Within the dungeon, there were barricades of iron and wood set up at regular intervals. Armored monsters with claws and fangs laid in wait while the forest assassins, midnight guards and treant spirits all had bladed weapons for cutting the devil flowers weak point, their stem body.
The monsters attacked in waves, usually as a mass of Yellow Devil Flowers, which had large, dirty yellow petals around its head and attacked by whipping its long, vine-like arms.
Crimson Devil Flowers were an agry red color, and not only attacked by whipping vines, but also released a red phosphorous powder every time it shook its large flower head. This powder highly irritated the eyes and nose, impacting the receiver's ability to combat them.
Blood Gold Devil Flowers were <Lv. 20> Second Step enemies and the second most dangerous enemy that Styx had to combat. They had a dark red and gold color flower as a head and their body also had a gold sheen to it.
What made these flowers dangerous was not just their rank being above his elves and monsters, but they were extremely sturdy. They only attacked with vine arms, but those vines would split and blow apart stone, let alone a fleshy body. A <Lv. 1> rookie would even be split clean in half by the amount of force behind their attacks.
They were just as equally sturdy, their bodies resistant to both blunt and sharp weapons. Cutting through their stem was like cutting through a bar of steel and required a huge amount of strength.
Brimstone Devil Flowers were the most dangerous as they had lava like petals and vomited streams of lave from the stigma of their flower heads. They were thankfully not as resilient to damage as the Blood Gold Devil Flowers, but they did also cause the air around them to superheat and burn anyone that was too close to them.
The first wave of attacks entered the dungeon as the devil flowers charged with reckless abandon. The monsters roared in response and attack with equal aggression.
There were two living golems at the front of the pack to crush and fight back as many devil flowers as possible to prevent them bypassing the barricade. Stone-tailed foxes then crushed and tore any devil flowers which got further.
The carnivorous vine Therina gave birth to a while ago was also taking an active position to destroy the devil flowers. It was a mass of vines with bright red thorns all over it. Whenever a flower devil came near it, it would quickly capture it in a mass of vines and tear it into shreds with its deadly thorns.
The monsters with swords, sabres and daggers ganged up on quickly killing any Second Step devil flower which appeared.
The blood crystal bees were mostly useless against this kind of monster which was resistant to being stabbed, and a nigh full immunity to their poison. Styx complained that he needed to create a pesticide to earn a huge number of points, but he had neither the resources or equipment to make such a thing.
The elves found themselves with little to do to support the monsters so Styx sent most of them back outside of the dungeon between waves to collect more aggression.
Whilst each devil flower only gave very little experience, they had all levelled up and were now the following levels:
⠀
[
Therina – <Lv. 13> – Thatcher
Elena – <Lv. 17> – Bowman
Klair – <Lv. 16> – Apprentice Hunter
Kale – <Lv. 15> – Novice Dimension Mage
Rhea – <Lv. 12> – Farmer
Theo – <Lv. 15> – Farmer
Niah – <Lv. 18> – Dancer
Vivy – <Lv. 19> – Apprentice Hunter
Zac – <Lv. 15> – Farmer
Gimil – <Lv. 16> – Butcher
Still in training:
Piri – <Lv. 0> – None
Asta – <Lv. 15> – Novice Earth Spiritualist
Joel – <Lv. 14> – Novice Stonemason
Fiore – <Lv. 15> – Apprentice Hunter
Beatrice – <Lv. 11> – SeamstressArth – <Lv. 9> – Novice Stonemason
]
⠀
Vivy had reached the limit of the First Step and her next action would be to Class Up, she could then become a Hunter just like the Second Step ranker from the Silver Wheel Investment Company, or another class which he built up experience unlocked for her.
Styx had already told her to come to him when it was time so he could decide for her. She was unsure about leaving that decision to someone else, but could only sigh in resignation as he insisted.
"If all the ground troops decide what they want to upgrade into by themselves, most of them would make poor decisions."
Or so he had stated in her mind when she asked if she could choose. He had said he will accept her input on it, but she was his, and so was the final decision.
Niah stuck by Styx's side in the throne room alongside Beatrice who stood off to the side. Aura had departed the room and nestled herself in Styx's bed, a large, intricately designed spring loaded mattress that took a long time and both Therina and Beatrice's help to create.
The wolf-eared woman had taken a deep liking to it and would often choose to sleep in it when it was unoccupied. She didn't need sleep anywhere near what she occupied the bed for, she merely liked sleeping, which this bed was a new haven for.
She refused to sleep with Styx and the other women no matter how many times he tried to convince her to, and would simply leave the bed whenever it was time for Styx's avatar or the girls to sleep. Dungeon Styx never slept, but the avatar was made of flesh and bone and required sleep to function properly.
Back in the throne room, Niah flirtatiously sat astride Styx's lap and ran her fingers across his chest.
"Can you… do it again?" She whispered with a giggle before Styx's mana tendrils drilled into her body and begun massaging her mana network channels, helping expand and strengthen them.
"Hunnnnn," Niah purred in pleasure at the feeling of being so intimately embraced while she showered him with kisses and tightly squeezed one of his hands between her thigh.
"Aren't you eager."
Styx wasn't to be outdone and stole her lips, pressing his tongue into her mouth. With all the usage of his avatar, his Avatar Creation skill had reached <Lv. 7> and become almost twice as strong as before.
He grabbed onto her thigh with his constricted hand and begun sliding it up towards her secret garden.
Niah kissed him more passionately as his fingers pushed through he closed thighs and reached her bare vagina. His fingertips rubbed up and down the hot slit, combing through her vaginal folds and teasing her clitoris.
