"What are we supposed to do if a highest-grade stone actually pops out from putting in the effort? Do I have to clench my pussy even harder?"

"Nah, you just get Lune’s help. Do whatever Lune tells you to do and dinner practically falls into your lap while you’re sleeping. Hehe."

"Don’t you mean cock falls into my lap?"

"You’re being a little prickly, huh? Are you annoyed that I pulled a high-grade magic stone out of Lucifer, or is it ’cause I got so happy about it that I turned around and went another round with Lune?"

"Both. And one more thing. You’re the one who said we’d have a meeting with Lune included at midnight—but you got all giddy and plowed into her without a second thought and knocked her out cold, so now what?"

"Yeah, that one’s on me."

It was my bad. One of the executive team got flagged as a scratch—too far gone—and our plans got a little tangled up.

"Still, we can pull it off without Lune, right?"

"It’s risky. My skin’s already crawling as it is—I don’t want to take that kind of gamble. Things are already touch-and-go."

"Fair enough."

I’d almost pulled something that went past touch-and-go straight into full-on dice roll territory, but I managed to hold back. I pulled out the message Meri had sent over and read through it one more time.

"This Holy Knight Commander guy—how many troops is he planning to rally up?"

"Every single adventurer flooding into Spica Castle is basically coming there to take a crack at Ras Vegas. And the numbers... already sitting around 600. Way more than we figured are gathering."

Meri was sending me updates on Spica Castle twice a day, like clockwork. Between selling clothes, pouring drinks, and flashing smiles, the customer load was ramping up and it was clearly stressing her out a little—but the info she was pulling in was stacking up right along with it.

"I should pool together some mid-grade stones and get Meri a couple bracelets or something."

"Mid-grade? And two of them?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Figure of speech. She’s got Line too, and they’re my daughters. I can do at least that much. ...Or should we just route her through the dungeon instead? Night play with the Baroness is all good, but isn’t it risky with so many people around now?"

"You had the portal installed and you’re still worrying. Drama queen."

"Can’t help it."

At long last, the portal between Spica Castle’s Avalon basement and Ras Vegas was built. I’d used the magic stones we’d collected from selling stockings to set up a barrier in the basement and install the portal, so now Meri could hop from Spica Castle to our dungeon once an hour.

"That Baroness had to be a guy in a past life, I’m telling you. She’s singing Meri Meri all day long, so I can’t even bring Meri over to the dungeon."

"That’s how much she trusts her as a retainer. Day or night."

"That’s the problem. What a piece of work, huh? Says she needs to guard her virginity but she’s out here enjoying night play with a woman. I mean, I took that virginity, but still."

Just the once.

My plan to swing by Spica Castle once in a while and have my way with the Baroness in her sleep had gone up in smoke the moment the Holy Knight Commander and all those adventurers showed up.

"The succubi over in Avalon aren’t gonna get caught, right?"

"Of course not. Gray’s blocking things as needed, and if push comes to shove, the fairies are stepping in for the succubi. At least up to now, nobody’s gotten caught."

"That’s a relief. The magic stones we’re hauling in over there are making this a really fun side gig."

With mercenaries and adventurers who lived by the motto ’one big score’ flocking to where a war was brewing, they were opening their wallets with zero hesitation. And a lot of these guys had been bottling it up for a long time, so the load the succubi were milking out of them was massive.

No high-grade stones had dropped yet, but mid- and low-grade ones were pouring in by the dozens every single day.

’Which also means there’s a ton of 2- and 3-star adventurers among them.’

Six hundred of them. If they were rolling in as Ras Vegas residents or customers, I’d welcome as many as they wanted. But if they were coming in as enemies, they’d be killed on the spot and run through the ghoul-ification then stone-ification production line.

"First thing’s first—we’ve gotta wrap up this war before those guys arrive. Shaitan, is the defense of Ras Vegas and Ras Village airtight?"

"Of course. The walls around Ras Vegas are finished exactly the way you specified, Master, and Ras Village has—well, ’them.’ No one’s getting into Ras Village, in particular."

"Right? Shaitan, bring in the new village chief. I’ll hand down some quick instructions and we’ll move straight into the operation."

"Yes."

While Shaitan headed off to Ras Village, I called out to someone who’d been waiting up on the ceiling.

"Lime, come down for a sec."

