The very next day after the contract was made, the elven army came out of the capital in full force and crashed into the monster horde at the foot of the beanstalk without mercy.

All that fought were killed while all the rest were left to run away. In a very short time, the mess that had arose from the monsters was cleaned up and the killed monsters were processed for meat and pelts.

At the same time, the queen pushed all the servants, along with the help of the nobles who were part of the negotiations, to gather wood, stone, food and call all the nearby villages with either poor conditions or monster troubles and offered the chance to be the settlers of dungeon towns.

The dungeon towns were split between the one on the island and the one at the foot of the beanstalk.

Not only that, they had to mobilize troops that would go to five other areas in the nation. The queen had pinpointed five other locations with somewhat poor conditions compared to the rest of the nation. When they finish making the first dungeon town the army will send troops to these five areas and help clear out the monsters. Also taking into account that Dia has her own powerful fighters, they can help the initial clearing of monsters at the beanstalk and protect the nearby village that becomes the dungeon town when Dia releases the seeds in the center of the village.

Messengers were sent so that the villages would be informed of the plan. Houses that were near the center were to be cleared out and rebuilt in a different spot so the beanstalk will have space.

In the dungeon, with Mir’s encouragement, Dia began to give the queen bee fairy and several other creatures monster cores so that they can descend and provide aid in protecting the town.

Jack himself will be the main fighting force of the dungeon and will descend for this.

By the third day the first village of 30 elves arrived and climbed the beanstalk into the dungeon which had been supplied with the wood and tools for them to build with.

The common elves were in shock when they saw their new home and some cried when they saw they would live in such a paradise.

The laws of the land had been placed near the entrance so once they saw two tree warriors walk onto the island and nod their way, they knew this was part of the patrol the dungeon would supply.

What came after that though took them all by surprise because the gnomes soon walked through the cloud bridge leading into the dungeon and in a single file line in perfect unison. They were whistling a song they had made up and had a wooden mallet resting over their shoulder. On them it looked like they were wielding a massive warhammer and one of the few elven children thought it was cute.

“Aiht eves, we ah gonna hep ye build yer homes.” The leading gnome said.

The elves couldn’t help but wonder if these tiny men could do anything. However, they were proven wrong when two gnomes worked together to lift up a log that should weigh around 100 kilos.

The elves soon walked over and told them that elves live in trees and mold the trees with magic instead of cutting wood.

The elves showed them that the wood provided were living trees when they had the logs stand. Using magic the tree regrew their roots and began to steadily grow until it was 30 meters tall and 3 meters wide. It goes without say that this massive tree pushed the island outward a small bit.

A second tree was planted near the first and from these two trees the elves began to slowly mold the sides to form a ladder. Halfway up they made a small platform, began widen the inside and formed a door. They then merged the two trees into one from that point on.

The gnomes were shocked by the way they used nature to make their homes but then they got curious and some of them melted into the clouds and began to examine the roots.

“Dis tree got shallow roots!” one gnome shouted popping up from the ground.

“Boss, can we mess de cloud wit eart mana?” a gnome asked.

Gnomes have tried it before and infused island cloud with earth mana, turning it into earth mana rich island cloud but making it’s a difficult process.

“Dat tis a pain in de arse boy! Why de ya wanna do dat!” the leading gnome shouted.

“De roots can’t root ta de isle. Jus an idear boss.” He said.

The gnome boss scratched his beard and after nodding he whistled and told the gnomes to infuse the clouds around the trees with earth mana to anchor the trees.

Dia had asked them to help the elves build their houses so it was obvious they had to help in some way.

The gnomes summoned all their earth wisp minions who slowly mixed into the clouds near the tree roots and soon the gnomes followed. Slowly the first island cloud turned from a pure white to a dirt brown color. Also, the trees experienced an extreme burst in health and the roots began to expand to a healthy size before the gnomes stopped. Soon the entire island was a brown color and had large trees springing out in a few spots before the next group of villagers arrived and they also began planting their houses.

Still, on the ground was plenty of space and the elves did build things at the base of the trees that looked like stores. These would be where the elves worked. Slowly the island was expanded.

Soon the sylphs appeared and after taking into account the position of all the buildings, they modified the cloud’s shape and hardened the cloud to form pathways around the island.

On the fifth day all the villages that were requested to come had arrived and planted their homes. Dia was told to rise up to allow the elves to get some sunlight since the sun had been blocked for a long time. The village at the bottom had begun to appear. The only thing that lacked for either village was an adventurer guild branch.

