Yakumo Ren and his group slowly entered the cavern, and kept advancing, some uneasiness slowly creeping into their bones. As they moved further and further into the cavern, they all noticed the same issue. Even though they were in a cavern, they had yet to encounter any monsters at all. A major deviancy from the ussual rules of said dungeon. Caverns were meant to not only have monsters, but there were more monsters in such places than roaming the tunels in the deep floors.
It could not have been the second raid group, since they should have been done a few days back, and that was enough time for monsters to repopulate the area. So, unless the other raid group was delayed for whatever reason, all clues pointed to another predator of immense skill and threat to cause other monsters to vacate the cavern. Soon after with their raid warned, fully prepeared for a combat encounter and on edge, they kept on moving forward, albeit slower than before, since they were all ready for combat at a moments notice.
Another half an hour later they reached the culprit of their worries. As Ren feared ahead of them was indeed a predator of epic proportions. He could see a rather frantic striped purple hydra in a light cloud of dust, moving arround rather erratickally.
"Shit! STRIPED PURPLE HYDRA AHEAD! PREPEARE FOR POSSIBLE COMBAT AND RETREAT MANOUVERS!" he yelled out, and after a short reorganization of his group, he along with a few other scouts dashed forward. They needed to examine the monsters more closesly, figure out if it had any notable injuries or defects from old fights with other hydras and then come with a proper plan to avoid fighting it as much as possible. They lacked appropriate firepower. Sure, they had quite a few S ranks and even a couple of SS, since the raid was organized by guild and with the cooperation of multiple large city lords as sponsors. But they lacked the decisive factor- extremely powerfull mage who could basicly blow up sad monster once it was exausted.
Ren cursed inwardly. They had a great raid up untill now, so of course the dungeon ahd to go adn fuck it up with a hydra. However the closer they got, the more their expressiosn changed. From grave frowns to questioning looks to downright suprise and shock. What they saw was nothing short of a fairytale. The hydra was desparately trying its hardest to bite the human in front of it. Trying and failing, again and again, and said man seemed to be dodging with ease, every now and then exploiting an opening during which he swung his blade and seperated another head or two from its body. As they looked around, they noticed quite the numver of hydra heads cut off and lying motionless around said battlefield, just proving how dangerous said human was.
They had to stay there in stupor for a few minutesm their brain shortcircuted once they realized the man was fighting the monster alone.
"Should we help Boss?" one of the scouts asked as they came to, but before Ren could even think it through they heard a cold voice, clearly waring them.
"Dont get in my way. I dont share my prey." They did not need much time to understand who the voice belonged to, and not willing to earn the anger of such a powerfull individual, they quickly left the place.Soon they were back with the rest of the raid team, and after a few minutes of briefing, they ahd a new plan adn them moved forward. Keeping a solid distance, their raid walked past the ongoing fight, ensuring the hydra did not notice them, and avoiding its breath atack range, something it had tryed multiple times to employ to deal massive damage to its adversary, and failing each time.
"Who da fuck is that guy?" grumbled one of the dwarfs from the expedition, clearly jelous of said persons individual might and ability to solo such depths.
"I hope the governor will have some info, that guys seems trouble." Spoke Ren as he covered their groups rear, ensuring no other dangers appear catch them unaware. A few minutes later they had sucsesfully got past the hydra and were descending the stairs to next level. Once there, they soon got through the gate that was nearby, concluding their raid and returning home. All this time, their group, while vigilant within the dungeon, still talked about the monster of a man they had witnessed battling the hydra alone.
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Rex had weaved, dodged and sliced said hydras heads on regular interwals, exausting its energy reserves causing the endless attacks and its desparate struggle to take him down. The sheer amount of heads proved to be quite the hindrance to his ability to attack from either a blind spot or back, since with that many eyes and heads, it had no actual weak point to exploit, leaving Rex with a rare few opportunities to inflict damage as he was avoiding its bites. Nevertheless, he still found openings, causing its current status and slowly gaining greater and greater edge over said monster.
Then, after he shooed away the possible meddlers in his fight, he redoubled his efforts to take out the monster, inflicting more and more damage. And seeing that said monster did not have infinite energy, his tactics were working out. Another few minutes later, hydra was becoming more and more sluggish, allowing Rex to keep slicing away at the monster, weakening it more and more. With its regeneration slowing donw noticably, he got more and more space to manouver and decapitate said monster, and another thirty minutes later, said poisonous monster finally drew its last breath.
