《Cloud Dungeon》Chapter 2
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The world of Algora possesses four main planes of existence. The Mortal World, Heaven, Hell and the Spirit World.
Each is unique in its own way, but the one considered most mysterious is the Spirit World. Within are many sentient beings and only the Gods of Spirits, Life, Death, Knowledge and Creation know of all the beings inside this world.
Within this world is a unique race always spoken of, the Fairy race.
This normally cheerful race in truth isn’t as the mortals know it. The fairies found in the Mortal World are wild and born through magic while these are born in the spirit world and are held by the nation of fairies and trained. They are far from the small palm sized fairies and some can be even taller than humans, holding immense magical powers. And one of their biggest roles is to train a specific type of fairy known as the Dungeon Fairy.
There is no race, dungeon fairy, but instead it is a job given to those trained in the Spirit World and set free in the three other realms where dungeons appear. Dungeons have never once appeared within the Spirit World because the spirit goddess made it so with the help of her father the god of creation.
With time, the nation has grown incredibly powerful and a high ranking fairy can match a dragon from the mortal world in power.
The fairy nation of this plane is also extremely advanced in the field of magical technology and through this they can view the three other worlds. Only spirits can freely move from the Spirit World to another one. They are sensitive to the cracks in space, finding and using them to pass through to other worlds.
In the main headquarters for the dungeon fairy, there are magical globes showing the three worlds in extreme detail. This image is live, so all natural occurrences are present and on them are many lights on the planets which show the location of all the dungeons. Around these are many consoles with serious working male and female fairies.
Suddenly on the mortal globe a powerful fluctuation happened.
“Mortal World awakens a new dungeon!” Someone shouted.
As the light over the planet settles they look and find it was stuck in the air and not on the planet. The commanding fairy raised a brow and walked over. “What is going on? Why is the dungeon light stuck in the air?” He asked.
“We are checking sir.” a man from that section of the command center said.
After a moment the dot began to descend.
“Guess it’s done.” The commanding fairy said and turned.
“SIR!” Someone shouted and he turned only to see that that dot was now slowly moving while flying.
“What in blazes! Bring up a visual of this and bring me the information for the dungeon fairy who is bound to that dungeon.” He shouted.
The fairy began to work hard and soon a large screen appeared in midair and what appeared was a small cloud with a small island stuck in it and soon it was off screen.
“Shit this thing is moving…” The man shouted and turned the visual to where the island went. They then moved the view after it and soon they saw a small magical dome around the island forming the dungeon domain and a small bare rock that had a few blades of weeds and four types of wisps flying around slowly working.
“Sir! There is no information for the fairy bound to it!” Another man said.
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“Is there no fairy bound to this?” The commander shouted.
“There is sir! It simply isn’t in our records!... Ah! Sir I have located the blessing of the goddesses of life, death and love! It’s possible that this is a reincarnated being or maybe a cover up for a failed summoning.” The female fairy explained.
“That explains it, they must have made a dungeon fairy for the dungeon. Someone send a representative to pick up the fairy for training and then connect the dungeon to the network before sending an expert to help it grow properly.” The commander shouted.
“Sir! The fairy is bound by a god, we have no way to remove it.” One of the fairies said.
“Don’t bullshit, this is a report that needs to be sent to the Goddess, she controls all fairies and spirits. To remove a god’s binding we need another god to unbind her and I doubt she will be happy with the other goddesses getting in the way of our work.” The commander shouted.
With that, a report was filed and eventually went to the Gods Realm for the goddess of spirits to see.
On the small island, Dia was having fun as she slowly followed Misty’s instructions and made the small aqueduct system from the circular hole around her fountain, splitting her little rock into eight sections, making it look like a garden. In them were many weeds and a few herbs.
The earth wisps slowly ate the dirt forming the pathway until they finally reached the edge of the rock.
As soon as they finished, the wisps grew excited. They began to work and do the same as when they made the pond. Hardening the borders, forming small paths out for the stream and made the foundation out of hard stone that would expand with their work later on.
As the earth wisps finished, something happened. The clouds that had been around the rock slowly began to flow into the water way until it completely filled it up. Unlike the white cloud, this one was blue and flowed as if it was water.
“Wow! This is cloud water!” Misty said.
“What is that?” Dia asked confused.
Misty thought a long time before she figured out a way to explain.
“You know what water is right?” She asked receiving a nod. “Well, this cloud is like water, it just isn’t see through. You’re a special dungeon so you have cool special things that happen for you.” Misty said.
