Elena, Kale, Klair, Fiore and Niah stood beside Styx as they looked at the two large, contrasting cocoons which where Therina and Beatrice.

"And they are… inside of there?"

Elena asked while looking at the cocoons from outside of a barrier that shifted through the air like ink on water, a product of Aura's Phantasmgoria. This barrier was mainly to stop them causing more damage to the house, but it also served as a protective barrer and prevented anyone from entering

Fiore was confused while looking at them.

"So, are they monsters now? How long will they be in there for?"

"I don't know," Styx sighed while looking at the wolf-eared woman who sat like a statue outside of the barrier with an intense stare. "Aura assumed it could be about a week, but this is such an unprecedented situation it is still unknown."

"Can we also evolve?" Kale giggled lightly and grabbed Styx's hand before her sister pulled her aside.

"Klair! Why still don't know anything about it, especially any of the dangers!"

Niah giggled and leaned on Styx's chest while pressing her hips against his, "If you want to make me evolve, I will do my best to help."

Fiore grabbed her by the collar and pulled her away, but not before faintly stating, "That goes for me too."

~~~~~

⠀

New citizens began quickly flowing into the dungeon. At first, it was some sporadic elves and other exotic species from nationless villages who heard about this dungeon from Therina or travelling traders.

They came under many reasons. There was the expectation on having a safe hone, protected by one of the Fifth Step Monster Lords of the Abyssal Forest. While there were those seeking strength or a stable food source. There were even several Second Step rankers amongst them.

After these nomads came, there was then the tiger beastman village which appeared in a single mass of hundreds of beastman. They had also captured several groups of humans, which they presented as offerings as they knelt down in front of the dungeon entrance.

Their bodies where covered in orange fur with black stripes, and they had sharp, feline eyes which held a sense of danger. Their hands were also weapons with long claws, but they still used swords and bows as each had a class. Despite first appearances, they were an exotic species, not monsters.

Aura had refused to go out an great them, as if in fear she would miss the moment Therina and Beatrice completed their evolution.

Styx had then left to greet them with Klair and Kale flanking his sides. Six of the humans had been offered as sacrifice during this period and Styx was constantly grateful for extending the dungeon outside and allowing him to collect the experience.

"We are here to submit to the great Monster Lord!" The chief tigerman bashed a bone cane on the ground and loudly declared.

Styx twitched his brow and snapped back, "The great Monster Lord works for me."

The tigermen were at a loss of words, but quickly came to their own conclusion. "Great Dungeon Lord Who Rules Monster Lords!"

The beastman weren't stupid or blindly worshipping others, this was just a part of their culture and formalities. The point was that they had submitted to the dungeon, so the ruler needed a title to suit their position.

"St…Styx," Several of the captured humans had frightened expressions on their faces.

These were his dungeon slaves whose life depended on luring others to the dungeon to be Aura's food. They were on their most recent trip to the dungeon when they had been captured by the tiger beastmen and had aggrieved expressions on their face.

Styx looked at those people and nodded his head before turning to the tiger beastmen and commanding them, "Release the selected humans."

They all quickly obliged and those humans were untied."You traitors!" "Scum!" The other humans looked at them with scornful expressions.

Styx paid no mind to these people and brought everyone into the dungeon.

"We are tight on room as homes are still rapidly being built. You will be working with others to help create them and will have to make do with tight living arrangements until then."

The tiger beastmen gawked and ran their fingers over all of the intricate pictoral carvings on the pillars and walls as they entered the dungeon. They admired even more the brightly lit inner area with the complex bridge formation and lower level full of grass, flowers and tree saplings growing on mana.

They were used to much simpler homes that were close to the ground with low rooves, so the large ones Styx was building were an entirely new experience for them.

"Pinith Hughein," Styx called to the older chief beastman with faded orange fur, leader of their former village. "Are you all aware of the law of the dungeon?"

Pinith wasn't his given name, but a title which was widely used in more tribal beastman cultures. It was a title that meant "highest leader" and even though their village no longer existed, the title was retained.

"Yes, Great Dungeon Lord Who Rules Monster Lords. We only request that you do not take all of our women."

Styx still felt the title they gave him was far too long, but he chose to ignore it for now. He looked at the tigress beastmen who kowtowed on the ground in front of him and was unsure how to proceed.

He didn't have any desire to mate with them, but he also didn't want to make the species feel left out and therefore lesser than others or at a constant disadvantage.

Coming to a decision, he called the first tigress beast and placed his hands on her face, massaging her ears with his thumbs and causing her to start purring and rub her head on his hand.

"Relax, the only rule you need to follow is the women forming a bond with me. As for breeding, I will form a separate system that will engage with that and will be mostly automatic."

Styx had already begun creating another partition within his core meant solely for breeding. It essentially contained an adaptive yet basic artificial intelligence which would be used for breeding. He had considered it for a while now, as more and more women became dungeon wives, he would no longer be capable of attending to all of them without it affecting his attention on other things.

He had also begun creating control processes for the dungeon monsters and other tasks which were more or less programmable. This created a similar affect to parallel thinking and whilst it harmed his personal processing powers, it allowed him to complete more tasks at one once.

Styx also created a system which would harvest unused processing power from other partitions when he was doing research or otherwise required more resources.

"Great Dungeon Lord Who Rules Monster Lords, are our women not enough for you?"

The Pinith knelt down deeply before him in sorrow upon learning that he wasn't taking them into his home personally.

Styx waved his hand a stone sculpture of a 4 foot tall female dwarf grew out of the ground, a stocky figure with chiselled features and slightly pointed ears.

"Pinith, stand up and have a look at this sculpture."

The elderly beastman raised his head and looked at the image of a female dwarf before looking at Styx with a puzzled expression.

"If this woman was before you, would you take her as your wife and woman?"

"Should the Great Dungeon Lord Who Rules Monster Lords command me, I would."

"You are deflecting the question so let me ask it in a different way. Do you find this dwarf to be sexually attractive?"

"…"

"This is your feelings. Despite the fact that she is an incredible beauty among her race who would have men fawning all over her, you don't feel any enticement from her. Perhaps even directly averse to such relations."

Just as Styx had pointed out the difference in aesthetics and why he wasn't taking any of the female tiger beastmen as his direct women, they too felt the same way about him. They wanted to give their bodies to him for their people and to gain more authority, but they didn't hold a physical attraction to him.There were a few outliers who actually did feel that kind of attraction and weren't deterred at all though.

Several of the human captives had also submitted to living in the dungeon. There were four males and one female who Styx accepted, especially considering they had a basic education.

The men were greatly excited about the prospect of mating with other races, while the woman was more motivated by keeping her life.

Styx had a very strict policy on interspecies partners. He never forced or rejecting any such bonds, and they had to be formed in agreement between the two parties. Anyone trying to force it on another or use his name as leverage or intimidation would face punishment on the newly expanded prison or even a more severe punishment given the circumstances.

