Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"What about you, why are you here? Didn't you go to bed alongside Cecilia?" Simon turned the question back to her.

"Indeed I was taking a nap, but I came here looking for you?" Irene said.

"Looking for me?" Simon furrowed his brows. When he saw her taking out the object he presented her as her birthday gift, he finally understood what she meant.

"This Hairpin… why did you choose this as a gift?" Irene asked, one could feel a weird turmoil in her otherwise always calm voice.

The hairpin in question was made of jade and was a beautiful emerald green colour. It had a beautiful design and a phoenix at the end. The jade hairpin was one of the items that Simon and his colleagues had put inside the gacha.

On that note, it was a super ultra rare item with a drop rate of less than 0.0001 per cent. It was so rare that Simon was inwardly amazed that he managed to get it and not any [A] or [S] rank items which have a better drop rate than the pin. There was no way he could say that it was a gacha item with no practical value other than its aesthetic look and rarity.

"That hairpin is one of the few rare items I possess in my [Inventory]. There is no other like it in this world. The reason I gave it to you is because I thought it might look good on you" Simon was not lying, the hairpin was indeed one of its kind and exquisite looking.

While he was preparing a gift for Cecilia, he had been thinking about what could be an ideal gift for Irene. For someone like her who could easily take out philosopher's stone and other high ranking items, the items in his inventory might not have any appeal to her. 𝙛𝘳𝒆𝒆𝒘e𝗯n𝗼𝘷𝚎𝚕.𝒄૦𝓶

In that case, instead of burning a hole in his DP and providing her with an [A] or [S] item, he thought of giving her the Jade hairpin that he was lucky enough to get on one of his gacha or [ga??????] rolls a few days ago. So it was not like he did not think at all before giving her this gift.

"So it was like that…" Irene mumbled looking at the hairpin in her hand. No matter which women looked at the hairpin, they would no doubt call it pretty but for some reason, Simon felt like Irene wasn't very happy with his answer.

In fact, Simon couldn't have guessed at that time that the hairpin symbolised a different meaning in the place she came from.

Irene nodded her head and kept the hairpin. She gave him one of those rare smiles and said "Thank you, it's very beautiful".

Well at least she did like it, Simon thought internally and said "You are welcome".

The morning of the next day, everyone cleaned the town square before Simon and the others returned back to the main floor.

"Hehe, big brother look at all the gifts that I got" After coming to the main hall, Cecilia brought out all of the gifts she received from everyone. With a quick count, Simon guessed that there were more than 40 gifts lying there.

He also noticed that Cecilia had worn the necklace he had given her for her birthday on her neck. The necklace other than being a great protective item, looked good in the aesthetic department too. Thus it did look good on her neck.

On that note, in preparation for that unknown danger, the array that they had laid down was also completed. It had absorbed a sufficient amount of mana and was ready to work at any time. So if any danger did fall on the forest spirit floor, at the very least the protection array would be there to defend them.

Simon opened his [Main menu] and looked at the progress of the adventurer's teams. The group that was leading the exploration was none other than the tyrant mountain guild. There were a few more groups who were a floor or two behind them.

These groups were new to the town and came after the distress call. Just like the tyrant mountain guild, they too were from a big guild from the kingdom of Ellesmere. The highest floor that was currently being explored was floor 38.

It was not a lot of progress when you consider the fact that this was the same adventurer team that was on floor thirty fourth a month ago. It was not just the tyrant mountain guild, every other guild and team that was in the tower town, had their progress halted.

The reason for this was none other than the sudden invasion of the orcs. Due to the town being destroyed and many adventurers dying or suffering a trauma, many teams had to dissolve, guild members had to go back to their headquarter to give a report while other simply did not have the nerve to stay in the tower town anymore.

In a situation like this, it was only just normal that the dungeon exploration progress would get slowed down. It was especially the case for low rank adventurers and small teams that did not have the backing of a guild or anyone to rely on.

The lowest ranking adventurers or the daily bread earners were the groups that took the heaviest blow from this incident. Resulting in the demographics of the low ranking adventurers in the tower town to go down.

However, their departure did not affect Simon in the slightest since after the distress call new and more adventurers had flocked to his tower town replacing the old. Their levels were higher, they had a solid guild behind their backs and most of all, they provided much more DP than those low ranking adventurers.

From this unfortunate incident, the tower town had seen a new breeze of adventurers flocking to the town. However, it was not like all the low ranking adventurers were gone. There were still a few groups that made it through the storm or were persistent enough to create a new group.

Apartment from that, due to the dungeon Laplace, being in close proximity to some of the border cities of the northwestern kingdoms of the central continent, it was bound to attract newbie adventurers and low ranking adventurers.

If one took a survey of the tower town, one would be able to notice that after the distress call, the average level of the adventurers in the tower town has gone up to level 300. For Simon and his dungeon, it was a good thing; however, it was also a double-edged blade hanging around his neck that could come down at any moment to claim his life if he did not prepare enough countermeasures.

Finding the growth of his dungeon satisfactory, Simon closed the [Main Menu]. Now that everything was taken care of, it was time for him to head towards the p[ond of serenity for his training.

Irene before walking away last night, told him to come to the pond of serenity tomorrow to continue their training. Now that Simon had acquired [Mana Lines] and [Minimal Mana Consumption] as Irene had asked him to before reaching level 500, it was time for him to move on to his next set of objectives.

When Simon got up to walk out of the Main palace, Cecilia and the valkyries too showed their willingness to tag along with him. Since that was the case, Simon allowed them to come with him.

When they walk past the mist and the light of the beautiful crystal trees, a pond straight out of some kind of fairytale appeared in front of them. Near the shore of the pond, was a woman of ethereal beauty silently sitting by the pond side.

The moment they spot her, she too discovered them.

Simon arrived before her and smiled bitterly. The plan was for him to train here alone however, they insisted on coming along with him disturbing the tranquillity of the place.

"This pond... no matter how many times I see it, it looks as magical as ever" Alice commented. By her side, Cecilia who heard that started talking about how it looked completely different than a few months and how unique things seemed to grow inside it.

Annette, Bea and the others started setting up tables and chairs and preparing tea. Looking at them, one would have to wonder if they were out here for a picnic.

Irene sighed before dawning on a serious atmosphere. Her crystal blue eyes seemed to shine with a mysterious light as she observed Simon.

"Un.. it's good that you stabilised the growth of mystical energy within your body after going through a big level up. Now that your body has adapted to that level of stats, it's time for you to acquire the next set of skills before you rank up".

"As I have mentioned before, to grow strong one must first build their foundation. A solid foundation is the key to grow stronger in the future. Someone who neglects that, and goes for fancy skills with high damage power to see immediate results will find themselves soon facing a wall that cannot breakthrough".

"In your case, you have focused more on key skills that build your strength gradually rather than any fancy attacking skills. This means that it will be much easier for you to breakthrough when the time comes".

Irene observed. It was as she had said, Simon was now level 473, which meant that it was only a matter of time before he reaches level 500 and goes through a rank-up.

Yes, a rank up means that Simon would finally be able to become a Demon Earl from a Demon viscount and step into the true nobility amongst the demons.