The Illicitous Dungeon

Styx had Therina and Beatrice swap opponents for another round. Beatrice fought Kristov and suffered several seemingly heavy wounds, even losing an arm, but would rapidly recover and then stabbed him in the stomach and held another blade against his throat.

Her previous arm on the ground rapidly burned up and scattered like ashes on the wind, and while she had won, she was breathing heavily from the exertion of rapidly healing constantly.

Humans didn't have the natural physical advantage that beastman had, so whilst there was strong resistance, Beatrice had enough strength to cause significant damage to the human ranker and force him into admitting defeat.

Therina against the female tiger beastman was a more intense battle. The beastman relied on her superior body and lightning fast reflexes as she twisted and spun in the air while making sharp turns while on the ground.

She leaped off the giant pillars in the area which were reinforced with obsidum with enough force she left faint cracks in the stone.

Her muscles bulged as she used her skills and increased her overall physical capabilities. She dashed in straight lines so fast the even Therina would have likely been unable to defend herself prior to her evolution. The air itself whistled and howled as her claws cleaved through it with immense energy.

Therina wasn't defeated by this though. She was incredibly flexible and dextrous herself. Whilst being physically weaker than the beastman, she was used to being in these situations and turned it around with skill and battle tactics.

The female beastman knew she wouldn't be able to attack her illusory tails, so whenever they wrapped around and constricted her, she attacked Therina's main body and forced them to release her.

Therina suffered several minor injuries, but she would immediately control her mana network and heal them with Mana-Health Conversion.

The battle finally ended with Therina extending mana tendrils out of her body and using them as whips which the female tiger couldn't defend against. To the males watching, she appeared to be dancing around while trying to dodge something invisible, but all the females could see mana and were inspired to learn to attack like that.

The damage of each mana whip wasn't great, but it struck directly at the mana network and if used at the right time and with enough precision, could disrupt any skill usage and cause a backlash.

"Theina is the victor," Styx stated while motioning for the injured female tiger beastkin to come over.

He had her sit on the ground before him before he stroked her fur and extended his mana tendrils into her to heal the damage to her mana network. It would naturally heal over time, but he could speed up that process greatly by massaging her mana network himself.

The female beastman purred at the feeling while resting her head against his thigh.

Kristov was still bleeding slightly from his stomach but it had begun to heal due to his Second Step body. A Third Step ranker with enough endurance and vitality could even regenerate a limb, although not as easily as Beatrice could.

Styx still assigned him some medicine and also spoke words which comforted him.

"I will also assign you a reward of your choosing. What would you like?"

Kristof was hesitant at first but eventually said, "I would like a partner."

Styx had seen his flirtation attempts through the women before and didn't think he was unattractive in any way nor should have issues getting a partner. There were plenty of dark elves or other, newly migrated elves which would most likely agree to it, but he had a penchant for female beastmen so Styx was unsure how to respond.

"Allow me," The female Second Step beatman said confidently as her mana network was healed. "He has shown his courage, so I will give birth to his cubs for him."

"So be it. Are you happy with…"

"Mauve."

"Are you happy with Mauve, Kristof?"

"Yes!"

Styx didn't care so long as they were both willing. Mauve was also quite attractive by beastman standards so he happily gave the two their blessing.

'I had always wondered how so many beastkin were born, I suppose there are those with this preference,' Styx silently wondered to himself before he asked them about other matters.

"Kristof, write down your stats. Mauve, you can just show me yours. I only need to see your basic stats."

Rhea, the beautiful dark elf with a slightly bulging stomach had already prepared paper and ink on Styx's request. Kristof quickly wrote down his basic stats for Styx, who compared all their stats against one another while making rapid calculations.

⠀

[

Species: Human

Name: Kristof Alujaner

Class: Lancer

Age: 28

⠀

Mana: 359/681

Exp: 3,760/14,816

Level: 23

⠀

Str: 57

Dex: 56

End: 54

Vit: 32

Int: 31

Mnd: 31

Lck: 5

]

⠀

[

Species: Jungle Tiger Beastman

Name: Mauve Clawripper

Class: Prowler

Age: 33

⠀

Mana: 1,347/1,347

Exp: 17,435/41,579

Level: 34

⠀

Str: 112

Dex: 83

End: 84

Vit: 70

Int: 50

Mnd: 51

Lck: 9

]

