Drums of War

Two months passed by in the blink of an eye and the drums of war seemed to approach closer and closer from the horizon. There was a thick tension within the dungeon that could almost be smelt.

Styx had gotten in contact with Dragon, who reappeared for trading piles of gems and ores for various materials, including access to the first section of Styx's library where he spent a whole day.

He stated he would participate in repelling the army should they breach too deeply into the dungeon, but there was a heavy scent of danger from Goddess Eve herself, so he may not be able to participate.

Even Spider had vanished without a trace amidst this oppressing danger.

Styx reached towards Heaven via Loreley in order of restraining the goddess, but she merely shook her head and stated unless there was a clear breach in the Treaty of Gods, they wouldn't interfere as Styx was not classified as one of their people.

Whilst there was at least one god in Heaven which viewed him favorably, these were two separate matters as they hadn't invested anything into him, so his failure to stand on his own feet would be his own fault for being too weak.

Although she didn't pass up the opportunity to try and recruit him into Heaven again, which would ensure he was safe and protected.

Styx hadn't shied away from levelling up, but the experience he was bringing in was dwindling due to priority being in breeding monsters and building living areas for them all.

He was currently <Lv. 20> and many of his skills had respectively increased.

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[

Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)

Name: Styx

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Mana: 1,834/2,772

Exp: 22,560

Level: 21

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Abilities:

Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>

Mana Control <Lv. 31>

• Mana Infusion

• Mana Vein Creation

• Remote Control

• Mana Logic Construct

Dungeon Control <Lv. 25>

Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 20>

• Biomass Converter – 100 mana

• Breeder – 50 mana, 20 biomass

• Storage Crate – 10+ mana, 10 physical material

• Blast Furnace – 100 mana, 20 stone

• Storage Tank – 20+ mana, 20 physical material

• Rotary Mana Engine – 40 mana, 10 stone, 1 iron

• Material Refiner – 150 mana, 10 stone, 2 iron, 1 emerald, 1 ruby, 1 amethyst

• Alchemy Table – 200 mana, 5 stone, 10 iron, 1 ruby, 10 quartz

• Mana Constructor – 400 mana, 30 steel, 1 manasteel, 120x gears, 450x screws

• Stable Storage Crate – 100+ mana, 20 physical material

• Stable Storage Tank – 100+ mana, 35 physical material

• Magmaforge (BP) – 250 mana, 40 magmasteel, 5 lava, 0.2 brimstone powder, 5x brimstone flowers

• Soulforge (BP) – 1,125 mana, 80 stone + 5 tortured soul powder (*Soulium upgradable), assorted items

• High Pressure Water Cutter (BP) – 730 mana, 50 stone, 5 steel, 0.2 manasteel

• T1 Conveyor Belt: 1m (BP) – 40 mana, 2 stone, 1 steel, 8x gears, 12x screws

• T1 Item Picker (BP) – 70 mana, 2 steel, 0.1 manasteel, 30x gears, 50x screws

• Obsidum Mana-Saw (BP) – 550 mana, 3 steel, 1x obsidum blade, 1x engine, 20x gears, 30x screws

• High Speed Turbine Engine (BP) – 680 mana, 0.5x manasteel, 1x steel, 5x gears, 10x screws

Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 21>

• Scan – 10 mana/m3

• Blueprint Creation – 275 blueprints

• Blueprint Manufacturing – 275 blueprints

• Mental Projection – 1 mana/min

• Visible Projection – 5 mana/min

• Autobuild – 4 mana/s

Trap Construction <Lv. 17>

• Bait – 5 mana, 5 biomass

• Spike Trap – 20 mana, 10 stone

• Pitfall Trap – 10 mana, none

• Arrow Trap – 20 mana, 10 stone (5 on reload)

• Weak Poison Gas – 50 mana, 1 stone, 1 biomass (expendable)

