Floor 6 has been created. Do you wish to keep the current theme or change?

“I wanna change it!” Dia said with a smile as she cheerfully said.

“What kind of theme will you make it?” Waid asked bored.

“It’s called a Winter Wonderland!” She said giddy and then began to talk about all the different fairy tales associated to winter. Santa, Jack Frost, Frosty the Snowman, Yetis, Santa’s elves that help him make his toys, and Santa’s magical reindeer, especially Rudolph.

Describe the island format?

“Let's see…” Dia put her finger on her forehead as she frowned thinking. “One very big island that is covered in snow. The weather is cold and the water should also be much colder, oh the islands should be rocky with mountains but should have rainforests as well. The ocean should be cold and the island clouds should be covered in snow or be an iceberg. In some areas, ice should freeze the water so they could walk on it.” She said finishing.

Theme design complete. Winter Wonderland created.

Floor 6 theme set.

All five floors of the theme Cloud Island Fairyland are at perfect stability. Islands have reached max growth before stability. Cloud oceans will now begin extensive growth and all cloud islands shall split.

All land bridges shall be cut off and islands will now drift through the cloud oceans.

Safe zone islands have been created, floor 1 has six, floor 2 has six, floor 3 has four, floor 4 has three, and floor 5 has three. All safe zones can be claimed and developed into a village or town by both monsters and invaders.

Roaming boss monsters who claim a safe zone can develop it unique to themselves but cannot be battled or aggressed in this location. When killed, they will respawn at their conquered safe zone after a specific time limit

Suddenly, the dungeon shook completely. Throughout the entire dungeon everyone was caught by surprise, especially adventurers who are doing a dungeon run only to see the islands start to drift and the island cloud bridge suddenly break down separating the islands. To make it worse, the islands all began to split in half or into three taking part of the monster and plant populations with it. The parties in different islands had to quickly jump to be on the same island as their allies and not be separated.

At the fifth floor, the area around the pond broke off and began to quickly rise. As it did, the dark brown dirt began to freeze turning a pale brown before pure white clouds formed. The earth broken off on this island wasn’t a small space either and actually removed the inner wall of the circular pond separating the common water which caused that space to completely fill up with cloud water.

While this was happening, in the air over the fifth floor, a small sailboat was being followed by a green dressed elf. Once the trembling started, the argument between the one on board and the one flying stopped as they watched.

They both had a message appear to them. They then looked at each other. This was Peter Pan and Captain Hook that Dia had recently created.

The green tunic wearing Pan had a small glittering dagger in his hand while Hook had a sword. These were unique weapons born when they gained a name. Both were spiritual items which would improve their control of wind but in different manners. Hook’s sword allowed him to control the wind as a means to sail his boat as well as blast strong winds with a swing. Peter’s on the other hand gathered wind at the blade and let him attack with sharp powerful blades of wind as well as help him with controlling wind when he uses magic besides for attack.

“We shall dance some other time! I have something to do!” Hook said.

“Yeah, same here. Don’t even think of trying to do something to Dia!” Peter said before him and his Tinker Fairy turned and flew off.

“I should tell you that boy.” Hook said and turned before swinging his sword to cause his small sailboat to go in one direction while Peter went another. Their objective is for each to claim one of the three safe zones. Unlike a common boss or their ‘controller’, these two rely on a crew and need helpers. Although the flying fish swarm is a swarm, they simply breed and grow in number. However for Hook and Peter, they need to gather a crew of loyal crew members or friends.

Unlike common monsters, the two were boss and mini-boss of the floor and had a more intimate connection to the floor resulting in each knowing where the three locations were. The first is two islands into the floor, so besides a small bit of danger it would definitely become a city for the invading people. One at the furthest corner from the entrance Hook went for and Peter went for another which is far to the left when coming out of the beanstalk.

As Peter got near the island, he grinned as he saw the large hilly island.

“This island is my base now! The island of the Lost.”

A safe zone island was claimed by the Wandering Wind Elf, Peter Pan. The island is now called ‘Isle of the Lost’.

The island has been shrouded in a mysterious aura. The island cloud has been changed into solid earth. Fairy Dust Alter Trees shall only be born in the Isle of the Lost. The mana on the island gives off a unique aura that will affect its residents differently.