~~~~~

⠀

Irie secretly entered the dungeon during her usual weekly visit with a slightly dejected expression. She threw herself on Styx while he was sitting on his throne deep in thought and started complaining about the higher ups at work.

"They're sending over an investigation team! Do you know what that means?! They will find out about all the materials I have secretly been sending through to you!"

"Is there a way to stop them?"

"Could you kill them on the way?"

Styx nodded and pinched the woman who was being melodramatic.

"Would that solve the problem, though?"

"…No, but it would buy time."

Styx ran his finger over her lips before pushing it in her mouth. She groaned in annoyance as he stirred it around and teased her tongue with it. Despite this, she playfully bit it in defiance which only challenged the dungeon more.

"I think it's time we cut our losses and drain what is left in the local company coffers. Empty out the storage area and gold coffers and let it collapse."

"Wuuu~~ if you vant."

Irie then pulled Styx's finger out of her mouth and kissed him on the chin before completely curling up in his lap with her arms tightly locked around him.

"You will also live in the dungeon too."

Styx felt Irie's heartbeat increase rapidly and her grip on him tighten. She looked up at him with delirious eyes and spoke in a voice laced with determination.

"I want to evolve too."

"Who told you?"

"Kale."

"She really has a loose tongue, doesn't she."

"Should you punish her then?"

"Of course not, it's only if she talks too much to someone else."

"…I still want to evolve."

"It isn't a guarantee, you know. I don't understand all the specific triggers to it."

"If she can do it, so can I…"

Irie was still <Lv. 16>, the only one of Styx's girls who hadn't reached the point of Class Up yet. She had recently been feeling impatient and trained far harder than the others to catch up, but Styx had frequently forced her to hold back and prevent making any rushed decisions.

"Don't you want to know," Irie said with an impish grin as she kissed him on the lips repetitively, "what a human can evolve into?"