At some point I slipped into a fugue again. It wasn’t boredom, exactly. I didn’t feel restless, but with nothing I could easily do I sort of drifted, watching the leaves rustle and the occasional forest animal plod past.

Then I heard someone running through the forest.

That snapped me into full focus, and I watched as a woman plunged into view, breathing heavily. Not entirely human, this woman, to judge by the tail and the ears - which I took at first for a costume. Because it was entirely pat to see a fox girl instead of something genuinely alien.

But fox girl she was, with bronzed skin and red hair (fur?) to match, leather armor, and a bundle clutched in her arms. She was breathing heavily and had twigs tangled in her hair but was beautiful nonetheless, bare arms and legs fit and toned, shapely under the armor, and most importantly she moved well. Even though she was clearly tired, there was a certain intrinsic grace to her movement, the kind I’d only ever seen in martial artists.

I was watching closely as she stopped and looked around - she was gorgeous, and it was by far the most interesting thing that had happened in weeks - but it took me a minute to realize that she’d spotted the entrance to my halls. And then she darted for it too fast for me to close the entrance.

As she ran inside I did hastily close the doors to the three trap-halls. And the overlay pinged me.

Shayma Ell, Level 6 Seeker.

Shayma darted down the hallway, reaching the end of it and leaning against the door there, panting and gasping. And the moment her bare skin touched my wall the lust that had simmered, banked behind smoked glass, shattered through and flared up again.

I wanted her. I wanted her badly.

All the eyes I had in the hall were focused on her, drinking in every last detail of her skin as part of me plotted to open a pit trap and drop her down to where she could never escape, I could have her to myself...a thought that jerked me back slightly, since that was not the sort of person I considered myself. But under the sudden pressure of carnal need those sorts of things kept skittering around the edges of my mind.

So did other things. There were more noises in the forest as four others came into view, humans in loose chain with swords and without mounts. “She’s nearby!” One of them called to the others, studying some crystal he held in his hand, and his voice echoed into my hall.

“Oh, no…” Shayma whispered, then turned and ran her hands over the rocks, looking for something. Possibly a secret exit; she may have very well seen the doors closing. And I, struggling as I was with dark and carnal fantasies, had an idea. Somewhat.

I put out fruit and meat bait onto the table, the latter Altered to be cooked. And replaced the chair with a breeding station, which at this point did not affect my state of mind in the slightest. Then I installed a camouflaged door into the wall, waiting impatiently for the long, long minute until it was finished, then at the same time opened that door and the door to my heaviest trap corridor.

She froze, and stared. I activated the traps in the corridor, letting her see what was that way. And light poured out of the room, letting her see the other option. It was a suggestion, or at least I hoped she read it that way. She could go back out, or she could take refuge and I’d take care of the hunters...if she took care of me. Or maybe she thought it was an offer to die or submit. Either way, I thought it was pretty clear what the breeding station entailed.

Shayma didn’t have much time to decide. The men were coming closer. She looked one way, then the other. Then bit her lip, and darted into the lit room.

I closed the door hurriedly, and, despite the distraction of every breath she took, labored to retool another of the trap corridors for heavier game. Then flung up the door that led to it as the men stepped into the entrance corridor. Now it was a dimly lit T-junction, with the ends of the branches left in complete darkness.

Tek Ten, Level 4 Hunter.

Ensen Grel, Level 5 Hunter.

Hurn Llep, Level 3 Warrior.

Tell Ten, Level 3 Tracker.

Shayma had one furred ear against the closed door, which I swore I could feel despite nothing else of the dungeon having any sense of touch, listening as the men moved forward. The one with the crystal, Tell, was focusing on it to the exclusion of anything else, trying to wring more information from it. They reached the junction, and with brief hand motions, split to go left and right. Which was just as well, since my trap corridors weren’t really long enough.

And at the proper moment, I activated all my spike traps. I was focused hard on it, given that I was trying to push away the most violently lascivious thoughts about the fox-girl stuck in my room, and so I had a good view as three foot stone spikes slammed through the four men. And it didn’t really bother me.

In fact I was a bit detached as I watched them struggle for, really, quite a while, and the screams and bubbling cries were a little bit upsetting, but not as much as I thought they’d be. It helped that Shayma was definitely satisfied by those noises as she leaned against the door.

It actually took rather a while for them to die. A full minute, at least, when even the bear I’d lured in once hadn’t lasted long at all. But soon enough I was able to retract the spike traps and the corpses, chainmail, swords, and all, dropped to the floor for the digesters.

And Shayma stepped back from the door, looking around at the room, taking in the bed, the desk, the food, and the breeding station. Her ears twitched and she sidled around to the side of the desk, reaching over to rip a piece off the meat and chew on it carefully.

