when he came with his subordinates to the underground chamber to report the actions of Berigard to the orc king a few days prior to the night of the moon dance.