On the second floor at the end of the week, Dia was enjoying the song Lyra was playing when the island suddenly shook.

Floors 1 and 2 have reached maximum size and enough mana has been gathered and floor 3 will now form!

An area of five meters around the dungeon core will rise with the dungeon core. All floors below will be able to expand.

With that message the ground around the pond began to break and suddenly separated from the island. It rose 30 meters up and soon clouds formed around it.

Then an even stronger rumbling came as a giant beanstalk grew and twisted itself up to the top and connected the floor.

“Oh! Dear missy, de tird floor appeared!” Jack said happily.

“Mn!” Dia nodded happily.

Slowly the feeling of a slightly denser mana came from above and slowly flowed down to the bottom floors.

Dia quickly prohibited the ‘ugly’ monsters from going and only let the spirits to go up.

Gnomes, nixies, sylphs, salamanders, fire spirits and the wisps that made them up appeared and they all began to fly or climb up, helping each other if needed. Soon a satisfying number was reached.

Dia flew up and used her mana to expand the cloud sea and plant a new weed called ‘Mana Weed’ all around the island. After she was done, Dia left the spirits and went back to listening to Lyra.

Up on the third floor all the spirits were quickly working and very rapidly the tiny island and clouds began to expand. The clouds experienced a big boost before the island cloud separated.

After a while suddenly one fire spirit, sylph and nixie froze where they were.

The gnomes noticed and looked up confused when suddenly the body of the three began to slowly grow. The nixie jumped out and suddenly her tiny body expands. Her fins on her back expand even more creating bigger wings. She formed a free flowing blue dress that covered their top and reached their tail. The sylph’s upper body grew and was proportionate to the cyclone under it. A simple green dress formed over her body and seemed to melt into the cyclone as if it was clothing weaved by the wind. The fire spirit grew more and her loose red hair became wavy. Soon, her hair formed long drill style before a small crown appeared on her head. In addition a long puffy dress appeared on her body giving a majestic air.

“Blimy! Dey evolved!” a gnome shouted.

What appeared was a Queen Fire Spirit, a Water Fairy and a Greater Sylph.

The three saw the gnomes and giggled.

“Sir gnomes, I think we should keep working for her majesty Dia.” The queen fire spirit said and giggled before flying off leaving a small trail of red light.

The greater sylph flew close. “Chubby little boys, don’t be naughty and go work work work!” she said and vanished into the air.

Lastly the water fairy just giggled. “Bye bye!” She said and turned before splashing into the water.

One gnome just crossed his cubby arm. “We ain chubby!” he shouted causing a wave of laughter from the gnomes.

Thump!

Suddenly a strong shake and the gnomes looked back and saw a gnome that was twice as big as the common one and holding a pickaxe made of stone in his hand.

“If yer got time ta chat, git boys!” The bigger gnome shouted.

The gnomes blinked before turning and saluting the gnome.

This gnome is a King Gnome. Similar to the queen fire spirit, a king gnome is a sovereign spirit. Appearing beside him was a gnome ⅓ smaller than him who was a Greater Gnome.

“Boss, wacha gonna dor wit de village?” the greater gnome asked.

“Don spread much. De big ouf gonna come up wen de island is big nough. Have de boys mak ah wata channel fer our mush farm.” The gnome said.

“Wat bout the mush men?” the gnome asked.

“Wat ya think! Beat em ta ah pulp!” he shouted.

The food they make, which is an array of mushroom crops, also gives space for Mushlings to be born and eating the raw mushroom allows them to become an even more powerful monster known as Mushroom Man that is double a gnome’s size and has arms, legs and a hard as iron cap.

Although the gnomes only saw a greater sylph and water fairy, there was similarly a Queen Sylph, a Greater Nixie, Water Pixie and Queen Water Fairy, similarly there were Greater Fire Spirits and Greater Salamanders that appeared as well.

With the birth of all these new types of spirits, the capability to grow increased much more. Even though they were not in a mana spring, the speed of the growth of the clouds and islands grew very quickly. After a day a greater flower spirit led a troop of fairies with many plants from below to the main island and began to squeak her orders.

Using their magic, they began to spread the weeds and grow the plants.

After an hour, similar the to the other spirits, the greater flower spirit froze as did several little flower spirits. They looked around and slowly floated about. When a flower spirit found a flower she liked she touched and merged with it becoming a greater flower spirit. As for the leader, she floats to a bell shaped blue flower right next to the mana pool and touches it.

