章 84: The Great Shaft

A week passed since the agreement between Styx and Duke Ashburn but Rebecca Euklid was still held captive by the dungeon until the duke completed his end of the bargain.

Rebecca was more accustomed to dungeon life now and was capable of keeping herself busy independently.

The town where she spent most of the day had grown larger and larger every day. Large, extravagant tudor style houses were built at a rate which she found astonishing. There were also several "long" style houses which were filled with apartments, one of which she had managed to claim as hers.

"Welcome, human prisoner," A grizzly haired old male tiger beastman said while tending the shop of food supplies. "What do you want today?"

The tiger beastman didn't mean any offence nor did he look down upon her, it was just her current nickname going around the dungeon currently. She was certain that if she was no longer a prisoner, that nickname would change to 'former human prisoner'.

"Good morning."

Rebecca grabbed one of the hand baskets beside the entrance and filled it with a bag of mara rice, pre packaged meat, dungeon vegetables and a few other mana rich food products.

As she unpacked the basket at the front counter, the old tiger beastman raised his brow while looking at her large chest.

"You look like you could support a large family of cubs, have you met my son before?"

Rebecca scoffed while sticking her bountiful chest out and rebutted, "Your son won't be touching them."

"Oh, so it is reserved for the Great Dungeon Lord Who Rules Monster Lords. He will not be too disappointed then."

"That is not happening either!"

The old beastman indicated towards the array on the counter which lit up as soon as Rebecca hovered her hand above it.

Several numbers floated above her hand, which were her current mana toxicity and mana density consumption limit, which Styx created to evaluate people's intake of food and ensure nobody at more than their body could process and got mana poisoning.

The old beastman pulled out a piece of paper and doublechecked the values on it along with Rebecca's shopping with brows scrunched in focus. He then nodded to her before saying his farewell greetings.

"Let me know if you are ready to have cubs, my son will make a great prime of the family."

Rebecca said a brief farewell before leaving the store and returning to the freshly paved street and footpath. She glanced at a large poster on the side of the building which was a notice to all the residents.

"Do you need help reading it?" A human adventurer sat to the side, helping any resident who didn't know elvish read it, mainly the tiger beastmen. Many could speak elvish, but very few could read it.

"I can read it," Rebecca said, glancing over the poster with a large picture of a dungeon mining monster.

⠀

Dungeon Notice

We are currently in dire need of more miners for the great dig. Help the great dungeon in its expansion project and choose to give birth to miners for the next week.

All residents are encouraged to ensure they pay attention to their health and make sure you have it inspected if you are feeling weak or ill.

Come inspect the great chasm currently in construction on the third layer, just passed the night training grounds and tree nursery.

⠀

'What is this?' Rebecca's eyes widened in surprise, wondering what Styx was creating now.

She had glimpsed the material refining and construction facilities more recently and knew the dungeon lord created some very complex and extravagant things.

She glanced around the street and saw a lot of female tiger beastman and dark elves with swelling stomachs, impregnated by Styx's breeders. She had never witnessed one of those working before, but she had heard gossip between the dark elves praising its size and range of techniques. A conversation she blushed deep crimson over and hurriedly left the area.

