Floating over 10,000 meters from the ground, Clover was cautiously watching his dungeon. The first island had grown to 150 meters wide with 70 meters of ocean from the shore while the second island had grown to 80 meters with 90 meters of water from the shore.

In the oceans of both islands, there were a number of small fish and coral on the rock bottom of the dungeon islands. The oceans had reached their largest size when Clover had gone to a reef and dropped his island into the ocean. From there, the island pulled up salt water with fish and coral that they had gathered.

When ‘landing’, Clover discovered all his islands could drop down into the ocean and when they float it returns above the first island.

The airship entrance had to be closed because the water was intruding into the ruins but he didn’t mind as his mermaid puppets were constantly moving around slowly corrupting the fish, water plants and coral.

As for the goblins, the goblin that was given the staff ranked up into a Goblin Shaman which was a smart spiritual figure. It was even more unique because it had the title, ‘Ancient’ Goblin Shaman.

A common goblin shaman could simply control low grade skeletons and buff them. Ancient goblin shamans, on the other hand, were much more powerful and more like necromancers. Appearing only when a goblin tribe lives near or in ancient ruins of a magical civilization and was smart enough to understand what remaining magical knowledge was left behind. They can summon undead and buff them while also binding their tiny souls and able to control them even when the summons rank up after growing to a rank similar to itself.

The result of it appearing caused the goblins to instantly organize themselves and they took the ruins as their home. The ancient shaman actually had a very high loyalty to Clover and was much better for protecting the core than the skeletons that could be manipulated by Nighty.

Clover was happy with the goblins and had one of his disciples copy and give the shaman books on magic and teach the goblins slowly how to use magic.

Magic using goblins were much better than warrior goblins but that didn’t mean Clover didn’t want them, only rare goblins became magic users. Most of them were dumb and easy to improve the combat power.

Spawning animals into the second island, Clover had already made several animals that were huntable by goblins. Rabbits were made into Horned Rabbits, a bigger rabbit that attacks with a bone horn on its head but is relatively weak and simple to kill if one simply dodges and attacks. Spiky Boars were made from boars with many spiky hairs on their backs with the head and belly being the weak points. Finally, Giant Bullfrogs were created as non-poisonous frogs with more tasty meat. The legs were made of tender meat that were the best edible parts of the frogs but they were hard to catch due to the leg strength.

There were already several strong goblins but they weren’t evolving as a power balance of the floor.

Clover headed to his hut on the first floor and there he found his disciples talking.

“Have you decided which is a safe route yet?” Clover asked.

“Yes master, the costal human nation will be an easier nation to integrate into and get protection in.” his eldest disciple said.

“I see…” he said looking at the map and saw his own scrying pendant as well as the others in all the surrounding nations over the map. The one for Dia was floating on a fixed path but slowly expanding, going to five border towns and the capital within a month's time. They have watched it for a long while and knew that they couldn’t remain in the elf nation. That said, he wasn’t even in the elven nation anymore and was still in the ocean over the reef.

“Let us proceed to them then.” Clover said and with a thought, his dungeon caught the wind heading to the nation’s coastal water towards at least a middle sized town with a noble of some court rank so that he could eventually speak with an envoy while hiding up high.

In three days time, they quickly reached the human coasts and was floating somewhat low where they were only around 700 km in the air.

He was overlooking the human city but at this moment something utterly unexpected happened.

BOOM!

Being jolted by some large impact, Clover turned to the source and found a large cloud that he had just passed. When he looked closer, he discovered a floating island and a large glowing barrier between the two. Slowly it began to fuse and a second island came into existence.

“AHAHAH! I FOUND ONE! I FOUND ONE!” A loud laugh came from a crazy voice.

Clover flew over and saw a strange little creature laughing madly. The appearance similar to a goblin, this hollow image was the dungeon’s soul.

Looking behind it, the island had many goblins and similar to Clover, there was a salt water ocean a bit smaller than his own and a large goblin village on the island. Clover was surprised when he felt the creatures and found that they were actually residents and not monsters, meaning that the dungeon considered monsters the residents and humanoids food.