A sudden shock wave of mana was released from her that drew the attention of all the spirits and they watched the small spirit grow to Dia’s size. The previous dress fell off and a new one in the shape of that blue bell flower appeared. On her chest a similar flower formed a shirt. Her hair turned blue and two pony tails gathered on the upper back side and a small vine with two blue bell shaped flowers appeared and wrapped the gathered hair. A flower tiara formed from vines neatly appeared and landed on her head.

Her closed eyes opened showing the sapphire eyes and she turned around smiling at the shocked spirits. Slowly on her back four large petals from the flower she merged with formed and gave her wings.

A new spirit was born as the Bell Flower Empress Spirit. She was an existence far beyond the “King” and “Queen” rank spirits. It was beyond it by a full rank.

“I hope we can work well together in the future.” The Flower Empress said with a smile and told the little flower spirits to gather a few flowers below and the others to do a specific arrangement of flowers.

Seeing that there was no need to worry about this empress, the other spirits returned to their own areas.

Hours later, Dia was shocked awake when the third floor began to ‘open’ to the second floor. She looked up and blinked upon seeing the really big cloud that had formed and how large the second floor was getting so fast.

She flew up to the third floor and what she found almost made her squeal in joy as she saw so many fairies, such an amazing garden and flower warriors made only from the prettiest flowers.

The flower spirits all knew Dia’s desire for only the most beautiful so the slightly stranger flowers were moved to the only island cloud until she saw and thought they were cute or pretty. However, what she loved the most and was currently hugging like a plushie was the extremely pretty flower empress.

Dia was really happy to have the flower empress because she looked like a pretty kid, allowing Dia to finally get a playmate.

When the other queens came, Dia was eccentric and even laughed when she saw the king gnome who shook his head and excused himself.

With the floor opening, the other animals and plants and birds also freely came up and filled the floor, but as the plants tried to advance on the main island the flower empress stood up and got in their way. A dark treant ignored her, but suddenly it was struck with a powerful hit from the Empress with magic and was sent flying as a huge vine grabbed its trunk and flipped it and split the dark treant in half.

Afterwards, she set the flowers and pretty creatures on the island and arranged them in a very pretty manner while the others were arranged in unique ways that made them work well and look cool while still protecting the dungeon.

When she finally returned, Dia granted all spirits above Greater rank a monster core so that they could move around freely to the lower floors and outside the dungeon.

Dia wanted the empress help her control the floors and after a day she did just that. The empress went down to the lower floors, took control of all flower spirits and pushed them to make a really pretty garden.

At the end of the second week Dia descended down the beanstalk and with that the dungeon opened once more. Adventurers that had gathered began climbing up and an adventurer guild official came up as well to set up the branch in the dungeon. He did so by building the guildhouse in front of the bridge to the next island. They had the adventurers help him build the building and like that there was a controlled access to the dungeon.

Then an evaluation team was sent which was part of the agreement and they were B rank to make sure they reached the end.

At first the evaluation team were put through a lecture about the limit of removing the flowers and killing monsters. How animals will flee when their numbers are too small (though to be wary of monsters who flee for hit and run tactics) and should not be killed after that point or else the tree warriors will attack.

That aside they were allowed to enter.

Obviously the first thing they marveled at was the island itself which was clear white compared to the brown cloud that came about due to the trees needing earth mana to be healthy.

Following that were the abundant magical plant creatures and the cloud monsters.

As with any dungeon, the monster would turn into particles and some might drop something of value which can range from pelts and fangs from the animals to whole logs or branches from the treants. All small spirits were marked as completely to be avoided since Dia liked them.

Cloud rabbits were something that amazed the archer. With their ability to hide in the clouds and their quick nimble jumps over the cloud sea made them hard to hunt down, but the pelt of cloud like fur is totally worth it. Sky lynx also had a strange pelt that gave an exotic feel and the fangs contained a good air affinity that would work for making small things like bone arrowheads and small tools that needed a very sharp point.

Further in they encountered more sky lynx, flower warriors and thorn bush warriors and before reaching the main island they found thorn bush guardians and dark treants. On several islands they stopped to harvest magical herbs and sometimes just stop to watch the spirits who would play around them.