⠀

[

Species: Lithic Naiad

Name: Therina Sel'Ether

Class: Dreamweaver

Age: 41

⠀

Mana: 4,697/4,697

Exp: 0/16,334

Level: 20

⠀

Str: 32

Dex: 84

End: 35

Vit: 45

Int: 59

Mnd: 41

Lck: 9

]

⠀

[

Species: Dark Phenelf

Name: Beatrice Fin'Porte

Class: Dungeon Fire Keeper

Age: 52

⠀

Mana: 2,946/2,946

Exp: 0/16,334

Level: 20

⠀

Str: 29

Dex: 63

End: 35

Vit: 120

Int: 49

Mnd: 38

Lck: 9

]

⠀

Styx scrunched his brow while rapidly going over the numbers and how they represented a person's strength.

Beatrice had already changed into a fresh, undamaged pair of clothing with a form fitting sweater as she deliberately positioned her large breasts particularly close to Styx. The latter glanced at them and a slight grin formed on the corner of his mouth as he recognized her methods of flirting and showing intimacy.

She knew he liked it, so she would often deliberately do such actions.

"Do you understand it?" Niah had approached from the other side and latched onto his arm as she gave him puppy dog eyes.

After seeing the battle and what Therina and Beatrice were capable of, all of the girls, not just Styx's women, were greatly interested in evolution.

"I do. First is how they increase and the values. Remember, your status is just a reflection of your current state, not your status governing your current state. When you level up, the mana and potential is infused in your body, strengthening it as it slowly evolves."

"In order to increase a value by one point, a certain amount of mana is required to strengthen your body to that degree, which increases the stronger your body becomes. There are other factors involved, but this is the basic explanation."

"Every time a First Step individual levels up, all stats increase by a base one point because of this, while for a Second Step ranker it is two points, four points for a Third Step, eight for a Fourth Step, and sixteen points to every attribute for a Fifth Step. There is leftover mana too, which increases several attributes again according to your class and related mana network."

"Because the value of one extra point increases the higher the original value is, this means stats scale in an upwards direction. Mauve's overwhelming strength is an example of this. She isn't merely three times stronger than you, but is closer to 10-20x stronger in raw strength. It is a good thing she can't heal like you can or she could have simply grappled you without care of retaliating injury."

Niah had a confused look on her face and Styx doubted whether leveling up makes her smarter. Beatrice nodded in understanding but Styx also continued while speaking to Beatrice.

"There are also some differences which arise from racial talent and other stuff. But the only outside factor comes from titles. Titles that make you stronger are changes brought upon by the world or system. Unlike your status which is a reflection of your state, they directly reflects on and change your state. For example, let me write down Therina and your new title – Progenitor."

⠀

[

Progenitor: The first and original of a species.

⠀

Effects:

• Bonus experience earned +10%

• Bonus stats on level up +2 (added to x2 random attributes)

• Bonus skill experience earned +50%

]

⠀

The paper was passed around the dungeon wives and several other people and everyone was filled with envy and desire upon seeing the title's effects.

~~~~~

⠀

Everyone was filled with vigor for training and they trained twice as hard whenever they had spare time. The common trend around the dungeon was that dedication and base strength played a factor in Styx triggering someone to evolve during the class up procedure.

Another factor which was basically confirmed to be crucial was being pregnant with a monster during the Class Up process. This left a lot of the males dejected, but they were still determined to chase after strength nonetheless.

Many of the male dark elves were very happy over the new males recently arrived. The female dark elves were mostly stronger than them while they were even further behind the direct dungeon wives who simply seemed to grow stronger faster than anyone else and make it a coveted position.

Theo, Rhea's partner and a father to be, was leading a training group of new recruits. Rhea was harsh during training and tender afterwards when training with him, and he reflected those values on the new residents.

Training was a serious aspect and no slacking was allowed, but people were allowed to slack afterwards if they chose to or needed rest.

Three dark elf women and one female tiger beastman joined the group of ten males and they split off into groups of two or three to train with the equipment and devices Styx had constructed to exercise things such as power, precision and technique.

During sparring, the women had won most of the bouts, but the males had won a couple of battles against them. The tiger beastman was also a new resident so she didn't hold the advantage that those who had trained longer, but even two of the dark elf women had lost to Theo as they hadn't been training as long as him, nor under the same gruelling training Rhea made him endure.