Eventually, a compromise was reached regarding the payment Rex's group would recieve for a succesfull elimination of the horde. Obviously, it was not realistically feasable to murder every last one of the tigermen, not only due to their numbers and possibility of them fleeing, once their main powerhouse gets killed, but also becasue the dungeon itself was continiusly making them spawn and come through the gate in the middle of their hordes origin point.
Rex's job was to eliminate the leader, a peak SS class tigermen variant, that was twice as big and four times as smart, though that still got it barely within range for simple strategies and the capacity for some sort of planning. Then, his 'group' was also supposed to claer out the majority of the horde itself, at least so far that the remaining individuals scatter in fear and horror, if they had the capacity to do so. based on the dragonkin records, such a thing had never happened, though said tigermen warlord was basically the last one to be put down, once again enabling a few decades of peace untill the next warlord emerges and starts a new horde.
Such had been their life for a few thousand years, though most, if not all dragonkin would swear that the richness of mana in the air is well worth it, and that eventually, they would triumph over the tigermen, bringing in about a new golden age for their people. Rex reasoned, that this was most likely second to last dungeon floor, causing the dungeon itself to act rather hostile towards the dragonkin, ensuring they do not reach it core. Said action also implied that Blythes dungeon, namely the dungeon he was in, was still relatively young, though that also explained why Blythe could be constructed here and no previous city had stood in its place. After all, unless someone stumbles upon a developing dungeon by pure luck, they could go unnoticed for thousands of years before its seperate dimension is developed enough that some monsters start slipping out and the surroundings change to become similar to the enviroment of the nearest floors to the surface.
It is this change that is ussually noticed , causing scouts to be sent to the surrounding areas, untill eventually the gate inside the dungeon is located. Then a camp gets constructed, where mercenaries and adventurers come and go, exploring the recently discovered dungeon, rather quickly developing the area into a proper adventurer town. If the dungeon has some sort of a unique flora, fauna or monster roster,though there were still no knowledge as to how these things are determined for the dungeons, if it is not all random, of course, then said mercenary city grows further, bringing in more and more merchants, each and every one of them seeking further profits. That in turn brings in more jobs for the mercenaries, who eventually settle down, start families and so on and so forth. Eventually, the place is large enough that the most prominent families become the local overlords, creating new nobility, unless some already established ones existe nearby. In those cases, the old noble families will establish a branch family in the place, extending their reach and developing the infrastructure and laws of the place. Untill eventually, a proper city surrounds the dungeon.
The trio spent yet another night in the Heavenflame family mansion, once again slipping back over to Elysium after Xersias room was secured in a barrier, the two dragonkin girls fitting in rather quickly among the other girls. And while Rex still hadnt had a taste of the two new girls, it was only amatter of time before the two sisters fell in his clutches. There were enough conversations that one way or another ended with Rex's girls recounting one or another steamy and fun episode of their nightly escapades with Rex, leaving both dragonkin women blushing and with ever growing curiosity and desire in their eyes. If he did not know better, Rex could swear his girls were just as interested, if not more than Rex, in pulling the new duo into their bedrron fun. Still, the dragonkin sisters survived yet another night, not yet sucumbing to the devils wispers in their ears, Rashuuns twin succubi daughters to be precise, though the one angel within the home was not the voice of reason you would expect. Eira was as fixated on swelling with Rex's seed as before, if not more, what with Rashuun and Izumi already expecting and she did not waste any opportunity to impress her master, hoping she would be among the next girls to succesfully concieve.
In the morning, after yet another magnificent meal as always, courtesy of Aisha, they returned to Heavenflame mansion. With Xersia and Mora now a part of Rex's family, Heavenflame noble families main branch would assign another person to take over the branch family in this city, thus taking any possible attachment the two sisters had to the family away. Foolish to be sure, but with how prepeared and willing to sacrifice Mora, breaking Xersia in the process, they were, it was only to be expected that they did the best they could to ensure they still had full controll of the branch family. Thus, the excuse they presented, namely Xersias and Moras engagement to the mercenary, was their way of achieving their desired result. Consequently, the sisters were free to do as they wished, allowing the trio to depart for the merchant city and their new mansion that awaited their presence.
