Sarah

Aura and the others returned to where the flying beasts were waiting in this pseudo underworld. In pain and running low on mana, everyone was looking worse for wear. Whilst they had learned a lot about this world, and that it wasn't entirely dead, they hadn't gained any knowledge Styx could use.

He suspected that any of the key information he could use was enclosed deep within the heart of that terrarium city. His very core was pulling him towards it with an irresistible urge.

The lower level expedition team consisting of mostly Third Step dungeon residents had quite a few harvests, from some metal fragments that persisted all this time, to books containing ancient knowledge on magic and skills.

Everyone retreated with their spoils and met up with Styx and a group of medical staff with him. The dungeon residents, at least the women, could heal themselves with mana, but those who specialised in medicine within the dungeon would ensure they healed correctly whilst helping their body improve alongside the healing process.

Aura was drastically weakened and stumbled into Styx's arms back at the portal to the dungeon. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and rested her head over his shoulder, closing her eyes before falling into a state of rest in order to recover.

The ash dunes had already been utilized with a plethora of manufactoring and transport facilities, expanding his territory within this fallen world. But it was once they crossed over back into the main world and were reconnected with the natural mana that their recovery began in earnest.

Styx saw Aura's face quickly turn into a healthier color and her mana begun recovering.

"Take her to the base of Mana Shaft #1," Styx commanded the medical team to move Aura to the location in the dungeon where the mana was the densest.

Aura often enjoyed lazing around at the base of the mana shafts, where anyone below the Fifth Step would be 'drowned' by the mana without insulation equipment.

~~~~~

⠀

The tunnel underground towards Whitecliff City was dug faster and faster as more monsters were allocated into digging while increased production facilities created even more rails. Monsters worked 24/7 on a shift basis whilst the train for transporting food and other materials along the line had long since been completed.

The train was equipped with its own T3 Item Pickers, but larger monsters also helped unload the train between loads.

Several substations were created along the way, but Styx found his dungeon seemingly "stretched thin" due to the elongated tunnel which spanned the distance of half a country in his previous world.

Unbeknown to the noble city lords, many of these train substations were conveniently located underground near their cities. Styx had lined them all up like a series of dominos to take them all down together. He didn't dare fight them all at once

Mana generating shafts were dug and plants were planted along the train line to feed it a constant supply of mana. These vivid blue, yellow and red flowers were growing from the walls and even ceiling, creating a fantasy like setting in the tunnel, but they would still take time to germinate and reach their full potential for mana production.

Styx's avatar though, was currently enjoying a certain White Mage adventurer called Sarah. She had requested Styx save the residents of a village unrelated to him at the beginning of the demon raid and it was time to pay the agreed upon price.

The beautiful woman was no longer wearing her long mage robes and her staff was propped up against the corner of the room as well.

"Haah… Haahhhh…. Haaa~~ Lord Styx… please... harder..."

As bare as the day she was born, she stood in a bowed position with her hands on a dressing table. She watched the lascivious grin on Styx's face through the dressing table mirror as he rammed his hips into her pelvis over and over.

Her hair was a mess and her breasts shook with every thrust, but the pleasure her body was feeling overwrought any shame she would have otherwise felt. She could see his mana tendrils too as they wrapped all around her body and pierced into her like hairs, filling her mana network and massaging her soul.

Styx finally reached his climax and filled her body with his seed, causing the adventurer's body to quiver in pleasure as she panted in bated breaths. Extracting his still half engorged shaft and allowing his seed to leak down her thighs, he casually fixed his pants and said to her.

"You no longer owe me anything with this."

"L-Lord Styx, I still owe you so much… How about we do it one more time?"

Styx had already selected a monster to be bred in the woman, so his desire to have sex with her was currently much less than it would be otherwise.

"There is no need. Return to your party members. I believe at least one of them is interested in a serous relationship with you."

"Lord, how do you know that?" Sarah asked in an evasive tone, standing straight and facing the dungeon lord yet not making eye contact.

"I know because you know. There is no point acting ignorant towards him."

"That… well, others just can't satisfy me anymore… I don't want to pretend."

Styx had an amused yet sly grin on his face as he responded, "I don't know if I have ever been complimented in such a way before."

"N-no, that's not what I mean! Well, yes, there is that, but, no, it's… It's the mana threads, you know!? The way they fill me up... others just can't do it!"

Styx was speechless and could only laugh in the end. Before he could respond, the door to the room opened and the former bar waitress, now a dungeon wife and Lagoon Porter City overseer, Hilda walked in alongside several beastmen guards.

He was aware that she was coming to see him, but hadn't told her to wait outside as this wasn't something he was used to.

People walking in whilst she was naked also wasn't something Sarah was used to either, causing her to yelp in surprise whilst hurriedly trying to cover her body with her arms.

"Lord, the carriage is waiting downstairs, please hurry and finish getting dressed."

Being ignored, Sarah huffed before grabbing her magician's robe and covering her body with it.

She then quickly equipped it and left the room, secretly pinching Styx's arse while deliberately ignoring Hilda on her way out. It was petty, but she felt like she had somehow redeemed her pride.

Styx saw Hilda staring at his topless body vigorously and could tell what she wanted. Her face was stoic, but her body was screaming with desire.

