[Chapter 205. The Calculated Investment]

The pristine, light gray marble floors of the domed chamber perfectly reflected the heavy, rhythmic impact of Searanox's boots as he stepped confidently through the swirling, green-blue portal of the Gates of Tartarus. His sharp gaze immediately swept across the five tense figures waiting anxiously within the cavernous hall—though only one of them instantly captured his undivided attention.

"Iris," he called out, his deep voice a low, vibrating murmur that effortlessly cut through the heavy silence of the room. "Come here."

Turning instantly away from the four human women, Iris's canine muzzle split into a bright, eager smile that beautifully illuminated her feral, wolf-like features. She closed the distance in a heartbeat. Her muscular body pressed flush against his armor as she nuzzled her face deeply into the crook of his neck, her soft, dark fur tickling his pale skin.

"I was waiting for you to return," she purred, her voice thick with devotion. "They told me you entered the portal just moments before I emerged."

She pulled back slightly and reached out. Her gloved hand was momentarily enveloped by a soft, pale blue light as she accessed her spatial storage ring. A small stone tablet materialized in her palm. It was no larger than her hand, intricately inscribed with deeply carved, mysterious runes whose ancient meaning eluded him.

"And what's this?" he asked, taking the stone tablet from her grasp.

Iris beamed with pride, her silver eyes gleaming in the dim light. "A rune stone, My Lord. It permanently grants you a skill of your choosing."

"Interesting," he murmured, his fingers tracing the sleek, ancient surface of the stone. "Your reward for clearing the floor, I take it?" He smoothly handed it right back to her. "Then it is yours to keep, Iris. Claim it."

"M-Mine?" she stammered, her voice hitching. Her hands trembled slightly as she reverently accepted the tablet back. "But... but you could gain a powerful new skill."

"Never mind that. What took you so long, my dear? Have you been playing around in there?"

His hand, which had been gently, possessively combing through the thick mane of her dark fur, suddenly paused. His fingers gently plucked a single, rigid gray strand from her coat. As he effortlessly crushed the petrified hair between his fingers, turning it to dust, Iris's silver eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing horror. She instantly clung tighter to his massive frame, desperately pulling herself as close to him as physically possible.

"I-I was doing it as fast as I could, I swear it," she whispered frantically, terrified of his displeasure.

Vanessa, who had been watching the intimate exchange while visibly trembling with pent-up agitation, suddenly took a sharp step forward. Carmen's timid hand reached out to physically restrain the woman, but she failed to catch her sleeve.

"Vanessa, don't," Carmen whispered, her voice barely audible over the hum of the portal.

Completely ignoring the desperate plea, Vanessa spoke up, forcing a thick veneer of corporate confidence into her wavering voice. "Lord Searanox, we need to talk."

His cold gaze shifted slowly from Iris's terrified face to Vanessa's pale one. "Not now. Iris will give her detailed report first. Then, and only then, we may talk."

"But this is incredibly important—"

"Whatever you intend to discuss holds absolutely no significance compared to actionable intelligence from the Labyrinth," he cut her off sharply, not even bothering to turn his body toward her. His voice was low, weighted with absolute authority. "I require a complete, uncensored report, Iris. Every single detail."

As he spoke, he resumed smoothly brushing his hand through her dark, soft fur. Tiny specks of dust from the few remaining petrified strands trickled silently onto the pristine marble floor below them.

Iris nodded silently, deeply relieved by his shifting focus. Before beginning her thorough report, she affectionately, playfully nipped at the tender flesh of his neck, a feral show of absolute submission.

Throughout her detailed account of the butchery on the first floor, he held her tightly against his body.

"The silver weed," he murmured thoughtfully when she detailed her plummeting strike against the Basilisk. "Who could have possibly predicted its utility down there? That's my clever girl."

She pressed herself even tighter against him, a radiant, deeply satisfied smile lighting her beautiful features as she eagerly continued recounting her experiences.

After she had finally concluded her thorough report on the flora, fauna, and the mechanics of the first floor, he gently but firmly pushed her away, his hand lingering affectionately on her pale cheek.

"A magical barrier preventing entry into the boss room until the requisite number of beasts have been slain... I have not encountered such a mechanic..."