The creatures of the dungeon were animals that the goblins all hunted and they were growing strong as wild creatures not bound by the dungeon.

“This dungeon… it has a goblin soul?! Does that mean goblins are sentient to it or monsters?” Clover thought.

“Mine! Give me island! Mine! Mine!” the goblin dungeon shouted.

Paw! BOOM!

A large discharge came from the barrier of the domain.

You have been attacked by another dungeon. Dungeon domain synchronizing. Beginning Dungeon War System.

BOOM!

A large portal opened as the two domains stabilized and opened the two dungeons to each other.

Maribell suddenly jumped out of her home and looked at the situation with a scowl as she flew to Clover. “You’re really damn unlucky, you know that?” She scowled.

“What the hell is happening?” Clover asked.

“It’s called Dungeon War. Because the dungeons became mobile, there is a distinct method of growth for airborne dungeons and the Dungeon War is part of it.” She said.

“What kind of method?” Clover asked.

“Normally, the fairies are suggested to help you reach the fifth floor before starting this. You see, your best method of growth comes from Dungeon War, winning islands formed by other dungeons. Besides islands, monsters, knowledge, animals and even mana can be ‘bet’. When Dungeon War begins and to administer this…” she was saying but a sudden eruption drew their attention as the portal finished stabilizing. From it an armor clad male angel with a single pair of wings came out and stopped in the air with a large white sword in its hands. It turned the sword pointing down and held it in both hands.

“By the decree of the Goddess of Spirits Yolida and the God of War Roran, I hereby declare the war begun. May both parties step forth and decide the terms of victory and defeat,” the angel said coldly.

At once Clover glared at Maribell.

She sighed, “Dungeon War happens when one dungeon attacks another, they push their dungeon until the domains synchronize, that is the signal for accepting the challenge. If you had moved away you would have rejected and no matter how much he pushed it would not have reached this point.” She said shaking her head.

“In other words, there is an accept and reject method. Fucking goblin, he caught me unprepared.” He sneered but when his eyes moved to the side he was suddenly shocked when he saw five islands on the ‘first floor’ of the other dungeon. “Seems he isn’t an amatur at this. Isn’t there some method to prevent weaker dungeon from being trampled by stronger ones?” Clover asked.

Maribell closed her eyes and nodded, “Dungeons can only use monsters at the strength equal to the weaker dungeon and can only wager as high as the weaker dungeon can take it. You can’t completely absorb another dungeon and can only leave him with one island that has their mana pool.” Maribell explained.

“ALL! ALL! I TAKE ALL!” The goblin shouted laughing.

The angel looked at Clover, “Do you accept to war for all material possessions of your dungeon except your core, mana pool island and fairy?” the angel asked.

Clover was completely pissed off “One moment,” he said and turned to Maribell. “Can residents battle?” he asked and looked at his disciples.

“They can, they allied with you and live in your dungeon calling it home so they have a right to battle to protect their new home,” Maribell said.

Clover looked at the other dungeon. His vision was very good especially when he used a sight spell and analyzed the strength of the dungeon then grinned. “I shall accept if he is under the same terms as I and bets all he owns,” Clover said.

The face of the goblin turned into a sneer, “NOT WORTHY! Smelly elf not worthy of bet!” He shouted.

“Then I shall reject the challenge,” Clover said narrowing his eyes.

The synchronization of the domains started to get unstable at these words. The goblin’s face turned into a scowl. “One floor!” the goblin said and pointed up to the second floor.

“No, if you want to bet a floor then we both bet our first floor,” Clover grinned.

The scowl deepened on the face of the goblin.

“We will also decided this on a single battle between one creature of the dungeon,” he said grinning even more.

Goblins are a group battling race, it is far different from the sentient races which are individual battlers.

“WE CRUSH!” He shouted.

“Terms have been accepted, with the war wager being all islands of the first floor, all creatures living on these islands will also be subject of the wager. Battle shall be one on one combat. Choose your warriors,” the angel said.

