Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

So what are the Draining Mercury Vines? The item as the name suggests, were silver coloured vines that dug themselves deep inside the ground when sown. It was as big as one's palm and repeatedly changed shapes because of its volatility.

The draining mercury vines hide and multiply themselves inside the ground and only surfaces to drain their prey of all their energy.

When the vines surface from the ground, they are much bigger and can easily restrain a full grown adult. Another thing about the draining mercury vines was that they are not any ordinary inanimate item, but an item with intelligence.

It behaved so much like an actual living being that it could easily be mistaken for a plant monster when in fact it was just an item.

A single stalk of mercury vine can multiply itself up to ten thousand times, so one can imagine the number of vines hiding inside these grasslands when Simon had drawn a couple thousand of them at once from the [Ga??????]. They had multiplied themselves into an unimaginable number.

Apart from that, the Draining Mercury Vines wasn't a very high ranking item, it was graded as a [D] rank item by the [Analysis]. Though it was a little rare as could be seen how Simon had managed to pull this item after such a long time.

In any case, it was because of the emergence of these vines that appeared out of the ground at the time when the adventurers least expected it, that they were able to pull this trick so smoothly.

"Haha, that may not be the case. If it was just the draining mercury vines alone, it wouldn't have been able to stop the adventurers. After all, this item other than having a strong absorption and binding effect, was completely useless in combat. Even a level 200 person can slice the vines and get out of the restraining".

Simon knew the item more than anyone thus he could tell that without the other traps the draining mercury vines wouldn't have been able to achieve its game turning effect.

Everybody in the hall was happy with the praises they received from Simon, their eyes went back to observing the adventurers. It had already been a day since the teams arrived on the 34th floor and dived inside the pit, they were almost out of energy and were on their last leg.

Similarly, the monsters that he had spawned for this occasion were cut down to almost one tenth of their initial number. The situation looked positive for Simon's side when… the primary teams finally caught up.

-----

BANG… a loud dull sound rang out from the passageway where the entrance leading to this place was and something flew out from there. It landed heavily on the ground and raised a cloud of dust.

When the dust settled, everybody was shocked to see that it was the door that stopped them from exiting this place. What was shocking was that the door did not budge even after the full brunt of their attacks yet it now lay in front of them broken and bent out of shape.

"Everyone… I'm sorry that I couldn't make it in time".

Inside the space where the tertiary team of the mage guild was, a voice that brought tears to the faces of these girls, sounded out. All eyes immediately gathered on the person that was standing on top of the door.

"Guild master!!" Tiana and the other girls cried out, one could hear the immeasurable relief and cry for assistance from their voices.

The alluring figure holding a staff looked at the few remaining people surviving from her guild, a complex emotion surged within those eyes. From the condition and the state this place was in, she didn't have to think much to understand as to what had occurred here.

The golden staff in her hand inlaid with multitudes of core stones, shined and the next second there was an enormous explosion ensued out, big enough to engulf all of the remaining monsters immediately.

BOOOMMM… all sounds were immediately drowned by that sound of the explosion and the place was illuminated by its light.

The figure did not turn around to see what had happened of the monsters and slowly walked towards her guild members.

The girls from the mage guild finally sighed a breath of relief, their exhaustion made them fall on the ground. Those who were not from the mage guild looked at the explosion with wide gaping mouths of shock.

When the alluring figure arrived in front of them, Tiana, Anna, Hallie and a few others couldn't hold themselves back and immediately jumped into the embrace of that figure.

The figure that could instantly charm others with her mature beauty was none other than the guild master of the mage guild, Karina Lowell. She patted the heads of the trembling girls around her and looked at the members of her guild with loving eyes.

"Ugh, the state of this place is quite horrible. It looks like we are very late" many other people walked out of the passageway, and each and every one of them had a very strong presence. They were the primary team of the mage guild and a few other people from the other guilds.

With the appearance of these people, the matter here was resolved. Tiana felt like a heavy burden was lifted from her shoulders. She looked at the ground, unable to match the gaze of her guild master.

"Guild leader I'm sorry… I couldn't keep the members of my guild safe. I have failed you."

Karina observed the downtrodden girl, and slowly stroked her head. She knew the girl very well, she would do her best in everything that she did. The fact that she couldn't save some of her guild members could only mean that she too was at her limits.

"We will talk about it after we go back to the surface" Karina did not speak much, she turned around and addressed the people behind her.

"Clean up this mess, tend to the injured. Search every nook and cranny of this place, find if there are any other survivors".

"Yes, guild master" these people dutifully nodded their heads and dispersed into every direction of this place to search.

Similar scenes were happening inside the other places too. The main unit comprising of the primary teams of all the twenty guilds was here.

"Master shouldn't we do something? We were so close to wiping them all?" Alice commented in frustration. The traps and the monsters that they had so meticulously planned were about to kill these adventurers when those people arrived.

"There is no need, rather we have achieved our objective by killing so many of the members of their younger generation. Even if they save them now, it wouldn't affect our final plan" Simon calmly explained.

The mysterious ruins was installed to deal a blow to the morale of the various guilds and at the same time see the effectiveness of the various traps and the newly mutated monsters. In that aspect, it could be said that they have achieved their objective.

With so many of their younger generations dead, the guilds were sure to have chaos arising among them. The fragile link that was holding them as a unit would sooner or later collapse with the small chinks that was created by Simon.

Now all they needed to do was wait and observe as to how they moved. The various other traps on the other floors are ready to slowly chip away at their remaining numbers and fan the flames. Once this fragile link connecting them was broken, it would be all too easy to pick them one by one.

This expedition team was only scary if they acted together, individually; their strength isn't enough to threaten the dungeon. Once the opportunity arrives, the dungeon will snap its fangs and swallow them whole.

This was only just the beginning, Simon was going to make the best use of this opportunity. "Be sure to provide me with more DP" Simon muttered in a voice that only he could hear.

-----

34th floor, near the stairs leading to the next floor. Numerous camps were set out to tend to the injured and fatigued adventurers of the tertiary teams. After the primary unit arrived, they cleared the places of all monsters and traps and rescued the exhausted adventurers back up.

In one of the biggest camps, an emergency meeting was currently taking place. The attendant of this meeting was of course the various guild masters but there were many different and young faces participating in this meeting this time.

"Clam down Layton, let us hear their account first" Brutus who was made the expedition leader for times like this, tried to calm a middle aged man with tanned skin and sea blue hair.

"How can I calm down? the tertiary team of my guild was wiped out inside that place, the geniuses of my guild all died there".

Layton snarled, spit was coming out of his mouth. The man's entire face was flushed with anger and his eyes were reddened from the loss. Layton Streax was the guild leader of the Six River's Streak.

Brutus tried to calm this man down but to know no effect, the man had lost his entire team of geniuses there. He knew how big of a loss losing a genius was after all his guild too had lost many of them inside the mysterious ruins. In fact, every single guild here had lost a significant number of geniuses there.

"W-what about my guild? You said that they never appeared at the chamber where the seven doors was. Then doesn't that mean that there is a possibility that they...?" the guild leader of the Baskerville guild Manuel Baskerville asked in an expectant voice.

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