"That's highly likely because you exterminated every single living creature on your floor before even reaching the center," she interjected softly, her muzzle still lingering against his neck until his deliberate movement finally separated them.

"You make me sound like some mindless, genocidal monster who violently kills absolutely everything in his path." Searanox chuckled softly, leaning down to give her a quick kiss.

Carmen immediately turned her head away, her face flushing a deep, embarrassed red. Sarah and Lana shifted uncomfortably where they stood, deeply confronted and intimidated by the blatant intimacy displayed directly before them.

"Though," Searanox added with a smirk, "you're not entirely wrong."

Vanessa finally snapped, unable to endure the casual intimacy she so desperately, secretly craved, and crushed by her ticking clock, she lost her composure.

"This is completely wasting time! We are facing a lethal deadline!" she yelled, her voice echoing shrilly in the chamber.

Searanox slowly released Iris. He turned his armored body toward Vanessa. A chilling, utterly calm emanated from his frame, like an apex predator perfectly poised to strike.

"Did I grant you permission to speak?" he asked, his voice dropping to a dangerously soft whisper. "I believe my priorities were made quite clear. Your pathetic urgency is entirely irrelevant to me. Your deadline is strictly my convenience. You will stand there in absolute silence until you are addressed."

Moments later he gestured dismissively with a wave of his armored hand. "I believe I have heard everything I need in your report, Iris. You may now speak, Vanessa."

The sheer, overwhelming condescension struck the corporate woman with literal physical force. Vanessa's beautiful face, already pale with stress, instantly drained of all remaining color. Her jaw worked silently, opening and closing as she fiercely fought to process the public humiliation. Sarah immediately retreated half a step backward, her earlier bravado evaporating into thin air. Lana looked as though she might be physically ill right there on the polished marble. Carmen remained quietly turned away, but her rigid shoulders told him everything he needed to know about her own fear.

"We... we're here to make a formal deal, Lord Searanox," Vanessa finally managed to choke out. Her voice was strained, but she forcibly shoved it into a fragile, desperate semblance of her old corporate confidence. She straightened her back, a transparent, desperate attempt to reclaim some semblance of control.

"We can not possibly clear the first floor of the Labyrinth in the remaining hours. Not with our current strength. So, we are formally offering something valuable to you in exchange for a fighting chance." Her emerald eyes locked desperately with his gaze. "We will officially become your concubines. All four of us. Completely unconditionally. You can do absolutely anything you want to us, whenever you want. In direct return, you give us the aid and protection we need to survive. A simple, mutually beneficial transaction."

Searanox let out a sharp laugh. His cold eyes swept over the other three trembling women.

"Is that so?" he said, his brief laughter fading into a smirk. "What makes you believe I want you all as my dedicated pets?"

"Because we are yours already," Vanessa replied, her voice dropping to an utterly pragmatic whisper. "Our lives are completely yours to take. You've shown us that reality. All we're asking is that you make this mutually beneficial. We pay with our absolute submission and our bodies, and you provide us with the tools to actually fulfill your impossible commands. You still get four obedient, beautiful women, but you also get a successful mission completion instead of four more bloody bodies."

Sarah and Lana visibly flinched at her incredibly blunt, degrading words. Carmen, however, finally turned her head slightly back. Her dark eyes fixed squarely on Vanessa with a strange, deeply analytical curiosity.

"Sarah, dear, come here," Searanox commanded smoothly, entirely ignoring Vanessa's proposal.

Sarah's hesitant, trembling steps echoed loudly in the massive chamber. Her pristine, platinum blonde hair caught the dim, magical light as she nervously wrung her hands together. Her terrified gaze darted wildly from Vanessa to the pristine marble floor, before finally finding Searanox's imposing figure. "Tell me, are you seeing it the same way?"

"I... I don't know," she stammered pitifully, her fragile voice barely audible above the low, throbbing hum of the active portal. "I just... I just want to be safe. I want to be yours. I thought... I thought you already... wanted me." Her pathetic words faded into a broken whisper, the unspoken, desperate plea hanging heavy in the cavernous space.

"I do, dear," he murmured smoothly, suddenly reaching out. He forcefully pulled her against his armor with one arm wrapped securely around her slender waist. "But I am absolutely not interested in this pathetic kind of bargain."