Clover flew back and called his eldest disciple before returning with him. The angel then formed a light barrier in the air between the dungeons where they would battle.

The goblin dungeon brought over a large Hobgoblin donning large hide armor and using a thick stone club.

“Me kill puny elf!” he shouted and hit the club on the barrier.

Clover’s disciple was surprised that his master had actually asked him to take care of such a trivial opponent and actually turned back to look at his floating master’s image.

“Deal with it quickly and cleanly. This farce has gone for too long already,” Clover said coldly.

“Understood master.” He said realizing his master was very annoyed but he wanted some kind of guarantee for whatever was going on.

He turned back coldly and slowly his body began to release small electric charges. He rapidly chanted a spell in his mind.

“The battle may begin!” The angel announced and struck his sword down.

BOOM!

The sword released a very loud noise with the strike.

“RAHH!” the hobgoblin roared but suddenly, its vision was filled with a bright yellow light.

“Thunder bolt,” Clover’s disciple said.

BANG!

The hobgoblin was sent flying and crashed into a barrier at the edge of the area of battle with a scorch mark on his chest. His armor and body was releasing smoke from the intense heat in his body.

“The battle has been concluded. The winner is the dungeon Clover. The wager shall now be claimed!” The angel announced.

The goblins that were still stunned suddenly felt a cold feeling as the barrier between the dungeon suddenly extended over the entire first floor, slammed into the floating goblin dungeon soul and pushed him up painfully.

All five first floor islands began to move and were pulled slowly towards Clover’s dungeon, surrounding the first island.

The domain closed around the dungeon completely.

“The Dungeon War has finished, by the will of the God of War Roran, this war is concluded!” The angel announced and above it, a portal to the heavenly realm opened and he floated into it.

BOOM!

As soon as he was gone, the two touching dungeon domains reacted and desynchronized while the loser was slammed away from Clover.

Clover watched the top floor of the other dungeon tremble and the three islands around it vanish, hidden by the dungeon domain. His own was the same and only his original island was visible.

“Ahahaha! To think there was such an interesting growth method for sky islands. How interesting, this new dungeon system wishes for dungeons to war against each other while not killing each other. How cruel can the goddess be!?” Clover laughed.

“Do not insult the goddess!” Maribell said in a cold tone.

“I am not insulting, I am just curious for what reason she made such a system. Does this not mean the world will fall into anarchy with so many dungeons battling to gather all types of creatures? Does this system also count the cloud dungeon?” He asked.

Maribell was scowling, “Yes, it does, but sky dungeons are a rank lower than cloud dungeons and they don’t have to worry about making islands. Cloud dungeons are the most peaceful as well as most powerful with a high growth rate when having minions to absorb mana into the dungeon.” Maribell said.

Clover smiled and looked at the new islands before he pointed to the one with goblins then moved his finger up.

The island began to move as he experimented. It moved to the second floor and he felt a stability in his dungeon with six islands below and two above.

“Let us go down into the water first before we head to the humans.” He said and went down dunking his dungeon in the water before rising to test out what he wanted. He found that each island had their own ‘sea’ that would be unable to connect to the central island without directly pulling a water bridge or land bridge towards the central island yet the islands surrounding it all had water connecting between them. This formed a donut shaped sea around entrance island.

It gave Clover much to think about but he liked this development. He moved to each island and began to introduce his ‘theme’ of the ruins in these different islands with different animals and monsters while making all goblins into dungeon monsters through corruption.

They resentfully shouted as they were cursed to be such creatures but could not resist. His battle power grew rapidly in one go with his encounter with a dumb enemy.

***

In the elven nation, Queen Felicia returned from the meeting at the Holy Land and Mir called her up after reaching the capital specially to talk with her.

Rising up to the dungeon, she was welcomed with a festival by the fairies and the dungeon residents.

After some time, Dia, Mir and Nicholas appeared on the first floor to meet the queen.

She was curious about the strange snow elf and runt hybrid.

