Chapter 91: Mana Generation

The next day, Klair and Niah were still slightly despondent with large, swelling stomachs. Niah had wanted to get stronger through evolution and felt left out, while Klair had complex feelings.

Her sister had successfully evolved, so she was happy for her, but at the same time it dug up old feelings of inferiority she felt toward her. She had gotten a better class since reaching adulthood and was always more talented than her, and this distinction between the two twins had reared its ugly face once again.

Klair rubbed her large stomach and held bittersweet thoughts on how she could support Kale more in the future.

~~~~~

⠀

Several days had passed and the two cocoons where Elena and Kale were evolving began to break apart, revealing the two dark elves within. At least they used to be dark elves, now their race transforming into something else entirely and bringing a new range of enhancements to their strengths.

Elena's skin had become much paler and her eyes had turned icy blue. A small vertical fold could be seen on her forehead, alluding to a hidden third eye. Two short red horns poked out of her head too, alluding to the devil part of her bloodline

She had become a yin oni, the grass and flow petals rapidly covered by a layer of frost wherever she stepped, the air also rapidly cooling.

Kale's looks remained mostly the same, except she had intricate violet tattoos containing the secrets of space within them on her body, a faint sigil of a dark star on the back of her hands. Her eyes had also taking on a strange attribute as they would look purple when reflecting the light. Her long hair had adopted a similar violet hue within its darkness and become slightly straighter.

On top of her head, a second set of ears appeared, these ones similar to a beastkin but more pointed and tipped with red fur.

Kale was a cosmos prowler, something even Styx couldn't understand. One of her abilities was the ability to control the space around her to fly though.

As soon as she broke free from her cocoon, Kale teleported and jumped on the waiting Styx with her arms and legs wrapped around him.

"I feel so different... and strong,"

She nuzzled her face against his whilst still adapting to her new powers. Klair stood to the side with a large smile on her face, ready to congratulate her twin sister.

"Kale, I'm so proud of you."

Klair hugged her twin whilst Kale also responded.

"Don't feel bad, you will be able to evolve next time, I promise."

Klair simply smiled and didn't say anything else.

The two girls were still naked, although Elena had half gotten dressed before Styx stopped her and dragged the two of them off to truly try out their new and improved bodies.

The following day, the newly evolved dungeon wives were in the birthing room with the others, large swelling stomach and exposed vaginas that were contracting as they were ready to give birth.

Elena did her best to maintain a steadfast expression whilst holding Kale's hand beside her. She breathed deeply as Beatrice and Therina helped both girls relax as was ritual.

An icy aura spread throughout within the room and everyone breath condensed into steam as Elena pushed the monster out. A mid sized ball-shaped monster with a single eye and short tentacles around its body was squeezed out of the narrow hole and into a waiting midwife's, Beatrice's, arms.

Kale was also going through contractions as a catlike beast with three tentacle like tails was pushed out of her.

These were a moongazer and void mage beast. The former was a monster that flew through the air and emitted beams of icy energy, the latter a strange monster which teleported and attacked with spatial blades which curved through the air and attacked from hard to defend angles.

~~~~~

⠀

The great shaft, Styx's new mana generator had finally been completed.

The giant hole seemed to extend into the bowels of the earth as orbs of varying light hues drifted down from the array on the ceiling into the depths.

Styx had already prepared enough mana eaters, the large violet flowers with pulsating blue veins through their petals. That were planted at the bottom of the chasm and immediately begun sucking up mana from the deep earth before sending it out into the air.

As the natural mana density increased, several sets of giant rings began to absorb the ambient mana until they reached saturation point and activated.

Each ring consisted of three sections. An upper section which rotated clockwise and a lower section rotating counterclockwise. In the middle was a static ring that didn't move. It instead had several large ports on it that could have a mana insulating pipe connected to them, allowing for easy distribution of mana to anywhere the connected pipes led to.

In the upper and lower rings, countless finely carved arrays and glyphs were active, which not only lifted the rings up and made them float within the shaft, but also formed a barrier to keep all the mana inside except for the outlets on the central sections.

Styx also had emergency pipes already in place that would extract the mana within the containment barrier and eject it outside of the dungeon into the world should the internal mana density grow too high.