His other arm shot out instantly, not toward Vanessa but toward the trembling Lana. The terrified, petite girl let out a high-pitched, choked squeak of pure panic as he effortlessly drew her close.

His cold, unblinking gaze remained entirely, intensely fixed on Vanessa's horrified face.

"You fundamentally misunderstand your actual position in my hierarchy, Vanessa," his voice dropped to a dangerously low, vibrating register. "You are absolutely not in a position to negotiate. You are assets. You are tools. Your actual value to me is entirely determined by your active usefulness, not your willingness to spread your legs. Though it certainly helps... I do not need to bargain for what is already mine."

He turned his head slightly to face the trapped Lana, his grip tightening around her waist. "Tell me, Lana, did you agree to this bargain as well?"

Lana trembled violently in his inescapable grasp, her young face ashen. "I... I don't know," she whispered, her wide blue eyes brimming with primal fear. "It was Vanessa's idea. All of it."

"Do you truly, honestly think I would purposely send you down there to your death?" he asked softly, his breath hot and warm against her sensitive ear as he held both women against his chest.

She shivered, pressing her soft curves willingly against his armored form. "I don't... I..." she stammered, her mind racing with conflicting terrors. "But your arm... you almost died..."

"That was a lesson specifically for me, and me alone," he stated gently, his hand moving up to possessively caress her dirty blonde hair. "I wouldn't have wasted immense resources on you just to let you die."

He finally released them. Both women stumbled slightly, deprived of his support, as he gestured sharply toward Carmen.

"As for you, Carmen, you are highly intelligent. You should be able to see the reality of this. And you, Vanessa—you have a distinct talent for leadership, but you lack true vision. You're all entirely focused on merely surviving the immediate moment. I am focused on what happens after."

Searanox took a slow step forward closing the distance to the former executive. "Vanessa, let me ask you a very simple question. Do you currently consider yourself to be weak? What is your lowest stat, and what are the bonuses for all the dungeons I have dragged you through?"

He turned his full undivided attention squarely onto her.

Vanessa stood completely frozen, her sharp mind racing in a panic. This unexpected turn had derailed her carefully constructed proposal. His sudden question—so intensely logical and entirely devoid of the predatory sexual energy she had nervously braced for—was a disarming tactic she simply hadn't anticipated in her calculations.

"N-no... I don't see myself as weak," she replied, her voice slowly regaining some fraction of its former composure. A tiny flicker of her confidence returned as she mentally accessed her system interface. "My lowest core attribute is Agility. It is currently at 31. And for the bonuses... it is an additional 15 to all stats."

"So, what you are stating is that you currently possess close to twice the raw stats you should naturally have for your current level," he stated simply, his eyes boring deep into her soul. "You all currently possess base stats on par with those of a Level 20 combatant. And whom do you have to thank for that incredible advantage?"

Searanox took one final step closer, towering over the petrified Vanessa.

"You... you, Lord Searanox," she stammered weakly. Her carefully constructed bravado crumbled to dust under the weight of his direct breakdown. The mathematical disparity was staggering—a cold fact she had subconsciously known but had intentionally never dared to fully quantify. The overwhelming scale of his personal investment in their survival was suddenly, terrifyingly clear.

"Exactly. And do you honestly think I would invest all of these precious resources into you, only to casually throw you away on a completely pointless suicide mission?"

He leaned down smoothly, bringing his face mere centimeters from her trembling lips.

"I am not a fool, Vanessa. I am an investor. And I demand a significant return on my investment. Your success in that labyrinth is not a mere possibility; it is a mandatory requirement."

His fingers reached out, brushing her pale cheek with a surprisingly soft, almost mocking gentleness.

"If you ever truly wish to share my bed, you simply have to crawl into it willingly, or ask for it. If I wanted nothing more than your bodies, I would have forcefully taken them long ago."

He straightened up to his full height, turning his broad back to her, as if she were no longer of any interest to him.

"You already possess everything you need to succeed. You simply need to stop seeing yourselves as pathetic, helpless victims, and start acting exactly like the lethal assets you have become."

Vanessa stood entirely silent, staring blankly at his broad back. Her mind was a chaotic whirlwind of conflicting emotions.