133 The Wife is Always the Boss
Duchess Euklid flew into Whitecliff City, her own dungeon city, atop of a flock of Styx's flying monsters. Serving as her vanguard was a group of elves and tiger beastmen fully equipped in sturdy armor and holding weapons of the finest craftsmanship.
Whitecliff City was once abuzz with activity, a beacon of life amongst the craggy white cliffs and birch trees of the southern regions. Due to the simultaneous yearly event and unexpected beast wave though, the walls were in disrepair and it was severely under-protected.
Even the cannons which mounted the walls had been destroyed or otherwise disabled, allowing them to fly in without any danger. Several guards readied their weapons at the monsters, but Duchess Euklid told the monsters, or Styx via them,
Not only had the safety of the dungeon city fallen, crime had increased with the absence of guards that once patrolled the streets. Now, people stayed behind locked doors and even the adventurer community had slowed down with more powerful adventurers praying on the weaker ones once outside of the city.
In the vast grounds of the duke's mansion it was still guarded by a full platoon of elite city guards. They patrolled around the white stone brick walls of the enormous buildings and around the perimeter of the grounds, ensuring nobody intruded on the private land amidst this dangerous time.
As Duchess Euklid descended, all the guards were on high alert with their weapons ready. From below, all they could see were monsters approaching so they had instantly assumed it to be an attack.
Duke Euklid also stood with the guards with a two-handed sword and a steely expression. His brownish hair was long for a man, cut at the shoulders and maintained to be glossy and sleek. His jaw was sharp and vivid blue eyes held a piercing glare within them.
"Hold!" The duke rose his hand and stopped the mages and archers from attacking as he saw his wife atop the leading monster.
"Husband, I have returned."
The duke silently watched as his wife alighted the gryphon and the exotic race guards behind her.
"You vanished over a week ago in the middle of the night. The city was put on high alert and a city wide search was conducted."
"I apologize for that."
"You don't sound very apologetic, dear wife. Where were you? Not to mention, you appear to have come back with quite the entourage."
Edna Euklid glanced towards the mansion behind the duke and the tense guards. She saw her other three sons and daughter all peeking out of the windows both nervous and confused.
"Unfortunately it is quite the long tale, shall we step inside to discuss it in private?"
"Your… escorts will remain outside."
At the dukes words, the leader of the duchess' escord, the Third Step female tiger beastman who had evolved to be closer to a beastkin, stepped forth with hostile intention. Her mana revolved through her body like a tsunami, ready to be unleashed through her clawed gauntlets and into the humans.
"Very well," Duchess Euklid stated and signalled her escorts to cooperate.
The duke and duchess then entered the manor and locked themselves behind closed doors whilst everyone was still on their toes.
~~~~~
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"What are you saying?" Duke Euklid had a grave and overcast expression as he glared at his wife.
"That you need to surrender this city."
"...Are you listening to yourself right now?!"
"I am, but neither you nor I can contend with Fifth Step Monster Lords. We will fall either to the dungeon and Styx, or the Monster Lord in the wastelands once it learns of Goddess Eve's absence. This way, we will instead receive the protection of Monster Lords and be able to stay within safety."
"Edna, I allowed our daughter to be married off to form ties and increase our defenses, but that was within our own people. This is far too much! I will never agree to it!"
"You don't have a choice, Harrison."
"What, are you going to kill me if I refuse?"
"...If I must."
"Edna! You would betray me and our kids over this. Where is Rebecca? I heard Lagoon Porter City was captured by the rogue illegal dungeon lord, is she still there?"
"Rebecca was the one who arranged for all this."
"Impossible!"
"…"
"...You have betrayed me…"
"Harrison…"
"Guards!" The duke called out and a group of guards fully armed stormed into the meeting room. "Arrest Duchess Euklid and lock her away in the dungeon. Take her spatial ring too, to ensure she has no weapons and can't escape."
The guards shifted uncomfortably on their feet and looked at the duchess, hesitant to act.
The duchess snorted through her nose and spoke without her gaze leaving her husband.
"Arrest Duke Euklid immediately. Hand cuff him and remove his possessions."
"What do you think you are trying to do, Edna… Hey, why the fuck are you listening to her?!"
The duke's jaw dropped as the guards heeded his wife over his, the dungeon lord's, words.
"Husband, I have taken over the guards and most public companies since long ago… I am sorry it had to come to this, but I must think of our kids and people."
"You would betray our kingdom! Do you not know loyalty?! Fuck, get off of me you bastards, I am still the dungeon lord!"
Duke Euklid was a powerful Third Step ranker in his own might, even more powerful than the systemically trained guards. They hadn't given him so much as time to draw his weapon though, immediately subduing him.
