Because no one, that wasn’t invited, would come in the upper part of his dungeon he could create more than one way up or down the dungeon. This saved Gorm from having to decide what kind of layout his floor had to have before he could start to build it. He could start and build any way he wanted.

At first, Gorm only wanted to make a small room to test out how the creation of plants and animals functioned, but when he started he could instinctively create everything he imagined. After this realization, he scrapped that idea and decided to build a basic layout of rooms and tunnels first.

Gorm created small, random cavities all over the first floor. Then he connected them randomly until every cavity had at least two connections and they build a large cycle after he filled them with water. Next, he dumped water in all of them and started to cycle them through the network. Because Gorm used a lot of force to move the water eroded the stone at a fast pace. After each cycle, Gorm had to remove a lot of loose stone and sand from the water. His intention for doing this was to counter repetition and create natural looking rooms and tunnels in his dungeon.

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Time flew by and as Gorm got more proficient at this work, he could do other things at the same time. At first, he only planned the next steps for the first floor, but he soon discovered that even his enhanced erosion wasn’t fast. So he started to chat with Melia and Sek. Although Sek did not really want to comment on his progress, he still praised Gorm for his creative idea.

Almost five years after he started creating the rooms and tunnels, he finally was satisfied with the look and size of them. What pleased him the most were the places where the water dug a way through the wall of the forest room. The resulting waterfalls gave the forest a mysterious feel to it. After seeing them the first time Gorm immediately wanted to close them again, but Melia loved them so much that she threatened to never talk to him again if he destroyed them. So they were still there and after he had accustomed himself to them, they became one of his favorite parts of the dungeon. He liked them so much that he made the decision to upgrade his forest after he finished with the 47 floors he now had available.

The cave system that now made up the first floor consisted of six big elongated rooms that were connected to each other through numerous tunnels and small rooms. Gorm observed the terrain carefully before he started to implement his plans. He had decided to make the first floor river-themed.

First Gorm searched for a nice route that connected all rooms and made a circle before he deepened it a few meters and filled it with water, the second step was to create tributaries all over the rest of the floor. The third step was to connect the waterfall holes to the river system, lest Melia stopped talking to him. Then he made the water flow, he could move this little water easily and he had the hope that he would unlock the ability to make water flow automatically after he finished the first floor.

With the river system in place, it was time to populate it with fish, insects, and plants. To do so, Gorm didn’t plant plants or created adult animals, he created seeds and eggs and put them in the water to grow and mature by themselves. This method was easily possible because there were few mammals in the water, and those that were, he would create when he started to populate the land area. He already had set aside one room for beavers to inhabit. Beavers had always fascinated him.

After he finished distributing the seeds and eggs Gorm let them be and informed Sek of his progress, he hoped that Sek would comment his work again. He was pretty disappointed that the only reaction he got was the question of why. But after Gorm explained his reasons to Sek, Sek seemed impressed which appeased Gorm.

He had specifically not used the system to populate the rivers, because he thought if he had the chance to let everything grow and settle where nature deemed it best, he would get a more natural environment than any system could ever give him. Gorm also had the feeling, that he would have a deeper connection to his dungeon if he didn’t rely on the system too much.

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For half a year the only thing Gorm did, was to spread plant seeds, fish and insect eggs and to observe the development of life in his river system. The river waters were now teeming with animal life that fed on the seeds and eggs he distributed regularly, but the plants wouldn’t grow. At first, he thought they just needed time but now he knew that something was wrong.

Only after observing the forest room for a few months, did he discover the missing factor. It was light. The forest room had sun stones all over its ceiling and upper part of the walls. Sun stones not only gave off light but also warmth, they almost perfectly mimicked the sun.

After his enlightenment, he installed sun stones in the ceilings of the first floor. Only one week later the rivers exploded with plant life. They grew so well that he had to switch off the sun stones for almost half the day every day before he got the problem under control.

This created a new problem, when he finally started to populate the land, the animals would be unable to see anything. After thinking for a bit and searching through the materials Gorm had available he discovered moon stones that mimicked the moon. After installing them Gorm created a 14-hour day and a 10-hour night. The feature worked so well that he implanted it in the forest room. Much to the delight of Melia. Even Sek seemed happier.

With the basic things clarified he started to plant a few trees and other plants, he matured them till they could distribute seeds. Then Gorm tried to use strong winds to disperse them, but unlike water, where things could float, wind didn’t work.

The only thing Gorm could think of, to get a more naturally populated room, was to fill one big room with all the plants, animals and insects he wanted on his floor. Then he only had to wait for them to spread. If by this point the first room wasn’t to his liking, he would destroy everything in it and wait until it was populated again.

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Gorm started with selecting which ecosystem he wanted to use and decided to start with a common one. If possible he wanted it to develop to a higher tier on its own, or at least with as little help as possible.

After careful consideration, he picked the common riparian forest. It suited the situation on the first floor and didn’t conflict with the Endless Wilderness Ecosystem. Before he started to plant he created a few more streams to simulate nature more closely.

Gorm first planted reed and a few types of bushes near the river shores. Then he chose different softwoods like willows, alders, and poplars. At this point, he decided to implement floods on a regular basis. He had discovered that riparian forests often experienced flooding on shore close parts of the forests when he had looked at the descriptions of the trees he had picked.

After the softwood zone was finished he created a hardwood zone which he let go over into normal forest. With most of the plants finished he created a few animals to serve as the start of his wildlife. After adding insects Gorm started to observe the floor. He felt like something was missing, but couldn’t point out what.

He kept tweaking things, but the feeling that something was missing never left Gorm.

Without any idea what to do, he turned to Sek for advice but got rejected. Without other option, he asked Melia for help. She agreed to help him if he promised to create a lake close to her tree for her. Melia had discovered a new hobby besides playing with animals, swimming. After she kept pestering Sek to play with her, because Gorm was busy creating his first floor, Sek had thrown her into a nearby lake. He then had to save her because she couldn't swim, so he taught her how to. Since then she had a new passion.

When Melia stepped foot in the first floor she was really excited. There were so many places to swim. But Gorm reminded her of her job, so she reluctantly left the river shore.

As soon as Melia saw the forest she knew what Gorm meant when he said that something wasn’t right. The trees weren’t as green as they should be. Almost immediately she knew what happened. Gorm had long told her everything about the system and his available ecosystems, so she knew that he could automatically create different ecosystems and the corresponding biomes. She knew that Gorm didn’t use this option, so the explanation was easy, he didn’t have fertile soil.

The only solution was to use the system to convert all the soil into fertile soil. Because he was at it he transformed the riverbed into the system version too.

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One year later the first floor was finally completely populated. Gorm had changed the things he didn’t like in this year. The floor was now teeming with life. Everything looked healthy.

His favorite part of the floor was the beaver room. They had built a huge dam and a lot of castles. Even the first and only monster on the first floor was a beaver. It was the first of his kind in the dungeon which made him also the oldest. It was exceptionally smart, Sek had told Gorm that it was at the cusp of becoming sapient.

When Melia first saw it, she immediately fell in love with it and would always swim with it. Beavers were her favorite animals altogether. Thanks to them she could play with animals while swimming.