The shrill death throes of an old witch that was the boss of the fourth floor rang out. Meanwhile, the ragged party of adventurers were sweating as they collapsed to the ground tired. They watched as the witch turned into particles and what was left behind was the cape and the magic staff she used.

The witch was an old, hunchbacked, nearly toothless individual with long unkempt hair and a warted hooked nose that wore a large black cloak. That said, the witch was very powerful. With magic to fly, hide in a dark fog and move in the shadows she was a tough boss. If not because of the mid-level priest following them to dispel the curse type magic, it wouldn’t have ended so well as it did.

“What the hell, this dungeon suddenly went up in difficulty!” Complained the mage who was drained and on the ground after using too much mana.

“The dwarfs said that the dungeon reached six floors and that caused the change. It seems a natural thing that happens to this kind of dungeon.” The leader, who was an aged knight, said. “Get up you all, the area is open so find some of the boss’ hidden stash of herbs so that we can move up and relax at the safe zone.” He sighed.

To him, a safe zone just after a boss battle was a rare thing, especially once every floor. He liked this dungeon because of the challenge and the benefits born in this dungeon. Especially the very strong magic wood boats built by gnomes for the crews. Each boat also comes along with the ‘cloud compass’ that shows them the way through the dungeon. Yet they still had to stay on several islands for several hours to allow the compass to adjust to the island and show the way to the next island. It was a truly strange dungeon in its way of doing things.

This forced the party to land and experience the island. It surprised the party that at least two out of every five islands had some kind of town. The first floor had small towns, not in the ‘small’ that one would expect but a small where it was gnome sized.

In addition, all six first floor safe zones had an elf city from the elven nation built on it. The second floor was more wild as there were goblin pirates that had attacked the party on the way. Thankfully, they were weak and easy to kill with a single fire bomb spell from the mage at long range. The boat was a bit big but the explosion had caused it to sink halfway into the clouds while the goblins died in the attack.

Searching the ship was a bit hard, but it was possible to find food provisions and a dropped goblin dagger. There were several other small attacks, but they were all small crews with very small sailboats, each with around five to seven people in each crew.

Now at the fourth floor, they had nightmares when they were sailing. This was because each pirate crew was formed of almost 30 goblins and they had large scale ships that needed a moderately skilled crew to sail. However, the dungeon, as many people had noticed, had a calm wind that ‘helped boats sail’ no matter which way they went but there was no currents or anything.

Not only that, the fourth floor also had savage pirate sharkmen that could appear out of nowhere. The sharkmen are even harder to fight off.

“Shouldn’t we go back? This isn’t an easy dungeon and we almost died several times this time." the scout asked.

“Give up? That is probably a good idea for the fifth floor boss, this dungeon’s bosses are easily high level. Even the first floor boss was incredibly hard if not for fire magic.” The leader said.

“Can’t we go back down then?” The scout asked.

The leader snorted, “Of course not, I'm dead tired and I want to spend my night drinking some dwarven beer. Come on, let's go up and find an inn. There should be lots of space since the fifth floor just opened up and it's not easy to reach.” The leader laughed.

The others groaned at the thought of sleeping in a small house once more, but they quickly worked and gathered the materials before climbing the beanstalk. Their boat was unique because once they land, the boat shrinks and fits in the palm of their hand once it’s out of the water, so it is easy to take it up one floor.

When they climbed up, they were surprised to find elves with full sized buildings and a large number of dwarfs throughout the city. Elves had their homes in the trees with ladders winding around the trees while dwarfs had stone buildings with smoking chimneys. The most unique building was the house sized mushrooms that lodged a very large number of gnomes living on the island.

“Welcome to the fifth floor. Will you be adventuring directly through the floor or will you spend the night?” A greater flower fairy asked.

“We will spend the night.” The leader said.

“Alright sirs, would you like to repair your ship?” She asked.

Nodding, the leader took out the toy sized boat which she grabbed and handed to a gnome she called.

“Ah, low cass junk. Ned gud repair.” the gnome cursed as he scurried off to repair the boat.

“This way. There are two inns, a dwarf and an elf.” She said.

The party followed and looked at each other. “Let’s spend the night at the elf inn. They are neater.” The mage said a bit irritated remembering the third floor inn they stayed at which happened to be a dwarf inn.

The others nodded. “Alright, elf inn it is. Miss, can you lead the way? Also, is there a tavern on this floor?” The leader asked.

“There is." the greater flower spirit said. She lead the way to the inn first and then pointed ahead on the street. “Pass the third dwarf house then go two buildings down and turn right. There is a very large stone building the dwarfs made into a tavern and mess hall." she said.