They headed to an island for a private conversation but that was just a ruse for Nick to use his snowglobe ability to teleport them to his island.

“What is this place?” Felicia asked.

“This is Santa’s village!” Dia said.

“Um… what is a ‘Santa’?” She asked.

“That is what we are here to talk about. Santa is a title of this man, a unique runt variant called a Santa Claus. He is a special holiday spirit Dia created along with his twin,” Mir explained.

“Um… is there a need for you to call me?” She asked.

“Yes, you see, he is a creature that actually spreads ‘wonder’. It is a kind of special power that brings joy. In Dia’s old world he was a spirit that gave gifts to children he marked as ‘good children’ during the year and gave them toys as a reward,” Mir said.

“Again, what does this have to do with me?” She asked.

“I am getting to that, the name of the holiday is called Christmas and the original purpose of the festival was a kind of New Year’s festival. He can only grow in power by spreading what he calls wonder which causes more joy to spread through the world and he protects that wonder. We don’t have the structure for him to do the entire world from the start and we want to ask you if you would allow Nicholas to do this event through your elven nation to begin?” Mir said.

Felicia’s jaw dropped when she heard this and looked at the old runt.

“Um… so you are saying that you want to allow him and his twin to spread random gifts through the nation as a New Year's event?” Felicia asked rubbing her forehead.

“Ah! Actually, Nicholas is the one spreading gifts, his ‘twin’ is the opposite, he disciplines children regarded as bad or ‘naughty’ by whatever moral he is looking from.” Mir said.

“Wait! Wait! So one gives presents and the other beats on children?! You want me to accept that?!” Felicia asked.

“Actually madam, Old Kringle isn’t that bad, at most he will spank children but I can’t guarantee that for those brats of the nobles,” Nicholas said scratching his head.

Felicia sighed and knew that they would keep asking. They lead her into Nick’s home where Kris was and they introduced him.

“Greetings, I’m Felicia Rosetta.” She said stretching her hand to Kris who shook it with a simple nod.

“I am Kris Kringle, my race is called Krampus.” He said.

“So… I heard you are his… twin but his opposite? W-what exactly do you do?” Felicia couldn’t help but ask.

His brow raised and he looked up a moment before looking her in the eye, “My purpose is to discipline all those little brats who are acting improperly. From you nation, almost half of the noble brats need a very generous beating.” He said bluntly.

Felicia’s brow twitched when she heard his blunt statement but she didn’t feel malice.

“Don’t take it poorly miss, Old Kringle is just a grumpy old man that is all,” Nicholas said trying to smooth things out.

“Y-Yes. How exactly would you discipline them?” she asked.

“Depends how much bad they did. Take the third brat of the Earl Rudius, he has been keeping three human slaves under his house without even his parents knowing. For a brat like this I would slap him until his face and arse cheeks are bloated. On the other hand, if it is a poor child like those on the borders between the human and elf nations that steal to survive, the most I would do is give them a few hits on their hands for stealing. However, along with this one…” He pointed to Nick, “... I would give them a present if they steal to help their family.” He said.

Slowly the elf queen began to understand and sighed, “So it’s more of a carrot and stick kind of setup. I will not stop you but I ask you, don’t do it for nobles, at least this year. Only commoners. After the event happens and reaches the ears of nobles, I will spread the news of who did what,” she said agreeing.

“Thank you very much,” Nick said and looked around before walking out. He quickly returned and gave her a small wooden elf doll.

“Hmm… this is a magical puppet,” Felicia said.

She had long since known the research of her nation but never went greatly in depth since her brother dealt with that until recently.

“Oh? You know huh, this is a little gift, it’s a little toy that you fill with mana and it will start to move at the command of the one who put the mana in. They aren’t strong or anything but they are fun.” Nick said.

Felicia was intrigued and filled it with mana. Lines on its body began to glow green before it jumped down, saluted to her and waited for orders.

“Jump up and down ten times then clap your hands four times,” she said.

The puppet began to move and jumped ten times and clapped four before standing at attention again. She was actually quite intrigued by the puppet’s smooth movements. “How does this work?” She asked picking it up.