~~~~~

⠀

Styx boarded the caravan outside the apartment building in the eastern regions of Lagoon Porter City and went towards the eastern entrance of the dungeon under the city.

It wasn't as busy here as it used to be now that the value of mana gems had been on a constant downward spiral due to Styx's economy being vastly different from that of the Maple Dragon Kingdom's.

Instead, the most value was in monster parts, meaning the adventurers and mercenaries were instead venturing out into the fields and even the Abyssal Forest. With the Monster Lords either under his banner or having their territories to far away within the forest, people could now hunt inside of it with much more security.

There were still a large amount of adventurers and those earning some small daily income, whilst Styx's monsters also culled the summoned monster population and provided free mana stones for his economy.

The reason he headed here was Styx had created train stations at various locations within the city, particularly at each entrance to the dungeon.

This was for the transportation of goods between the dungeon and city. The dungeon occupied an enormous space under the city, so Styx ran his train lines through it rather than trying to make room for them to run aboveground.

Inside the dungeon had undergone a huge renovation, with even more happening. Monsters, builders, and others who were contracted for various jobs were unloading piles of materials from the train currently stopped at a giant station.

Overseers were shouting and women who were connected to Styx oversaw the entire situation. His avatar didn't need to pay attention to this, as he had partitions in his dungeon core managing the construction.

His growth had slowed down a lot though, as even with the weekly levelling up, the amount of new resources he needed for processing all the information constantly grew alongside his control.

Styx, Hilda and the guards boarded the train, where Everest was avidly waiting for Styx. As soon as he stepped on the front carriage, which was the only passenger carriage on this train, she captured him in her arms and possesively held him against her large chest.

She had managed to shrink her body to fit inside the carriage, but Styx could feel her discomfort via their bond. The only thing that held her willpower to continue compacting her body in such a way was Styx, so he let the shrunken giantess hold him as the train departed.

"Is everything ready, Lord?" Hilda asked, excited to be leaving the city even if only on a short expedition.

"Of course, the tunnel is about to connect to Whitecliff City, where Rebecca and her mother, Duchess Euklid are ready and waiting for us."

The train moved silently on the tracks as it was powered by mana rather than a fossil fuel engine. It travelled across a bridge spanning the dungeon which now had waterflows and fauna throughout it, even wildlife calling the dungeon home.

Styx had turned the entire underground dungeon into a production facility for plants and food, not just a place where monsters were spawned from mana to generate experience and mana stones.

There were golden fields of blue tipped wheat, rich in mana, that adventurers or other citizens could harvest and work the fields for money and food, saunas for relaxing and recovery and many other facilities, either having been built or still in the process of doing so.

The train stopped to load up a large amount of monsters on the cargo sections of the train before eventually leaving the city and travelling through a seemingly endless giant underground tunnel.

~~~~~

⠀

Cashmir was the Hunter in the same party as Sarah, their White Healer which used some visually frightening blood spells on her enemies.

As the two were often close to one another at the rear of their party, they had developed a sense of intimacy with one another, but never ended up dating.

This had changed when Sarah took part in Styx's breeding chambers to strengthen herself, creating a rift in between them that caused the former to deliberately ignore the latter's feelings.

"Cash…" Sarah sat next to the man who was slightly older than her in a bar, the rest of their party drinking and chatting with one another.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, leading to the other members of the party members quieting down and looking at them over the rim of their beer mugs.

"Sarah, you know I-"

"I know, I always knew. It's just, things changed and I didn't know how to address it."

Cashmir's heart was pounding in his chest and he even felt himself sobering up a lot as he didn't know what to say.

Sarah was usually full of energy and brought a jovial atmosphere to the party, but she was very serious right now. She held onto his hand and brought it to her stomach, holding it against her swelling stomach. The Hunter flinched at this, causing her to feel regret at answering his feelings after all this time.

"Lord Styx spoke with me, and helped me think about a lot of things."

"...Will you stop going to the breeders?"

"That is impossible, now and forever. I don't expect you to understand, but it is like a drug addiction you can never break free from."

Cashmir had seen those in the slums, people who had hit Max Level at the first step and were too afraid to even go into the dungeon. They lived in poverty, spending whatever coin they had on mana laced drugs and other substances that gave them pleasure in life, albeit at a cost.

"Then, you should have never-!"

"I don't regret it, neither do any of the other women. People will do far worse to gain even smaller amounts of strength. I just wanted…"

"You just wanted what?"

"I want you to understand me."

"Why?"

"Because I want to answer your feelings. I want to try, but you have to accept this part of me."

Silence fell over the table whilst the other party members watched the interaction between the two of them with expectation, even a little bit of jealousy from the tank of the party.

Cashmir didn't answer her immediately, but he didn't push her away either. It was difficult for him to say it aloud, but it was obvious he wanted to at least try too.