Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Perhaps it was just the gullible Forest Spring Spirits and Simon who believed them.

"I see… Alright, I accept your surrender" Simon stated and ordered the Andromedas to lower their weapons.

The moment that happened, a grin surreptitiously crept on Morgress' face but he was quick to conceal it. Irene locked her brows at Simon's decision; nevertheless, she did not question it and quietly stood by his side.

"Since you have already surrendered and accepted your defeat, why don't you throw your weapons?" Simon asked completely playing at the hands of his enemies.

"PFFTT… What an idiot, as if we will surrender to a Demon Viscount" Morgress said with a face of ridicule. Before anyone could understand the change in his behaviour and expression, they all heard a voice that was filled with anger and hatred.

"Die Demonn!!!.. [Swift Backstab]" A person manifested behind Simon out of nowhere and plunged his dagger onto the defenceless back of the latter.

It was only when they saw who the assassin was, did the seven swords finally understood what their guild master was planning. He knew that Boris had a blood debt to settle with the demon and discerned that the former would attack given the opportunity.

Thus all Morgess had to do was keep the demon occupied and distracted. As long as the demon died, the more than eight hundred golems will become useless and they would only have to deal with the two calamity class monsters. After which everything would be for them to enjoy.

As Morgress smiled thinking about how he had won the bet, he saw the people around the demon remain unfazed even after the appearance of the assassin. What's more, they did not even look bothered when the life of their master was being threatened like that.

"Is that all you were plotting? If you have something else stored up, now is the time to use it" Simon calmly declared, a golden halo of light surrounded his body.

It was only now that Morgress realised why these people acted all undisturbed even when an assassin crept so close to their master and attacked. It seemed that the demon was already aware of the presence of Boris hiding with stealth nearby and deliberately chose to play into his hands so as to bait him out.

'Dammit' Morgress cursed and grit his teeth in anger. It appeared that the one that was being played was him all along.

The golden halo of light around the demon stopped the dagger from inching closer to Simon and pushed Boris back. It stayed around his body for a second before disappearing.

If one paid enough attention to his body, they would be able to see the shattered pieces of a golden stone in his hand. The golden stone was none other than the Golden Guardian stone that created a shield around him and protected him from all kinds of physical attacks for a second.

Simon knew what Morgress was planning, he was much too familiar with the backstabbing nature of the humans and thus pretended to play gullible and accept the surrender of the latter. All of it was just a bait to see what the other party was trying to plot.

Simon had to admit that the assassin that just tried to kill him, was highly skilled with the stealth skill so much so that Simon did not even feel his presence using all of his detection skills. He would have been done for given that it was some other place.

However, this was his dungeon and as its master, he was aware of all the presence and beings currently on this floor. Unless, they were completely new and unregistered beings like the fire eater rat and the fire fanged mouse nobody would be able to hide from his Main Menu.

It was a pipe dream for that assassin if he thought he would be able to kill Simon when they were inside his dungeon much less when surrounded by his subordinates.

The reason why Irene and the others didn't stop the assassin wasn't because they were unable to sense the presence of the latter but because Simon told them not to interfere. He wanted to thoroughly crush all the hopes that these intruders were harbouring and show them what true despair was.

After his failed attempt at assassinating the demon, Boris jumped back and tried to go into stealth once again to reposition himself. However, how could it be this easy for someone who had just attacked the lord of the dungeon to get away?

RUMBLE…

The Lightning Draconic Serpent who thanks to the effects of the technique [Ancient Draconic Compel] had become completely loyal to Simon, was absolutely furious at this offender who tried to attack his master.

It roared furiously and sent forth bolts of thunder towards Boris and forcing the latter to run like a pathetic dog to save his life. This time, the Lightning Draconic Serpent did not take action on its own, it turned towards Simon and only moved when he got a go ahead from the latter.

Simon did not even turn around to see who was the assassin that attacked him, with the nod of his head, he gave the Lightning draconic serpent the permission and at the same time signed the assassin's death warrant.

"That useless fool" On the other end of the mountaintop, Morgress and his team cussed at Boris incessantly for failing to accomplish his task. What good was an assassin if he can't even assassinate someone?

Morgress sighed and unwillingly gave up on his thoughts on defeating the demon without a fight. It was a mistake on his part to try and deceive a demon noble using trickery. Now that it has come to this, there was no other option remaining but to fight the opponent head on.

"It seems that you are all out of tricks, in that case, the fight continues" Simon snapped his fingers and the hundreds of Andromedas once again activated their weapons and took aim at the group of humans.

"Wait… I have a proposal to make" Just when the army of golems was about to fire their weapons, Morgress spoke out again. It seemed that he was up to something yet again.

With just the point of his finger, Simon could command the hundreds of Andromedas and tire these intruders to death. Yet Simon decided not to do so and entertain the other party in whatever they were plotting.

The reason for that was simple, Simon wanted to crush every hope and confidence his enemy had until they were on the edges of despair. Simon was smiling not because he wanted to, but because he was absolutely furious that these mongrels were eyeing the things that belonged to him.

"There is no fun if you simply use your numbers to squash us. Of course, the golem army of yours is more than enough to handle us but there is no excitement in doing something as boring as that isn't it?"

"As a Demon Noble don't you want to fight your enemy and bask in their blood? How about we do it this way then, me and you fight in a one-on-one duel. The winner gets everything… do you dare? Or are you afraid that without your golem army you are nothing".

Morgress bellowed in a thundering voice so that everybody could hear it loud and clear, even the ones at the base of the mountain.

An obvious taunt, a pitiful attempt at grasping at the last straws. There was no way any sane person would accept that and willingly discard the advantageous position they had. However, herein lies Morgress' trap.

The demon was surrounded by these beautiful and breath-taking ladies, being a man himself, he of course understood how a man thinks. Being taunted like that in front of them, any man would try to salvage their image and pride by accepting the duel like a man.

And in this case, Morgress was trying to take advantage of this very emotion from the demon noble and force him to accept the duel in front of his ladies. What he didn't know was that Simon did not care about something as superficial as that.

All the people around him were loyal to him and weren't amongst the ones that could be swayed by something like that. But Unfortunately for Morgress, by saying all that, he had triggered something that practically guaranteed his death.

[Your authority has been challenged]

[Pride has been activated, all your other emotions are being suppressed at this moment].

Although Simon had learned how to activate the fragment of pride, it did not mean that he has learned how to control it. The moment the pride fragment activated, all of his emotions disappeared and he felt like a completely different person. there was no resistance from him, he just let it overwhelm him.

"Very well then, I accept this duel" Simon stepped down from his warhorse and declared in a calm voice.

The moment he accepted the duel, a hideous smile appeared on Morgress' face. 'I got you now, you fool' he thought internally. From his perspective, the demon Viscount accepted the duel because he had no choice but to do so to save his face around the ladies.

"Even though I wanted to fight him, I give this chance to you. Guild leader smash that mush and make it so that he never dares to show it ever again" Lombus said smiling widely.

The others around him were also of the same opinion. Now that the demon had accepted a one on one duel with their guild leader, victory was practically guaranteed. After all, who was Morgress, he was a level 500 [Grand Thunder Warrior] who was just a step away from becoming one of the powerhouses of this kingdom.

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