"You heard your mother, it's time to come home," Styx spoke directly into Rebecca Euklid's mind in a grave tone, his mood soured from the earlier piece of information.

"I will be returning to my home, not yours."

"How long are you going to fight it?"

"…You do not understand."

"What?"

"It's not about fighting anything. Nobles enjoy lavish lifestyles and wealthy coffers, but first and foremeost, comes our duty."

"Surprisingly honorable, I wonder how many nobles share such sentiments."

"Most. We become nobles by controlling dungeon cities, and should they fall, we lose our nobility. I may not understand much of what nobles do, but I do know that any incompetent nobles are thinned out naturally through this process."

"I can't say the same about other cities, but what of yours? From what I have heard, you seem to be in pretty dire circumstances."

"During the Myriad Flower Devil Festival, our city of Orchadia suffered a simultaneous beast raid. Our walls were breached and 40 percent of our population became food for monsters. Our defenses were crippled, walls broken, and not enough hands to rebuild, let alone defend it properly."

"So, you abandoned it?"

"No, father can continue acting as the dungeon lord whilst mother and me are here. My siblings are also actively helping… some of them, at least. We need weapons and soldiers, especially if another beast wave comes."

"Why do you not marry me, then?"

"That is impossible."

~~~~~

⠀

"Damned stubborn woman!" Styx cussed aloud back in the dungeon, flinging a dagger at a small rabbit among the bushes in the dungeon.

The small rabbit darted away in fright as the knife landed in the earth beside it. It moves so fast it was a wonder it wasn't a monster yet.

"Styxie~" Vivy, followed by three human bearded males, came running over.

She launched herself over and hugged the dungeon lord.

"Please help me evolve."

Styx looked at the exotic beauty who deliberately exposed her plump thighs before him.

"I don't share my women."

"I know, I know," Vivy wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips close to his ears. "I have given birth to so many monsters for you, all I want is the attribute.""Do you know the conditions necessary?"

"I asked Bea, who told me what I need to do. I can fulfil those conditions."

Styx looked at the three men, all as attractive as humans came, before looking back at the dark elf whose face was so close he could feel her heated breath. He pushed her face away, but she was determined and used her strength superiority to bring herself even closer to Styx.

"One of those conditions is to accept me in your innermost depths," Styx stalely said whilst he could feel the tips of her lips brush on his ear.

"I love all my men, but you are the only one I would die for. I can evolve, I know I can."

"The next point is it needs to be during your Class Up, you went ahead and did that without waiting last time."

"Of course, I am at the maximum experience threshold of <Lv. 39>."

"Already?"

"I have worked very hard, especially as nobody fills me up like you do~"

Styx knew she meant the way he filled her mana network with his tendrils, expending and strengthening them. He also knew she was overly fond of this and would frequently use the breeders with his automatic processes for it. He had taken to ignoring her during these times as he wasn't the only one 'filling' her during these times, so he had naturally missed how fast she reached the peak of the Second Step.

"Very well, give me some time to organize it and think carefully on what attribute you want. Don't be impatient again."

Vivy hurriedly nodded and forcefully kissed him on the cheek before departing with her reverse harem elites in tow.

She had actually given Styx a form of inspiration.

He already had automatic processes to enable more people to breed monsters and enjoy elevated statuses, but only the direct dungeon wives had access to the possibility of evolution.

He needed to create a system, and even a new breeder design, that would enable people to fill it with attributed mana.

Even if they couldn't evolve, they would at least be able to adopt an attribute and improve their advanced class selections.

As Vivy left the throne room, she ran into Beatrice and Therina who looked at her askance.

"Are you trying to drag darling into your reverse harem again, Vivy?"

"His spot is forever reserved. Therina, you should get him to grow out a beard."

"Why?"

Vivy slyly grinned and whispered into the latter' ear, "Elven men don't grow beards, so we never really considered it, but the facial hair makes things feel so much different."

"It makes what feel different."

"Don't pretend you don't know. I mean when your thighs are wrapped around his head."

Therina merely scoffed, but Beatrice's imagination flew a thousand miles while imagining it. On the outside, she gave a disinterested look at Vivy, but she was secretly considering asking Styx to try it.As soon as the naiad and phenelf entered the room, Styx had long had a dragon in his pants roaring at the heavens and directly commanded them, "Strip."

