Chapter 9: Resolve

Therina wasn't happy, but she still did whatever it told her to do and climbed onto the breeder naked.

The dungeon wasn't in a rush and went through its usual procedures of relaxing her body and stimulating the erogenous zones in preparation for doing the sticking its p-tentacle inside and injecting his seed into her.

"Therina, what level are you?"

"Two," The elf softly said while humming in pleasure with her eyes closed.

"You are surprisingly weak."

"Elves… level slow. Require, higher experience."

"What is your class?"

"pojnd"

"What is that?"

"Crafting. Making baskets. Knitting. Making clothes."

"So you can't fight?"

"Can. But, no weapon. Need bow, mine burnt."

"Do you know the current situation of your village?"

"Everyone, dead. Captured and enslaved. Village burnt down."

"A few days ago, yes. But since then, it has attracted a large group of goblins which have moved into the village. Direwolves and several other monsters are also lurking in the area."

"What!" Therina called out in shock, her eyes shooting wide open and body tensing up.

"Why did you think I won't let you go? I look after my things, I will not send them to their death."

Therina felt some form of comfort in his words, but something about it still seemed not quite right.

"So. Do what."

"How determined are you to go back to the village? It's safe enough in the dungeon due to all the traps, but once you go outside, you will no longer be safe, especially considering you can't fight with your bare hands."

"Determined."

"Very well. Then you must be aware of the plan going forward. The goblins don't appear to be very strong individually, but are dangerous as a group. The miners and shroom gnomes can naturally fight, but they are not combat oriented monsters. We will need to make some whose purpose is to fight."

"Agree."

"I don't think you fully understand. In order to breed a monster, your body must carry the burden. You have only had to make those with a burden factor of 1 previously. To create a single forest goblin has a burden factor of 3, and a stonerat has one of 4.

"If the burden is too high, it will harm your health, or in the worst case, die as the monster absorbs more than you can provide and takes your lifeforce to fill in the difference. You are only <Lv. 2>, so a burden of 2 is possibly all that you can handle at the moment without it harming your health."

"So. Suggest, what," Therina said somewhat nervously. She was obviously afraid of death, as her collapsing resolve showed.

"There are two options. We can breed stronger monsters, at the potential harm to yourself. Or you can learn to fight, increase your level, then make combat monsters."

"Fight. I can."

"No, you are inflexible, becoming useless as soon as you lose your bow. Will you learn to fight then, or trade your health while remaining in a safe environment?"

"I… learn."

"Good."

The dungeon took the elf by surprise as he pushed the penis tentacle inside her now saturated vagina. Although her mind was distracted by the conversation, her body was still naturally reacting to the stimulus it was receiving.

Therina moaned from the sudden pleasure as the p-tentacle forced its way all the way to her inner depths in one thrust, rubbing and invigorating her sensitive spots on the vagina's inner walls.

She squirmed and moaned more as it began pulling and pushing against the constricting tightness of her vaginal walls, taking long thrusts which kissed the entrance to her womb each time.

"I said… train," She said between moans as she pulled one of her hands out of the restraint and grabbed onto the tentacle penetrating her, although her efforts to stop it were quite weak.

"And train you I shall. But I still need more villager units. You still have a job to do."

Therina was relived that it wasn't a monster which would drain her lifeforce and allowed herself to be lost in pleasure.

Whilst breeding, the dungeon wanted to understand everything that was happening in her, so he extended his mana tendrils into her and filled up her mana pathways.

He watched how her mana seemed to boil, twisting and turning in rhythmic waves. It moved in ways far too profound for him to understand, but he could tell there was more than just mana at work here. It seemed to be energy, which refracted into different forces such as mana, lifeforce, and several other things.

Filling up her mana pathways along with the constant pleasure caused Therina to have her stongest climax yet, moaning and grabbing onto any tentacles she could reach. Her body squirmed and she pressed her body down on the p-tentacle as if to force it as deep inside of her as it would go.

The dungeon was also pushed over the brink by this and released his seed deep inside her womb.

[

Insemination begun.

