Clover impatiently waited for his disciples, but at the same time he looked at the pathetic plants he had in his dungeon.

“Let’s fix this problem quickly.” He said and with a chant he stretched his hand and a cloud of green light was released from his hand and fell over the patch of weeds.

After a moment the patch spread but there was little change.

“Strange… I thought dungeon weeds would change upon feeding on mana.” He thought and suddenly had a strange feeling.

He stood there for a very long time until he realized what it was.

“Why the hell am I not recovering mana!” he asked.

Poking her head out of the small burrow Maribell looked at him coldly.

“You’re a dungeon lord genius, you're not like Dia, the dungeon in the clouds. Her dungeon grows because of the presence of invaders, but she doesn’t need to kill. You on the other hand need to kill creatures in your dungeon.” She said and grinned at this misfortune. He would need to get animals and set up a functioning ecosystem in this clump of flying rock.

Clover felt like pulling his hair when he remembered how meditating would refill his mana faster and help him calm his mind.

Looking around, he looked at the middle of the dungeon and with a thought a small dirt hut appeared and slowly turned to rock.

He went inside, sat cross legged and breathed deeply slowly entering a state to mediate. Feeling mana in the air, he starts to absorb it and feels the mana enter though not his body, rather the dungeon core. All the mana in his body was gone and concentrated in the core now.

After a few minutes he heard noises outside which were his disciples. He stood up and stepped out and saw them with avians, small animals, some plant sprouts and more advanced herbs.

“These are what we could find in the immediate area master.” His eldest disciple said.

“Good… fairy how do I make them my dungeon beasts?” Clover asked.

“Just ‘corrupt’ them with your mana. You will get a feeling when their mind connects to yours.” Her voice echoed from the burrow, not even appearing.

The plants were easy, the elves just went and planted them and used some magic to make sure they don’t die due to being moved. The animals were all overwhelmed by his mana before connecting to him and he told them they could release the animals as he took control. When he was done he was sweating already due to being low on mana and was quite tired. The disciples were worried about this, but he told them to not worry.

“All of you set up a magic formation on the island so that it would gather more mana from outside the dungeon. I don’t naturally regain it anymore and I will need a more mana rich area to meditate to absorb mana fast enough to quickly grow my dungeon.” Clover instructed.

He sluggishly went back to his hut and returned to meditating. After a short time he started to feel a rise in mana which signaled the magic formation had been set up regaining his strength. He spent three hours before his mana returned to what it was previously at his peak.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he opened his eyes and walked out. Around his small hut were other buildings and he could feel below ground a large open area with shelves was made and the library books were being organized. He remembered how the dungeon system said his dungeon entrance was at the bottom of the rock his dungeon was made from. Feeling it he indeed felt a cave with a small room down there.

Besides that small room, he made a winding stairway to the ‘second’ floor in a higher area and opened three rooms. He then made a ‘third floor’ just below the library and put seven rooms inside the floor. At one corner of the floor, he closed off a section and made the stairs come all the way up to the top of the rock.

He had nothing but thorn bushes and herbs he could fill in it. He needed magical creatures so closing his eyes, he began to focusing his mana in front of himself and began chanting.

When he finished, a magical circle appeared in front of him and at the center mana gathered and formed a wisp. It was a low class monster summon spell, but if he could capture this he could make plant spirits and try to do the same as the girl. That said, as the wisp formed, the ball began to wobble and popped before his eyes.

His eyes become wide and he heard laughter. He then looked at the source and spots Maribell.

“What did I tell you about you not being permitted to have spirits and elementals.” She said laughing sarcastically.

“What did you do!?” Clover asked.

“I did nothing, the Goddess of Spirits Yolida has prohibited your dungeon from being capable of housing spirits. Other dungeon creatures can enter if there is a dungeon war, but wild ones are blocked from entering and summoned ones will not completely materialize. This dungeon is cursed against spirits. It’s impossible for one, besides the dungeon fairy, to survive in this lump of earth.” Maribell said and laughed.

Clover didn’t know whether he should go into a fit or cry. Spirits are some of the most powerful creatures, others could also be powerful as them but the longevity of a spirit is something only gods can compare to. A creature that has a race with ‘Fairy’, ‘Pixie’ or ‘Spirit’ in its name is virtually immortal.

Feeling defeated, Clover just walked to the patch of weeds and sat down. He just wanted to rest so he released all his mana so that he could stay knocked out for some time.