In special cases it is possible that children who are abandoned or left alone from the death of their parents below the age of 10 to be whisked away to this island.

All residents of the island will happily raise the children.

As the message faded from the view of not only Peter but Dia who was shocked by this, the space around the island began to wiggle as a kind of barrier formed isolating the island. Then the island itself began to ripple as the island cloud began to become increasingly denser and turned brown before it became solid earth.

The mana was giving off a new aura and with the dense mana the vegetation that was on the island began to feed off the new earth and the now cultivable land.

Fairies and spirits that had been on the island were cheering as they began to fly all over to spread the garden and make homes for themselves. However, there was one special bay area on the south side where, magically, the land became flatter and hills rose higher hiding the bay with only a 3 meter wide entrance while the inside had space for a large village. Slowly trees began to spread while Peter was drawn to that bay where he found a single large tree and inside was a very small spring releasing fairy dust.

“Tinker, this is your home now. I will go make mine now.” He said as he took to the air to go get material.

At the same time, Captain Hook was flying to the other safe zone and, as he reached it, he found a very wide island.

“Hahahaha! This is the perfect location for my pirate base! From here I shall form my rule!” He laughed.

A safe zone island was claimed by the floor boss, Wandering Wind Elf, Captain James Hook. The island is now called ‘Skull Pirate Island’.

The island is a unique safe zone where pirate monsters are passive and will not attack unless provoked. It is ruled by Captain James Hook. The island cloud has been changed into solid earth. The mana given off by the island has a similar aura to Captain James Hook’s Spirit Boat, the Jolly Roger, that will affect its residents making them more pirate themed.

This island is home to pirates and from this location pirates will begin to spread throughout the sea of the first five floors. A pirate town will soon be born here.

Unlike Peter’s Isle of the Lost, The Skull Pirate Island was open to visitors but it still rippled. From it the shape began to change and grow into a large island in the form of a skull with crossed bones. The surface was slightly hilly but mostly flat and easy to build upon. The residents were equally excited as Peter’s residents and began to spread out. The captain felt a pull come from the right cheek area of the skull island and so moved towards there. What he found was a small wooden dock which was perfect for his boat and a small wooden abode for which he could sleep in.

Smiling, he landed his boat which furled it’s sails and tied itself up before dropping anchor. The captain then jumped off to go into his new home.

With the two new safe zones, it brought forth a wave of excitement to the spirits who flocked to the new lands to spread and grow themselves even more while the sixth floor also drew in the bigger spirits who had gone with the help of Dia to start increasing its size.

***

With pathways caved out all over the top of the island, Clover touches the ground causing a small spring to appear within a wider basin that would hold around 200 liters of water forming a small pond. This pond connected all the hardened channels to the island and would move it all around feeding the soil and the plants.

As he simply watched trying to figure out how to keep advancing his dungeon with his limited resources, he doesn’t notice how the water quickly fills up and slowly flows down the path into the unhardened areas penetrating the soil.

Water and water mana filling the soil caused the weeds, magic weeds, saplings and all the other plant creatures to shake happily as they began to grow a bit more.

As the water flows, the soil saturates and without noticing the water level rises and begins overflowing. Only after Clover feels his bottom getting wet does he curse.

“Fuck!” He cursed and with a wave of his hand, a wider channel was instantly carved out in his rage from the pond to the edge of the island to flow out and down. At least that was the intent, but as soon as the water reached the boundary of his island he unexpectedly gained a message.

Your dungeon spawned water has reached the boundary of your dungeon. The boundary has expanded around your island and your sky sea has formed. The first island can have 3 meters of water extending from the island shores and 4 meters deep.

System update

You can now expand the size of your sky sea and sky island through the system.

Seeing the unexpected system message, he walked over and saw as the water formed a bubble at the crack that was rapidly expanding outwards. He simply blinked unable to register what had happened for a moment. However as he looked at the large crack, he narrowed his eyes and with mana he closed the broken crack. This was to make a nicer channel to flow the water out properly otherwise it would drain the water without spreading it out on the surface.

He made several channels reach the edges and deposit the water over the edge and like the first channel, the water gathered and flowed down four meters before depositing there and started to gather. He could even fly around his island now that the boundary was further.

“This is progress!” He laughed and went to the pond.

What would you like to expand?