• Chaotic Space Trap – 200+ mana

• Crushing Wall Trap – 30 mana, 20 stone, 2 iron

Internal Resource Storage <Lv. 17> (293,926/614,400)

• Physical Material – Stone (170,000), Dirt (50,000), Biomass (24,125), Ardonite (5,200), Manasteel (485), Wood (200), Steel (5,145), Obsidum (127), Gold (25), Celendine Clay (575), Copper (7,459), Tin (1500), Firesteel (115), Magmasteel (145), Soulium (12)

• Liquid Material – Water (28,458), Lava (358),

Mining <Lv. 34>

• Basic Material Identification

• Mineral Detection

• Auto-mine

• Overdrive

• Earth Fracture

Avatar Creation <Lv. 24>

]

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Styx had been working for the past two months almost entirely without rest. The dungeon expanded even beyond the Abyssal Forest and even deeper levels underneath. There were also several escape routes for the worst-case scenario.

The monsters filled countless barns and nests throughout the dungeon whilst even more resided within the forest outside or were hunting for more biomatter to feed the giant army.

The humans had a force of 40,000 Third Step rankers, 30,000 of them systematically trained soldiers, whilst the monsters had expanded to 120,000 altogether. This was due to several nationless villages being annexed and women from Lagoon Porter city who were under Styx's control travelling to the dungeon to assist.

Weaker, faster proliferating monsters had given birth to several offspring during this time, which meant a significant portion of the dungeon residents had to adopt monster trainer occupations to ensure they were trained to not attack anyone on sight.

It did raise the danger within the dungeon, even to the residents, but everyone was a highly trained combatant under Styx's regime and culture that had developed within.

A second blood crystal bee queen had been born in the original hive too. Normally, this queen would fight for dominance in the hive and be promptly killed by the more experienced, stronger original.

This time, the queen was handed over to Styx, and moved away to form its own hive.

The two hives had their own areas in the dungeon, but there were hostile tensions between the two who patrolled the edges of their territory, ready to attack at any moment.

The bees were adapted to living in the dungeon and had a form of cordiality with the residents, but they truly couldn't stand rivals of their own kind.

The town inside the dungeon had expanded to the point everyone had their own living quarters and the tiger beastmen were no longer camping in tents.

Beautifully constructed buildings of timber, copper and iron in a tudor style carpeted the area whilst roads and paths of concrete and cobblestone were laid. In here, monsters lived alongside humans, and there had been a recent trend of monster pets alongside the newly born monsters.

The offspring of monsters Styx was in control of, were no longer under his absolute control, which is the sole reason why they needed taming.

Dungeon residents had taken to adopting monsters as pets and battle partners, training together and forming a bond. Styx, inspired by this, spent several days with his nose in magic books, shifting from one kind to another until he had enough knowledge to create a device for controlling these monsters.

The trainer had a wristband or choker that had the parent array in it, whilst the monsters wore a collar with the child array. It was enchanted with arrays of the Ulgur Magic System, which held a strong focus on the intention of magic, rather than hard rules.

These two devices were linked to specific frequencies and allowed the trainer and monster to communicate on a feelings and intention based language between them.

