71 Arrival
Gabralter was at the small market where he met Therina once again. He had come here every day determined not to miss her when she returned. He even paid some local shopkeepers to keep an eye out for her in case he missed the time she came.
He came here everyday, and many people began to notice and recognize him.
Rumors of the city lord's son frequently visiting a small market quickly circulated among the housewives and then larger, more prominent circles. This lead to an explosive boom of interest in the marketplace and traders were desperately trying to purchase up any open spot they could.
It wasn't long before knowledge of a woman he was looking for followed along the trail of the former rumor.
He was an extremely handsome person, with curly golden locks and sharp features much like his father. Countless girls from the age of adolescent to even those in their 40s spun Cinderella stories in their head with themselves as Cinderella.
Gabralter returned home after another fruitless day in the market which was getting busier and busier every day with a deep frown.
"Young master, welcome back," One of the butler's welcomed him home while opening the carriage door for him to depart.
Inside the mansion, his father, the duke himself, shot him an angry look while his mother also frowned in displeasure.
"Do you have any idea what you have been doing?" Duchess Ashburn asked through pursed lips.
"I am fully aware."
Gabralter coldly retorted and went to leave the room, but his father coldly commanded him to enter his study.
With the duke leading the way, the family of three quickly entered a large and grandiose study.
"What is it?" Gabralter snapped unhappily.
"Son, you need to stay away from that elf."
The duke only cared for his son, but he was not one for subtlety and spoke his intentions directly.
"I refuse!"
"Gab, you are not a small boy anymore, you can't simply do things without thinking."
Gabralter, who had gone through many lives already, all of which ending in death, was no longer the person who would never dare challenge his father.
"What do you know!? She is someone who needs help."
The duchess tapped her finger on the duke's dark mahogany desk and stated, "She is a honey trap, can you not see that?"
"Mother! She isn't a honey trap! There is so much evidence against that."
The duke pulled out the folder on information on Therina and placed it on the desk for his son to look at.
"I have everything here before me and can see it quite clearly. Why don't you have a look for yourself?"
The duke glared at his son as he picked up the file and skimmed through it briefly before his shoulders began shaking in anger.
"This is the real reason, isn't it? Not because of any so called honey trap, but because she has been tarnished… That it, ISN'T IT!!"
Gabralter shouted so loudly the windows shook. The duke and duchess weren't about to allow themselves to be yelled at in such a manner so tensions immediately flared.
"Gabralter," His mother's voice was quiet as she spoke his full name, "have you lost all filial dignity? You would throw away your honor, your family's honor, on an elf who is in the arms of another? You would expect us to agree to that?"
"Who are you to talk, mother!? Even you were born from a-"
"Gabralter!" The duke shouted at his son in an ice cold tone lathed with infinite anger, "Take back your words, immediately…"
The duchess' whole body shook and her entire body shook. Tears threatened to fall despite her best efforts at self restraint, not so much by the words, but who said them.
Gabralter knew he said something he never should have and immediately felt guilt and regret. Despite that, he was in no state of mind to admit wrongdoing so he instead stormed off, slamming the door behind him.
Duke Ashburn looked at his heartbroken wife with guilt.
"We did not handle that well."
Just then, several knocks sounded on the door before the duke responded with, "We are currently occupied, notify me later."
"Duke, Sir, forgive me" A butler called out from behind the door. "Duchess Euklid's messenger has just arrived and they will arrive in 30 minutes. We can already see their procession on the horizon."
Duke Ashburn pinched his brow in frustration and was about to dismiss the butler and pretend he never heard the message when Duchess Ashburn silently raised her hand to stop him. She dried her eyes on the inside cuffs of her dress sleeves and took several deep breaths to regain her composure before she opened the door and stood before the butler.
"Inform the messenger that we have received the message and they can return. Immediately send out the pre prepared procession."
"Yes, Duchess."
The butler bowed deeply before hurrying off to complete his tasks. Once he was gone, Duchess Ashburn complained aloud to her husband.