“Thank you miss.” The leader said and looking at the flower dress, he pulled out a similar flower. In response, she giggled and took the flower.

“Thank you.” She said winking and flew off.

Giving a flower to a flower spirit that has helped you is a type of cultural thank you for the race. Of course, it has to be the same flower or a similar breed of flower otherwise it would be somewhat rude towards her.

“I’m going to sleep, I wasted too much mana." the mage said.

“Same for me." the priest said.

The two were ragged and walked in asking if there was a bathhouse or washbucket. What shocked them was that there was a unique shower developed by the elves and water fairies who altered the cloud sea to remain floating. The cloud was strangely red and by putting a small bit of water mana, it will cause the clouds to start absorbing mana and rain. The rain was also warm because this cloud was formed by using the same principle as the winter fire bell flower empress spirit’s warm water and ice mana.

As for the leader, he walked with the men, after taking a shower, to the tavern.

What he found were dwarfs, greater halflings with strange white seafaring uniforms, gnomes and a strange flying elf wearing a strange green suit.

“So lively!” the scout said in shock.

The previous floor couldn’t even compare to this.

They walked in and took a seat in the back corner then an amber colored fairy that had the appearance of the water fairy walked up to the table.

“Greeten folk!” She said and held a large menu on a thin wooden board which she handed to them. “Wut’s your order?” She asked, her words sounding a bit drunk.

The leader, scout, archer and their defender, looked at her strangely. “Miss, what kind of fairy are you?” The defender bluntly asked.

“Ohohoho! I'm ah Mead Fairy. Born from meh love of mead! If yah wan good mead that match yer taste tell me!” She laughed heartily causing the men to be perplexed by the strange kind of fairy being born in this dungeon.

At this moment, another fairy wearing cook clothing and a ‘big’ hat on his head flew over to the girl. He was a rare male fairy and he was chubby as well.

“Ah woman! There you are! What happen to table six and eight’s lily honey mead and dark treant wood wine!” The fairy asked.

“Ah~! Why ah yer lookin at meh~! I aint the only mead fairy ere!” She shouted at him.

“Yeah, but you're the wildest who drinks the mead of others!” He cursed at her.

The shouting attracted the attention of a few people but that didn’t last long since it seemed to be a common thing. However, the attention of the green clothed young man was peaked by the group of adventurers and he flew over.

“Hey!” He said landing.

The group got tense when the happy go lucky guy suddenly flew over. Behind him a glittering fairy also flew over curious because they were humans.

“You’re humans right?” Peter asked curiously.

“Yes… and who are you?” the leader asked cautiously.

“Oh! Sorry.” he said and ‘stood up’ in the air then bowed, “Peter Pan at your service! And this is my partner, she is a tinker fairy so I just call her Tink. I am the leader of the Lost Boys.” He said. “You’re adventurers passing through the dungeon, so does that mean you're here to kick Hook’s butt?” Peter asked.

“Hook? Who is that?” The Leader asked.

“Obviously the floor boss.” Peter said. “Is it only you four?” He asked.

“No, we have a mage and priest as well.” The scout said. “Why do you even care?”

“Well, I wanted to see if you wanted the help of me and my boys to take out Hook. I mean, he already has a crew of almost 50 people and his pirates are all over the floor causing trouble for everyone.” He said.

“Wait wait!” The scout said, “the boss is a pirate?!”

“Yeah, me and my boys along with the marines are the ones controlling their numbers to keep it low. It would be even harder if the sharkmen didn’t suddenly appear in the marine base some time ago and become marines as well.” Peter said.

“How strong is this Hook fella and his crew?” the leader asked.

“Well… besides numbering lots, they have a flying ship with four cannons on each side, they are armed with iron weapons from their own smiths in their pirate base, hook himself controls the flying ship and if I had to say, the strength of the regular crew is probably as strong as a land bound pirate sharkman. Hook himself is probably four times stronger because he controls the ship and his sword can gather wind that can be sent out as blade wind storms." Peter explained. “So, want my help?” He asked.

“What’s in it for you?” the leader asked.

“Ah~! Glad you asked!” Peter said then pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to the leader.

“Wild sharkmen dorsal fins 20, pirate sharkmen dorsal fins 5, 5 feather scales from the tail of a sharkman, 5 sky shark feather scales and 20 chunks of sky iron. What the hell, all this stuff is hard to get!” the leader shouted.

“Of course it is, otherwise I would have gotten them myself. Also the monsters don’t attack me for some reason, probably because I am as strong as Hook, but for you guys, none of them will have as much to fear.” He said.

A scowl appeared on the faces of all the humans “You want to use us as bait?!” The archer shouted.