One time they had stopped for a short snack and some nixies popped up because of the smell. After a while, when the snack was gone and the party was about to leave, she appeared and threw one of the short cloud shrimp ashore causing the party to be shocked upon seeing the size of the shrimp. They took a small piece of their own food and traded it with the nixie who took it before vanishing while giggling.

The party had a more favorable outlook of this dungeon where the spirits aren’t trying to mess with them. As it was said, this is like a child’s fairy world.

On the main island they encountered a large number of treants, flower warriors, thorn bush warriors, spitting thorn flower, mushlings and a rare mushroom man.

At the boss it was even bigger than the other plant creatures, but as an experienced party they weren’t affected by the boss’s alluring smell due to the party’s healer casting detoxification spells. Very soon, the alraune died and it dropped two roses, one red and one black, each in a small vase, a magical crystal and a large segment of the boss’s thorny vines.

The party soon continued on and climbed to the second floor. They quickly met with stronger creatures and even a few flying fish jumped out to attack with fang filled jaws, but they were extremely weak. The balloon jellyfish weren’t even capable of combat.

At the bridge to the second main island there was a troop of tree warriors blocking the way but as the party arrived they moved aside and Mir appeared.

“Congratulations and thank you for the evaluation.” Mir said.

“You should be the spirit Mir?” The leader of the party said.

“That is me. I came to congratulate and was wondering if you would like a tour of the main island and to see the third floor that has just appeared a few days ago.” Mir asked.

“Aren’t we prohibited?” The leader asked confused and wary of the spirit.

“Of course but only if you actually fight. If it’s just a walk around then there is no danger as long as you are with me. Dia is also nearby so you can have a chance to meet her.” Mir said.

The leader looked at his party and discussed it a bit before agreeing.

Unlike the first island, this one was much MUCH bigger thanks Jack’s handy work. Also, since the appearance of the third floor, the island has begun to regain the earth underneath it and was expanding outwards so the island is quite large to the point of reaching a size that could fit a large village on it.

The herbs here were another thing altogether compared to those spread around the dungeon.

The quantity and quality of the spirits were also higher since there were greater spirits on the island meticulously caring for the flowers and even some that were arranging the flowers in specific groups to make it even more beautiful.

As the party reaches the center their stomach clenches as they see Jack who sat against the beanstalk snoring with his wooden mallet in hand and his arms crossed while the gentle sound of Lyra playing the harp could be heard.

Mir put her fingers to her mouth and whistled causing Jack to slowly open his eyes and look at Mir.

“Where is Dia?” Mir asked.

Jack looked around and removed his hat, but didn’t find her before he looked up and Mir understood.

“You can go back to sleep, I will take care of them.” She said.

“Don go waken me up sa much lass.” He complained. Jack crossed his arms and leaned on the beanstalk again.

The party swallowed as they heard him speak.

“He is sentient?!” The mage said.

“He is Jack, a gentle giant. He is a race that Dia created herself after a storybook character. He possesses the same potential as ancient giants.” Mir said causing the group to suck in a cold breath.

Walking around him they approach the stairs and as they climb the mage stops and looks at the harpist.

“That is a really mystical harpist. Playing music with a magical effect to calm the mind and body.” The mage said.

Mir smiled wearily.

“She is based off of an item from the story the giant came from. She is a harp spirit. Let's go.” Mir said and spurred them on.

The third floor was much smaller but the amount of fairies here was even greater. After the spirits evolved, they were now forming sentient races and created sovereigns of their race who each took one corner of the main island to make a fairy town while gnomes took the underground.

Dia was playing with a few fairies and spirits near the mana pond. Many newborn fairies were flying around the pond or her. It gave her little ghost form a more mystic appearance like watching a ghost of a fairy playing around.

The party went into a daze until Dia noticed the party and shook in fear before she flew very quickly into a tree and hid.

Mir just smiled wearily and turns to the party. The fairies all look their way and some showed a frown wondering who messed with their fun before they saw a group of elves.

They quickly became really curious. More than half are newborn and the others are all young, so not many of them have actually seen elves or any surface races before.

They flew over timidly for a moment before a really brave but tiny fire spirit suddenly rushed and touched the leader's arm and flew back which shocked the party but when they didn’t react, the spirits gained a bit more courage and started to float around them. For the female archer a few spirits float near her hair and touch it, thinking it felt nice while some blushed seeing her face.

For the men most of the fairies blushed, bashfully peeked at them and flew to another person making the men not know whether to laugh or cry since they were the center of attention yet the ones it came from were the size of their pinky.