Island Parameters

8 meters -> 16 meters in diameter

Island Sea Parameter

4 meters -> 8 meters from the shore

His eyes widened after unlocking this system and he grinned before stopping a moment.

“Fairy woman!” He called.

Maribell appeared after a moment, “What?!” She shouted.

“I have formed an island sea, how come my affinity for water has not risen?” He asked.

She frowned and crossed her arms. “Having a sea doesn’t mean your dungeon core’s affinity rises. Your highest affinities are air, earth and plant. Water is an extra element which is used as a home for others and to nourish plants. Raising affinity isn’t easy especially for you who is hated by spirits.” She said and turned around. “You're on a good track though.” She said and went back to her little home.

Clover sneered and simply purchased the island parameter and the mana pond emptied out as the island doubled, completely bulking up doubling the surface and interior space.

When he looked at the system, he found that the next upgrade gave him only 6 meters. However thinking about it, the mass of 6 meters from 16 to 22 and his first purchase 8 meters to 16 isn’t much different or shouldn’t be at least. That was because the amount of mass of the earth generated had to cover much more space because it increased both the height of the dungeon and the bottom of the island also increased in size.

At this time, running out from below, one of his younger disciples came out and in his hand was a wooden doll about as high as Clover’s knee.

“Master! Master!” The boy shouted.

“What is it?” Clover asked in a good mood now that things were working out.

“Look!” The boy said holding out the doll.

Clover looked and took it, turning it confused. “What is this supposed to be? A wooden doll?” He asked.

The boy shook his hand and took the doll back before he filled his hands with mana and injected it into the doll. The eyes lit up bright blue and he let it go, only for mana strings to show up, making the doll stand up and walk around by itself. “It is a magic puppet. This disciple alongside elder brother were studying magic puppets, but we were stumped on how to proceed until we were taught by master about the magical currents in the dungeon and we thought that we could use this principle in the puppet. The chest has a special cavity inside of it that is at the center of a magic circuit we built and the puppet can gather mana inside or have mana injected inside for it to operate for a certain period of time.” he said.

“Oh this is good, it was one of the important elven research projects, but what does this matter now?” Clover asked.

“Well, I thought that if master corrupted this small wooden puppet you can make it into a monster. You could use the puppet’s unique magical structure that is very adept at gathering one specific type of mana and refine it to become master’s lowest tier workers to expand the island by absorbing mana and depositing it.” The boy said.

Clover’s eyes widened when he thought of this. He looked down and took the doll while the boy let go of his control to allow his master to examine it. The principal was simple, the chamber which holds the mana also has magical formula that allow it to keep the puppet stuck together. It is a unique system of layered mana to allow human like movement but not so complex since the puppet has only block hands and feet. Since it didn’t have fingers, the puppet could only do simple tasks.

In truth, this small toy sized wooden puppet was made specifically by the pair of brothers to be a very low ranked puppet purely for gathering, refining and depositing mana.

Clover took mana and began to spread it through the wood and the circuits causing the pure mana to be corrupted by his dungeon mana and turn a red color. The blue glowing eyes that had turned off before lit up but this time were bright red.

Clover let it go and he didn’t have the mana lines like when his disciple used the to control the puppet but when he felt the puppet, he found that the mana lines were attached directly to the island. This meant his body still controlled the puppet, but he was linked directly to the mana channels of the island and dungeon.

You have corrupted a wooden magic puppet and can now spawn them at the cost of mana.

You now have a new category of spawns, Constructs.

With a smile, Clover spawned 14 more and split them into three groups.

“Each group is responsible for absorbing and depositing mana. Group one focus on earth, group two focus on water, and group three focus on air. Now go!” He ordered. The puppets turned and began to move around as they walked off. He then spawned another ten. “You are group four, you are responsible for unclogging all entangled or blocked passages of mana in my dungeon.” He said.

The puppets turned and ran off, stopping several steps away causing small pulses of mana to come from their feet.

Clover finally turned to his disciple and patted his head. “Good boy, you did well, you and your brother. I do not have much to reward you, but you can access the library freely.” He said.

“Thank you master." the boy bowed with a beaming smile and ran off.

“Heh.” A chuckle came from behind Clover who jumped only to find the short fat man made of black sand.

“What do you want?” Clover asked narrowing his eyes.

