Sublimation

"Everyone fall back into position!" Duchess Euklid called out in a domineering tone, her long black hair light the night sky inside the dungeon beneath Whitecliff City.

Beside the duchess, her daughter and dungeon wife, Rebecca stood with a frown.

Everything had been prepared for this day, from eradicating nobles within the city who were against the coming new order, to slowly conditioning the citizens with new ideas that were closer to Styx's management style.

The monsters inside of the dungeon had been culled via a range of emergency quests promising high rewards, thus allowing Styx easier passage to the dungeon core.

This was because as much as they wanted to simply hand over ownership of the dungeon, and thus city, to Styx, the world had its own rules and as soon as Styx connected his dungeon to this one, a dungeon conflict would be detected and Invasion Mode would activate.

Another way of calling this is a dungeon war, where both dungeon fight for supremacy and the one whose core is captured first loses. The duchess doesn't have the same control over her dungeon's monsters as Styx does, so they would all rush towards where his core was, no matter how long the tunnel back to his main dungeon was.

Still, she couldn't help but be nervous as the final hour drew upon them.

Styx was just outside of the dungeon with all his monsters lined up alongside Hilda, Everest, and a range of personal guards at the late Third Step but as strong as Fourth Step rankers due to Styx's enhancements.

"Everest, if you would."

As Styx's indication, Everest flung her hands forward and nearly invisible threads made from space itself flickered across the wall at the end of the tunnel. It collapsed into pieces almost immediately afterwards and opened up into the Whitecliff City dungeon.

⠀

[

Warning! Dungeon conflict detected!

Now opening Invasion Mode, all summoned monsters will be hostile to invading/invaded dungeon. During this time the Limited Shop will open, allowing both parties to purchase supplements to invade and defend.

Limited Shop opening…

Dungeon Territories merging…

Monster hostility allocating…

Dungeon Experience doubling…

Dungeon War commenced.

]

⠀

A familiar message appeared in Styx's eyes as various functions also opened.

The limited shop allowed Styx, or the defending dungeon lord, to purchase special items for weakening the enemy, strengthening oneself, or directly defending the core. It was possible to purchase a limited time core shield that could defend the dungeon core up to a certain amount of damage. The most expensive one of this type was a shield that was invulnerable to all damage but only lasted one hour.

The price of it was absolutely astronomical though.

As the territories merged, Styx instinctively knew the layout of the dungeon, even though he had already studied it in advance via Rebecca and her mother.

"Husband!" Rebecca came charging through the tunnel and launched herself at Styx.

She fell into his embrace, completely ignoring the seething in jealousy spider Monster Lord beside him.

"My dear Rebecca, it is good to have you back with me."

"I wanted to come back sooner! I did! But the noble daughters and sons are so difficult!"

"Don't be like that, they used to be your best friends."

"There are no friends among the nobles, only temporary alignments."

"Shh, don't look at everything so negatively."

Styx had truly watched her entertaining all the local nobles and there was a large amount of truth to what she said. Everyone was constantly plotting to gain the most advantages, and selling out friends or joining with former enemies were common occurrences.

This wasn't a problem in Lagoon Porter City as the noble culture there was much less developed than Whitecliff City, mainly due to it being directly adjacent to a forbidden zone. Being so close to such a potentially dangerous area, any noble with any form of wealth or power had long since left the city for safer territories.

Whilst there was also a Monster Lord near Whitecliff City, which has since been killed by Aura and Everest together, it was alone and much less volatile than those in the Abyssal Forest.

