Rex arrived at his destination quite soon after seperating from Vivian. He had quite a bit of work piled up, and not a lot of time to do it, thanks to his promise to Vivian to try and get this done as soon as possible. He did guess he was spoiling his girls a bit, but why would'nt he, the girls were happy and trying their damn best to show him their apreciation for his actions and treatment. And with the alternative being a bland and possibly hard life, for quite a few of them, Rex did not even consider their social status as something that mattered anymore.
Vivian had spoken to him about it a while ago during one evening when he had touched the subject, and according to her, being branded as his slave was both a mark of belonging and security at the same time. And she added that they were living more luxuriously than most princeses or even rulers ever could. No slave anywhere else could even comprehend such treatment, let alone dream of it. So, she ashured Rex he had no reason to ever think about it again. Besides, the brand did not change their perception of him, but only prevented their ability to betray him or harm anything of his.
The best example would be Elena Vex. After he aquired her, she hated his guts, and did not bother to hide her disposition, well aware he was keeping her around for some reason. She would obey his orders, since she could not disobey without experiencing a lot of pain, and up untill she was given to the succubi for reeducation, she was quite the bitch, who would bite her masters hand if the opportunity arose. Now however, after all the training, she would act like a bitch in heat whenever Rex would visit the place she was trained at. Elena had becoem a true pro in draining ones seed, and she happily serviced him on every occasion she got. Rex was sure that had he not developed certain array for making impregnation impossible within its range, Elene would get pregnant within days of the brothels opening. She was that thirsty towards getting her holes filled. Rex had reminded to himself to enjoy her while she is till not deployed for business, since then he would no longer spend his time on her. She would be too bussy earning money and repenting for the atrocities she performed or ordered during her time as a saint of the Echlisiarchy.
All the Veran women had also expressed their gratitude to him for claiming them as his slaves, since their lives were trully like heaven, or anything that was their equivalent to the place. Even the girls who were in the maid or servant core were always genuenly smiling as they moved around the mansion and performed their duties. Rex had heard countless cheerfull and happy conversations in late evenings about how awesome he is or questions if they are not dreaming or had they maybee died and this was a sort of happy afterlife, a reward for the life they never got to experience. Rex did feel a bit shocked at just how little those girls needed to be happy and content, and he was disturbed with the thought their afterlife would still be as someones slave, even if only in name, Nevertheless, all these things combined gave him enough confidence to continiue with his current pace and actions.
Chasing off yet another pair of guilds gate guards, an action he had come to expect, he entered the gate, and just a few moments later he saw an endless field of snow in front of him. Based on his estimates, the temperature was around minus ten degrees celsium, ensuring the eternal winter in this dungeon. The unique conditions of it made delving much more difficult for the average adventurer, since they now had to pay additional attention to temperature, food, tracking and so on. Resting during nights was also different affair alltogether in sucha a hostile enviroment, and all of the previously mentioned conditions made just the traveling much more difficult.
Th greater problem were the monsters and inhabitants of this place themselves. The place was packed with monsters heavily adapted to life in such conditions, making it twice as hard to fight them. Both overcoming the problematic clymate as well as having to deal with a highly addapted monsters that trive in such a specific enviroment. Then there were the Svergi people calling this dungeon home. They were the human/giant hybrid race who had settled here, and due to whom there were certain laws and rules in circulation in the Long-Shu city that was developed near it.
As Rex was scanning the area around himself, he noticed a party of three limping back to the gate. It was obvious they had just experienced a rather unlucky encounter and had most likely lost a member or two. As the trio approached Rex, they eyed him warily, then hopefully loked to the portal behind him. Understanding their plight, stepped slightly to the side, freeing the direct path towards the gate
"Go ahead, I have no reason to hold you." Rex spoke once the way was open, and the trio gave small and exausted nods as thanks and slogged to the gate. As the exausted trio moved past Rex, the furr clad priest girl spoke weakly
"We ran into a patroll of Svergi hunters. They never come to the first few floors. Be carefull."
"Thanks for the heads up." Rex responded "The rest of the party is dead or captured?" he then asked. He saw no reason not to help out if the chance arose, thought he would not chase them down. Ow who was he kidding, that seemed like a fun time, so he definetly would.
"No, they bled out when I was mana down. We barely dealt with that hunter scout party." The girl spoke, tears in her eyes. Rex fished out a few healing potions , something he had quite the supply of, yet basicly no need for.