“Nothing, just thought it was cute how this little boy’s dream is to be someone great like you. I find it funny because I do not see anything great that you did.” Nighty said. The boogeyman grinned gently towards the hollowed image of Clover.

Clover feels a shiver down his spine from the smile this little person gave him and he swallowed hard narrowing his eyes. “I’ll ask again, what do you want?” Clover asked.

“Since you insist, I cannot do much at all at this time. Of course, I can still do my job but combat wise I cannot do a lot. So I wish for you to spawn me three of those little puppets. I am interested in these since I want to make a few helpers. Oh and if you can obtain some beautiful mares, I would love those beautiful beasts. If you can get me one with fur as black as the night, even better.” He said.

“What’s in it for me?” Clover asked.

“Well… for starters, I will not give you nightmares you deserve. Another is that you will be able to obtain quite a few impressive monsters. By the time I can access even 5% of my powers, I should be able to make low level minions linked to your dungeon.” He said.

“These minions... they are spirits?” Clover asked.

“Not in the conventional sense they can be regarded as a type of… ghost, their beings merge with my sand so they are and aren’t spirits. Also…” He said turning and floating to the edge of the dungeon before looking down. “... what do you feel about using human children for monsters?” He asked.

“What!” Clover’s eyes turned to the boogeyman and had a trace of disgust.

Nighty laughed and shook his head, “As expected, even as a dungeon, you still have morals. Children are not to be touched, I see. Ironic coming from you when you nearly killed two of them and left one with a twisted sense of life.” He laughed.

“What do you intend to do with children?” He asked.

“I do not need children per se. I need sacrifice. I am the boogeyman, a manifestation of fear and my sand contains the essence of fear that corrupts dreams. It has merged with your dungeon mana but I cannot produce a large amount. For me, my most trusted minion is called a Fearling. They can be born from humans consumed by fear in my sand… or other humanoids.” He said.

Clover was sweating as he heard the voice of a gentleman say such morbid things. Sacrificing a sentient being to spawn a monster is considered a demonic magic. If not for the fact that the god of chaos himself forced such a creature into existence to maintain nature's balance, he would have killed this thing before it could gain its true power.

“Since there is no cure for this I do not need such things, simple animals are enough. Bees, wolves… horses.” He grinned. “I shall be waiting. Oh and you should know, all sky dungeons are weak at this time, it is the best time to kill and steal the spawns of another.” He laughed and sank into the shadow of a nearby tree, vanishing without a trace.

Clover swallowed and turned to look around for the strange creature that he couldn’t understand.

‘I don’t know if I should… for now I need to grow bigger and stronger. I shall try to hunt animals and monsters first and grow.’ He thought and closing his eyes, he ordered his dungeon to move within the elven nation while he had the time and no one was coming for him.

***

Within the night skies of Dia’s dungeon, Sandy was sitting on a cloud of dream sand when he suddenly twitched and looked towards the northwest feeling something was off and frowned.

With the hundreds of thousands of strings of dream sand, he could feel the nightmare sand. It was hundreds of times thicker because he knew that the land was covered with much more evil than good. This made his other, the boogeyman, more powerful because he was stronger if he were free of the dungeon’s control.

The sandman did not know what could be done to tip the balance towards his side. In truth, he actually did not know how to balance his nice dreams and the nightmares. The influence of nightmares are many times greaters in this kind of brutal bloody world compared to one filled with peace.

Still, he would try to force his good dreams into as many young dungeons as he could reach within the mortal world but could do anything as all the dungeons in hell were corrupt even after healing and having their dungeon instincts completely broken.

He could only try to heal their broken hearts by giving them joyful dreams which would hopefully spread through the dungeons and make the life of many better. He even tried to do the same to the dungeons that wished to attack the mortal world but their minds were lost to their rage, making Nighty’s influence too great.

As for children and adults, war savaged adults would not have a single touch of his influence while children were having a difficult time. It was truly a hard world to live in where famine, disease and many things could not be easily avoided without power and those with power did not equally distribute their nations resources to develop the lives of the poor. As such, Sandy could only think of the long term as he slowly made grandiose dreams in the sleep of talented but poor children. He tapped into the memories of soldiers to make dreams that would train the children into becoming powerful heroes, some were taught medicine in an attempt to make medical saints, and many other abilities were developed in dreams. Like this he slowly trained a few children to try and spread their strengths where they needed it the most.