“Guuuu~~!” a little ghost girl sat on the ground sad while Mir was in front of her barking mad because she randomly gifted away a treasure that could cause droves of greedy mortals. Although Mir prohibited her from making spirit items, it wouldn’t stop monsters from naturally creating them from being unique.

The best example was Jack’s strange wooden mallet that appeared when he was named. Although the dungeon message stated he would possess 20% of his power while he is the second floor's boss, that mallet is unique.

Gentle Mallet

This is the mallet of the gentle giant Jack, after gaining a name he was gifted by the heavens this mallet that can amplify his strength and magic by two times the strength used to attack with it.

This mallet has incredible durability and only someone with at least half a giant’s brute physical strength can wield this mallet.

So as it is possible to see, Jack can actually access 40% of his power as long as the impact comes from the mallet which is exactly why Clover was nothing more than a ragdoll in front of it.

After the heavy lecture to not simply give away spirit items without at least consulting her, Dia was left to play.

Dia was about to play, but she then stopped as she was leaving the island. The reason was because she saw a pretty elf playing her own harp and all around her fire spirits, water fairies and pixies, nixies, sylphs and flower spirits were all fluttering and dancing in the air.

They all seem to love the sound and the elf loved to play and watch the ballet of fairy dancers. Dia was mesmerized and floated over, but this caused the elf player to stop and disrupt the rhythm of the fairies making them pout and shout.

“Oh I'm sorry, I was just surprised to see her.” The elf said gently. When the fairies turned and saw Dia they smiled and began to flutter around her.

“H-how did y-you make them dance so happily?” Dia asked shyly.

“You’re Dia right? We all heard about you, from the stories, we feel you act just like a fairy, very cute, very shy but very playful. As for why they were dancing, in the legends us elves have, fairies are considered artists. Be it making the world beautiful in their eyes, playing music, dancing, even fighting can be beautiful in the eyes of some.” the elf lady said.

“S-so are fairies good at it?” Dia asked.

“Just look around, this beautiful scenery was made by your flower spirits, if you don’t find it pretty would they like it?” She asked and Dia shook her head. Her love was definitely in the flowers, but she also always loved to listen to Lyra’s harp while sleeping or when she played a slightly faster song that she could dance to. It did make her seem a bit like a fairy, but she didn’t know if it was fun to play an instrument.

Suddenly a little nixie jumped out of the water and poked Dia’s cheek drawing her attention.

Dia looked at her… after a careful look she actually noticed that it was a boy. Female nixies had long hair but this was the first time a short haired one appeared.

He squeaked and turned before pointing at an instrument beside the elf.

“What's that?” Dia asked.

“Oh? Is that little nixie interested? This is a violin, there are lots of different sizes that make different tones.” The elf patiently explained.

The nixie flew up with sparkling eyes, poked it and then rubbed his hands on the side before he put his cheek to the wooden instrument.

“He really likes it.” Dia giggled.

“I have a smaller one, it may still be too big, but if he can become a bigger kind of spirit he might be able to play.” She said and stored the violin before walking into her shop at the base of her home.

She came out with a violin that was extremely tiny and would fit a 4 year old like Dia perfectly.

Seeing the violin, the little nixie’s eyes shined as he flew right to the violin and entered through the openings.

The next second it began to glow and float out of her hands. It slowly began to turn an ocean blue and soon the nixie came out before his body began to grow until it was just a little less than Dia’s size.

His blue hair became well combed like a noble boy and a simple long dress appeared on his body while his eyes turned into those similar to humans but he kept the nixie features like the fins, webbed fingers and a long fish tail that came out his back and lifted his long dress back.

In one hand the tiny violin was held and in the other an bow magically appeared.

“This is…” The elf said in shock as the boy took the bow to his violin and just randomly pulled it making a screeching noise that caused everyone to cover their ears.

“STOP!!” Dia shouted making him stop.

“Why!” He shouted back glaring.

“You’re are bad.” Dia said puffing her cheeks.

“Hmpf!” He also pouted just like her.