“Muuu~~~!” A cry of complaint reached their ears coming from Dia.

The spirits heard her too and all of them giggled at her little cry making the little ghost blush. Some flew over and pulled her ear or hair.

When she didn’t come they snorted and flew back causing a frown on Dia’s face and she reluctantly came over but hid behind Mir.

“This is Dia, she is the dungeon conscious.” Mir finally spoke after everything happened in silence.

“So it wasn’t some random talk from the guild when they said a child was the dungeon.” The mage said.

The leader kneeled down and smiled gently. He gave off the feeling of a knight which made Dia blushed violently causing her to hide her face.

The archer’s eyes softened as she joked with her leader that didn’t even say anything yet, “You're embarrassing her leader.”

He looked flustered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” He said scratching his head.

“Y-you’re cu-cute.” Dia’s small voice reached all their ears, but she quickly flew back to the tree and this time she wasn’t even looking their way.

Not letting this one go, the men of the party all started to laugh.

“Oi boss! You hear that, she found you cute!” one of the warriors said.

“Oh stop it, leader is cute~!” The female archer giggled.

“Alright that’s enough!” he shouted.

“If you all want to take a break, we have a way to transport you directly back to the first floor. There are plenty of fruits I can get from this floor.” Mir suggested.

“We would be grateful.” the archer said and walked a bit closer to the clearing around the mana pool, but this agitated the fairies.

“Please be careful where you sit.” Mir said to her. She seemed a bit startled, but looked around as she noticed all eyes on her and then she noticed the dungeon core floating in midair over the pond.

“Oh I am sorry.” She said and hopped over the little stream. She then turned around and looked at the core. It was a light pink and the core’s size was only about 3 cm in diameter.

Dungeon cores grow 1 cm with each floor which is one of the reasons dungeons are valuable. Their dungeon cores can be removed, broken and even have a small part placed back in the dungeon allowing them to reform their dungeon core over a long time. However, most people don’t wait for dungeons to get more than ten floors because it would be a hassle for them to carry or find a use for it if it were bigger. Of course, more than half the known dungeons have a peaceful coexistence with those around them depending on the type of dungeon.

Mir sent the fairies to get some fruits and sat down. Eventually Dia returned and asked about the world, how it is and what kind of adventures they had gone through.

She became enthralled, but soon the sun started to set so Dia summoned the biggest red bus lobster, the ones living on this floor, so that it could ferry them down.

After a moment to explain what this creature was, the eyes of the party shined. They mounted on the round cloud boat the lobster was dragging and with a call to send them to the first floor the lobster pulled them. It went into the middle areas of the cloud sea at a frightening speed that was even faster than the sky sharks that jumped out to try and catch them before it reached a cloud whirlpool.

This was something that was far from all the islands and couldn’t be clearly seen on the lower floors. They spun their way down but the lobster easily handled it. Eventually, they stopped on the first floor and the lobster finished its ferry ride at the first island.

“That was a unique experience.” The mage said as he jumped out.

Mir landed and pulled her wings back as the party jumped off the cloud boat and they all walked to the adventurer guild branch where they briefed the official. Dia herself was there, but behind Mir who acted as her guardian.

The gathered items and the description of the dungeon were given and the eyes of the official widened, but once more the warning from Mir that the flowers can’t be over picked was heard and they nodded. The reward for the evaluation was given and the party was given a room to stay the night.

The following morning Dia had actually come to see them off but was blushing.

Eventually they found out why when she held a small wooden flute to the leader.

She had seen him play it very skillfully and had asked one of the elves to make one with magic. Then she took it, made it a spirit item secretly and handed it to the leader before looking down while her ears were red.

He thanked her for the gift and waved goodbye.

It wasn’t until the following night which also happens to be the day Dia’s dungeon flew off to a different village to set up a beanstalk there that he identified it.

Gentle Prince’s Melody

This flute made by magical treant wood is a spirit item with no intelligence. This flute will only sound for someone that its maker made it for or for one that is fitting of being an equal in morals, charm and looks to the one it was made for. If forced to play by others then the sound would seem like a devil's bloodcurdling scream, but for those worthy they can play music with a unique charm that can mesmerize other people listening to it.

He was completely shocked at seeing a spirit item in his hand and wanted to return it, but when the mage of the party saw it he criticized their leader because the description showed clearly that it was an item made specially for him. He eventually gave up the thought and decided of making this a future family heirloom for when he would form a family.