Dungeons have a very weak regeneration, it takes only 100 points for them to reawaken but it is a slow recharge. Upon releasing all his mana he fainted, but the weed patch was fed greatly with the mana that entered them and the soil. Not much changed, but they were no longer common weeds and were now mana weeds which released mana into the air, is the basis of magical herbs and could vitalize the earth they were around leading other plants to evolve.

Clover remained unconscious, but the herbs all began changing while he slept.

***

In the elven capital, the number of adventurers had increased a great deal since Dia returned. Due to the fact that the dungeon had only one path, it restricted too many people so with Mir’s instructions four pathways between the islands were made. Each path had seven islands between them with different creatures and different lengths. They would all connect to the main island at different spots, but a road would lead to the boss.

This allowed more adventures to move around and would more evenly spread out the harvestable items that the first parties would have otherwise harvested for themselves.

The second and third floor all had the same thing done to them. As for the fourth floor that appeared, it was too small to climb, but the boss of the third floor had already been created. It was made from the flying fish because Dia did not know what to make. It was a swarm of flying fish she changed. What changed was their ability to swim making it much faster, their wings were made sharp like blades and their scales were made sharp so that it wasn’t easy to grab them. That said even with this, she made the cloud bears a big predator for them by making the soft paws, the tongue and the flesh in his body more resistant to spikes and cutting edges. It didn’t change the race since they were just small changes, but it was enough to make them predators of fish like the new sword wing flying sardines.

Although Dia has some ideas for what dungeon boss to make, she felt it didn’t fit into the dungeon as it looks now. She asked Misty if there was a way to change the look of the dungeon once.

“You can choose what the dungeon looks like every 5 floors, on floor 6 you can change what is called the theme of the dungeon. Most dungeons make the first 10 or 15 floors cave before changing, but smarter dungeons change every 5 floors.” Misty said.

Now she was wondering what kind of fairyland she wanted, but she just let the ideas grow while she practiced her harp.

Within the dungeon Mir was on the second floor main island and with her was the runt and a number of gnomes. Also with her were a small group of elven knights who were currently sweating and breathing raggedly. All over their armor were glowing symbols which increased the weight of the armor by four times. The elves have been fighting all the way here and were supporting themselves on the spears and swords.

Mir snaps her finger undoing the symbols and the elves collapse as they felt relief.

“Alright, rest up for 10 minutes, you guys will be taking the wolf for a test run.” Mir shouted.

They grunt, but Mir whistles and the fairies and spirits fly in bringing them fruits of the dungeon to the tired elves.

Each bite they take is like taking a bite of heavenly fruit that restores their health, stamina and mana. Such mystical fruit had them enchanted just as much as the spirits themselves captured their attention.

After the short but fruitful rest, they walked along the path and as they reach the clearing where the wolf was, they walk into a kind of wall that didn’t obstruct them and instead isolated them. Mir walked in and began to explain.

“To allow so many people come we had to do something with the bosses and after some time we found out that we can set up separate dimensions for each boss. This means that you will fight one body in a multitude of many different instances of this section of the world.” Mir explained.

Suddenly a loud wolf howl came from the beanstalk followed by many other howls and a powerful gust of wind came from the same direction.

Soon the winds stopped and the group was on guard. The path was forest mostly, so they made a defensive wall on the sides while archers remained in the middle and swordsmen in front and back. Like this the party of soldiers walked forward while Mir watched from above and the runt walked some 20 meters behind to also watch them. If someone gets gravely hurt, he will pull them out and save them but remove them from the fight.

Soon a group howl came from all sides and hit the party who had to drop the shields to the ground and form an iron wall to block the wind.

The reason for this was when Dia made the wolf. She had the idea of the Big Bad Wolf from both ‘Red Riding Hood’ and the ‘Three little Pigs’. She made the wolf like the one from ‘Red Riding Hood’ but she gave him the ability to control the sky wolves who make powerful gusts when they howl making him both kinds of big bad wolves.

As the winds die down they move slowly as the sounds of movement in the bushes was heard.

From above, Mir could see the 10 attacking wolves and the big bad wolf in one tree with a grin. He would relay orders through howls and they would act up. A moment later he jumped down, began to running around and gave a grunt at which the wolves whipped up a wind, but this time in three groups. One howled first, followed by the next and finally the last group. This made three strong waves of winds and he moved in close with a tailwind reaching the left wall of shields while the wall was down.

Clutching his fist, he swung and a clear *Dong* rang out as a faint fist print appeared on the shield and the shield holder stumbled back.