Please select seed to implant:

• 3x Miners – Burden (1) – 1h incubation

• 2x Shroom Gnomes – Burden (1) – 1h incubation

• 1x Forest Goblin – Burden (3) – 2h incubation

• 1x Stonerat – Burden (4) – 2h incubation

• 2x Forest Goblin – Burden (5) – 3h incubation

]

Despite levelling up his Dungeon Facility Construction skill, the options hadn't increased since last time, so it was likely that the available options was dependant on Therina rather than the dungeon. It also solidified the fact that the higher burden factor options would in fact harm her health, or even consume her body.

[

3x Miners selected – Incubation 59:58

]

He wondered if there was a way to strengthen her to be able to support higher burdens or create stronger monsters. He needed to know exactly how the insemination process worked, but could only study her from her mana pathways for now.

A small portion of the energy in her path network flowed and concentrated in her lower abdomen, forming a seed like bulb. It consistently drew a stream of energy into itself, which it fed off and grew from.

There didn't seem to be any issue with feeding off her energy, although if it was her earlier, narrow channels, it would have been more draining. He held some concern on wear and tear on her physical body though, but he couldn't inspect her body to check it. He could only focus on her mana network and nourish and strengthen it as he explored and understood herself and mana networks themselves.

Therina was extremely embarrassed by the outburst of her climax her entire face and ears turned red. She covered her face with her hands in shame and ignored the dungeon seed still flowing out of her vagina.

The warm embrace along with sex had been such an incredible experience it completely overwhelmed her body and mind, as if he was holding her inside his arms while penetrating her.

Even after it was over, she was desperate to feel it again. She felt it was dangerous to become addicted to the dungeon and the pleasurable feelings it gave her, whilst another voice in the back of her mind told her it was all she had now, and to attach herself to it for both safety and pleasure.

She tenderly rubbed her hand over swelling stomach almost instinctively, no longer terrified of the monsters breeding inside of her.

Not long later, she went into labor under the soothing and massaging of the dungeon's tentacles and pushed out three new infant miners.

~~~~~

The dungeon was fascinated by all the ways a person's energy would shift, change and refract itself, causing changes to the body, or the body causing changes to it. Either way, they were intricately linked.

Even with his supercomputer like information processing power, it was completely esoteric with no distinct patterns or rules.

He used his mana tendrils to make and ebb and wave stir in Therina's mana network similar to when she climaxed, and while it didn't cause the same result, she did mention she felt waves of pleasure and her body felt slightly exhausted from it.

"Take this," The dungeon said into her mind and had a shroom gnome snap off one of the spears in the spear traps.

Therina had rested for some time after the breeding session to allow her to recover her strength from giving birth to the three new monsters. The dungeon arranged the two shroom gnomes to serve as her guard and fighting force, although they are a bit dumb.

They each broke off a stone spear for themselves to use as weapons, while Therina equipped the leather armor and an iron sword the two bandits left behind upon their death. She washed the leather armor of as much blood as she could, but there was still some left alongside several holes from the spear traps.

She nervously held the sword and followed behind the two gnomes, each only a third as tall as she was.

Two more monsters were there to serve as additional protection, both of which were miners. Its sharp blades on their faces could dig through rocks, let along other monsters, and would serve as far better meat shields than the gnomes.

"Why are you frightened?" The dungeon asked into her mind.

"Death. Frightening," she replied after a brief pause.

"Cowards always die. Steel your resolve, Therina, there is only one way to get stronger, and that fear must be overcome by yourself."

"… I understand."

~~~~~

The force of one elf and four monsters ventured out of the dungeon and into the forest, giant trees looming everywhere and bright sunlight filtering in through the canopy.

Therina squinted her eyes against the sun as she was still accustomed to the low light level inside the dungeon.

"It's bright," She said to herself with some sorrow as she felt that she had no place in the world anymore and that it was even rejecting her.

The dungeon spoke instructions into her mind on things to pay attention to and when the monsters detected anything in the surroundings.

She constantly used Concealment to supress her presence and hide amongst trees and bushes. She didn't fully understand why she was doing this, but the dungeon instructed her to.