It caused Dia to giggle meanwhile, the cloud water flowed out onto the dirt and slowly the dry rock began to moisten and the plant’s roots sucked it up like a dried sponge until they were full. The weeds were the most satisfied. They began to spread their roots and from them, sprouts to other weeds began to appear.
The herbs also liked the water and grew a good bit and gained either dull red, for the lesser healing herb, dull yellow for the lesser paralyse herb or dull purple for the lesser poison herb. The thorn bush grew a bit sharper as its size began to increase a tad bit and could now turn a small bit and aim at anything getting near it that is an enemy.
In Misty’s head she was happy. “This is good, with this now as the island grows it will have a good base for the river system and cloud water as the ocean. I'm so happy to have such a unique dungeon.”
Every fairy wants to have a unique dungeon and when one gets one they become really happy. Either a unique type of dungeon or a unique dungeon being is always sought after. This did not change for Misty either who had adopted the mentality of a fairy, but still had her old memories, feelings and sentiments for Dia as her owner.
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She floated around and felt sleepy. After a bit, she landed on one of the lower leaves of the healing herb and used one leaf as a bed and allowed another to block the sun from her face.
Like this, the two just peacefully enjoyed themselves as the wisps all slowly worked. Slowly the clouds around the island gathered, becoming denser and tightening around the stone, forming a more solid foundation since the clouds were keeping the rock floating.
Without noticing, the clouds were slowly transforming into cloud water. Soon Dia herself fell asleep. They flew far from where they once were and slowly more and more liquid mana dripped down into the small pool and slowly mixed. Soon the clouds were as packed as possible, as was the rock, so the wisps automatically moved to simply gather and deposit.
Soon, drops of all types of mana began to pool up and mix inside. After mixing, the different colored liquid turned crystal clear like regular water and slowly gathered throughout the night.
In the middle of the night, Dia woke up and enjoyed the star gazing unlike any she ever saw in her short life. The amazing sight left her breathless, but soon she returned to sleep.
As the rays of sunlight hit the small island, the little girl stirred. The first thing she noticed was a large hulking man and a small 40 cm tall fairy with a flower dress.
“KYAAAA!!!!” Dia shouted in fear as she backed away. As if seeing where she was, the eyes of the two followed making her even more fearful, until she finally hid inside the clouds and began to sob.
“What…” The female fairy said in shock.
“Mnnn Dia~! Why are you so nyoisy!” Misty complained as she got up from the herb she was sleeping on and wiped her drool. As her eyes came into focus after being hit by the morning sunlight, she saw the massive man and the tall fairy.
“WHO ARE YOU!” She shouted as her hair seem to lift up to make herself look bigger and her nails turned into claws.
“So this is the fairy. Brat relinquish your contract and return for proper training.” The massive man said.
“WHO! ARE! YOU!” Misty shouted.
A vein appeared on the man’s forehead as he appeared before her and pushed her flat into the ground.
“Don’t take that tone with me! I am first squad commander of the Spirit World Dungeon Fairy Patrol! You're in violation of being an unqualified fairy bound to a rare dungeon! Unbind yourself this instant or I will kill you!” He said in a dangerous tone.
“NO~~! LET GO OF MISTY!!!” Dia shouted and tried to ram her hollowed form into him and then kick him, but she just ran through.
“Dungeon! Stop being a baby! She is unqualified for someone as rare as yourself!” The man said in a polite tone.
“Get away from *hic* Misty *hic* you *hic* ugly *hic* meanie! *hic* Stinky! *hic* Ugly! *hic*” Dia finally broke down crying seeing that Misty was hurt on the ground and she couldn’t save her just like before.
“C-calm down!” The female fairy said.
Suddenly as the fairy got near and grabbed her arm and pat her head. Dia shouted in fear and anger. The mana in her small pool boiled as a small hollow ghost appeared of her crying where she was for real. She swat at the fairy hitting her hard and throwing her near the edge of the island near a thorn bush.
“GET AWAY!” Dia shouted and cried even louder.
The thorn bush, feeling her fear, marked the two foreign presences as enemies and instantly shot a thorn up at an angle and it soon fell down towards the downed fairy.
The massive man suddenly appeared next to the fairy and grabbed her making distance from the thorn bush and stepped on the plant before turning around.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” He shouted.
“Yes it is…” A voice called and the island was suddenly engulfed in light as the people standing there vanished.