"How does that whore always manage to arrive at the worst possible times?"
~~~~~
⠀
Several days had passed and the dungeon was overwhelmed with the influx of new residents, especially the tiger beastmen.
There wasn't enough beds to go around, and the food supplies were rapidly dwindling too. Half of the beastmen were forced to sleep outdoors currently, but this is something they were quite capable of. They set up temporary tents and shared living facilities with others.
The high mana content in the air also made the air always feel fresh and full of life too, so nobody had the feeling of being stifled.
The food source issue was more severe. Large fields of Wheat-M2 and Corn-M1 were being planted in large fields, but they would take several months before a they could be harvested. Styx currently only had 1 month of food for everybody at the current rate, but that shrunk with every new arrival.
His current only option was to source the extra food he needed until the next harvest from outside sources. The tiger beastmen joined the ranks of the hunters, bringing most game back to the dungeon before being killed where possible.
One of the humans, a <Lv. 23> Lancer in his prime, approached one of the female tiger beastmen and sat down beside her.
"Hello, how are you?"
It was a pretty bland conversation starter, but this is how many conversations started. The female tiger woman glanced at him before nodding her head, "I am fine."
"I have spare space on my bed. If you agree to be my woman, I would definitely share it with you."
"No thanks."
The woman didn't even hesitate before she rejected him, her whiskers briefly twitching.
"…You won't even consider it?"
The female tiger woman wasn't offended nor did she pay much attention to him. The women in their tribe had already claimed the dominant position due to their bond with Styx, so it was a foregone conclusion that the human trying to find a beastman wife would be incredibly hard.
Even the males of the tribe were having to work harder to find a mate as the power balance in their cultural dynamic quickly shifted.
"He's here, he's here!" The formerly uninterested female tiger beastman's ears perked up and tail begun swinging as she watched Styx pass by with his other girls.
All the dungeon residents only watched from a distance, anyone who tried to approach by themselves being stopped by the reproachful glar of Niah and the other main dungeon wives.
Styx was heading toward their private residence, where he heard from Aura that Therina and Beatrice were about to break free from their shells and be figuratively born anew.
In the residence, the two cocoons were now much smaller and less active than they initially were. Styx had thought it would be the latter, in which the most activity would happen at the end of the cycle, but that was incorrect.
In his residence, the cocoon of golden fire had nearly died out and the illusory violet light one had cracks all over it.
As Styx and the girls watched, these cocoons then broke apart and were absorbed into the bodies of the two naked women.
"Therina? Beatrice?" Styx asked cautiously right after having Aura drop her barrier within the room.
The bed and most of the items inside had been turned into ruin, but the two elves inside were completely spotless. Their skin could even be said to be beyond perfect.
They stirred before sitting up and looking around in confusion.
"What happened?" Beatrice said, her voice holding an intrinsic seductive tone to it.
"Ahem, your shoulder… and now stomach…" Styx begun as golden flames started sprouting on Beatrice's body.
"Oh… OH!!" She quickly tried to pat it out but soon recognized it as not harmful to herself and tried other methods. "It appears to be leaking from my mana network… Urgh why is this so hard? I just have to… stop it."
The golden flames vanished and Therina was also inspecting her body and the room around her.
"Darling, what happened?" A natural seductive tone laced her voice as two large tails that wavered through the air like smoke appeared behind her.
Therina also noticed these tails and rapidly turned her head in surprise.
"Allow me to explain," Styx explained the entire process of how they evolved over the past several days and his speculations. "Why don't you show me your statuses."
Both the girls nodded and opened their status.
⠀
[
Species: Lithic Naiad
Name: Therina Sel'Ether
Class: Dreamweaver
Age: 41
⠀
Mana: 4,697/4,697
Exp: 0/16,334
Level: 20
⠀
Str: 32
Dex: 84
End: 35
Vit: 45
Int: 59
Mnd: 41
Lck: 9
⠀
Skills:
Dream Race (Racial) <Lv. MAX>
• Ability to touch the intangible
• +50% all stats when inside of a dream.