A slick fluid quickly covered her pink folds and his finger as he spread her juices around.
"Hunnnnn~~ don't be shy, you can put it in."
Niah erotically whispered into his ear and even pushed her waist against his hand and causing the finger tip to enter her tight vaginal entrance.
Styx turned his gaze and looked at Beatrice with a quizzical expression. He could feel her emotions currently spreading through their bond and to him.
"Would you like to join?"
"No…" Beatrice curtly responded and turned her head away, to tips of her pointed ears turning fron light grey to a reddish tinge.
Styx merely rolled his eyes and dug his finger deep inside Niah's tight pussy. He extended more mana tendrils from his finger and caused her entire body to spasm and cling onto him tightly as he climaxed.
"That's no fair," She complained as she rubbed the side of her face against his.
Niah may be erotic and sensitive, and have a body Styx desired greatly, but he knew that Beatrice was secretly even more sensitive than Niah. She struggled to express herself, but Styx could feel her emotions directly through their bond.
Even though she appeared displeased currently, he could tell that she was currently very turned on.
"We will continue this later," He said as the first wave of devil flowers were defeated and left behind a huge number of flowers to be exchanged for points. "With you too, Beatrice."
The large breasted, yet prim dark elf briefly nodded her head while refusing to look at Styx, making him chuckle.
~~~~~
⠀
Outside the dungeon, Therina, Elena and the other elves were hunting more devil flowers when they started finding parties of humans from the nearby dungeon city also in the forest.The humans had spread out from the city en masse, and they had now also reached the Abyssal Forest where the elves lived.
"What is there to think about, just kill them all."
The elves flittered through the treetops under the moonlight and whispered plans to one another. Therina was the most aggressive individual in that she wanted to slaughter every human.
She also held the highest position among Styx's women, so her words held the most weight too.
Klair thought about it and responded, "Wait, we should bring back as many as we can for Styx to kill. We shouldn't be in a hurry to level up again if we can avoid it."
Kale naturally supported her twin while Therina considered and nodded her head in agreement.
"Hang on," Vivy called out while shifting her gaze around. "If there are any attractive males, can you leave them for me?"
"Fine," Elena stated while sighing in resignation. "Make sure Styx agrees to anything first, or you may have zero men."
"Of course, of course." Vivy hopped in elation and was instantly fully motivated.'
One particular group of humans was passing beneath them were completely unaware of the danger when arrows flew down from above.
"Attack!" They shouted and those that could still stand rapidly moved into defensive positions.
Several humans had an arrow through their leg or hip, crippling their movement ability.
They tries to fight back but the elves attacked without hesitation and overwhelmed them before they had a chance. They were only First Step adventurer's and were caught by complete surprise.
"Don't move," Therina glared down at the humans on the ground as the group approached them with weapons drawn.
One of the humans knew magic and cast a fireball at Therina from the ground in a sneak attack, but Kale created a dimensional barrier with the wave of her hand and blocked the cannonball-like fireball, which exploded after hitting the nearly invisible barrier and sent splinters of fire all over the area, igniting several piles of dead leaves and twigs.
With another wave of her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that adventurer's head was cleanly severed and fell to the ground with a soft thump.
⠀
[
Henderson (Apprentice Fire Mage <Lv. 14>) killed!
+ 583 exp
]
⠀
"Wuu, I levelled up again. I'm going to have to ask Styx to take extra long expanding my mana network," Kale faked being sad and clung onto Klair, whom rolled her eyes at her.
The human clearly didn't know that all the female elves could see mana, else he wouldn't have tried something as foolish as using a fireball in a surprise attack. They had all already detected it the moment he started gathering mana
"A shame, he was kind of good looking for a human," Vivy mumbled under her breath as they dragged the humans back to be locked away or directly killed in the dungeon.
They were completely disarmed as half of them tried to fight back to their last breath, while the remainder were smarter and bided their time to try and escape when a chance prevented itself.
The elves repeated this process and captured lots of humans. They needed around 10,000 experience points to level up anyway, so it didn't matter that they killed quite a few of the humans.
There was greater danger when a Second Step ranker appeared though, sometimes even multiple. Therina and the others had improved a lot and could handle one as long as they were under <Lv. 30>, but were forced to flee into the night when a stronger ranker cast a rain of deadly fireballs at them or a mana reinforced sword to cut them apart like stalks of wheat.
They even managed to kill two weaker Second Step individuals by relying on an ambush and superior teamwork.
Klair did suffer a grievous leg injury and they were forced to reign in their aggressiveness towards the humans for the night. It was impossible to tell how strong a human was just from outward appearance, so that was an accidental mishap in which they attacked a woman who was far stronger than she appeared.
Elena rapidly healed the injury with Mana-Health Conversion, but that high levelled Second Step ranker was hunting after them and had also called several companions.
Back in the dungeon, there was a large number of humans imprisoned in a makeshift prison. The adventurer's and mercenaries were sly, constantly looking for a way out without fear. They were waiting for the right moment to strike while they tended to their wounds, whispering to one another with grim expressions.
Not a single movement of theirs went unobserved by Styx though. He was monitoring all the elves, the dungeon's defenses, Niah who was still shamelessly flirting with him, and the sleeping Aura because he couldn't stop staring at her sleeping expression.
"Girls," Styx spoke in an annoyed tone. "I'm happy for all the experience, but you need to be focusing on devil flowers, not just the humans."
They all coughed awkwardly and shifted their gaze away from his in guilt.