The two acted like children, Dia was already looking up and down and using her dungeon ability to find out what he was.

“Pretty lady? What is a Foshegrime?” Dia asked.

“It’s Fossegrim! Not Foshegrime!” He countered.

“Oh! I believe it is a male spirit with connections to nixies. They are similar to them and are river spirits, but they have a large love for playing instruments and prefer string ones like harps and violins.” the elf said.

“He may like it, but he is bad at it. Bleh!” Dia said as she crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out.

“That’s because he just started, you would also not be good at playing if you just start right.” The elf calmly said making Dia blush.

“Pretty lady can you teach me!! I want to be really good to the point that I can make trees and flowers dance to my music!” He said.

“Muu~! I want to learn to! I will make anything, even the sun dance! But I want the harp! The violin is tiny and noisy!” Dia said.

The elf woman couldn’t help laughing and all the fairies did as well, but the boy frowned at her statement and the two started at each other like feuding children.

“Ahahaha! Sweetie I have an idea!” A sudden voice called out from the store.

Everyone looked and saw a male elf whose face was smooth and even a bit girly, but it had a charm to it that made all the girls blush. Those that didn’t, Dia noticed that the hair was short which was a sign of being boys, but they were really few and far between.

“Oh honey, what idea do you have?” the elf asked.

“I'll teach the boy the basics, I doubt he will like the slow music we elves enjoy or maybe he might but wants to make his own. You take the little lass and teach her, when they both know the basics why not have them compete and see who is better. We can have the little fairies as the judge of who is better by having them choose who they like more.” The man said.

The boy grinned and smirked at Dia, quickly agreeing. Dia was a bit more shy but clutched her little fists and agreed. That said, to make it fair and not let the other see them play, it was decided that the lady, whose name was Daffodil, would go teach Dia, while the man, who was named Curtas, would teach the boy. They each choose a few types of either string instrument and Daffodil comes with Dia on a red bus lobster to the third floor where the elf was shocked to see all the advanced forms of spirits and more importantly Lyra who was there.

Hidden behind her was the golden goose but it was mistaken for a simple golden statue.

Lyra wasn’t playing, but every so often she would pluck a string and slowly the tone changed which meant she was tuning. Daffodil was a bit mesmerized by the spirit item but Dia obviously told her, on Mir’s command should anyone see her, that it was a harp spirit.

Anyway she soon pulled out two small harps that can be carried in one arm easily and began to teach Dia.

They began with tuning, followed by starting the musical scale on the harp. The little ghost plucked the strings weakly and sometimes she said her fingers hurt, at which time they would take a break and Dia would wash her fingers in the pond. It would usually heal up, but she didn’t notice at all her small figure becoming a tad bit more solid each time.

At night Dia called the gnomes and asked them to make a small cottage for Daffodil. Then the sylphs and told them to sheer the fur from big cloud rabbits that appeared on the third floor and bring a three pelts to make a bed and two more for covers.

Afterwards, she slept together with the elf in the comfortable pelts.

On the second day Mir appeared and told Dia about arriving at the town. She said it would take another day for the people that the queen sent to arrive and another day after that for them to be ready for the monster wave. As such, she was free for three days before she needed to send Jack and the others down.

She began the lesson on the second day when the ground suddenly began to shake and from the ground a super large ugly mushroom monster burst out and following it came mushroom men and mushlings.

Dia shouted in fear, but a moment later the gnomes popped up and began to attack.

Dia began to cry at this point and the queens of the spirits and the flower empress arrived and instantly their face turned to ones of extreme anger.

All the fairies rapidly grew into a frenzy and Daffodil who was hugging Dia was watching in shock at the sudden state of berserk all these fairies went into. The ground rumbled as the fairies spread out and suddenly arm thick vines with countless thorns appeared from the ground.

From the sky the air suddenly became hotter as a sudden rain of balls of fire fell all over the mushrooms. A large gnome with a stone pickaxe appeared before the elf and girl. He then kicked the ground forming a stone wall around them, but they could still see out because it wasn’t high and lifting his pickaxe he slammed the ground. All the other gnomes did the same. The ground suddenly began to glow and a rumble followed as countless earth spikes shot out.