"The more you used your skills, the faster they will level up and more proficient you will be able to use them," It had told her, along with ensuring she constantly managed her mana levels, neither of which she could refute.

The first monster she was up against was a direwolf scout, a monster guarding an area a pack of direwolves had claimed for themselves. She climbed up a tree following the dungeon's instructions as the two miners guarded the area and the shroom gnomes picked up rocks and threw them at the direwolf scout.

Well, they threw the rocks, but their aim was so bad it would be unfair to say they threw them "at" the direwolf.

It was enough to attract its attention though, as it growled and immediately pounced toward the shroom gnomes.

The two gnomes held the large spears defensively and begun to retreat back toward the tree where Therina was lying in wait in. They held the spears poorly and barely fended off the wolf's attacks thanks to constant orders from the dungeon almost micromanaging them.

Therina watched from an overhanging branch as one of the gnomes was bitten on the arm, the wolf's teeth digging deep into its flesh, before it was flung off to the side.

The direwolf turned to the second gnome who was still retreating and lunged at it. It attacked back with the stone spear, swinging it like a club instead of stabbing due to its low intelligence, especially towards combat.

The wolf flinched back from the blow, growling and howling to call its companions now that it felt a threat, several wolves howling in response in the distance. It allowed the shroom gnome to finally retreat back under the tree the elf was lying in wait in.

"It has called for reinforcements, you need to be quick, kill it and retreat toward the dungeon immediately. You cannot defeat an entire pack."

Therina was incredibly nervous as cold sweat formed on her hands holding the sword. Steeling her resolve, she leapt down from the tree holding the sword in a two-handed downward thrust.

Her heart beat like a frightened rabbit as she stabbed it at the direwolf from overhead. A shroom gnome held it as if its life depended on it, but the wolf's keen instincts sensed the danger. It threw off the gnome and retreated, although not quite fast enough.

Therina's sword glanced across the wolf's neck, drawing a long gash, while also stabbing through its leg and into the ground.

The direwolf held none of the fear that the elf did, its life constantly filled with life and death battles. Even though it was bleeding out in the neck and one leg temporarily pinned to the ground, it growled and struggled to get free, spitting saliva at the elf threateningly.

Therina followed the dungeon's advice and grabbed the spear the shroom gnome had dropped. She thrust it at the wolf, but it caught it in it mouth and tore it from her grip, inadvertently pulling her within melee distance of it.

She panicked and trust with her hand, knocking its head to the side but still allowing it to bite into her shoulder, piercing through the leather armor and drawing blood with a crushing pain. One of the miners charged forth, albeit not very fast, intending to impale the direwolf. It was forced to release Therina and defend itself from the beetle three-quarters the size of itself.

"Hurry up!" The dungeon shouted in her mind.

She quickly dashed to where the fallen spear was and picked it up again. She had very low strength, but she was very dextrous. She thrust the spear directly into its mouth and back of the throat. Its tip was very sharp even though it was only stone, directly tearing flesh and almost fracturing bone too.

Therina didn't have enough strength to pierce out the back of the wolf's neck, but she did twist and damage the surrounding flesh under the guidance of the dungeon.

The wolf tried to growl but only sputtered blood, the spear keep it from closing its mouth or throat as blood constantly poured out of the wound.

It very quickly died, drowning in its own blood.

[

Direwolf <Lv. 5> killed!

+ 83 exp

]

Therina then pulled out the iron sword pinning the wolf to the ground and retreated back toward the dungeon while nursing an injured shoulder. She could already hear the rustling of bushes and a large number of feet running on the ground coming in her direction.

The monsters retreated at the same time, but the miners were simply too slow. One of them remained behind to stall the wolves, and the dungeon realized just how useless their carapace was as an armor.

None of the direwolves were dumb enough to run headlong into its sword like diggers, instead kiting around it and attacking from the sides and back. Their claws and teeth cutting into the carapace and ripping them off like de shelling a prawn. It barely slowed the wolves down by half a minute before it died and its connection to the dungeon was severed.