Glub.

Lime, who was always hovering nearby wherever I went to assist me and clean up, had become an indispensable part of our dungeon at this point. And Lime could still get one more power-up.

[Lime: ★★★☆]

Level: 54/54

Species: slimahole

"...Your level dropped by 1 thanks to the bond summon. And that blocked your evolution condition for 4-star."

Glub.

Lime snuggled up to me with a mopey look. I stroked her like I was petting a doll and pulled out a few sheets of paper I’d prepped in advance.

"You really do keep giving me all these firsts, huh."

She was the first subordinate I’d voluntarily recruited, the first one I’d ever bond summoned personally—and now she was going to be the first one I tested out another system on.

[Monster Enhancement Ticket: An enhancement tool to break past innate limits.]

[Use Condition: Max out level.]

[Use Effect: Max Level +5.]

[Target: Lime (★★★☆, Lv.54)—69 / 4 tickets]

Monster synthesis could bump up a ☆. But the only thing that could touch level was a Monster Enhancement Ticket.

’I’ve had tons of chances to use them, but I was too busy evolving stuff.’

Since I’d never used one up until now, I had nearly 70 enhancement tickets piled up. They came in little by little from farming daily quests on my subordinates and from knocking out special quests, one at a time.

’I thought this was max-level content, but they built it to double as this too.’

Clearly it was designed so that even if a revive penalty docked you a level, evolution wouldn’t get permanently blocked.

"Shaitan told me that if you use an Enhancement Ticket to raise 5 levels, the evolution condition scales up to match. She said leveling is gonna be an absolute slog."

It took me forever, even after I went all-in on dumping every single dungeon resource into Lune when I was obsessed with taking her virginity. Lime might be in the 50s, but I just can’t pour that much into her right now.

Sure, resource income is way up, but the places spending it have grown too. Magic stones had to be reserved as ’food’ for a certain group.

"You called, Legion Commander."

"Yeah. Nifela, Chief of the Half-Village."

"...Why are you introducing me like that every time you call for me?"

"New title came with the job."

Standing in front of me was Nifela, the former 2nd Elder of the Elven Forest and now the head of the Half-Village—a full-on dark elf, bowing at the waist. As proof that she’d joined our legion, her outfit was dramatically different from what the regular elves wore.

"I never imagined elves and school uniforms would go together. Tsk."

"You’re the one who said it, Master. School uniforms are the strongest armor that nobody dares touch."

"More like a military academy uniform than a school uniform, though."

A military academy was still a school in the end, so the elves’ outfits were all school uniform style. It was already something to see a 3,000-year-old high elf turned dark elf rocking a school uniform, and on top of that, the skirt had been shortened so much it was practically a miniskirt —

"Master?"

"Yeah. It’s kinda chilly, huh? Make sure you wear warm stockings."

"Of course. You were the one who told us to wear leotards and stockings as a set underneath, Legion Commander."

My title had just slid a notch further from Master to Legion Commander.

"Ahem. Got it. My bad. You look incredibly pretty so keep it up, but don’t shorten it any more."

"Understood. So—may I ask why you called for me...?"

"We’re executing the ’operation’ starting now. As the head of the [Orchard], once adventurers come knocking, you’ll be responding in kind. You remember the playbook, right?"

"Yes. If the Holy Knights try to enter the dungeon, we’re the ones intercepting them up front and steering them toward the ’Astaroth Dungeon,’ correct?"

We knew there was another dungeon nearby, so we might as well use it.

"The only ’enemies’ who know where our actual dungeon is are the Virgin Elves. Even if they come here, all you have to do is play dumb."

"How would they even verify anything? As long as they don’t step inside the dungeon, we look like any other elves."

Ras Village had been retrofitted into a residential area for elves. The elves would live there and serve as a smokescreen for our dungeon.

Fitting for their half-and-half nature, about 40 out of the 80 opted to head for the Orchard.

The area around Ras Village had been clear-cut by Hases and the ghouls, so there weren’t a lot of trees left, but the village’s structures alone would be more than enough for them to hold their ground against humans. And it’d be even better if the humans got duped into thinking it was just a regular elven village and left, or got redirected toward Astaroth.

"Let’s run through the worst case. If the 1st Elder leads the elves, teams up with the human alliance, and tries to get into the dungeon, what do you do?"