Then Rex spent some time draining beasts blood in a seperate special rings, made specially for storing liquids like blood, something Rex had aquired as he was prepearing for said dungeon, since hydra was one of his main targets. Another hour laterhis prey was dismantled and stored, and another thity minutes later still he left the dungeon and returned to the small but cozy cottage he had been provided by the city governor. As he entered said cottage he was greeted by a sweeet voice, Vivian standing there in a modest dress with an apron on.
"Welcome home honey. Would you like a bath, dinner, or maybe ... Me?"
A smirk appeared on his face, as he looked at the smiling and flirting woman, then he answered
"I suppose I will take the bath and you together first." Then he moved to said room with Vivian right behind him, pouncing on him the moment he was inside. A few hours later and now in the bedroom, both laying on the bed and Vivian with a satisfied expression, she asked Rex
"You done with the dungeon? Or will you go dive in it again?"
"Done here." he responded "Now gotta explore that frozen wasteland with human- giant hybrids and we can proceed with the Echlisiarchy. Some plans will need to be adjusted depending on what I find in said dungeon. How was your trip?"
"Everything according to plan, Gramps is happy with my progress, even if its slower than he would like. Word has spread about how Neo destroyed those three demon princes, so gramps wants me to concieve as soon as possible." Vivian answered as she nuzzled her face closer to his neck and ear, sensually whispering "I would not mind at all either, so whenever you feel like, I am always ready." Rex chuckled to that
"Jea, there is a lot of willing women I am afraid. But eventually, you will all get that opportunity. Its just that recently I learned of another possible danger that I need to prepare an answer for. Cant tell anyone about it though. Its conceptual, so the more people are aware of it the greater of an issue it will become. So dont worry and just trust me. I will solve it, and once my shard world will be developed enough so my spawns can grow safely, I will willingly sacrifice myself for all your needs."
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Vivian purred lightly in his ear "Dont take too long, there is a limit to how long a girl can hold back, and I will have backup."
A few minutes later, Vivian spoke again, this slightly more seriously, with a bit of grievance in her voice
"I demand compensation."
Confused Rex tilted his head to look in the girls eyes, one of his eyebrows raised as he asked
"Ohh? For what offence and what would be the compensation?"
"Well, this trip has kept me away from your nights in the Elysium, since I had to follow the plan, and I will be left out once again during your delve in the second dungeon as well, since we need to keep up appearances. So I want more personal lone time once this is over. I believe I deserve it."
Rex sighed in defeat, causing the woman to smile devilishly "Fine, you are right. Your grievance has been heard, the damages has been noted, and as such the ruling body has decided to award you your demanded renumeration. Once we are done in your homeland and back in Blythe, you shall have your exclusive time." His verdict soon changed her devilish smile into light laughter, that soond subsided, as Vivian moved one of her legs over him and huged him even closer to herself.
An hour or so later, Rex developed the barrier, and entered his Elysium, where as ussual he spent his night with the girls, and come morning he returned to Xian-Wu together with Vivian. Once the time was appropriate, in the company of Vivian, Rex went to visit city governor, who was all over Rex, singing him praises and thanking him for his presence. Then teh man subtly inquired about his delve, and when Rex just glanced over his trip, mentioning that it was fruitfull enough, The governor could not hold back and asked if Rex had encountered a hydra down there, as there were rumors floating around the city about a solo adventurer in the deep floors fighting hydra alone. Even going so far as to threatening the raid group that was aproaching not to interfere in his fight.
Rex just laughed at the question. "I am more than sure you must have already personally visited their leader and inquired about it. And no, No parts of said hydra will be sold anywhere, though as I said beforehand, I will vendor some of my gains in this city, so look forward to it. I am sure my limits are much higher than any of the raid teams that could be scraped together."
Another ten minutes later Rex and Vivian left the place, an as he had said, Rex offloaded a part of his loot in the local auction houses or at the more luxurious shops, since ordinary merchants simply could not afford his wares. His slight offload however did mean that quite a big surge of visitors would be seen in this place in the coming few weeks. And with that part of their plan done, the duo left the city for the next dungeon Rex would be delving.
As Rex and Vivian arrived in Long-Shu, they reminisced of the few memories they had here. In particular the three foolish young masters who were taught a lesson. Since they were not pretending to fool more arrogant fools, Vivian was holding tight to his arm as they walked out of the gate district. The way they walked made it look as if a couple smitten with each other was walking towards their next destination, causing quite a few envious pairs of eyes dirrected towards Rex. He was after all just an average looking man, while Vivian was an absolute beauty. Still, no one was foolish enough to get in their way, Vivian was well known, as well as the incident with the three unlucky young masters still fresh in the minds of local populace.