He quickly jumped back and howled making the wolves howl once more. This time the wind hit and entered the breach pushing the men to the side and back causing the wall to weaken allowing him to jump in even more efficiently and claw towards an elf’s throat only for the elf to be sucked underground appearing next to the runt soon after.

The wolf growled and jumped out of the circle of elves into the trees just as they built the wall again and following him were some arrows but his fur let him blend in. His overalls were hard to hide but he was sneaky and was able to hide behind some bushes.

“Grr, blast that fucking runt!” He grumbled as he looked at the runt with the dejected elf behind him. He already knew the setup of ‘training’ the elves. For him it was also a training drill for his wolves that act as mini boss in his boss challenge. They won’t die unless it's of old age while they are inside the boss zone where there are countless instances. Only the den of wolves was excluded so that the mind of the wolf doesn’t have to keep switching between the instances and lets them sleep peacefully.

The wolf growls and recalls the wolves. He then starts jumping through the woods and waits just before the clearing around where the beanstalk lay. There was a wooden bridge between the section of forest they were in and the circle that made up the ‘main’ boss area.

The elves walk out and cross the bridge, then enter a perfect circle defensive wall position.

The wolf growled and the other wolves whipped up a gale hitting them. He then jumped over the cloud stream and lunged at them.

“Here it comes!” the elf captain shouted.

The wolf came and like before he punched and jumped back as a new gale came, but because he didn’t have the element of surprise the elves were ready and an arrow flew almost hitting his head and another hit his right shoulder.

He jumped back to the trees and grunted as he grabbed the arrow and pulled it out.

Sniffing the air he jumped and found some healing herbs. He bit the leaves before spitting out the mush and licked it into the wound and then ate the other leaves leaving the stem. After the elves leave, this instance would vanish probably so there was no need to worry about something as pathetic as a stem of a low rank herb.

He then jumped on the trees.

“Let me show you what I can do Grr.” He growled and jumped out of the trees.

“Fire!” The archers launched their arrows at the captain's command and the wolf jumped up. They aimed at him thinking he was a sitting duck, but suddenly the wind gathered under his feet and he pressed against it and jumped forward and overhead right to the beanstalk. Then he spun in midair and kicked off of it causing him to shoot from behind. He used his sky step that the sky creatures can use to run on clouds or jump in the air to dodge the arrows. Still in the air, he howled causing the sky wolves to whip up a wind stopping the remaining arrows and making those fired at him veer.

Spinning, he pulls back his legs before kicking the shield. A sound of cracking was heard and the elf was thrown back into the other with the shield cracking. The formation slowly breaking, he steps in and side kicks the elf hitting his side, causing him to fall in pain. Suddenly a sword comes and he jumps back, but is followed by arrows that hits his left leg and chest.

He howls in pain and calls the sky wolves to attack.

The wolves howl and make a gust of wind before they jump out in an all out attack and hit the wall full strength. The big bad wolf jumps away but suddenly an arrow comes from behind piercing his throat making him fall forward and bleed out.

With him down for the count, the sky wolves were without the head and so the shields defended while spear holders stabbed out from the inside of the formation and sword users attacked as well. Mages used magic to bind and attack the wolves and the archers limited the movement of the wolves. Unlike the boss, they were easier to deal with and soon they all died. They all burst into lights leaving behind fangs, pelts, meat, a monster core and the boss left behind a pair of boots that contained the ability of the boss to jump midair, but it was limited to two times before needing to land on the ground and jump again.

Like this the group relaxed a bit and began to heal the injured. Mir and the runt appeared with the fallen soldier.

“Good, although there were some injuries you all did well. We can chalk the injuries up to inexperience against such an… unusual being.” Mir said.

“Unusual is an understatement ma’am!” One man said and the others nodded.

“Can’t deny that. A lycanthrope with...overalls and sentient thought while in that form is definitely unusual.”

“Miss, wolfman is better, he is purely a wolf with human shape like a beastman. If he were a werebeast then he could change between human and beast forms.” The runt said.

“True, anyway, good job you all. We will stop here since it’s getting late and you are all tired and injured. We will also be leaving today, so today is the last day of the training. It will be about a week or two before we return and you can all prepare for more.” Mir said.

“Yes Ma’am!” They saluted and slowly moved to the shore where several red bus lobsters were waiting. By this point, they have gotten used to this transportation since coming to this dungeon. A quick exit service from the dungeon.

They all enter and fill up the cloud boats and the lobsters start moving.