The massive mushroom roared.

“You puny fairies! I am king!” He shouted and the massive mushroom cap on his head began to shake as spores fell.

As they land, new mushroom men began to appear but suddenly a powerful gust came and blew all the spores into the air as a little girl half Dia’s size with a cyclone for feet stood there. This was the queen sylph, but unlike the easy going disposition she commonly has, her eyes were bloodshot.

“Despicable!” She said and around her many greater sylphs and regular ones appeared. She held her hand up and pointed. “Go!”

They all turned into air and suddenly the air in the dungeon picked up. Around the mushroom king a cyclone formed and began to cut and rip it to pieces.

Daffodil paled as she saw how vindictive the fairies and spirits were. They normally showed childish personalities, but the power they hold was nothing to scoff at. It’s like when you see a rat herd, one alone is weak but together they were strong. It was what she was seeing. Every sylph and greater sylph joined together and formed a killing cyclone.

It was said that fairies aren’t creatures to attack in the dungeon and it was because they were nice but she now found out why. Killing one is like taking a stick and poking a beehive. You're asking to die. Unless someone had tremendous power to resist this number of spirits, then it was easy to see why they were set as something to not mess with.

As the storm ended, what was left of the mushroom king was simple bits and pieces.

The queen fire spirit simply pointed and a dense scarlet ball appeared at her fingertip. It shot out and mid way it became a powerful blue flame that once it impacted, it spread out over the entire island. It burned every last mushroom and even the roots underground were all destroyed yet no plants, be them weeds or trees, seemed to be touched.

As the flames faded, nothing was left and the holes on the ground slowly closed as the gnomes worked.

“Ah~! Dat was cose!” one gnome said wiping his brow.

As the gnomes finished their work they looked around. They were completely surrounded by the angry fairies and spirits.

The bell flower empress spirit flew down and landed in front of the king gnome.

“Explain what happened?” She asked in an icy cold tone.

“We erh… gro mushrom fer food… de mushmen wer ta strong.” He said looking down in shame.

“Why did you cultivate monsters instead of eat fruits from the surface?” She asked.

“Ah ma’am, dat ain wut we like. We eat mushroms.” he said simply.

“We aso live in em!” Another shouted.

“So you gave a prime condition for powerful monsters to be born. Monsters that Dia didn’t like and viewed as ugly!” The flower empress said even angrier.

“Bell… wait…” Dia’s small voice called.

“Dia? You’re going to let them off?!” The empress asked.

“They… don’t have fairies helping them… maybe… if I make mushroom spirits like… flower spirits they can keep the mushroom from growing…” Dia said timidly.

The empress looked at the girl and saw she didn’t want conflict and looked at the gnomes who were indeed repenting and sighed. She called a flower fairy and told a gnome to pick up a mushroom and bring it.

As the mushroom appears the smallest flower spirits looked at it intensely. That said the one called looked away from it and looked at a big yellow flower.

Sending her back, one of those that seemed interested moved close. She touched it and her body began to glow. The flower in her hand and the mushroom vanished. Then she grew to the size of a greater flower spirit and stopped. On her head a large mushroom cap appeared and then a small cloth covered her chest before a brown mushroom cap formed a large dress on her waist. As the glow vanished she happily looked at herself and spun around as her mushroom dress spun freely with her.

“You, take a few interested flower spirits and farm the gnomes’ mushroom field. DON’T let them evolve, but let them grow large.” the empress commanded.

“Um…” Daffodil muttered and the empress looked at her and smiled gently.

“I'm sorry you had to see that. We didn’t know something like that was happening. We will make sure to send these new greater mushroom spirits to all gnome farms to keep things safe.” The empress said.

“Why do you want to keep it safe? This is a dungeon, also, don’t all spirits and fairies live in mushroom houses? I have read in legends that it was like that.” Daffodil said.

All the fairies were confused but a sudden hit on the ground with a wooden staff draws their attention to Mir who had run quickly to their location as she felt something was up.