"Drink these, will help you get fixed up sooner. Consider as my condolences and thanks for the info." With the six potions deposited in the girls hands, he turned his back to the trio and walked deeper into the expanse of the snow. He could see the mountain in the distance, as well as the forest far ahead of him, just as covered in snow as the field in front of him, yet said forest exuded some sort of chilling and unvelcoming aura.
"Wraights?" Rex asked himself as he moved forward towards the forest. This dungeon was B class from the get go, so it was not too rare that a group of C class adventurers would enter the first floor to hunt and would get wiped out. Solo adventurers would be universally turned away by the guilds guards at the gate, but a full party of five members of aa rank thats one lower than the dungeon base would be allowed to enter.
"Still, lets track their path to their clash place. Who knows if there are more scouting parties for those Svergi hunters on this floor. But them being here on the first floor is suspicious. Better ask the sect maids, they should know something." Then Rex facepalmed himself "Or I could just ask Vivian and city lord." and with that Rex summoned another of his cosmic ravens, attached a parchment with the questions to its feet, and sent it back through the gate. And in a few minutes of waiting the raven was in the lap of Vivian, with the parchment with questions rolled out on the table. That reminded Rex he needed the communication rings for every single of his girls, not just izumi, Rashuun, Val and Mel.
Then Rex learned what he needed in another few minutes as the governor wrote answers on a parchment and placed it next to his questions. With his curiosity sated, as much as it could be, he disspelled th raven, and dashed ahead, still following the trail previous trio had left. Rex now had a few possible reasons for said Svergi parties presence, none of which would end up a benefit to the whole operation of dungeon delving, since the fighters of said race baseline were high or peak B class entities. In return for such might, their potential ceiling was much lower, and only in insanely rare cases would they produce a member with the capacity to go beyond S class. Still, such races had quite the utility for anyone who could claim them as ones subject, especially with how widely spread were humans in this world.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
A subordinate race who could provide armies of elite warriors when fielded against humans was a rare treasure in of itself, thus making Rex wonder why noone had bothered to claim them, since he had yet to hear about Svergi armies doing work in the outside world. Another question he will have to figure out once he finds someone knowledgable about the subject. Thus thinking about what could possibly be said reasons he soon arrived at the location of the fight.
From the state the placewas in, the condition and movement speed of the retreating trio, he estimated that the encounter they had must have happened aproximately hour and a half ago. He also saw the heavily furred wolf like creatures that had started their meal, feasting on the remains of the fallen humans and svergi here. being teh addict that he was,he quickly disposed of said creatures, severing them in half with a few movements of his blade, then looked around the area. Then, few minutes later, once he had found the tracks of svergi party, he dashed ahead, the snow not being much of an impediment for someone of his level.
The next few hours Rex spent following the trail back to its source, occasionally encountering some wooly creatures who called this place home. The svergi party had walked quite the distance through the forest, combing the outskirt part,and not going deeper into the forest. Such a thing did intrigue Rex.
"Peculiar." He spoke to himself. From his current understanding it seemed as if said party was specifically combing the outskirts, as if searching for something. And that something intrigued Rex the more he followed the tracks. A few times he had to comb the area, where the tracks were messed up either due to some fights between monsters or snow falling from some of the giant trees, deleting said tracks for a dozen of meters. Still, since there had been no snowstorm or any other detrimental weather, Rex could maintain his pace for the most part untill he finall found a clue to his quest.
Rex stood in an area that had experienced quite a lot of activity. And he could see two different tracks for him to follow. The largest set was undoubtedly the path svergi group came here from, but that was a cold lead, since they must be days old by now, and barely discernable. It seemed they camped here for a day or so, planned and then split in two, and continued their search, so without wasting much time, Rex picked up his pace and followed the tracks of the second group. This once had moved to comb the deeper parts of the forest, reinforcing his suspicions in their objective. But what could be important and capable of movement that thye were looking for? That was the question Rex was most intrigued by. Nevertheless, he would soon know the answer to said question. All he had to do was trace said second party and convince them to share their knowledge. He was with convincing people. Very good.
Another few hours and couple bloodbaths later Rex picked up some new humanoid lifeforms with his scouting abilities, and once close enough he spotted a group of svergi scouts.