“No, you’re hunting it as you go of course. I can give you a special item to allow you to find my ‘Lost Island’ which is hidden from view of the dungeon unlike the other islands. You can also get unique resources there if you accept getting the items for me. I have been needing all this to upgrade my blade so that I can match Hook or else even I would start having trouble.” He said.

The defender’s fist hit the table, “You're just using us to get your items! You really think we will be your gophers to get things for you!?” he shouted.

“You don’t have to be so angry, since you don’t want to do it then who cares.” he shrugged and took the paper back before just floating off while muttering “How boring.”

The party frowned but as they turned to the mead fairy, they found that she was still arguing with the fat cook fairy.

They simply shook their head and ordered some food and drinks.

Later after returning to the inn, they fell into the soft cloud bear fur beds, which was like sleeping on clouds themselves, and had a blissful sleep.

The following day started with the gnome delivering the ship, startling them.

“Hey, is this really the same ship?!” The leader said as he looked over the ship.

Unlike before, the ship was twice as big, it had a single sail and a small cabin making it look like a sloop. Previously the small sail ship was a bit of a tight fit where it was at best a four or five man ship, but now it had much more space than before.

“Course et is! Weh upped it. Dam ting was ‘lmost leaken.” He said. “Ah, an dis flur ned at leas dat much else ye will sink quick.” He explained and stuck his hand out.

The leader understood what he meant by that so he could do nothing else except hand over a gold coin for the job. At least they would be able to use this anytime in this dungeon.

“So, should we find a way to go back down?” The leader asked.

“If I remember correctly, there is a system in this dungeon called the red bus lobster where a really powerful monster grabs the ship and takes us to the first floor.” The mage said.

“I heard of that, how do we call that?” The leader asked.

Suddenly a sound came from the side and when they all looked, they saw a very large group that looked like a party of mercenaries with around 20 people suddenly coming up. Very unlike the smaller party, this group wasn’t even ragged in the least and they didn’t seem to have much of a fuss over what had happened.

“Alright men! It’s time to finally conquer this floor!” The leader shouted and everyone roared. When they turned, the party met with the human party.

The merc group was made of dwarves, humans and elves mixed up but they were well distributed in their numbers with humans being the focus of swordsmen and shield bearers, dwarves being the backup heavy hitters and the elves being archers, scouts and mages.

“Oh? I didn’t expect such a small group to be able to reach this floor.” The leader of the mercenaries said.

“What do you mean?” The leader of the human party frowned.

The merc leader laughed, “Don’t take it the wrong way friend, I meant to say that the dungeon is extremely difficult for small parties because if your numbers are too small, the ship you gain is also small, restricting your movements.” He replied.

“Oi boss, don’t forget that your first time up here you were a small time as well and only after you got the upgraded ship that you could recruit better people.” One of the humans laughed.

“Oh, so the upgrade is for everyone in general.” The party leader said.

“Of course, if you were to sail these waters, you wouldn’t surpass 100 meters from the shore before you were tipped over by a sky shark that is almost 14 meters long. They would eat you before your blood could even taint the clouds red.” The merc captain said.

A feeling of dread filled the party upon hearing what the man said. If they were tipped over, it was truly the end.

“Do you guys want to group up with us? Working together on two ships is advantageous and with more numbers we have a better shot at the boss.” The merc leader said.

The party looked towards the leader waiting for his verdict and he looked back. “So what do you think?” he asked in a low tone.

“We aren’t ready, we almost died to the witch, the fifth floor is beyond us.” The priest said.

The others agreed.

“Oh, it seems you have no desire to get the riches in the captain's boat. I heard no one has beaten the scumbag yet and instead has just been filling his boat with weapons and treasures.” The man said.

“If that is the case then it is even worse.” The defender said clearly knowing that those who reach this floor have to be at least a C rank party. To beat the captain they need to probably have a C rank raid party which consists of 20 or more people. A common group like them are simply asking to die.

“We are sorry but we will have to decline. I cannot force my crew to go if it’s all against me.” The leader said.

The merc shrugged. “Oh well, men let's go have a drink while the dwarf upgrades us to a more appropriate size and gives us a few toys! Ahaha!” the merc leader shouted then him and the group walked past the party.

After the merc raid party was out of sight, the leader waved his hand. “Let’s go.”

They walked to the docks where they pulled the boat out and tossed it in the water. This instantly activates the magic and the boat suddenly grows 12 meters long and 5 wide with a large mast and a triangle shaped sail. There was also a small cabin that had some hammocks.

Talking with a water fairy that was floating around the dock, they discovered that to contract the red bus lobsters, they need to drop the most desired flower that happened to be the favorite food of the red bus lobster, the seven color rose.