As the light faded, Dia, Misty, the man and the fairy found themselves before four goddesses.
Three of them had extremely furious gazes that were digging holes through the fairies.
“1st Commander Grivmir! Who authorized you to remove that fairy? If I remember correctly, I was just given a report speaking of this and had gone to check with my sisters the situation. ‘Who’ authorized the removal?!” The final goddess said looking emotionlessly at the massive man.
“I was following protocol.” he said in pride.
“The protocol states that if unknown cases were to arise you need to report to me AND WAIT for my orders. Are they not?” the goddess asked.
The man realized this point which soon caused sweat to slowly start appearing on his forehead, but he slowly nodded.
The little girl was crying while hugging Misty. She was in the arms of the Goddess of Love who she somewhat knew and acted kind to her so she became her shoulder to cry on.
“As you can clearly see, the fairy is important to the child. Not only that, the child possesses a disorder in which she requires someone she knows or holds dear near her. You injured that someone gravely, do you know that? If not for my intervention, she would have died once more and the girl would have undergone mental collapse becoming a corrupt dungeon. Would you still have the courage to put your ‘replacement’ in her dungeon.” the goddess said.
The man shook his head like a rusted robot as the fairy herself was ashen.
“What is your excuse then?” The goddess asked.
“Great goddess, a newborn unregistered fairy doesn’t possess the qualification to guide the dungeon! She would ruin such a rare variation of the species.”
“STOP! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO NOT REFER TO DUNGEONS AS A BEAST!” The goddess shouted. “That’s it!” She huffed in rage and vanished before appearing right in front of the man and grabbed his head.
“ARRRHHH!” He began to shout as a torrent of mana gushed out of him and slowly his body was slowly shrunk to 10 cm, the same size as Misty.
“Your punishment will be becoming a monster in that girl’s dungeon. You will be merged with the one remaining thorn bush and become a thorn flower warrior. You will also be unable to hurt the fairy Misty or you will feel unimaginable pain. You will be free after 100 years of service in her dungeon, but you will return to the Spirit World with the power of a newborn fairy. Any power cultivated while a thorn flower warrior or anything stronger will be removed.” She said and encased him in a green orb of light before it vanished.
The little fairy was shaking.
“You return to the Spirit World and report what I have said. Also, tell them the fairy was born with all the rules and regulations, knows all the functions of a fairy and how to guide a dungeon. This came as a blessing from my sisters when they reincarnated her. If you need to register her then send someone… more sensible to get her information and register her, but NO ONE can remove her from the girl. Is that understood?” the goddess asked.
“Perfectly my goddess.” The fairy said before a small vortex appeared under her and she entered it.
The goddess sighed and turned and upon doing so, Dia saw her and turned around in fear, trying to shrink herself into Helena’s arms.
“Don’t worry now, all the dangerous people are gone now.” Helena whispered and patted Dia’s head.
Dia slowly turned to look at the new goddess.
“This is our sister, Yolida the goddess of spirits. She is the one who created fairies in our world.” Helena said in a low voice to not frighten the girl.
Hearing that this woman was the maker of fairies she became a bit more curious, but then remembered.
“Was that big ugly man a fairy?” Dia asked scared.
“Yes, that was a very powerful fairy, but he was a bad boy so I punished him. When you get back to your little dungeon, you will find a little flower soldier. I made him that way for being a bad boy.” She explained and crouched down.
“I don’t want him.” Dia pouted.
“Don’t worry, he is really smart and can be a bit scary, but he wants the best for you. But now…” Yolida says with a grin. “You know that plants also have a boy and girl right?”
“They do?” Dia asked confused.
“Yep, because he was a bad boy I made him a girl plant. You know you can make him a really girly fairy in a little while.” Yolida said.
Dia thought a moment before shaking her head.
“Don’t wanna!” She said.
“Oh don’t tease her. She is imagining a muscle woman. Don’t worry look at this.” Helena said and pointed her finger and soon a small flower with a closed flower appeared. The stem with many small thorn bushes made up the body and a pair of leaf made the arms. The legs were a split set of roots.
“What’s this?” Dia asked confused and poked it with a finger only for it to go through it.
“This is a thorn flower warrior. It will move around and shoot out thorns from its closed bud, but in the future it can become something like this.” Helena said and slowly the roots began to expand and first grew into a large tree and slowly a little light appeared on the roots and a pretty woman with pink skin and leaf green hair grew out of the roots.