"Say husband," Vivian asked as they kept walking "has any other godess of my generation aproached you? I was expecting them to laready be all over you with all the rummors about your power spreading around."
"Not yet, but I suspect that is just a matter of time. Besides, I have spent almost all of my time in the dungeon. I doubt they would risk their trump cards in such a risky enviroment. That aside, husband huh? So what would you be then? Wife, concubine, or a maid?" Rex asked after he answered the serious part regarind the recent events.
"Would it actually matter? As long as a woman warms your bed, she is equal in status to the rest performing the same, is she not?" Vivian returned his question with a few of her won, not expecting an answer, since it was already well known to both Rex and her. It was just as she had implied. She was in the core group, a lover of Rex, and so she recieved the same treatment as the rest of the girls in this classification, and the treatement was exceptional, to say the least.
"What do you want to do while waiting for me?" Rex asked her, and after a few minutes of thinking, she made a solid plan to entertain herself
"Bring me to the governor here. Lest have him entertain me while you brutalize their dungeon. I can scheme a bit regarding the three competitors of mine. They should come here soon, once news of your arrival here spreads, and they will have to visit the governor if they want to plan a perfect encounter to maximize the effectiveness of first impressions, so me being there will give us quite the advantage in bagging the girls for you while giving me extra leverage and an upper hand towards them." Vivian did not shy away from divulging her plan to Rex, who had to agree and help her out to maximize the efficiency of her plans. Vivian had spoken with teh rest of his lovers, and all had come to an agreement regarding Rex. Their man was greedy for many women, in an unconscious effort to fix some sort of wound or hole in his being, and they could not, nor did they want to see what happens once he breaks because of said hole. It was better to be acomplices and the ones who controll and facilitate who gets in and accepted. They had all agreed to do their best to try and mend Rex wound, ensuring he would treasure them all once he is eventually fixed.
Rex pulled her closer to himself, causing her to let go of his arm and wrap her solf and gentle hands around his torso, thus providing him with the chance to let his hand be dishonest, once again apreciating the softness of her ample yet firm buttocks. then with her frimly in his arms, he call one of teh nearby coachmen, and ordered the man to bring them to city governors mansion. Something said man was more than willing to do, providing the duo with dozne minutes in a relatively comfortable carriage. Time they used effectively, leaned against each other and in a firm yet relaxed embrace, talking about some random miscelanious things.
Soon they exited the carriage, paid the coachman and entered governors mansion. They encountered the half breed giant guard woman that was present during the three master issue, and once she recognized both Vivian and rex said woman lightly bowed to the duo, and quickly went to fetch her boss, while quickly yellin a few orders to the nearby servants. And quickly all the nearby servants dashed into action, ofering Rex and Vivian guidance towards the best lounge, and once they were there tea and some snacks were quickly served. And almost as quick as the servants, their masters soon was also upon themgreeting the duo with deeps bows and light flattery.
As they enjoyed their tea, lord torturemaster had been brought here, and said man quickly and shortly went over the methods and care he had gone through when dealing with the only discarded young master. Said torturer also shamelessly advertised his own services should neo need such services in the future. Something that Rex noted and praised said man for his enthusiasms and controll over his impulses, maximizing and perfecting the art of torture. Rex also added that he might be in need of such skilled hands in the near future, and that he would definetly rememeber the man whne he needs said services. The governor too was more than willing to lend his expoert, should the need arise.
Then Rex got to the heart of the matter of his visit, asking the man to host and entertain Vivian while he was delving in their dungeon. With Vivians prompt, Rex also notified the governor of the possible visit from the other three godeses, and why he needed Vivian to be with the governor, awaiting said groups. Of course Rex did not expect the man to just do what he asks out of fear of his wrath, he would offload some of his loot from the local duneons deeper floors. An offer no sane ruler who wanted their cities to grow would pass up, and so, as expected, the man here also agreed to assist with everything he could, earning himself an acknowledgement from Rex.
With Vivian in the care of local governor, Rex turned and left the mansion, his next target - Dungeon of the accursed. During their short coversation that was mostly light natured, he still learned a few do's and dont's regarding said place as well as a few important tips from the local masters that had lived around and delved in said dungeon. Even if Rex, with his raw atributes and magic, could disregard most if not unexpected traps and ambuses.