Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"What's wrong?" Tiana and her two sisters, approached the crowd. Since they were the last one to arrive here, they were unaware of the cause of this commotion.

Marcus's who was trying to settle the quarrel between two geniuses of the two big guilds pointed at the huge seven doors behind him and said "It's because of the ruins that we found. They are quarrelling because of the clash in opinions as to whether we should proceed forward or not".

Tiana and the others listened to the people arguing. Some were saying that they should explore the ruins, and some were of the opinion that they should wait for the primary team. While the other were indecisive or neutral.

"Haha, wait for the primary team to arrive? Oi-Oi.. I didn't know that the Baskerville guild were just a bunch of cowards?" Levin Field from the Phantom Light guild mocked. The people from his guild laughed at those from the said guild.

"Levin you bastard, watch your words. My Baskerville guild isn't afraid of anyone. I'm just saying that those ruins are very unusual, it could be one of those mysterious chambers we have encountered on our way here".

"The monsters inside these chambers are always strong, even the traps are trickier. If we are not careful, some people might get injured. It would be better for the primary team who have years if experience diving inside the dungeon to explore it rather than us" Bastille defended his guild.

"Heh, it's the same as being a coward. Hmph, if you are so afraid of exploring an unknown place, then you shouldn't have joined this expedition. You all should have just stayed inside the safety of your guild headquarters" Levin mocked some more.

"?... Aren't those two from the same team, why are they fighting?" Hallie asked tilting her head. She had seen the two geniuses of the two guilds working as a team when they arrived on the 34th floor.

"It's not unusual for a team comprising of two or more guilds to quarrel when there is a difference in opinion. In the first place, they were working together because they had a same goal and that was to reach the 34th floor before the other teams".

"A tertiary team of a single big guild isn't strong enough to match the teams of top five guild, thus to make it fair, the guild leaders of various guilds proposed the idea of working together. All of it was just so that they can become the expedition leader. However, now that position was secured by the guild leader of savannah beast guild, these teams have no common goal to work for" Tiana explained things to Hallie.

"Right, but it is not only that. I have heard from my father that the Phantom Light guild have two successors who are intensely fighting for the position of the junior guild master. Levin Field who is one of the successors is trying to raise his value to the higher ups of his guild by trying to gain merits and accomplishment in this mission. For him, this expedition might be his biggest chance to get the big shot of his guild to his side".

Marcus who was listening from the sides, added after Tiana.

"Well in any case, this discussion wouldn't go anywhere if they don't stop arguing. How about we decide this with a show of hands. Based on what the majority wants we decided whether to explore these ruins or not?". f𝚛e𝗲𝔀e𝚋𝑛o𝘃𝒆𝗹.c𝗼𝒎

Marcus shrugged his shoulders and came up with a solution. His natural qualities and the take charge attitude made him quite the leader at his young age.

Marcus's words clearly had a lot of weight after all, he was the strongest person here. The geniuses of the various guilds contemplated for a while before nodding their heads.

"Alright, raise your hands if you are of the opinion that we should wait for the primary team to arrive" Marcus spoke his voice loud and clear for everybody to hear.

About a thousand people raised their hands, it wasn't just the Baskerville guild other guilds also had similar opinions. What was shocking was that even Tiana and the mage guild she led also raised their hands.

Marcus nodded his head…

"Now then, those who are of the opinion that we should explore the ruins before the primary team arrive, raise your hands".

This time, around nineteen hundred people raise their hands. The number was clearly higher than the opinion to wait here. Amongst those that raised their hands was the crimson demolition guild, Sea god's guild, the phantom light guild.

Astonishingly, even Marcus and his Savannah beast guild sided with the opinion to explore the ruins.

The people who didn't raise their hands were either unsure or couldn't make up their mind.

"Haha, it's decided then. We will explore the ruins. Those cowardly guilds who are too afraid, can just stay behind" Levin laughed, his mockery seemed to have irked those who didn't want to go or were unsure.

What these egoistic younger generation brats of the various guild who were showered with praises and admiration by those around them, disliked the most was being looked down upon. When put like that, there was no way they would allow someone to dishonour their guild and their pride.

They determined themselves to explore the ruins in a show of proving the other party wrong. 𝐟r𝒆ℯ𝘄𝑒𝒃𝚗𝒐𝘃e𝗹.c𝘰𝐦

"I didn't think that you wanted to explore the ruins?" Tiana asked turning her eyes towards Marcus.

The later nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders and said "Do you see any other exit that would lead us out of this pit? I believe that the exit lies inside those ruins. In any case, I believe in the potential of my team. Even if there are dangers lying inside, as long as we work as a team, we should be able to overcome it. What about you, what does your guild wants to do?".

Tiana sighed, since the moment she entered this dungeon, she felt like she was being swept by a wave that she had no control of.

"It's as you said, we have to find the exit to get out of here. I had sent a few of my magic [Dawn of light] to explore the tunnels earlier and every path led to this place".

If they wanted to go back to the surface, they had to explore the ruins. Thus even though many teams and guilds were bickering with each other, they still entered the ruins and explored every corner of it.

Unlike the last time when these people jumped into the pit in seven teams, now they were all split into their guilds with each heading off to a different part of the ruins to explore. The ruins, although it looked old, it had signs of being newly made.

The stones still had that fresh scent to it and the algae on the walls looked like they had newly formed. The place had many crisscrossing cracks and the sound of water could be heard flowing underneath them.

Additionally, the place was also filled with numerous deadly traps, such as lava pit, pitfalls, acidic traps, guillotines and boulders that came rolling down at you.

These traps might be lethal to others, but the group that was exploring the ruins, were best of the best if they were just the tertiary team. the adventurer teams explored the ruins for dozens of minutes before they came around to a gigantic inner hall at the end of which stood huge seven doors.

These huge seven doors, were carved with hideous looking beasts and depictions of cruelty. The various teams that spread everywhere, rendezvous inside the inner hall. With a quick count, anyone could see that all of the top guilds and those that came immediately after that were all here.

Only a handful of few guilds were absent.

"What happened to the other guilds?" Marcus asked finding it odd that some of the guilds weren't here yet.

"Who knows? Leave them be, they might have given up on exploring the ruins midway and have gone out to wait for the primary team to arrive".

Kenan Lantz from the crimson demolition guild commented. He and his team were observing the closed door that did not budge open even they exerted all their strength.

"Everybody, be careful. This might be some kind of trap" Gallio Stallard from the Assassin guild said. His various sensory skills were alerting him of some kind of danger that was behind these doors.

Everybody nodded their heads; nevertheless, they weren't too worried after all, they all were geniuses and from the top twenty guilds of the kingdom.

"Why isn't the door opening? Should we try to blast it open with our powers?" it wasn't known who came up with this idea, maybe it was somebody from the crowd who spoke.

However, it was well received, many even tried to use their abilities to push open the gates only to be stopped by Tiana, Gallio and a few perceptive ones.

"We don't know what kind of reaction destroying the doors would end up triggering. Hence destroying he door should be our last option. Since these are doors, there must be a way to open them".

Everybody fell into thought after those words from Tiana. Time ticked down slowly yet they were unable to find a single clue. Just as they were getting impatient, a magic circle suddenly erupted in front of the sixth gate and those people who were around it, suddenly disappeared.

"What?! What just happened?" Kenan who wasn't paying attention to the sixth gate shouted in shock.