And it was all I could do not to slam walls down or grow a new breeding station under her or something. It was hard to make any sort of coherent judgement.

“All right,” Shayma said at length. “Just...give me a place to hide this, and I will.” She pulled a metal cube the size of a man’s head from her bundle.

I had to wrestle myself around to thinking about something other than Shayla’s body, but it took me a minute to figure things out. Though it wasn’t a difficult thing. I just put a tiny room in an adjacent space I’d already dug out, added a door between and some shelves which I had sitting in the architecture menu, and a lit torch.

She stared, again, at the door appearing from rock, over the course of twenty seconds. It wasactually a good magic trick, even if I had no idea how I did it. And when I opened the door, she crossed over to it and put her head inside. Again she bit her lip, which in my rather addled state was impossibly alluring, and placed the cube on the shelf. Then she stepped back and eyed the breeding station.

And began taking off her armor. If I had still been human, the sight alone, given my current lust, would probably have been enough to finish me, but that wasn’t the case here. So I got to enjoy the unveiling of her breasts, small but pert, just as bronzed as the rest of her and with pink nipples that were already hard.

That made me even more eager, dropping away any worries about the duress, since she clearly wasn’t too averse to the idea. And with so many eyes, I could see it from every angle. Then she slipped off the leather skirt and the cloth underneath, baring even more toned skin, a flat expanse of muscled stomach, and the pink slit of her sex.

“Oh gods, I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She muttered, putting a tentative hand on the breeding station. Now I could feel her skin, hot and soft as she stroked it. “...it’s not slimy.” She sounded surprised. “I guess…” She took another step and gingerly, gingerly sat down.

Instantly and without any conscious thought, the restraints snapped into place. Shayma squeaked as the black tendrils clamped her wrists into place, more wrapping over her belly and the last pair seizing her ankles and spreading her legs wide. It pulled her shapely rear harder against the bowl of the breeding station and it was like I was caressing her skin all over.

And with my multiple eyes I could see her exposed pussy, slightly wet and helpless before the thick, obsidian-black appendage that slid from the front of the breeding station. At this point I really couldn’t do much to control myself, as much as part of me wanted to be gentle, and I drove into her.

She cried out, a sharp gasp as I felt her tight, wet sex stretch around me, clenching hard as I forced my way deeper and deeper. I had been moderately well endowed as a human, but this was on another level, and one her body seemed to approve of. Despite the restraints she arched against the thrusts, making only one tiny squeak as I bottomed out, the tight walls of her body shivering around me.

Shayma panted, staring down at where I connected with her as the breeding station impaled her with hard, deep strokes, the lips of her pussy tight around the thick girth, the black flesh starting to glisten with her wetness. With all my eyes I had an unparalleled view of each stroke sinking deep inside her, of her breasts and pert nipples heaving with each breath. The feel of her around me and the sight of her being filled were beyond delicious, and when she gave a tiny whimper that finished me.

The already intense pleasure surged up as I came, something hot and thick rising up and pumping into the foxgirl, flooding her deep inside. She whimpered again, and if I had been human, that would have been about it. But I wasn’t and apparently the breeding station didn’t have any trouble continuing on. It wasn’t even a release because if anything the lust and need only increased, and I hammered into her harder.

“Gods…!” She said, fists clenching as she shuddered into orgasm, the walls of her heat milking around my relentless thrusts. She wasn’t vocal otherwise, with only the occasional tiny noise of a moan or whimper, which made each sound strike a sharp spark of arousal. I couldn’t think of anything other than filling her body, as hard and as fast as the station could handle.

And came again, even more seed filling her, enough that it started leaking out where I stretched the lips of her pussy, black and thick as tar. Still I wasn’t satisfied, plunging into Shayma until she groaned and squeezed around me again, whimpering as I kept fucking her through her orgasm. Given no time to calm, that orgasm rolled into another as she arched against the restraints, her soft, warm skin sliding against my flesh.

Another, and another. Shayma moaned once, twice, then whimpered as her body arched and shivered with the most powerful orgasm yet, squeezing so tight it almost hurt, and sagged into unconsciousness. At that, something more intense than any prior pleasure surged through me and I visibly throbbed as I pumped more seed inside her, a long, stretched moment of ecstacy.

Then I was satisfied. The lust blew away like fog and I was suddenly aware of things other than sex. The overlay had been trying to tell me things for a while, but I was in no state to pay attention to them. I still wouldn’t be, if I focused too much on the sight in my room, which even without the lust was still stunning. So I closed all those eyes, ignored the feeling of soft, warm flesh, and went through everything.