"Let's go take over the city, shall we?" Styx asked, prompting Rebecca to press her large bust against Styx as she tightly clung to him and giggled.

~~~~~

⠀

There was no resistance as Styx made his way to the Whitecliff City dungeon core, nearly all the monsters having been wiped out by the local adventurer's whilst Duchess Euklid had lowered all the core defenses and opened the passages to it.

Unlike Lagoon Porter City, the Whitecliff City dungeon core was located in the actual dungeon. It was in a normally highly reinforced room in the heart of the first floor, but only accessible via a secret passage from the duke's mansion.

It was connected to the main dungeon a series of vents and passages too small for a person or monster of any worthy strength to pass through, considering that it had to remain connected to the dungeon else the dungeon would be cut off and cease to function.

Styx's monsters spread out and made the most of the limited double exp bonus due to the Dungeon Conflict before Styx took over the city. Everest had destroyed any other monster before it could get even remotely close to Styx, even though he wanted to kill a few himself.

Inside a plain room with several high value paintings lining the wall, a large crystalline core floated.

"Here it is, Lord Styx," Edna Euklid bowed before Styx and happening to give him a perfect view down the collar of her top. Her breasts were modest, but the angle excited Styx all the same.

⠀

[

Bound core detected. You are an invader. Do you wish to conquer this core?

Yes/No

]

⠀

Styx didn't hesitate and immediately pressed 'Yes', announcing his official victory of this dungeon war and seizing control over Whitecliff City.

⠀

[

Dungeon core <Lv. 92> has been bound to dungeon core 'Styx'.

Dungeon conflict has been won by the invading party with capture of the enemy core.

]

⠀

[

Multiple cores detected.

Multiple independent dungeons cannot exist within the same dungeon.

Please choose from the following options…

]

⠀

[

1. Destruction: Dungeon core is destroyed and 10% of its experience will be acquired

2. Sublimation: Dungeon core is sublimated as a sub core to the main core. All skills of sub core will be lost, but core traits will remain.

3. Bridge: Core is imploded and forms a permanent channel to a random area of the world. Random location must support natural generation of a dungeon core. PERMANENT.

]

⠀

Styx had no desire to connect to a random location again. Whilst there were wild benefits to be gained, such as all the knowledge of from the current fallen world he had gained, he still had a large territory to capture in the kingdom.

Not only did he now need to fully take over Whitecliff City and integrate his monster breeding culture, he also needed to conquore the 12 cities between his now two cities one by one, before taking over even more of the Maple Dragon Kingdom.

This time, he selected Sublimation, turning the Whitecliff City dungeon core into a sub core. This meant he got no experience from taking over it as it all remained within the sub core, which came with its own set of pros and cons.

As a benefit, the Whitecliff City sub core would remain at <Lv. 92> along with it giant mana pool and amount of information it could process.

A downside was that because it was a sub core, it would no longer be able to gain experience and would forever remain at that level unless it was once again taken over and returned to being a main core.

This also meant that any experience that would have been acquired by the sub core will go directly to Styx, meaning it wasn't wasted in any way.

Styx's stats had also leveled up significantly over the past several weeks, but he still had a while to go until he would catch up with these older, high level dungeon cores. His skills had leveled up too, but none so much as Mana Control, mainly due to his advancement in knowledge from the fallen world, and the way they enchant with skills themselves with their mana.

One of the area he was falling behind in thought was Trap Creation. He needed to entice more people to challenge the dungeon, but many couldn't even reach him. Those that did would be either killed by monsters or other residents rather than his traps. He built them anyway, but this meant this particular skill was starting to stagnate on levels.

The residents nearby were also welcome to challenge the dungeon whenever they wanted. Styx himself had promised that anyone able to capture his core would become the next ruler, but still very few dared to do so. Only the most greedy attempted it, only to become a rare entertainment for the dungeon residents and commentators, making their dungeon attempts into a sport.

His Avatar Creation was also on the brink of being able to create an avatar of the Third Step, but he hadn't been able to break through that bottleneck just yet.

⠀

[

Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)

Name: Styx

⠀

Mana: 2,900/4,520

Exp: 2,271,698(+)

Level: 29

⠀

Abilities:

Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>

Mana Control <Lv. 57>

• Mana Infusion

• Mana Vein Creation

• Remote Control

• Mana Logic Construct

• Living Mana Threading

Dungeon Control <Lv. 43>

Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 35>

• 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

• T2 Conveyor Belt: 1m (BP) – 90 mana, 3 stone, 1 manasteel, 24x gears, 48x 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

+ Expand for 27 more items...

Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 33>

• Scan – 10 mana/m3

• Blueprint Creation – 1,267 blueprints

• Blueprint Manufacturing – 1,267 blueprints

• Mental Projection – 1 mana/min

• Visible Projection – 5 mana/min

• Autobuild – 4 mana/s

Trap Construction <Lv. 29>

• 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. 23> (756,201/1,331,200)

Mining <Lv. 49>

• Basic Material Identification

• Mineral Detection

• Auto-mine

• Overdrive

• Earth Fracture

• Advanced Material Identification

Avatar Creation <Lv. 39>

• Skill Replication

+ Expand for 17 more skills...

]