"If the enemy is weaker than us, we wipe them out. If they’re comparable, we retreat into the dungeon. And if they’re stronger than us, we immediately go around them and fall back to Ras Vegas."

"Got it down cold. That’s exactly how it goes. The second you leave the dungeon, we’re launching the operation, so keep that in mind."

"...Then Master. Um..."

"What is it? Don’t tell me you’re already out of demon elixir?"

"Th-that’s part of it, but."

Nifela hesitated, then bowed deeply toward me.

"Please take good care of Lune."

"...?"

"She’s a child with a lot of scars, in more ways than one. I’m grateful you’ve raised her so well, but Lune—"

"Wait, are you her mom or something?"

"Not quite. She’s the daughter of a high elf sister I was really close with. Emotionally, you could say she’s like a niece to me."

Getting hit with Lune’s origin story out of nowhere left me feeling conflicted. And just to be safe, I had to grab Nifela by the shoulders.

"My mother-in-law isn’t here, is she? She’s not, right? Huh? You didn’t even know Lune was here back then. You’re not gonna tell me—"

"No, she isn’t. Lune’s mother passed not long after giving birth to her."

"It’s weird to say, but thank god for that."

I’d almost committed a monstrous family crime.

"...Who’s the father, then? The divine tree?"

"No. ...Uh, Lune isn’t around right now, is she?"

"Of course not."

Lune was currently resting up at Flauros’s dungeon because I’d pounded her way too hard. Unless sound travels through the portal, she wasn’t going to hear this.

"We don’t know either. By the time Lune’s mother came to us, she was already pregnant."

"Whoa."

This was a secret that needed to be handled with serious care.

"...So what happened?"

"The 1st Elder and I discussed it while her sister was still outside the barrier. She wasn’t a dark elf back then. My position was to sneak her in behind the divine tree’s back, but the 1st Elder refused flat out. So we compromised and agreed to let only the baby in."

"That’s Lune, then. Wait, you said she was pregnant?"

"She went into labor during our conversation and delivered."

"...So you’re basically Lune’s midwife?"

"Essentially."

I couldn’t help wondering why Nifela was telling me all this. Part of it was asking me to really look out for Lune, sure, but if I wanted to be a little cynical, she might be using that to slide in her own request for some favorable treatment.

"Thanks. For letting me know."

As a thank you for sharing something so personal, I handed Nifela a sealed bottle of demon elixir.

"Drink up. It’s demon elixir made from a mid-grade stone."

"...I didn’t bring this up to get something like this."

"We’ve got plenty of demon elixir to spare. The stuff we hand out as rations to the elves is the low-grade version, right? This one hasn’t been stretched out with divine magic to pad the volume, so it’ll be on the thick side."

"...Thank you kindly."

Nifela took the wooden bottle and left the dungeon. I’d stumbled into a hidden truth about Lune’s birth along the way, but honestly, nothing bad came of it.

"Down the line I can make Nifela the nanny for Lune’s and Luna’s daughters."

No telling what kind of daughters will pop out yet, but Nifela’s Ras Village would be an emotionally stable place for kids to grow up in.

"If the kids are gonna run around and play properly, the house has to be big, right? Lime, let’s go."

Lime and I headed down the stairs to Basement 1. Forty half-and-half elves—now dark elves—were already waiting for me there, decked out in combat gear.

From the neck to the toes, their bodysuits were dyed black in a material like latex. Skin-tight stuff that showed every line of the body, but paradoxically tougher defensively than even decent plate armor. They’d been standing around with tense faces and relaxed when they spotted me.

"Y’all did a great job holding the portal this whole time. I came down right on time—how’d we hit the timing perfectly?"

"Well. Now all that’s left is to walk up to the portal."

Luna was wearing a tank top with leggings—an outfit not really suited to a queen but a total fit for a sporty girl—with a crescent-shaped sword slung over her shoulder. Aside from her lower belly where her stigmata was on display, Luna was also fully armored up.

The White Cream Elves guarding Ras Village.

And the Dark Cookie Elves raiding enemy dungeons.

"Cookie elves, everyone ready to raid a dungeon?"

With the half-and-half elves forming a perfectly balanced offense-defense combo, Shaitan and I had decided to call the whole squad the ’Cookies-and-Cream Elves.’