"Finally I found you." Rex said to no one in particular, a toothy grin blooming on his face. he picked up his speed, not bothering to hide his existance and shot straight towards the group. Then with long leap and a loud 'puff' he landed near the svergi group, scaring the shit out of them, and causing them all to grip their weapons and prepeare for the fight with the monster ambushing them. With the snow quickly settling after Rex's landing and revealing him to the battle ready group, one of the svergi exclaimed in common
"Shit, got scared for nothing. Just a human." then a huge grin bloomed on his face "I claim this one. Been needing a new slave lately. Missus keeps bugging me."
"Haaah." Rex sighed at the words of the svergi man "I should probably stop supressing my aura when I want to intimidate weaklings. Its funny how every retard and their mother thinks all humans are weak and stupid." He was entirely dissapointed. The moment they think they are stronger, they let go of all of their wariness and start acting boastfull.
"Now then," Rex continiued "We can do this two ways. The easy way, and the hard way. Which one is it gonna be?" he asked as he looked at the party. Sure, he was gulty of the same thing, for the most part anyways. He would calculate the oppositions power, the nact accordingly, but the difference was that no matter how weak his opponents were, he would still maintain absolute focus against any kind of possible sneak attack, while showing the face of whoever he was playing at the given moment.
His question caused a barrage of laughter from the svergi party, clearly entertained by the absurd words of the lone human, seemingly forgetting the speed and power with which le landed near them, catching them offguard. Rex concluded that he was dealing with a bunch of blockheads, so he decided to switch his approach.
"The hard way it is then." He said as he released his supressed aura. The sheer power and opression it exuded caused all svergi present to fall to their knees, the smiling faces replaced with utter fear and horror. They were not in front of a man, no, what stood before them was a monster far more terrifying than anything they had witnessed in their lives. The sheer bloodlust that had formed and taken root in his aura, influenced by the countless creatures Rex had slain in the dungeons was beyond opressive. It was so thick with killing intent and desire for slaughter that one of the younger hunters even pissed himself. The poor hybrid was trembling like the last leaf on a maple in a windy autumn day.
Then Rex retracted his aura and all the kneeling hunters slumped on the ground, relieved of th suffocating pressure. Their bodies were now sprawled on the ground, relaxed after surviving such an ordeal. Their minds however were still trembling, well aware that the monster was right there, next to them, eying them with gods know what intentions.
"Now that you are in your place and ready to do as told, here is the first question. Whay are you doing here on the first floor, and why are you searching for whatever you are searching for?" REx asked, his voice light, bet bearing the weight of the world with the words spoken. The group was well aware that should they lie, their deaths would not be pleasant, and they could not know wheter their capturer could tell if they were lying or not. Luckaly for Rex, and probably for them as well, the youngster who sullied himself started to spill everything he knew, and since they were briefed together, that would entail their entire mission. The boy was not interrupted, since the second someone wanted to shut the boy up, they would experience the full brunt of Rex's aura presure once again, allowing the young man to finish his report.
As it turn out, the tribe of svergi living on the floors closest to the entrance, which would be floor seven, had just had a change of leadership, and having predicted the possibility of his demise, the old chief sent his wife and daughter away, not wiling to let the new chief have his way with them, since they would be considered the mans spoils. And so a few scouting parties had been sent out to find them. Theirs was the first to arrive here, having chosen more obscured and less known trails, and they split up a while ago to speed up their search. They had solid reasoning in believing that the two women should be around here. most likely trying to escape the dungeon to avoid their inevitable fates.
A few more questions later Rex had an extensive knowledge regarding the situation, and he now had a piece of cloting that belonged to the daughter that was being hunted here. He spent a short moment i nexamining the remnants of energy belonging to the girl, then he decided to find the duo, because why not? He wanted to see if svergi had beauties to offer, since he did not mind a few well trained and strong women to have fun with, his did not discriminate based on race, as long as they were pretty in his eyes.
"Now, what shouold I do with you people?" Rex wondered out loud after sending quite a few of his cosmic ravens in all dirrections. He used them as the conduits for his sensor abilities, reading energy all around said crows for killometers, searching for the specific signature of the svergi girl. Silence descended the place among the giant trees where Rex stood, surrounded by the spraweld on earth svergi group. None of the hybrids wished to die, but at the same time they were scared enough to not risk speaking unless spoken to, afraid the monster might snap.