~~~~~

⠀

A giant grand stage was constructed in the heart of the town inside the dungeon. It would later be repurposed into plays and creative arts, or a place to garner attention to anything. For now, Styx stood atop it behind a podium and spoke to the thousand plus dungeon residents, to his side all the dungeon wives.

"Do you who call this dungeon home, call it safe haven, enjoy it here!?"

"YEESSS!"

Everyone called out in enthusiasm. The tiger beastkin roared while elves and dark elves tittered their voices. Humans thumped their feet on the grounf and everyone expressed themselves in their own way.

His voice didn't just reached the ears present, but also the ears of human women he had claimed within Lagoon Porter City too.

The barmaid, Hilda, was one of these women. Her long back hair was tied up in a rough bun while several loose locks hung down beside her face.

Still in her work uniform, she sat on an empty crate behind the tavern she had taken over with a smoldering tobacco pipe in one hand. She sat under the fading light of dusk, looking up into the sky with a devout expression while listening to Styx's words in her ears.

"The Maple Dragon Kingdom can no longer tolerate us, so they have sent an elite force of 40,000 to eliminate the dungeon and everyone under its protection!"

The crowd was as silent as it was solemn, many people holding fearful expressions.

"How long will you remain in fear, hiding in the shadows and forever at the mercy of the kingdom. They have revealed their teeth, so we will show equal force in return! We not only have Aura, a dungeon wife and Monster Lord. We also have Dragon, the most powerful Monster Lord in the Abyssal Forest guarding us!"

"Whoooo!!!"

The crowd begun to regain their vigor at mention of the Monster Lords, symbols of terror in the hearts of countless, but now the greatest guardian too.

"We will not hide and runaway from the kingdom, we will fight for our own existence! We must come together more now than ever before! Should we win, we will grow greater and expand faster than ever before!"

"What if we fail, the central armies have weapons that can even repel Monster Lords."

A voice called out from the crown, Styx looking down to see it was, Kristof, the Second Step human ranker who married to Mauve, a Second Step female tiger beastman who was already pregnant with a swelling stomach.

"Repel but very difficult to kill. A battle of this scale is not determined by any individual, but army tactics. Whilst Monster Lords can break this rule, the inherent battle of tactics of formations still remains the same. If they wish to compete with me in tactics, they will receive a very harsh lesson in return."

Styx had almost 4,000 years of knowledge and experience. He had seen every tactic imaginable, even been part or directed several. In his eyes, they were but children pretending to be adults.

"The monsters which keep us safe are still lacking, however! Everyone must do their part, so even if you don't normally breed often, everyone needs to support the dungeon and create monsters. Perhaps one of you will become the next dungeon wife, a position above all others!"

Everyone was excited, especially the women. There were currently nearly 25,000 monsters under Styx's control at the moment, but nearly all of them were of the First Step. Whilst each monster would never be able to stand up to a Third Step ranker, 25,000 First Step monsters could deal a significant blow to a battalion of Third Step soldiers.

Most of these monsters were out in the Abyssal Forest, hunting for meat while also increasing their levels, but casualties were quite high as well.

The dungeon residents would also take part in the battle as well, but Styx was determined to keep resident casualties as small as possible. Monsters were much easier to replace than residents.

"I am also announcing a new breeder design. This allows for you to use an attributed mana gem to inject yourself with and adopt a mana affinity. It is still in the prototype stage, so safety is not guaranteed, but I will do my best to ensure any mishaps are treated immediately."

"The affinity must be pre-approved based on your status, previous mana affinities adopted, and finally your affinity with that element. This not only opens the options for more powerful advanced classes for you all, but also the possibility of undergoing evolution, just like many of the dungeon wives already have!"

"There will be notices posted up all over town on the conditions to be met for you to be able to evolve into stronger species."