• Capable of dreamscape creation.
Weaving <Lv. 16>
• 3-Fold Plat – 1 mana/min
• 5-Fold Plat – 2 mana/min
• 9-Fold Thatch – 3 mana/min
• Wood Weaving – 10 mana/min
• Thread: Auto-Spin – 2 mana/min
• Thread: Mana Restoration – 10 mana/min
Flower Arrangement <Lv. 15>
• Nature Alignment – 15 mana
• Mana Alignment – 30 mana
• Defense Alignment – 40 mana
• Bewildering Alignment – 100 mana
Illusion Weaving <Lv. 1>
• Sense Beguilement – 80+ mana/s
Dream Walking <Lv. 1>
• Dream Mark – 200 mana
• Dreamgate – 500 mana
Archery <Lv. 22>
• Twin Shot – 5 mana
• Rapid Fire – 5 mana/shot
Swordsmanship <Lv. 25>
Dagger Arts <Lv. 21>
Blunt Weapons Arts <Lv. 5>
Hidden Weapons <Lv. 16>
Trap Setting <Lv. 11>
Concealment <Lv. 36>
Deception <Lv. 7>
Iron Will <Lv. 19>
Body Reinforcement <Lv. 15>
Pain Resistance <Lv. 9>
Dismantling <Lv. 27>
Taming <Lv. 5>
Detection <Lv. 15>
Mana Sight <Lv. 19>
Mana Manipulation <Lv. 8>
Mana-Health Conversion <Lv. 11>
Enhanced Growth <Lv. 6>
⠀
Titles:
Child of Mana, Mother of Monsters, Natural Mana Controller, Dungeon Touched, Progenitor
]
⠀
⠀
[
Species: Dark Phenelf
Name: Beatrice Fin'Porte
Class: Dungeon Fire Keeper
Age: 52
⠀
Mana: 2,946/2,946
Exp: 0/16,334
Level: 20
⠀
Str: 29
Dex: 63
End: 35
Vit: 120
Int: 49
Mnd: 38
Lck: 9
⠀
Skills:
Samsara (Racial) <Lv. MAX>
• As long as the soul remains, the body can be reborn from the ashes. Physical separation of remains will delay process
• Life and death are mere states of the cycle of reincarnation. Loose soul is immune to the pull of the afterlife and capable of existing in the material plane.
Needling <Lv. 34>
• Beginner stitching – 1 mana/min
• Thread Manipulation – 10 mana/min
• Intermediate Stitching – 4 mana/min
• Thread Reinforcing – 2 mana/m
• Advanced Stitching – 8 mana/min
• Auto-Stitch – 10*(1/2/4) mana/min
• Unravel – 3 mana/min
Fabric Treating <Lv. 15>
• Tear Resistance – 15 mana/m2
• Impact Resistance – 30 mana/m2
• Magic Resistance – 40 mana/m2
Dungeon Link <Lv. 15>
• Life Vessel
Mother of Monsters <Lv. 15>
• High Breed – 500 mana
Archery <Lv. 7>
Swordsmanship <Lv. 13>
Dagger Arts <Lv. 29>
Hidden Weapons <Lv. 23>
Concealment <Lv. 11>
Iron Will <Lv. 37>
Body Reinforcement <Lv. 15>
Pain Resistance <Lv. 12>
Poison Resistance <Lv. 6>
Dismantling <Lv. 13>
Taming <Lv. 2>
Detection <Lv. 15>
Mana Sight <Lv. 11>
Mana Manipulation <Lv. 2>
Mana-Health Conversion <Lv. 9>
Enhanced Growth <Lv. 8>
⠀
Titles:
Child of Mana, Child of Fire, High Mother of Monsters, Researcher, Natural Mana Controller, Dungeon Touched, Progenitor
]