Luckaly for Rex, Xersia had been to the Dragoncliff city, the place of their third home residence. Rex considered the mansion in Elysion, and the small pocket dimension as the main home for himself and his girls, followed by the residence in Blythe. And then, he supposed would come his new mansion in Dragoncliff city on the thirty seventh floor of Blythes dungeon. And while it was a given that he would reach the core of the dungeon rather soon, he still had not decided what to do regarding it. Based on legends he had read during his stay in Blythe, supposedly one of the first steps on ones path to godhood was connected to a core of an ancient dungeon, though what exactly was the connection, or how it worked was anyones guess. These old tales Rex had read were widely known, though most considered them fairytales to tell their children as they were layed to bed. Rarely would anyone look at them with the consideration of a scholar. Though that too was for a rather obvious reason- just how likely was it that anyone could actually pull that off, reaching the core of such a dungeon? Blythes dungeon was supposedly relatively new, just a few thousand years old. There were elves still around and kicking that were in their prime when it just began to form. And already, the dungeon had SS class entities at the deeper floors and in numbers that only SSS class entities could ever hope to contend with. Still, Rex had yet to figure out his own decision, once he reaches the core, which he was quite sure was only a matter of time. On one hand, draining it would surely strenghten him, on the other, it would be quite foolish of him to end its ability to develop, effectively making it into a fully formed small realm within Blythe.
While it could be used to great effect, the main advantage of the dungeon- the endless respawning monsters would no longer be there, leaving only a trully massive lands with only the natural cycle of life affecting it. And seeing how Rex had his base set up here, with rather well developed and familiar high grade meat farm, it was trully foolish end this venture. Blythe would suffer more as a consequence of such an action as well, so he was more inclined to just reach the core and understand the principles behind it. Who knows, maybee there was some secret worth finding here.
So, under the guidance of Xersia, the trio rode towards the Dragoncliff city, their path leading along some of the borders with tigermen lands. Thruth be said, there were no actual borders or anything, just that past said places tigermen could be encountered even after their hordes defeat, acting more like savage animals than actual people. Rex had yet to encounter a female tigerman, a fact he could not deny when Xersia asked about it. As it turns out, none of her peopel had ever documented a single female specimen among the hordes, making them speculate that said creatures are created solely for the purpose of dungeons defence, leading them to the same assumption that Rex had come upon- the dungeons core is close by and it is the defensive mechanism of it to release the hordes against them.
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Unfortunately, thirty sixth floors mana ambience was leagues below what it was here on the thirty seveth, causing the droaginkin to settle here, right on the doorstep of the dungeon cores 'home'. The centuries spent in such an enviroment had brought them to the point they were at- most of their offspring being born with the innate might of peak A class entities, once they are past the early childhood, with adults often stepping into SS class. Should they leave this place for lower floors, it would no doubt reflect in their next few generations as well, the weakening of their race as a whole. That was also the reason why no advanced race would ever move out of their deep dungeon habitats- they had grown acustomed to the incredibly rich mana in the air, growing powerfull, but at the same time being dependant on the same richness for their offsprings developement in a simmilar manner.
Beings like Rex however, had started at the point zero, so to speak, not having any of the same dependencies, allowing them to roam free, unbotered by the same worries. Xersias and Moras offspring would have nothing to worry about either, part of such children lineage would be made up of Rex's genes, ensuring the expected might deterioration does not happen, allowing the two to roam and explore the world outside the dungeon alongside Rex. As they rode, Rex asked multiple question regarding a possible trade between Blythe and Dragoncliff. Would it be feasible, how often do dragonkin hunt creatures with the heavengrade meat, since not everythin he had encountered had was edible on the thirty fifth and below floors. Most of the creatures that were in possesion of edible meat had earth grade, with only the most powerfull and dangerous creatures on every floor having heavensgrade, like the large snake Rex dispatched when saving Moras hunter squad.
As Mora explained, it was was indeed just as Rex had noticed. Only the most prominent and dangerous creatures had the best meat, and aside from taste, anything from thirty sixt or above floors would have no beneficial effect on them- hence why not a single of their parties ever venture to the upper floors. If they want to strenghten their own bloodline, they still have to risk their lives and atempt to hunt down the apex predators of their own floor. Eventually his girls would hit a ceiling in their bloodline upgrading, unless they consumed heaven grade meat from deeper and deeper floors, but with Rex being their provider, Mora joked that soon enough even she and Xersia could evolve into a true dragonkin, their bloodline stepping into a true dragons, no longer would they be just a true drake descendants.
"Sigh. the things I do for my women." Rex just sighed in response to the younger sisters teasing, not even considering to argue or deny the claim of the girl, causing her mouth to open in suprise. Though the flabergasted state on her face did not remain for long, relatively soon Mora closed her mouth and sunk into thoughts, properly looking at her joke and realising that it was actually extremely likely to happen. Rex would look for yet another dungeon do grind in as soon as he reaches the core here, eventually brining him ever deeper, resulting in more and more potent heavens grade ingridients.
