Clover was standing on his second island and already the constructs were working to gather mana. The new island had formed a small room at the bottom and on the island a new ‘ruin’ appeared with another teleportation pad.

Currently he was staring at what was his island and looking at the dungeon system trying to think of a layout.

“This is much harder, even though I have more freedom than the girl, to keep this up is quite annoying.” Clover thought as he sat next to his 60 cm wide mana pool. The pool was inside a ‘ruin’ with a paved floor acting as a protection and he figured that once the pool left there would be a teleportation pad.

The entrance pad of this island was underground near the bottom of the rock that was currently expanding. Even the ruins on the inside of the dungeon was ‘growing’ with the island.

“Alright, this ‘island’ setting is fine.” He said pointing at the island setting where there would be 60% of the island formed by sky sea, the island would be curved with a sandy beach forming on the shores and a forest covering the ruins at the top. While the ruins below would come out from two different places, one on the beach and the other in a cave in the forest.

The island shook and began to curve while the waterways began to change into a bit more natural look that flowed downward and began to gather at the edge of the island.

He went on to start summoning all the common animals his disciples had given him from their hunts and then skeletons to guard the mana pool, all of which quickly evolved into drow skeletons.

As for the vegetation, he planted mana weed, saplings and other plants all around to let it improve his mana.

He jumped off the second floor island and returned to his first floor island that had formed a pretty large forest on top while his disciples had made a small village in between their hunts.

At this time, he felt his disciples arrive by air ship that docked under his dungeon and from it, he felt them pulling out cages with many humanoids. He walked down and found many goblins inside the cages.

“Master, we have found a goblin village and captured them all,” the eldest disciple said.

“That is good. We shall take half of them to the second island. This island will eventually build a home for ‘residents’ but we need to finish setting up first.” Clover said. He then began to corrupt them and with each cage done the goblins were released. After they were all done, the goblins were sent to the second island allowing them to make their home on the island that was growing bigger slowly.

Clover returned up there and saw the gathering water forming the island’s sea then looked at the puppets who only reached the edge.

He walked over to one of the blue line magic puppets, bent over touching them at the chest and closed his eyes.

He looked at the puppet and slowly another one formed and they merged into a larger blue lined puppet but then the form became more streamlined, the two legs became a single sectioned fish tail with a more proper fin. The head turned into the shape of more fish-like humanoid head and the body grew to around 70 cm tall. Finally, the block hands split into a five fingers, all made by one piece of wood, and a palm.

You have made a new race.

“Mermaid Magic Puppet” Clover said.

Mermaid Magic Puppet

A new construct race created by a dungeon. This creature is mostly water proof and made to live in the water. They mimic the mermaid race and can use some water magic.

When it finished, the mermaid-like puppet formed in the real world, using only the mana gathered by the two puppets.

The puppet jumped into the puddle of water which began to glow as the puppet worked and suddenly, water mana that was poorly managed in the water flowed backwards. Water mana entered the pool of liquid mana making it clearer and the island seemed to become ‘fresher’. The water from the springs flowed stronger and the streams grew thicker while the island sea grew and spread faster. Soon all the outlets began to connect.

More water began to gather below the island and slowly the island was covered until 30% of the island’s slope was covered before it began to expand.

The goblins watched from the ruins but never went in from fear of the skeletons. They began to build their homes here and watched the sky ocean forming.

Clover thought for a while before his dungeon began to move as he looked below, “For now, let’s get sea life and see where we can take this from there.” He muttered and moved his dungeon towards the ocean.

What he hadn’t seen was large far off presences hidden by clouds that growled.

“Land weak…” A growl came through the clouds.

The leading figure growled in agreement and turned slowly. “We find strong.” It growled and with a roar, a herd of flying beasts surged out in a different direction.

***

Dia and Waid’s small faces slowly appeared through a milky swirly portal. They slowly walked through finding themselves in an isolated pocket of the sixth floor as large as the floor itself yet separate from everything.

Even the common fairies were unable to arrive here, but the more unique and powerful queens and above ranked ones could.

Dia looked around and found that a small village had formed after most of the snow elves and christmas elves moved here. Their numbers had swelled to 100 snow elves already, snow elves were not completely like Mir who was a spirit type elf. They were more like a very diluted half breed between halfling and spirit type snow elf. Their life span was actually quite small with around 30 years each. This is 10 years more than a common goblin’s 20 year lifespan.

This means their reproduction rate is much higher. For the Christmas elves though, they had 100 years of life meaning that they were more like half elves with humans.