“Just the way we built it,” Nick said without revealing his secrets. His words meant that she could figure out herself through the little puppet.

Felicia looked at it curiously and looked around at the other toys that were wooden dolls and clothing carved of wood as well. “Is everything made of wood?” She asked.

“Yes, we don’t have any kind of cotton or yarn.” Dia said and pouted, “I wanted to dress up the dolls.”

“Cotton or yarn? Can you not make some kind of animal or plant? With such a huge dungeon, don’t you have something?” She asked.

“We gained wild animals and monsters but with so much going on, we haven’t gained farm animals.” Mir said.

“Eh? Is that it?” She said surprised but then stopped herself from suggesting to sell some of them and thought of a good idea. “Why not suggest for the adventurers to purchase or obtain animals and monsters for you? You can trade special items from your dungeon, like magic items, magic herbs, potions or even just purchase it with gold coins.” She suggested.

Mir looked confused at her, “I was of mind just asking you.” Mir said.

“That is true but I said this to help attract attention to your dungeon as well as help increase the trade of my nation. Also, in time, you all will create a large number of unique creatures and animals that can be traded back as tameable monsters. Tamers are few in number due to a lack of easy to obtain monsters. To the west is a halfling nation and they are the best monster tamers yet even to them, they have very few tamers due to monsters in the wild being stubborn but the ones here can be aggressive or gentle.” she said.

“So you want to increase the monster variety to birth a breeding ground and in turn, it returns to you.” Mir said.

“Of course, not to mention that the increase in monster and animals will increase drastically the different goods we can extract. Herbs are the primary product but there is a limit to how much we can take, the same for monsters that are limited. So by increasing the variety we can increase monster products which are just as important.” She said.

Mir put her hand on her chin and nodded as she agreed, “That is indeed true, this is a good plan. Can you provide us with an encyclopedia of known monsters by rank? After we see the ranking we can even provide one for the dungeon’s own creatures and then with the ranking we can set up prices for people who bring animals. Like this we can start, as you said, building a new kind of income between the dungeon and nation,” Mir said.

“Oh, that reminds me, the western border town wasn’t built, right?” Felicia asked.

“Indeed, that is the final town we require.” Mir said.

“Good, I will send an advance notice to the town and by the time you arrive, there will definitely be a large number of animals and monsters. It will take probably 2 days to find all the encyclopedias for each kind of beast but don’t worry,” Felicia said.

“Alright, thanks you for your help,” Mir said.

Ding!

At this time, a bell rang and sounds from the door to the kitchen could be heard. A moment later, a small snow elf walked out holding a large tray. “Sir, we finally found a good recipe for the cookies!” The snow elf said and put down the tray.

“Oh… biscuits.” Felicia said and took it and ate one. “Wow! What is this!? What is it made of?!” she asked shocked.

“Used special flour made of wild rice!” she said.

“Wild rice? The dungeon has that?” She asked looking at Mir.

“We found some on the third floor,” the snow elf said and turned to Nick, “Is it good, sir?!” She asked.

He took it and began to eat then his expression brightened. “This is good. See if a few fairies can’t cultivate the rice.”

“Aye sir!” The little snow elf saluted and put down the tray before they ran off.

“That was an elf?” Felicia asked.

“It’s a snow elf, their number is small for now but there are a number here and a number outside in the dungeon,” Mir said.

“Are there any other elf tribes besides these?” She asked.

“There is.” Mir said.

“Ah! Mir, why not make more pretty elves like you!?” Dia shouted.

“You mean wood elves? Well, as the dungeon is now, they ‘can’ appear on the fifth floor but probably not many,” Mir said.

“Hehe, I bet Mir is lonely as the only wood elf so I will go make them!” Dia said floating but was caught by Mir. “Not now, we will deal with that in a little while, it is rude to the queen if you suddenly rush out like that,” Mir admonished her.

Dia pouted and sat down while taking a cookie, “... Needs milk,” she pouted making the adults laugh at her little display of cuteness.