"Ha ha ha ha. Sister. I think we caught a good one!" exclaimed Xersia in her laugher from her own mount "Hell, Rex migh actually be the best one to catch!" she added, yet another bout of almost hiterical laughter and joy resounding from her. Now that Mora looked at this aspect of Rex as well, Xersia was right- there was simply no better partner they could have ever found, not amongst the dragonkin for sure.
"Why does it sound like I am not the one who did the catching?" Rex smiled as he asked.
"Dont mind the girls talk dear, dont mind it one bit, ha ha ha." laughed Xersia, her mood growing better by the moment.
They spent the entirety of their first day on the mounts, leaving sister former home behind, stopping near a rather large mountain, a few thousand meter high by Rex's estimation, to rest for the night. Just like in the outside world, there were roads, or at the very least some semblance of them, between the four cities, though with how irregularily merchants traveled from one city to another, the state of said roads was ratehr poor. The noble families made the travel even rarer, leading to the situation at hand. Still, since there was almost a weeks travel from city to city, there were multiple such rest locations maintained by the same travelers who would use them.
As they dismounted their mounts and removed their saddles, Rex glanced at the mountain, a thoughtfool look on his face.
"Say girls, have your people tried to domesticate the birds inhabiting the mountains? I am pretty sure we could cver the distance between cities in a single day that way."
"Some fools tried, more than once during our centuries of stay here. Not once have we managed to do so yet. The best we have managed are the furvums we ride. Something in the blood of those ferocious thunderbirds that just does not sit well with taming." Xersia spoke as he petted her single coloured furvum.
"Now that just sounds like a challenge for a bloodmage." Rex smirked as he gave the reins of his furvum to Xersia. "Be back in a bit." he added as wings of pure mana sprouted from his back and propelled him into the air. In no time at all, Rex had dissapeared from sisters sight.
"Sigh. Wanna bet he returns with a thunderbird or two under his command?"
"Hi, hi, and why would I take a loosing bet big sister?" Mora giggled as they lead the three furvums inside the stable. They both had a rather large space ring each, a gift from Rex, quite a bit of feed for their mounts stashed inside. With their mounts taken care of, they moved to one of the few smaller buildings used as inn rooms. Once set up, they walked around the relatively small fence, surrounding the rest stop, checking out its integrity as well as tracks around it. noticing nothing worth of note, they returned to the lodging they had selected, though they doubted they would actually spend a night here, Rex's mansion and the soft beds there, a much more appealing option for their night. Still they would have to wait for Rex to return, so they spent the time by chatting about mundane things as well as their future.
It was only thirtyminutes or so later that the sisters heard loud thunderous schreeching coming from the mountaintop, reverberating all the way to the foot of said mountain.
"Am I the only one who feels a bit bad about the thunderbirds?" Mora asked Xersia, a wry smile on her face. The birds clearly were not having a fun time with Rex up there, surely using his smile and refined manners to convince the huge predators of the sky to become his mounts. He most definetly was not beating them up rather viciously, showing that it would be in the birds own best interest to bow their heads willingly.
"Do you think the thunderbirds are as smart as the tales say?" Xersia asked in return. "Supposedly its precisely because they are almost as intelegent as people that we could never tame them. No man would ever wilingly act as a pet to another, letting them use you as a mount and parade you around. Sure, it happens even in our society on a rare occasion, but the lenght one has to go to brake a man to such a state is extraordinary and incredibly cruel."
"All we can do is wait and see." she added, when a few minutes later the schreeching stopped as suddenly as it started, leaving a rather serene silence behind, with either of the sisters taking a sip of the tea, they had set up for themselves, every now and then.
It was another thirty minutes later that they heard the slow flapping of mighty wings and glancing at the mountain peak they could just barely make out a few dots that became larger and larger with every passing moment, untill they could see two enourmous thunderbirds closing in on their location, with one of them having a man on its back. The man was clearly Rex, for who else could it be, possesing both the might and insanity, as well as lack of sense to do what he had just done. Soon, the two birds landed in the clearing next to the camping site and Rex jumped off of the bird he was riding on, both sisters already standing at the entrance into the camp.
"The head of the local family was kind enough to gift me these two fine studs after our friendly sparring match. As well as a few hints on the places where I could aquire a few mates for them to start a new colony for us." Rex spoke, a large smile bloming across his face. "I think we will be arriving in Dragoncliff with style girls."