This, even in the dungeon, was a bit rare to appear but not so rare that no one had it. If one were to try and calculate the chance of find it then in 10 islands, at least 2 have a flower patch of seven color rose and from each patch, a party is allowed to pick only two roses. This is controlled by the queen flower spirits who have merged with the flower. You even have to trade other picked flowers, returning them to the dungeon, to pick one of them.

The crew had 10 of these flowers, so once they took out one from their bag after getting onto the boat, the leader tossed the flower into the water.

What startled them was that as soon as the *Plup* came from the flower hitting the water, the water churned as many lobsters fought for the flower but in the end one rapidly took it. Afterwards, two huge claws extended out of the water, they lifted a bright red body from the water and with it, the boat. The claws held onto the top deck that had a section plated in steel from the dwarf smithy on the floor below extending to allow a grip area. This is specifically for when the lobsters grab.

As soon as the lobster grabbed the boat, it flapped its tail with force causing the boat to rapidly speed up to over 100 km/h and began to head deeper into the dungeon.

The power of the lobster caused the stomachs of the party to turn as they imaged fighting something like this.

The travel kept going for a while and the crew remained on deck out of caution but with time, at this speed, things began to get boring and they just walked around.

“Man, this boat is boring.” someone said.

“Yeah, nothing attacks.” the archer said.

Everyone suddenly froze and turned to the voice who they find is Peter flying next to the speeding boat with the little fairy beside him.

“What are you doing here?” The leader asked.

“Wanna see something interesting?” Peter asked.

“No, we want to go down." the party leader said.

“Oh come on, it’s not like you will be in any danger with me here. Besides the lobsters, there is nothing on this floor that I can’t push back at the very least." he said.

“Didn’t you say you were on par with the boss, how come the lobsters are stronger?” The archer asked.

“These things are the strongest beasts in the dungeon, why else would they be transport beasts. Anyway let’s go.” Peter said and the little fairy suddenly spend up then began to release her fairy dust over the ship. Very quickly, it began to take to the air as the lobster kept flapping its tail, but the fairy directed the way heading towards the main island in the center of the floor.

Soon the ship stopped high in the sky but far from sight of other people.

“This is the main island, why did you bring us here?” The mage asked.

“You will see, that party of 20 you met before leaving, they were a bandit group that came to cause trouble by getting to the sixth floor where Dia’s core is. I just want to show someone what kind of boss Hook is so that it won’t be untold how hard it is to reach Dia.” Peter said. With a wave of his hand, mana began to shift forming a screen and they saw that over the island there was a barrier which was the instance zone.

Looking down, they saw a boat docking then the men walking out and heading into the island. However, nowhere in sight was Hook around and unlike any other island, there was no beanstalk up to the next floor.

Soon the group reached the very flat center area. Even so, the crew of the boss wasn’t seen anywhere but that was until Peter pointed far off in a different direction. “There is Hook.” He said.

The eyes of the party moved and they saw a larger sloop like ship but it had three decks and two masts. Even so, the ship was relatively small but from afar one could see cannons readied.

The ship moved at a calm pace before entering the instance area where it appeared before the raid party who suddenly fired fire based magic and flaming arrows to blow up and burn the ship with its crew.

As the fire magic flew, the cannons also fired and the cannonballs landed on the ground with a crushing impact. What shocked the party was the speed they fired because it took no less than 5 seconds for the second volley

“The crew is quite competent to arm those cannons so fast.” The mage said.

“The crew has nothing to do with it besides aim and fire. The cannons are all spiritual items linked to the boat which absorbs earth mana in the surroundings and condenses it into a ball while also absorbing fire and air mana to form the explosion that fires the ball. The ball after it is shot will hit the ground and return to being mana like it was before, leaving no trace except what damage it caused while it was solid.” Peter explained.

Everyone felt their scalp tingle realizing this point and finding that even without disembarking the ship, the pirate crew was fighting a winning battle from the get go. Unless the ship is downed, then the raiding party will not be able to board at all.

In the war between the two groups, it took 10 minutes for the pirate crew to destroy the bandit group until there were less than 10 bandits remaining after which a group of fighters jumped down to kill the remainders.

After a while, they were all dead unable to do anything against this fate and the human party’s boat began to float off in a different direction before landing.

“I hope that was an eye opener for you all.” Peter said with a smile before once more taking out a small piece of paper and stuffing it into the party leader’s hand.

“When you build up a good party of trustworthy friends, collect that and come find me or one of my boys, they dress just like me.” He laughed and took to the air leaving the crew aimless as to what to do. The leader could only pocket the item list and sigh before looking on as they saw the massive whirlpool that lead down and up the dungeon floors.