“Wow! So pretty!” Dia said with sparkling eyes.
“This is called a Dryad, a nature spirit. She is tied to that big tree and can’t move a lot, but she is really strong and pretty.” Helena said.
Pow
“Ouch!” Helena shouted.
“Stop showing her useless monsters. That isn’t even close to the evolution path of the flower.” Teresa said.
She pointed and did the same and this time a new flower appeared and slowly it grew forming thicker trunk like limbs and slowly formed a female structure and then it formed wooden wings with leaves as feathers and slowly the body turned humanoid but the arms and legs remained wooden and in her hand was a long wooden spear.
“Wow~!” Dia said.
At this time Misty began to tremble, waking up, making Dia really happy as she lifted the fairy to her cheeks and rubbed it.
After a bit she let Misty go.
“What happened?” She asked and the goddesses explained making her frown. “Is it that easy to find our dungeon?” Misty asked.
“Well most magical kingdoms may have noticed and are trying to locate it, but because your dungeon moves it will be a futile race. Until your dungeon stretches out until it is close enough to the ground for the mages to fly up onto its bottom most layer, not many will reach it. You all have the safest dungeon in the world since there isn’t many ways to get on it without the ability to fly, but don’t think there aren’t ways.” The spirit goddess said. “Well let's send them back now, they had a terrible fright.” Yolida says and the others agreed.
They hug Dia one last time and she vanished once more, appearing in her dungeon.
At once, the first thing they notice was a small walking flower near the pond within the inner circle.
“Useless thing! Get away!” Misty shouted and kicked the flower that was the ugly man. She kept kicking until he got away from the core and seemed to want to attack, but something stopped him.
“Hmpf, stupid old man. He can’t attack me because I am your fairy, so I will keep him away Dia!” Misty says which makes Dia smile and then look at the flower with a frown and let out a hmpf.
“Anyway, you’re like a little ghost now, it must have been what happened before being taken away I think.” Misty says as she sees the little girl’s blurred figure.
“I can touch stuff now.” Dia says and lifts up a small pebble.
“That’s neat.” Misty says and looks into the pond.
“It seems we have lots of mana. Dia put your hand in the pond then think ‘expand’.” Misty instructed.
Dia walks floats over quickly and crouches next to the pond and thinks it.
What would you like to expand?
Island Parameters
3 meters -> 6 meters in diameter
Cloud Parameter
2 meters -> 4 meters from the shore
“Dia, choose the second option.” Misty instructed and Dia does just that.
Instantly the pond starts to drain and the clouds start to expand to twice their diameter reaching four meters from the island.
Dia looked and flew over then jumped into the clouds giggling.
“It feels like water!” Dia said giggling as she went to the edge, but was stopped as if there was a bubble around them.
“Dia! We aren’t done! We have enough to make the island bigger as well!” Misty shouted.
Dia reluctantly floated out and walked back. She then pressed the second button and all the remaining mana drained. The island shook as the rock began to double in size by creating more land. The rock bowl remained the same size but the waterways expanded with it just as planned by Misty.
They were now double their original size and the streams could fit half of an earth wisp now.
With the earth mana flowing, the plants gained a fresh boost of mana.
At this time the thorn bush warrior looked down for a long moment before he began to slowly walk around and after a moment he stuffed his foot into the ground, slowly spreading his roots.
“What’s she doing?” Dia asked noticing the strange movements.
Suddenly the ground began to glow green and she pulled her roots out. After a moment the pool began to release brown water from below
“Hey what ar… ah! That’s it!” Misty was about to shout but then realized something and then went into deep thought.
“Misty~!” Dia called beckoning for the fairy to explain.
“Well… underground is some mana that didn’t move around and he fixed the problem making a bunch of mana come back after passing through the rock.” She explained but Dia looked confused.
Misty flew down to the ground and drew a circle and explained that that was the island then she made some swirls say that this is the liquid from the pond flowing. She then drew a knot and then drew a bad flower and showed the roots reaching it and punching the knot and undoing that making the mana flow back to the pool.
“Oh!” Dia finally understood with the little drawing.
They looked as the flower undid another one and kept looking, but stopped as he begrudgingly planted his roots near one of the streams so he could received fresh cloud water and grow stronger while absorbing the dungeon mana.
The two girls leave him be and plant a few more weeds to spread faster. They also added more thorn bushes in case anything appears, but that is about as far as they go and just let nature take its course as the weeds and herbs begin to spread.
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