Breeding options:

Moil (Consumes host) - 50 biomass.

Imp - 50 biomass.

Boring Beetle (4) - 50 biomass.

I didn’t even look at the first option. “Consumes host” was just horrible.

Imp (Gene Strength 0): A low-level monster.

Boring Beetle: Capable of mining quickly.

Of the two, I wasn’t much interested in generating monsters, and Roots were slow. Selecting the third option gave me a one-hour countdown, and, opening my eyes just slightly, Shayma’s belly actually started to swell. That...hopefully did not end up poorly, but there was nothing I could do at this point. I ran through the message log.

Tek Ten killed, 450 experience gained.

Ensen Grel killed, 600 experience gained.

Hurn Llep killed, 300 experience gained.

Tell Ten killed, 300 experience gained.

Items gained.

Items gained.

With that enormous haul I now had an inventory. The armor and weaponry the hunters had been carrying, the tracking crystal, and the metal cube. Listed, but not described.

Shayma Ell bred, 1000 experience gained.

[Breeder] title gained: Breed a female of any species. Unlocks additional breeding options.

[Blue Core] title gained: Breed a willing female. Unlocks additional breeding options.

Even more benefits. There seemed to be incentive for killing people and breeding women, and I suddenly understood why someone might be looking for dungeon crystals. With a reason and a little bit of effort, one of these things, one of me, could spiral out of control into a true menace. Assuming they were near a population, anyway.

[Insight] gained.

[Knowledge] and [Insight] combined into [Wisdom]

[Wisdom]: Combines Insight, Intuition, and Foresight. Allows appraisal of individuals and items. Unlocks magic use.

A veritable bonanza. I didn’t know how I would use magic, but it had to be major.

At this point, during the one-hour countdown, I had a lot of housekeeping to do. An enormous amount of experience, a number of skills, and, glancing at the items, I could reclaim the armor and weapons for materials. Which meant I could finally purchase some of the metal-locked things.

Magnetoreception: Upgrades Dungeon Features. Provides compass feature. Detects metals.

Immediately I spotted, in a weird, indefinite way, some ore deposits not particularly far away in the mountain. I also could spot the metal cube resting on its shelf with senses other than my eyes. Considering, I tried to detect the metal items that were in my inventory, seeing if I could localize it.

[Treasure Detection] learned. Upgrades Magnetoreception. Detects all items nearby.

Which showed me that the inventory items were nearby, but in a sideways manner. They were somewhere superimposed on my crystal, some sort of spatial or dimensional thing. I hesitated to use the term pocket dimension, but all that biomass and stone and metal had to be stored somewhere.

I had sorting to do.

Considering I couldn’t replace them just yet, I just put the remainder of the items on the shelves rather than reclaiming them. The sword and mail shirts clattered onto the wood haphazardly, which wouldn’t do. I tried again, with some Alteration tweaks, and got them arranged neatly. Better.

The appraisal also showed them as basic, rank one, non-magical items. Fair enough.

Tracking Crystal: Provides basic guidance to the target’s location. Hunter class only.

Metal Cube: A metal cube of unknown provenance.

Now that had me intrigued. But it wasn’t like I could ask Shayma what was going on there, even if she had been awake. I didn’t need [Wisdom] to tell me this was trouble, and so was Shayma too, probably. Maybe low-level trouble at the moment, but trouble always grew.

Fortunately I could grow too. I wasn’t sure what agency I had outside my walls, but I could at least make my walls better, given time.

The timer reached just a few minutes and I checked in on Shayma. She was still sleeping or unconscious, and by now looked very pregnant, skin tight over a swollen belly. I was also still buried deep inside her, fortunately without the insatiable lust that the breeding station usually provided, and I had no idea how this would work. Frankly at this point I was worried and not looking forward to whatever actually happened when the timer expired, and regretting doing this to Shayma no matter how I’d felt at the time.

But when the timer ticked to zero, a brief blue glow came from the breeding station, enveloping Shayma’s swollen belly, and the entire thing sank into the floor, leaving Shayma as she had been before, thin and toned and entirely naked, on the floor.

Blue Core skill used.

Blue Core: The Dungeon Core takes direct possession of bred monsters.

Boring Beetle (4) gained.

Shayma Ell Depletion increases by 1

Shayma Ell Depletion 16/23.

I built a bed under Shayma, and was pleased to see it lifted her up off the cold stone as it formed, leaving her resting unharmed, albeit messy, on the sheets. I didn’t like the sound of “depletion” and didn’t know what to do about it, but if it was just a small increase and below the cap, probably it was okay.

Probably.