Without more effective control measures, the dungeon lord didn't dare allow the mana density increase beyond the point where its potency could enter a critical stage and form a mana calamity.

Another benefit of the deep excavation was that it allowed Styx to locate several large deposits of ores and gems deeper within the earth. His mineral detection subskill created large sonars in the area around the excavation and revealed a multicolored display of various resources.

He begun digging the shaft wider and building living areas alongside the walls, its supports digging deeply into the walls.

These houses were mostly built out of stone, but large amounts of iron, brass and wood formed intricated details and fancy balconies around this shaft.

There were several main thoroughfares that corkscrewed up and down the side of the wall, allowing people and cargo to be moved around easily.

It also opened up easier passage to lower floors which could begin construction. Service shafts for moving large quantities of materials were also being dug.

~~~~~

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Rebecca Euklid sat at one of the taverns in the dungeon city and watched the magical projection of adventurers challenging the dungeon along with everyone else.

She appeared free to move around, but she knew that any person in this place could immediately become her supervisor. She was becoming more and more reclusive as she constantly felt like everyone was watching her.

She sat in the corner with a hood up over her head, sinking into the shadows.

"What are you doing?" A dark elf child, Piri, stood next to Rebecca and asked in an innocent tone.

Behind the child were three slave children, each looking at her with expressions of curiosity.

"I am just watching the… sport."

"Really? You don't seem to be very happy though."

"Well, I am human prisoner after all, and there are humans being used as sport."

"A prisoner? But mom told me the prisoners were held down below and were turned into Miss Aura's food. Did you escape?"

"…No."

~~~~~

⠀

Rebecca left the tavern and went for a walk around the dungeon to clear her confused head. She had already gotten used to life here and was much more reserved than she had been growing up as the duchess' daughter.

She walked to where the great shaft was and stood on a balcony overhanging the endless chasm. The falling balls of light had been replaced with rising will-o'-the-wisps riding on the surging mana.

She looked down at the still being constructed living area and felt it held a distinctive beauty to it. She leaned on the railing of the viewing platform and absentmindedly gazed down into its depths, where a faint pulsating blue could be seen as if it were the earth's heartbeat.

"Beautiful, isn't it," A masculine voice suddenly sounded behind her, causing her to jolt to attention and stumble backwards with a yelp.

Rebecca stumbled straight into Styx's arms and fell into his embrace. His hands wrapped around her waist and instinctively grasped onto her very large breasts and causing her to quickly protest.

"Where do you think you are grabbing me, scoundrel?"

"Oh? But I'm just catching you when you fell into my arms."

Styx held on firmly and squeezed, taking advantage of her body before she grabbed his wrists and forced his hands off her.

"You are being uncouth! How long until I can leave?"

"Soon I assume. The duke has built most of the road here to the dungeon. Your mother is being very verbal about this affair after all. Even your capital and royalty have remained mostly quiet. You have gotten comfortable with life here, are you sure you want to leave? It's very convenient after all."

"Of course I do!"

Styx simply chuckled and placed one finger under her chin, lifting the beautiful blonde woman's face up and moving in to kiss her.

Rebecca was stunned and didn't know how to react. Styx got close enough they could feel each other's breath on their lips before her flight mode kicked in and she pushed Styx back.

His Avatar Creation skill was high so his body was quite powerful, but Rebecca Euklid was considerably powerful in her own right and pushed his avatar back before escaping with only her scent remaining.

Rebecca was flustered and her heart was pounding in her chest. She had learned many things during her life here, including how the dungeon communicated with everyone. The women of the dungeon could also talk to one another over the same network, which she discovered after a while of running into people seemingly speaking into thin air.

What she truly couldn't understand was how breeding with the dungeon was not only not illegal here, it was encouraged and seen as an admirable trait. To be one of Styx's personal dungeon wives was a dream many elves, and especially the female tiger beastmen, held.

Seeing people with large, swelling stomachs growing monsters wasn't an uncommon sight either. Styx had created a system for allowing them to breed and receive social benefits and preferential treatment.

Rebecca looked forward to leaving, but she would be deceiving herself if she said she didn't like life here in the dungeon. There was a reason why all the nationless exotic races flocked to join the dungeon and why none of them left.