It allowed the trainer to control the tamed monster's actions, while the latter also benefited from this communication by having better synchronicity with the trainer and developing intelligence faster.

~~~~~

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"They're here…" Styx stated in a grave voice as the human army marched into his territory with a sense of righteous duty.

The more of them that entered his dungeon full of hostility, the more his heart was covered by a sense of dread. For all the preparation he did, it was a very intimidating confrontation to have so many Third Step soldiers enter his territory in droves.

"I'll go kill them."

"Wait," Styx immediately stopped the wolf-eared woman. "They should already know that there are two Monster Lords protecting the dungeon and have come up with strategies to counter that. Wait until I tell you to go."

Aura nodded her head before hugging Styx from behind, the scent of her hair filling his senses.

"First, we need to keep them away from the dungeon, so we can use quantity to overwhelm their quality. Therina, Kale, Klair, are the preparations ready?"

"Yes… but, there's something wrong with the sky."

At Therina's warning, Styx hurriedly left the dungeon and looked at the sky himself with a foreboding feeling. Right before the naiad had said it, he felt his connection with people still in Lagoon Porter City and many monsters be suddenly cut off.

The entire area from horizon to horizon was covered in a multicolored, oil like barrier. The entire forest was eerily silent and it felt like he had been isolated from the entire world.

"Begin the first wave!" Styx commanded the girls in their minds.

Therina, Kale and Klair immediately attacked and triggered a large amount of hostility from wild monster hordes. Vivy, now a Third Step shadowthread archer, and somehow evolving into an abyss demon, completely breaking free of her spirit of nature elf heritage.

Styx rubbed his brow as he still couldn't figure out that woman. She was incredibly powerful in close combat, yet sucked at archery. She chose to go with a weak class for her own abilities, yet had become so powerful it caused him to be apprehensive.

Several other men and women from the dungeon worked together to elicit hordes of wild monsters to be enraged at the same time. They then led them towards the human army before fleeing.

"Monster attack!!" The guard commanders immediately hollered in grand voices, drawing their weapons without hesitation.

At first, it was just a couple hundred monsters attacking them, but this number rapidly escalated to tens of thousands and more.

"Defensive formations! Prepare the cannons! Formation Battalion, Support Mage Battalion!"

The human moved in a trained manner, rapidly building blockades against the monsters while the support soldiers acted behind them.

Formation soldiers chanted and used hand signs as giant taiji arrays spread out below the army. Regular soldiers and hired forces were buffed alike and their coordination immediately increased.

The support mages used earth magic, raising the front-line soldiers up on a stone wall, both protecting them and giving the advantageous position in the battle.

"Archers!!"

Commands rang out one after another from the human side whilst the monsters attacked purely based on instincts.

Arrows fell like rain but each one of them had enough force they would puncture straight through monsters and split apart the earth. It was a deadly storm that reaped the lives of monsters without mercy.

Adventurers and mercenaries used their own skills causing waves of mana to ravage the battlefield and turn it into a scene of blood and carnage.

Styx had his own plans though, and he knew a direct all or nothing attack was bound to fail. Wild monsters continued throwing themselves at the stone walls, several Second and Third Step monsters actually causing it to crack dangerous before being repaired by the support mages.

Just as the spearmen lined up beside the archers, preventing monsters from reaching the top of the wall, Styx had flying monster fly overhead and drop self-created mana soulbombs.

These were terrible weapons that would be prohibited if there were a judiciary council determining the rules of war.

They were iron capsules inlaid with explosive formation and a mana gem powering them. There was zero chance in creating damage against Third Step rankers with these kinds of weapons, but the tiny, sharp shrapnel made out of pure soulium was a different matter.

The bombs landed on top of the bridge, many of which being destroyed by swordsmen before landing, all exploded and send soulium shrapnel across the wall.

Third Step rankers had incredibly tenacious bodies, but they still received small cuts on exposed skin from the weapons. The shard didn't just cut their physical body, but their souls too.

They immediately fell under excruciating pain from the soul damage, and whilst they were trained enough to withstand it, many of the archers and spearment faltered in their attack, leading to the monsters successfully climing on top of the walls and attacking.

Savage panthers and other monstrous beasts tore at the soldiers with their teeth and claws. The soldiers crushed the first attackers without issue, even the second ones, but they simply kept on coming.

"Fall back to the second line!" The commander shouted across the wall whilst kicking another monster off the side and into the pit of blood and monster viscera.

The humans quickly retreated, but many archers and spearmen had lost their lives in this attack, almost 2,000 altogether. Styx thought it was a shame as there had been almost 70,000 monsters killed in response.

These monsters were almost entirely wild monsters Styx had baited into attacking the humans, so his actual loss was negligible, but it was still a disheartening number that displayed the superiority of armies of higher step existences.