As said, snow elves actually didn’t have skill with crafting while Christmas elves did but that didn’t mean they weren’t able to learn. In the center of this village of elves laid the house of Nicholas and Krampus and right next to it was a large workshop.

Not all snow elves helped out but a good number did working together. Those not actually helping the direct work of the workshop did different jobs like gathering materials or helping construction of the village.

Along with snow elves, there were native fairies of this island.

Dia was happily looking around with sparkling eyes as she looked at the white stone buildings and decorational toys they had on their homes.

Soon they reached the workshop and carefully opened it and looked inside.

Nicholas was sitting at the biggest table at the back slowly making a carving for something. The table was filled with different toy parts and as he finished the current part, he blew it and smiled before his hands began to shine. Slowly the parts floated into the air and pieced each other together making a small wooden bear cub holding a small jar.

He put it to the side and a little snow elf came and picked it up. The elf then took it to a table with some different paint colors and they began to brush and paint the toy.

Besides Nicholas, there were ten Christmas elves working to make wooden toys while the snow elves worked on painting and storing them in a different room after they dried.

“They are making lots of wooden toys, will kids really like them?” Waid asked focused. He was interested in the toys himself, they were very unique and filled with a cheery aura around them born from the ‘touch of magic’. That said, there weren’t just wooden toys, the metal gained from dwarves mined had a purpose. Just like Dia’s gift, three Christmas elves were building small wooden boxes where inside they put small metal gears in specific places before closing them and then a little doll would be placed on top. After a small bit of magic, she would come to life as a living being that would dance when its music box played.

“This is boring.” Waid said and turned around, going out of the city to explore.

Dia on the other hand kept watching and entered the shop floating. Nicholas, finishing his latest toy, looked back and smiled before waving for her to come over.

“Dear, what brings you to this noisy place?” He asked.

“I was bored and wanted to see how you make toys.” Dia said.

Nicholas smiled and took one of the toy models he had made, it was in the shape of a doll but it seemed to move and smile, “Is this what you want?” he asked.

Dia shook her head, “That’s a toy for someone, I don’t want to take away someone’s toy.” She said pouty.

“Ho ho ho! Such a cute one.” He said, the laugh having been something that came from Dia’s mind when she made him.

“Hey… why are all the toys made of wood and only a little metal?” Dia asked.

Nicholas smiled, “Well, wood is the most abundant thing we can get here. Sadly, we can’t make soft clothing from things like cotton or yarn that is from animals because it’s so cold here.” He said.

“He~! How do you get cotton and yarn?” Dia asked.

“Cotton is a puffy white plant and yarn is hair from a really hairy sheep.” He explained.

Dia tried to remember but she really was too young to remember what all the farm animals, the easiest being cows and chickens, especially being from a family of literature major professors who never once went to a farm. She was also too young to have gone to school so most farm animals she saw were from children's books.

She looked around and smiled then she moved close to kiss his cheek, “Thanks for telling me Uncle Nick~!” She said and giggled before floating away.

He scratched the back of his head and chuckled, “Uncle huh?” He muttered.

Dia looked around and saw how the snow elves were learning how to paint the toys. She even found a room where they made the paint from some magical flowers from the floors below.

She soon grew bored and floated outside but suddenly heard a call. She looked over at Nicholas’s house and found Krampus there. This thin figure made Dia scared but his big bloody red coat wasn’t on. The large overalls somehow made him seem less scary though his thin and wrinkly face made the little girl a tad bit scared due to how he was created. His two horns did not help either.

Dia gulped and floated over until she was close to the house, “Come here, child,” he waved and walked inside.

She shrank back a bit before carefully poking her head into the house. It was a well furnished wooden house with stone shingles. The interior was very warm and there was a small work station in the living room.

Dia walked in and saw a pelt covered wooden sofa and rug. There was a door from the living room going into the kitchen and another going into a corridor that split into two rooms, one for each of the Christmas saints.

Dia looked around and found Krampus sitting at the work table. What drew her attention though were the five 20 cm tall soldier figures and in their hands were small metal gun like items with a blade at the top.

“U-um… d-did you need something?” Dia asked shyly.

Krampus’s stern face was turned to her and he waved her over “Come here and see, tell me what you think of these toys?” He asked.

She slowly nodded and gradually floated over, looking at the little figures. When she got near, they turned to her and stood in formation before saluting.

“Wow~!” Dia said with childish curiosity suddenly budding. “They are like the little dancing doll Uncle Nick gave me!” Dia said getting closer.