The noted location was about an hour away, but Rebecca had little to do for the rest of the day, so after returning home to place the food in the ice cupboard Styx called a fridge, she headed out and joined a group of young beastman to go investigate the new dig.

~~~~~

⠀

Styx stood on a wooden balcony above a giant circular chasm about 200 meters in diameter in the ground. This was the great chasm that was mentioned on the dungeon notice.

The chasm was already about 40 meters deep, whilst over a thousand of miners constantly increased that depth.

Beside him stood Aura, who was holding a pot plant in her hand that had a large, violet flower that had glowing, pulsating blue veins across the flower petals.

"How is it?" Styx asked Aura, who was currently feeding the flower her mana.

"It takes as much as I give. No problem."

Aura had a look of pride that she could continue feeding the flower mana for days on end with her enormous mana pool, but Styx rolled his eyes.

"I just need to make sure it won't strangle itself, this flower is the latest creation, and has the harshest requirements for living."

This flower, known as a mana eaters, sucked up as much mana as it could through its roots, nourishing itself and spitting out the rest into the air.

Styx filled its mana network with his mana tendrils and inspected everything to make sure there was no damage.

When they flower was in an area without enough mana, the suction power originating from its pseudo mana network caused the mana channels to shrivel in on themselves and the flower to inadvertently wither away.

Styx could mana vein creation to further alter these and solve that issue, but he needed the flower to function in this way for the current project.

Whilst the flower couldn't be planted in the existing areas of the dungeon, if he were to dig down far enough into the earth, the mana density of the ground would be more than sufficient to support them.

This chasm was for that purpose, and would allow the mass harvesting of mana from deeper in the earth. It was a giant reactor designed for resolving the issue of ambient mana deficiency in the dungeon, especially Styx's factories.

A bunch of elves, both light and dark, along with tiger beastmen of all ages visited the chasm and looked into it curiously from the large balcony walkway that Styx created around the outside. In order to give it more visual appeal, Styx created special arrays in the ceiling, which would periodically drop light bulbs of all colors into the chasm like a multi-colored rainbow of lights.

"Styx, here you are. Would you explain this construction to the children?" Rhea, who was now fulfilling the role of a full time teacher despite her pregnancy, lead a classroom of juvenile elves and tiger beastman cubs into the area as a sort of field trip.

Piri, who was just reaching her growth spurt, ran out from the crown despite Rhea's protests and wrapped her arms around Styx's waist.

"Will you tell me how the mana reactor works, pleeaase~"

Piri showed Styx puppy dog eyes while pleading, but the dungeon avatar was unperturbed by her wiles. He was happy to tell them regardless, which is why Rhea brought them over. She didn't understand the construction, so naturally couldn't teach the children about it.

Styx calmly and steadily explained the use of the mana eater flowers to grow deep in the earth, while other giant ring like structures would form a mana tunnel that would draw out all that mana and distribute it throughout the dungeon.

This mana tunnel would be isolated and controlled within the shaft by the control rings, so living spaces, passages and other areas could be built along the walls. It would be a different kind of environment from the rest of the dungeon, but there are species who likely prefer those conditions.

Piri squeezed Styx one more time before running back to the class and re-joining her friends. The three slaves had been delegated carrying her items, while others also often deferred to her due to her being their dungeon senior and apparent future dungeon wife.

The only person who was capable of reigning in Piri's queen like attitude among the children was Rhea or the dungeon wives, who she always turned timid and subservient before.

The tiger beastman children were much more sensitive than the elves, so they all picked up on Aura's presence more sharply than the others and walked around with their ears flat and tails tucked in between their legs.

Without any warning, Aura abruptly vanished while Styx's eyes opened wide in shock.

"Well, students, it is best you all return to your classroom for today."

Right as Styx finished speaking, the entire dungeon shook and dust fell from the ceiling. Many of the weaker visitors of the core shaft panicked in fear of falling, but the railing and walkway were reinforced with array and held solid, protecting everyone and preventing any accidents.

~~~~~

⠀

At the entrance of the dungeon, a white haired middle aged man with white cat's eye pupils appeared out of a tear in space. Detecting the intruder first, Aura appeared before he even finished walking out of the space tear with the mana eater pot plant still in her hand, a low and deep growl that made the air and stone walls vibrate emitted from her.

"Are you picking a fight, Wolf?" The man asked in a slovenly tone before casually checking his white suit to ensure there were no blemishes on it.

"Go home."

"Is that any way to treat a visitor? I came to inspect your new home ahead of the others. You have avoided divine retribution once again which is honestly quite astounding. Seriously, what is your luck value, Wolf?"

"Go home."

Aura's nails and teeth grew longer as she prepared to attack. She knew that she couldn't defeat the existence in front of her, but she felt confidence in at least driving him away.

The man in the white suit sighed to himself while nonchalantly stating with disinterest, "You are still as rude as ever, and so quick to attack. Isn't this what lead to Spider hating you so much?"

Aura didn't respond any further and attacked.

Space ruptured and the world flickered like an old movie as the dungeon entrance expanded infinitely in size. A set of world severing violet claws the size of mountains came crashing down upon the man.

Despite the attack coming in approximately a microsecond, space around the man bent and caused the attack to slip past him before he grabbed the wolf eared woman by the throat and slammed her into the ground with a force that shattered the world around them.

The ground, walls and ceiling exploded in a shockwave of dust while space itself screamed under the pressure, even coming unravelled in several small points at the epicentre of the explosion and release chaotic energies before rapidly repairing themselves.

The entire dungeon shook and received damage to various degrees.

Aura was on the ground but appeared unharmed overall. Her clothes were in tatters, but her body almost instantly healed any damage.

She used her claws to try and rip off the hand holding her neck, the claws glowing in a violet light which would tear not just flesh but the soul as well.

Seeing this, the white eyed man opened his mouth far more than seemed possible before billowing out a gigantice wave of silver flame directly into Aura's face which covered her entire body.

The heat of the flame was so great that the ground didn't even turn to molten slag and directly evaporated. The issue was the heat also destroyed the clothes of both Aura and his own

"Tch," the man clicked his tongue before vanishing and reappearing in a fresh white suit. "Human clothes are far too fragile. A little bit of heat that they are gone."

Aura didn't share the same fire resistance the man did and was burned black from the attack. The burnt charcoal quickly peeled off her body, revealing pristine skin and a figure that made Styx instantly enter heat.

Despite the rapid healing to a seemingly perfect condition, Aura had taken a significant amount of damage from that last attack, which Styx could feel through their bond. The man appeared to not be here to attack or destroy the dungeon, so Styx immediately called Aura back.

The damage to the dungeon from them fighting was already significant, and he could see the structure of the earth had weakened too and would need manually reinforcing. If they continued to fight, he feared the dungeon may simply collapse on itself, which would be devastating.