Chapter 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 adventurermunity 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 toon 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 privatend 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 re 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 havee back with quite the entourage."
Edna Euklid nced 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 wed 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.
~~~~~
"What are you saying?" Duke Euklid had a grave and overcast expression as he red 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 wastnds 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 Reba? I heard Lagoon Porter City was captured by the rogue illegal dungeon lord, is she still there?"
"Reba 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 ufortably 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 publicpanies since long ago I am sorry it had toe 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 mmed 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 ce a set of eternium handcuffs on his wrists that not even a Third Step ranker could break.
Duchess Euklid nced 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.
~~~~~
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
umted 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
st 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, 5va, 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 de, 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 arge 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 aplishments.
The first was Advanced Material Identification, a subskill of Mining which allowed him to view much more detailed information of materialspared 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 arge 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," Styxmanded 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 arrowsnded upon him like ballista bolts.
Before the arrows could tear through his body and mutte 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 piged 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 manawork channels!'' Styx silently thought in his head whilstughing uproariously
What these ancient people used was a mana logic system modelled after manaworks and the automatic skills they gave to people. It was incrediblyplex and took him an entire week to decipher just one basic spell.
Using Mana Vein Construction and Mana Logic Construct, he replicated this manawork 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 ring 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 thenguage 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 trante it for them.
Styx was actually surprised that they were so clueless on thenguage. 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.