The guards slammed the duke face first into the ground, causing the wooden floor to break and send splinters flying. The duke was unharmed overall, but it dazed him long enough for the guards to place a set of eternium handcuffs on his wrists that not even a Third Step ranker could break.
Duchess Euklid glanced at him before turning to the guards, "Take him outside the city so I can take over the dungeon core."
"Yes, Duchess!"
Right before he was forcefully taken away, Duchess Euklid closed her eyes and looked away before stating.
"Please don't resist and cooperate, husband. I also do not want to betray the kingdom, but this is our only path to survival. Our kids and our people all rely on our decision making to live.
~~~~~
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It had been another week since the end of the war against the Maple Dragon Kingdom's army so Styx once again levelled up.
⠀
[
41,100 exp used to level up.
Lv. 24 -> Lv. 25
Accumulated skill experience bonus:
Mana Control <Lv. 36> -> <Lv. 37>
Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 28>
Trap Construction <Lv. 27>
Mining <Lv. 38>
]
⠀
[
Species: Dungeon Core (Dungeon Master: None)
Name: Styx
⠀
Mana: 3,155/3,300
Exp: 2,271,698(+)
Level: 25
⠀
Abilities:
Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>
Mana Control <Lv. 37>
• Mana Infusion
• Mana Vein Creation
• Remote Control
• Mana Logic Construct
Dungeon Control <Lv. 34>
Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 28>
• 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
Basic Dungeon Construction <Lv. 29>
• Scan – 10 mana/m3
• Blueprint Creation – 342 blueprints
• Blueprint Manufacturing – 342 blueprints
• Mental Projection – 1 mana/min
• Visible Projection – 5 mana/min
• Autobuild – 4 mana/s
Trap Construction <Lv. 27>
• 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. 20> (457,480/1,024,000)
Mining <Lv. 44>
• Basic Material Identification
• Mineral Detection
• Auto-mine
• Overdrive
• Earth Fracture
• Advanced Material Identification
Avatar Creation <Lv. 35>
• Skill Replication
]
⠀
Styx never let up on training his skills and avatar. Each level up did not bring a large jump in power, but one of the greatest benefits was the increase in his ability to process information.
He had learned two new subskills recently with both not only the level of his skills increasing, but his own feats and accomplishments.
The first was Advanced Material Identification, a subskill of Mining which allowed him to view much more detailed information of materials compared to before when he had to research everything all on his own.
Whilst he still had to do his own research for the crucial technical information, this revealed to him a large amount of the properties of the item. This didn't just extend on raw materials dug out from the ground either, it even extended to raw materials from monsters such as bones, horns, scales and more.
The second suibskill and what Styx viewed as his greatest strength came from his research into the enchantments on the damaged armors of the giant husk knights.
"Come, fire your arrows at me," Styx commanded a line of nervous Second Step elves who all had arrows knocked on bows.
"Milord… Are you sure about this? None of us wish to harm the one who gave us our strength. We cannot turn our hand on you…"
"Nonsense, it is just one volley! I am stronger than I look! Now, fire!"
The elves still followed Styx's words in the end and fired a volley of arrows at Styx. The dungeon avatar didn't so much as flinch as powerful arrows landed upon him like ballista bolts.
Before the arrows could tear through his body and mutilate it though, small hexagonal pink shields appeared in the air and blocked the arrows. Styx's mana went down by a small chunk due to the defense, but he was so joyous he didn't care about the little things.
"Hahahah! It works!"
With the books he had pillaged from the library in the fallen ancient kingdom, he had managed to decipher the enchantments on the armors and directly apply them to his body.
'To think, their enchantments and magic system itself are the replication of skills and mana network channels!' Styx silently thought in his head whilst laughing uproariously
What these ancient people used was a mana logic system modelled after mana networks and the automatic skills they gave to people. It was incredibly complex and took him an entire week to decipher just one basic spell.
Using Mana Vein Construction and Mana Logic Construct, he replicated this mana network pattern within his own body, imbuing himself with this automatic defense subskill.
The elves in the training room trembled and allow bowed before Styx as Everest showed herself from the ceiling of the room, deep crimson eyes glaring at the frightened exotic race women and men while she exerted her power to press them down.
"Enough, Everest. Do not bully my people."
The pressure seemed to fade away and Styx watched the angels through Aura's eyes. The heavenly warriors all scratched their heads in befuddlement whilst looking at the ancient text in the books. They couldn't understand the first thing about the language despite their extensive knowledge banks. They were also currently cut off from Heaven so had no way of requesting a higher authority or system analyse and translate it for them.
Styx was actually surprised that they were so clueless on the language. Heaven was a huge part of human society and had supposedly existed since the beginning of time.
There was no reason why they were this lost, but he figured it may tie into why the archangels and major figures he heard of being in Heaven, did not exist in the Heaven he knew when he was still human, albeit nigh immortal.