That said to their surprise halfway to the drop a sudden surge in the clouds brought by a herd of sky sharks caused them to pale. The sky sharks were all between 4 to 8 meters long and could swallow each of them whole. The lobsters suddenly sped up and cleared the jumping sharks, but suddenly stopped and released the boats.

“What! Did they drop ship!?” The elves asked suddenly desperate about being left behind.

Suddenly the cloud sea surged and a sky shark jumped out aiming for one boat, but like a bullet the red bus lobster popped up from the side of the boat and flew towards the shark.

The lobster was only 1 meter large making everyone think it was over, but as soon as the two beasts collide in midair the lobster smashes and starts to drag the shark upwards as if it had more mass and power. The side of the shark twists and soon they crash into the water.

Several other sharks jumped out and similarly the red bus lobsters jumped out to meet them and each encounter was the same, they were completely crushed under the lobsters.

The elves suddenly looked at Mir who was smiling.

“Each red bus lobster weighs an estimated sum of 2 tons. All that is packed into muscles that, if they put their backs into it, could swim circles around the sharks. In under 10 seconds they can swim five times around the main island. They are nonaggressive monsters with so much power packed behind them because the dungeon needed to develop a ‘safe’ return method for the visitors. As such, they are powerful enough to easily swim in the cloud sea as the reigning power.” Mir said with pride.

Her words were clear, they weren’t attacking creatures, but were like guards as well as transport.

The elves swallow as the lobsters grab the boats and start swimming and transporting them down.

They return and a little later all the other parties that had entered the dungeon to train following the instructions of other fairies or powerful beings that knew how to guide troops also returned.

The guards soon after descended and as night falls Dia’s dungeon detaches from the capital’s beanstalk and moves to the second beanstalk where a number of the monsters were left behind. It was time to see how big the town grew during the time they were gone.

***

To the northwest, several hundred meters in the air, Clover slowly opened his eyes after he naturally regenerated the minimal amount of mana the core will absorb once wasting everything.

He found himself in a stone hut and in a bed. His disciples had altered the hut into a cottage.

Standing on weak legs, he walks outside and when he looks his eyes widen as he feels the mana density. Seeing the patch of weeds had spread throughout the dungeon he walked out and examined them and found it was mana weed. As he looked he also saw bigger thorn bushes. His mind linked with it and he found that it came from crossbreeding thorn bushes and mana weeds. It was on its way to becoming something better. The tree sprouts were already fully grown and as he looked he found higher quality herbs that were no longer Lesser quality.

“It all grew? How long was I asleep?” He asked.

“Just several hours master!”

He turned and found one of his disciples bringing a bowl of meat soup. Holding his hands out, Clover received the bowl from the disciple.

“How…” Clover asked.

“Master released his mana over the weed patch and they evolved into mana weed. This caused the mana quality in the air and soil to rise a bit and the other weeds began to spread creating a cycle of mana refining. Although spirits can’t survive here, this caused the plants to become higher quality and as mana gathers, thanks to our magic formation, it will eventually breed monsters.” He explained.

Clover looked out somewhat blandly. The animals had made burrows and soon appeared once more, rodents had gained some size and lighter fur. Birds were in the trees building nests, but weren’t much different.

He turned to the fairy’s burrow. “How do I make more islands?” He asked.

Only after a very long time she appeared sheepish. “What was that?” She asked rubbing her eyes.

“How do I expand my dungeon, bigger island, more islands, how do I change the terrain without elementals and spirits that normally affect these aspects of nature?” Clover asked.

She looked at him for a long while. “Eat first then go to your little library, I'll summon a book on the basics.” She said and entered her home.

He looked at the soup and ate it like she recommended. He was indeed very hungry and so he finished it before walking downstairs to find the promised book. Opening it he started to read about a few dungeon systems, how summoning creatures worked, how evolving them manually worked, how to merge beings, how to naturally breed and how to place a dungeon boss.

Unlike Dia’s dungeon where there is one every floor, a common dungeon has one every five floors. Dungeons get the chance to change their look at this point creating different types of floors, but due to his dungeon being separate islands he gains something that Dia doesn’t and that is the ability to change the theme every island by changing the island’s affinity. Each advancing island will also have higher mana density than the previous one, but several conditions need to be met before a piece of the previous island breaks off to make the new island. Ecosystem wise, it must all be in balance and the size has to be over 25 meters wide and 50 meters from the top to the entrance at the minimum.

Clover continued to read and study the book more.

After a while he left and began meditating. He would need a lot of mana and through mediating will he be able to set up everything to expand. The only other extra mana he can rely on is the mana from dying monsters.