“You know the legends well, I haven’t had time to remember this fact but yes, small fairies indeed live in mushrooms that had undergone similar treatment that elves do to trees. Queens and above are too big and would do the same to trees that you do.” Mir said and looked at the fairies. “From now on the gnomes will supply the three villages and those of the floor below with mushroom for homes. You should send a group of mushroom spirits to floor 2 as well.” Mir said.

The empress bowed her head. She knew she was below Mir even though her name possessed empress in it. Mir is a defacto wood elf, elves are considered higher up the spirit pyramid but obviously there is a limit. As long as her natural size was shorter than Mir she was weaker, but that would change as the dungeon grew and her with it.

The fairies soon dispersed, but Dia was still agitated though Mir just smiled.

“You’re one of the residents, sorry for that, it must have been scary. If you could, take Dia and listen to a song from Lyra, her music causes a soothing effect that is good for an agitated mind.” Mir said.

“Thank you, I just never expected for such a beautiful place to hide such a thing.” Daffodil said.

“This is still a dungeon, don’t forget that, a special one that can keep making all its races evolve if given the chance without active intervention. All the ones we have are mostly of good nature but don’t think we don’t fight. You just saw it, internal battles are always happening.” Mir said and helped the two over to Lyra, told her to play a song and left them.

After the song Lyra looked over at the little harps for a while and looked at the elf. “Can you teach me the basics as well?” She asked Daffodil who was holding a sleeping Dia.

“Why, you can play so beautifully?”

“I play what is recorded in my mind. When Dia created me, I only had a few songs that I can play and sing instinctively, but I cannot create new songs because I don’t know the basics.” Lyra said.

This surprised her, but she just smiled and laid Dia softly on the ground. Taking a look at the harp she plucked once then twice before discovering the scale was odd.

She took in the model and size before pulling out a similar harp. “Your harp is oddly off tune, yet it can play. I can guess that your music comes from your magic right?” She asked which Lyra nodded to.

“That means the effect of your music is only half as effective or even less. This is the same model with the same number of strings. You are naturally in tune with music so you can hear the differences in the sound. I shall pluck one string at a time and you do the same string and align the sounds.” Daffodil said.

Like that she first tuned each string and for over half an hour the two slowly tuned Lyra’s harp. As the sound reaches the proper note, the strength of the magic in each note gets stronger and to Daffodil it feels like she was plucking heartstrings as each string would somehow affect her.

At the peak, Lyra would stop and move to the next string. When they were finished, she smiled as a series of lines coming from each string flashed. The brown color slowly changed to a dark older look and the carvings became even more exquisite, but the size and tune of the harp didn’t change.

“Thank you, it seems this is my true form when all strings are in tune properly.” She said.

At this time Dia woke up and looked with sparkling eyes at Lyra’s much more beautiful harp. She ran over and picked up the small ones. “Lyra! Lyra! Can you play with a small harp like us?” Dia asked.

“Of course.” Lyra smiled warmly as the large harp shrank to the size of a small harp that matched their own in strings, but similarly the harp was simple and the strings were off tune so Daffodil spend time retraining them to tune a small harp. Daffodil then taught Dia to tune a big one following which was a review of all the notes that each string could do.

Like this two peaceful days after the incident happened passed with the three just focusing on music and taking small breaks.

During one break, Dia brought them to an area that the fire spirits had made their home and when they arrived they found a small grove 7 meters in diameter had been completely changed. Mushrooms of many sizes were all over the place, but what drew their attention was that there were small doorways and windows on them and spirits walked in and out of them. At the center was a large tree and at the halfway point was a large opening and that area was wider as if the tree bloated at that point. This area also had windows and it rose up a bit before it continued as a tree.

“Wow!” Dia muttered.

Daffodil was in a similar way and soon the spirits flew out and greeted them happily.

Eventually Mir appeared. “Dia, it’s time. We should go down to the first floor, Jack is waiting already to climb down and offer his aid.” Mir said.

She looked sad but nodded before they took a red bus lobster down.