We're Making Progress

The morning after was... awkward.

Ragnar woke up to the feeling of being watched. He opened his eyes and saw Chloe, already awake and dressed, standing perfectly still by the side of his bed. She was staring at him with that same intense, analytical ruby gaze.

It was like having a gorgeous, deadly bodyguard who was also his new, very confusing girlfriend.

He tried out the new skill.

[Bloodkin Bond]

He focused his thoughts, pushing a simple feeling towards her: Hunger. Food?

Her eyes widened slightly. She tilted her head, then gave a single, almost imperceptible nod. She understood. Not the words, but the feeling.

It was a start.

But it wasn't a solution.

The real problem wasn't communication; it was privacy.

He had spent the entire night paranoid, listening for any sound outside his door. Every scuttling rat, every distant goblin shriek, had made him jump.

His private quarters, the old kitchen, was right behind the Throne Room. It was the dungeon's central hub.

"This won't work," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "I can't run a world-conquering evil empire and a secret love affair from a glorified pantry."

He needed space.

He needed walls.

He needed a place where he could be alone with Chloe without worrying about Grunt the kobold deciding to sniff under the door.

He pulled out his phone, the answer to all of life's new, apocalyptic problems, and began scrolling through the [Demon King System].

He was looking for an upgrade, a "Private Room" facility, a "Do Not Disturb" sign he could purchase with Domain Points.

There was nothing.

He was about to give up when his thumb brushed against a massive, ornate button at the bottom of the Domain Management screen.

He had seen it before, but had dismissed it as something far beyond his current level.

[Domain Expansion]

[Description: Expands the vertical space of your Domain by adding a new, undeveloped floor. Increases maximum Domain Points (DP) by providing new slots for invader-friendly facilities (e.g., Rest Areas). A wise investment for the growing Monarch.]

The cost was listed as [Free].

Ragnar blinked.

"Free?" he whispered. "There's no such thing as free."

But there it was. A free mansion upgrade, courtesy of the same cosmic entity that wanted him dead. It was probably a trap.

He pressed it anyway.

BOOM!

If the first transformation had felt like the world tearing itself apart, this felt like the universe doing a violent, painful yoga stretch.

The ground beneath his feet didn't fall away. It shuddered, groaned, and then sank.

The entire dungeon, all at once, dropped down into an unseen abyss.

The stone walls screamed as they were stretched and warped by impossible gravitational forces. A deep, foundational tremor shook every crystal and every corridor.

It felt like his entire dungeon had just been slammed down onto a new, colossal foundation.

When the violent shuddering stopped, the silence was profound.

Nothing looked different, until he walked out into the Throne Room.

There, near the main entrance, a new feature had appeared. A wide, spiraling staircase, carved from the same dark stone as the rest of the dungeon, led downwards into darkness.

A second floor.

"Well," Ragnar said, a slow, wicked grin spreading across his face. "Let's go check out the new real estate."

He gestured for Chloe to follow, and they descended the stairs.

The air grew cooler as they went. The second floor was a single, colossal, empty cavern. It was a blank canvas, a vast, dark space filled with nothing but potential and the faint smell of ozone.

"Perfect," he breathed.

He pulled out his phone and opened the [Domain Management] app. The map now showed a new, empty level. He could drag and drop pre-set rooms, corridors, and facilities, like the world's most depressing version of The Sims.

For the next eighteen hours, Ragnar Vhagar became less of a Demon King and more of a deeply obsessive interior designer.

First, he designed the part for the heroes.

"Okay," he said, mostly to himself, as Chloe watched him with silent curiosity. "We need to make this floor a nightmare. But a fun nightmare. The kind they'll complain about on the forums but secretly enjoy."

He laid out a confusing maze of identical-looking corridors.

"This section will be 'The Hall of a Thousand Annoying Bats'."

He designed a massive, open chamber in the center.

"This will be 'The Orc Pit'. Just a big room full of angry orcs. Simple. Elegant. Effective."

He strategically placed a new [Rest Area] with its hero-healing fountain right before the staircase to the (as-yet-nonexistent) third floor.

"Give them a little sip of hope," he cackled, "right before they face the boss. Classic." The extra 50 DP it gave him was a nice bonus.

Then, he turned his attention to his real project.

He cordoned off a massive section of the new floor, far from the path the heroes would take.

He pushed the feeling of 'Ours. Secret. Private.' through the [Bloodkin Bond].

Chloe's eyes widened in understanding.

"This," Ragnar declared, "is going to be the Overlord's Suite. The Chaos Chateau. The Sex Bunker."

He went all out.

He designed a bedroom larger than his entire old apartment, with a massive bed that would cost a fortune in Creation Points.

He designed a bathroom with a hot tub heated by a captured fire elemental (a minor detail he'd figure out later).

He designed a private training hall, an alchemy lab, and a small, personal throne room for "less formal evil brooding."

And then he found the most important feature.

[Soundproof Walls - Rank A]

The DP cost was obscene. It cost more than all the traps on the first floor combined.

He bought it without a second thought.

"Worth every point," he said with deep satisfaction.

He was just putting the finishing touches on the digital blueprint, excitedly pointing out the location of the future wine cellar to Chloe, who was playing along with polite nods, when he felt it.

A tiny flutter of wings.

He froze.

A single, small bat, one of his low-level minions, was circling aimlessly in the vast, empty cavern of the new floor. It had clearly gotten lost.

The bat saw them, tilted its tiny head, and then flew off into the darkness.

Ragnar's eye twitched.

His paranoia, never far from the surface, spiked violently.

"See!" he hissed, grabbing Chloe's arm. "They're everywhere! Spying on me! The walls have ears! And wings!"

She just looked at him, her expression a perfect mask of calm confusion.

He spent the next hour adding magical wards and automated turrets to the blueprint of his private suite.

Finally, after eighteen straight hours of frantic, obsessive work, the design was complete. The new floor was a masterpiece of tactical sadism and paranoid luxury.

It was ready to be built, to be populated, to become the next stage in his grand plan for survival.

He was exhausted, but triumphant. He had solved his privacy problem.

He was about to drag himself and Chloe back upstairs to his old, cramped bed for some much-needed sleep when his phone chimed.

It wasn't a soft, pleasant chime.

It was a sharp, blaring alarm, a klaxon of pure, undiluted panic.

A bright red warning banner flashed across his screen, overriding everything else.

[WARNING: High-energy signature detected approaching the Domain!]

[ANALYSIS: Multiple C-Rank entities. Estimated Threat Level: A. They are not students.]

[Invaders have entered the Domain. Invader Count: 8.]

Ragnar stared at the message, his blood turning to ice.

A real threat. A professional hero party.

And they had arrived right in the middle of his dungeon's messy, chaotic renovation.

His main forces were disorganized. His new floor was an empty, undefended cavern.

He was vulnerable.

He was so, so screwed.