The leftmost one clicked his foot on the ground twice and they each lowered their salute, put the gun’s barrel next to their foot and held the handle. When it clicked its foot again, they picked the gun up and began an interesting military drill run making Dia giggle but when she looked at Krampus, she was surprised to find his eyes half closed and a small smile on his face.

Her image of him being a bad man vanished and she felt that he greatly reminded her of her grandfather who was also a grouchy old man that was sweet with children, but still stern.

“Do you like them?” Krampus asked.

Dia nodded, “They’re really cool and cute.” Dia said.

“Did you know they can become big strong soldiers given time?” He asked.

Dia’s face suddenly showed a shocked expression.

Krampus’s smile slowly fades returning to his normal expression, “If you make these little things dungeon creatures, they will grow bigger and bigger over time.” He said.

Dia suddenly frowned, “D-did you make these to fight?” Dia asked.

Krampus nodded but before she could speak, he took the initiative, “I made them to help protect the elves, and much more importantly, the toys.” He said.

“Eh?” Dia exclaimed.

“It’s not like this island is completely safe, there are still wild animals, eventually there will be bigger creatures so I am preparing us to protect us. I just made it more fun for you and less scary.” He said and pointed to them, “Do you find them scary?” He asked.

Dia slowly shook her head.

“Do you know that given time, they might even start talking and be almost like people themselves. Just like the elves and spirits.” He said.

“Really!” Dia said surprised but looked at them, “How do they become monsters though?”

Krampus tapped three times on the table and they stopped the drill. They then ran back to the same position as they started, put their weapon down and hit their chest. As they turned around, they showed that a back panel-like opening had popped out and there was a very small cavity in the puppet soldier.

“Put a monster core in them.” Krampus instructed.

Dia looked and with a frown she thought a while before she made five very tiny monster cores that perfectly fit the sockets. Afterwards, she carefully put them in and closed the puppets.

They slowly began to change, they previously had cylinder shaped limbs and heads, but they slowly began to turn more circular and human shaped while the ‘clothing’ perfectly adjusted to their size. They grew to 30 cm tall and their metal ‘guns’ changed a bit to become a bit more ‘proper’ for shooting but only small balls of mana.

You have corrupted a Wooden Magic Puppet Soldier and can now spawn them at the cost of mana.

You now have a new category of spawns, Constructs.

“Wow, I can spawn lots now.” She said and suddenly waved her hand, soon thirty appeared and Krampus tapped his foot twice. All the soldiers gathered in five lines of six and saluted Dia.

Dia giggled again at the antics of the toys, she liked this part of them.

“Child, summon two more and merge them into a captain for them.” Krampus said. She nodded then spawned two more and merged them into a 40 cm tall one who had a cute little badge on his chest, a sword at his belt and a large rifle object he held in his hand. This was a Wooden Magic Puppet Captain and from it, they could control the soldiers with more order.

“You're in charge of night patrol.” Krampus said and the captain saluted followed by the soldiers.

The captain turned about face and with it’s slightly more human-like hand that had fingers, he pointed at the door as if commanding them to move out.

The soldiers did an about face and quickly ran to the door where they began to form a ‘human’ ladder and opened the door.

Dia began to laugh when they did that and the soldiers actually opened the door before rushing out but they made sure to close it.

Dia laughed a few moments before looking at Krampus who was smiling a bit making her slightly blush.

“A-are you going to keep making toys like that?” Dia asked.

“No, not always but every so often I might get an idea. When that time comes, I will want you to give them that ‘touch of magic’.” He said.

Dia giggled and thought a moment before nodding, “Okay… I’ll help you… ah! I never gave you a name like Uncle Nick!” she said and thought hard. “I’ll name you Kris Kringle,” she said.

Krampus began to shine and his thin figure just slightly filled up, the wrinkles slightly filling in and his hollowed hair being a bit more full making him much less scary now. He looked at himself and smiled before petting the girl.

“Thank you, now, go off a play a bit, I need to help Nicolas make some toys. Go on then.” Kris said.

Dia smiled and floated over and gave him a kiss before quickly going to the door. “Bye bye Grandpa Kris!” She shouted then flew out the door giggling as she left the island and spotted the young deer that Mir had obtained.

Being so happy she flew over and changed all the deer into normal reindeer to let them grow safely in this floor but kept laughing as she thought about being able to play with Santa’s reindeer soon.

She was really giddy as she released half of the reindeer into Santa’s island and left the rest in the wilds of her sixth floor.